Edinburgh University Press French and Russian in Imperial Russia: Language Attitudes and Identity (Russian Language and Society)

This book explores how knowledge of French helped shape Russian identities and their views on the Russian language. This is the second volume in a two volume set which explores the profound impact of the French language and culture on Russian high society and consciousness in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Volume 2 provides insights into the ways in which bilingualism was negotiated at court and among the cosmopolitan high nobility in Imperial Russia in the Age of Enlightenment and the subsequent Romantic age, when cultural nationalists began to associate national essence with the monolingual peasantry. It discusses the linguistic means by which Russian social, political and cultural identities began to be created and explores the part played by foreign language use in stimulating the enrichment and standardisation of the Russian vernacular and in encouraging the development of a firm sense of national identity and early Russian nationalism. It deepens our understanding of the process by which Russia was integrated into the mainstream of modern European civilisation. It contributes to knowledge of the development of national self consciousness in Russia. It extends awareness of the importance of francophonie in European culture, especially during the age of the Enlightenment and the Romantic age. It provides an in depth example of the social and cultural effects of major language contact. It also introduces readers to the discussion of the positive and negative effects of bilingualism or multilingualism and biculturalism or multiculturalism.