Academic literature on the topic 'Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 1729-1796 – Drama'

In 1762, Catherine II (1729-1796), Catherine le Grand, as Voltaire called her, an extraordinary woman who was destined to undergo many reforms and establish Russia’s place in the world, ascended to the Russian throne. Her reign coincided with the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), one of the most enlightened monarchs in Chinese history; during his time, the empire achieved many military victories and brilliant achievements in the arts. By the time of Catherine’s accession to the throne, relations between the two countries were very strained. Meanwhile, the age of Enlightenment, the century of the ardour for the philosophy and art of China, began in Europe. On the one hand, Catherine was influenced by the ideas of the West; on the other hand, she constantly had to regulate conflicts on the Russian-Chinese border, the reason for which was most often the question of extraditing Mongols and Dzungars to the Chinese who were fleeing within Russia. The purpose of this article is to determine what image of China the Russian empress formed and how she spoke about this country in her correspondence with European correspondents since it is known that Catherine II wrote a lot. To do this, first, it is necessary to characterise the personality of the empress, to understand her interests and habits. To understand what issues she had to resolve, one also needs to know the state of Russian-Chinese relations in the second half of the 18th century. Finally, the article gives a general description of Catherine II’s correspondence with various high-ranking persons, among whom Jean d’Alembert, Diderot, Voltaire, Friedrich Melchior Grimm (Franco-German publicist, artist and literary critic), Swiss scientist and philosopher Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann, Madame Geoffrin and Madame Bielke can be named. The letters she received very often contained diplomatic news, dynastic problems, court gossip; her answers were, for the most part, semi-official journal notes. It is noteworthy that despite the extensive correspondence conducted by Catherine the Great, she practically did not touch upon the issues of China, except for letters to Voltaire, who, as you know, admired China and tried to learn more about it from the words of the empress.

En Russie, le XVIIIe siècle est l’époque d’une modernisation accélérée, dont la phase la plus intense correspond au règne de Catherine II, coïncidant avec l'intégration du nouvel Empire dans le système politique international. Malgré l'hostilité réciproque qui dominait les relations diplomatiques franco-russes à cette époque, le théâtre français était considéré comme l'expression la plus parfaite de l'art dramatique. Il fut importé dans le pays au même titre que d'autres instruments de modernisation sociale et moyens de représentation politique. Depuis les monographies de Robert-Aloys Mooser, spécialement consacrées à l’opéra-comique, la première période du théâtre francophone en Russie n'a pas été étudiée de façon systématique. Le premier objectif de ce travail est donc de recueillir les données dispersées et inédites concernant les représentations des pièces en français jouées à la cour. La liste de ces spectacles et l'inventaire des pièces représentées accompagnent cette étude dans un volume séparé. Il s’agit en outre d'explorer la diffusion des textes et des pratiques théâtrales à Saint-Pétersbourg, dans un essai sur la sociologie et l'idéologie des circulations théâtrales. La scène principale de la capitale se trouvait, en effet, à la cour, mais elle n'était pas unique : le théâtre de la ville, les théâtres dans les établissements d'éducation, les théâtres de société – plusieurs entreprises théâtrales accueillaient les spectacles francophones. Après avoir constaté leur interdépendance avec le modèle curial, je m'interroge sur les raisons de cette multiplication des espaces de spectacle et sur son rapport avec les expériences théâtrales des publics
Eighteenth-Century Russia was a period of accelerating modernisation, where specifically, under the reign of Catherine II, the new Empire launched into the international political scene. Despite real diplomatic hostility between France and Russia during the period, French theatre was always considered the most perfect expression of the dramatic arts. French theatre was imported into Russia as an important means to provide and influence social and political representation.From the earliest studies, including Robert-Aloys Mooser’s work on the opéra-comique, this important period of Francophone theatre in Russia has never been systematically analysed. Thus the first goal of this present study is to gather the diverse and geographically dispersed elements regarding the Francophone theatre of Russian courts at the time. A chronological list of these performances, as well as an inventory of plays preformed, accompanies this study as a separate volume. My second goal is to explore the diffusion of these dramatic texts and theatrical practices in Saint Petersburg in an analytical essay on the sociology and ideology of theatrical circulation. Although the main stage of the capital was at the Russian court, this was not the only theatrical venue: the city’s theatre, school stages, théâtres de société (private theatres owned by local nobility)—several theatrical enterprises welcomed Francophone performances at the time. After having examined how these theatres were influenced by the court, I analyse the reasons behind this dramatic diversity and its affect on the theatrical experiences of Russia’s multiple theatre publics

This dissertation examines the relationship between art and power in the reign of Catherine II of Russia (1762-1796). It considers Catherine's state portraits as historical texts that revealed symbolic manifestations of autocratic power, underscoring the close relationship between aesthetics and politics during the reign of Russia's longest serving female ruler. The Russian empress actively exploited the portrait medium in order to transcend the limitations of her gender, assert legitimacy and display herself as an exemplar of absolute monarchy. The resulting symbolic representation was protean and adaptive, and it provided Catherine with a means to negotiate the anomaly of female rule and the ambiguity of her Petrine inheritance. In the reign of Catherine the Great, the state portraits functioned as an alternate form of political discourse.