Shifting Sensibilities: Anne Lister’s Diaries as a Challenge

“A traveler, a respected landowner, an avid and sharp reader, a social climber, but most of all an ever-curious mind endlessly probing its surroundings for something new and worth exploring, Anne Lister (1791-1840) was meticulously putting to paper the minute details of her everyday life, including the weather, minor handiworks, hat prices and bodily functions. Throughout her life Anne Lister was pursuing a certain goal that she never specified: her various studies, travels and “unladylike” enterprises (mountain-hiking in the Pyrenees or dissecting with Cuvier in her Paris studio) were never meant to become an occupational activity. What kind of a sensibility shaped her obsessive writing – and what kind of a project her diaries reflect? What is the story behind the story – and is there a right way of telling it?” Maria Stepanova.

Maria Stepanova (born in Moscow in 1972) is a poet, essayist and editor, the recipient of several Russian and international literary awards, including the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding (2023). Her poems have been translated into a number of languages, including English, German, French, Italian, and Swedish. Her documentary novel Pamiati pamiati (In Memory of Memory) came out in Russian in November 2017 and received the Russian Big Book Prize in December 2018. The book was translated into 27 languages, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and Prix Médicis, and longlisted for the National Book Award. It has also received the French Prix de Meilleur Livre Étranger (2022). Since 2022 Stepanova is based in Berlin.