Brittany Wuytenburg (B00628298) Monday, October, 26th, 2015
Writing assignment 2: Working with/Summarizing A Primary Text
Piece of Text: Primary Text B, Carolyn Johnston Pouncy
1. Why was this document/ object written or made?
Pouncy’s document was written to express the lifestyle that the people of Russia endured while Ivan the Terrible was ruling. Russia was very different from the rest of Europe and did not undergo the same rules and steps forward. Because of this it is really important to understand how and why Russia was so different then its neighboring countries and how these changes affected the way Russia was then and now.
2.Who was the intended audience/user?
The intended audience for Pouncy’s documents would be of course students studying the history of Russia but more so for scholars. These scholars have to be able to understand
…show more content…
Questions that this source could raise would be:
• Do we know to the extent that these rules were followed?
• Did women have more of an opportunity and power then what is really expressed within the document?
• How much of this was written to make the Russian culture seem better organized then it was?
• Was these rules broken that often if the King simply did not like his Boyard and would it be passed on to his son and rid the line of that position in general?
What I would really like to know is how much of this source was really followed. I can see this being something that the people were meant to follow but many of it slipped through the cracks, so to speak.
4. What other information do we have about this document or object?
At the beginning of the document it clearly states that most of this information is taken from “the shorter version of the Domostroi” (Pouncy, “The Domostroi”: Rules of the Russian Household in Times of Ivan the Terrible) This indicates that there could be much more information and the author has chosen to only include what is relevant to her