BEFORE THEY WERE TITANS ESSAYS on the EARLY WORKS of DOSTOEVSKY and TOLSTOY Ars Rossica
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BEFORE THEY WERE TITANS ESSAYS ON THE EARLY WORKS OF DOSTOEVSKY AND TOLSTOY Ars Rossica Series Editor – David Bethea (University of Wisconsin–Madison) BEFORE THEY WERE TITANS ESSAYS ON THE EARLY WORKS OF DOSTOEVSKY AND TOLSTOY Edited with an Introduction by ELIZABETH CHERESH ALLEN BOSTON 2015 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Copyright © 2015 Academic Studies Press All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-61811-430-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-61811-431-0 (electronic) Cover design by Ivan Grave Published by Academic Studies Press in 2015 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www. academicstudiespress.com Effective December 12th, 2017, this book will be subject to a CC-BY-NC license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Other than as provided by these licenses, no part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or displayed by any electronic or mechanical means without permission from the publisher or as permitted by law. The open access publication of this volume is made possible by: This open access publication is part of a project supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book initiative, which includes the open access release of several Academic Studies Press volumes. To view more titles available as free ebooks and to learn more about this project, please visit borderlinesfoundation.org/open. Published by Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com To my beloved James Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ ix Note on the Text ............................................................................................. xi List of Contributors ....................................................................................... xiii Introduction: Before They Were Titans Elizabeth Cheresh Allen .......................................................................................... 1 Part I. Dostoevsky: Works of the 1840s I. Agency, Desire, and Fate in Poor Folk Lewis Bagby ................................................................................................................ 15 II. Me and My Double: Selfhood, Consciousness, and Empathy in The Double Gary Saul Morson ..................................................................................................... 43 III. Husbands and Lovers: Vaudeville Conventions in “Another Man’s Wife,” “The Jealous Husband,” and The Eternal Husband Susanne Fusso ............................................................................................................ 61 viii Table of Contents IV. Dostoevsky’s White Nights: Memoir of a Petersburg Pathology Dale E. Peterson ....................................................................................................... 93 V. Dostoevsky’s Orphan Text: Netochka Nezvanova Elizabeth Cheresh Allen ........................................................................................ 115 Part II. Tolstoy: Works of the 1850s VI. The Creative Impulse in Childhood: The Dangerous Beauty of Games, Lies, Betrayal, and Art Robin Feuer Miller .................................................................................................. 153 VII. Fear and Loathing in the Caucasus: Tolstoy’s “The Raid” and Russian Journalism William Mills Todd III and Justin Weir ............................................................ 193 VIII. Tolstoy ’s Sevastopol Tales: Pathos, Sermon, Protest, and Stowe Liza Knapp ............................................................................................................... 211 IX. On Cultivating One’s Own Garden with Other People’s Labor: Serfdom in “A Landowner’s Morning” Anne Lounsbery ....................................................................................................... 267 X. Tolstoy’s Lessons: Pedagogy as Salvation Ilya Vinitsky .............................................................................................................. 299 An Afterword on the Wondrous Thickness of First Things Caryl Emerson ........................................................................................................... 317 Index ............................................................................................................................ 329 Acknowledgements I have amassed great debts to many people in the course of completing this project. Above all, I want to thank the contributors to this volume for their exemplary professionalism, unflagging support, and limitless patience during the period of its assembly. It was truly a privilege, as well as a personal pleasure, to collaborate with each of them. I would single out Robin Feuer Miller for her sage advice, enduring faith, and unfailing encouragement at each step—I could not have compiled this collection without her—and Gary Saul Morson, who wisely gave me key advice at critical junctures, as he has done so often. William Mills Todd III, a steadfast supporter throughout my career, kept helpfully reminding me to “maintain a strict patience,” and Caryl Emerson endorsed this volume at its inception and graced it with her elegant Afterword, for which I cannot thank her enough. I am also grateful for the indulgence of my Bryn Mawr colleagues, Dan E. Davidson, Tim Harte, and Sharon Bain, as I worked on this volume—and over the years. Haverford College’s inimitable Russian historian, Linda Gerstein, has my heartfelt thanks for her invaluable input into the introduction. Mikayla C. Holland, an exceptional reader and future scholar in her own right, surpassed all my expectations as a research and editorial assistant. Billie Jo Ember shared x Acknowledgements her technological expertise whenever it was needed. In addition, I thank the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship Fund and the Faculty Awards and Grants Committee, both of Bryn Mawr College, for their generous support of this project. I want to acknowledge Igor Nemirovsky and Sharona Vedol of Academic Studies Press for their welcoming reception of the manuscript, and Meghan Vicks and Kira Nemirovsky for expertly shepherding it through the publica- tion process. David Bethea was a model series editor, eminently cordial, generous with his time and counsel, sensitive to every concern. I am also indebted to Elizabeth F. Geballe, who copy-edited the manuscript with great skill, care, and collegiality. And finally, I thank my husband, James Sloan Allen, for all his worldly wisdom and for keeping me going, literally and figuratively, these many years. I lovingly dedicate this book to him. Note on the Text Citations of Dostoevsky’s Russian texts come from the Complete Collected Works [Полное собрание сочинений (ПСС)] in 30 volumes (1972-90) by volume and page number. Citations of Tolstoy’s Russian texts come from one of two versions of the Complete Collected Works, either the 90-volume edition (1928-58), often known as the Jubilee edition, edited by V. G. Chertkov, or the 100-volume online edition, both cited by volume and page number—the author of each essay on Tolstoy will indicate which version was used. For the convenience of readers who do not know Russian, where there is a widely avail- able translation in print (even if the essay’s author did not rely on it), that translation is cited by page number after the Russian citation. References to key secondary or additional primary sources are given in English, followed by the original titles in brackets. Endnotes, fashioned according to the University of Chicago style, can be found at the conclusion of each essay, followed by a bibliographic list of all the works cited in that essay. In the endnotes and works cited lists, Russian titles are rendered solely in Cyrillic, whereas authors’ names are transliterated. In the body of the essays, except for the most commonly-used phrases, every term is translated into English, and xii Note on the Text then, if the author deems it important, the original term follows in the original language. Transliteration of most Russian words adheres to the modified Library of Congress system, except for the names of individuals that have an established alternative spelling, including Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, in English. Unless otherwise noted, ellipses and emphases are the responsibility of each author. List of Contributors Elizabeth Cheresh Allen Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature Bryn Mawr College Lewis Bagby Professor (Emeritus) of Modern and Classical Languages University of Wyoming Caryl Emerson A. Watson Armour III University Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures Princeton University Susanne Fusso Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Wesleyan University xiv List of Contributors Liza Knapp Associate Professor of Slavic Languages Columbia University Anne Lounsbery Associate Professor of Russian Literature New York University Robin Feuer Miller Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature Brandeis University Gary Saul Morson Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures Northwestern University Dale E. Peterson Eliza J. Clark Folger Professor of English and Russian Amherst College William Mills Todd III Harvard College Professor Harry Tuchman Levin Professor of Literature Harvard University Ilya Vinitsky