MEDIATED TRANSCENDENCE: REALISM AND REVELATION IN RUSSIAN FICTION, 1863-1898 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Thomas Lee Roberts August 2010 © 2010 by Thomas Lee Roberts. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/mq244xb5337 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Monika Greenleaf, Co-Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Gabriella Safran, Co-Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannes Gumbrecht Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign’d by God’s name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe’er I go, Others will punctually come for ever and ever. Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” from Leaves of Grass, Section 48 ***** “In every expression of art, something is revealed, is known, is recognized…At the same time, the claim of the Christian message transcends this and points in the opposite direction: it shows what we cannot achieve.” Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Aesthetic and Religious Experience” iv Abstract “Mediated Transcendence: Realism and Revelation in Russian Fiction, 1863- 1898” investigates the relationship between literary form and transcendence in representative texts of the Russian Realist tradition. The author identifies scenes of literary transcendence, spanning transformative religious and psychological experiences, as epiphanies, which display a unique confluence of content and form – at once a narrative event, in the life of the character, and a locus of literary devices. The project proceeds from the premise that the ineffable content of epiphany exceeds the verisimilar parameters of literary realism, and even the semiotic capacity of prose language. In response to this representational problem, the authors analyzed elaborate narrative and poetic strategies for the purposes of framing transcendence, augmenting discursive representation with performative presentation. Beginning with Tolstoy’s model of the literary epiphany in War and Peace in the introduction, the dissertation subsequently explores the theme and forms of transcendence in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, Nikolai Leskov’s The Sealed Angel, and selected stories of Anton Chekhov. Incorporating elements of theology, phenomenology, and critical theory, these individual readings reveal the aesthetic nature of visionary experience, and the way such experience is conveyed by the appropriately aesthetic means and potential of the literary text. In challenging notions of the empirical and positivist biases of Realism, the dissertation reevaluates the historical position of the movement, indicating its formal and theoretical debt to Romanticism, as well as its subsequent influence on Modernism. v Acknowledgments It is my immodest hope that this dissertation reflect, if slightly, the unique and varied community of Stanford University. Above all, I thank my remarkable committee. Monika Greenleaf has been a friend and mentor throughout graduate school, providing both broad inspiration, and innumerable individual insights – if some of these should go unacknowledged below, it is only limit the number of footnotes, and the incredible frequency of her name therein. Gabriella Safran has been a peerless adviser in every possible respect, nurturing my academic, pedagogical, and professional development, as well as an exemplary model of scholarship and teaching. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht inspired much of the project methodology, and provided remarkable feedback on drafts and ideas these last three years. My professors and colleagues in the Stanford Slavic department have likewise shaped this dissertation significantly. Gregory Freidin helped me to clarify and articulate its scope, and his seminars have shaped my thoughts on literature and theory. Similarly, Lazar Fleishman’s courses have enabled my understanding of Russian poetry. Nariman Skakov has proven a close friend and interlocutor since his recent and timely arrival. Among all of my wonderful colleagues in the department, I extend particular thanks to Irina Erman, Ilja Gruen, and Katya Nekhlyudova. I also wish to thank the members of the Orthodoxy Reading Group, and particularly Martha Kelly, for contributing to my understanding of this theological tradition. Outside of the Slavic department, Bissera Pentcheva, of Art History, and Thomas Sheehan and Brent Sockness, of Religious Studies, have shaped my thinking on aesthetic, philosophical, vi and theological topics integral to my analysis. Finally, looking beyond California, I am gratefully indebted to my mentors at Middlebury College, including my dear friend Michael Katz, and Alya Baker, who initiated my love of the Russian language. There is no adequate way to express my gratitude to my parents, Jane and Paul Roberts, so I will simply state that every page that follows reflects their incomparable caring, kindness, and support: they are truly proof that love is a sincere source of inspiration. I am similarly indebted to my brothers, James and Tim Roberts, who have inspired me throughout my life. I likewise thank friends in Atlanta, Berkeley, Chicago, Moscow, New York, and San Francisco. Among these individuals, too many to enumerate, I thank Corey Bills, Eric Lindell, and Ben Tausig for years of friendship and support. Giorgio Alberti, Sarah Hamill, Michael Kunichika, Chris Lakey, and Miriam Neirick have likewise shaped my time in California in innumerable ways. And last, but certainly not least, I thank Emily Sims; for though she has only recently entered my life, her miraculous love and creativity could not be more appropriate to the theme of this dissertation. vii Contents Abstract v Acknowledgements vi Introduction: Mediating the Transcendent 1 The Transcendent as Linguistic and Aesthetic Conundrum Representing Transcendence: From Language to Literature A Theoretical Model of the Literary Epiphany Epiphanic Precedent: Augustine and Rousseau Russian Cultural Background and Context Chapter Outline Chapter 1: The Possibility and Paradox of Epiphany in The Idiot 33 Transcendence in the Novel: Problem and Potential The “Other World” of Visionary Experience Visionary Moment as Narrative Lacuna Narrating the Ineffable: Representational Strategies Ending as Ground of Meaning Illumination: Faith Hypostasized Ippolit, and the Failure of Empirical Vision Faith, Imagination, and the Challenge of Holbein’s Dead Christ The Rejection of Vertical Transcendence Holbein’s Painting as Hermeneutic Model Chapter 2: Alterity and Transcendence in Leskov’s The Sealed Angel 110 Sign, Sense, and the Ineffable Apophasis and the Critique of Sensible Form Figuring the “Heavenly Face” Alterity: The Visual, Verbal, and Ontological Other Chapter 3: Christian Aesthetics as Theme and Modeling Principle in 163 Chekhov’s Fiction “Khudozhestvo”: Epiphany Exposed “Panikhida” and “The Student”: Narrative, Time, and Transcendence Conclusion: Between Decadence and Iconoclasm 213 Works Cited 222 viii Introduction: Mediating the Transcendent Lev Tolstoy’s War and Peace (Voina i mir, 1863-69) contains numerous scenes, among the most famous in the novel, of intense transformation, at once mysterious and revelatory, in the lives of protagonists such as Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostova. Such moments of “epiphany,” as they are commonly identified, interpolate aspects of character development, as well as thematic issues central to the text. In the case of Tolstoy, these scenes also typically display a concentration of stylistic devices, denoting the significance of the moment. Such passages often create a textual, aesthetic approximation of the epiphany, providing the reader with an experience analogous to that of the character. The literary epiphany, in other words, is bivalent: it pertains to the represented experience of the Tolstoyan character, in fictional life; and to the aesthetically-induced experience of the Tolstoyan reader, in literary art. To provide an example of this unique phenomenon, I refer briefly to the scene of Prince Andrei’s conversation with Pierre, as the two cross the flooded river at Bogucharovo in the second volume of the novel.