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The Emergence of Literary Ethnography in the Russian Empire: from the Far East to the Pale of Settlement, 1845-1914 by Nadezda B

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The Emergence of Literary Ethnography in the Russian Empire: from the Far East to the Pale of Settlement, 1845-1914 by Nadezda B THE EMERGENCE OF LITERARY ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE: FROM THE FAR EAST TO THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT, 1845-1914 BY NADEZDA BERKOVICH DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literature in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Harriet Murav, Chair and Director of Research Associate Professor Richard Tempest Associate Professor Eugene Avrutin Professor Michael Finke ii Abstract This dissertation examines the intersection of ethnography and literature in the works of two Russian and two Russian Jewish writers and ethnographers. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Korolenko, Vladimir Bogoraz, and Semyon An-sky wrote fiction in the genre of literary ethnography. This genre encompasses discursive practices and narrative strategies in the analysis of the different peoples of the Russian Empire. To some extent, and in some cases, these authors’ ethnographic works promoted the growth of Russian and Jewish national awareness between 1845 and 1914. This dissertation proposes a new interpretive model, literary ethnography, for the study of the textualization of ethnic realities and values in the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth-century. While the writers in question were aware of the ethnographic imperial discourses then in existence, I argue that their works were at times in tune with and reflected the colonial ambitions of the empire, and at other times, contested them. I demonstrate that the employment of an ethnographic discourse made possible the incorporation of different voices and diverse cultural experiences. My multicultural approach to the study of the Russian people, the indigenous peoples of the Russian Far East, and the Jews of Tsarist Russia documents and conceptualizes the diversity and multi-voicedness of the Russian Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition, my dissertation contributes to the field of Russian and Jewish studies by primarily examining works that are either unpublished, less well-known, or have been ignored by scholars. My research methodology combines archival research with the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, James Clifford, Roman Jakobson, and Homi Bhabha, and features close readings of a diverse body of texts, including both canonical and non-canonical Russian and Yiddish fiction. iii This dissertation addresses the following analytical categories: ethnicity, empire, colony, and their representation in the genre of literary ethnography. iv Acknowledgements I started thinking about the intersection between the ethnography and literature back during the summer of 2008. At that time, my dissertation advisor Professor Harriet Murav and Professor Eugene Avrutin were working on An-sky’s photographs from his ethnographic expedition. Right away, I knew that An-sky would be one of the protagonists of this dissertation. A year later, I attended the Nevzlin Summer Research Seminar in Budapest where I learned about the works of Vladimir Bogoraz. When I started working on Bogoraz’s Gomel' sketches, I discovered his famous colleagues- ethnographers such as Lev Shternberg and Vladimir Iokhelson. It was during archival work in the Academy of Science in St. Petersburg in the Fall of 2010 that I came across Vladimir Korolenko’s short correspondence with Bogoraz. Korolenko asked Bogoraz to attend the trial about the Gomel' pogrom. I became interested in Korolenko because like Bogoraz he was exiled to Siberia and wrote about indigenous cultures, as well as Russian and Jewish culture. The first person who read the first draft of the dissertation proposal was the late Larry Schehr, professor of French at the University of Ilinois. He would see me often in the hall of the second floor of the Foreign Language Building and would ask about my work. Our offices were in close proximity to each other. He possessed genuine curiosity about Yiddish and Russian writers. One afternoon, he offered to read the draft. I sent it to him late at night, thinking that he would never read it. I was wrong. The next morning, I got Larry’s email with an attachment that was twice the size of the original document I had sent him. The draft, with his red track changes, looked like a Greek tragedy. There were more track changes on each page than written text. His comments and suggestions v were eye opening. This is how I remember Larry and I think of him whenever the French reference comes up in this dissertation. My dissertation advisor Professor Harriet Murav set up a strict schedule of deadlines that spurred the writing process. Her direct critique and toughness helped to make the argument more succinct. I am indebted to her for helping me finish the writing. I am also thankful to Professor Eugene Avrutin and Professor Michael Finke for their suggestions, comments, and encouragement. I am grateful to Professor Richard Tempest who spent many hours discussing this dissertation with me. Over the years, my friend Paul Weichsel tirelessly answered my questions about Yiddish and helped me to decode An-sky’s questionnaire. Finally, my friends Michael Bruen, Elise Benveniste, and Jeff Crean listened to, discussed with me, and read different parts of this dissertation. The mistakes and faults in this work are solely mine. In transliterating Russian words, I follow Library of Congress Transliteration. For transliteration of the Yiddish words, I follow the transliteration of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, although I transcribe Fyodor Dostoevsky, Gogol, Semyon An-sky and Sholem Aleichem’s names as they are known in English. All translations from Russian and Yiddish into English are mine, unless otherwise specified. Russian quotes and names are transliterated according to the Library of Congress style, but traditional English spelling, such as the first names Semyon, Fyodor, and Emelyan have been retained. I capilize the first word of the Yiddish articles and books, even though Yiddish does not have capital letters. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER ONE: GORIANCHIKOV’S EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPASSE OF EMBRACING EMPIRE………………………………………………46 CHAPTER TWO: EMBRACING PEOPLES OF EMPIRE IN VLADIMIR KOROLENKO’S STORIES…………………………………………105 CHAPTER THREE: ANTHROPOLOGY AGAINST INJUSTICE: A LITERARY INVESTIGATION OF BOGORAZ’S “SILHOUETTES FROM GOMEL'”……………………………………………………………..153 CHAPTER FOUR: LOOKING THROUGH AN ETHNOGRAPHIC LENS. AN-SKY’S THE DYBBUK: DEMONIC POSSESSION, DESIRE, AND DEATH………………………………………………………………..199 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..246 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………..267 1 Introduction This dissertation examines the intersection of ethnography and literature in the works of two Russian and two Russian-Jewish writers, populists, and ethnographers. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), Vladimir Korolenko (1853-1921), Vladimir Bogoraz (né Natan Mendeleevich Bogoraz, 1865-1936), and Semyon An-sky (né Shloyme Zanvl Rapoport, 1863-1920) wrote in the genre of literary ethnography, sharing discursive practices and narrative strategies, and using diverse forms (novels, sketches, diaries, short stories, and plays) in the analysis of the multi-ethnic peoples of the Russian Empire.1 By looking at the literary ethnographic works of these four writers, I plan to develop a dynamic understanding of their model of literary ethnography. For Dostoevsky, Korolenko, and Bogoraz, undertaking ethnographic fieldwork was not entirely a voluntary decision, while for An-sky, it was.2 Dostoevsky, Korolenko and Bogoraz became ethnographers during their exiles in Siberia,3 whereas An-sky was banned from residing in the capital, St. Petersburg. All four turned to documenting diverse multiethnic imperial experiences. During their respective periods of exile, when Dostoevsky, Korolenko, and Bogoraz found themselves surrounded by the different peoples of the Russian Empire, they incorporated their diverse ethnographic experiences into their subsequent literary works. But how they did this differed in significant ways. My turn to these four writers is not accidental. Korolenko, Bogoraz and An-sky knew each other and shared a common interest in ethnographic fieldwork, in collecting folklore, and in using material and 1 Anthropologist Jack Kugelmass argues that An-sky’s ethnographic work wasn’t based on the scientific 2 For more on Bogoraz, see his autobiography: Avtobiografiia, F. K-1, op. 1, papka 380-81 (St. Petersburg: Arkhiv instituta etnografii, Kunstkamera). 3 Like the Decembrists, Dostoevsky, Korolenko, and Bogoraz became ethnographers during their exile. For the ethnography of the Decembrists, see Wladimir Troubetzkoy, “Les Décembristes, ethnographes de la Sibérie,” L’Ethnographie 81 (1980): 135-73. 2 ethnographic methods in their fiction. They read Dostoevsky and were in dialogue with his works in a Bakhtinan sense. All were either current or former members of political movements seeking to overthrow the tsarist regime and effect social change. Their rebellion against the tsarist government was the driving force behind their revolutionary ethnographic works, which aimed to register and conceptualize the diversity of the ethnic voices previously suppressed by colonial discourse. All four writers were personally involved in the radical political movements of their times. The writers’ involvement in these revolutionary movements resulted in their arrests and sentences to periods of internal exile, during which they became ethnographers,
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