Isolation and Russian Short Fiction, 1877-1890: Garshin, Chekhov and Korolenko
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ISOLATION AND RUSSIAN SHORT FICTION, 1877-1890: GARSHIN, CHEKHOV AND KOROLENKO MARK CONLIFFE A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, in the University of Toronto @ Copyright by Mark Conliffe 1999 National Library Bibliothéque nationale l*i .,na& du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie SeMces services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 OttawaON K1AON4 Canada Cana& The author has gmnted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seII reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfichelfilm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des exîmits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Isolation and Russian Shxt Fiction, 1877-1890: Garshin, Chekhov and Korolenko Doctor of Philosophy 1999 Mark Conliffe Graduate Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures University of Toronto Abstract In this study I consider aspects of isolation in works that V.M. Garshin (1855-1888), A.P. Chekhov (1860-1904) and V.G. Korolenko (1853-1921) wrote during the period 18774890. I examine characters in isolation and how their characterisation is presented. My approach is analytical and comparative rather than theoretical. 1 base my analysis and cornparison on two assumptions. The first is that, although these authors rnay use no equivalents to the English words isolote. isolated. isolation, these words and the rneanings associated with them best describe particular situations presented in the texts. 1 regard these texts as explorations of what isolation can be because they supply perspectives that express what it means to be isolated. The second assumption is that the three young authors were concerned with the Russian short story form, with new ways by which to present their art. In order to indicate the thrust of each author's efforts, 1 divide the study according to authors, rather than, Say, according to types of isolation or types of isolated individuals. This thematic analysis will comment both on the stories as completed wholes and the specific explorations of such a theme. It will comment on Russian literature of the 1880s and discuss its reflection on isolation as well as the reflections on isolation that appear in Russian literature before the late 1870s. My findings indicate characteristics present in the short fiction of that period, traits that may or may not be consistent with those found in short fiction of other periods and national iiteratures. Contents Abstract Note on Transliteration/Note on Translation Ab breviatims Preface and Acknowledgmei~ts 1 One: Isolation and Short Fiction Isolat ion Short Fiction Two: Russian Short Fiction and Isolation, 18%- 1880. An Overview 37 Gogol 42 Turgenev 58 Tolstoy 68 Leskov 76 Dostoevsk y 83 Three: Garshin and Isolation as Literary Device Biographical Sketch The Garshin Story and Isolation "Four Days" "The Red Flower" Four: Chekhov and Isolation as Typical Occurrence Biographical Sketch Chekhov Stories and Isolation Two Early Stories Isolating Oneself Isolating Another Enduring Isolation After Isolation "A Dreary Story" Five: Korolenko, Isolation and Individual Expression Biographical Sketch Korolenko's Fiction The Siberian Element The Social Element "Makar's Drearn" Concluding Remarks 246 Appendix: English Translations 250 Works Cited 283 Note on Transliteration For the most part 1 have used the Library of Congress systern in transliterating Russian texts. 1 have made a few modifications: we!l-known proper names are given in their commonly usea forms in the text -- thus Tolstoy instead of Tolstoi, Dostoevsky instead of Dostoevskii -- and indications of soft [b] and hard signs [n], noted usually by a single inverted comma ['] and a double one ["], have been elirninated in proper nouns in the text -- thus Gogol instead of Gogol'. I preserve the Library of Congress system in the footnotes and bibliography when 1 refer to original Russian sources, and in the text when 1 provide direct translations in square brackets to clarify a usage -- thus "... Toion's decision is unjust [nepravil'no]." Note on Translation An English translation of each Russian citation appears in the Appendix at the end of the dissertation. Both textual and footnoted citations are listed according to page number. Abbreviationg 1 refer regularly to the following editions throughout this study. When 1 refer to them, I use the abbreviated form noted in the left column. Belinsky, SS V.G. Beiinskii, Sobranie sochinenii u deuiati tomakh (Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literaturs, 1976-1982) Chekhov, PSSP A.P. Chekhov, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem v tridtsati turnakh (Moskva: Nauka, 1974-1982) Chekhov, Sochineniia The 18 volumes that comprise the prose and dramatic writings in Chekhov, PSSP Chekhov, Pis'ma The twelve volumes of letters in Chekhov, PSSP Dostoevsky, SS F.M. Dostoevskii, Sobranie sochinenii. V desia ti tomakh (Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1956-1958) Garshin, Sochineniia V.M. Garshin, Sochineniia (Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1938) Gogol, Sochineniia N.V. Gogol, Sochineniia v dvukh tomakh (Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1959) Korolenko, SS V.G. Korolenko, Sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh (Moskva: Pravda, 1971) Leskov, SS N.S. Leskov, Sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh (Moskva: Ekran, 1993) LN. Tolstoi, Sobranie sochinenii v dvadtsati tomakh (Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1960-1965) Turgenev, Sochineniia I.S. Turgenev, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem u dvadtsati vos'mi tomakh. Sochineniia u piatnadtsati tomakh (Moskva-Leningrad: Akademiia nauk SSSR, 1960-1968) Preface and Acknowledgments "Indeed." wrote Dostoevsky in the March 1876 entry to A Writer's Diary, "1 keep thinking that we have begun the epoch of universal 'dissociation' [obosobleniia]. Al1 are dissociating themselves [obosobliaiutsia], içolating themselves [uediniaiutsia], everyone wants to invent something of his own, something new and unheard of. Everybody sets aside al1 those things that used to be cornmon to our thoughts and feelings and begins with his own thoughts and feelings. Everybody wants to begin from the beginning. The links that once united us are broken without regret, and everyone acts on his own accord and finds his only consolation in that."' Dostoevsky ndds with grieving candour that "everyone is on his own," that people are "cornpelled krinuzhdeny] to begin from the beginning, t'or no one gives thern light" and that, because of this, "fresh energies perish."' Dostoevsky is bemoaning the present state of affairs in Russia, yet he further justifies his words when he observes how people have cut themselves off from the past and how they are in danger of destroying the sources that could provide for their future. He emphasises how the individual willingly detaches himself from the whole, yet suffers. He notes, too, that developments in society are harming its unity, yet society fails to guard itself? According to Dostoevsky. this temporal and spatial '~yodorDos toevsky. A Writer's Diüry. Volume One/ 1873-1876. Kenneth Lantz, trms. (Evanston, Ill.: Xorthwestern University Press, 1993), March 1876: 394-395. For the Russian, see F.M. Dostoevskii, Dnevnik pisa teltu za 1876 god (Pririzh: YMCA-Press, n.d.), 110-111. '~bid.,396.112 -- ernphasis in the original. 3 Gary Saul Morson proposes "dissociation" as the unifying theme for A Writer's Diary and, consequently, the structural foundation of the work. See his "Introductory Study: Dostoevsky's Great Experiment," in Dostoevsky, A Writer's Diary. Volume One/1873-1876, 19. isolation defined Russian society at that moment. He repeatedly returned to the topic of isolation (as active dissociation) in his writing. Yet, throughout the century (and previously) writers had explorcd why individuals detach themselves, or are detached, froni the whole, and the consequences of silch detachment. Iri the late 1870s the theme of isolation was not new to Russian literature. To that point writers developed the theme as they developed particular literary forms. During the nineteenth-century, short story writers attended to individualising the character, to characterising him, before concerning themselves with the character in isolation. The persona1 conflicts and ideals that determine the thoughts and actions of Romantic heroes, such as those in the works of Bestuzhev-Marlinskii and Odoevskii, niark exaniples of how their authors adopted and irnpiernented aspects of Romantic convention. Pushkin's anci Lermontov's stories reflect a definite move toward psyc hological prose, f ocusing more on lone characters' mental delibersitions and machinations than on what isolates thern. Gogol's "Petersburg Stories" render characters alone and detail their conditions, but the heroes often are equally dehunianized so as to form parts of the cityscape. The physiological sketch and writings of the so-called "natural school" offered