DOCSLIB.ORG

Mikhail Lermontov's Literary Output Can Be Broken Down Into

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mikhail Lermontov's Literary Output Can Be Broken Down Into Misanthropy and Sadism in Lermontov’s Plays1 ikhail Lermontov’s literary output can be broken down into M three periods: the immature, prior to 1834; the transitional, 1834–36; and the period of artistic maturity after 1837. He began writing at the age of fourteen. For the next six years he wrote numerous lyrics, several narrative poems, and three plays. No one would have ever heard of any of these writings were they not by the young Lermontov. They are the work of a juvenile graphomaniac who does not know where imita- tion stops and plagiarism begins, and who interlards his writings with unaltered or slightly altered passages, mostly from Pushkin, but also from Aleksandr Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Byron and other poets of the Romantic period. Where the young Pushkin could absorb any number of eigh- teenth- or nineteenth-century literary influences and then incorporate them into works that were unmistakably his own, the young Lermontov kept producing inferior versions of what Pushkin or Byron or Bestuzhev- Marlinsky had already written and written better. This derivative method can be illustrated by the first of his melodra- mas, Ispantsy (The Spaniards), written when he was sixteen. It combines elements from Schiller’s Don Carlos, from Kotzebue and Victor Hugo. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the most obvious French melodrama of hor- ror, descended from Guilbert de Pixérécourt (whose plays had been pop- ular in Russia since the early nineteenth century). The Spaniards features a diabolical Jesuit villain, who tortures the naive heroine, and a ranting hero, who stabs the woman he loves rather than let another man possess her. Sponge-like, the play soaks up ingredients from an incongruous array of other literary works. The persecuted old Jew and his beautiful daughter Noemi are Isaac and Rebecca from Scott’s Ivanhoe; Noemi’s bedtime col- loquy with her old nurse is simply lifted from Tatyana’s conversation with 1 Originally published in Studies in Russian Literature in Honor of Vsevolod Setchkarev, ed. Julian W. Connolly and Sonia I. Ketchian (Columbus, IN: Slavica, 1986), 166–74. 77 I. Pushkin and Romanticism her nurse in Evgeny Onegin; and the gravediggers are transferred bodily from Hamlet. Apart from sympathy for the persecuted Jewish characters, something that was extremely rare in Russian nineteenth-century litera- ture (Lermontov must have taken this attitude from Scott), there is noth- ing to recommend The Spaniards on any literary or dramatic level. Equally obvious and melodramatic but far more personal are Ler- montov’s next two plays. The first, written in 1830, bears a German title, Menschen und Leidenschaften: Ein Trauerspiel (People and passion: A tragedy) in homage to Menschenhass und Reue (Misanthropy and repen- tance) by Kotzebue and possibly also to Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and love) by Schiller. The play is sixteen-year-old Lermontov’s exorcism of the domestic situation which scarred him emotionally throughout his child- hood and adolescence: the ugly fight for his custody between his father and his wealthy maternal grandmother. Menschen und Leidenschaften is obviously autobiographical, portraying the poet’s grandmother, peasant nurse, father, and paternal uncle (of all of whom he was ostensibly fond) as a nest of hypocritical vipers who torment the idealistic young hero— Lermontov’s self-portrait—and drive him to suicide. “I am surrounded by such base creatures and everything is done to spite me,” the protagonist confides to his best friend, pretty much summing up Lermontov’s attitude to his family and to humanity in general. In the 1831 Strannyi chelovek (An odd man), a similar plot about a young idealist driven to suicide is replayed. But this time Lermontov’s relatives do not appear; the hero is persecuted by the high society in which he moves, and there is a sub- plot taken from Kotzebue’s Misanthropy and Repentance about the once faithless, now repentant wife and mother. The suicide of the young male protagonist who is starved for affection and understanding, with which both Menschen und Leidenschaften and An Odd Man end, must have been the young Lermontov’s way of signaling his misery and resentment to the unresponsive world. It is a somewhat different Lermontov that we meet in the transitional period of 1834–36. His attitudes and ideas did not change during those years (they never did), but he acquired the verbal facility and melodi- ous expressivity which were to give him his high position in the Russian literary pantheon. Important for this evolution were the erotic or porno- graphic (depending on the commentator’s viewpoint) poems he wrote at the age of twenty. Unlike his juvenilia, these stylistically more mature pro- 78 Misanthropy and Sadism in Lermontov’s Plays ductions do not appear in the academic editions of his writings because of their explicit eroticism. Five of them were, however, published in the West.2 Far from being mere literary curiosities, they are an important key to Lermontov’s outlook and poetics. Written while the poet was a cadet at a military academy, these po- ems are usually called his “Cadet Poems.” Russian commentators who do mention them are wont to bracket them together with Pushkin’s erotica, both sets of poems supposedly representing the two poets’ youthful high- spirited pranks. Actually, their respective notions of what constitutes the erotic could not be more different. Pushkin’s erotica are humorous, joy- ous, and life-affirming.3 Lermontov’s are grim, sadistic and censorious. Three of the five “Cadet Poems” deal with rape (gang rape of a peasant girl by a group of cadets, rape of a blind old woman by a drunken young lout, and the rape and beating of a prostitute by a customer who refuses to pay her), narrated with approval for the rapists and contempt for their victims. Two other “Cadet Poems” are about homosexual encounters at the mili- tary academy, described in a manner that combines prurience, moralizing censure, and, again, contempt for the participants. These poems exemplify the growth of Lermontov’s verbal elegance and lyrical power, qualities that will again and again cause his readers to overlook or accept ideas and subjects that might otherwise have repelled them.4 Lermontov’s two remaining plays date from the same transitional pe- riod as the “Cadet Poems.” Maskarad (Masquerade), published in 1835, is his best-known play and the only one occasionally performed on the stage. Dva brata (The two brothers), which he wrote one year later, is known only to Lermontov scholars. Both are lurid melodramas with strong sadistic overtones. The reason for the popularity of Masquerade and the obscurity of The Two Brothers is that the former is in verse—Lermontov’s verse— and the latter is in prose. Lermontov did not yet know how to write good 2 M. Yu. Lermontov, “Piat’ eroticheskikh stikhotvorenii,” Russian Literature TriQuar- terly, no. 14 (Winter 1976): 416–29. 3 See Anthony Cross, “Pushkin’s Bawdy; or, Notes from the Literary Underground,” Russian Literature TriQuarterly, no. 10 (Fall 1974): 203–36. 4 William H. Hopkins, “Lermontov’s Hussar Poems,” Russian Literature TriQuarterly, no. 14 (Winter 1976): 36–47, is a good scholarly examination of Lermontov’s “Cadet Poems,” containing a valuable tabulation of the references to them in Russian criti- cism. But the author fails to notice the sadistic tone of these poems and the glorifica- tion of violence and rape that is central to three of them. 79 I. Pushkin and Romanticism verse at the time of The Spaniards (Menschen und Leidenschaften and An Odd Man were in prose). The emergence of his own poetic voice is evident in a few of his earlier lyrics, such as “The Angel” (1831) and “The Sail” (1832), the famous first line of the latter being actually a quotation from Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Lermontov’s literary craft was further perfected in the “Cadet Poems.” Yet when he came to write Masquerade he was still insecure enough to borrow the voices of two other poet-playwrights. More seductively melodious than any other work for the stage by Lermontov, Masquerade is even more derivative than his juvenile melo- dramas. The plot is a Romantic variation on Shakespeare’s Othello. The protagonist is a demonic ex-gambler named Arbenin, patterned in part on the semicriminal gambler-hero of Trente ans; ou, La vie d’un joueur by Victor Ducange, which was premiered in Russia in 1828. It kept playing in the capitals for the next two decades in two competing translations, one by Fyo dor Kokoshkin and the other by Rafail Zotov. Part melodramatic gambler and part disillusioned Byronic hero, Arbenin has found peace and fulfillment in his marriage to Nina, an aristocratic young woman much younger than himself. Their happiness is wrecked by two unrelated plot stratagems. One is the clandestine affair between Nina’s friend Baroness Shtral and a young nobleman, which take place at a public masquerade and which Arbenin mistakenly assumes to have involved Nina rather than the baroness. The other concerns a mysterious avenger, who corresponds to Shakespeare’s Iago and is determined to bring about Arbenin’s downfall. These two plot lines are poorly meshed together. The imbroglio between the baroness, her lover, and Nina is shown as a random chain of accidental circum- stances. For the avenger to have caused all these events, as is implied at the end of the play, he would have needed to read the thoughts and predict the actions of Arbenin and of the three other principal characters. Yet he is not depicted as a supernatural being but as an ordinary victim of Arbe- nin’s earlier gambling operations. Like his prototype in Othello, Arbenin is manipulated into believing that his wife was unfaithful, murders her (by serving her poisoned ice cream), watches her die in horrible torment, and is then informed that she was innocent.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 1 the Woman Question in Russia
    The Woman Question in Russia: Contradictions and Ambivalence Elizabeth A. Wood The Woman Question in nineteenth and early twentieth century Russia focused principally on the position of women in the family and society. It was one of the so-called “burning” social issues that occupied the Russian intelligentsia in the second half of the nineteenth century, questions such as the emancipation of the peasants and the Jews, the rise of national consciousness. Yet it was perhaps the least straight-forward of the burning questions, the one most burdened by contradictions and ambivalence. It was, for one thing, very much a question about the place of men and masculinity under autocracy. Although it ostensibly addressed notions of how to improve women’s lot, it also contained within it and even perpetuated deeply misogynist notions of women’s backwardness. The early “woman question” was also often a code phrase for authors seeking to evade the strict censorship under Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855); they wrote about women as a way of talking about revolution and radical social change. Contemporaries perceived the Woman Question as a native development that had organic Russian roots. Yet in actuality it came to Russia as an import, borrowing many Western ideas, yet melding them with Russian intellectual and moral traditions in a new synthesis. Historians and literature scholars debate the timing and nature of the earliest appearances of the Woman Question. Most general discussions date it from the time of discussions of the Emancipation of the peasantry, i.e., the late 1850s and early 1860s. Yet it is easy to see the roots in changes under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, as well as in the 1830s-40s [1-4].
    [Show full text]
  • "Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict" by H
    University of California, Berkeley Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict Harsha Ram Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Working Paper Series This PDF document preserves the page numbering of the printed version for accuracy of citation. When viewed with Acrobat Reader, the printed page numbers will not correspond with the electronic numbering. The Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies (BPS) is a leading center for graduate training on the Soviet Union and its successor states in the United States. Founded in 1983 as part of a nationwide effort to reinvigorate the field, BPSs mission has been to train a new cohort of scholars and professionals in both cross-disciplinary social science methodology and theory as well as the history, languages, and cultures of the former Soviet Union; to carry out an innovative program of scholarly research and publication on the Soviet Union and its successor states; and to undertake an active public outreach program for the local community, other national and international academic centers, and the U.S. and other governments. Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies University of California, Berkeley Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 260 Stephens Hall #2304 Berkeley, California 94720-2304 Tel: (510) 643-6737 [email protected] http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~bsp/ Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict Harsha Ram Summer 1999 Harsha Ram is an assistant professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley Edited by Anna Wertz BPS gratefully acknowledges support from the National Security Education Program for providing funding for the publication of this Working Paper .
    [Show full text]
  • The Eye in Lermontov's a Hero of Our Time
    THE EYE IN LERMONTOV’S A HERO OF OUR TIME: PERCEPTION, VISUALITY, AND GENDER RELATIONS by IRYNA IEVGENIIVNA ZAGORUYKO A THESIS Presented to the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2016 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Iryna Ievgeniivna Zagoruyko Title: The Eye in Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time: Perception, Visuality, and Gender Relations This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program by: Katya Hokanson Chairperson Jenifer Presto Member Yelaina Kripkov Member and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2016 ! ii © 2016 Iryna Ievgeniivna Zagoruyko ! iii THESIS ABSTRACT Iryna Ievgeniivna Zagoruyko Master of Arts Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program June 2016 Title: The Eye in Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time: Perception, Visuality, and Gender Relations This thesis views Lermontov’s novel A Hero of Our Time as centered on images, glances and vision. In his text Lermontov conveys a persistent fascination with visual perception. The attentive reader can read this language of the eye—the eye can be seen as a mirror of the soul, a fetish, a means of control, and a metaphor for knowledge. The texts that form the novel are linked together by a shared preoccupation with the eye. At the same time, these texts explore the theme of visual perception from different angles, and even present us with different attitudes towards vision.
    [Show full text]
  • Lorine Niedecker's Personal Library of Books: A
    LORINE NIEDECKER’S PERSONAL LIBRARY OF BOOKS: A BIBLIOGRAPHY Margot Peters Adams, Brooks. The Law of Civilization and Decay. New York: Vintage Books, 1955. Adéma, Marcel. Apollinaire, trans, Denise Folliot. London: Heineman, 1954. Aldington, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.). Heliodora and Other Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1924. Aldington, Richard, ed. The Religion of Beauty: Selections from the Aesthetes. London: Heineman, 1950. Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. New York: Random House, 1950. Allen, Donald M., ed. The New American Poetry: 1945-1960. New York: Grove Press, 1960. Allen, Glover Morrill. Birds and Their Attributes. New York: Dover, 1962. Alvarez, A. The School of Donne. New York: Mentor, 1967. Anderson, Charles R. Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: Stairway of Surprise. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1960. Anderson, Sherwood. Six Mid-American Chants. Photos by Art Sinsabaugh. Highlands, N.C.: Jargon Press, 1964. Arnett, Willard E. Santayana and the Sense of Beauty. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1957. Arnold, Matthew. Passages from the Prose Writings of Matthew Arnold, ed. William E. Buckler, New York: New York University Press, 1963. Saint Augustine. The Confessions. New York: Pocket Books, n.d. Aurelius, Marcus (Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus). Meditations. London: Dent, 1948. Bacon, Francis. Essays and the New Atlantis, ed. Gordon S. Haight. New York: Van Nostrand, 1942. Basho. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, trans. Nobuyuki Yuasa. Baltimore: Penguin, 1966. 1 Baudelaire, Charles. Flowers of Evil. New York: New Directions, 1958. Beard, Charles A. & Mary R. Beard. The Rise of American Civilization. New York: Macmillan, 1939. Bell, Margaret. Margaret Fuller: A Biography.
    [Show full text]
  • Levan Bregadze the Markers of Nikoloz Baratashvili's
    Levan Bregadze The Markers of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s Romanticism Abstract: It is discussed N. Baratashvili’s romanticism in close connection with the worldview of one of the most prominent creators and thinkers, “foremost” romanticist Novalis; on the basis of Novalis’ perception of the life romanticizing, using the technical means of polarization and potentiation it is studied how in the Nikoloz Baratashvili’s creative works the relationship with the universe, people, everyday occurrences is romanticized, the goal of which is to make the life intensive, full-blooded, to open its way towards infinity. Key words: Baratashvili, Novalis, romanticism, polarization, potentiation. Most of the writer-romanticists lived short lives: Edgar Allan Poe lived 40 years on this earth, Giacomo Leopardi and Juliusz Słowacki died at their 39th years of age, Charlotte Brontë passed away at the age of 38, Robert Burns and Alexander Pushkin diedat 37, George Gordon Byron – 36, José María Heredia – 35, Heinrich von Kleist, José de Espronceda and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer – 34, Wilhelm Müller – 33, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Emily Brontë -30, Novalis, Anne Brontë and Branko Radičević – 29, Nikoloz Baratashvili – 27, Mikhail Lermontov, Sándor Petőfi, Karel Hynek Mácha and Karoline von Günderrode – 26, John Keats, Wilhelm Hauff and Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder – 25... and yet, in the short time of their lives, they created the literature of such a quality that they will remain in the memory of mankind forever; some of them marked the history of literature so profoundly that they still influence and will continue to influence in future the spiritual formation of people. How did they manage that? What explanation can be found? The answer to this conundrumhas to be found in their philosophy of life, in the philosophy of romantic life.
    [Show full text]
  • Folklore and the Construction of National Identity in Nineteenth Century Russian Literature
    Folklore and the Construction of National Identity in Nineteenth Century Russian Literature Jessika Aguilar Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University 2016 © 2016 Jessika Aguilar All rights reserved Table of Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..…..1 2. Alexander Pushkin: Folklore without the Folk……………………………….20 3. Nikolai Gogol: Folklore and the Fragmentation of Authorship……….54 4. Vladimir Dahl: The Folk Speak………………………………………………..........84 5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………........116 6. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………122 i Introduction In his “Literary Reveries” of 1834 Vissarion Belinsky proclaimed, “we have no literature” (Belinskii PSS I:22). Belinsky was in good company with his assessment. Such sentiments are rife in the critical essays and articles of the first third of the nineteenth century. A decade earlier, Aleksandr Bestuzhev had declared that, “we have a criticism but no literature” (Leighton, Romantic Criticism 67). Several years before that, Pyotr Vyazemsky voiced a similar opinion in his article on Pushkin’s Captive of the Caucasus : “A Russian language exists, but a literature, the worthy expression of a mighty and virile people, does not yet exist!” (Leighton, Romantic Criticism 48). These histrionic claims are evidence of Russian intellectuals’ growing apprehension that there was nothing Russian about the literature produced in Russia. There was a prevailing belief that
    [Show full text]
  • BYRONISM in LERMONTOV's a HERO of OUR TIME by ALAN HARWOOD CAMERON B.A., U N I V E R S I T Y O F C a L G a R Y , 1968 M.A
    BYRONISM IN LERMONTOV'S A HERO OF OUR TIME by ALAN HARWOOD CAMERON B.A., University of Calgary, 1968 M.A., University of British Columbia, 1970 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department SLAVONIC STUDIES We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1974 In presenting this thesis in par ial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date Afr, I l0} I f7f ABSTRACT Although Mikhail Lermontov is commonly known as the "Russian Byron," up to this point no examination of the Byronic features of A Hero of Our Time, (Geroy nashego vremeni)3 has been made. This study presents the view that, while the novel is much more than a simple expression of Byronism, understanding the basic Byronic traits and Lermontov1s own modification of them is essential for a true comprehension of the novel. Each of the first five chapters is devoted to a scrutiny of the separate tales that make up A Hero of Our Time. The basic Byronic motifs of storms, poses and exotic settings are examined in each part with commentary on some Lermontovian variations on them.
    [Show full text]
  • Rimsky-Korsakov Romances
    booklet-paginated:cover 11/09/2017 12:02 Page 1 5060192780772 RIMSKY-KORSAKOV ROMANCES Anush Hovhannisyan Yuriy Yurchuk Sergey Rybin 28 1 booklet-paginated:cover 11/09/2017 12:02 Page 3 Produced, engineered and edited by Spencer Cozens. Recorded 19-21 December 2016 at Steinway Recording, Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, U.K. Steinway technician: Peter Roscoe. Publisher: Moscow, Musyka. Booklet notes © 2017 Sergey Rybin. English translations of sung text © 2017 Sergey Rybin. Cover: Photograph © 2013 Anatoly Sokolov. Inside from cover: Photograph of Sergey Rybin, Anush Hovhannisyan and Yuriy Yurchuk © 2017 Inna Kostukovsky. Graphic design: Colour Blind Design. Printed in the E.U. 2 27 booklet-paginated:cover 11/09/2017 12:02 Page 5 24 Prorok Op.49, No.2 The Prophet Alexander Pushkin Dukhovnoï zhazhdoïu tomim Tormented by spiritual anguish V pustyne mrachnoï ïa vlachils’a, I dragged myself through a grim desert, I shestikrylyï serafim And a six-winged seraphim Na pereputïe mne ïavils’a; Appeared to me at a crossroads; RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Perstami l’ogkimi, kak son, With his fingers, light as a dream, Moikh zenits kosnuls’a on: He touched my eyes: ROMANCES Otverzlis’ vesh’iïe zenitsy, They burst open wide, all-seeing, Kak u ispugannoï orlitsy. Like those of a startled eagle. Moikh usheï kosnuls’a on, He touched my ears I ikh napolnil shum i zvon: And they were filled with clamour and ringing: I vn’al ïa neba sodroganïe, I heard the rumbling of the heavens, I gorniï angelov pol’ot, The high flight of the angels, I gad morskikh podvodnyï khod, The crawling of the underwater reptilians I dol’ney lozy proz’abanïe.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of PITTSBURGH Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
    UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures Russian 2301. Pushkin, Lermontov, and the Ethics of Appropriation Fall 2010 CL 2321, Wed 2.30-5.25 Jonathan Platt [email protected] Office: CL 1421A, phone: 412-624-5714 Hours: Mon 3.00-5.00 or by appt. While this course provides a useful survey of the major works of Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, our primary focus will be these authors‟ engagement with and appropriation of a range of Western European themes, motifs, genres, and aesthetic strategies. We will consider these acts of appropriation from a variety of theoretical perspectives in an effort to understand how Pushkin and Lermontov‟s texts incorporate a common European inheritance in different ways. At the heart of our discussions will be a concern with the ethics of appropriation. We will ask what the creative acts of borrowing, imitation, and quotation reveal about the subject positions Pushkin and Lermontov define in their works. Our interest in the ethical core of aesthetics will also be reflected in the works covered in the course—most of which deal with the dynamics of self and other, love and death, desire and transgression. Readings: Readings for the course will be made available (as links or attached files) on Courseweb as the semester progresses. Readings marked (R) are recommended, but not required. I will make an effort to provide both the original and a English or Russian translation of all French and German readings. Please have copies (either printed or electronic) of the required readings with you for reference in class.
    [Show full text]
  • Note on Transliteration I Am Using the Library of Congress System Without
    2 Note on Transliteration I am using the Library of Congress system without diacritics, with the following exceptions: - In the main text I have chosen to spell names ending in “skii” as “sky” (as in Zhukovsky) - I will use the common spelling of the names of noted Russian authors, such as Tolstoy 3 Introduction This dissertation focuses on three Russian poets—Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, and Vasily Zhukovsky, and on the handling of rusalka figures in their work. I claim that all three poets used the rusalka characters in their works as a means of expressing their innermost fantasies, desires, hopes, and fears about females and that there is a direct correlation between the poets’ personal lives and their experiences with women and the rusalka characters in their works. Aleksandr Pushkin used the rusalka figure in two of his poems¾the short whimsical poem “Rusalka” written in 1819, and the longer more serious poetic drama “Rusalka” that he started in 1829 and never finished. The ways in which Pushkin uses the rusalka characters in these works represent his growth and development in terms of experiencing and understanding women’s complex internal worlds and women’s role in his personal and professional life. I claim that the 1819 poem “Rusalka” represents the ideas that Pushkin had early on in his life associated with a power struggle between men and women and his fears related to women, whom he viewed as simplistic, unpredictable, and irrational, with the potential of assuming control over men through their beauty and sexuality and potentially using that control to lead men to their downfall.
    [Show full text]
  • "Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations
    UC Berkeley Recent Work Title Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/45t9r2f1 Author Ram, Harsha Publication Date 1999-08-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California University of California, Berkeley Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict Harsha Ram Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Working Paper Series This PDF document preserves the page numbering of the printed version for accuracy of citation. When viewed with Acrobat Reader, the printed page numbers will not correspond with the electronic numbering. The Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies (BPS) is a leading center for graduate training on the Soviet Union and its successor states in the United States. Founded in 1983 as part of a nationwide effort to reinvigorate the field, BPSs mission has been to train a new cohort of scholars and professionals in both cross-disciplinary social science methodology and theory as well as the history, languages, and cultures of the former Soviet Union; to carry out an innovative program of scholarly research and publication on the Soviet Union and its successor states; and to undertake an active public outreach program for the local community, other national and international academic centers, and the U.S. and other governments. Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies University of California, Berkeley Institute of Slavic,
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Dostoevsky's View of the Russian Soul and Its Impact on the Russian Question in the Brothers Karamazov Paul C. Schlau
    ABSTRACT Dostoevsky’s View of the Russian Soul and its Impact on the Russian Question in The Brothers Karamazov Paul C. Schlaudraff Director: Adrienne M. Harris, Ph.D Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s most renowned novelists, profoundly affected the way that Russia would think of itself in the years following his death. One of the most important issues for Dostoevsky and other authors at the time was the reconciliation of the peasant and noble classes in the aftermath of the serf emancipation in Russia. Dostoevsky believed that the solution to this issue would come from the Russian peasantry. My research investigates Dostoevsky’s view of the “Russian soul”, which is the particular set of innate characteristics which distinguishes Russians from other nationalities. Furthermore, it examines how Dostoevsky’s view of the Russian soul affected his answer to the question of Russia’s ultimate destiny. During the 19th century, socialism was an especially popular answer to that question. Dostoevsky, however, presented an entirely different solution. Through a thorough examination of Dostoevsky’s final novel, The Brothers Karamazov, my thesis demonstrates this alternative solution and its significance in light of competing Russian theory during the 19th century. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS ______________________________________________________ Dr. Adrienne M. Harris, Department of Modern Languages APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: ______________________________________________ Dr. Andrew Wisely, Director DATE: ________________________ DOSTOEVSKY’S VIEW OF THE RUSSIAN SOUL AND ITS IMPACT ON THE RUSSIAN QUESTION IN THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Paul C.
    [Show full text]