India As Ideal and Image in Konstantin Bal'mont's
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THE LAND OF THOUGHT: INDIA AS IDEAL AND IMAGE IN KONSTANTIN BAL’MONT’S OEUVRE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Susmita Sundaram * * * * * The Ohio State University 2004 Doctoral Examination Committee: Professor Irene Masing-Delic, Advisor Approved by Professor George Kalbouss Professor Yana Hashamova Professor Katya Hokanson Adviser Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures A NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION All original quotes from Russian have been transliterated with translations immediately following. The transliteration is done according to the Library of Congress system. All translations are done by the author unless otherwise indicated. ABSTRACT Russian writers have grappled with the notion of Russian identity between East and West and have mostly looked to Europe for answers since Peter the Great’s reforms. The discussion of Russia’s identity and historically ordained mission in the world came into sharp focus with the Slavophile-Westernizer debate in the first half of the nineteenth century, the resonance from which have informed Russian cultural philosophy since. Dostoevsky’s “Pushkin speech” in 1881 introduced the notion of Pushkin as a “Universal Poet” who could transcend national boundaries as a result of his universal cultural receptivity and yet could at the same time remain quintessentially Russian. The Russian Silver Age (1890’s-1910) witnessed a revival of the debate over Russia’s mission in a crisis-ridden fin-de-siècle Europe and Russia. Russian Symbolist writers looked to other cultures – in particular classical antiquity, and renaissance Italy – for cultural models that would provide an insight into solving the crisis of positivism and naturalism. The symbolist poet Konstantin Bal’mont – who was a much feted poet in the first decade of his oeuvre and perhaps unjustly ignored later – differed from his contemporaries in his quest for solutions both in sheer breadth of cultures studied and in his unusual choice of an ideal. This dissertation revisits Bal’mont’s oeuvre in order to examine his cultural philosophy – hitherto largely unexamined by critics – and discussed the poet’s choice of ii India as a cultural partner in the synthesis of Russian elemental spirit and Indian wisdom that he envisioned for the future. While Bal’mont studied a wide variety of cultures – Mayas and Aztecs, ancient Egypt, Japan and Scandinavia among others, India remains the Land of Thought an ideal country that is universal and all-encompassing, where wise men possess the secret of Universal pantheism, a secret that resonates with Bal’mont’ innate poetic pantheism. In his role as cultural philosopher Bal’mont also locates in Kalidasa, the ancient Indian playwright, the ideal solution to the crisis in European theater brought on by the prevailing aesthetic of naturalism. Finally, Bal’mont sees himself as Pushkin’s heir: the Universal poet, who would expand the cultural horizons of Russia far beyond his illustrious predecessor did. iii Dedicated to the memory of my Father iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Irene Masing-Delic for her inspiration and support Her faith in this project gave me the courage to explore uncharted territory. Without her encouragement and gentle prodding this dissertation would have still been in the “development” stage. My mother has been a constant source of inspiration. My thanks to her and to the rest of my family for being the best cheerleaders anyone could ask for. I must thank my friends for their patience during all the times I have been anti-social while writing the dissertation. v VITA May 1992 ………………………………………… Completed B.A in Russian Language and Literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India May 1994……………………………………………Completed M.A in Russian Language and Literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India July 1994-July 1998……………………………….. Worked in Moscow, Russia August 1998- Present ……………………………... Graduate Teaching Assistant at Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS 1. “Appropriating the Orient: the Reception of Sakuntala in Russia.” OSU Working Papers: A Festschrift to Leon Twarog. Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University: Columbus, Ohio 2002 2. “The Woman and the Road in Pushkin’s Journey to Arzrum.” The Pushkin 200th Collection: A Collection of Essays in Honor of Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin on the Anniversary of his Birth. Dept. of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University: Columbus, Ohio 1999. 3. Andrei Zorin. “A Semester in Texas,” Amerika: Essays by Russian Writers on the U.S Dalkey Archive Press: Spring 2004. (TRANSLATION) FIELD OF STUDY Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract………………………………………………………………..ii Dedication……………………………………………………………..iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………v Vita…………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction…………………………………………………………….1 Chapters: 1. Chapter 1 Ideological Background……………………………………………..25 2. Chapter 2 Samoutverzhdenie: India in the Search for a Russian (National) Self in Bal'mont's Poetry……………………………………54 3. Chapter 3 Strana Mysli: India in Bal’mont’s Prose and his Philosophy of Culture …………………………………….……………………………94 4. Chapter 4 From Shakespeare to Kalidasa: Bal’mont and the Crisis in European Theater ………………………………………………………150 Conclusion…….………………………………………………………..202 Bibliography…………………………………………………………….210 vii INTRODUCTION Where are you, unknown God, where are you, o future Rome? Dmitrii Merezhkovskii, “Future Rome” Under the Himalayas, whose peaks are in the splendor of Heaven, I understood the clarity of the muses, amid the valley mists. Bal’mont, “Fire” One of the major questions that has faced Russian culture since European romantic nationalism found an outlet in the Slavophile movement is this: what is the ontological status of Russia -- is it Eastern or Western in its essence? One answer was that it was neither, or both, or perhaps even a unique amalgam that transcended both alternatives. A corollary to this question that soon emerged was that of Russia’s cultural and spiritual mission in the world. Being unique, Russia perhaps had a singular destiny as well, a mission decreed by History itself. The responsibility of formulating and defining this Russian mission, to spread this “Russian idea” in both Russia and beyond its borders fell on Russian writers, at least those who did not take a liberal Westernizing stance. Especially the poets among those writers who embraced the notion of a special mission 1 for Russia were often regarded as “prophets,” and the source text that had defined the Poet as such was of course Aleksandr Pushkin’s “The Prophet” (1828). Later in the nineteenth century, when the Slavophile – Westernizer debate seemed to have already died out, Dostoevskii’s “Pushkin speech” (1880) revitalized the notion that Russia had a spiritual mission in the world. In this speech the novelist who undoubtedly felt that he himself had donned “the prophet’s mantle” that had fallen from Pushkin’s shoulders also developed the notion that it was the universality of the Russian national character that destined Russia for its historical lead role.1 This quality had manifested itself for the first time in all its fullness in Pushkin – this genius who could don any national identity when dealing with international materials, while remaining profoundly Russian – and it was this quality that destined Russia for becoming the initiator of and agent in a future European spiritual revival. Defining Russianness as “universal receptivity” (“vsemirnaia otzychivost”)2 and making Pushkin into its first true incarnation, Dostoevsky, as it were, opened up a competition for who would become the next Pushkin and the next reincarnation of “Russian universality.” It was acknowledged by the proponents of the “Russian idea” that there had been previous universal geniuses in the arts before, such as the painter- engineer-alchemist Leonardo da Vinci and the poet-dramatist-scientist-ethnographer- linguist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but Pushkin was seen as their successor and further development on the scale of that evolution that was measured by the criterion of “Universality.” Certainly Symbolism and many of its modernist offshoots created a “cultural myth of Pushkin” that resurrected the image of the most Russian and most 2 universal of poets and invited the poets of the fin-de-siècle and of the new century to contend for Pushkin’s throne.3 The Russian Silver Age was marked by a strong interest in the philosophy of culture. I.S. Prikhod’ko in her article, “ “Vechnye sputniki” Merezhkovskogo (K probleme mifologizatsii kul’tury)” (“Merezhkovskii’s ‘Eternal companions’ [Towards the problem of mythologization of culture”]) draws attention to what she perceives is the dominant feature of Russian symbolism, i.e., a “conscious orientation towards culture, a striving to assimilate within themselves and transform what art, philosophy, history, religion and mystical teachings, the literature of the East and the West, of antiquity and the middle ages . gave them.” (Italics are mine)4 As is well known, Russian symbolism was very receptive to the Western cultural heritage from antiquity to contemporary cultures, while also proclaiming – at least in some sectors of the symbolist movement – that Western culture had reached its peak in the Renaissance and since then had been on the