INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored 01 poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell St Howell information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor Ml 48106*1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 PUSHKIN’S THE TALES OF THE LATE IVAN PETRO VICH BELKIN AND THE LITTLE TRAGEDIES : THEMATIC UNITY IN TWO KEYS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Ludmila S. Yevsukov, M. A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1996 Dissertation Committee: Approved by , , Irene Masing-Delic, Adviser t ^__ Angela Brintlinger Adviser: George Kalbouss Department of Slavic and East Lubomira Parpulova European Languages and Literatures UMI Number* 9631012 UMI Microform 9631012 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 40103 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines two literary cycles in Pushkin’s oeuvre in their intratextual interaction. The cycles are: The Little Tragedies and The Tales o f the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, both written during Pushkin’s famous “Boldino autumn” of 1830 in very different genres (tragedies - short stories of the anecdotal type). Comparisons between the two cycles are rare in literary criticism and limited to casual observations. This dissertation establishes that neither cycle can be fully understood without the other. Each cycle is united by an overarching idea, but this idea is ultimately the same in both works, albeit presented in two different keys - minor in drama and major in prose. The Tragedies deal mainly with the “Cain” type of personality, engaged in futile rebellion against Fate leading to self-destruction. The Tales feature mainly “Abel” type living in intuitive harmony with the laws of life. Each cycle contains both types of personality, often in situations of conflict, or contrast, with each other. In addition, the two cycles themselves are in relation of similarity and contrast, mirroring each other in intricate mise-en-abyme effects. The dissertation demonstrates a multiplicity of echoes, refractions, referencing between the two cycles, never observed before. Employing the principles of transposition studies (established by Caiyl Emerson), intratextual comparison and cyclization theory, this dissertation casts an entirely new light on the meaning of the purportedly trifling Belkin Tales and adds new interpretative aspects to The Tragedies. It ties together the valuable separate insights of older Pushkinists, such as Gershenzon, and modem ones, such as Bethea, Schmid, and Golstein, into a new vision of Pushkin’s creativity during the Boldino autumn, linking texts previously rarely considered relevant to each other. iii DEDICATION To C. A. At. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge a great depth of gratitude to my Academic adviser Professor Irene Masing-Delic for many years of guidance and friendship. Her inspiring advice has been essential for the research of this Dissertation. I am also grateful to Professor Rymvidas Silbajoris for the depth of his knowledge that he so generously has shared with me. Many thanks to George Kalbouss for guiding me in my Academic career. I would like to mention the assistance that I have received from Angela Brintlinger in my work on several articles and conference presentations. Lyubomira Parprulova’s steadfast support of my studies in various Slavic areas is greatly appreciated. And I finally thank The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures for the generous support throughout my years at The Ohio State University. VITA January 5, 1961 Bom - Moscow, USSR 1988 - 9 0 ......... George Washington University 1990 - Present Graduate Fellow Presidential Fellow Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS "Dve durochki (o skhodstve 'Kapitanskoi dochki 1 i komicheskoi opery Derzhavina Durochka umnee umnykh1)." Published in Norwich Symposia on Russian Literature and Culture, vol. 4: Gavrila Derzhavin , ed. Efim Etkind. Northfield, Vermont: The Russian School of Norwich University, 1995. "Donna Dunia: Pushkin's 'The Stationmaster' and 'The Stone Guest' As Variations in Two Keys." Accepted for publication in Pushkin Journal, vol. 3. Salt Lake City: University of Utah, forthcoming 1996. "Griboedov and the East: Dialogue with Persia." Accepted for publication in Norwich Symposia on Russian Literature and Culture, vol. 5: Griboedov and Bakhtin, ed. Efim Etkind. Northfield, Vermont: The Russian School of Norwich University, forthcoming 1996. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. ii DEDICATION.........................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................ v VITA.........................................................................................................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................... 1 THE TALES OF THE LATE IVAN PETROVICH BELKIN: PUBLICATION AND RECEPTION.................................................................I Deciphering the Meaning of The Tales as a Focal Point of the Present Study ..................................................................................................4 The Urgency of the Present Research .......................................................... 7 The Most Common Approach To The Tales In Modem Scholarship And Its Shortcomings ................................................................9 Some Peculiarities Of Pushkin's Use Of Narrative Devices ..................... 18 The Approach Of The Present Work ..........................................................23 Pushkin's Thematic Dualism ...................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 1.............................................................................................................28 TEXTUAL PARALLELS BETWEEN THE TWO CYCLES.......................28 Donna Dunia: "The Stationmaster" and "The Stone Guest" as Texts in Two Keys. Plot Analysis of the Perennial Legend of Don Juan ....................................................................................................... 29 The Structural Parallels Between "The Stone Guest" and "The Stationmaster" ..............................................................................................30 The Relativity of the Established Truisms ................................................33 The Reversal of the Parallel Role Distribution .........................................35 The Derivative Nature of The Tales as Opposed to The Tragedies 40 The Principle of Ironic Debasement ...........................................................42 The Principle of Shifting Angle in the Observation of Narrated Events ........................................................................................................... 45 The Principle of Shakespearian Transposition and Pushkinian Self-Parody ...................................................................................................49 "The Shot" and "Mozart and Salieri" And Other Parallels ....................... 55 CHAPTER II........................................................................................................... 61 THE CYCLE OF LITTLE TRAGEDIES AS VARIATIONS ON THE THEME OF FATE, HUBRIS AND BAD LUCK...........................................61 Archetypal Conflict ......................................................................................63 "The Covetous Knight" ...............................................................................64 "Mozart And Salieri" ................................................................................... 6 8 "The Stone Guest" ......................................................................................