Realizing Metaphors: Alexander Pushkin and the Life of the Poet

264 Pages·1998·73.22 MB·English

by  David M. Bethea

Realizing
Metaphors
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE WISCONSIN
CENTER FOR PUSHKIN STUDIES
GeneralEditors
DavidM. Bethea
AlexanderA. Dolinin
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~alizing
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JP"tetaphors
Alexander Pushkin and
the Life ofthe Poet
DAVID M. BETHEA
TheUniversityof
Wisconsin Press
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THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
2537DanielsStreet
Madison,Wisconsin53718
3HenriettaStreet
LondonWC2E8LU,England
Copyright©1998
TheBoardofRegentsofthe
UniversityofWisconsinSystem
Allrightsreserved
3 5 4 2
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Allillustrationsarecourtesyof
theRussianAcademyofSciences,
InstituteofRussianLiterature(PushkinskiiDom),
inSt.Petersburg.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bethea,DavidM.,1948-
Realizingmetaphors:AlexanderPushkinandthelifeofthepoetI
DavidM.Bethea.
262pp. em.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-299-15970-1(cloth:alk.paper).
ISBN0-299-15974-4(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Pushkin,AleksandrSergeevich,1799-1837. 2.Poets,
Russian-19thcentury-Biography. 3.Derzhavin,GavriilRomanovich,
1743-1816-Influence. 4.Metaphor. I.Title.
PG3350.B45 1998
891.71'3- dOl
[B] 98-10320
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ForKim,whoknewbetterthanthepoet:
utHymettiasole
ceraremollescittractataquepollicemultas
flectiturinfacies ipsoquefit ultilisusu
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CONTENTS
oF
ListofIllustrations Vlll
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
ANoteonTransliteration XVll
Abbreviations xviii
PART I: RealizingMetaphors, SituatingPushkin
WhyPushkin? 3
TheProblemofPoeticBiography 34
Freud:TheCurseoftheLiterallyFigurative 45
Bloom:TheCriticasRomanticPoet 67
Jakobson:WhytheStatueWon'tCometo
Life,orWillIt? 89
Lotman:TheCodeandItsRelationtoLiterary
Biography 118
PART II: Pushkin,Derzhavin,andtheLifeofthePoet
WhyDerzhavin? 137
1814-1815 154
1825-1826 173
1830-1831 189
1836 199
Index 237
VII
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ILLUSTRATIONS
oF
1. AlexanderPushkin 20
2. NataliaNikolaevnaGoncharova-Pushkina 21
3. Pagewiththeroughdraftofthepoem"ToaGrandee" 22
4. PageonwhichPushkinbegan TheBronzeHorseman 23
5. Pushkin'sself-caricatureof1835or1836 24
6. Pushkin'sillustrationofafantasticbird(cockerel?)insertedinto
themanuscriptofTheHistoryoftheVillageGoriukhino 25
7. GavrilaRomanovichDerzhavin 142
8. Pushkinrecitinghispoem"RecollectionsatTsarskoeSelo"
athisgraduationexercisesattheLyceum 143
9. BaronAntonAntonovichDelvig 144
10. PavelVoinovichNashchokin 144
11. AviewoftheLyceumandSadovayaStreet 145
12. TheChesmacolumn 146
13. TheCameronGalleryatTsarskoeSelo 147
VIII
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PREFACE
oF
Psychologically speaking, we all live on the inhabitable parts ofa
land bordered bycrueler climatic zones called the "literal" and the "figura
tive." Explainthetangleofemotionandthoughtthat isthetrue"us"byrefer
ence to the one-to-one literalityofsystem,whether it be linguistic, political,
economic, social, biologic, or chemical/genetic, and something in us recoils
from this landscape- barren, desertlike, exposed to the unforgiving sun of
"cognition," always on the lookout for the next watering hole and slight bit
ofshade. Give in to the tangle and say that it is all words, and not merely
words butwordswefreelymanipulateandwithwhosehelpwe refigure (one
to-another) theworld and its constant reminders ofloss and limitation, and
the landscape becomes equallyintolerable: some mountain aeriewhere all is
secondaryandtertiaryabstraction,wheretheurgetostayclearofthefrayhas
made one's ideas almost palpablyunnecessary, and where finally there is in
sufficientoxygentosustainthelifeofthemind.Itishardtosaywhichofthese
extreme landscapes, dwelled in exclusively, is the more inhospitable to men
tal growth. One thing is clear, however: to speak about the "humanities" as
beingdefinedprimarilybyone orthe otherclimatic zone, rather than bythe
ecosystem (what Yuri Lotman called the "semiosphere") that is theircreative
interplay,isafundamental misstatement("configuring") oftheproblem,with
regard to not onlyhowwewrite and think, but how we orient and comport
ourselvesintheworld.
Onceupon atime,pace Plato,poetswereourmost accurateexplorers and
mappers ofthis real-yet-imaginaryland in between. Theymaystill be for all
we know, although who and what, properly speaking, qualifyas "poet" and
"poetry" in ourrapidlyevolving culture is contested territory. Whatever the
case, the present study is entitled, not completely naively, Realizing Meta
phors, and itisabouttheforward, asopposedtobackward (read"Freudian"),
movement ofmetaphorical thinkingand metaphoricallyengaged biography.
It is dedicated to a poet whose own quite specific definition of inspiration,
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