the poetic riddle in eighteenth-century russia by konstantin starikov ab, boston university, 1998 am

488 Pages·2016·2.32 MB·English

by  Konstantin Starikov

THE POETIC RIDDLE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RUSSIA

BY

KONSTANTIN STARIKOV

A.B., BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 1998
A.M., THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 2000
PHIL.M., YALE UNIVERSITY, 2005
S.L.M., SIMMONS COLLEGE, 2007

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SLAVIC STUDIES AT BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
MAY 2016
@ Copyright 2016 by Konstantin Starikov
This dissertation by Konstantin Starikov is accepted in its present form by the Department of
Slavic Languages as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.

Date _______________ ____________________________________
Professor Alexander Levitsky, Advisor

Recommended to the Gratuate Council

Date _______________ ____________________________________
Professor Svetlana Evdokimova, Reader

Date _______________ ____________________________________
Professor Vladimir Golstein, Reader

Date _______________ ____________________________________

Approved by the Graduate Council

Date _______________ ____________________________________
Dean Peter M.Weber, Dean of the Graduate School
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DEDICATION

To the memory of My Grandparents,
Lazar Vaysman, Anastasia Batrak, Matvei Starikov, and Ida Starikova

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VITA
Konstantin Starikov (Kevin-Konstantin Starikov)
1100 VFW Parkway Unit 305, West Roxbury, MA 02132
[phone]
[email protected]

EDUCATION

Brown University, Providence, RI
Ph.D., Department of Slavic Studies
http://www.brown.edu/academics/slavic-studies/graduate

Simmons College, Boston, MA
M.L.S., Master of Library and Information Science Program, 2007
http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/academics/

Yale University, New Haven, CT
M. Phil., Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 2005
http://www.yale.edu/slavic/

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Master of Arts in Social Sciences, 2000
https://mapss.uchicago.edu/

Boston University, Boston, MA
B.A., cum laude, History and International Relations, 1998
http://www.bu.edu/history/homepage.html ; http://www.bu.edu/ir/

LIBRARY EXPERIENCE
The Alumni Medical Library, Boston University, Boston, MA 2009-present
Head of Circulation and Interlibrary Loan Services

The Alumni Medical Library, Boston University, Boston MA
Education and Information Services Librarian 2008-2009

The Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT 2007
ARL Fellow

Henry Whittemore Library, Framingham State College, Framingham MA 2006-2007
Reference Librarian (part-time)

Framingham Public Library, Framingham, MA 2006-2007
Reference Desk Technician (part-time)
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TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Yale University, New Haven, CT 2004-2005
Teacher Assistant, Russian culture through the visual and performing arts; Russian culture: The modern
age.
Conducted discussions, film screenings, and homework sessions.
Graded final papers and examinations.
Yale University, New Haven, CT 2004
Language Instructor
Taught beginner-level Russian course to 10 students designed to develop all four language skills: reading,
writing, speaking, and listening comprehension.

Framingham Public Schools, Framingham MA 2000-2001
Teacher, Permanent Substitute
Taught classes, administered examinations, and participated in school activities.

Awards: The ARL Academy Fellowship, 2005; Oxford University Study Abroad Program, UK, 1997.

Languages: Russian (native speaker), Ukrainian (fluent), French (advanced reading knowledge), Polish
(advanced reading knowledge and oral comprehension), German (intermediate reading knowledge).

SELECTIVE PRESENTATIONS:
ASEEES Annual Convention, Nov. 19-22, 2013. Boston. Paper presentation: “Derzhavin’s influence on the
poetry of Prince Ivan Dolgorukov (Dolgorukii).”
Simmons College, Boston, March 30, 2007. Alumni Day Academic Symposium--Presented a digital
library group project at the alumni reception.

Yale University, New Haven, CT 2005. Slavic Workshop. Paper presentation: “A parable of Laika’s
death: A look at the Soviet-American relations.”

Yale University, New Haven, CT 2004. Annual Slavic Graduate Students Conference. Paper presentation:
“How to read Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata in English translation.”

AFFILIATIONS:

ALA; ATSEEL; MLA; YANIS (student group at Yale University, president (2003-2005)); Golden Key
National Honor Society (1998); ASEES; Yale Tango Society (2004- 2005).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Загадка академическая

Я родилась среди и мертвых и живых;
Нелегкий плод ума среди умов чужих.
Рождение мое немыслимо без вас,
Которы верили из хлеба будет квас.
Я состою из букв, однако я не книжка;
Могу быть малою, как серенькая мышка,
Могу длиной своей я превзойти удава.
Но если говорить по делу, что я есть:
Я путешественник не ради громкой славы;
И то, что я ношу в себе не можно съесть.

There have been many people who have supported me during the time I spent writing this
dissertation. First, I would like to thank Professor Aleksander Levitsky for his guidance and
support throughout the writing process. I am grateful to Professor Vladimir Golstein and
Professor Svetlana Evdokimova for feedback and the time they spent reviewing the drafts.
During my years at Brown University, Professor Masako Ueda Fidler and Lynne
deBenedette were generous with their support and opportunities for professional development. I
am grateful to Magdalena Harrison for helping me in my studies of the Polish language.
I am also indebted to my teachers from Boston University, The University of Chicago,
and Yale University: Keith Botsford, Richard Hellie, Sheila Fitzpatrick, Harvey Goldblatt,
Tomas Venclova, John MacKay, Katerina Clark, Michael Holquist and Irina Dolgova.
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I would like to thank Vitalii Simankov and Bart Hollingsworth, Head of Circulation and
Resource Sharing at John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Brown University, for helping me with
materials beyond our collection. I am especially grateful to Brown University Library and
Harvard College Library for giving me access to the Slavic collection at Harvard University. I
spent countless hours at The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Lamont Library, and
Houghton Library. My special thanks to the library staff always eager to assist!
I also would like to thank Mary Blanchard, Library Director at Boston University Alumni
Medical Library, for her support.
On a personal note, I would like to thank my parents, Alexander and Maria. Without their
support over the years, I would never have gotten to the place where I am now. I would like to
express deepest gratitude to my wife, Jenae, who played an essential part in reaching the end of a
two-year long project. I am also very grateful to Leslie Kessler and Eric Nelson for their help.
Thank you to friends and family, and everyone who is part of my life. On that point, I would like
to say thank you to all who saved my life in New Haven, CT in 2002-2003, especially Mollie and
Dr. Levy. This dissertation would not have been written without all of you!

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RUSSIAN POETIC RIDDLES: A CORPUS ……………………………. 31
CHAPTER 1: THE ENIGMA OF THE RUSSIAN ZAGADKA: A BINARY OPPOSITION BETWEEN
FOLK AND LITERARY RIDDLES…………………………………………………… 200

CHAPTER 2: FROM FOLKLORE TO LITERATURE: THE RUSSIAN LITERARY RIDDLE AND ITS
CULTURAL CONTEXTS……………………………………………………………… 255

CHAPTER 3: THE RHETORICAL AND LITERARY TOPOI OF THE RUSSIAN POETIC
RIDDLE ………………………………………………………………………………… 315

CHAPTER 4: THE POETIC RIDDLE IN RUSSIA IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND EARLY
NINETEENTH CENTURIES …………………………………………………………... 392

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………………….... 449
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………………. 461
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INTRODUCTION

The eighteenth century in Russian literature constitutes a complex transition from the old
to the modern period of Russian culture. The concept of Europeanization of Russian literature
has neither a satisfactory meaning nor a precise timeframe. The cultural shift from the Russian-
Byzantine model to the Russian-European model transcends the typical temporary unit of a
century. The eighteenth-century Russian literature, then, could be relativized, just like the terms
modern and Europeanization. In my approach to the study of the eighteenth-century Russian
poetic riddle, the timeframe presented is therefore subjective. It covers not only the period
between 1700 and 1800, but more broadly the period from 1670s to 1810s. The decade of 1810s
as a marker of the last period of the eighteenth century is arbitrary because the spirit of the
Enlightenment, with its progressive philosophical, political, ethical and aesthetic ideas, carries
over not only into the first quarter of the nineteenth century but, as some would argue, into the
second half of the nineteenth century.
The rise of the Russian Empire as a new political player and her distinct entry into the
increasingly cosmopolitan eighteenth-century European community offers a fascinating story of
a cultural metamorphosis. The national image of the Russian Empire, including her emerging
national literature, has been studied from various angles. One of the standard models of this
period in Russian cultural history is the model of Russian westernization. Russia’s cultural
importation and imitative tendencies continue to form the basis of the scholarly and non-
scholarly debates around the degree and nature of transmission of Western intellectual ideas and
trends.
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