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Through the Russian Prism Through the Russian Prism ESSAYS ON LITERATURE AND CULTURE Joseph Frank PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright © 1990 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frank, Joseph, 1918- Through the Russian prism : essays on literature and culture / Joseph Frank. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-691-06821-6 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-691-01456-6 (pbk.) 1. Russian literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Russian literature— 20th century—History and criticism. 3. Soviet Union—Intellectual life—1801-1917. 4. Soviet Union—Intellectual life—1917- I. Tide. PG3012.F7 1990 89-33185 891.709—dc20 CIP This book has been composed in Linotron Galliard Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Paperbacks, although satisfactory for personal collections, are not usually suitable for library rebinding Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following periodicals for granting permission to reprint articles that were first published in their pages: “Dostoevsky’s Realism” was first published in Encounter* March 1973, pp. 31-38. “The Birth of Russian Socialism” first appeared in Partisan Review 29, no. 2 (1962). “Deadly Idealist,” first appeared in the New Republic* February 21, 1983. Reprinted with permission of The New Republic, © 1983, The New Republic, Inc. “Fathers and Sons” and “From Gogol to the Gulag Archipelago” first appeared in the Sewanee Review 73 (fall 1965) and 84 (spring 1976). Copyright 1965 and 1976 by the University of the South. Reprinted by permission of the editor. “Ralph Ellison and Dostoevsky” and “Alexander Herzen” first appeared in the New Criterion* September 1983 and September 1985. Reprinted by permission of the editor. “N. G. Chernyshevsky: A Russian Utopia,” first appeared in the Southern Review* January 1967. “Roman Jakobson: The Master Linguist” and “Voices of Mikhail Bakhtin” are reprinted with permission of the New York Review of Books. Copyright © 1984-86 Nyrev, Inc. “Freud’s Case History of Dostoevsky,” “Dostoevsky and the European Romantics,” “The Search for a Positive Hero,” and “The Road to Revolution” first appeared in the Times Literary Supplement* July 18, 1975; February 20, 1976; September 17, 1976; November 13, 1981, and are reprinted with permission of the editor. “Russian Populism” first appeared in the Slavic Review* December 1961, and is reprinted with permission of the editor. “A Word on Leskov” is reprinted from the American Scholar 48, no. 1 (Winter 1978—79), with permission of the editor. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO PAULETTE For her ninetieth birthday. Contents Preface xi PartOne: Contemporaries Chapter One Roman Jakobson: The Master Linguist 3 Chapter Two The Voices of Mikhail Bakhtin 18 Chapter Three Ralph Ellison and Dostoevsky 34 Chapter Four The Lectures of Professor Pnin 49 Part Two: Overviews Chapter Five Russian Thought: The Road to Revolution 57 Chapter Six The Search for a Positive Hero 75 Chapter Seven Russian Populism 83 Chapter Eight From Gogol to the Gulag 89 Part Three: Dostoevsky Chapter Nine Freud’s Case History of Dostoevsky 109 Chapter Ten The Background of Crime and Punishment 122 Chapter Eleven The Devils and the Nechaev Affair 137 Chapter Twelve Approaches to the Diary of a Writer 153