Writers and Society During the Rise of Russian Realism PDF
Preview Writers and Society During the Rise of Russian Realism
WRITERS AND SOCIETY DURING THE RISE OF RUSSIAN REALISM WRITERS AND SOCIETY DURING THE RISE OF RUSSIAN REALISM Joe Andrew Lecturer in Russian Studies University of Keele © Joe Andrew 1980 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1980 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published /980 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Andrew, Joe Writers and society during the rise of Russian realism I. Russian literature - I 9th century - History and criticism 2. Russian literature- 20th century History and criticism 3. Literature and society - Russia I. Title PG30I2 ISBN 978-1-349-04423-8 ISBN 978-1-349-04421-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04421-4 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement In Memoriam Katia Lampert Contents Acknowledgements Vlll Introduction lX Chronology XV Alexander Pushkin Chronology 41 2 Mikhail Lermontov 42 Chronology 75 3 Nikolay Gogol 76 Chronology 113 4 Vissarion Belinsky 114 Chronology 151 Conclusion 152 Endnotes/ References 164 Bibliography 175 Index 184 Vll Acknowledgements I would like to thank very warmly all those who have in any way assisted me in the writing of this book; Sir Isaiah Berlin, whom I consulted at an early stage of research and whose own writings on the period have proved of immense assistance; Professor Eugenie Lampert, who first suggested that I take on this work and whose studies of the social and intellectual background have proved consistently stimulating and helpful; and all the other members of the Russian Studies Department at Keele, whom I have consulted and who have offered me great service in reading the manuscript and offering invaluable suggestions- Roger Bartlett, Chris Pike, Bob Service and Valentina Polukhina. I would particularly like to mention Katia Lampert, to whose memory this book is dedicated and whose advice, assistance and encouragement were always most important. Finally, I would like to thank Ms Georgiana Gore who typed it. J. A. viii Introduction For a literature which entered its period of greatness rather later than that of many of its European neighbours, Russian literature holds a remarkably important place in the Anglo-Saxon imagination. This position was first publicly marked almost exactly one hundred years ago, in 1879, when Ivan Turgenev received an honorary doctorate of Civil Law at Oxford University. Turgenev was among the first Russian writers to be known outside his homeland, the first translation ofhis work having appeared as early as 1855. Later in the nineteenth century, and at the beginning of the present one, his works enjoyed an enormous vogue on the European continent as well as in Britain and the USA. Conrad, Galsworthy, Henry James and Virginia Woolf were amongst those who attached great importance to his work, and were directly influenced by him. · But he was only the first to capture a foreign readership. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and to a lesser extent Chekhov, became very popular towards the end of the last century, and this popularity has hardly diminished today. Obviously, Russian literature did not begin with these great realists. Indeed, their achievements would not have been possible without the major pioneering work that went on in the first half of the nineteenth century, primarily in the writings of the authors considered in the present volume. Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol in their creative works, and Belinsky in his literary criticism (focusing primarily on the other three), established the traditions, forms and genres which the later 'giants' took as their models and inspiration. It is the task of this work to attempt to see how these four earlier writers responded to their society, and were influenced by it, and how it was that they set the pattern for the unique achievement of nineteenth-century Russian literature. The central questions, then, are what social conditions led to establishment of the great realist tradition, and what makes it so fascinating. It is of course an impossible task to explain fully why Russian writers have attained their pre-eminent position. To say that they are 'great writers' is clearly insufficient, and myths about the 'Russian soul' do not lead us very far. However, if one particular factor can be IX Introduction X highlighted, it might well be the intensity of the writers' involvement with their contemporary society which so appeals to foreign as well as indigenous audiences. Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, Alexander Radishchev comments at the opening of his celebrated journey from St Petersburg to Moscow: I looked around- and my soul was wounded by the sufferings of man. I turned my gaze inward - and saw that the disasters of man proceed from man, and often because of the single fact that he does not look directly at the objects which surround him. It was Radishchev's aim to t\.im a ruthlessly direct gaze on his society, to accuse it and to correct it. The whole work is inspired by disgust and indignation on the one hand, and self-lacerating compassion on the other- notes which were, in tum, to inspire many writers and thinkers who were to follow him in the early nineteenth century the early Pushkin, the Decembrists, Lermontov, Herzen, Belinsky, and, in the opinion of many, Gogol. In his work, Radishchev brought to a culmination the eighteenth-century themes of civic criticism, and established the tradition of a second voice in Russian society, the 'alternative government' which much of nineteenth century literature was to form, and whose dominant notes were to be intense compassion and civic involvement. And it was precisely in the period covered by the present work that this 'alternative govern ment' was formed. Given this close interconnection between Russian literature and society, it is most important to consider the writers in terms of their society. It is perhaps not a new theme, but it remains a vital one, particularly since, for all the enormous interest in Russian literature in Britain, there is no single work which examines early nineteenth century Russian literature specifically from this angle. The links between writers and their society is an exceedingly complex one, and the problem will be approached from a number of different points of view. The first priority is to establish the authors' original position in society, that is, their class origins and the implications these may have in their particular society. What impact does belonging to a declining or rising class have on a writer's self perception? And if writers are alienated from their own class, to what extent can they join or identify themselves with another? How important is education and the general spirit of the age of their early years in modifying their social origins? Introduction XI Perhaps the single most important result of the social position of writers is their financial situation and the impact this inevitably has on their work. Financial independence protects any artist against the demands of the market, and financially insecure artists, who have to live off their literary income, for example, are faced with a difficult struggle if they are not to succumb to extraneous influences. Some writers, then, obviously regard their work primarily as a much needed source of income; but the motives for artistic creation are, clearly, much more complicated. Do they write for a specific readership, and if so, for which one- the established, conventional market- or do they attempt to lead, to set new patterns, establish new genres, express new or oppositional views? Most important of all is the extent to which writing is to be considered a private or a public activity. That writers can ever create entirely for themselves, without even a notional readership in view, is an extremely dubious proposition. And whatever may be the ostensible integration of any artist into his society, or a specific audience within it, it is also important to consider their self-perception. What value, that is, can artists place on their work, what purpose do they see it serving, what aims do they have when they write? The social function of art can also be considered within a narrower field, since artistic change is almost always closely linked with social change. New genres and forms usually spring from new patterns of behaviour, the rise to power of a new class or the emergence of a new ideology. And so a study of writers' relationships to the art that immediately precedes them is no mere formalistic exercise; on the contrary, an examination of innovatory techniques will give new insights on the changing role of art in any society. Prominent instances of this seen in the ensuing chapters are the intense polemic surrounding the rise of the 'natural' school in the late 1 8 3 os - that is, at the same time as the emergence of a newly radicalised intelligentsia- and Pushkin's attempts to reshape completely the fundamental forms and genres of Russian literature. Equally signi ficant, of course, is the influence a writer has on subsequent generations, and for similar reasons. Writers are forgotten, dis credited or venerated in accordance with the relevance their work has to a later society, which may or may not have developed new requirements for the artist (which requirements depend, of course, on social changes). The changing views of Pushkin in Belinsky's criticism is a case in point. It is also important to consider the writers' own view of art, to
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