SLAVIC BAZAAR ~ Славянский базар
"Russia and Her Orient: Orientalist Themes in the Work of Pushkin and Tolstoy",
Tim Green"Demonic Representations of the West by Gogol and Dostoevsky"
Hanna Kereszturi"Examining Morality and Representations of Occident and Orient in Tolstoy's Hadji Murat"
Phoebe Goldenberg"Unity in Faith: A Discussion of Dostoevsky's and Leskov's Views on What Distinguishes Russia as Russian"
Laura Christians"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Fighting Words on the State of US Slavic Studies"
Maya VinokourThe fate of Slavic Studies in the United States has been uncertain since the Soviet Union fell over 20 years ago, and grows ever more uncertain with each passing year. Is Slavic Studies obsolete as a discipline? Have the powers that be confused their priorities? Or do we, Slavists, simply have an image problem? Expect no easy answers, but plenty of food for thought.
"The One-Sided Correspondence: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Diseased Mind in 19th Century Literature"
Alex Casella"Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Christian Repentance"
Gabriel Ferrante"Tolstoy's Twist to Hagiography in Father Sergy"
Steven Emanuel"OBERIU: Kharms, Lipavsky, and the Fear of the Great Unknown"
Otto Kienitz"The Firebird and Petersburg: the Unlikely Contrasts between Bely and Stravinsky"
Hannah Judd"Vaslav Nijinsky's Dance with Madness: A Russian Portrait"
Alec Ren"How to Fool Ourselves: The Application of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance to Nabokov's Despair and Zamyatin's We"
Mariantonia Rojas"Absent for the October Revolution: The Journals of a Russian Intellectual in the United States, 1918-1930s"
Katherine Vinogradoff"Freedom of Expression in Central and Eastern Europe: A Comparative Case Study"
Shelli Gimelstein* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Russia and Her Orient: Orientalist Themes in the Work of Pushkin and Tolstoy"
Ever since Edward Said developed his methodology in the late 1970s, his critical conception of Orientalism has remained a rich and valuable tool to unpack depictions of the East in Western culture. During the nineteenth century, Russian thinkers and authors grappled with their identity: did Russia belong to the Occident or the Orient, or somewhere in between? Through an examination of Puskin's Romantic poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray and Tolstoy's last short story Hadji Murád, this essay demonstrates the ways in which writers utilised Orientalist binaries to construct a Russian identity. Said's work provides the methodological and ideological underpinning of the essay. This paper focuses on two questions. The first is a technical enquiry (how did the authors use Orientalist imagery to create the distinction between concepts of East and West within their works?), whereas the second concerns the didactic values and messages that the authors articulate (for instance, is "Eastern" a complimentary or pejorative category for Tolstoy?). Typical of many of his intellectual contemporaries, Pushkin's poem locates Russia as an indisputably Western entity through an allegorical depiction of East and West. In the Tolstoy text, however, Orientalist methods are used in order to construct a critique of Western decadence. Ultimately, this essay uncovers the complex, multifaceted and malleable nature of Orientalism. Although Orientalism is formulated as a power discourse through which the West appropriates and structures the East, this fact does not prevent some authors from utilising the same binaries for radically different purposes.
"Demonic Representations of the West by Gogol and Dostoevsky"
Russian thinkers in the nineteenth century were greatly preoccupied with the modernization of Russia. Did it imply conforming to western standards, or was the key to a better future society to be found, paradoxically, in a shift back towards traditional forms of life, such as the village commune? Should Russia follow in the footsteps of the great modernizer and westernizer, Peter the Great? This century saw the emergence of two major camps of thought: the Slavophiles and the Westernizers. This presentation will examine some of the elements and the development of Slavophilic thought through an examination of Gogol's story "Nevsky Prospect" and Dostoevsky's travelogue Winter Notes on Summer Impressions. The two authors use similar literary techniques to portray the West as morally flawed, superficial, and dangerous, hinting that Russia's future lies within its own historic culture, which is inherently different from that of the West. However, because "Nevsky Prospect" was written at the inception of the intellectual currents of Slavophilism, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions may be seen as an example of a more politicized, more advanced form of this school of thought.
"Examining Morality and Representations of Occident and Orient in Tolstoy's Hadji Murat"This discussion develops from an integrated analysis of western orientalism and the moral creeds that Leo Tolstoy developed throughout his life. Tolstoy's preoccupation with the vice and virtue within the individual and the nation made him particularly sensitive to the evils that motivated Russia's conquest of the Caucus. As an awkward intermediate between east and west, and the hierarchal binary imposed by orientalism, Russia invaded the Caucus in an attempt to establish itself as a Euro-imperialist civilizer of the east. In, Hadji Murat, Tolstoy seeks to disrupt the orientalist discourse with portrayals of Chechen virtue and Russian greed and violence. Furthermore, he interpolates himself in the narrative through both a reflective analogy and the rendering of his younger self, captivated by the orientalist fantasy. However, Tolstoy reimagines the characters of both warring factions through the romanticized stereotypes born out of Orientalism, and in doing so, perpetuates the framework that he sought to extricate himself from.
"Unity in Faith: A Discussion of Dostoevsky's and Leskov's Views on What Distinguishes Russia as Russian"Due in part to Russia's strategic geographic position, straddling east and west, the question of what it means to be Russian has long entailed a discussion of Russia's identity as distinct from the West. During the nineteenth century an intellectual schism arose between "Westernizers" and "Slavophils," arguing over what it meant to be Russian and what shaped that identity. The fascination with Europe led authors and intellectuals of that period to center their literary works around these questions of Russia's identity and its relation to the West. Looking at two works by eminent Russian authors, "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" by Dostoevsky and "The Sealed Angel" by Leskov, and exploring the intellectual history of their day, this paper examines two nineteenth century views on what distinguished Russia as Russian. The discussion highlights how Dostoevsky and Leskov agreed on the significance of two particular factors, unity and faith, in the constitution of Russian national identity, but points out their different perceptions of the relationship between unity and faith. For Dostoevsky, that which distinguishes Russia is its experience of fraternity and the unity experienced by the Russian people. Faith plays the role of that which brought this unity into being, fostering the development of a spiritually fraternal society. Leskov places the focus on faith as the distinguishing factor, with Orthodoxy defining Russian cultural identity. In light of the current controversy in the Crimean region, the question of what it means to be Russian is of particular interest. Though the paper does not address the issue of Russian identity in the region, the thoughts of these two authors, focusing on faith and unity, may perhaps shed some much needed light on the path forward.
"The One-Sided Correspondence: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Diseased Mind in 19th Century Literature"Letters feature prominently in two nineteenth century stories about madness; in Gogol's "The Diary of a Madman," the letters are clearly nonsensical from the beginning, while in Dostoevsky's "The Double" the pathology is not as apparent. In both cases, the reader sooner or later realizes that the letters are not true correspondences. This raises the question: what purpose do these letters serve? I will argue that these missives can be understood as a means for the diseased mind to communicate with itself. Gogol's story in particular is in many ways an epistolary novel. While the letters are presented as an actual correspondence, one soon realizes that they are merely the ramblings of a madman—missives from his subconscious. The reader is lead to believe that there is a distinction between the protagonist Poprischin's diary entries and his letters; however, in the end both the letters and the entries are communiqués from Poprischin to himself. Dostoevsky's story "The Double" demonstrates similar themes. The protagonist is moved to pen letters to his supposed double—as the story progresses, one realizes that these letters are merely the communications of an advancing disease. Based on these examples, we conclude that the function of written correspondences in these stories can be understood as a way for the disease process to communicate with or through its host.
"Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Christian Repentance"
Literature is not born in a vacuum. Instead, it is shaped by the ideological climate of the times in which it is written. Despite hailing from different eras, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Gogol were both deeply influenced by Orthodox Christianity in their personal lives, and used their fiction to explore themes related to their individual faith journeys. This paper engages the personal writings of the two writers (Dostoevsky's letters and Gogol's Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends) to find their beliefs about the Christian journey in 19th Century Russia, and then applies this context in a critical analysis of the outcomes experienced by characters in the two authors' work. Due to their own experiences with Russian society, each writer had a focus on repentance, condemning the characters who chose not to expiate their sins (or their actions which were perceived as sins by their authors), and valuing those who repented even more than those who chose not to sin in the first place. This dynamic has a particular impact on whether characters in either Dostoevsky's or Gogol's stories are rewarded with happiness or worldly damnation at the end of their tales. While other works have examined the role of sin in Dostoevsky's fiction, adding Gogol's similar motivations to the picture allows for deeper examination of the influence of Orthodox Christianity, and its conception of repentance and redemption in particular, had on two of the most celebrated fiction writers in Russian history, and lends a deeper level of understanding to their writings, particularly with regard to their indelible characters.
"Tolstoy's Twist to Hagiography in Father Sergy"
Leo Tolstoy's tale of a priest's monastic journey in "Father Sergy" prompts many questions about monastic life and sainthood. One potential inquiry regards how Tolstoy's depiction of sainthood and salvation relates to the traditional depiction in hagiographic texts. The paper explores how Tolstoy plays off of hagiography's traditional traits to give a different perspective of monastic life and salvation. Hagiography, the genre which writes the tales of saints, often focuses on the spiritually relevant components of a saint's life, such as miracles. Leo Tolstoy, when relating the tale of Prince Stefan Kasatsky and his journey towards eventual recognition as a miracle worker, violates the typical aspects of the genre by revealing inner thoughts of the main character. The paper explores Tolstoy's ability to redefine what is "spiritually relevant," as Kasatsky's questionable motivations and temptations affect his spiritual journey and its ultimate outcome: destruction of his excessive pride. Also discussed is how Tolstoy shifts the locus of salvation outside of the church by sending Kasatsky to a poor woman named Pashenka, who ultimately shows him his greatest spiritual lesson. Tolstoy's methods in setting up this powerful contrast are examined, as he first links Kasatsky to a prototypical saint, noting his prodigious childhood, rigorous spirituality, and ability to overcome tribulations. This setup, combined with the aforementioned contrast of Kasatsky's tale to a hagiographic tale, allows Tolstoy to play off of the expected description of a saint in order to depict the journey to salvation in a way prohibited by traditional texts. Through Tolstoy's careful construction of the piece, "Father Sergy" twists the uniformity of hagiography to create a unique concept of salvation. The paper's analysis, though, ultimately shows that Tolstoy's work and hagiographic texts reach the same essential conclusions: that salvation requires humility and that God prevails at every end.
"OBERIU: Kharms, Lipavsky, and the Fear of the Great Unknown"
The avant-garde writers of the late 1920s were afraid. OBERIU, the Association of Real Art, lays claim to the absurdist futurist writings of Daniil Kharms and the metaphysical musings of philosopher Leonid Lipavsky. I explored Kharms' "The Werld" and Lipavsky's "Water Tracatus" in pursuit of a greater understanding of their antirational prose and have uncovered a great fear and anxiety associated with the passage of time, and more specifically, the ambiguity of the future. It is Branislav Jakovljevic who writes, in his acclaimed book Daniil Kharms: Writing and the Event, that Lipavsky is concerned with "time and fear" and this motif is echoed throughout Kharms' work in describing how man struggles with himself to comprehend the intricacies of time and space. I note that Russian absurdism often qualifies the artist's intuition as the norm, even when at odds with possibly more rational circumstances, but it is paramount to recognize the primacy of the writer's instincts and the validity of his words even when the images he is shaping are highly antirational in nature. It is through this lens that a reading of OBERIU texts can be accomplished, and with the scholarly background provided by Ostashevsky and Jakovljevic, I delve into the absurdist worlds of Kharms and Lipavsky to uncover their fears and attempt to explain their obsession over the passage of time into the Great Unknown.
"The Firebird and Petersburg: the Unlikely Contrasts between Bely and Stravinsky"
In this paper, I aim to provide a comparison of two works: Andrei Bely's novel "Petersburg" and Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite". I was interested in the comparison and in-depth examination of the two after finishing Petersburg and noting the influences of eastern philosophy, western ideology, and both romantic and symbolist themes. Comparisons with the early works of Stravinsky, which consistently borrow from Russian tradition while adding a Western harmonic sensibility, come immediately to mind as a similar congruence of east and west, and as a similar new frontier in artistic expression and exploration. I aim specifically to examine the Eastern influence present in both works, the use of Russian mysticism and folktale as artistic devices, the presence of Symbolist philosophy, the use of traditional western format as a means of artistic expression, and the way that both works were edited and republished after their initial debuts. I will also look at the similarities and differences of Bely and Stravinsky's lives: their childhood backgrounds, their educations, what led them to music and writing, and the influences present in their other works. I will do this by making a case study of both works and comparing them to the greater scheme of the time frame, and by contrasting other authors and artists of the day. This evaluation of both works in one another's contexts is significant because of the ways that Bely goes about writing his novel like a symphony, and the ways that Stravinsky treats his musical work like a piece of writing. The comparisons and contrasts between these two artists, in such a volatile period of history, are a vital glimpse into the way that both men broke away from tradition to express a new avant-garde set perspectives, and lead to a better understanding of the period as a whole.
"Vaslav Nijinsky's Dance with Madness: A Russian Portrait"
It was the beginning of the end for Vaslav Nijinsky in December of 1917. Though still the most celebrated male dancer in the Western world, his ties to the legendary Ballets Russes under Serge Diaghilev were severed and in a matter of just two years he would become diagnosed with schizophrenia and sentenced to a mental asylum for the remainder of his life. Just before being sentenced, however, Nijinsky kept a personal diary for six and a half weeks, from January 19 to March 4 1919, recording his thoughts on life, God, and death. This diary itself is profoundly unique piece of history and literature, as no other real-life work exists of a famous artist entering psychosis. This diary was then compared alongside other scholarly works in Russian literature that include themes of mental illness, including for example Gogol's Diary, Dostoevsky's The Double, Chekhov's The Black Monk, and Nabokov's Despair, among others. The result of the analysis against the aforementioned pieces reveal a myriad of alignments in themes of religion & philosophy as coping mechanisms, egotistical fears of mediocrity, inspiration, and sanity. The bigger picture of which alludes to a canon of Russian thought characterized by a romantic preoccupation with freedom and individuality – possibly an answer to the oft oppressive Imperial Russia of the 19th and early 20th century.
"How to Fool Ourselves: The Application of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance to Nabokov's Despair and Zamyatin's We"Madness has been a prevalent theme in Russian literature. Mad people hold false beliefs and act upon them. Nevertheless, people use different strategies to justify their false beliefs. Many of these strategies can be explained through the theory of Cognitive dissonance, a psychological theory that emerged in the middle of the 20th century. Cognitive dissonance establishes that individuals feel stress when they have to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time. They solve this stress by either changing their behavior, changing their ideas, or ignoring information. Early 20th-century Russian writers show a clear understanding of the way people "fool themselves." D-503, the main character of "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, solves his cognitive dissonance by changing his beliefs. At the beginning of the book, D-503 is a well-adjusted member of society who is capable of holding irrational beliefs as long as they justify his train of action, mainly, obeying the State. Nevertheless, as he starts acting against the state, he solves his cognitive dissonance by changing his opinions. On the other hand, mad-characters in other Russian novels ignore information that could contradict their mistaken beliefs. Hermann in Vladimir Nabokov's Despair is a good example of a character using this strategy. Hermann suffers megalomania and is not willing to register any information that contradicts his grandiosity. Hermann is not willing to register any evidence that Lydia his wife may not love him or that the master plan he develops through the whole novel is based on false assumptions and destined to fail. The use of first person narration forces both Zamyatin and Nabokov to show the reader how their mad main characters arrive to their conclusions. In order to portray effectively human flow of conscience, these two authors showed an understanding of human cognitive processes that was ahead of their time.
"Absent for the October Revolution: The Journals of a Russian Intellectual in the United States, 1918-1930s"This presentation offers a look into the private life and thoughts of intellectual Dimitri Ivanovich Vinogradoff through his personal journals that have never before been academically studied. Dimitry Ivanovich was a Russian electrical engineer who was involved with Kerensky government. His relatives include Petro Vasylovych Zavadovsky, Prince Lvov and the historian Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradoff. Dimitry Ivanovich was sent on assignment to the United States by Kerensky shortly before the October Revolution. As a result of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, Vinogradoff was left with no other choice but to emigrate, and subsequently he became a third party observer to the turmoil in his homeland. Careful review of his personal journals and artifacts from the Vinogradoff family's archives offers unique insight into an important piece of Russian and U.S. history. This presentation will focus on the Vinogradoff genealogy, the personal interests of Dimitri Ivanovich, and his questions of loyalty and resultant identity conflict.
"Freedom of Expression in Central and Eastern Europe: A Comparative Case Study"My paper explores the effects of European integration and internet diffusion on the climate for freedom of expression between the years of 2002 and 2003 in four states formerly within the Soviet sphere. Using the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, and Belarus as case studies that reflect the broad spectrum of post-communist transition outcomes, I study the progression of each state's relationship with the EU, the rate of internet diffusion, and the legal, economic, and political changes affecting the media industry and, by extension, internet and press freedom. The case studies demonstrate that the EU can influence a state to reform its laws and improve the climate for free expression only when the state has specific and significant incentives, such as the benefits of potential EU membership, to do so. Otherwise, factors beyond the EU's control — such as the interests of political leaders, the nation's dependence on Russia, and the laws governing media industry ownership and NGO funding distribution — play a larger role in determining the extent to which free expression is protected in post-communist nations. Internet diffusion is another key aspect of a nation's climate for free expression, as oppressive regimes tend to view higher rates of internet access as a threat that must be met with censorship and strict regulation. By understanding how online and media freedom affect a post-Soviet nation's overall democratic development, international observers as well as domestic and EU policymakers can develop more effective strategies for promoting and entrenching democratic reform in the region.
