A Century's Perspective: Essays on Russian Literature in Honour of Olga Raevsky Hughes and Robert P. Hughes by Lasar Fleishman , Hugh McLean (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 713 This second volume also includes sensible items on Chekhov's use of punctuation (Rosamund Bardett), Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield (Sally Dalton-Brown), Chekhov's use of numbers and numerals (Eric de Haard), peasant women's sexualities in thewritings ofGleb Uspenskii and Chekhov (HenriettaMondry), and Brian Friel's Irish version ofTri sestry (KevinWindle). Michael Pursglove considers whether Grigorovich's novel Pereselentsy may have influenced Chekhov's 'Step", Harai Golomb offers a detailed analysis of an extract from Chaika, and David Gillespie observes that Iurii Trifonov and Nikita Mikhalkov 'both remain profoundly compromised because they could not ? would not ? rise above the demands of the day towards conformity' (P- x45) There are, alas, more than 100 misprints in the two volumes, including (in vol. 1) Sharova (forShavrova, pp. 62, 71),Aleksei (forAleksandr, p. 63), Feodotik (forFedotik, pp. 109, 112), Martin (for Marian, p. 129), dush (p. 176), and dotopiat' (for dotiapat', p. 179).There is also the occasional unfortunate ambiguity, such as 'his beloved inside' (vol. 1,p. 7) and 'he helps Ania leave past her behind' (vol. 1,p. 32). A macabre reader might interpret 'the stiff statistician' (vol. 1, p. 15) as a counter of corpses. Above all, however, Joe Andrew and Robert Reid are to be congratulated most warmly for their enthusiasm, their enterprise and their achievement. Bristol Gordon McVay Fleishman, Lasar and McLean, Hugh (eds). A Century'sPerspective: Essays on Russian Literature inHonour of Olga RaevskyHughes and Robert P. Hughes. Stanford Slavic Studies, 32. Stanford, CA, 2006. 564 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Price unknown. This festschrift volume of twenty-nine contributions inEnglish and inRussian commemorates Olga Raevsky-Hughes and Robert Hughes, two distinguished Slavic specialists working for many years for the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California at Berkeley. Olga Raevsky-Hughes's scholarship on Boris Pasternak and Russian twentieth century emigre literature together with her two-volume collection of essays on Christianity and the Eastern Slavs (co-edited with Robert Hughes et al.) received wide acclaim. Robert Hughes's work on Russian modernist poets, on Pushkin and his three volumes of Khodasevich's essays on Pushkin are models of outstanding scholarship and editorial work. The collection pays tribute to the two scholars' diversity of interests, including essays and letters penned by Russian modernist authors, biographical notes on various authors and publishers, and insightfuldiscussions of important theoretical and creative works. The articles are not grouped thematically, nor will all secure wide readership, yet several thought-provokingmaterials should not be overlooked by anyone interested in Silver Age culture, especially Joan Delaney Grossman's article on Briusov's 1921 play Dictator (pp. 67-80), Irina Masing Delic's essay on Nabokov's 1957novel Pnin (pp. 351-68), and Elena Obatnina's article on Remizov (pp. 377-98). 714 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 Grossman defines Dictator as a hybrid of the science fiction and classical tragedy genres and sees Briusov's prophetic vision inDictator of Soviet totali tarian future as debunking the myth of Briusov's opportunism and active cooperation with the new regime. Grossman presents Briusov as a tragic figuredisplaced in Soviet Russia and self-fashioned in the clothes of Pushkin's Evgenii as the madman-poet confronting the Bronze Horseman. The trope that views Pushkin's image of the Bronze Horseman as symbol of Soviet modernity is prevalent inmany works of writers of the 1920s to 1940s, but Grossman's article implies that Briusov was a creator of this mythologeme. Masing-Delic's superb article views Pushkin's 1832 work Fairy Tale about Tsar Saltan as an important subtext to Pnin. Masing-Delic concludes, 'InPnin, Nabokov shows how to preserve foreverGvidon's island of Buian with all its magic creatures, not least squirrels, how to protect the sense of life's magic [...] ? by giving us two facets of his self: the remembering one who "commu nicates" with squirrels and lives inwonderland and the one who organises thesememories. [...] Nabokov obviously transcends both' (p. 366). In a simi lar vein, Greta Slobin informatively interpretsRemizov's autobiographical story cycleMusic Teacher (1924-39) as 'a writer's quest for connection, for overcoming the rupture of history' (p.413) and explores its linkswith works penned by...