Becoming Mikhail Lermontov: The Ironies of Romantic Individualism in Nicholas I's Russia by David Powelstock (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 521 historiography (in the form of Leopold von Ranke) to 'Pushkin's openly experimental approach tohistorical writing, his catholic range of sources, and his interest inprivate as well as public dimension of thepast' (p. 122). Mikhail Gronas andWilliam Mills Todd III similarly contribute to the broadening of Pushkin's context by focusing on the 'sub-canonical' genres of letter-writing and literary criticism. In all these essays, Pushkin comes across neither as an unwilling victim of historical forces nor as a lonely genius single-handedly establishing the future course ofRussian letters; rather his agency isbased on a series of interventions in and negotiations with a rapidly evolving social milieu. The four chapters that form the companion's second part are devoted to 'The Pushkinian Tradition'. Perhaps taking a lead fromKahn's claim that 'arguably he became a truly popular writer only in the Soviet period' (p. 6), Pushkin ispresented in a variety of twentieth-century incarnations; by contrast, famous and formative reactions by such nineteenth-century figures as Dostoevskii, Grigor'ev or Pisarev are dealt with only in passing. Boris Gasparov's programmatic piece on 'Pushkin in Music' rightlyshuns discussion of adaptation in terms of fidelity,preferring to see how 'an inherent contradic tion exists between thewords and themusic' (p. 169) and thatmusic may illustratepoetry 'ifonly byway of a negative example' (p. 172). Robert Hughes's summary of Pushkin in the imagination ofRussian emigres between 1924 and 1937 portrays the poet in terms of prophecy and freedom, terms inherited from the Silver Age and in direct opposition to the Soviet canonization of him as a 'national' poet. The Soviet (and post-Soviet) context is examined by Stephanie Sandler (with specific reference to the cinematic tradition) and Evgeny Dobrenko. Where Sandler discusses a phenomenon shaped by 'confidence that an audience in Russia would know Pushkin's works well enough to catch both passing allusions and fully fledged allegory' (p. 188), Dobrenko records a welcome tradition of resistance to the Pushkin myth (as well as a series of more predictable responses, whether on the part of the Soviet state or the literary intelligentsia), beginning with the Futurists and finding a more recent expression in Siniavskii and the conceptualists. A brief appendix gives details of verse forms and mentions English-language respons es to Pushkin by John Stallworthy and Vikram Seth: it is perhaps a shame that the opportunity was not taken to examine traditions of reception in the English-speaking world given, say, issues of translation (particularly acute in the case of Pushkin's lyrics) and the interferingpresence of Chaikovskii's operas. However, this is a minor observation about a book that has been written and edited with rare coherence and intelligence. Wadham College,Oxford Philip Ross Bullock Powelstock, David. Becoming Mikhail Lermontov: The Ironies of Romantic Individual ismin Nicholas Fs Russia. Studies inRussian Literature and Theory. North western University Press, Evanston, IL, 2005. xii + 583 pp. Appendix. Notes. Indexes. $99.96. The trouble with the 'becoming' in this case is thatMikhail Lermontov only narrowly avoids becoming Professor Powelstock, such is the dense interpretive 522 SEER, 86, 3, JULY 2008 focus directed at his work. There is a relentless quality to the approach that virtually suffocates the life out of Lermontov and can leave a reader gasping. Not that this is an unscholarly or in any sense trivial study. It is erudite, well and profoundly researched, copiously annotated (no bibliography, alas), often illuminating and provocative, but themain obstacle to its effectiveness as a valuable contribution to an understanding of Lermontov is an academic pretentiousness manifest chiefly in excessive verbiage and occasional mind-numbing obscurity. On the whole, Lermontov's poetry, rather than his prose or dramaturgy, receives the fullest and most rewarding attention. If a reader can struggle through such lapidary statements as 'Inasmuch as Lermontov's Romantic individualism stakes the entire value ofmeaningful individual existence on this ontological tension between being and representation, it comes as no surprise that death should play such a prominent role in his heroic depictions' (p. 31; a mild instance, ithas tobe said, ofwhat is tobe encountered page afterpage), then the reader in question may be guided successfully through some of the early poems. The...