Chekhov: Poetics; Hermeneutics; Thematics by J. Douglas Clayton

Abstract

I I82 Reviews of his readers. This leads him to set up an ironic double reading inmany of his works, providing an outer frame for 'self-deceived mainstream readers' alongside 'an approach toauthenticity' for thosewho sought it (p. 327). Powelstock rightlyempha sizes the importance of The Journalist, the Reader and the Writer in this context and makes an interesting case for regardingMaxim Maximych as the embodiment of the 'metafictionalmoralizing reader' (p. 348) inA Hero ofOur Time, his reappearance at the end of The Fatalist reinforcing this role. Powelstock does not neglect Lermontov's use of language. Lermontov is seen as favouring Romantic ineffability:he often prefers 'sonic texture' to 'logos' (p. I44). At the same time he frequently uses words, concepts, and settings which have es tablished connotations-Borodino, theCaucasus-or which come with pre-supplied associations. Even epigonistic poetic language and 'conventional poetic formulas' are taken and reanimated by Lermontov (p. 449). Such a process illustrates a tension between 'expression' (that there ismeaning prior to verbalization) and 'semiosis' (that verbalization produces meaning), and thus Lermontov's language, too, reflects the conflict between a desire for individual uniqueness and for recognition within a cultural paradigm that can be found at themacro-level of his work (p. 464). Powelstock's periodic references toStoicism in relation toPechorin's behaviour are an intriguing ingredient of thework. They remain somewhat apart from themain ar gument and tantalizingly inconclusive. Comparisons aremade between Pechorin's be haviour and Stoic indifferenceand between his fatalism and theStoic logos. Itwould be interesting toknow more about this:did Lermontov, likeCaptain John Smith and Gordon ofKhartoum, always have hisMarcus Aurelius about him or arewe dealing with more general affinitiesbetween themartial temperament and Stoic ethics? In conclusion: the merit ofPowelstock's approach is that it isgenuinely systematic. He has created a binary model based on self and other, inner and outer, public and private, which manages coherently to interpret the disparate areas of Lermontov's ceuvre. Perhaps one might ask why Lermontov so readily yields to this analysis and one may be tempted to seek the answer in areas of Romantic aesthetics and idealist philosophy which Powelstock does not venture into.But within theparameters itsets itself the studyworks verywell. KEELE UNIVERSITY ROBERT REID Chekhov: Poetics; Hermeneutics; Thematics. Ed. by J.DOUGLAS CLAYTON. Manotick, ON: Penumbra Press for theSlavic Research Group at theUniversity ofOttawa. 2006. vii+3I9. CAN$20. ISBN 978-o-88927-287-3. This isyet another collection of papers from a conference tomark the 2004 centenary ofChekhov's death, and it isby nomeans the least interesting.For one thing,Douglas Clayton has succeeded ingathering together themost prominent Russian (and other former Soviet) chekhovedy together with themost distinguished North American scholars. Herta Schmid fromPotsdam is the soleWest European contributor to this volume, although other Europeans did participate in the conference. Many readers will be relieved, some disappointed, that the subtitle 'Poetics; Her meneutics; Thematics' does not really unite the approaches and themes of the con tributors, even though these are often the parameters of a paper. The significant recurring titleword is 'Revisiting', or 'Restor(y)ing': most papers remind one of a detective returning to a cold case ofmurder with a determination to find missed clues and use more refined techniques to analyse data that have been stored fordecades. Hence, on poetics, Aleksander Chudakov's Poetika Chekhova (Moscow: Nauka, I97 3) isconstantly recalled, and on thematics very littlenew is said by anyone, particularly MLR, 103.4, 2008 I I83 when they revisit The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, or such key stories as 'The Lady with theLittle Dog' (Julie de Sherbinin) and 'lonych' (Yury Domansky). Where new ground isbroken, it is in the labours of love for which American scholars deserve praise: returning toChekhov's comic trivia and finding in them, not with out hindsight, elements of genuine artistic innovation, Robert Jackson's treatmentof 'Small Fry' (Meliuzga) is in itsvery choice of subject original, and even convincing in the implied argument that the storydeserves a place in thecanon ofChekhov's Easter stories, not tomention stories where 'running (away or about)' is a recurrentmotif. Elsewhere, intertextuality clears new territory:Zhekulin findspreviously unnoticed parallels between the trioof servants inTurgenev's Fathers and Sons and the...