Commemorating Pushkin: Russia's Myth of a National Poet by Stephanie s> Sandler (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I 23 same text, analyses the moral-philosophicalissues, the Voltaireanechos and the challenge in the characterof Don Juan, foreverthe 'capriciouschild-adult' (p. 202), to Enlightenment ideals. Golstein examines in depth the themes of time and money, of cyclicity, and the paradox of aging in 'The Covetous Knight'; particularly illuminating is his setting of Pushkin's text against Dante's DivineComedy and against the ideas of Montaigne. Greenleaf's wideranging essay considers the theme of rumour in Pushkin'sworks and gives a historical account of the spread of the rumour in Vienna that Salieri had murderedMozart;she discussesthe rise of the notion of 'nationalgenius' and its sacrificialrole, as applied both to Mozart and to Pushkin;and the role of the 'improviser'in Russiancultureas reflectedin Pushkin'sworks. This is an exceptionally rewarding and well prepared volume of essays distinguished by their mature scholarship. It will be of value to everyone concerned with Pushkinand his legacy. Oxford ANN SHUKMAN Sandler, Stephanie. Commemorating Puslkin:Russia'sMyth of a NationalPoet. StanfordUniversityPress,Stanford,CA, 2004. xii + 4I6 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Index. $65.00: ?48-50IF ,as Maurice Blanchot suggested, one were to dream of the last writerwith whom the mysteryof writingwould vanish, and whose disappearancewould result in a great silence, then it would be true to say that the withdrawal of Pushkin from the Russian cultural scene would create an irrevocable void. Stephanie Sandler'snew book reflectson the void left by Pushkin'sdeath and focuses on the elements of his writing that inspiredso many Russian authors to compare themselves to him. Sandler surveys two hundred years of commemorating Pushkin,beginning with Zhukovskii'sresponsesto Pushkin's death and ending with the importance of the legacy of Siniavskii'splayful approachto Pushkinin the dynamicsofpost-Soviet culture.It is not surprising that such an ambitiousprojectis rich in detail and scope. It offersa coherent overview of theatrical performances, films, and works of fiction and poetry dedicated to or inspiredby Pushkinover the last two hundred years, tending more towards the Soviet and post-Soviet period, in which it focuses on the commemoration of Pushkin,leavingasideany adaptationsof Pushkin'sworks. Sandler allows for such omissions by explaining that her work is not a definitivestudybut a 'partof the ongoing workthat will continue for years to come' (p. 13). As she indicates, her book 'attemptsto show how foundational texts and culturalinstitutionshave created myths of Pushkin','how thinking about Pushkin has been a vehicle for self-expression', and 'how Russia's national culture has emerged through myths of Pushkin as friend, prophet, and national genius' (p. 13). The book comprises seven chapters. The first chapter treats the elegiac responsesto Pushkinproduced by Lermontov, Zhukovskiiand Rostopchina. The second chapter discussesthe Russian museum culture that institutionalized Pushkin, with extensive references to Mikhailovskoe and the Pushkin apartment on the Moika in St Petersburg.Chapter three glosses the various I24 SEER, 83, I, 2005 anniversarycommemorations that have taken place over the last I50 years and provides a lively account of the Soviet and post-Soviet films that feature Pushkin'slife and writings. Chapter four surveysfilm versions of Pushkin's works:LittleTragedies (1979), TheLastRoad(I986), Keep Me Safe,My Talisman (I986), My FavouriteTime (I987) and Side Whiskers(I990), and argues that 'films,like museums and anniversaries,are institution builders, and all have shaped the myths of Pushkin that circulate in modern Russian culture' (P. 174). Chapters five and six analyse in detail the Pushkin-inspiredpoetry and essaysof Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva, paying particularattention to their gender-specificqualities. The final chapter and Afterword discuss works on Pushkin by Bitov and Siniavskii. Sandler sharesJane Grayson's view that Siniavskii'sStrolls withPushkin bringsthe poet backto life throughthe freeplay of imagination and intellectual inquiry (p. 3IO).Sandlerwould undoubtedly have approved of the echoes of Siniavskii's neo-avant-garde approach in Viktor Pelevin's blockbusternovel T7he ClayMachine-Gun, in which Petr Void encounters the bronze Pushkinof I9I8, his breast covered with a red apron bearing the inscription 'Long Live the FirstAnniversaryof the Revolution!' Yet the relevance of the dichotomy between museum cultureand live culture, central to avant-garde ideology and cultural politics in post-Soviet Russia, remains outside the parameters of Sandler's provocative and penetrating discussionof the processesof forgettingand rememberingPushkin. Sandler's encyclopaedic volume on the...