Essays on Karolina Pavlova by Susanne s> Fusso Alexander Lehrman (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 513 straightforwardis the discussion of Schiller's influence on Tolstoi which can be satisfactorily demonstrated on the basis of direct evidence, however meagre. All the articlesofferedhere are profuselyannotated, have scholarlyquality and deserve the privilege of renewed publication even though it has to be acknowledgedthat none is of recent vintage. London RICHARD FREEBORN Fusso, Susanne and Lehrman, Alexander (eds). Essayson Karolina Pavlova. Studies in Russian Literature and Theory. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, 2001. XiV+ 268 pp. Bibliographical references. $79.95. KAROLINA PAVLOVA (i 807-1 893) was one of the finestpoets of her time, and her importance, especially for the literatureof the SilverAge, can hardly be underestimated.Not only did her poetry express the concept of 'art for art's sake'in Russianliterature,but it was also in one of herpoems thatthe Russian term 'motyl'kovaiapoeziia' was coined for it. Often criticized for an alleged lack of political commitment, Pavlova did not receive the scholarlyattention that was due to her, either during her lifetime, or in Soviet Russia. Susanne Fusso'sand Alexander Lehrman'sEssaysonKarolina Pavlova reflectsa growing interest in her work. It is a collection of fourteen articles resulting from the firstinternational symposium devoted to her held in 1993, the centennial of her death. It includes a translationof B. Griftsov'sreview on the re-edition of her workinitiatedby Briusovin 1915, and an appendix giving the chronology of herlife. Four of the articles concentrate on Pavlova's most intriguing work, her novel in prose and verseDvoinaia z/izn'. Diana Greene masterfullyanalysesits use of gender and genre, arguing that Pavlova merged differentgenres (and their reception), such as ocherk, the society tale, and the female Bildungsroman, in orderto criticizethe upbringingof upper-classgirls.Since the subtitleocherk indicated a male genre, i.e. one which drew attention to poor urban and peasant men, Pavlova's use of the same term in a female context suggestsa similar sympathy with the lot of upper-class women. Olga Peters Hasty examines the interaction of Cecily's two worlds, arguing that the heroine's awarenessof a higher sphere of existence is transfiguredin the new paradigm of the woman writer, reflected in Pavlova herself. While Ginger B. Lazarus views the existence of a latent poetic consciousness to be a feminist form of survivalin a patriarchalsociety, Romy Taylor reads the novel's metaphysical aspectsin strictlyreligiousterms:an attemptthat is debatable at times. Intertextuality comprises the subject of four other contributions. Susan Amert's lucid study of the influence of Pavlova'swork on Akhmatovapoints out the slightironic shiftin the latter'sreworkingthe notion of the 'holycraft'. She also argues that Akhmatova's use of the 'telling gesture' originates in Pavlova's lyrics rather than, as is often assumed, in nineteenth-century psychologicalnovels.Amertthenundertakesa carefulreadingoftherespective treatments of history in Akhmatova's 'Russkii Trianon' and Pavlova's 5I4 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 'Razgovor v Trianone', and also examines linksbetween 'Poema bez geroia' and 'Zovet nas zhizn". Tomas Venclova's article deals with Tsvetaeva's response to Pavlova: this is a vast subject that will need furtherexploration, and to which the authormakesa substantialcontribution.A similarprocedure is adoptedby Lehrmanin hisessayon Pavlovain Bulgakov'sMaster iMargarita: in this,his second contributionto thiscollection, Lehrmanhighlightsthematic affinitiesbetween the novel and such poems as 'Razgovor v Trianone'. The tragic fate of the woman author is a theme in all these studies, and Pavlova tends to obtain the status of the unrecognized woman poet perse. Priscilla Meyer's comparison of the lives of Pavlova and Louise Colet supports this supposition. The remainingessaysdeal with individualaspectsof Pavlova'swork.Fusso brilliantlyquestionsconventionsofliteraryhistorywhen interpretingPavlova's 'Kadril" as a female variant of the stereotypical, gender-related features of Russian Romanticism. Loss as a source of poetic strengthis the conclusion of Stephanie Sandler's and Judith Vowles's convincing and original re-reading of the myth of the abandoned woman as it figures in the meditative poems writtenby Pavlovaunderthe influenceof her separationfromMickiewiczand Utin. Olga Brikertracesthe conflictingpurposesof the travellerand the exile in her careful analysisof the cycle 'Fantasmagorii'.Lehrman'sfirstessay, an incisivestudyof Pavlova'spoetics, providesa fittingkeynoteforthe collection. Finally, two essays deal with biographical aspects of Pavlova's persona. Mikhail Fainshteinexplores the significanceof music and painting in her life, while FrankGopfertgivesvaluableinsightsinto the Germanperiod of herlife. EssaysonKarolina Pavlova considerablyadvancesourknowledgeof thishighly talented yet neglected author...