Fictionality, Theatricality and Staging of Self: A New Look at Pushkin's 'Egyptian Nights'

Abstract

THE SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume 84, Number 3 July 2006 Fictionality, Theatricality and Staging of Self: A New Look at Pushkin's 'Egyptian Nights' ALEXANDRA SMITH WITH many critics having labelled as decadent the period I833-35, in which Pushkin's'Egipetskienochi' ('EgyptianNights') was written, it is possible to interpretPushkin'snarrativeas an example of the performance of the modern poetic self that manifestsitself best at a time of cultural catastrophe and the collapse of established values. Leslie O'Bell suggestsreading the story of an artistembedded in 'Egipetskie nochi' as a two-fold narrative:'as the triumph of the independence of artand the fellowshipof the poets' and as 'the instructivetragedyof the poet as man who is threatenedby his dependence on society." Indeed, Pushkin'sunfinishedtale highlightsthe tensionbetween life and artand presentsthe artistas 'a living paradox, now "low",now "high",bound to his social personalityyet transcendingit'.2O'Bell places the storyin 'the "deadtime" of the Russian/Egyptian nights'.3David Herman sees it as an allegory that predictsPushkin'sdemise as a writerand human being.4 For Herman, 'Egipetskie nochi' expresses Pushkin's anxiety about the future of poetry, and about poets who might emerge from Alexandra Smith is Lecturer in Russian at the University of Sheffield. The author thanks Caryl Emerson for some useful discussions of the topic related to Pushkin and theatre; and Carol Ueland, Neil Cornwell and two anonymous SEERreviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments on the draft of this article. 'Leslie O'Bell, Pushkin's'Egyptian Nights': TheBiography of a Work,Ann Arbor, MI, I984 (hereafter, O'Bell) pp. iio-ii. 2 Ibid., p. i ii. Ibid., p. I2I. 4 David Herman, 'A Requiem for Aristocratic Art: Pushkin's "Egyptian Nights"', Russian Review,55, October I996, 4, pp. 66i-8o (hereafter, Herman) (p. 662). 394 A NEW LOOK AT PUSHKIN' S 'EGYPTIAN NIGHTS' society'slowerclassesdueto theadvanceof technology andthespread of culture: The improviser challenges the authority of social exclusions and violates the defenses of Charskii's home with the same ease as his artistic selfreinventions make a mockery of the borders of identity. Superior poetry turns out to be merely the flip-side of dissolving hierarchies and social disruption.5 Herman observesthat the Italian'slivelihooddependson creation on demandand is symbolically dialogizedsinceit beginsalwayswith chuzhoe slovo.6 Suchcommentsarevalid,yet I believethe mainconcernsPushkin expresses in 'Egipetskie nochi'revolvearoundquestions ofidentityand a searchforthesurpassing of thehedonistic worldview thathadlargely shapedPushkin's workspriorto the I83os. In itsphilosophical aspects, 'Egipetskie nochi' standsclose to Malen'kie tragedii (Little Tragedies): it givesprideof place to notionsof moralresponsibility and individual choice.According to G. A. Lesskis, in the I830s Pushkin starteddevelopinga newworldvieworientedmoretowardssocialinteractions and moralchoice: Pushkincomes to realize the inner contradictionof the hedonisticprinciple that makes the hedonist's individual life senseless and devalued; [...] Pushkinexposes the fatal consequences of the hedonistic type of behaviour for people who came in close contact with it.7 This assessment of Pushkin's evolutionas a writerand thinkerhelps usmodifyHerman's viewof Pushkin's demiseasan individual. 'Egipetskie nochi' in fact offersPushkin'sre-evaluationof the hedonist's valuesas theyrelateto the creativeprocess.We can detecta shiftin Pushkin'sown scale of values,from the assumptionthat rebellious behaviourin itselflargelycontributes to the formationof the creative self,to the realizationof the responsible aestheticattitudeto life that relieson dialogicconscience.MikhailBakhtin's worksexaminedsuch an outlookclosely.As CarylEmersonexplains, In 'Author and Hero', Bakhtin [...] stresses the impossibilityof selfactualizationand self-realizationwithout the other as a necessarywitnessto what I do. Eventuallyit will be redefinedas addressivity [obrashchennost ]. The absolute need for response begins to compete with the moral requirement of responsibility.8 'Ibid., p. 665. 6 Ibid., p. 668. 7 G. A. Lesskis, "'Kamennyi gost"' (tragediia gedonizma)', in V. E. Vatsuro et al., Pushkin: Issledovaniia i materialy, Leningrad, I989, 13, pp. 134-45 (p. 136). 8 Gary Saul Morson and Caryl Emerson, MikhailBakhtin:Creation of a Prosaics,Stanford, CA, I990 (hereafter, Morson and Emerson), pp. 75-76. ALEXANDRA SMITH 395 Monika Greenleaf points out that in I826-30 Pushkin's life and art 'were subjected to teleological pressures similar to those that had mythicized Mozart's life and death'.9 During this period Pushkin aspired to combine his role of national poet with that of leading dramatist.As Greenleaf comments, 'When BorisGodunov was banned from the Russian stage, Pushkinwas denied access to the most...