From Turgenev to Bitov: Superfluous Men and Postmodern Selves

Abstract

The paper reframes the discussion of the superfluous man tradition by relying on the vocabulary and insights of postmodern discourse of the self. It argues that along with such commonly discussed attributes as ineffectiveness, alienation, and heightened self-reflexivity, the superfluous men in Turgenev's Diary of a Superfluous Man, Dostoevskii's Notes from the Underground, and Bitov's Pushkin House suffer from a (proto)-postmodern malaise whose manifestation is the dissolution of the autonomous, essential self that exists independently of language. Furthermore, the paper suggests that somewhat paradoxically, the awareness of this malaise and the anguish associated with it become not more but less intense with the advent of the postmodern era. Of the three characters I consider, Leva Odoevtsev, the protagonist of Bitov's postmodern novel, seems to be the least aware of his condition and the least paralyzed by it.