Lermontovization, or the Form of Emotion

Abstract

This article explores Dmitrii A. Prigov's “existential urge” to rewrite Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin in 1992. The urge was “endorsed” by Mikhail Lermontov–a figure who, according to Prigov, allowed him to discuss Pushkin's successors as romantics, and described his Onegin experiment as a “Lermontovization” of Pushkin. “Lermontovization” constituted a mechanism for the automatic generation of a text in which Prigov could insert one of his two chosen words (‘insane’ or ‘unearthly’) in the place of Pushkin's epithets in a purely mechanical way, thus tackling the underlying mechanisms of artistic creation, in which emotions and affects play an important role. Lermontov's appropriation by Prigov, and his transformation into a kind of “double” for Prigov can be explained by means of the rather peculiar interpretation of Lermontov offered by Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum in his 1924 book, Lermontov: A Study in Historical‐Literary Evaluation. For Eikhenbaum, Lermontov is important as a figure who represents the radical completion of a previous literary period whose potential for development has been completely exhausted. His task was to put an end to the organic form, focusing on the separate, super‐emotional elements of poetry that were dislodged from that organic form. Sincerity was replaced by Lermontov's frank and energetic emotivism, which was combined with shameless borrowing of impressive metaphors and images from other poets. The genre of “Lermontovization,” which was introduced by Lermontov and adopted by Prigov, constitutes a collage in which “authorship” per se is abolished, and the sincerity that accompanies it is, in turn, superseded by a hypertrophied emotivism–a form of affective detachment from oneself. The subjective is transformed into an objective form, and this allows the two poets to destroy the organic semantic structures of their respective preceding traditions.