Narrative, Space and Gender in Russian Fiction, 1846-1903 by Joe Andrew

Abstract

MLR, I03.2, 20o8 6ii Narrative, Space and Gender inRussian Fiction, I846-I903. By JOEANDREW. Am sterdam and New York: Rodopi. 2007. 194 pp. ?40; $54. ISBN 978-90-420 2i86-o. JoeAndrew approaches narratives as complex models of the human world in order todescribe how they represent ideologically charged systems of spatial relationships. Not least among these ideologies ispatriarchal domination-along with its inevitable twin, resistance. Andrew shows that setting contributes asmuch to these themes as plot or character, and thatwe miss a great deal when we pay exclusive attention to what characters say and do. The geographical background can change everything: thusNadezhda Sokhanskaya's Conversation afterDinner, so easily read as an apology forpatriarchy, verges on amatriarchal fantasy,and the kindly, idealistic old men of the earlyDostoevsky are disturbingly close to sexual predation. The theoretical underpinnings ofAndrew's readings-Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of thechronotope and the mythic typology ofRussian structuralistYuri Lotman-are initially expounded in a somewhat workmanlike introduction. The force and appli cability of his method aremore evident in the individual readings: studies of Dos toevsky's early novellas Poor Folk and White Nights, along with his later and more widely readNotes from theUnderground; Conversation afterDinner; Tolstoy's domes tic idyllFamily Happiness; Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia's Boarding School Girl; and finally-the odd textout,written fortyyears after theothers-Anton Chekhov's The Fiancee, whose presence Andrew justifiesby noting that itharks back in many respects to the i86os. The chapters on Dostoevsky tend to readmore as individual projects thanAndrew's readings of the lesser-knownworks. Iparticularly enjoyed thechapters on Conversation afterDinner, The Boarding School Girl, and Tolstoy's oft-neglected early gem Family Happiness, inwhich Andrew re-evaluates theambiguous endings to show that the formal arrangement of geographical settings suggests more satisfying, and oftenmore comfortably feminist, interpretations than the events per se suggest. Andrew's keen attention to symmetry and repetition follows fromhis grounding in Lotman's structural anatomy of plot, according towhich (in a frequently repeated quote) the cycle of 'death-sexual relations-rebirth' is 'themost archaic mythological complex' (p. io). For Andrew these works are reinstantiations of the age-old plot of katabasis, thehero(ine)'s venture into an enclosed space-interpretable variously as thewomb, the tomb, the confines of patriarchy, and the embrace of the domes tic household-and beyond into a renewed understanding. The historically bound period of the i85os and i86os, when Russia's 'woman question' loomed especially large, isarticulated through plots that are as timeless as anything can be. The 'golden age ofRussian realism' is cousin to the fairy tale. This linkage of closely defined historical epochs and essentially timeless plots is suggestive and merits furtherscrutiny,perhaps in a comparative context. In the ini tial discussion of 'resurrection' through the love of a fallenwoman (pp. 11-12), for instance, Imissed at least amention ofTolstoy's last novel Resurrection, which pre cisely by reiterating the theme beyond Andrew's chronological framemight have provided insight intowhat makes the crucial score of years between I846 and I864 so special; the same service might have been performed by Chekhov's Fiancee in a more extended analysis, with the scope to include differences as well as similarities. As a result the reader is sometimes forced to piece together the larger significance of the readings herself, especially as there isno concluding chapter tobind the specific findings into a comprehensive meditation, which might have more explicitly linked themarked spaces (up and down, inside and outside) to the gendered divisions (of labour, of social status) running through all the texts.To be fair,all thebook's loose threads are interesting ones and my complaint may boil down to the cavil that I did not get to readmore. The book iscertainly valuable to the specialist forthe specifics of 61I 2 Reviews its readings, and intriguing to the layperson in itssuggestive linkage ofplotmythemes with concrete social spaces. HARVARD UNIVERSITY JACOB EMERY The Same Solitude: Boris Pasternak andMarina Tsvetaeva. By CATHERINE CIEPIELA. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press. 2oo6. 303 pp. $29.95. ISBN 978-o-80i4-3534-8. Catherine Ciepiela's study focuses on the romantic affair between Tsvetaeva and Pasternak, which lasted forover a decade during the I920S and I930S and...