No place like home: the literary artist and Russia's search for cultural identity

Abstract

Amy C. Singleton. Noplace Like Home: The Literary Artist and Russia's Search for Cultural Identity. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. x, 193 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $17.95, paper.Amy C. Singleton's monograph explores theme of home in Russian literature. According to Singleton, studying this theme in works of Russian writers may provide valuable insights into understanding Russia's search for national and cultural identity (p. 33). In view of recent political developments and resumed debates about Russian path, Singleton's topic is timely. Indeed, by looking at past, one may get a better grasp of Russia's chaotic present. Singleton examines ideas of homelessness, and Russia's cultural identity in Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov, Evgenii Zamiatin's We, and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Singleton's central assumption is that literary artist plays an important role in Russia's search for home, understood both as a domestic space and as Russia's cultural identity. Singleton argues that artist's role in Russian society is ambivalent. The artist suggests that dwelling modes must be rejected and ideal of home must itself be challenged under certain historical and political conditions (p. 16). However, as a prophet who presents society with a deeper understanding of itself (a home), artist finds no place for himself within that home.The monograph consists of seven chapters. In first two, Singleton explains main concepts of her study by drawing on theories of Gaston Bachelard, Erich Fromm, Amos Rapoport, Yi-Fu Tuan, and Olivier Marc. The second chapter is a concise history of domestic space in Russia from pre-Christian period to end of Soviet era. Using a number of ethnographic studies, Singleton describes various types of Russian dwellings and their symbolization throughout centuries. However, discussion is fairly abstract. It is unclear, for instance, how twelfth-century views on home influenced writers Singleton discusses.The following four chapters analyse individual novels. Singleton's interpretations in these chapters are strongest part of monograph. Singleton provides an insightful and original reading of Dead Souls, Oblomov, We, and The Master and Margarita. She reveals complex meanings ascribed to ideas of artist, and creative work in these novels. According to Singleton, Gogol failed to build the kind of spiritual 'home' he imagined for Russia, but he tore down the false domestic idyll that represents superficiality of present reality (p. 66). Unlike Gogol, Goncharov creates his hero's homecoming. Singleton's reading of Oblomovas aparody of Homer's Odyssey is innovative and thought provoking. She argues that Oblomov's journey homeward (p. …