Poemy Esenina: Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka': Tvorcheskaia istoriia, sud'ba, kontekst i interpretatsiia by N. I. Shubnikova-Guseva (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 323 misprints and a tendency towards wordiness and repetition. Perhaps inevitably , the terminology of theoreticaldiscourseoccasionallyjars and repels(see, for instance, pp. 6, 58, 6o-62, 308-og, 326). The book concludes with an attractivegalleryof seventy-fourcoloured illustrationsof worksby the 'French School' (Monet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro,Van Gogh, Seurat),as well aspaintingsby Levitan, Serov and Korovin. A contrasting but equally wide-ranging study is achieved by another scholar, Nina Razumova. Tvorchestvo A. P. Chekhova v aspekte prostranstva ambitiously investigates the evolution of Chekhov's outlook or perception of the world throughout his literary career by analysing his portrayal of fundamental philosophical questions concerning man and space (man's relationship with the surrounding world, or nature). Razumova confronts such momentous issuesas the purposeof life, death, time, civilization,culture, science, and religion. Numerous storiesby Chekhov and all five major plays areconsideredin some detail, andparallelsarecarefullydrawnwith theworks of otherauthors,includingBunin,Dostoevskii,Flaubert,Gor'kii,Hauptmann, Ibsen, Maeterlinck,Maupassant,Shaw, Tolstoi, Turgenev, and Zola. In the course of her painstaking monograph Razumova arrives at a new periodization of Chekhov's work, noting as an important watershed his journey to Sakhalinin I890. She identifiesin chronological order such stages as tragic existential crisis, non-tragic anthropocentrism, creative cultural dialogue with the world, man's assimilationby the materialworld, and man's ontological integration in the world. This periodization perhaps inevitably appears somewhat schematic, and specific assertionsmay be disputed. Thus, Razumova controversiallydeclaresthat Chekhov'stwo 'basicplaces' (osnovnye toposy) are the steppe (step')and the sea (more), and she resolutely insists that Chekhov's 'individualist' outlook on life remained consistently scientific, materialist,non-religious,and non-metaphysical. Nina Razumova isimpressivelywell-read,inphilosophyasin literature,and herobservationsand conclusionsundoubtedlycontain much food forthought. It is regrettable,therefore,that the tone of herbook is so unrelievedlyearnest, and the style so weighed down by its relentlesstheoretical and philosophical terminology (couched often in lengthy words of non-Russian origin), that the resulting text frequently becomes indigestible and almost impenetrable (see, for instance, typical passages on pp. I26-27, 227, 243, 326, 365 . .) Bristol GORDON MCVAY Shubnikova-Guseva, N. I. PoemyEsenina.Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka'. Tvorcheskaia istoriia,sud'ba,kontekst i interpretatsiia. IMLI RAN, Nasledie, Moscow, 200 I. 687 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Indexes. Priceunknown. OVER the past decade Natal'ia Shubnikova-Gusevahas proved an assiduous and incisive commentator, compiler and editor in the field of Esenin studies (see, for instance, her contributions,as sole orjoint editor, to such substantial works as S.A. Esenin:Materialy k biografii, Moscow, I992 [issued I993]; Russkoe zarubezh'e o Esenine,2 vols, Moscow, 1993; Sergei Esenin, Russkaiabol'.: 324 SEER, 8 i, 2, 2003 Stikhotvoreniia: Poemy:Proza:Sovremenniki o Esenine,Moscow, 1995; and Sergei Eseninvstikhakh izhizni,4 vols, Moscow, 1995 and 1997). Shubnikova-Guseva'sfirstmajor monograph, Poemy Esenina.Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka', stemsfromherintensiveactivityas commentatorto volume three of the academic edition (Sergei Esenin, Polnoesobranie sochinenii v semi tomakh, vol. 3: Poemy,Moscow, I 998) and from her doctoral dissertation, defended at the Institute of World Literature,Moscow, in December 200I. Six 'large poems' (bol'shiepoemy)are investigated - 'Pugachev', 'Strana Negodiaev', 'Pesn' o velikom pokhode', 'Poema o 36', 'Anna Snegina', and 'Chernyi chelovek'. The monograph is handsomely printed, discerningly illustrated,and exhaustivelydocumented. Poemy Esenina.Ot 'Proroka' do 'Chernogo cheloveka' is a serious, ingenious, and impressive work of scholarship. Manuscripts are meticulously perused and compared, contemporary and historical parallels are perceptively drawn, prototypes and literary echoes are revealed. Among numerous insights and discoveries, Shubnikova-Guseva identifies Aleksandr Krasnoshchekov as a prototype of Nikandr Rassvetov, demonstrates that 'Strana Negodiaev' is a finished work, links Esenin's 'tender hooligan' with iurodstvo, considers the three prototypes of Anna Snegina, and indicates a multitude of literary precursorsof'Chernyi chelovek'(citingPushkin,Batiushkov,Gogol',Dostoevskii ,Chekhov, Musset, R. L. Stevenson, Wilde, and others). Shubnikova-Gusevadescribes 'Strana Negodiaev' as a satiricalfarce, and 'Poema 0 36' as a tragicrequiem. Each chapteroffersthoughtfulobservations and interesting hypotheses. As background material for an appreciation of Esenin'spoemy, thisstudyis indispensable.Inevitably,the monographprompts various suggestions and queries. Perhaps 'Chernyi chelovek' also resembles Kusikov's 'Pesochnye chasy' (I922). Esenin's line 'Chest' moia za pesniu prodana'echoes a Russiantranslationof Fitzgerald's'Andsoldmy Reputation for a Song' (renderedby 0. Rumer as 'Achest' moia za pesniu prodana', in OmarKhaiam.Rubai...