Realizing Metaphors: Alexander Pushkin and the Life of the Poet by David M. Bethea (review)

Abstract

in England. The museum scholar'sphilological researches,his decipheringof dead languages, also restoreda faith in the primitivemagic of words. EdgarAllen Poe in particularwas adopted as a poetic shaman and Briusovand Belyi were inspiredby his example to see poetry as a means of direct cognition which had as valid a claim as science to an objectiveknowledgeof the world. The second part of the study, the 'aesthetic renaissance', presents another paradox in the assimilation of English influence. If English writers, in their abhorrence of the modern, engaged with the primitivemass cultureof the common folk,they also united theirvision of a pre-industrialutopia with the establishmentof a self-consciousculturalelite. Russianstoo were drawnin these apparentlycontrary directions.Beguiled by the vigour of barbarianism,they were also enthralledby the prospect of an aesthetic based on refined beauty and highly individual taste. This was apparentin the enthusiasmfor the Pre-Raphaelitesthat animated the Worldof Art movement and provided inspiration for the Symbolists. The new aesthetic sensibilityspilled over from the confines of literature,art and music to affectsocial behaviour, as Polonskyconvincinglyshows. Forher, Blok'swife was entrappedby a Pre-Raphaelite image of the fair lady, and it is demonstratedhow earnestlyat the beginning of the centuryRussianaesthetesembracedWildean dandyism. This book, often surprisingin its freshinsightsand sparklingin its eloquence and wit, is an example of comparative study at its most enlightening. It enriches our understandingof both sides of a cultural exchange. Not only are the paradoxical energiesof Russianwriters,releasedfromthe thrallof positivistaesthetics,explored, but also a new perspectiveis given to Victorian Englishwriting. UNIVERSITY OF WALES, BANGOR W. GARETH JONES Realizing Metaphors:AlexanderPushkinand theLife of thePoet. By DAVID M. BETHEA. (Publications of the Wisconsin Center for Pushkin Studies, i) Madison: Universityof WisconsinPress. 1998. xviii + 244 pp. Publishedjust in time for the 1999 worldwide celebrations of the bicentennial of Pushkin'sbirth,David M. Bethea has writtena most elegant and necessarybook on the life and artof Russia'sgreatestpoet. Realizing Metaphors offersus an eruditeand courageous polemic with several of the pillars of contemporary literary theory (Freud,Bloom,Jakobson, Bakhtin,Lotman)and a vivid displayof the author'sown interpretativeskills. Bethea begins by lamenting the crisis of the humanities in our time whereby 'poetryis becoming unnecessary,a vestigialtail our eyes and ears, satisfiedby other forms of immediacy, are all too willing to forget.' He attempts against this background to answer the question 'Why Pushkin?'by suggesting that 'Pushkin gave Russiansan innerworld almostas richin promiseas theirouterworldwas rich in denial.' Anticipating his own critique of several twentieth-century schools of literarytheoryasbeing inadequatefor 'bringingPushkinbackto life' eitherbecause of their pretence of being 'based on science' or because of their over-emphasison 'structure'or 'grammar',he identifieshis own rulesfor readingPushkinas 'vectors' (directionplus force). He insiststhat Pushkin'sworlds (both his poetry and his life) can stillspeakto us, but authenticallyonly ifwe askthem the rightquestionsand try to 'understandthe problem here in Pushkin'sterms'for he was a man who chafed over time 'atbeing "justa poet",just a creatorof wordsratherthan a doer of deeds.' Pushkin's lifelong struggle to complete his 'ontological rhymes' and to erect a monument to himself'not made by hand' (nerukotvornyi) is in Bethea'schaptercalled in England. The museum scholar'sphilological researches,his decipheringof dead languages, also restoreda faith in the primitivemagic of words. EdgarAllen Poe in particularwas adopted as a poetic shaman and Briusovand Belyi were inspiredby his example to see poetry as a means of direct cognition which had as valid a claim as science to an objectiveknowledgeof the world. The second part of the study, the 'aesthetic renaissance', presents another paradox in the assimilation of English influence. If English writers, in their abhorrence of the modern, engaged with the primitivemass cultureof the common folk,they also united theirvision of a pre-industrialutopia with the establishmentof a self-consciousculturalelite. Russianstoo were drawnin these apparentlycontrary directions.Beguiled by the vigour of barbarianism,they were also enthralledby the prospect of an aesthetic based on refined beauty and highly individual taste. This was apparentin the enthusiasmfor the Pre-Raphaelitesthat animated the Worldof Art movement and provided inspiration for the Symbolists. The new aesthetic sensibilityspilled over from the confines of literature,art and music to affectsocial behaviour, as Polonskyconvincinglyshows. Forher, Blok'swife was entrappedby a Pre-Raphaelite image of the fair lady, and it is demonstratedhow earnestlyat the...