Tabachnikova, Olga Russian Irrationalism from Pushkin to Brodsky: Seven Essays in Literature and Thought (review)

Abstract

SEER, 96, 2, APRIL 2018 328 Tabachnikova, Olga. Russian Irrationalism from Pushkin to Brodsky: Seven Essays in Literature and Thought. Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York, 2015. x + 270 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £65.00. For many decades, right back into the nineteenth-century, there has been a tendency to regard and interpret Russian culture as particularly dichotomous. The Slavophiles and Westernizers and their many descendants are obvious cases in points, and this kind of (perhaps ultimately fruitless) debate continues to the present day, both in Russia and the West (to be dichotomous!). Similarly, from around the same time there has been an endless quest for and endless discussions about the ‘Russian soul’, with emphasis on its unique breadth and capacity for the ideal and the extreme. If one were tempted to think that, as we approach the end of the second decade of the third millennium, such debates would have run their course, then one would be mistaken, as the publication of Olga Tabachnikova’s monograph suggests. In seven chapters of distinctly different lengths, preceded by an Introduction, Tabachnikova makes valiant attempts to nail these particular jellies to the wall, to paraphrase the German metaphor. As she herself acknowledges, her central topic, irrationalism, is both enormous but also very vital and contemporary. She argues that this subject has been extensively covered, but insufficiently systematically: ‘The history of Russian irrationalism and its socio-cultural impact on the life of the country and the outside world are still to be comprehensively studied. This is essential, in particular, for understanding contemporary Russian society and its development, with all the implications of this for the West’ (p. 1). While irrationalism is the presenting topic, there is much else besides: the seven chapters cover such diverse themes as language, Russia and the West, Russian Dreamers, rebellion, nature and culture, and the relationship between the two. Tabachnikova has interesting things to say about all these ideas, and there are penetrating insights aplenty into a very diverse range of writers and thinkers. Indeed, one of the strengths of this work is its enormous scope, with coverage of the medieval period right through, virtually, to the present, although, as the title suggests, the main object of study is the last two hundred years. Her own analyses are based on and underpinned by a huge body of equally diverse research material. The book is well presented as a physical object. Ultimately, however, she is perhaps defeated by the very breadth and scope of the subject matter, as well as other issues, of which there are several to address. The problems start with part of the book’s title (‘from Pushkin to Brodsky’). This implies that the work will be chronological in structure, and based on studies of individual authors and their works. Neither presumption is correct, as each chapter is organized around the abstract concepts mentioned above, and each one covers a variety of authors, in no apparent order. For a work of REVIEWS 329 this scope and seriousness, it is very surprising not to include a Bibliography, so that it is difficult to quickly ascertain exactly which works by which authors have been studied, and which critics and theorists (and which of their works) are most important. As noted, the chapters are of very different lengths, from eight pages (‘Towards the Question of “man of Nature” and “Man of Culture” in Russian Literature’) to sixty-five pages (‘Rebellious Tradition: Russian Literary Laughter, between Poetry and Pain’). While, of course, no volume will have chapters of exactly equal lengths this extremely wide range creates an odd impression, almost as if the book has been compiled a little randomly from what was to hand. Another structural problem is the lack of any Conclusion, so that the work is not properly rounded off. In more technical areas there is no explanation of what transliteration system is being used, nor when transliteration, translation or Cyrillic is to be used for Russian works: this too creates an impression of a certain randomness, and lack of consistency. While the work is generally written in appropriately sophisticated academic language, there are quite a few infelicities that arise from the fact that the author’s...