The Feminine in the Prose of Andrey Platonov by Philip Ross s> Bullock (review)

Abstract

314 SEER, 84, 2, 2006 Swiftconcludeswith a discussionon Chekhov'stolerant,pluralisticworldview where the polar opposites of science and religion coexist and complement each other in the middle ground. This is a seriousstudywith manyjust and thoughtfulobservations,but the analysisis not consistentlyconvincing. It is clearlywritten, though somewhat repetitious, and in need of more careful editing. Swift makes relevant use of Chekhov's letters, engages with the views of other interpreters,and it is encouragingthat he includesthe latest contributionsfrom Russiawhere there has been an upsurge of studiesdevoted to the religiousaspects of Chekhov's works.It will be essentialreadingfor anyone interestedin the influence of the Bible on Chekhov's art and thought. Admirers of Chekhov's art and those interestedin the relation between the Bible and literaturewill find it a useful stimulusto their thinking. Department ofSlavonic Studies DIANE OENNING THOMPSON University of Cambridge Bullock, Philip Ross. The Feminine in the Proseof Andrgy Platonov. Legenda, London, 2005. 226 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. f42.oo: $69.oo (paperback). WHEN, in the I96os, Platonov'stextsbegan to be republished,albeit in heavily censored versions, critical studies were mainly confined to the West. Such Russianpublicationsas there were, such as the collection of articles Tvorchestvo Platonova put out by Voronezh Universityin 1970, so farfromofferinganything resembling a 'gendered reading' of the texts, barely mentioned Platonov's heroines at all. The Voronezh collection does not appear in the extensive bibliographyof this book which, while redressingthe balance, does not pretend to offer any comprehensive survey of either Platonov'swork or his life. Only primary and secondary sources directly relevant to the central thesis are included, so there is no place for workssuch as Platonov'searlycollection of poetry Golubaia glubina,Vprok (the critique of collectivizationwhich caused Platonov years of suffering),his plays or any of his post-war fables. Among secondaryliterature,Viktor Chalmaev's I978volume Andrei Platonov is omitted for the same reason. In adoptingthis approachPhilipRoss Bullocksheds new light on texts familiarand unfamiliarand on an author who is, by common consent, one of the major figuresof twentieth-centuryliterature. The book, apparently based on a PhD thesis, follows the classic format of an introductorysurvey of both Platonoviana and feminist criticism,three long chapters dealing respectivelywith the years I922-29, 1930-36 and (notwithstandinga repeated error in the running header) 1936-46. The book is profusely,and usefully,annotated throughout. The first chapter deals at length with Efimnytrakt,Epifanskie shliuzyand Chevengur, the second with Iuvenil'noe more, Kotlovan, the Central Asian stories Dzhanand Takyr, and the novel Schastlivaia Moskva. The heroine of this work, Moskva Ivanovna, is variouslyreferredto as a 'Soviet Lolita', a 'Soviet Marv Magdalene' and a 'Soviet Mona Lisa'. She is, in the author'sview 'a tainted REVIEWS 3I5 symbol of Stalinistvalues' who 'can be thought of as the centre of the novel only as much as the nothingnessin the middle of a bagel is broughtinto existence by the dough that surroundsit' (p. 138). The finalchapterdealswith Reka Potudan',Vozvrashchenie, Froand Afrodita, as well as some shorter works such as the semi-autobiographicalSemion, the much-translated Tretiisynand war stories such as Sed'moichelovek and Devushka Roza. The book also includes perceptivecomments on some of Platonov'smore unfamiliarworks:the early stories Antisexus and Rasskazo mnogikh interesnykh veshchakh and the I934 story Semeistvo, which was not publisheduntil 1994. The authortraceswith greatclaritythe developmentof Platonov'sthinking. In the period covered by the first chapter Bullock identifies 'three principal attitudes -repression, transformationand deification - which will define Platonov's utopian attitude towards the feminine for some time to come' (p. 35).By the time he cameto writeIuvenil'noe more in I93I/32, Platonov's treatmentof the woman theme had undergone such an 'astonishingdevelopment ' (p. II5) that he was able to use the term 'polozhitel'naiazhenshchina', an echo of Soviet literature's'fetishizationof the positive hero'. The development continued, to the point where the author feels able to call the chapter 'The woman question is solved'. In RekaPotudan, and in other storiescovered by the final chapter, the author considers that 'Platonov is attempting to promote some kind of reconciliationwith the feminine (andassociatedthemes of domesticity, corporeality and contentment)' (p. i68). This reconciliation, long in coming, finally reached its conclusion in Vozvrashchenie, 'a deceptively unpretentious taleof domesticlife'(p. I98). Legenda, ajoint imprintof MHRA and...