The Russian Memoir: History and Literature by Beth Holmgren

Abstract

6i8 Reviews the opposite side of the Soviet era, is lurii Bondarev. On the 'subversive' front, Wanner points to the Conceptualists and, in particular, to the 'card catalogues' of Lev Rubinshtein-said by their author himself to represent an 'inter-genre, combining features of poetry, prose, drama, the visual arts, and performance' (p. 147). Surprises within the tradition exposed in this study include the phenomenon of 'beggar stories', stretching from Baudelaire's 'Assommons les pauvres!', through Tur genev, Bunin, Belyi, and Remizov, on toKharms (although it is the violence in 'Istoriia derushchikhsia' rather than the presence of beggars in other Kharmsian texts that is stressed: p. 135). We also glimpse starukhi inTurgenev and Remizov, and learn that Sologub's 'Tik' may have suggested Kharms's 'Tiuk!'. There are occasional sideways glances at Kafka, but it is perhaps just a little surprising that a study of the prose miniature should make no mention of Borges-possibly the greatest prose minimal ist of them all. However, Wanner's study has shed considerable light on what may have been considered by many observers a poorly illuminated backwater of modern fiction-Russian and otherwise. UNIVERSITYOFBRISTOL NEIL CORNWELL The Russian Memoir: History and Literature. Ed. by BETH HOLMGREN. (Northwest ern University Press Studies in Russian Literature and Theory) Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. 2003. XXXiX+22I pp. $79.95. ISBN o-8ioI I929-3. In her introduction Beth Holmgren describes the memoir as a 'durable and elastic form' (p. x). The texts under scrutiny span two centuries, from Princess Natal'ia Dolgorukaia's memoirs of the late eighteenth century, to post-Soviet memoirs of the I990s, although Holmgren makes it clear that this isnot intended to be a comprehen sive history of the Russian memoir. What it is, however, is an examination of a genre which overlaps with both history and literature, an overlap signalled by the division of the volume into two parts: 'TheMemoir and theWorld', and 'TheMemoir and the Word'. Holmgren's introduction examines the difficulties in establishing a definition of the genre, sited at a point where autobiography, narrative prose, and non-fictional history or biography intersect. The remainder of the introduction outlines the genre's specific Russian context: the interconnections between the memoir, society, and po litics, and the relationship between the memoir and literary art. Certain themes set out in the introduction, such as the post-Petrine emphasis on an individual's service to the state, are explored in detail by the contributors. Holmgren also considers the interrelations between fiction and memoir, from nineteenth-century realism to post Stalinist and post-Soviet innovations. The scene is set for awide-ranging exploration of a genre which has varied in form and function, but has retained readers' interest to the present day. It is striking that over half of the contributions to this volume focus on mem oirs by female authors. Gitta Hammarberg discusses the numerous reworkings of Princess Dolgorukaia's memoirs by authors who are pursuing their own patriarchal agendas of creating an image of 'humble, self-sacrificing, yet courageous and patri otic femininity' (p. 96) as a role model for Russian womanhood. Questions of gender as it relates to female role models for the Russian intelligentsia are prominent in several essays. Helena Goscilo discerns in Elena Bonner's Mothers and Daughters a peculiarly unselfconscious tale of the family romance and the 'repressive decorum' (p. 65) imposed by memoiristic etiquette. Jane Gary Harris offers an interesting ex ploration of Lidiia Ginzburg's 'fascination with lifewriting' (p. io) as both literary scholar and practitioner, whose memoirs treat the self as a representative of a ge neration of Russian intelligenty whose collective consciousness was shaped by social MLR, 101.2, 2006 6I9 and historical forces. Memoirs by Avdot'ia Panaeva examined by Jehanne Gheith and Holmgren reveal a corrective to nineteenth-century dismissive attitudes towards women writers and their supposedly over-emotional focus on byt, the detail of daily life. Evgeniia Ginzburg's well-known memoirs of Stalin-era imprisonment are dis cussed by Natasha Kolchevska in relation to the author's cultural and moral vision, gained as she achieves a true understanding of the values of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia. The male...