Turgenev’s depictions in contemporary cultural studies

Abstract

A review of S. Volkov’s History of Russian Culture during the Romanovs Rule. 1613–1917 [Istoriya russkoy kultury v tsarstvie Romanovykh. 1613–1917] and A. Davydov’s Neopolitical Liberalism in Russia [Neopoliticheskiy liberalism v Rossii], the article is concerned with depiction of I. Turgenev’s personality and creative legacy. Both historians set ambitious culturological goals for themselves, yet their interpretations of the subject betrays their very tentative knowledge of historical and cultural realia, as well as poor grasp of art’s aesthetic nature. Volkov chooses to build his story around a para-literary gossip verging on an abusive lampoon, with Turgenev’s character downgraded and distorted, and the scale of his work completely overlooked. In his search of ‘neopolitical liberalism’ in Russian literature, Davydov finds it in unexpected places, while missing it altogether in Turgenev’s works, where it constitutes an ideological foundation and key element of their meaning and poetics. The studies by Volkov and Davydov tend to sacrifice historical-literary and artistic material in favour of prejudice and subjectivity, as well as arbitrary concepts.