From symbolism to socialist realism: a reader

475 Pages·2012·2.732 MB·English

by  Masing-Delic, Irene

F s
rom ymbolism to
s r
ocialist ealism
Cultural syllaBus
series editor:
MarK lipoVetsKy (University of Colorado - Boulder)
From symbolism to
socialist realism
a Reader
compiled, edited and with introductions
by Irene MasIng-DelIc
BOsTOn / 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
A catalog record for this book as available from the Library of Congress.
The book is supported by Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation
(translation program TRANSCRIPT).
Copyright © 2011 Academic Studies Press
All rights reserved
ISBN - 978-1-936235-42-1, Hardback
ISBN - 978-1-618112-32-3, Paperback
Book design by Ivan Grave
Published by Academic Studies Press in 2012
28 Montfern Avenue
Brighton, MA 02135, USA
[email protected]
www.academicstudiespress.com
To IURA
T C
able of onTenTs
Acknowledgments 12
Editor’s Preface 13
Section One
Russian Culture before the October Revolution
Introduction 16
Historical-Cultural Contexts
Walter Sablinsky, 26
“Father Gapon and the St. Petersburg Massacre of 1905,”
from The Road to Bloody Sunday
Boris Savinkov, 31
"The Assassination of Grand Duke Sergei,"
from Memoirs of a Terrorist
Modernist Views on Art in Essays and Manifestos, Criticism
Valerii Briusov, 40
“Keys to the Mysteries” from The Russian Symbolists
Viktor Zhirmunskii, 56
“Two Tendencies of Contemporary Lyric Poetry,”
from The Silver Age of Russian Culture
Viktor Shklovskii, 64
“Art as Technique”
from Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays
David Burliuk, Aleksandr Kruchenykh,
Vladimir Maiakovskii, Viktor Khlebnikov, 82
“Slap in the Face of Public Taste,”
from Words in Revolution: Russian Futurist Manifestoes 1912-1928
Aleksandr Kruchenykh, 85
“Declaration of Transrational Language,”
from Words in Revolution, Russian Futurist Manifestoes 1912-1928
Richard Peace, 88
“The Cherry Orchard,”
from Chekhov: A Study of the Four Major Plays
Joan Delaney Grossman, 121
“’The Marble Bust’ and Briusov’s Vision of Art,”
from Depictions: Slavic Studies in the Narrative and Visual Arts
Vignettes
Valerii Briusov, 132
“The Marble Bust: A Tramp’s Story,”
from The Republic of the Southern Cross and other Stories
Aleksandr Blok, 137
“The Stranger,”
from Modern Russian Poetry
Anna Akhmatova, 139
“When in a Suicidal Anguish,”
from Modern Russian Poetry
Nikolai Gumilev, 140
“The Lost Streetcar,”
from Modern Russian Poetry
Section Two
From Civil War to Stalinism via NEP
Introduction 143
Everyday Life: Reality and Dreams
Marina Tsvetaeva, 155
“Attic Life,”
from Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922
Aleksandra Kollontai, 160
“Make Way for Winged Eros:
A Letter to Working Youth. Love as a Socio-psychological Factor,”
from A Great Love: Selected Writings
Andrei Siniavskii, 173
“The New Way of Life,”
from Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History
Evgenii Zamiatin, 180
“On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters,”
from A Soviet Heretic: Essays by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Literary Criticism
Kathleen Lewis and Harry Weber, 187
“Zamyatin’s WE, the Proletarian Poets and Bogdanov’s Red Star,”
from The Ardis Anthology of Russian Futurism
Irene Masing-Delic, 206
“Bright Hopes and Dark Insights: Vision and Blindness
as Cognition Tropes in Babel’s Red Cavalry,”
from For SK, In Celebration of the Life and Career of Simon Karlinsky
Diana L. Burgin, 223
“Bulgakov’s Early Tragedy of the Scientist-Creator:
An Interpretation of The Heart of a Dog,”
from Slavic and East European Journal
Victor Erlich, 241
“The Masks of Mikhail Zoshchenko,”
from Literature, Culture, and Society in the Modern Age,
in Honor of Joseph Frank, Part II
Nils Åke Nilsson, 256
“Through the Wrong End of Binoculars:
An Introduction to Iurii Olesha,”
from Scando-Slavica
Edward J. Brown, 280
“Two Plays,”
from Mayakovsky. A Poet in the Revolution
Vignettes
Osip Mandel’shtam, 289
“Brothers, Let’s Glorify the Twilight of Freedom,”
from Modern Russian Poetry
Mikhail Zoshchenko, 290
“A Dogged Sense of Smell,”
from The Galosh and Other Stories
Mikhail Zoshchenko, 293
“Nervous People”
from The Galosh and Other Stories
Vladimir Maiakovskii, 296
“Brooklyn Bridge,”
from Modern Russian Poetry
Section Three
The Stalinist Period and World War II
Introduction 302
Memoirs
Iurii Olesha, 320
“1930: How Meierkhol’d Put on My Play,”
from A Book of Farewell
Ivanov-Razumnik, 323
from The Memoirs of Ivanov-Razumnik
Antonina Pirozhkova, 329
from At His Side: The Last Years of Isaac Babel
Cultural Contexts
Andrei Siniavskii, 340
“The Mystery and the Magic of Stalin’s Power,”
from Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History
Daniel E. Collins, 348
“The Tower of Babel Undone in a Soviet Pentecost:
A Linguistic Myth of the First Five-Year Plan,”
from Slavic and East European Journal
Alexander Poznansky, 357
“Tchaikovsky as Communist Icon,”
from For SK, In Celebration of the Life and Career of Simon Karlinsky
Beth Holmgren, 367
“Power Relationships and Authorship,”
from Women’s Works in Stalin’s Time, On Lidiia Chukovskaia
and Nadezhda Mandelstam