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March 12-14 conference abstract (fwd)
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From: Priscilla Meyer <pmeyer@mail.wesleyan.edu>
Here is another abstract for the Wesleyan Nabokov conference:
Abstract
Andrei Bitov, across several stories and essays, and has invented an
intriguing set of fictionalized relationships to Pushkin. He
acknowledges that Pushkin is adored by Russian culture, and he
celebrates Pushkin for inventing an emblematically harmonious and free
way to think about life, but Bitov never forgets himself when he looks
at Pushkin. The patterns of self- referential digression are web-like
and dense, and they catch us up just when we think we are close to Bitov
himself. The mystifications that he invents to motivate his quests for
Pushkin offer many opportunities to watch what happens when someone as
interesting and as inventive as Andrei Bitov looks at Pushkin.
Mystification is Bitov's central rhetorical device in his three essays
about Pushkin, whereas a rhetoric of quotation has more prominence in
Pushkin House (Pushkinskii dom, 1978). Bitov strikes various attitudes
toward Pushkin in these quotations, and he quoted words in mystifying
ways. Like other Russian writers and poets, he returns often to the
theme of Pushkin's death, but Bitov resists the tragedy of that theme.
In his essays, he transforms Pushkin's last year into a time of new life
and he writes about the cycles of renewal in Pushkin's life in ways that
parallel his own career. His most interesting text about Pushkin is his
short story, "Pushkin's Photograph (1799-2099)" ("Fotografiia Pushkina
[1799-2099]," 1987), which I use to exemplify the formal device and
themes found in his other writings and also to argue that Bitov has been
wrongly interpreted as the proponent of a kind of "museum" approach to
Russian culture. His love of cultural quotation and literary allusion
has led readers to think that Bitov has the sensibility of a
disinterested collector, but that is entirely wrong. Because he has so
successfully mystified his authorial personality in his writings, and
because of his ironic comments in interviews and essays, Bitov may have
masked his love for Pushkin more successfully than any of his
contemporaries.
Stephanie Sandler
----------------
Priscilla Meyer
Russian department
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT 06459
(860) 685-3127
http://www.wesleyan.edu/~pmeyer/index.html
Here is another abstract for the Wesleyan Nabokov conference:
Abstract
Andrei Bitov, across several stories and essays, and has invented an
intriguing set of fictionalized relationships to Pushkin. He
acknowledges that Pushkin is adored by Russian culture, and he
celebrates Pushkin for inventing an emblematically harmonious and free
way to think about life, but Bitov never forgets himself when he looks
at Pushkin. The patterns of self- referential digression are web-like
and dense, and they catch us up just when we think we are close to Bitov
himself. The mystifications that he invents to motivate his quests for
Pushkin offer many opportunities to watch what happens when someone as
interesting and as inventive as Andrei Bitov looks at Pushkin.
Mystification is Bitov's central rhetorical device in his three essays
about Pushkin, whereas a rhetoric of quotation has more prominence in
Pushkin House (Pushkinskii dom, 1978). Bitov strikes various attitudes
toward Pushkin in these quotations, and he quoted words in mystifying
ways. Like other Russian writers and poets, he returns often to the
theme of Pushkin's death, but Bitov resists the tragedy of that theme.
In his essays, he transforms Pushkin's last year into a time of new life
and he writes about the cycles of renewal in Pushkin's life in ways that
parallel his own career. His most interesting text about Pushkin is his
short story, "Pushkin's Photograph (1799-2099)" ("Fotografiia Pushkina
[1799-2099]," 1987), which I use to exemplify the formal device and
themes found in his other writings and also to argue that Bitov has been
wrongly interpreted as the proponent of a kind of "museum" approach to
Russian culture. His love of cultural quotation and literary allusion
has led readers to think that Bitov has the sensibility of a
disinterested collector, but that is entirely wrong. Because he has so
successfully mystified his authorial personality in his writings, and
because of his ironic comments in interviews and essays, Bitov may have
masked his love for Pushkin more successfully than any of his
contemporaries.
Stephanie Sandler
----------------
Priscilla Meyer
Russian department
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT 06459
(860) 685-3127
http://www.wesleyan.edu/~pmeyer/index.html