Situating the beast: Animals and animal imagery in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian literature.

摘要

The inclusion of animals in a literary work represents a conscious decision on the part of an author yet it is a decision for the most part neglected by Western and Russian critical scholarship. Comparing the most prominent thematic treatments of animals in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian literature provides a clearer understanding of authors' methods, their metaphysical and epistemological assumptions, and their visions of the social world. A brief overview of the texts considered reveals some applications of the animal world: Nikolai Gogol ("Diary of a Madman," Dead Souls ) warns against ignoring metaphysical truths in favor of false vanity, while Fedor Sologub (The Petty Demon) borrows Gogolian techniques to reveal the moral indolence of humanity Ivan Turgenev (Sketches from a Hunter's Album, "Mumu") and Lev Tolstoi ( Anna Karenina, War and Peace, "Kholstomer") consider humanity's ethical and spiritual responsibility to one another and to the surrounding environment Mikhail Bulgakov ("The Fatal Eggs," Heart of a Dog, Master and Margarita) and Vladimir Maiakovskii ( The Bedbug) express fears about the individual's place in the all-consuming Soviet society and Georgii Vladimov (Faithful Ruslan) and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (The First Circle, Cancer Ward, The Gulag Archipelago) explore the havoc and dehumanization wreaked by the societal and governmental corruption. Finally, analogous uses of the animal world occur in the works of such artists as Pavel Fedotov, Pavel Filonov, and Marc Chagall.Serious attention to the presence of the animal world in these works offers fresh perspectives and sharper readings of many familiar texts, thereby crystallizing the works of other scholars around the most pressing metaphysical questions regarding the Self, the presence of a divine entity, and the resulting implications for the fates of non-human beings.