Andrej Belyj and Georgia: Georgian modernism and the "peripheral" reception of the Petersburg text

Russian Literature

Volumn 58, Issue 1-2, 2005, Pages 243-276

  Ram, Harsha ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33244495318     PISSN: 03043479     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.ruslit.2005.07.016     Document Type: Article

References (118)

1. See V.N. Toporov Peterburg i Peterburgskij tekst russkoj literatury Semiotika goroda i gorodskoj kul'tury. Peterburg. Trudy poznakovym sistemam 18 1984 4-29
2. Petrograd N. Anciferov The "Petersburg text" has been extensively discussed by critics Dǔa Peterburga 1922
3. New York Marshall Bergman All That is Solid Melts into Air. The Experience of Modernity 1982
4. Solomon Volkov Ju.M. Lotman Simvolika Peterburga i problemy semiotiki goroda Moskova Semiotikia goroda i gorodskoj kul'tury, Peterburg. Trudy po znakovym sistemam
5. and Solomon Volkov Istorija kul'tury Sankt-Peterburga s osnovanija do našich dnej 2001 Moskva
6. The basic premises of the Blue Horn Poets can be discerned in T'abidze's two-part manifesto of 1916 entitled With the Blue Horns (Tsisperi Qants'ebit): See T'itsian T'abidze, Sonet'ebi rcheuli leksebi esse, Tbilisi, 1999, pp. 82-113.
7. On the Blue Horn poets, including T'abidze, see Luigi Margarotto, 'Storia e teoria dell'avanguardia georgiana (1915-1924)', L'avanguardia a Tiflis, Venezia, 1982, in particular 53-70
8. Donald Rayfield, The Literature of Georgia. A History, Oxford, 1994, pp. 260-277
9. Soso Sigua, Kartuli Modernizmi, Tbilisi, 2002.
10. T'itsian T'abidze Iz avtobiografii Avtoportret. Izbrannye stitchotvorenija i poėmy 1995 18-19
11. I quote this recently published Russian version because it corresponds to the fullest redaction of this text that I have seen. It can be compared to the shorter bowdlerized version, clearly a second redaction written under pressure, which can be found in most other editions, both Georgian and Russian, of T'abidze's work: Cf. 'Iz avtobiografii', Izbrannoe (ed. V.V. Gol'cev), Moskva, 1936, pp. 9-16,
12. republished in Georgian recently as 'Avt'obiograpiidan', Sonet'ebi rcheuli leksebi esse, pp. 127-133. In the case of one minor phrase I have opted to translate the relevant section from Izbrannoe, since it gave more clarity to the sentence.
13. A chronology of two decades obtains if we begin the history of Russian modernism with D.S. Merežkovskij's programmatic article of 1892 'O pričinach upadka i o novych tečenijach sovremennoj russkov literatury' and and end with the appearance of the first publications of the avant-garde in 1910-1911.
14. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Iz avtobiografii', pp. 19, 21.
15. Significantly, these thoughts do not express the wisdom of hindsight, but repeat the conclusions of T'itsian's article 'Gruzinskaja poėzija "Golubye rogi"', Kuranty, 1919, 2, pp. 15-17
16. On the copresence of symbolism and futurism in the Blue Horn poets, see Magarotto, 'Storia e teoria dell'avanguardia georgiana, 1915-1924', pp. 59-60
17. Magarotto distinguishes between the poet Iashvili, who appears to the post-symbolist avant-garde, and T'abidze, who advocated a "recuperation and a development of the symbolist doctrine".
18. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Uabjaroni' (Men without armour) Leksebi, p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi 1985 76 Tbilisi
19. 'P'arkshi' ('In the Park'), 1915, p. 71. T'itsian's declarations of weakness recall the Russian poet of the 1880's Semen Nadson, but his pessimism is closer to that of the Georgian romantics.
20. Harold Bloom The Anxiety of Influence. A Theory of Poetry 1973 5
21. New York Harold Bloom The Anxiety of Influence. A Theory of Poetry 1973 16
22. Grigol Robakidze Gruzinskij modernizm ARS. Ežemesjačnik iskusstva i literatury 1 1918 51
23. Tbilis, 1990 Osip Mandel'štam Koe-čto o gruzinskom iskusstve Stitchotvorenija, perevody, ǒerki, stat'i 1922 310
24. T'itsian acknowledge his attendance of this lecture to Belyj himself when they met in 1927 - see Andrej Belyj, Veter s Kavkaza, Vpečatlenija, Moskva, 1928, p. 166
25. Belyj's lecture has not survived; but we do posses a review of the lecture that appeared in the press of the time: M.Z., 'Drama žizni, Na lekcii Andreja Belogo', Utro Rossii, October 25, 1916, p. 4
26. C.f. also Belyj's letter to Ivanov-Razumnik of October 26, 1916, in which the lecture is mentioned: Andrej Belyj i Ivanov-Razumnik. Perepiska, p. 80.
27. Donald Rayfield, related articles of the time have survived: Cf. S.S. Grečiškin and A.V. Lavrov (eds.), 'O stichovedčeskom nasledii Andrej Belogo', Trudy po znakovym sistemam, 12, 1981. pp. 97-146.
28. letter of 19-21 August 1927 Andrej Belyj Sankt-Peterburg A.V. Lavrov John Malmstad Andrej Belyj i Ivanov-Razumnik, Perepiska 1998 529
29. Andrej Belyj Načalo veka Moskva 1990 65
30. Leningrad See also A.V. Lavrov Mifotvorčestvo "argonavtov" Mif, fol'klor, literatura 1978 137-170
31. Berlin Andrej Belyj Stichotvorenija 1923 13
32. Moskva Andrej Belyj Zolotoe runo Zoloto v lazuri 1904 8-9
33. Moskva Revoljucija i kul'tura 1994 Kritika. Estetika. Teorija simvolizma Vol. 2 1917 454-455
34. On Belyj's colour symbolism, see Samuel D. Cioran A Prism for the Absolute: The Symbolic Colors of Andrey Bely Cioran points out that the convergence of gold and azure is found even earlier in the poetry of Vladimir Solov'ev. Gerald Janecek Andrey Bely. A Critical Review 1978 103-114
35. Andrej Belyj, 'Vozrat', Zoloto v lazuri p. 147.
36. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Tsisperi Qants'ebit [Part 2]' Sonet'ebi rcheuli leksebi esse 1916 98 102
37. The myth of Georgia-Colchis is evoked by T'itsian in early poems such as 'Medeas simgher' ('A Song to Medeas simghera' and 'Nokt'iumi' ('Nocturne', 1912) Leksebi, p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi 1971 42 55 60-61
38. On T'itsian's "historicization" of symbols inherited from Europe and Russia G. Curikova Tician Tabidze. Žizn' i poězija 1971 Leningrad New York 63-64
39. Rayfield D., The Literature of Georgia. A History, pp. 260-261.
40. On the Chaldean theory of Georgian ethnogenesis see Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi Kartveli eris ist'oria Vol. 1 1960 412 Tbilisi
41. G. Curikova suggests that T'itsian would have also attended N.Ja. Marr's lectures on Chaldean cuneiform writing at the Lazarev Institute for Oriantal Languages; see Tician Tabidze. Žizn' i poězija, p. 61.
42. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Tsiperi Qants'ebit [Part 2]' Sonet'bi rcheuli leksebi esse 1916 108
43. Rémy de Gourmont Livre des masques. Portraits symbolistes 17th edition 1922 Paris 4 13
44. E.M. Blinova M. Kuzmin The Russian edition was published as Kniga masok 1913 Grjaduščij
45. T'itsian quotes precisely this passage in his manifesto 'Tsisperi Qants'ebit [Part 1]' Sonet'ebi rcheuli leksebi esse 1916 85
46. Moskva Andrej Belyj Nastojaščee i buduščee russkoj literatury Kritika Ėstetika. Teorija simvolizma Vol. 1 1994 281-282 283
47. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Tsiperi Qants'ebit [Part 2]', Sonet'ebi rcheuli leksebi esse, p. 108.
48. Vjačeslav Ivanov expouned his views on symbolism, mythcreation, and spiritual collectivism in 'Nicše i Dionis', and 'Poėt i čern', Pozvezdam 1909 Sankt-Peterburg 1-20 33-42
49. G.W.F. Hegel H.G. Hotho 2nd ed. Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik, Vol. 10/1, Werke 1842 Berlin 381
50. T.M. Knox Aesthetics. Lectures on Fine Art Vol. 1 1975 Oxford 303
51. Grigol Robakidze Grunzinskij modernizm ARS, Ežemesjačnik iskustva i literatury 1 1918 47 52
52. Luigi Magarotto Vlijanic Nicše na rannee tvorčestvo Grigola Robakidze Literaturnaja Gruzija 9 1989 148-160
53. Grigol Robakidze Andrej Belyj ARS. Ežemesjačnik iskusstva i literatury 2/3 1918 55-56 60
54. Cf the slightly revised chapter on Belyj in Robakidze's book Portrety. Petr Čaadaev, Lermontov, Vasikij Rozanov Andrej Belyj 1919 Tbilisi 44-68
55. Grigol Robakidze Andrej Belyj ARS. Ežemesjačnik iskusstva i literatury 2/3 1918 58
56. Andrej Belyj Nastojaščee i buduščee russkoj literatury Kritika. Ėstetika. Teorija simvolizma Vol. 1 1907 294 301
57. Grigol Robakidze Pantazmebis kalaki Sakartvelo No. 239 29 October 1917 2
58. Grigol Robakidze, 'Pantazmebis kalaki', Sakartvelo, 29 October 1917, No. 239, p. 2.
59. This article contains many of the literary references found in T'abidze's poem, as well as identical or similar formulations: E.g. "from the mists of the swamp" ("ch'aobis nislebisagan"), "nightmare of cosmic chaos" ("k'osmiuri kaosis k'oshmarja"). Although the article was published after T'abidze's poem was apparently composed, it would be a mistake to assume that T'abidze's poem influenced Robakidze rather than vice versa. Given Robaki dze's enormous prestige in Georgian symbolist circles, it seems likely that both texts emerged from a shared conversation that may have preceded their actual composition. In his article 'Peterburg v gruzinskom otraženii', Literaturnaja Gruzija, 2003, pp. 1-3, 249-258,
60. Irakli K'enchoshvili quotes both Robakidze's article and T'abidze's poem without positing a relationship of influence (pp. 252-253).
61. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Iz avtobiografii', p24.
62. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Shekhvedra Majak'ovsk'istan. Nasts'qvet'i mogonebidan', Leksebi, p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi, pp. 648-649.
63. Meotsnebe niamorebi February 1919 3
64. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Iz avtobiografii', p. 21.
65. Valerian Gaprindasvili Sone'is p'roblema, (1919) Mana Khelaia 96 esse. Kartuli lit'erat'uruli esse XX sauk'unis 20-jani ts 'lebi 1986 Tbilisi 80-83
66. T'itsian T'abidze Georgi Leonidze The second publication of Peterburg appeared in Revolustsiis poet'ebi 1921 Tbilisi 10
67. (although the title is Russian, the volume is in Georgian). To my knowledge this is the first collected edition of T'abidze's lyric poetry, although his longer poems had appeared earlier in separate volumes T'itsian T'abidze Izbrannye stichi 1915-1933 1934 Tbilisi 187
68. F.M. Dostoevskij Zapiski iz podpol'ja (Notes from the Underground; 1864) Polnoe sobranie sočinenij v tridcati tomach 5 1973 101 Leningrad
69. In another classic passage from Dostoevskij's Podrostok (The Adolescent, 1874), Polnoe sobranie sovčnenij', 13, p. 113, the hero muses: "And what if, as soon as this fog dissipates and rises up, this entire city, rotten and slimy, goes with it, rises with the fog and disappears like smoke, leaving behind the Finnish bog that had been there before, and in the middle of it, perhaps, for the sake of beauty, the bronze horseman on his hotly breathing and harried steed."
70. Moskva Andrej Belyj Peterburg 1981 20-21
71. After Puškin the loci classici of the Bronze Horseman topos are Aleksandr Blok's 'Petr' ('Peter', 1904), Innokentij Annenskij' 'Peterburg' 'Petersburg',1910), and of course Andrej Belyj's novel Peterburg, of which more below. If these texts are read in sequence it becomes clear that the Bronze Horseman's adversary is increasingly perceived to be the Russian nation.
72. Moskva Vladimir Majakovskij Revoljucija. Poėtochronika Sočinenija v trech tomach Vol. 1 1978 130-131
73. Curiosly, many of the details of revolutionary street life in 1917 evoked in this poem echo Belyj's own eyewitness account of similar events seen in Moscow, cf. Andrej Belyj's letter of 16 June 1917 to Ivanov-Razunmnik, Andrej Belyj i Ivanov-Razumnik. Perepiska, Sankt-Peterburg, 1998, pp. 118-119. One must assume T'itsian derived these details from the literary tradition and journalistic testimony of the time, as well as his own memories of the preceding months.
74. Belyj, Peterburg, p. 99.
75. T'itsian T'abidze, Leksebi, p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi, p. 99.
76. See Curikova, Tician Tabidze. Žizn' i poėzija, p. 39.
77. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Iz avtobiogragfii';, p. 21;
78. see also Curikova, Tician Tabidze. Žizn' i poėzija, pp. 105-108.
79. T'itsian T'abidze, 'Tskheni angelosit' ('The Horse and the Angel'), Leksebi p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi, p. 229.
80. T'itsian T'abidze, Leksebi, p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi, p. 230, 232.
81. T'itsian T'abidze, Leksebi, p'oemebi, p'roza, ts'erilebi, p. 231.
82. Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence, p. 15.
83. Andrej Belyj, Veters Kavkaza, pp. 145 191.
84. Belyj's correspondence with T'itsian is rich in declarations of mutual admiration and shard understanding Andrej Belyj Rakurs k dnevniku Minuvšee 14 1993 483
85. T'itsian T'abidze Andrej Belyj Zarja vostoka No. 1515 1 July 1927
86. Jurij Surovcev Otkryvaju archivnuju papku Družba narodov 12 1995 14-15
87. Belyj's own account of his Tbilisi lectures can be found in Veter s Kavkaza, pp. 182-198
88. and in a letter to Ivanov-Razumnik, 19-21 August 1927, Andrej Belyj i Ivanov-Razumnik. Perepiska, pp. 527-529.
89. Andrej Belyj, letter to Ivanov-Razumnik, 19-21 August 1927, Andrej Belyj i Ivanov-Razumnik. Perepiska, p. 529.
90. T'itsian T'abidze Andrej Belyj Zarja vostoka No. 1515 1 July 1927
91. Andrej Belyj, Veter s Kavkaza, pp. 166-167, 169-170.
92. These highly metaphorical observations can be compared to the more conventional diary entries of his wife K.N. Bugaeva 'Dnevnik. 1927-1928' Lica. Biografičeskij al'manach 7 1996 197-316 see especially pp 209 221 223 250-253
93. K. Grigor'jan 'Andrej Belyj v Gruzii' Druba narodov 2 1966 230-237
94. G. Curikova, Tician Tabidze. izn' i pȯzija, pp. 186-194;
95. the memoirs of Nina T'abidze Nino Magashvili Raduga na rassvete 1992 Tbilisi 75-117
96. Luigi Magarotto 'Andey Bely in Georgia: Seven Letters from A. Bely to T. Tabidze' The Slavonic and East European Review 63 3 July 1985 388-416
97. Letter of Andrej Belyj to Boris Pasternak, 23 July 1929 Iz perepiski Borisa Pasternaka s Andreem Belym Moskva E.V. Pasternak E.B. Pasternak Andrei Belyj. Problemy tvorčstva. Stat'i. Vospominanija. Publikacii 1988 695
98. Cf. Veter s Kavkaza Pp. 52-53.
99. Belyj's s first thoughts on colour are expressed in the article Svjaščennye cveta Kritika. Ėstetika. Teorija simvolizma Vol. 2 1903 110-123
100. Belyj's philosophy of colour during this period was dominated, as Belyj himself admitted, by three colours: White, azure and purple, which together formed a "mystical triangle" that constituted Christ's image. Azure was "the colour of the abyss beyond light but translucent through it". He was thus suspicious of "nuances" ("ottenki") that blended these colours into each other, seeing them as "temptations that led away from Christ's image". See Andrej Belyj, Vospominanija o Bloke, Moskva, 1995, p. 197.
101. In Veter s Kavkaza, by contrast, "nuances" become a primary source of descriptive interest. On the poetics of perception in Belyj's travelogue see Carmen Sippl, Reisetexte in der russischen Moderne. Andrei Belyi und Osip Mandel'gtam im Kaukasus. Slavistische Beitrgge, 347, Mttnchen, 1997, pp. 102-116;
102. scattered useful observations can also be found in T.P. Baturina, 'Očerki A. Belogo "Veter s Kavkaza"', Russkaja literatura i Kavkaz, Stavropol', 1974, pp. 76-87.
103. Andrej Belyj, 'Iz perepiski Borisa Pasternaka s Andreem Belym', p. 696.
104. Andrej Belyj, 'Iz perepiski Borisa Pasternaka s Andreem Belym', pp. 696-697; Belyj's emphasis.
105. The Imperial Sublime. A Russian Poetics of Empire 2003 Madison
106. Andrej Belyj, 'Iz perepiski Borisa Pasternaka s Andreem Belym', p. 697.
107. G.W.F. Hegel Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte F. Brunstäd 1980 Stuttgart 182 211
108. Andrej Belyj, Veter s Kavkaza, pp. 58, 60; emphasis added.
109. Moskva N.V. Gogol O dvienii narodov v konce V veka' (1834) Gogol's "pictorializing"of history is an important Russian precedent for Belyj Polnoe sobranie sošinenij 8 1952 115-140
110. Andrej Belyj, Veter s Kavkaza, p. 62, 64
111. Andrej Belyj, Veter s Kavkaza, p. 62.
112. It is clear from Belyj's travelogue that he was unaware of Robakidze's earlier critique. The latter was away in Germany during Belyj's first visit, although his name was frequently invoked in Belyj's presence as their maǐtre à penser. Belyj was even told of Robakidze's book Portrety, which contained a critical assessment of him, but Belyj seems unaware of its contents: See Veter s Kavkaza, pp. 168, 190.
113. Belyj did subsequently meet Robakidze in 1928 (see his letter to Ivanov-Razumnik of 25 June 1928, Andrej Belyj i Ivanov-Razumnik. Perepiska, p. 601)
114. and corresponded with him: See Pavel Nerler, 'Andrej Belyj i poėty gruppy "Golubye rogi". Novye materialy', Voprosy literatury, 1988, 4, pp. 276-282.
115. Letter of 16 June 1929 Tician Tabidze. Stat'i očerki, perepiska 1964 Tbilisi 239
116. The "suffering of thought" is likely a reference to the poet Baratynskij, whom the two poets had discussed. T'itsian was to write one more article on Andrej Belyj in the wake of his death in 1934, 'Andrej Beli', Leksebi, p 'oemebi, p 'roza, ts 'erilebi, pp. 629-639.
117. The longest assessment of Belyj that T'itsian was ever to write, it is unfortunately of interest only as an attempt to conform to the ideological pressures of the times. It criticizes the passionate obituary published by B. Pasternak and B. Pil'njak in Izvestija, 8, 9 January 1934, and offers a cautiously orthodox Soviet interpretation of Belyj's work. Throughout T'itsian's life, then, Belyj was an essential point of reference and a means to determine his own relationship to modernism under different pressures, be they the anxieties of influence or Soviet ideology
118. The limits of Georgian modernism may not have been defined only by the Bolshevik annexation of Georgia. Cf. Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought in the Colonial World. A Derivative Discourse?, New Delhi, 1986, pp. 38-39, who argues that anti-colonial nationalism, of which Blue Horn modernism was surely in part an expression, remains trapped in a European epistemology.