You are on page 1of 10

Dostoevskii in Siberia: Remembering the Past Author(s): Harriet Murav Source: Slavic Review, Vol. 50, No.

4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 858-866 Published by: The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2500467 Accessed: 10/12/2010 07:35
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aaass. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Slavic Review.

http://www.jstor.org

HARRIET MURAV

in Siberia:Remembering thePast Dostoevskii

in theFebruary In "MuzhikMarei,"which appeared issueofDnevnik pisateliafor1876,Fedor Dostoevskii"remembers" an experience from his timein Siberia. DuringEasterweek the drunken carousing ofhisfellow convicts (which, he writes, "tormented menearly tothepoint of illness""do bolezniisterzalo menia")haddriven hiim outofthebarracks into theyard. Therehe metthePolishprisoner, Miretskii, whosaid, "Jehaisces brigands" (22: 46).' Thesewords drive Dostoevskii right backto theplace from which, as he says,onlyfifteen minutes before, he had fled"kak bezumnyi." himself In thebarracks Dostoevskii andfellintoa reverie. He rememgradually composed in thewoodson his father's beredhow as a nine-year-old boy,playing estate,he had become at thecry"Volk bezhit!"He had runintothefield, terribly frightened "vne sebia ot ispuga." himwithmaternal The peasantMarei, who was plowing, comforted tenderness (Dostoevskii describes Marei's "nezhnaiamaterinskaia ulybka"and his "pochtizhenstvenniaia nezhnost'," (22:49). thenine-year-old NotonlydidMareicomfort ofhimproduced Dostoevskii, butthememory a remarkable inthetwenty-nine-year-old convicts in change Dostoevskii, disgusted byhisfellow theprison camp-or so thefifty-five-year-old Dostoevskii tellsus. Whenhe ranoutof thebarracks, he hadbegun tohatehisfellow prisoners, butnow,having recalled hischildhood encounterwith thepeasant Marei,he was completely transformed. "Vdrug, kakim-to ischezla chudom, i zloba v serdtse sovsemvsiakaianenavist' moem,"Dostoevskii reports (22:49). Amongthe shaven, scarred, andbranded convicts another Mareimaybe found. and published in 1860 and 1861, In an earlier work,Zapiskiiz mertvogo doma, written a markedly similar material butwith different The episode Dostoevskii hadaddressed emphasis. in questionis entitled "Pretenziia" and it is foundneartheend of the novel.The narrator, one incident morethan forced himto understand theextent writes that anyother Gorianchikov, and "osobennost"'(4:199). to whichhis position in thecampwas one of "otchuzhdennost"' is set in summer. Easterweek,the The incident ("MuzhikMarei," let us recall,is set during andaggravated. ingroups time The convicts areespecially ofresurrection.) gloomy Theygather tothecommandant. tocomplain aboutthefoodanddecidetomakea grievance Finally, they line up in the yardto await his arrival.Gorianchikov goes out to join thembut is rebuffed. nos" someone yellsat him(4:202). "Im [the vezderai.Tutkatorga, a oni "Zheleznyi nobility] that never before had he been so insulted. He rekalachiediat" (4:203). Gorianchikov writes treats from backtothekitchen, where thePolishprisoners, a fewstoolpigeons, theJew theyard havebeenwatching. Isai Fomich,and other and despised dismarginal figures Gorianchikov, thePole, that aside from "these" practically else has outto Miretskii, mayed, points everyone ofthewords we already knowfrom "MuzhikMarei": "Je answer consists goneout.Miretskii's hais ces brigands" (4:204). In "MuzhikMarei" Dostoevskii's miraculous transformation likea crystal, around grows, which he had run,thoroughly sickthesewords, drivehimbackintothebarracks, from which minutes andthesewords drivehimbackintohisownpast-one that ened,onlyfifteen before, him from the Pole and the Jew-to his childhood encounter withthe peasant distinguishes Marei. In Zapiski,thesewordsfailto serveas a pivotalpoint;they onlymakeGorianchikov In thememory realizethat be comrades with his fellowconvicts. of his meeting he can never
v tridtsati 1. All quotationsare fromF. M. Dostoevskii,Poltnoesobranie sochitneniii totnakl (Leningrad: Nauka, 1972-). SlavicReview 50, no. 4 (Winier 1991)

Dostoevskii inSiberia

859

with Marei,Dostoevskii hadattained than tomore In thetender, maternal comradeship: carethat Mareioffered attained him,Dostoevskii tosonship-sonship with thepeople,with Mother Russia, with Mother Earth. In "MuzhikMarei" and Zapiskiiz mertvogo doma an incident that mayor maynothave occurred during thetime that Dostoevskii in Siberiais related in twoseemingly spent radically different tocometoterms accounts.2To attempt with thedifference, on thebasisofsomenotion ofthefacts, wouldbe misguided, for several reasons. Thepsychology ofconversion (a topicthat I willtouch uponlater) is one reason.Moreto thepoint for nowis theliterary fact that "Marei" is part ofDnevnik pisatelia,which GarySaul Morson has characterized as a form of "threshold art,""designed to be interpreted to contradictory according setsofconventions."' A more productive be toexplore route might thedifference between thetwoworks interms of narrative theory, concentrating notonlyon content, butalso on formal features, specifically, thoseof thegenre of confession. The problematic nature of Dostoevskii's use of thisgenre has beenwellestablished bythecritical butamong theavailable literature, works ofscholarship that ofMikhail andRobinMilleris ofparticular Bakhtin significance tothetexts I wishtoconsider.4 In light of thisbodyof criticism I willexamine theseeming thefirst disparity between person narratives ofZapiskiiz mertvogo domaandof "MuzhikMarei." I willbeginwith Bakhtin's poetics ofconfession, which he derives mostly from an analysis of Zapiskiiz podpol'ia and of Stavrogin's confession to Tikhon in Besy.5 Bakhtin characterizes theDostoevskian hero's"confessional self-utterance" as theonlyform of speechthat couldresistan external, The hero's finalizing definition, given byanother. himself is essenspeechabout tially self-protective. The heronever utters his lastwordabouthimself. He holdssomething in reserve, a "loophole,"as Bakhtin calls it,which allowsforthepossibility of altering the"ultiofone'sownwords"(Problems, mate,final meaning 233). The loophole takesintoaccount the of another's possibility "contrary evaluation." The narrator of Zapiskiiz podpol'ia, thework that theclearest provides ofconfessional knows example we can sayabout discourse, everything himin advance(Problems, 52).6 As Bakhtin of Zapiskiiz podpol'ia does notwishto be known points out,thenarrator or understood else. He rejects theonlyperson who loveshim,theprostitute by anyone Liza, because she understands him. "Ona ponialaiz vsegoetogoto, chtozhenshchina vsegdaprezhde vsegopoimet . . . chtoia samneschtasliv" (5:174). To be understood is unbearable byanother to thenarrator ofweeping his andwillnotlift (Problems, 253-254). He fallsto thesofain a fit headto look Liza in theeye.
(New York: Geoffrey C. Kabat,Ideology and Imaginationi 2. Forother discussions, see, for example, of conversion in his DosFrank discussestheproblem ColumbiaUniversity Press,1978), 67-71. Joseph University Press, 1983), 116-127. For Robert toevsky: The Yearsof Ordeal (Princeton, N..': Princeton of his artistic Siberian experience is thedevelopment Louis Jackson, thecrucialingredient of Dostoevskii's Marei'," YaleReview (Winter 1978): 225-235. vision;see his "The TripleVision:'The Peasant ofGenre:Dostoevsky's Diaryofa Writer and theTraditions 3. GarySaul Morson, TheBoundaries of to inthe ofTexasPress,1981),x. Citations tothis work willbe referred Utopia(Austin: University Literary text by Boundaries andpage number in parentheses. A Study ofStavrogin's Confession: oftheNew Chapter 4. See also LeonidGrossman, "The Stylistics O'Connor, in Critical ed. RobinFeiier of ThePossessed," trans. Katherine Tiernan Essavs on Dostoevsky, as partof his book, essay originally appeared Miller(Boston:G. K. Hall, 1986), 148- 158. Grossman's khudozh. Nauk, 1925). Poetika Dostoevskogo (Moscow:Gos. akademiia Problemny poetiki Dostoevskogo (Moscow: Sovetskii 5. The analysisis foundin MikhailBakhtin, Bakhtini, Problems ofDostoevsky's Poetics,ed. andtrans. pisatel',1963). All quotations taken from Mikhail willbe referred to ofMinnesota tothis work Emerson Caryl (Minneapolis: University Press,1984). Citations in thetext inparentheses. by Problems arid page number his reader's to forestall criticalls thisthe"Underground Man'sblatant 6. Barbara Hioward attempts as an exaggeration of a similar butmoresubtleprocessin Jean-Jacques cisms," whichshe understands Notesfrom and nUnderground See "The Rhetoric of Confession: Dostoevskij's Rousseau'sConfessions. Essayson Dostoevsky, 64-73. Rousseau'sConfessions," in Miller, ed., Critical

860

SlavicReview

A similar frames conflict Stavrogin's confession to Tikhon.Tikhonlooks at Stavrogin "s takimneozhidannym i zagadochnym vyrazheniem chtoon chut' ne vzdrognul" (11:7). in thisinstant becomesconvinced Stavrogin that Tikhon knowswhyhe has come. After a few wordsof conversation, silencedescends again,to be broken by Stavrogin's accusation: "Have youbeenwatching me?" (1 1: 8). He becomes outraged when Tikhon saysthat he hasdiscerned a between features andhismother's. similarity Stavrogin's Later, whenStavrogin tellsTikhon that he loves him,and Tikhonrightly anticipates thatthislove will becomeanger,Stavrogin exi psikhologov, plodes:"Slushaite, ia ne liubliu shpionov mere takikh, kotorye v moiu po krainei dushu lezut" ( 1: I 1). as Bakhtin Stavrogin's confession, shows,is marked by thesame "viciouscycle" that is found in Zapiskiiz podpol'ia. Stavrogin does notwant in advancebyTikhon. to be understood tohim.Stavrogin wants To be theobjectofTikhon's andaffirmagaze is unbearable recognition "theother's ofhim"(Problems, tionfrom another buthe rejects person, judgment 244). Hence hisconfession becomes,as Tikhon says,"gordelivyi vyzov"(1 1: 24). theconfessional valorizes modein terms of "adequacy" or authenticity, Bakhtin butthis oftheviciouscycle(Problems, positive language is at oddswith thenegative formulation 252). The confessional whether it is found in dialoguewith as in theexampleof another, utterance, is markedby opposition, and Tikhon,or in an extended Stavrogin first-person narrative, oftheloophole, ortheword The consequence a sidelong struggle, anddistortion. with glance,is is rendered "The loophole that thehero's self-definition unstable. distorts hisattitude profoundly himself" towards (Problems, 234). oftheconfessional RobinMiller's modein Dostoevskii is in somewayssimilar description In a confession, toBakhtin's. Dostoevskian confession is a "double-edged shewrites. the form," or lacerate "narrator mayexpose,disguise, justify, himself" ("Morality," 82).7 But rarely is achieved Becauseoftheconfessional theunderground narrator repentance thereby. genre itself, and irresistible need to distort." Millerputstheproblem thisway: "lays bare his own vanity oftheinner "Ideally,a confession couldregister andconvey thecondition man,but. . . inrealactofmaking a confession-the toportray one'sinner thevery ity, attempt being-could easily or changetheessential of theconfession was initially idea theauthor to express" falsify trying Dostoevskii the"romantic ("Morality," 97). Miller goes on to saythat "exposedandparodied" and literary of theconfession," a herosought to develophis commonplace by meansof which owndestiny. of Dostoevskii torestore theconfession toits"original that ultimately sought form, of God that in a confession resides thecollective manifestation by manbefore God, andbefore toMiller, thepeople" ("Morality," is a parody ofromantic 97). Zapiskiizpodpol'ia,according ofRousseau'sConfessions. "MuzhikMarei,"we maysurself-oriented confession, specifically, form of confession theoriginal mise,wouldcloselyresemble before God andthepeople. The essential difference between Miller andBakhtin is thepostulation ofthe"inner being," forMiller,is trueto itself before speechand is distorted by confessional speechto anwhich, other. ForBakhtin, indialogue, theinner that addressed to beingonlyexists is, in self-utterance another. As CarylEmerson and his explainsin a recent essay on theBakhtin circle,Bakhtin from theassumption that is madein a profoundly socialway.For colleagues proceeded meaning is constituted selfhood inpart Bakhtin thus a modelforunderBakhtin, byotherness.8 provides to another as a positive addressed hislanstanding self-description mechanism, notwithstanding that masks ordistorts, that allowsfor thepossibility ofan guageof "distortion." Self-description or parodistic fora limitless ironic offers thepossibility of theself. turn, openness
7. All quotations from RobinFeuerMiller,"Dostoevsky and Rousseau:The Morality of Confession in Dostoevsky: NewPerspectives, Reconsidered," ed. Robert Louis Jacksorn (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice-Hall, 1984), 82-97. Citations to thisworkwillbe referred to in thetext by "Morality" and thepage number in parentheses. 8. CarylEmerson, "The Outer Word andInner Speech:Bakhtin, Vygotsky, andtheInternalization of L.anguage," in Bakhtin: EssaysandDialogueson His Work, ed. GarySaul Morson (Chicago:University of ChicagoPress,1986).

inSiberia Dostoevskii

861

Bakhtin does notdistinguish between confessional discourse that is addressed to another, before whomone couldpossibly distort oneself, andconfessional discourse that is notoriented towards another, and hence would be freefromsuch temptations, as Miller suggests.For Bakhtin all confessional self-utterance mustnecessarily be addressed to another. Without anthere can be no self.Thispoint, other, as we havejustseen,is part ofa setofassumptions shared bytheBakhtin group, butitemerges with particular force inBakhtin's 1961notes, entitled "Towarda Reworking oftheDostoevsky Book." Bakhtin wrote that "themostimportant actsconstituting self-consciousness are determined by a relationship toward another consciousness" (Problems, 287).9 What marks theconfessional discourse ofZapiskiizpodpol'iaandStavrogin's confession to Tikhonand renders them bothinauthentic, as Bakhtin, likeMiller,shows,is notthat they are addressed to another, butthat areaddressed tothecategorizing, they ormonologizing, glanceof theother."? itshould be noted, Bakhtin, outthat points Stavrogin misunderstands Tikhon in this regard.The confessions of the underground narrator and Stavrogin are uttered in a register marked by conflict, wherea perceived threat of finalization, of violenceexists,wherethe "false" and "externalizing" wordis already andbecomes ofthemask. anticipated part In the1961 notes,however, Bakhtin another modelof confessional in imagines discourse which theelement of conflict is mitigated and we arrive at "a meeting andinteraction between theothers' andone's owneyes,andintersection ofworldviews . . . an intersection of twoconsciousnesses" describes "a (Problems, 289). In whatseemsto be a visionof utopia,Bakhtin twosor multiples" of unmerged dialogicconcordance (Bakhtin's emphasis, Problems, 289). I cannot "I cannot without The boundaries of theselfexpand, becomemyself manage another, in another I must find another in myself" without an other; myself byfinding (Problems, 287). in discourse that is "an encounter I with The lastremainder of theselfemerges of thedeepest andwithothers thefolk)"(Problems, another (with 294). Miller's of "original, formulation sacramental confession" before God orbefore themanifestation ofGod in thepeople,bymeansofwhich theindividual is reunited with other individuals, draws attention to someaspects oftheprocess that Bakhtin describes. Bakhtin's andMiller's ofDostoevskii, taken reveal a modelaccording readings together, to which confession is always butmayeither be marked in an open-ended, other-oriented or unstable by conflict, resulting in somekindofrecovery or harmonious, of self.Let me point identity, resulting out,however, that whatI have drawn from Bakhtin and Millerin theformulation of thissynthetic modelis in application and needsto be tested to specific texts. In order provisional to do so, I willnow return to thedifferences between domaand "MuzhikMarei." Zapiskiiz mertvogo Let us first lookmore doma.As Morson has suggested, there closelyatZapiskiiz mertvogo are procedural similarities between doma. Both Zapiskiiz podpol'ia and Zapiskiiz mertvogo works feature a narrator "whosedisfigured reflects thedisintegration ofRussiansopersonality nota finished work but'notes'andfragments" ciety"and who "creates 10- 11). (Boundaries, Bothworks on a framing devicein which a fictive editor rely somekindofclosure and provides forwhatwouldotherwise be an incoherent, organization or,in thecase ofZapiskiiz podpol'ia, an endlessmanuscript. In theintroduction toZapiskiiz mertvogo editor describes howhe cameto doma,thefictive be acquainted with thewriter oftheZapiski,whohadserved themurder time for Gorianchikov, how he repeatedly of his wife.The "editor"describes forced his company on the unhappy whosesole aimin life,itseemed, was to hidefrom as completely as posGorianchikov, society sible(4:7). The fictive editor describes he bribed hiswayinto how,uponGorianchikov's death,
are takenfrom Emerson's whichappearsin Problems,appendix2, 9. All quotations translation, in 1976. 283-302. "Toward a Reworking oftheDostoevsky Book" was first published inherent in identity Eventhewords 10. Emerson points to thedifficulties that depends on another. left be finalized over, savedfor theself,"must inturn from without inorder toachieve anystability ofdefinition, withBakhtini's anybiographical validity" (See Emerson, "Problems Poetics,"Slavic and East European Journal 32 [Winter 1988]:503-525.)

862

SlavicReview

"whichwas perhaps a notebook. thedead man'sroom,and discovered forgotten bytheauthor i bessviaznoe, desiatiletnei himself." "Eto byloopisanie, khotia katorzhnoi zhizni,vynesennoi Mestami eto opisaniepreryvalos' kakoiu-to kaAleksandrom Petrovichem. drygoiu povest'iu, kakbudto kimi-to strannymi, uzhasnymi vospominaniiami, nabrosannymi nerovno, sudorozhno, razperechityval etiotryvki i pochti chtooni Ia neskol'ko prinuzhdeniiu. ubedilsia, po kakomu-to incontrast, andhe v sumasshestvii" havesomegeneral pisany (4:8). The prison notes, interest, is selecting twoor three sections forpublication. and of his writings, is represented as The discovery of Gorianchikov, of his existence, violent struggle between thefictive editor andGorianchikov. Theeditor saysthat inconversation themeaning to penetrate ofevery Gorianchikov actedas ifhe weretrying word,"kak budto by u negokakuiu-nibud' tainu"(4:6). Atanother voprosam vashim. . . khotite vypytat' meeting, actsas if"ia poimalego na kakom-nibud' theeditor reports, Gorianchikov prestuplenii" (4:7). malevolent howGorianchikov follows Gorianchikov's The editor empahsizes gaze anddescribes and "stranno."The editortries to "tempt" him with his eyes, staringat him intently with butwith razdraznil booksandmagazines no success("ia chut'ne Gorianchikov new,uncut carried outon thelevelofspiteful ego novymi knigami zhurnalimi," 4:7). A conflict glancesthat mark thelanguage to thesameagonistics of crime,secrecy, exortion, temptation-points in Zapiskiiz podpol'ia and thesceneof Stavrogin's thediscourse of thenarrator confession to Tikhon. theZapiskiiz merlvogo is a turning of thetables.Throughout domathenarThis struggle revealtheir The rator Gorianchikov triesto maketheconvicts secrets to him,butthey refuse. hereintroduced, andreluctant thenovelas related motifs offragmentation disclosure, dominate Gorianchikov a whole.Near theend of his term, gainsaccess to booksandjournalsthathad been unavailable to him,butno matter how hardhe triesto penetrate their inner previously in them na prezhnee" to discover "nameki and is forced meaning, (4:229), he is unsuccessful, v novoizhizni"(4:229), completely it.The lastlinesof to admit that he is "chuzhoi cutoff from iz mertvykh" thenovelring out-"Svoboda, novaiazhizn',voskresen'e -but theimplied res" urrection is beliedbytheintroduction. descends intothe"houseof thedead" without theupward Gorianchikov evercompleting andnever it. Thispeculiar He never silenceis journey. speaksofhis crime speaksof repenting in whomGorianchikov reflected by all his fellow convicts, never saw "ni maleishego priznaka does notportray himself raskaianiia"(4:15). Gorianchikov as a criminal amongcriminals, inregard convicts is more rather, hisnarrative stance totheother likethat ofa visiting anthropolhis knowledge of theforeign within at systematizing culture contained the ogist,whoseefforts "houseofthedead" constantly breaks down."Votia teper' silius'podvesti ves' nashostrog pod no vozmozhnoli eto? Deistvitel'nost' beskonechno raznoobrazna sravnitel'no so razriady; khitreishimi otvlechennoi vsemi,dazhei samymi vyvodami mysli"(4:197). first In Zapiskiiz Mertvogo discourse is represented as an agonistic doma,thehero's person in which thespeaker andhis interlocutor seekto monologize each other. Gorianchikov struggle hisfellow andtheeditor seekstowrest seekstocategorize Gorianchikov's secrets from convicts, hisownword him.Gorianchikov's efforts to retain forhimself, hisrefusal theedito meetwith Theeditor andhismalevolent stealsGorianchikov's tor, gaze all cometonaught. notebooks and versionof the notebooks'contents. publishesan edited,cleaned up, and hence mutilated withits "loopholes" and "sidelongglances," Bakhtin's modelsuggests thatself-description, succeedsin freeing theherofrom another's The introduction to external, finalizing description. thehero'shelplessness, reveals somelimitations Zapiskiiz Mertvogo doma,which suggests to model. Bakhtin's perhaps overly optimistic I havesuggested "MuzhikMarei" corresponds to a revised that formulationi oftheutopian form ofconfession, ofwhich arefound inboth features Bakhtin's andMiller's The descriptions.
11. Fora discussion oftheintroduction to Zapiskii ttertvogo reaches similar conclusions, domathat see Robert Louis Jackson, "The Narrator inHouse ofthe Deliriums Dead, " inidem,7heArt ofDostoevskv: and Nocturtnes N.J.:Princeton University Press,1981),33-70. (Princeton,

Dostoevskii inSiberia

863

letter that Dostoevskii wrote to thisbrother Mikhailin 1849,as he leftPetersburg forSiberia, will demonstrate how thisprocessworks.Dostoevskii describes thismove,thisgoingto the "Ta golova,kotoraia people, as it were,as decapitation: sozdavala,zhila vyssheiu zhizniiu iskusstva, kotoraia soznala i svyklas's vozvyshennymi potrebnostiami dukha,ta golova uzhe or dismembering srezanas plechmoikh"(28:162). The imageof decapitation is repeated in another letter tohisbrother, written in 1854,when Dostoevskii hasjustemerged from prison. In thisletter Dostoevskii compares describing hisexperience among theconvicts toa repetition, of linetranslates sorts, oftheold wound.The crucial as "How can I convey to youeverything that is goingon in myhead?" Moreliterally, andcloserto theRussian,it wouldread:"How can I handyoumyhead" (kakperedat' golovu)(28:167). Dostoevskii saysthat itwouldbe "impossible"for himtodescribe everything he livedthrough andthat ofwhich hecametobe convinced. "MuzhikMarei" wouldseemto healthewound.The Dostoevskii On first of examination, bothliterally "Marei" is a Dostoevskii remembered and metaphorically. Dostoevskii, theseveredmember to thepeopleand in so doingis remembered of society, is re-membered to himself,so to speak.In religious language, he becomes a member ofthat bodywhoseheadis Christ. The imagery of decapitation anddismembering becomesimagery of remembering and rebirth. The greatest possibleloss is translated intothegreatest possiblegain. The doubleremembering is accomplished ofmemory, which is emphasized bythework by thenarrative of "Marei." Dostoevskii structure begins with what happened to himat theage of nineand theninterrupts himself in order to embedthatnarrative in his accountof himself at The Dostoevskii of 1876 recallsto himself theDostoevskii of 1851 recalling twenty-nine. to himself theDostoevskii of 1831. All of thisremembering of nothing a self-inflicted is theresult other than repetition of the old wound of 1849,thedecapitation ofbeing sent toSiberia.Dostoevskii sendshimself backinto thebarracks and "handsoverhis head," so to speak,by surrendering his volition. He enters a which theremembrance of Mareicomesto himof itsownacpassive,dreamlike state, during cord.In the1861novel,thenarrator is represented as attempting tojoin theconvicts onlyto be himself rebuffed by them. Onlyin "Marei" does Dostoevskii represent as theone who turned ofguilt. away,which maybe seenas a confession to thepeoplearound In remembering re-members himself Marei,Dostoevskii figuratively him.Amongthescarred facesof his fellow convicts couldbe another and branded Marei,anto himself of recalling himself be. In thisprocess other couldpossibly whoseson Dostoevskii of whathe alwayswas-the son of Marei-but had never beDostoevskii gainsconsciousness Thispart fore known. He was always joinedtothepeoplebutwas notalways joinedto himself. it is as if he of himself was notpresent it to himself in his memory to himand in representing new. "Vdrug,kakim-to a suddenchange,something experiences chudom,ischezla sovsem i zloba v serdtse moem"(22:49). vsiakaianenavist' of thevolitionless-hence, innocent-andmiracIn "MuzhikMarei" therepresentation of therhetoric ulous workof memory is beliedby a self-conscious and masterful assimilation theacand concepts of thereligious of conversion: thesenseof disunity experience overcome, to tellthestory Dostoevskii has learned tionof memory, and senseof thenew.'2 thepassivity, of ofthe"regeneration" that he hadpreviously beenunabletotell:as he putitin 1873,thestory his convictions. of our confessional to fitthesecondcategory be understood "MuzhikMarei" might tyordistorwithout as an I-thou utterance as we havedefined pology it,namely conflict, masking, of andto hispeople.A closerreading is restored tohimself thespeaker tion, bymeansofwhich theproblems that intrude willreveal that "Marei" andofitscontext, however, uponthefirst type
The Varieties see William ofconversion, James, of theexperience 12. Fortheseas characteristics qf oftheway Fora discussion 9 and 10: 186--254. 1902),lectures (New York: Experience Religious Random., ReliProudfoot, see Wayne andpractices, beliefs, byconcepts, maybe constituted experience that religious also Frank Press,1985),75-118 and 184-189. Joseph ofCalifornia University (Berkeley: giousExperience The Years ofOrdeal, 116-118. in hisDostoevXsky: ofconversion theproblem discusses

864

SlavicReview

inDostoevskii, bestexemplified ofconfessional discourse elsewhere byZapiskiizpodpol'ia,are theuse ofparody or irony in Zapiskiiz podpol'ia serves as a also to be found here.ForBakhtin theuse ofparody veiled "loophole"for thenarrator. ForMiller is at theservice ofDostoevskii's with polemic Rousseau.'3 I wouldliketoadd toMiller's discussion byshowing howDostoevskii inhisDnevnik in is noless intensely involved with Jean-Jacques Rousseau pisatelia,specifically, thesections framing "Marei." The presence ofRousseaumakesproblematic ouI-categorization of idealconfession. of "Marei" within thesecondtype in somewhat AlDostoevskii's relation to Rousseauneedsto be described broader terms. certain of his complexand contradictory was a synthetic features though Dostoevskii thinker, as derivative can bestbe understood ideological system from Rousseau,especially hisemphasis virtue described on sympathy, thechief of presocial byRousseauin hisDiscourseon theOrigin case that inIdiot,Prince taleof Inequality. ArpadKovacsmakesa convincing Myshkin's idyllic that he hiscompassionate lovefortheSwisspeasant ofchildren girlMarie,andthelittle society ofman." According creates around her,is basedon "Rousseau'sconcept to Kovacs,Myshkin's of man,his inherent idealizes "the principle of thepremoral innocence and the story purity is thebasisofthepolitical law' ofcompassion." that utopia 'natural '4 Kovacsargues compassion thatMyshkin describes before thearistocratic at theEpanchins', at theend of the gathering to becomeservants novel.Myshkin exhorts his listeners in order to be leaders.His speechends v samomn with "I neuzheli dele mozhno theidea ofhappiness: byt'neschastnyi? . . . Znaete,ia kakmozhno dereva i ne byt'schastlivym, ne ponimaiu, prokhodit' mimo chtovidish'ego? . . . na rebenka na travku, Posmotrite . . . posmotrite kakona rastet, v glaza, kotorye na posmotrite vas smotriat i vas liubiat"(8:459). also contains aredistinctly inofcourse, elements that anti-Rousseauian, Myshkin's tirade, In theidea oftheRussian Christ as thebasisfor universal renewal. cluding God andtheRussian andChristianity areequated(9:270). Elsewhere Dostothenotebooks to thenovel,compassion in Podrostok aboutwhathe describes as the "zhenevskie evskiispeaksin disparaging terms to Prestuplenie i nakazanie, for bez Khrista" idei-eto dobrodetel' (13:173). In thenotebooks svoe thelines: "Chelovekne roditsia dlia schast'ia.Chelovekzasluzhivaet example,we find Raskol'nikov schast'e,i vsegdastradaniern" (7: 155). Yet in thesamenotebooks, speaksof a to thoseof PrinceMyshkin. In a letter written in 1871, thatare similar goldenage in terms of recreating theworld anewby meansof reasonand experiDostoevskii saysthat"thedream is nothing ence" is "all Rousseau," and thatRousseau'sdefinition of happiness morethana 5 "fantasy." to Rousseau is ambivalent.'6A similar sort of "proandconDostoevskii's relation Clearly, tra" withregard to Rousseaucan be foundin theJanuary and February issues of Dnevnik for"MuzhikMarei." In thefirst of theJanuary issue,enpisateliafor1876,theframe chapter titled "Zolotoivekv karmane," thena-rator finds himself ball. The narrator adat a children's interms dresses thepretentious ofthechildren ofPrince reminisceint He pleads parents Myshkin.
the discussed by Miller,nainely existsin thisand other instances 13. Another layerof complexity or lackof hisutterances effect that knowledge andwhat of whether theheroknows that areparodic question refers to narrator knowingly The underground andon theparody itself. ithas on thehero'scharacterization in Idiot) Ferdyshenko confession thatMillerdescribes (Ferdysheilko's instance Rousseau,but in another of Confessions. Fora discussion from Rousseau's histheft is a literary plagiarism does notseemtoknowthat ed. Morson, "WhentheCarnival TurnsBitter"in Bakhltin, Bernstein, see MichaelAndr6 thisproblem, 103- 105. of Dostoevsky's Thinking about 14. See ArpadKovacs, "The Poeticsof TheIdiot: On theProblenm on 120. ed. Miller,116-126. Citation Essayson Dostoevsky, Genre"in Critical Pis'ma, ed. A. S. Dolinin See F. M. Dostoevskii, 15. The letter was written to A. N. Strakhov. ofRousseauand discussion 1930) 2:363. ForDolinin's izdatel'stvo, Gosudarstvennoe (Moscow-Leningrad: in Dnevnik pisateliato Rousseau. see 510-511. Dolininrelates Dostoevskii's use of paradox Dostoevskii, and repulsion." See Lotman, "simultaneous attraction 16. Iu. M. Lotmanspeaksof Dostoevskii's (Moscow: 1969), 603. kul'tura XVIII-nachala XIX veka" in Zan-ZakRusso, Traktaty "Russo i russkaia

inSiberia Dostoevskii

865

withthem to look insidethemselves, so they might discover that each and every one of them is (22: 12):
yMHee BoJIbTepa, AJimyBCTBHTejibHee Pycco, HecpaBHeHHO o6oJIbCTHTeJIbHee KaK BbI LJOH-)KyaHa.. . . Ho 6ega Bama B TOM, 'TO BbI camH He 3HaeTe npeKpaCHbl! 3HaeTeAll, TITO iaKe KaAKbIf4 H3 Bac, eciiH 6 TOJIbKO 3aXOTeIi, TO ceHKHBHaXIa,

Tiac 6bI Mor OCqaCTJIHBLgTb BceX B 3T014 3aIie. . . . H HeyKeIIH, BeKH cyi4eCTByeT JIH4IHb Ha OaHHX 4ap4?OpOBbIX qaIHKax?

HeyAeKJH

30J10T014

The listofEuropean figures is a more complicated bitofrhetorical strategy than might appearat first. The Europeans arefalseimagesof thevirtues that theRussians truly possess.The ordinary Russianis moresensitive than Rousseau,buthe lacksself-awareness. Rousseau'ssenis superficial, buttheRussian's sitivity if onlyhe sensitivity belongsto his innermost nature, coulddiscover it. Dostoevskii associates Rousseauwithwhatis falseand exterior. rhetorically Yetthegolden age which thenarrator basedon a rediscovery oftheinnate envisions, of qualities sincerity, andcheerfulness seemstoresemble simple-heartedness, ofnatural Rousseau's concept chapter one, section two,entitled, "O liubvik narodu.Neobkhodimyi kontrakt s narodom." Thisheading might very wellalludeto thetitle ofoneofRousseau's most famous writpolitical The "contract" that Dostoevskii ings,TheSocial Contract. envisions is one in which theeducatedclasseswouldlookto thepeople,notas they arenow,"coarseandignorant," butas they their historical ideals of Sergeiof Radonezh,Theodosius,and might become,judgingfrom Tikhonof Zadonsk,and thepeople,fortheir part,"ot nas prinial mnogoeiz togo,chtomy prinesli s soboi"-that is, we can surmise, their westernization. The narrator continues "ne nimunichtozhit'sia" mozhem zhe mysovsem pered (22:45). Now let us considerthe second partof the frame, the February thatfollow chapters "MuzhikMarei." Thesechapters are devoted to a discussion of a trial, theKroneburg case, in which with"torturing" hischild,whowas allegedto havestolen theaccusedwas charged a jar is outraged ofprunes. The narrator that thedefense that thechildwas in some lawyer suggested sortof conspiracy withtheservant. The childhad beenbrought up in Genevaand spokeonly couldnotunderstand her.The servant on her,"poliuFrench. The servant, tookpity therefore, iz simpatii bilaee prosto iz zhalosti, k ditiati, kotoraia taksvoistvenna nashemu narodu" prostomu comesbefore (22: 62). The sympathy that woman to a childfrom speechextended bya serving Switzerland is thesameRousseauian that creates for in Idiot. his listeners idyll Myshkin A similar setof Rousseauian elements can be discerned in "MuzhikMarei." Dostoevskii thechild, thepresocial encounters virtuous theearth being, Marei,thenaturally in man,plowing a solitary who takespityon him.Withthewriting of "MuzhikMarei," Dostoevskii field, remembers himself totheRussian himself from peoplewithout severing Europe.Wemayask what Dostoevskii Rousseauintothesceneof his Russianchildhopesto accomplish by introducing hood.By invoking ina sense.The "head" with Dostoevskii inflicts theold wound, Rousseau, its westernized viewsis severed theRussian from nottobe understood body.Thiswounding ought as theresult of some textual carried out without Dostoevskii's The reoperation knowledge. courseto Rousseaumight be seenas a wayofforging moreplausibly an alliancewith theedureader oftheDnevnik. wants us to see that tothepeople Dostoevskii cated,upper-class returning of thefirst two chapters of theFebruary issue) does notnecessarily meanturning (thetheme one'sbackon Europe.The Rousseauian thecontent motifs oftheconfessiondo notundermine lovefor makeitmore tothose itis addressed. theRussian towhom people-but rather appealing
goodness. 7 Let us turn to the sectionthatimmediately precedes"Marei," namely, February 1867,

17. Jacques has observed thegolden in "Son smeshnogo Catteau that age represented cheloveka""is much closertoRousseau than totheGarden ofEden." See hisDostoevsky, and theProcessofLiter aryCreation,trans. Audrey Littlewood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1989), 376-377.

866

SlavicReview

"Marei" is a depiction of a confession addressed not to Siberianconvictsand not to the "people" butto thereading audience of Dnievnik pisateliain 1876. features of "Marei" elidesthecategories that we atteimipt to imposeuponit. In it we find self-concealment: The playful attitude thatthe narrator takes conflictual confession, namely, ofthe with respect tothereader (what Morson calls the"metaliterary devices")is characteristic In "Marei," a piecethat declares itself to Dnevnik as a wholeandsuspends generic distinctions. he has written so little about be an autobiographical "reminiscence," thenarTator observes that of his wife,like his life in prisonthatmanypeople think he was sentthere forthe murder the hero of his novel Zapiski iz mertvogo the novel with doma. In linking Gorianchikov, of thelatter thenarrator makestheautobiographical status "Marei," theallegedautobiography, The same soIt of "loophole,"onlyin milder Is thenarrator problematic. reallyDostoevskii? we never knowwhothenarrator is marks theconfession ofZapiskiizpodpol'ia,inwhich form, is a form of self-concealment. anddisclosure in "Marei" features of harmonious that confession, is, the At thesametime,we also find The thepeople,or at least,thedepiction of sucha recovery. recovery of theselfin theother, as an antagonistic butone that we havediscussed neednotbe understood gesture, loopholethat theopportunity forthenarrator of Dnevnik anew,to be neiprovides pisateliato makehimself ther time.That a reactionary nora rebel,andto savehislastwordaboutRussiaforsomefuture thenself-deceptiveverycombination of motifs thatmayat first seem, if notduplicitous, of theRussianpeasantMarei-may instead be seen to Rousseauand thedirt-smeared finger a modelfor Dostoevskii's audience. Outofthat combination ofEuropeandRusprovide reading Dostoevskii new mayoccur.The reader theprocessthat represenits sia, something mayrepeat himself as having enacted.

You might also like