Eugene Onegin

Originally published as “Linguistic Comedy in Eugene Onegin.” In: Ulbandus: The Slavic Review of Columbia University, 12 (2009/2010): 21-40. This paper examines the role of foreign texts and borrowings  in the text of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, as well as the "ostensible translations" in the text of letters and conversations between characters supposedly taking place in French.

Abstract. One hundred years removed from AA Markov's development of his chains, we take stock of the field he generated and the mathematical impression he left. As a tribute to Markov, we present what we consider to be the five greatest applications of Markov chains ...

Love’s victors succeed by conquering the beloved’s heart. A conquest is the subjugation of an enemy by combat, or overcoming an obstacle to gain possession of something by force whether physically or morally. Although a conquest is defined as victory rather than defeat, the lovers Werther and Onegin can be called conquerors themselves: taking up their arms into battle, bearing in mind the promise of attaining who they desire, but in the end failing in their mission. It is, nonetheless, a conquest in its own right albeit a failure. It is a fight to the finish, even unto death. Also worthy to take note is another name for Pestilence, a horseman of the apocalypse often depicted riding a white horse: its personification can be called Conquest, the bringer of violent disease.

In the course of Vladimir Nabokov’s literary career, translation, or as he referred to it in his legendary article “The Art of Translation”, “the queer world of verbal transmigration”, always fascinated and intrigued him. A comparative analysis of Nabokov’s translations shows that his vision changed throughout various periods of his creative work as a translator.
In the spring of 1965, the Bollingen Foundation published Nabokov’s own translation of and commentary on Onegin. In his foreword to “Eugene Onegin”, Nabokov states that all attempts to translate verses written in one language by the means of another fall into three categories: 1) periphrastic translation (offering a free version of the original with omissions and additions); 2) lexical translation (rendering the basic meaning of the words and their order), and 3) literal translation (rendering as closely as the associative and syntactical capacities of another language allow the exact contextual meaning of the original). Nabokov labels the latter the only "true" kind of translation although earlier he had completed fine translations of the other kinds. Nabokov’s agenda entailed rejection of rhyme, music, and precise nuances of Pushkin’s verse, clarity, and even departure from correct grammatical order. The only area Nabokov wasn’t going to sacrifice was iambic pentameter.
As I will show in this paper, Nabokov’s desire to achieve full word-for-word translation led him to create his own original “interlingua”, the language in which grammar, structure of separate words and expressions, sound instrumentation, and syntactical makeup of one language (Russian) are rendered by the means of another language (English). In other words, Nabokov creates his own linguistic space or “bridge” between the two languages.  The reader reads Pushkin not with Nabokov, but like Nabokov, as if the reader is introduced to Pushkin through Nabokov’s intellect. Nabokov “works ‘between the lines’ and a rigorous interlinear is exactly that: a no-man’s-land in psychological and linguistic space” (Steiner 1998, 332). I suggest that Nabokov’s translation is completed in Nabokov’s interlingua, and the intentions of the writer and translator are apparent only to the reader who possesses the extensive knowledge of the two languages and cultures involved, who is acquainted with Nabokov’s theory of literary translation, and lastly, who is well versed in the clichés of European literature.

It is shown that Georgy Sviridov's suite "The Snow Storm", which had the original name "Musical illustrations for A.S. Pushkin "The Snow Storm", in fact, is an accurate musical illustration of the novel by A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". Chapter from the book <a href="https://www.bioserge.ru/another_pushkin/" > Beyond Pushkin </a>.

Discussing the study of translation as it relates to various disciplines, from comparative literature to philosophy and stylistics, in this paper I examine the philological and translatory practice of Vladimir Nabokov. Specifically, I discuss how translation and writing, for Nabokov, is inseparable from a specific philological engagement in annotation and commentary. This is further examined in the case of Nabokov’s two seminal works, his translation of Pushkin’s 'Eugene Onegin' and his novel 'Lolita.' By viewing these two works as exemplary texts which blur the line between translation and writing, or between analysis and synthesis, I further examine how Nabokov’s Lolita and Nabokov’s self translation of the novel into Russian is reflected in the Croatian literary context. A detailed comparison of the Croatian translation of 'Lolita' is provided, and a new, annotated translation of 'Lolita' is proposed. Lastly, I provide a comparative reading of Nabokov’s 'Lolita' and Antun Šoljan’s novel 'The Traitors' in order to illuminate a thus far unacknowledged correlation between the two writers and translators.

For the first time in Russian musicology, the article explores dramaturgical parallels between the operas “Eugene Onegin” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and “Rusalka” by Alexander Dargomyzhsky at the level of plot, main characters images, libretto dramaturgy, and musical composition. The details are provided, including little known information on how Tchaikovsky felt about the “Rusalka”. Dramaturgical intersections of Dargomyzhsky’s opera with Alexander Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”, which, in turn, could attract Tchaikovsky’s attention at the first stage of composing the opera, are considered. In this regard, the history of creation of the initial scenario of “Eugene Onegin” and participation of music critic Nikolay Kashkin in it are carefully reconstructed, details of composer’s private life are addressed. A hypothesis about the possible influence of Dargomyzhsky’s “Rusalka” on the dramaturgic idea of Tchaikovsky’s opera is proposed, a number of plot and situational parallels between the two operas are revealed. The dramaturgy and compositional scheme of the first two acts of “Rusalka” and “Eugene Onegin” are consistently compared, including the development of the conflict; the techniques of reprise and inversion in relation to the first act, which unify the third act of Tchaikovsky’s opera and the fourth act of Dargomyzhsky’s opera, are discovered. Two interrelated ideas in the dramaturgy of both operas are considered in the context of the denouement: the impossibility of substituting happiness and the impossibility of returning lost happiness.

Keywords: Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky, Nikolay D. Kashkin, Alexander S. Dargomyzhsky, Aleksandr S. Pushkin, “Eugene Onegin”, “Rusalka”, scenario, libretto, composition and dramaturgy of the opera, idea of happiness.

В статье впервые в отечественном музыкознании исследуются драматургические параллели между операми «Евгений Онегин» П. И. Чайковского и «Русалка» А. С. Даргомыжского — на уровне сюжета, образов главных героев, драматургии либретто, музыкальной композиции и драматургии. Приводятся сведения, в том числе малоизвестные, об отношении Чайковского к «Русалке». Отмечаются драматургические пересечения оперы Даргомыжского с романом А. С. Пушкина «Евгений Онегин», которые, в свою очередь, могли привлечь внимание Чайковского на первом этапе сочинения оперы. В связи с этим подробно реконструируется история создания первоначального сценария «Евгения Онегина» и участия в нем музыкального критика Н. Д. Кашкина, затрагиваются обстоятельства личной жизни композитора. Выдвигается гипотеза о возможном влиянии «Русалки» Даргомыжского на драматургический замысел оперы Чайковского, выявляется ряд содержательных и ситуационных параллелей между двумя операми. Последовательно сопоставляются драматургия и композиционный план первых двух актов «Русалки» и «Евгения Онегина», в том числе развитие конфликта; обнаруживаются объединяющие третий акт оперы Чайковского и четвертый акт оперы Даргомыжского приемы репризности и инверсии по отношению к первому действию. В контексте развязки рассматриваются две взаимосвязанных идеи в драматургии обеих опер: невозможности «замены счастья» и невозможности вернуть утраченное счастье.

Ключевые слова: П. И. Чайковский, Н. Д. Кашкин, А. С. Даргомыжский, А. С. Пушкин, «Евгений Онегин», «Русалка», сценарий, либретто, композиция и драматургия оперы, идея счастья.

My main focus in this article is on the author-narrator’s status as a character and on the way in which his characterization compares to that of the hero Onegin.  This study expands the inquiry into how this character’s unique construction reflects Pushkin’s experimentation with genre and poetic language.

In his career, Nabokov stirred up scandal twice: in 1955 with his novel Lolita and in 1964 with Eugene Onegin (EO), his translation of Pushkin’s masterpiece. However, this paper will not dwell on the scandal that Nabokov’s EO provoked (or the infamous feud between Nabokov and Wilson), but rather the echoes that can be found between Nabokov’s translation theory and Venuti’s, especially in his book Scandals of Translation.

This article suggests that comparative literature scholars may benefit from the awareness that different communities around the world subscribe to different models of mind and that works of fiction can thus be fruitfully analyzed in relation to those local ideologies of mind. Taking as her starting point the “opacity of mind” doctrine, found in the South Pacific and Melanesia, the author compares cultural practices originating in communities in which people think but do not talk publicly about others’ internal states, to those originating in communities in which people both think and talk about them, indeed, in which public speculation about other people’s intentions is (mostly) rewarded. While the immediate analysis centers on a very specific and limited set of case studies from English, Chinese, and Russian novels and Bosavi performance genres, the author’s larger goal is to begin to articulate opportunities and challenges of using research in theory of mind for the comparative study of literature.

В данной статье мы обращаемся к XVI, XVII, XXIII и XXIV строфам первой главы романа А.С.Пушкина «Евгений Онегин», рассматривая их в сопоставлении с сатирой Вольтера «Светский человек». Данная параллель до сегодняшнего дня не была в достаточной мере исследована литературоведами, впервые к ней обратился В.И.Резанов, в своём комментарии к «Евгению Онегину» её наличие отмечает Ю.М.Лотман, П.Р. Заборов отзывается о ней, как о «менее убедительной», нежели заимствования Пушкиным из Вольтера, подмеченные Н.О.Лернером, в комментарии Набокова она не упомянута. В то же время в 2009 г. появилась статья Е.Ляминой, которая, привлекая внимание к данному материалу, выдвигает предположение о том, что Пушкин обращается к французской сатире в целях использования её жанрового и структурного потенциала.

Мы предполагаем, что Пушкин обращается к данному произведению французского классика сознательно, отсылая читателя к определённой эпохе. Присоединяясь к мнению В.О.Ключевского о предках Евгения Онегина, проведших свою юность во Франции, «из которой обаяниями забавы и приличия был выкурен самый запах труда и долга», мы соглашаемся с Е.Ляминой в том, что прямое сравнение отрывка из романа А.С.Пушкина и сатиры Вольтера было бы неправильным, поскольку пушкинский пример представляет следствие увлечения высшего света России философией и образом жизни вольтеровской Франции.

Сопоставляя два текста, мы можем убедиться, что отдельные строки «Евгения Онегина» представляют собой серию элементов, перенесённых в изменённом виде из произведения Вольтера и носит характер развития темы первоисточника. Принимая во внимание особенности развития русской словесности в первой половине XIX века и состояние русского литературного языка данную эпоху, мы можем сделать вывод, что на момент написания первой главы своего романа, перед Пушкиным стояло множество целей, среди которых не только проведение исторических параллелей между образом жизни современного ему денди и светского человека Вольтера, но и обогащение родного литературного языка за счёт наследия более развитого на тот момент французского. Общественность же начала XIX века относилась весьма снисходительно к использованию чужого материала в собственном произведении или при переводе, о чём свидетельствует следующее высказывание Ш.Нодье, которое появляется на страницах его книги «Вопросы литературной законности», написанной в 1812 г.: «Кто посмеет осудить писателя за то, что он неустанно обогащает родной язык чужестранными сокровищами? Пусть даже с точки зрения строгого моралиста поведение его небезупречно, вред тут невелик, а польза огромна […]».

It is shown that Georgy Sviridov&#39;s suite &quot;The Snow Storm&quot;, which had the original name &quot;Musical illustrations for A.S. Pushkin &quot;The Snow Storm&quot;, in fact, is an accurate musical illustration of the novel by A.S. Pushkin &quot;Eugene Onegin&quot;. Chapter from the book Beyond Pushkin.

With his tragic novel, "Eugene Onegin", Alexander Pushkin produced a masterpiece that endowed the Russian language with new literary qualities. More than a century later, the choreographer John Cranko, champion of the narrative ballet, takes up Pushkin's themes, giving shape to his vision of a "theatrical ballet" capable of conveying the passionate density of the narrative through movement alone. Returning to the origins of the verse novel, Tristan Bera traces the link that inextricably unites literature with dance. The text in English is followed by its French version.
see https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/magazine/the-onegin-mystery-or-pushkin-and-terpsichore

Expanding the scope of musicological reception history, this research investigates musical performance and identity by drawing on blogs about musical experiences as primary source material. The blog’s generic tendency towards personal disclosure provides the researcher unprecedented access into the processes of identity creation on an individual level. Scholars of computer-mediated communication have demonstrated that blogging creates an intensification of the self as well the implications of social media’s dialogism in emergent macro-social issues. Developing theories of identity, this project focuses on spectator responses to external artistic stimuli – a musical event in culture – in the process of creating personal, social, and national selves. Until now reception history has been limited to newspaper reviews, memoirs, and interviews, but the technology of the internet opens a new window into how “ordinary audience members” integrate a musical event into their identity.
As a case study, this project pinpoints a unique moment in Russian music history — spectator responses to the Bolshoi Theater’s scandalous reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (2006). The director Dmitri Tcherniakov set the classic story of unrequited love in the early Soviet period and reworked Tchaikovsky’s romantic characters into multivalent, emotionally-troubled, and sometimes cruel people. His iconoclastic staging sparked a debate about beauty, sincerity, and the role of classic opera contemporary Russian life. This study exhibits multiple modes of engagement with the opera as individuals “make sense of” the scandal and performance by posting online, and through this process reconsider their personal, social, and national selves. Examining spectator responses to Tcherniakov’s Onegin, this project reveals a new way of doing musicology for the twenty-first century.

Korovin, V.L. “Shakespirian Spirits” by V.K. Kuchelbeker in the “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin. Boldinskiye cteniya 2018. Nizhny Novgorod, 2018, pp. 22-31. (In Russ.)

Комедия В.К. Кюхельбекера «Шекспировы духи», прочитанная Пушкиным в начале декабря 1825 г., перед возобновлением работы над 4-й главой «Евгения Онегина», отразилась в некоторых его строфах. Наряду с известиями о восстании декабристов и судьбе Кюхельбекера она повлияла и на общий ход работы над романом в конце 1825 – начале 1826 г. В статье обосновываются эти тезисы и отмечаются текстуальные, образные и тематические переклички с данной пьесой в 4-й, 5-й и 6-й главах романа.

Since the nineteenth century, the Russian intelligentsia has fostered a conversation that blurs the boundaries of literature, the arts, and life. Bypassing more direct modes of political discourse blocked by Imperial and then Soviet censorship, arts reception in Russia has provided educated Russians with an alternative sphere for the negotiation of social, moral, and national identities. This discursive practice has endured through the turbulent political changes of the Russian revolution, Soviet repression, and the economic anxiety of contemporary Russia. Members of the intelligentsia who believe that individuals can and should work for the moral progress of the Russian people by participating in this conversation are constructing the Russian moral project. 
Near the end of the nineteenth century, members of the intelligentsia unofficially established a core set of texts and music—Russian klassika—that seemed to represent the best of Russian creative output. Although the canon seems permanent, educated Russians continue to argue about which texts are important and what they mean. Even Aleksandr Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (1825-1833), a novel-in-verse that functions as the cornerstone of this canon, remains at the center of debate in a conversation about literature that is simultaneously a conversation about Russian life. Pushkin is considered the founder of Russia’s literary language, and Russian readers and critics have endowed him with a saint-like status. His image has become a secular icon of Russian creative potential. The heroine of his magnum opus, Tatiana Larina, has in turn become an icon of Russian morality.
As Russians interpret Onegin’s themes and describe its characters, they also express what matters most in their own lives. The history of Onegin reception thus reflects the development of Russian ideas about life over the course of the last two centuries. Beginning in 1844, composers, theater directors, and choreographers have adapted Pushkin’s novel for the stage, often challenging the dominant readings of their well-loved source text. For example, Tchaikovsky’s opera adaptation follows Tatiana rather than Eugene, as she develops her own creative voice through the musical romances of her childhood; ultimately, her creative development allows her the moral strength to refuse Eugene. At the Bolshoi Opera Studio in 1922, Konstantin Stanislavsky represented Tatiana as a simple-hearted woman. In 1944, Boris Pokrovsky presented Tatiana as a socialist realist heroine, a strong woman with the integrity to refuse an unworthy suitor.
Since the collapse of state socialism, post-Soviet citizens have continued to negotiate their turbulent world through and with Onegin. In 2006, Dmitri Tcherniakov radically reinvisioned Tchaikovsky’s Onegin at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Artists, scholars, and critics argued about the merits of Tcherniakov’s staging and indeed its right to exist. Ordinary audience members joined the conversation by posting “spectator reviews” (zritel’skie retsenzii) to personal blogs and discussion forums online. When Boris Eifman premiered a choreographic adaptation of Onegin in 2009, audience members and critics used these same channels to lambast the corrupt present and to articulate what a better future for Russia would look like. Similarly, audience members responded to Rimas Tuminas’s 2013 play adaptation of Onegin by highlighting what they would preserve for the future. Spectator reviews of Eugene Onegin illustrate instances of individual participation in the Russian moral project.

The article analyzes the circumstances of the publication (December 1903, in the Chernomorskoe poberezh’e provincial newspaper) of the opera singer Pyotr Lodia’s memoirs about his meetings with Pyotr Tchaikovsky, unknown to contemporary researchers till now. The fact that Lodia had performed long before the premiere staging of fragments from the Eugene Onegin opera served as the basis for the singer, referring to the composer’s opinion, to consider himself the first performer of Lensky’s part. The text of this document is being published for the first time. Previously unknown biographical information about the singer’s activities in Novorossiysk is given.
The work continues the research line of studying the connections between capitals and provinces at the stage of formation of professional musical culture in the southern regions of the country. / В статье анализируются обстоятельства публикации в декабре 1903 года в провинциальной газете «Черноморское побережье» неизвестных современным исследователям воспоминаний оперного певца Петра Лодия о встречах с П.И. Чайковским. Факт исполнения Лодием задолго до премьерной постановки фрагментов из оперы «Евгений Онегин» послужил основанием певцу, ссылаясь на мнение композитора, считать себя первым исполнителем партии Ленского. Впервые публикуется текст этого документа. Даются неизвестные ранее биографические сведения о деятельности певца в Новороссийске.
В работе находит продолжение исследовательская линия изучения связей столиц и провинции на этапе становления профессиональной музыкальной культуры в южных регионах страны.

Quand Nabokov publie sa traduction du chef d'œuvre de Pouchkine, Eugene Onegin, en 1964, il est au sommet de sa carrière d'auteur. Dans ses romans, son multilinguisme est particulièrement affirmé ; il imprègne également fortement sa traduction d'Onegin. Dans son introduction, le traducteur décrivait le personnage principal du poème pouchkinien ainsi :