“At Plato’s Feast in Time of Plague”: on Interpretations of A.S. Pushkin’s “Little Tragedy”

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2021-20-216-237
УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.0
Issue:

2021 №20
Author: Andrei B. Shishkin
About the author:

Andrei B. Shishkin – Professor of Slavic Studies, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132 – 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8762-7791

E-mail: chichkine@gmail. com
Abstract:

The article attempts to place “A Feast in Time of Plague” by A.S. Pushkin, as well as the immediately preceding poem “Hero” (1830), in an eschatological perspective. The question of possible “pre-texts” of Pushkin's “Feast” is raised; considering the seemingly insignificant shifts of the Russian text relative to the English original, one can come to the conclusion that A.S. Pushkin, as if over the head of J. Wilson, consistently returns to the banquet ritual, reproducing the elements of archaic Dionysianism. The tragic “insoluble contradiction” of the finale of A.S. Pushkin's work is emphasized by the truncated concluding verse: the iambic tetrameter is cut off at the second foot; it is noteworthy that the metric scheme of the ending of the poem “Hero” is the same.
Keywords: A.S. Pushkin, Vl. Nabokov, Viach. Ivanov, M. Tsvetaeva, genre of symposium, tragedy, pandemic.
For citation:

Shishkin, A.B. “At Plato’s Feast in Time of Plague”: on Interpretations of A.S. Pushkin’s “Little Tragedy”. Literaturnyi fakt, no. 2 (20), 2021, pp. 216–237. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2021-20-216-237 
References:

1. A.S. Pushkin: Boldinskie rukopisi 1830 goda: v 3 t. [A.S. Pushkin: Boldino Manuscripts of 1830: in 3 vols.]. St. Petersburg, Al'faret Publ., 2009. (In Russ.)

2. Abdullaev, E.V. “‛Na pire Platona vo vremia chumy…’. Ob odnom platonovskom siuzhete v russkoi literature 1830–1930-kh godov” [“ʽAt Plato’s feast in Time of Plague ...". On a Platonic Plot in Russian Literature of the 1830s–1930s”]. Voprosy literatury, no. 2, 2007, pp. 189–209. (In Russ.)

3. Al'tman, M.S. Razgovory s Viacheslavom Ivanovym [Conversations with Vyacheslav Ivanov], comp., text prep. by V.A. Dymshits and K.Iu. Lappo-Danilevsky. St. Petersburg, Inapress Publ., 1995. 368 p. (In Russ.)

4. Bocharov, S. Geneticheskaia pamiat' literatury [Genetic Memory of Literature]. Moscow, RGGU Publ., 2012. 341 p. (In Russ.)

5. Vasil'ev, K.G., Segal, A.E. Istoriia epidemii v Rossii [ History of Epidemics in Russia]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo meditsinskoi literatury Publ., 1960. 397 p. (In Russ.)

6. Virolainen, M.N. “Malen'kie tragedii” [“Little Tragedies”]. Pushkinskaia entsiklopediia. Proizvedeniia [Pushkin Encyclopedia. Works], issue 3: L–O. St. Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriia Publ., 2017, pp. 24–68. (In Russ.)

7. Grombakh, S.M. Pushkin i meditsina ego vremeni [Pushkin and the Medicine of His Time]. Moscow, Meditsina Publ., 1989. 272 p. (In Russ.)

8. Dolinin, A. Pushkin i Angliia: tsikl statei [ Pushkin and England: a Series of Articles]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2007. 280 p. (In Russ.)

9. Zholkovskii, A.K. “Otkuda eta Diotima? (Zametki o ‛Lete’ Pasternaka)” [“Where Does This Diotima Come From? (Notes on Pasternak's ʽSummer’)”]. Available at: https://u.to/LbA3Gw (Accessed 28 March 2021). (In Russ.)

10. Katsnel'bogen, A.G. Obshchestvennaia meditsina v Rossii: vtoraia polovina XVIII – nachalo XIX veka [Public Medicine in Russia: the Second Half of the 18th – Early 19th Centuries]. Volgograd, Peremena Publ., 1994. 138 p. (In Russ.)

11. Lotman, Iu.M. Vnutri mysliashchikh mirov [Inside Thinking Worlds]. Moscow, Iazyki russkoi kul'tury Publ., 1996. 464 p. (In Russ.)

12. Lotman, Iu.M. “Iz razmyshlenii nad tvorcheskoi evoliutsiei Pushkina (1830 god)” [“From Reflections on Pushkin’s Creative Evolution (1830)”]. Lotman, Iu.M. Pushkin [Pushkin]. St. Petersburg, Iskusstvo-SPb. Publ., 1995, pp. 300–316. (In Russ.)

13. N.N. [Iu.L. Sidiakov?] “‛Apokalipsicheskaia pesn'’ Pushkina (Opyt istolkovaniia stikhotvoreniia ‛Geroi’)” [“ʽApocalyptic Song’ by Pushkin (Attempt of the interpretation of the poem ʽHero’)”]. Russkaia literatura, no. 1, 1995, pp. 93–122. (In Russ.)

14. Pil'shchikov, I.A. Batiushkov i literatura Italii: filologicheskie razyskaniia [Batyushkov and Italian Literature: Philological Research]. Moscow, Iazyki slavianskoi kul'tury Publ., 2003. 314 p. (In Russ.)

15. “Pir — eto luchshii obraz schast'ia”. Obrazy trapezy v bogoslovii i kul'ture [“A Feast is the Best Image of Happiness.” Images of a Meal in Theology and Culture]. Moscow, BBI Publ., 2016. 264 p. (In Russ.)

16. Poliakova, S. “‛Dekameron’: o vozmozhnosti liubvi na samoizoliatsii” [“ʽDecameron’: on the Possibility of Love in Self-isolation”]. Logos, no. 2 (141), 2021, pp. 143–178. (In Russ.)

17. Pushkin, A.S. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 10 t. [Complete Works: in 10 vols.], vol. 10: Pis'ma [Letters]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1965. 904 p. (In Russ.)

18. Pushkin, A.S. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 20 t. [Complete Works: in 20 vols.], vol. 7: Dramaticheskie proizvedeniia [Dramatic Works]. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2009. 1070 p. (In Russ.)

19. Rabinovich, E.G. “‛Pir’ Platona i ‛Pir vo vremia chumy’ Pushkina” [“ʽSymposium’ by Plato and ʽA Feast in Time of Plague’ by Pushkin”]. Antichnost' i sovremennost'. K 80-letiiu F.A. Petrovskogo [ Antiquity and Modernity. To the 80th Anniversary of F.A. Petrovsky]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1972, pp. 457–470. (In Russ.)

20. Regetsi, I., Rudakova, S.V. “Mezhdu zhizn'iu i smert'iu. 2. (‛Malen'kaia tragediia’ A.S. Pushkina ‛Pir vo vremia chumy’ v kontekste ‛Pira’ Platona)” [“Between Life and Death. 2. (ʽLittle Tragedy’ ʽA Feast in Time of Plague’ by A.S. Pushkin in the Context of Plato's ʽSymposium’)”]. Libri Magistri, no. 3 (9), 2019, pp. 66–79. (In Russ.)

21. Sedakova, O. “Pir liubvi na ‛shest'desiat piatom kilometre’, ili Ierusalim bez Afin” [“A Feast of Love on the ʽSixty-Fifth Kilometer’, or Jerusalem Without Athens”]. Russkie piry [Russian Feasts]. St. Petersburg, Al'manakh “Kanun” Publ., 1998, pp. 353–365. (In Russ.)

22. Sedakova, O.A. Tserkovnoslaviansko-russkie paronimy: materialy k slovariu [Church Slavonic – Russian Paronyms: Materials for the Dictionary]. Moscow, Grekolatinskii kabinet Iu.A. Shichalina Publ., 2005. 430 p. (In Russ.)

23. Iakovlev, N.V. “Ob istochnikakh ‛Pira vo vremia chumy’. (Materialy i nabliudeniia)” [“On the Sources of ʽA Feast in Time of Plague’ (Materials and Observations)”]. Pushkinskii sbornik pamiati prof. S.A. Vengerova. (Pushkinist. IV) [Pushkin Collection in Memory of prof. S.A. Vengerov. (Pushkinist. IV)]. Moscow, Petrograd, Gosizdat Publ., 1922, pp. 93–170. (In Russ.)

24. Evdokimova, S. “The anatomy of the Modern Self in ‛The Little Tragedies’.” Alexander Pushkin's Little Tragedies: The Poetics of Brevity. Madison, Wisconsin University Press, 2003, pp. 106–143. (In English)

25. Evdokimova, S. Pushkin’s Historical Imagination. Yale university press, 1999. 320 p. (In English)

26. Gutkin, I. “The Dichotomy between Flesh and Spirit: Plato’s Symposium in Anna Karenina.” In the shade of the Giant: Essays on Tolstoy, ed. H. McLean. Berkeley, 1989, pp. 84–99. (In English)

27. Kupensky, N. “‛Don’t Steal Rolls’: Tolstoy ’s Symposium on Love, Literature, Women, and Wine.” The Comparative Humanities Review, vol. 2, 2008, pp. 93–103. (In English)

28. Murray, Oswin. The Symposion: Drinking Greek Style. Essays on Greek Pleasure. 1983–2017. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2018. 480 p. (In English)

29. Nabokov, V. Three Russian Poets. Selections from Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev. New York, New Directions Books, 1944. 37 p. (In English)

30. Shishkin, A. “On the Literary History of the Russian Symposion.” Symposion: a Journal of Russian Thought, no. 1, 1996, pp. 7–17. (In English)

31. Ungurianu, D. “Kontseptsiia dvukh pravd u Pushkina i Vin'i: Eshche raz k voprosu ob istochnikakh stikhotvoreniia ‛Geroi’.” [“The Concept of Two Truths in Works by Pushkin and Vigny: Revisiting the Sources of the Poem ʽHero’.”] Revue des études slaves, no. 70 (4), 1998, pp. 815–824. (In Russ.)