More on Chatman

In today’s 19th century class, we discussed a possible reading of Lermontov’s HoT according the Chatman’s diagram of narrative elements (ie author, implied author, narrator, etc.).
The book that this comes from is Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (1980), by Seymour Benjamin Chatman.  Here’s a passage from page 150 dealing with the [...]

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Physiognomy: Fighting on in the 20th Century

In one of last week’s classes, we discussed the 19th-century psuedo science known as physiognomy, where one attempts to divine personality traits of a subject given their physical attributes.  This “science” was extremely popular in the 1830s in Russia, and certainly did seem to have influence upon Lermontov.
Most sources that treat physiognomy refer to it [...]

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Last year’s Lermontov posts

 
 
If anyone is interested in going deeper into the topic of Lermontov and the Caucusus, there are a few old posts on this blog that you can check out.
There’s a map of Vladikavkaz up here, and a post on Lermontov’s Romantic Caucusus-themed paintings here.

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Free Chekhov podcasts

If you like Chekhov, I have great news for you.  At this site here, you can listen to and download free podcasts of Chekhov short stories, read by Alan David Drake.  All in all, Drake records about 14 hours worth of Chekhov – great for the bus, the car, Christmas dinner, and your next house [...]

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Who was Lord Byron?

Today in class we were discussing Lord Byron and the impact of his work upon Lermontov’s HoT.  If you have twenty minutes, check out this podcast on Lord Byron’s life.
It’s from the “Stuff you Missed in History Class” programme at HowStuffWorks.com.  They broadcast free, entertaining, and informative bits on history, and their site is well [...]

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Apropos of Lermontov

As you may have realised while reading A Hero of our Time, most of the action in the first section takes place in the now heavily contested borders of “independent” (at least according to Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) South Ossetia.  With winter coming on, and most of the mountainous passes becoming impassable, it looked as though [...]

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on the calque

I received an email from Len today asking me to clarify the meaning of the “calque” that appears every once in a while when we talk about Pushkin’s innovations in the literary language.  If you check the trusty oed.com, you’ll find the only meaning it provides is a “loan-translation” … So I decided to offer [...]

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reading for tuesday

Here’s the reading for th next class, from Part I Chapter IV :
- Эй вы, Свидригайлов! Вам чего тут надо? – крикнул он, сжимая кулаки и
смеясь своими запенившимися от злобы губами.
- Это что значит? – строго спросил господин, нахмурив брови  и  свысока
удивившись.

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сенная площадь ~ 1830

not quite what one has in mind when one reads C&P I think …

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Dostoevsky in the 29th Century

Here is an excellent piece on the relevance and influence of Dostoevsky upon 29th century writers and thinkers.  It was written by Robert Louis Jackson in 1981 to mark the 100-year anniversary of Dostoevsky’s death.

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