More questions on Onegin

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

3 April 2006

Dear Svetlana,

Why would homosexuality be something a country maiden NOT be aware of?  
Why assume the woman is not bright enough to know or imagine certain 
things (a sexist assumption)?  Why would homosexuality only be an urban 
thing? (it exists even in preindustrial cultures, and has been 
documented by anthropologists worldwide: see the chapter titled "The 
Homosexual Hominid," in my _Signs of the Flesh_ (Mouton de Gruyter, 
1985; reprinted by Indiana University Press, 1992).

But of course, we are dealing with a literary work, and you are asking a 
question about authorial intention (sometimes denigrated as "the 
intentional fallacy").  As I say in the essay, we cannot know for sure 
what Pushkin intended (consciously or unconsciously) by the violent 
finale of that dream - except for the obvious prophecy of a conflict 
with Lensky, noted by many critics.  But, assuming that _Tat'iana_ 
cannot see into the future her author creates for her, and viewing the 
upshot of the dream from _her_ current viewpoint (which would be the way 
a feminist ought to proceed), and, finally, interpreting the dream in 
the customary psychoanalytic fashion as a "wish-fulfillment," then the 
SUDDEN CHANGE from the imagery of violent heterosexual defloration 
earlier in the dream (the standard folkloric imagery of the dangerous 
bear-groom, the tearing off of Tat'iana's ear-rings, the khoboty krivye, 
khvosty khokhlatye, klyki, usy, krovavy iazyki....etc.) to a NEW 
male-on-male violence instead - is motivated.  Alas, the beloved Onegin 
suddenly stabs Lensky instead of "stabbing" Tat'iana.

By the way, I would be pleased to hear alternative interpretations of 
the climax of Tat'iana's dream; and also why they would necessarily 
exclude the above interpretation.

On the other hand, perhaps we are all very sick of Eugene Onegin.

Cheers,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

Svetlana Grenier wrote:

> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere wrote:
>
>>   Historical studies of dandyism have drawn a connection between 
>> dandyism and homosexual or bisexual orientation (although not in 100% 
>> of the cases).  Most importantly, from Tat'iana's perspective (SHE it 
>> is who has the famous dream in which she tries to explain to herself 
>> why Onegin rejects her), Onegin must be more interested in men than 
>> in women as sexual objects.  After all, she has her own narcissism to 
>> look after, and she has just received a terrible narcissistic injury 
>> (recall the mirror SHE puts under her pillow just before the dream).
>
>
> This presupposes that a provincial young maiden like Tatiana would be 
> aware of homosexuality.  How likely is that?  (My own guess would be: 
> not very!) And how likely is it that Pushkin meant her to have such an 
> "insight"?
>
> Svetlana Grenier
>
>>  
>
>
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