More questions on Onegin

[Svetlana Grenier]

Dear Daniel (and Francoise),

> Daniel Rancour-Laferriere  wrote:

> 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).

Well, a sexist assumption or not, but growing up in St. Petersburg 
(urban) in the 1960s and 70s  I had no idea about homosexuality until I 
was in my late teens, and then learned about it when, reading The 
Catcher in the Rye, encountered the word "pederast" and looked it up in 
a dictionary, which still gave a very vague idea of the whole thing (and 
I consider myself pretty bright).  Therefore, I think this is not a 
matter of brightness but of cultural milieu and what one is exposed to.  
So my question was (and is): what do we know about Tatiana's cultural 
milieu (as portrayed by Pushkin and equally well known to his 
contemporaries) that would suggest knowledge of homosexuality on 
Tatiana's part?

>
> 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,"

So, are we assuming that Pushkin believes in "customary psychoanalytic" 
interpretation of dreams and does _not_ believe in _prophetic_ dreams?  
Why? What about Petrusha Grinev's dream in _The Captain's Daughter_?  
And does not the narrator's description of Tatiana's dream as "chudnyi" 
imply its prophetic character? We know that Pushkin himself believed in 
fate, went to fortune-tellers, and was superstitious.  Or am I confused 
about your assumption, and you are interpreting Tatiana's dream as that 
of a "patient" independent of her creator's intention?

Another point: the fact that Tatiana saw Lord Byron's portrait in 
Onegin's study supposedly helps her figure out Onegin's "zagadka"--i.e., 
his latent homo- or bi-sexuality.  Again, would Byron's bisexuality have 
been known to Tatiana?  How widely was it known at the time?  Was 
Pushkin aware of it? 


> 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.

See above: Tatiana sees into the future, where her wish of Onegin loving 
and marrying her (instead of the monsters, who represent guests at the 
party) is partially fulfilled, both in the dream and in reality--cf. 
Onegin's "tender" glance at her-- but where Lensky and Olga  somehow 
interpose themselves between Onegin and Tatiana, which leads to Onegin's 
slaying of Lensky.  A knife seems like a much more appropriate folkloric 
implement for such slaying than a pistol would.
These are my two cents, as a layman (woman) in dream interpretation.  (I 
have  not yet looked up the sources on Pushkin and homosexuality that 
are cited in the article--perhaps they answer my questions above.)

Regards,
Svetlana Grenier




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