QED: now onto Knights Templars / More questions on Onegin

[atacama at global.co.za]

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Slivkin, Yevgeny Yevgeny.Slivkin at MONTEREY.ARMY.MIL
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 15:45:30 -0700
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] More questions on Onegin


Dear Colleagues,

I think all participants in the Onegin discussion have agreed that Onegin
could demonstrate homosexual tendencies only if Pushkin consciously or
subconsciously wanted him to demonstrate them. So, as far as Onegin's
alleged homosexuality is concerned, a careful biographical approach is, I
believe, quite justified. 

Was Pushkin aware of existing homosexuality in high society of Saint
Petersburg and Moscow? 
He certainly was. He even had knowledge of the historic example of
homosexual practices in the aristocratic milieu. In my article "Was the
Covetous Knight Pore and Was the Pore Knight Covetous" (Russian Literature
LV, 2004, University of Amsterdam) I attempted to demonstrate that Pushkin
was interested in the dualistic doctrine of the Knights of the Temple.
The Templars were accused of practicing homosexuality at their infamous
trial in the fourteenth century . The Templars' seal, which featured two
knights sitting on the same horse tightly close to each other, served as one
of the numerous evidences of their guilt (remember in "Stseny iz rytsarskikh
vremen" the knight says, "u vas net loshadei, pozvol'te predlozhit' vam
nashikh, my siadim za vami, kak osvobozhdennye krasavitsy").

What was Pushkin's perspective on homosexuality? 
It was humorous and ironic as it was among heterosexual educated men of the
period. Pushkin wrote about F. F. Vigel' who was widely known as being a
homosexual, "vse ego besedy konchaiutsia razgovorami o muzhelozhestve", he
also says humorously in the poem addressed to Vigel', "No, Vigel', poshchadi
moi zad!". Later Pushkin's good friend S. Sobolevskii wrote a brilliant
epigram on Videl': "Schastliv dom, a s nim i fligel'//Iz kotorykh, ne
skorbia,//Akh, Filip Filipych Vigel',//V sheiu vygnali tebia!"
There is also an account about Pushkin's last sarcasm. Pushkin and Danzas on
the way to the place of the duel were passing a carriage in which Count Borx
and his wife rode, and Pushkin reportedly said , "Here are two happy
families. The wife lives with a coachman and the husband lives with a
flunky"

Pushkin could "reword" Onegin with a propinquity for homosexuality if his
attitude to Onegin was purely ironic and sarcastic. Which is probably not
the case since Onegin in the epilogue of the novel acquires the distinct air
of a lonely and tragic figure. In addition Pushkin from the very beginning
presents Onegin as his close acquaintance ("dobryi moi
priiatel") and calls him "moi Onegin". Did Pushkin have homosexuals among
his friends and close acquaintances? According to  all indications, he did
not. 

Regards,

Yevgeny Slivkin
 

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