Onegin et al.

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006, Daniel Rancour-Laferriere wrote:

......../snip/.........
> Agreed.  But there is no "real" Onegin.  We have all been constructing 
> him for ourselves ever since Pushkin did.  But some constructs are more 
> interesting than others, and some constructs explain certain things 
> better than others.

The most interesting versions of the murder are not necessarily correct.
However, it does not make them less interesting. Let's call the version of
Onegin that Pushkin had correct by the definition. It does not mean that
we ever know what that version was but we can utilize some methods of
reconstruction which, we believe, will lead us closer to that correct
version. Please keep in mind that it would not necessarily be an
interesting version. On the other hand, there are might be some
interesting versions but not necessarily correct ones. This is what I
meant talking about the two different systems of literary reconstruction,
and my plea was not to confuse them.


> ................/snip/................
> 
> Edward Dumanis writes:
> 
> >A famous contemporary Russian songwriter, Veronika Dolina, has a poem
> >where she portraits  Sancho Panza as a woman who is in love with her
> >master. It's a wonderful song, however, I have not heard about anybody
> >thinking that this might be what was in Cervantes' subconsciousness. Or
> >was it?
> >
> First, the correct psychoanalytic term is "unconscious" ("subconscious" 
> if you are a Jungian).  Second, I say: if Veronika Dolina can imagine 
> Sancho in love with Quixote, Tat'iana can imagine Onegin in love with 
> Lenskii.
> 
Thank you for correcting me. I have no clue how this "-ness" went into my
writing. However, I need to clarify my example with Dolina. She explicitly
interpret Sancho as a woman in love with Quixote, not a man. It is an
interesting interpretation of Tat'iana imagining Onegin in love with
Lenskii. However, it does contradict to the duller reality of her
upbringing. Nevertheless it it still interesting. We can certainly imagine
such things happening. It would not be Pushkin's realism in that case but
so what? It will be your or my Onegin but not Pushkin's. Does it matter or
not? - it is a completely different story.

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>

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