Fear in Russian Literature

[White, Frederick]

Hello,

I might recommend Leonid Andreev’s “The Thief” (Vor) from 1905 about Feodor Iurasov – a thief, three times convicted – and his trip by train to see his former mistress who lives just outside Moscow. As the story begins he picks the pocket of a man out of habit, although he does not need the money. At a scheduled stop Iurasov overhears two conductors joking that the gendarme is looking for someone on the train. It is unclear about whom they are speaking, but Iurasov is obsessed with the idea that the gendarme is after him. He begins to panic and although there is no evidence that he is being sought, he rushes through the compartments in an attempt to get to the front of the train. Everyone and everything represents for him danger and he is gripped by an “animal fear.” This terror overcomes him and he leaps from the train into the path of an on-coming postal train, still convinced that he was being pursued by the gendarme. 
	Dr. M.O. Shaikevich, a professor of psychiatry at Moscow University and a contemporary of Andreev’s, suggests in 1909 that Iurasov is forced to confront his loneliness at the scheduled stop when he is not allowed into a private dance which triggers his psychosis, rather than some ambiguous comment about the gendarme. He argues that a criminal thrice sentenced should not panic at the possibility of being caught for a petty crime and that the real reason for his sickly terror is psychological. Significantly, it is the threat of solitude and a life lacking in meaning which seems to trigger Iurasov’s panic attack. The fear that he experiences is irrational as there is no evidence that the gendarme are even interested in or searching for a pickpocket. The anxiety is self-generated and results in a rather grotesque and possibly performative act of suicide.


-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Robert Chandler
Sent: Sun 6/8/2008 3:14 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Fear in Russian Literature
 
Dear Sandra,

There is a lot about fear in Grossman's VSE TECHET.

Chapter 3, for example contains this gem:

??,  ??,  ?  ???????????, ? ??????? ?????????? ?????? ??? ?????, ? ??????
?????  ???????,  ??????, ????????? ????????. ?? ??? ? ???????? ?????? ?????
-  ??????  ????????? ???? ???????? ???????. ? ????? ????????, ??????? ??????
???????   ?????????   ?????   ?????? ????????  ??????????,  - ????  ??  ??
???????????,  ????  ?? ??? ??????? ??????????, ???????????. ??, ??, ????? ??
???? ?????, ??? ?? ?? ??????? ? ?????? ??, ? ????? ???????? ????????? ??????
????? ??? ??????? ????.

Yes, his whole life had passed by in obeisance, in a great act of
submission, in fear of hunger, torture and forced labour in Siberia.  But
there had also been a particularly vile fear - the fear of receiving not
black caviar but red caviar, mere salmon caviar, in his weekly parcel of
food from the institute.  And this vile, 'caviar' fear had co-opted his
adolescent dreams from the years of War Communism  to its own shameful ends.
What mattered was not to doubt or hesitate; what mattered was to give his
vote, to put his name to official letters, without a second thought.  Yes,
yes, what had nourished his unshakeable ideals was two very different fears:
fear for his own skin - of being skinned alive - and fear of losing his
entitlement to black caviar.
            ********

And much of chapter 8, a mock trial of a number of different informers, is
about fear.

Vsego dobrogo,

R.


> Dear SEELANGerS,
> 
> I am preparing a course on "fear in literature" and would greatly
> appreciate your ideas and recommendations regarding Russian literary
> texts in English or German translation (I would like to make this
> course available to non-Russian speakers) dealing with different types
> of fear ranging from angst to the absurd and terror to horror.
> Suggestions for intersting films in this regard would also be
> appreciated.
> 
> Thank you kindly in advance and I look forward to hearing from you!
> 
> Sandra Evans
> Slavic Studies
> University of Tübingen
> 
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