Fear in Russian Literature

[Olga Meerson]

Any work by Dostoevsky, esp. The Eternal Husband. Dost. is a great master of suspense based on fear, irrational but implicating the reader. The odd thing is that WHO is afraid, or of what, is the exact opposite of what we expect. The murderer is afraid of not knowing if he is discovered, more than of being discovered (C&P); the non-murderers are afraid of their skeletons in closets more than of committing the murder or being accused of so doing (BK), or else, afraid of discovering the true murderer as implicating them (Ivan in BK), or of the seemingly inevitable act of themselves committing the murder (Rogozhin), or fulfilling their love (Myshkin, eventually, of NF). The one ordering or "purchasing" the murder, of the killer he purchases the services from (Stavrogin, of Fedka the Convict)--etc. But the epitome of it all is The eternal Husband--where the lover is really afraid of the wild card in his life--the lawful husband. I would classify all of these odd combinations as v
arious forms of fearing oneself. This is the ominous side of what Bakhtin called the unfanilizability of a human being, and Mitia Karamazov said avout, "man is broad; I would have narrowed him". Mitia is speaking of himself. So is Grushenks, when she refuses to kiss KI's hand ("ia takaia!" Not fulfilling the oracle's commandment (know thyself) turns out to be the ultimate danger for Dostoevsky's characters and reader. 

----- Original Message -----
From: "White, Frederick" <fwhite at MUN.CA>
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008 5:50 am
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Fear in Russian Literature

> 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 
> hisadolescent 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 
> hisentitlement 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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