The first Russian novel

[John Dunn]

The manuscript known as the Pustozerskij sbornik, which contains the autograph text of one of the versions of Avvakum's Zhitie is in Pushkinskij dom: ОП, оп.24, №43.  Information on other manuscripts is in the Introduction to Pierre Pascal's French translation (La Vie de l'archiprêtre Avvakum, Gallimard, 1960) and perhaps elsewhere.  I would think that Pushkinskij dom would be a good starting point for the others, assuming that any manuscripts have survived. 

I can't imagine that Avvakum would have been too pleased to be considered the 
father of the Russian novel.  I have always thought that the question of possible sources of linguistic and literary influences on his work merited further investigation, but it would seem unlikely that his Zhitie influenced any budding early novelists, given its heretical status and the fact that it appears to have been generally unknown until the mid-nineteenth century.

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: Natasha Randall <nsrandall at EARTHLINK.NET>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:46:20 +0200
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] The first Russian novel

Thanks to Joe Andrew, Maria Fomina, Marcus Levitt, David Houston,  
Vadim Besprozvanny, Jeff Brooks for your responses - very helpful  
indeed!

I do think it's a murky topic, the first 'baggy monster' to emerge  
from the primordial mud of moral tales, poetry and chapbooks - and  
amidst roiling feelings about Russian identity too... I think I'd  
draw a line in the sand sometime after the moral tales like 'The Most  
Wonderful and Amazing Story of a Certain Merchant, Foma Grudtsyn,  
about His Son Savva'  - and the rest of those tales with the very  
charming titles (beautiful princesses, sailors, extraordinary  
adventures, etc), which are more fabular than anything.

I do think Karlinsky is sort of right to point to Trediakovsky's  
translation as the first Russian novel (1730) - especially when you  
think about attitudes toward translation in earlier eras. Indeed,  
many early novels (Komarov, Emin, Chulkov) drew heavily on French  
novels as far as I can tell... but there are degrees to which novels  
can be derivative, and perhaps it is going too far to call the  
Trediakovsky translation the first Russian novel.

Avvakum's autobiography (c.1660) I think is a major step in the  
development of narrative prose - but it's not fiction really, or at  
least it declares itself as autobiography whether the facts of it are  
accurate or not... Even though, again, early forms of storytelling  
treated the issue of fact vs. fiction rather differently than we do  
today. So, does it matter that Avvakum's was an autobiography? If so,  
when was the first book that set out boldly to create one long, big,  
great fiction?

Was it Emin - was he the author of the first Russian novel sometime  
between 1763 and 1766? He seems to be the major contender - though  
there are suggestions that he wasn't a native Russian. I guess that  
doesn't matter because he did write in Russian, after all. He is  
swiftly followed by Chulkov and Komarov.... So, I think, as Levitt  
suggested, I am left to think that these fellows are our earliest  
cluster of Russian novelists in the fullest and most precise sense of  
the word - fictional, prosaic, longer than a short story, not a  
translation. (Even if they were considered low-brow reading...!)

Perhaps then we have Narezhny and Bulgarin as the first "decent"  
novelists as it were... (I haven't read any of the above yet so I'm  
not one to judge).

Does anyone know where I can find any of the original manuscripts of  
these early efforts of prose (Avvakum, Trediakovsky, Emin particularly)?

Thanks again for the input,
Natasha

Natasha Randall
Translator





On 22 Apr 2009, at 12:52, Natasha Randall wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> Could anyone tell me anything about the first Russian novel ever  
> written - and indeed where to find an existing copy of it...? I  
> suspect there are several contenders for such an accolade but any  
> nudges in the right direction would be most appreciated.
>
> I'm looking into the early development of the novel in Russia, up  
> to the 1830s. I'd love to go digging in an archive somewhere or  
> speak to someone who might know also...
>
> Thanks in advance for any help,
>
> Natasha Randall
> Translator
>
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John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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