TLS: Pushkin & The Captain's Daughter

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Olga,

Yes, "strife" is much too strong a word.  I was just puzzled that Bethea
should so undervalue - as I see it - Kap dochka.

Vsego samogo dobrogo,

Robert




> Dear Robert, dear all,
> Please do mention Davydov: he has a very fine ear for such things. Also,
> Nabokov cites one of the best alliterational plays in the plot, also a summary
> of it, in a way: "beda, barin: buran!" David Bethea knows all that full well,
> as he does Sergey Davydov, as well as his (David's) Pushkin, and his Nabokov.
> I wonder where the disagreement is, or rather why. Is it possible that it is
> territorial? A. Dolinin, Bethea, and Davydov have considered Captain's
> Daughter their own domain. Sometimes, even unconsciously, this creates a
> hostility towards someone who makes similar judgments but from the outside of
> their scholarly circles. Everyone familiar with your work, Robert, knows what
> an ear you have as a poet--not merely as a translator--or rather, what your
> brilliant translations owe to your poetic ear. But not everyone is aware of
> your greatness, who works with the originals without resorting to translations
> or studying translators' considerations. I know Davydov and Bethea well a!
>  nd!
>  Dolinin, by his papers at conferences. They definitely are a professional
> clique, beautifully powerful, intellectually, and, inwardly, very collegial.
> But the danger of this clique, of being as exclusive as any other, is huge. In
> general, the problem with schools and cliques is that they often believe that,
> unless an insightful observation in their field comes from one of them, it is
> plagiarism. Pushkin's genius transcends cliques but scholarly domains don't.
> Alas. My observations are based on my observations alone. I know both your
> work on Pushkin, and the work of Bethea, Davydov, and Dolinin, and I admire
> all of it. So the only explanation for any possible strife in the matter, I
> think, can only be explained by non-intellectual, and even non-academic,
> factors.   Perhaps there was no strife to begin with?
> o
> 
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