Barbara Walker examines the Russian literary circle, a feature of Russian intellectual and cultural life from tsarist times into the early Soviet period, through the life story of one of its liveliest and most adored figures, the poet Maximilian Voloshin (1877–1932). From 1911 until his death, Voloshin led a circle in the Crimean village of Koktebel’ that was a haven for such literary luminaries as Marina Tsvetaeva, Nikolai Gumilev, and Osip Mandelstam. Drawing upon the anthropological theories of Victor Turner, Walker depicts the literary circle of late Imperial Russia as a contradictory mix of idealism and "communitas," on the one hand, and traditional Russian patterns of patronage and networking, on the other. While detailing the colorful history of Voloshinov’s circle in the pre- and postrevolutionary decades, the book demonstrates that the literary circle and its leaders played a key role in integrating the intelligentsia into the emerging ethos of the Soviet state.
Author(s): Barbara Walker
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 256
cover......Page 1
toc......Page 10
List of Illustrations......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 14
An Introduction in Three Parts......Page 18
1. Voloshin’s Social and Cultural Origins......Page 41
2. The Russian Symbolists and Their Circles......Page 57
3. Voloshin and the Modernist Problem of the Ugly Poetess......Page 83
4. The Koktebel’ Dacha Circle......Page 101
5. Insiders and Outsiders, Gossip and Mythology:From Communitas toward Network Node......Page 122
6. Voloshin Carves Power out of Fear......Page 134
7. Voloshin Carves Power, Cont’d, and theBroader Context and Implications of His Activities......Page 161
8. Inside Voloshin’s Soviet Circle:Persistence of Structure, Preservation of Anti-structure......Page 184
9. Collapse of a Patronage Network and Voloshin’s Death......Page 201
Conclusion......Page 208
Notes......Page 214
Bibliography......Page 238
Index......Page 248
