Subject
Re: Pnin and the Slovo (a.k.a. "The Igor Tale" (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Galya Diment is responding to Earl Sampson's comments on
her article "Timofey Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov, and Marc Szeftel" that
appeared in NABOKOV STUDIES #3 (1996). For the convenience of the reader,
Sampson's comments are re-run below Diment's response.
As an wistful aside, NABOKV-L's editor notes that when NABOKV-L
was started nearly four years ago, one of its primary aims was to be a
forum for discussion of Nabokov scholarship where the readers of NABOKOV
STUDIES could immediately share their reactions to new scholarship with
the journal authors. SO far as I recall, this is the first case. I would
like to encourage more exchanges of this type.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Before I explain my reasons for
identifying the work that Pnin is
contemplating writing so closely with a work on Igor, I would like to say
that Professor Sampson's points are very well taken. He may be, indeed, a
pedant -- but so was, obviously, Nabokov. It truly takes a pedant to ask
insightful questions about works of another pedant.
It is hard for me to remember now what I had thought of this passage in
PNIN before I started identifying Pnin with Szeftel. I was, however, aware
that I may be in danger of reading too much of the Szeftelian subtext into
the description, so I did ask two medievalists I know, without
prejudicing their minds ahead of time, what existent medieval text springs
to mind when they read this description. Both said IGOR.
I also could not help identifying this description with a volume on IGOR
that Szeftel and Jakobson published in French in 1948, and which Nabokov
knew well enough -- and liked well enough -- to recommend to Wilson. It's
called LA GESTE DU PRINCE IGOR': EPOPEE RUSSE DU DOUZIEME SIECLE. In
addition to Jakobson, who wrote the introduction, translated SLOVO into
modern Russian and defended its authenticity, and to Szeftel, who supplied
historical commentary, the volume featured an article by another
historian, George Vernadsky who discussed the tale's place in history and
how history, both military and social, were reflected in it. The articles
also discussed what is known of the real-life princes and their lives --
which I have no problem fitting under the caption of "petite histoire" (I
have not looked too closely at all the articles, just at Szeftel's but
given that the edition is in French, it's quite possible that the phrase
was actually used there. I will search for it more). Thus the description
in Chapter 2 sounded very much to me like the description of the already
existent study on IGOR which I knew Nabokov was quite well aware of. I
probably should have explained it all in the article -- and the book --
but by then I was so convinced that it was a reference to IGOR that I
thought I did not need to do much explaining. I was probably wrong!
Galya Diment
------------------------------------------------------
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Pnin and the Slovo (a.k.a. "The Igor Tale"
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 16:10:34 -0700
From: Earl Sampson <esampson@cu.campus.mci.net>
I would like to raise a question about one statement in Galya Diment's
fine article in Nabokov Studies 3, "Timofey Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov, and
Mark Szeftel." At the beginning of the article, in listing biographical
correspondences between Pnin and Szeftel, Diment writes: "...both devoted
much of their lives to the unfinished study of the 'great work on Old
Russia, a wonderful dream mixture of folklore, poetry, social history and
_petite histoire_' (_Pnin_ 39), which is an obvious, albeit not spelt-out,
reference to _The Lay of Igor's Campaign_ ("Slovo o Polke Igoreve," 12th
century), a famous Russian epic." (54)
I have never taken that quoted passage from _Pnin_ 39 as a reference to
the _Slovo_, but rather as a description of a more general study of Old
Russia in which Pnin was engaged, and I would like to give my reasons for
doubting Professor Diment's interpretation. First, it should be said that
the first part of the sentence quoted above does present significant
correspondences between Pnin and Szeftel: "Thus both Pnin and Szeftel were
born in February, both studied sociology, both got their university degrees
in 1925 in the countries of Eastern Europe (Pnin in Prague, and Szeftel in
Warsaw), and..." And it would be tempting to extend the list by assuming
that Pnin, like Szeftel, was studying the _Slovo_, but the wording in
_Pnin_ does not seem to me to support this. The words which most plausibly
might be seen as pointing to the _Slovo_ are "a wonderful dream mixture of
folkore, poetry..." The _Slovo_ could certainly be described as a
"wonderful mixture" of disparate elements, including folklore and poetry
(much of the scholarship on the work is concerned with establishing what
genres are fused within it and how), and some elements of its style and
structure, e.g. rapid transitions, and an "all-pervading sense of magic"
(Nabokov's Foreword, 9, to _The Song of Igor's Campaign_, VN's translation
of the _Slovo_) suggest a kind of "dream" logic in its architecture. And
another element in the mixture, to be sure, is history, since the work is
based on an actual historical event (recorded in the medieval Russian
annals) -- but political and military history, not social history, and
certainly not "petite histoire," which Boyd glosses as "History on the
small scale [one of the most prominent characteristics of the _Slovo_ is
the _grandness_ of scale, magically achieved within the compass of a
relatively small text - ES], of everday life and customs" (Library of
America editon, 886), and Barabtarlo, similarly, as "French for history of
daily life, mores, customs" (_Phantom of Fact_, 136). The phrase is at the
center of the second and fuller description of Pnin's scholarly project, in
the next, third chapter: "He contemplated writing a _Petite Histoire_ of
Russian culture, in which a choice of Russian Curiosities, Customs,
Literary Anecdotes, and so forth would be presented in such a way as to
reflect in miniature _la Grande Histoire_ - Major Concatenations of
Events." (77) Nothing here points to the _Slovo_.
To return to the exact wording in the _Pnin_ 39 passage: "The great work
on Old Russia, a wonderful dream mixture of folklore, poetry, social
history, and _petite histoire_, which for the last ten years or so he had
been fondly planning, now seemed accessible at last..." The _Slovo_ could
accurately be described as the great work _of_ Old Russia, but Pnin is said
to be planning a great ("great" in Pnin's fond imagination, i.e. grandiose,
masterful) work _on_ Old Russia, not a _study of_ a great work _of_ Old
Russia.
Much ado about not very much, I guess, given the high quality of
Professor Diment's article, but what are we pedants for?
Earl Sampson
Boulder, CO
her article "Timofey Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov, and Marc Szeftel" that
appeared in NABOKOV STUDIES #3 (1996). For the convenience of the reader,
Sampson's comments are re-run below Diment's response.
As an wistful aside, NABOKV-L's editor notes that when NABOKV-L
was started nearly four years ago, one of its primary aims was to be a
forum for discussion of Nabokov scholarship where the readers of NABOKOV
STUDIES could immediately share their reactions to new scholarship with
the journal authors. SO far as I recall, this is the first case. I would
like to encourage more exchanges of this type.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Before I explain my reasons for
identifying the work that Pnin is
contemplating writing so closely with a work on Igor, I would like to say
that Professor Sampson's points are very well taken. He may be, indeed, a
pedant -- but so was, obviously, Nabokov. It truly takes a pedant to ask
insightful questions about works of another pedant.
It is hard for me to remember now what I had thought of this passage in
PNIN before I started identifying Pnin with Szeftel. I was, however, aware
that I may be in danger of reading too much of the Szeftelian subtext into
the description, so I did ask two medievalists I know, without
prejudicing their minds ahead of time, what existent medieval text springs
to mind when they read this description. Both said IGOR.
I also could not help identifying this description with a volume on IGOR
that Szeftel and Jakobson published in French in 1948, and which Nabokov
knew well enough -- and liked well enough -- to recommend to Wilson. It's
called LA GESTE DU PRINCE IGOR': EPOPEE RUSSE DU DOUZIEME SIECLE. In
addition to Jakobson, who wrote the introduction, translated SLOVO into
modern Russian and defended its authenticity, and to Szeftel, who supplied
historical commentary, the volume featured an article by another
historian, George Vernadsky who discussed the tale's place in history and
how history, both military and social, were reflected in it. The articles
also discussed what is known of the real-life princes and their lives --
which I have no problem fitting under the caption of "petite histoire" (I
have not looked too closely at all the articles, just at Szeftel's but
given that the edition is in French, it's quite possible that the phrase
was actually used there. I will search for it more). Thus the description
in Chapter 2 sounded very much to me like the description of the already
existent study on IGOR which I knew Nabokov was quite well aware of. I
probably should have explained it all in the article -- and the book --
but by then I was so convinced that it was a reference to IGOR that I
thought I did not need to do much explaining. I was probably wrong!
Galya Diment
------------------------------------------------------
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Pnin and the Slovo (a.k.a. "The Igor Tale"
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 16:10:34 -0700
From: Earl Sampson <esampson@cu.campus.mci.net>
I would like to raise a question about one statement in Galya Diment's
fine article in Nabokov Studies 3, "Timofey Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov, and
Mark Szeftel." At the beginning of the article, in listing biographical
correspondences between Pnin and Szeftel, Diment writes: "...both devoted
much of their lives to the unfinished study of the 'great work on Old
Russia, a wonderful dream mixture of folklore, poetry, social history and
_petite histoire_' (_Pnin_ 39), which is an obvious, albeit not spelt-out,
reference to _The Lay of Igor's Campaign_ ("Slovo o Polke Igoreve," 12th
century), a famous Russian epic." (54)
I have never taken that quoted passage from _Pnin_ 39 as a reference to
the _Slovo_, but rather as a description of a more general study of Old
Russia in which Pnin was engaged, and I would like to give my reasons for
doubting Professor Diment's interpretation. First, it should be said that
the first part of the sentence quoted above does present significant
correspondences between Pnin and Szeftel: "Thus both Pnin and Szeftel were
born in February, both studied sociology, both got their university degrees
in 1925 in the countries of Eastern Europe (Pnin in Prague, and Szeftel in
Warsaw), and..." And it would be tempting to extend the list by assuming
that Pnin, like Szeftel, was studying the _Slovo_, but the wording in
_Pnin_ does not seem to me to support this. The words which most plausibly
might be seen as pointing to the _Slovo_ are "a wonderful dream mixture of
folkore, poetry..." The _Slovo_ could certainly be described as a
"wonderful mixture" of disparate elements, including folklore and poetry
(much of the scholarship on the work is concerned with establishing what
genres are fused within it and how), and some elements of its style and
structure, e.g. rapid transitions, and an "all-pervading sense of magic"
(Nabokov's Foreword, 9, to _The Song of Igor's Campaign_, VN's translation
of the _Slovo_) suggest a kind of "dream" logic in its architecture. And
another element in the mixture, to be sure, is history, since the work is
based on an actual historical event (recorded in the medieval Russian
annals) -- but political and military history, not social history, and
certainly not "petite histoire," which Boyd glosses as "History on the
small scale [one of the most prominent characteristics of the _Slovo_ is
the _grandness_ of scale, magically achieved within the compass of a
relatively small text - ES], of everday life and customs" (Library of
America editon, 886), and Barabtarlo, similarly, as "French for history of
daily life, mores, customs" (_Phantom of Fact_, 136). The phrase is at the
center of the second and fuller description of Pnin's scholarly project, in
the next, third chapter: "He contemplated writing a _Petite Histoire_ of
Russian culture, in which a choice of Russian Curiosities, Customs,
Literary Anecdotes, and so forth would be presented in such a way as to
reflect in miniature _la Grande Histoire_ - Major Concatenations of
Events." (77) Nothing here points to the _Slovo_.
To return to the exact wording in the _Pnin_ 39 passage: "The great work
on Old Russia, a wonderful dream mixture of folklore, poetry, social
history, and _petite histoire_, which for the last ten years or so he had
been fondly planning, now seemed accessible at last..." The _Slovo_ could
accurately be described as the great work _of_ Old Russia, but Pnin is said
to be planning a great ("great" in Pnin's fond imagination, i.e. grandiose,
masterful) work _on_ Old Russia, not a _study of_ a great work _of_ Old
Russia.
Much ado about not very much, I guess, given the high quality of
Professor Diment's article, but what are we pedants for?
Earl Sampson
Boulder, CO