This dissertation examines a famous formal peculiarity of nineteenth-century Russian novels: the scores upon scores of characters they embrace. Drawing on terminology developed by Alex Woloch--"character space" and "character system"--I ask how Russian writers use their huge, unwieldy systems of characters to create meaning. In each of the four central chapters I analyze a different "overcrowded" nineteenth-century Russian novel: Gogol's Dead Souls, Part I (1842), Goncharov's Oblomov (1859), Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1875-77), and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80). I address questions such as: what artistic purpose do the many superfluous-seeming minor characters in Gogol's, Goncharov's, Tolstoy's, and Dostoevsky's works serve? What effect does their presence have on the structure of the novels themselves? Why was Dostoevsky so worried by the criticism, which he received throughout the 1870s, that he was "overpopulating" his novels? And how did Dostoevsky's own compositional dilemmas inform both the architectonics and the thematics of The Brothers Karamazov? As I argue, there is an increasingly strong sense in nineteenth-century Russian letters that literary characters not only resemble human beings, but even demand of us the same sort of moral obligations that people do. The perceived personhood of literary characters gives particular significance to the narrative decisions realist Russian writers make (such as how to characterize the major vs. minor figures in a novel, and how much or what kind of narrative attention to grant to each), and Gogol, Goncharov, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky take full artistic advantage of it. They use the enormous number of characters who appear on the pages of their novels in order to pose, through the narrative structure of their works, many of the most important moral, social, and political questions that preoccupy them: What, in essence, is a human being? Are we capable of recognizing (or even simply acknowledging) the psychological complexity of the many, many people who surround us? Can we establish universal brotherhood on earth, a harmonious, unified society that truly includes everyone, even the most disruptive and destructive ones?

My dissertation attempts to uncover neglected affinities between two twentieth-century Russian poets often thought to be antithetical to each other, Aleksandr Blok and Nikolai Gumilyov. The poetry of Blok and Gumilyov represents the culmination of Russian Symbolism in its quest for unity driven by a sense of irreparable loss. My study traces this search through three broad thematic areas, each of which involves a myth of return to a lost paradise, and all of which intersect with the Christological narrative of the Fall: the Platonic myth of anamnesis, the myth of the Eternal Feminine (dealt with in two consecutive chapters, one on earlier, more mystical treatments, another on later, more secularized versions), and the twin myths of Don Juan and the Prodigal Son. Each of these myths is re-interpreted by the two poets using hybrid forms that combine elements of personal experience or autobiographical myth with pre-existing mythopoetic frameworks or “masks.” I discuss the influences of the Russian and European Romantic tradition on Blok and Gumilyov, and analyze how their work is both a continuation of those traditions and a departure from them. By analyzing their poetry using psychoanalytic theory, I endeavor to reveal previously neglected parallels in these poets’ search to find sacred meaning in a desacralized world.

Zugl.: Leipzig, Univ., Habil-Schr., 2004

Thesis--Columbia University. / Bibliography included in "Footnotes" (p. 78-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography included in "Footnotes" (p. 78-88).

Akademische Abhandlung--Lund. / Imprint on cover: Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. [100]-110.

Thesis--Hamburg, 1971. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-142).

Inaug.-Diss.--Leipzig. / Vita. "Sonderabdruck aus dem Archiv fur slavische Philologie, Bd. XXIII."

Thesis--Aarhus universitet. / "Bibliographie": p. [186]-188.

Abstract not available.