Turgenev, the metaphysics of an artist, 1818-1883 - article ; n°3 ; vol.13, pg 382-405

Eva Kagan-Kans

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Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique - Année 1972 - Volume 13 - Numéro 3 - Pages 382-405
24 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_ET_SOVIETIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1972
• Nombre de lectures: 25
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Eva Kagan-Kans
Turgenev, the metaphysics of an artist, 1818-1883
In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 13 N°3. pp. 382-405.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Kagan-Kans Eva. Turgenev, the metaphysics of an artist, 1818-1883. In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 13 N°3. pp.
382-405.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1972.1886
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1972_num_13_3_1886EVA KAGAN-KANS
TURGENEV, THE METAPHYSICS OF AN ARTIST
1818-1883
The purpose of this study is twofold: to establish some of the intellec
tual and cultural currents, trends and ideas which were in ascendancy
during Turgenev's lifetime, and to define his own attitudes and world
view. No thinker, writer or artist creates in a vacuum, and none can
avoid being influenced and in part formed by the contemporary intellec
tual and spiritual ambiance. This is especially true in Turgenev's case,
for he was always an active participant in the intellectual 'circles' of his
time both in Russia and Europe.
It is generally difficult to speak of direct influences on a particular
writer; usually very little can be proven, and the argument for derivation
often reduces itself to pointing out some analogies. Men are never
influenced by ideas they do not already hold in embryonic form. With
a writer like Turgenev, the problem becomes particularly complex for
Turgenev was a man of great erudition, a thinker who never formulated
a systematic exposition of his world view, but was nevertheless
intensely concerned with ultimate philosophical questions, the eternal
verities. And perhaps the word 'confluences', rather than 'influences',
would be more appropriate in his case.
It is actually difficult to speak of Turgenev's philosophy or metap
hysics. Turgenev surpassed both Dostoevskij and Tolstoj in formal
philosophical education; unlike them, however, he did not expound his views in any systematic form. Nevertheless, a philo
sophical substructure is always present in his works. Turgenev's
own library testifies eloquently to the wide range of his interests
and his marginal notes in volumes of Kant, SchelUng, Fichte, Hegel,
Feuerbach and other philosophers speak of his close acquaintance
All references to Turgenev's works are cited in text and footnotes simply by
volume and page numbers. The edition used is I. S. Turgenev, Polnoe sobranie
sočinenij i pisem (The complete collection of works and letters) (Moscow-Leningrad,
1960-1968). The volumes referring to Fiction use Latin numerals and to Letters
Arabic numerals. TURGENEV 383
with the intellectual ideas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.1
And yet, years later, upon rereading those volumes, Turgenev wrote
to Fet: "Serait-ce moi qui jadis ai écrit tout cela ? Qu'on me tue si je
suis capable maintenant d'en comprendre un traître mot."2 Further
more, Turgenev insisted in his "Reminiscences of Belinskij" (Vospomi-
nanija o Belinskom) that both he and his friend lacked any faculty for
thinking in purely abstract terms (XIV: 29). Given that Turgenev had
spent years in Berlin studying philosophy and had hoped for and worked
toward obtaining the chair of Philosophy at Moscow University, these
statements should be treated with some reservations. They do, however,
demonstrate his dislike of rigid and arid systems. At the height of his
friendship with Tolstoj, Turgenev wrote him:
"Systems are valued only by those people who cannot seize hold of the whole
truth; those who want to catch it by the tail. A system is exactly like a lizard. It
shortly." will leave its (3: tail 75) in your hand and run away. It knows that it will grow a new tail
First and foremost, Turgenev was an artist, a creator of beautiful
images and lyrical, harmonious prose. His excursions into the realm of
philosophy were not made to satisfy an abstract intellectual curiosity,
but in order to find an answer to life's essential questions. In a letter
to M. A. Bakunin, Turgenev used a poetic metaphor to compare the study
of a philosophical system to the process of stripping the petals from a
rose in an attempt to uncover its secret inner heart (1: 196). It is as
a poet that Turgenev was sensitive to the subtle organic structure of a
philosophical edifice and preferred not to subject it to strict logical
analysis.8
Turgenev's adolescent years were spent at the Universities of Moscow
and St. Petersburg during the 1830's. This was the time when the cult
of Goethe had its greatest flowering on Russian soil. The beginnings of
an intensive Goethe influence on Russian literature date back to the
second half of the 1820's when Goethe's greatest champions were the
"Lovers of wisdom" (ljubomudry), members of the circle formed in
Moscow in 1823.
In Goethe the young Russians saw a harmonious genius who had
1. During my visit to Orel in 1966 I examined these volumes personally and
observed the numerous notations by Turgenev, expressing his approval or refuting
the ideas he saw there. In general, these notations show a very close reading of texts.
2. A. Fet, Vospominanija (Recollections) (Moscow, 1890), I: 270. Letter
of 1858. The reference is also to the notes Turgenev made during his student
years.
3. V. Žirmunskij, Nemeckij romantizm i sovremennaja mistika (German romant
icism and contemporary mysticism) (St. Petersburg, 1914): 191. From the point
of view of a Schelh'ngian romantic, a true poet must be a true philosopher. A poet
intuitively guesses that which is later revealed by a philosopher. It is true that
Turgenev never laid any claims to being a poet-seer. EVA KAGAN-KANS 384
achieved reconciliation between emotion and thought and an acceptance
of life in its totality:
"S prirodoj odnoju on zizn'ju dyšal,
Ruc'ja razumel lepetan'e,
I govor drevesnyh listov ponimal,
I čuvstvoval trav prozjaban'e;
Byla emu zvezdnaja kniga jasna,
I s nim govorila morskaja volna."1
And this is how Turgenev himself interpreted Goethe; the impact of
Goethe was to remain all his life with him.*
From various accounts of the years which Turgenev spent in Berlin
(1838-1841) we can reconstruct the romantic ambiance which surrounded
him there. Bettina von Arnim, the author of Goethes Briefwechsel mit
einem Kind, the last link with receding romanticism, still reigned in the
salon of the Frolovs, where Turgenev was a frequent visitor.8 And it
was on German soil that Turgenev's idealistic and idealized friendships
with Stankevič and Bakunin developed. Turgenev himself wrote that
he had to plunge into the 'German sea' in order to acquaint himself with
philosophy, and he proved to be a fervent student of Hegel, as the
underscored lines in his notes suggest. However, hegelianism came to
him with a strong admixture from other sources. His mentor in German
philosophy, Professor Werder of Berlin University was famous for his
lectures on Macbeth, Hamlet and Wallenstein.* The Russian youths who
1. A. Baratynskij, "Na smert' Gete" (On Goethe's death), Bol'saja serija,
Bibliotéka poeta (Leningrad, 1957): 157.
Goethe's influence on Russian literature begins in the 1920's with the ljubomudry
circle which comprised Odoevskij, Venevitinov, Iv. Kireevskij among others.
Translations of Faust, Gôtz von Berlichingen and Werther were made at that time.
At the end of the 1830's, combined with an intense interest in Hegelian philosophy,
the cult of Goethe reached its apogée. A. Bakunin, who was to become an intimate
friend of Turgenev, wrote his sister Varvara: "Sčasťe ne est' otvlečennoe sostojanie
bespreryvnyh radostej, no živoe, proniknutoe blagodaťju soznanie žizni, prini-
majuščee v sebja vse — i radost', i gore, i naslaždenie i stradanie [. . .] Drugogo
scasts'ja ja ne želaju; ja govorju как Faust:
'Und was der ganzen Menschheit zugeteilt ist,
Môcht ich in meinem Innern selbst geniessen.'"
V. Žirmunskij, Gete v russkoj literature (Goethe in Russian literature) (Leningrad,
Gosizdat, 1930): 161-236, and "Russkij Faust" (The Faust), Literaturnoe
nasledstvo (1932), vols 4-6: 169. Stankevič, a man who perhaps left the greatest
imprint of his personality on Turgenev, is described as constantly quoting from
kritike" (Goethe in Russian criticism), Goethe. I. Sergievskij, "Gete v russkoj
in ibid.: 729.
2. His foreign friends, Daudet, the de Goncourts and others, cite his frequent
references to Goethe. See also Turgenev's address at the unveiling of the Puškin
monument in 1880 and his obituary on Prosper Mérimée in 1870. Also the numer
ous quotations from Goethe in his works.
3. See an autobiographical allusion when Rudin reads to Natalija Bettina's
Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kind, and other German poetry: "And beautiful
images, new bright thoughts flowed in cascading streams into her soul." (VI: 290)
4. After hearing all the reports on him Belinskij wrote to Stankevič: "Werder čelovek." — -čudnyj, svjatoj In addition to Werder, Turgenev mentions Steffens TURGENEV 385
stu