On the polyphony of meanings in “Eugene Onegin”

About the author:

Vladimir D. Shiltsev, Dr. Sci. (Phys.-Math.), Foreign Corresponding Member of Academy of Sciences, Institute of Bologna (Bologna, Italy); vladimir.shiltsev@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000-0003-3282-4701

Abstract:

The questions of the higher hermeneutics of “Eugene Onegin” have been repeatedly considered by literary critics and philosophers, leaving a wide range of mostly subjective opinions about the meaning of the novel. We propose a new approach to isolating the main semantic series and an analysis of their development and interweaving in the text. We single out a number of main categories of meanings, and for each stanza of the novel, one or more of the most appropriate categories have been marked. The resulting graphic structures made it possible to trace the development and interweaving of meanings in the text. It was found that three-quarters of the stanzas of “Eugene Onegin” are polyphonic, in which, in addition to one semantic dominant, there is clearly another, and often a third and even a fourth one. The most frequently occurring bundles of meanings in individual stanzas or in the transition from one stanza to the next stanza are also analyzed. Our approach also make it possible to suggest a possible semantic load of the missing stanzas, marked in the text with dots, and to trace the numerous episodes of the novel when what is happening goes beyond the literary work and enters the real world, for example, through the involvement of the reader. Comparison of “Eugene Onegin” with the works of other contemporary writers and with other masterpieces of Pushkin himself shows a fundamental difference in breadth and excellent perfection of Pushkin’s creation in terms of semantic polyphony. Although the mere presence or absence of semantic polyphony, of course, is not a sufficient condition for literary piece to become a work of genius — it depends more on the realization: a combination of polished style, purity and clarity of language, the ability to evoke a reader’s emotional response etc., but the polyphony meanings of “Eugene Onegin” which we reveal does help to understand the highest meaning and extraordinary, “vital” harmony of the work, making it a unique phenomenon in world literature.

References:

1. Avanesov S. M. 2017. “Bakhtin’s event as the origin of being”. Ideas and Ideals, vol. 1, no. 1 (31), pp. 23-30. [In Russian]

2. Arans O. R. 2005. “Secret myth of Onegin”. Slavic Almanac: 2004. Moscow: Indrik Publishing House. Pp. 381-404. [In Russian]

3. Artamonov M. D. 1995. “Once again about the 10^th chapter of ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Moscow Pushkinist: Annual Collection. Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of World Literature Named after A. M. Gorky. Pushkin Commission. Moscow: Nasledie. Vol. 2, pp. 292-304. [In Russian]

4. Akhmatova A. A. 2002. “Pushkin Studios”. Collected Works, vol. 6. Moscow: Ellis Lak 2000. Pp. 56-157. [In Russian]

5. Barsky O. V. 2013. “Subject polyphony ‘Eugene Onegin’: Lensky and Tatiana”. Omsk Scientific Bulletin, no. 4 (121), pp. 113-117. [In Russian]

6. Bakhtin M. M. 1975. “Word in the novel”. Bakhtin M. M. Questions of Literature and Aesthetics. Studies of Various Years. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. Pp. 72-233. [In Russian]

7. Bakhtin M. M. 1986. “To the philosophy of an act”. Philosophy and Sociology of Science and Technology: Yearbook, 1984-1985. Edited by S. G. Bocharov, S. S. Averintsev. Moscow: Nauka. Pp. 80-160. [In Russian]

8. Bakhtin M. M. 1929. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Creativity. Leningrad: Priboy. 103 p. [In Russian]

9. Belinsky V. G. 1955. “The works of Alexander Pushkin ... Articles 8^th and 9^th”. Complete Set of Works: In 13 Volumes. Moscow. Vol. 7. Pp. 431-504. [In Russian]

10. Bocharov S. G. 1967. “‘The form of the plan’: Some questions of Pushkin’s poetics”. Questions of Literature, no. 12, p.119. [In Russian]

11. Bocharov, S. G. 1991. “French epigraph to Eugene Onegin”. Cahiers du Monde Russe et Soviétique, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 173-188. [In Russian]

12. Brodsky N. L. 1932. Commentary on the Novel by A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. Moscow: Mir. 246 p. [In Russian]

13. Gershenzon M. O. 1990. “The wisdom of Pushkin”. Pushkin in Russian Philosophical Criticism: The End of the 19^th — the first half of the 20^th Century. Moscow: Kniga. Pp. 207-243. [In Russian]

14. Goethe I. V. 1960. Faust. Translated by B. L. Pasternak. Moscow: Fiction State Publishing House. 619 p. [In Russian]

15. Grinbaum O. N. 2008. “Primordial Onegin: rhythm, meaning, interpretation”. Saint-Petersburg State University Herald. Series 9, no. 3 (part 1), pp. 3-12. [In Russian]

16. Dobritsyn A. A. 2005. “Epigrammatic quotes in ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Philologica, vol. 8, no. 19-20, pp. 175-186. [In Russian]

17. Dostoevsky F. M. 1984. Complete Works, vol. 26. Leningrad: Nauka. Pp. 129-149. [In Russian]

18. Tomashevsky B. (ed.). 1937. Eugene Onegin. Leningrad: Goslitizdat. Pp. 255-298. [In Russian]

19. Kotelnikov V. A. 1999. Spiritual Worker. Edited by E. S. Lebedeva. Saint-Petersburg: Nauka. 550 p. [In Russian]

20. Lazarevich K. S. 2008. “Place ‘Onegin’ on the map”. Literature, no. 11, pp. 20-26. [In Russian]

21. Lotman Yu. M. 1995. A. S. “Pushkin’s novel ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin: Biography of the Writer; Articles and Notes, 1960-1990; “Eugene Onegin”: Commentary. Saint-Petersburg: Art-SPB. Pp. 391-762. [In Russian]

22. Lyulka V. M. 2010. “Epigraphs in the A. S. Pushkin’s novel Eugene Onegin as a form of intertextuality”. Philological Sciences, no. 1, pp. 76-81. [In Russian]

23. Makogonenko G. P.1987. Selected Works. A. S. Pushkin’s Novel “Eugene Onegin”. Leningrad: Soviet writer. 398 p. [In Russian]

24. Merezhkovsky D. S. 1990. “Pushkin”. Pushkin in Russian Philosophical Criticism: The End of the 19^th — The First Half of the 20^th Century. Moscow: Kniga, 1990. Pp. 92-160. [In Russian]

25. Mitskevich A. 1902. Collected Works of Adam Mitskevich. Edited by N. Polevoy. Vol. 4. Moscow: Tovarischestvo M. O. Wolf. Pp. 1-195. [In Russian]

26. Nepomniaschii V. S. 1995. “From observations of the text of ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Moscow Pushkinist: Annual Collection. Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of World Literature named after A. M. Gorky. Pushkin Commission. Moscow: Nasledie. Iss. 2, pp. 135-165. [In Russian]

27. Nepomnyashchii V. S. 1999. “‘Eugene Onegin’ as a problem novel”. Collected Works in 5 Volumes. Vol. 3. Moscow: Moscow State Institute of Culture. Pp. 426-468. [In Russian]

28. Nikonenko V. S. 2014. “‘Eugene Onegin’ philosophy of the novel”. Proceedings of Russian Philosophy and Literature. Saint-Petersburg: Russian State Civil Aviation Academy Publishing House. Pp. 409-425. [In Russian]

29. Polevoy N. A. 1833. Moscow Telegraph. No. 6, pp. 237-238. [In Russian]

30. Pushkin A. S. 1936. Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse. Edited by S. Bondi. Moscow; Leningrad: Detizdat. 323 p. [In Russian]

31. Pushkin A. S. 1937-1959. Complete Works: In 16 Volumes. Moscow; Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR Publishing House. Vol. 6. Eugene Onegin. Edited by B. V. Tomashevsky. 700 p. [In Russian]

32. Pushkin A. S. 1937-1959. “Criticism and journalism: articles and notes”. A. S. Pushkin Complete Works: In 16 Volumes. Moscow; Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR Publishing House. Vol. 11. Criticism and journalism. Pp. 7-278. [In Russian]

33. Rubtsova S. P. 2014. “A hermeneutic analysis of the novel in verses by A. S. Pushkin ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Voronezh State University Herald. Series Philosophy, no. 3, pp. 71-84. [In Russian]

34. Sidyakov L. S. 1992. “From the history of commenting on ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Scientific Notes of the Tartu State University. Collection of Articles for the 70^th Anniversary of Professor Yu. M. Lotman. Tartu. Pp. 175-182. [In Russian]

35. Stark V. P. 2013. “Commentary on the novel by A. S. Pushkin ‘Eugene Onegin’”. A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. Saint-Petersburg: Vita Nova. 688 p. [In Russian]

36. Terz A. (Sinyavsky A. D.) 1993. Walks with Pushkin. Saint-Petersburg: World Word. Pp. 50-65. [In Russian]

37. Toybin I. M. 1979. “‘Eugene Onegin’: Poetry and history”. Pushkin: Research and Materials. Leningrad: Nauka. Leningrad branch. Vol. 9, pp. 83-99. [In Russian]

38. Frank S. L. 1999. Etudes on Pushkin. Moscow: Consent. 177 p. [In Russian]

39. Frank S. L. 1995. “Meaning of life”. Compositions. Moscow. Pp. 89-105. [In Russian]

40. Chudakov A. P. 2005. “On the problem of the total commentary of ‘Eugene Onegin’”. Pushkin Collection. Moscow: Three squares. Pp. 210-237. [In Russian]

41. Chumakov Yu. N.1999. “‘Eugene Onegin’ of A. S. Pushkin”. In the World of a Poetic Novel. To Help Teachers, High School Students and Applicants. Moscow: Moscow State University Publishing House. 128 p. [In Russian]

42. Chumakov Yu. N., Virolainen M. N., Larionova E. O. 2012. “Eugene Onegin”. Pushkin Encyclopedia: Works. Iss. 2. Saint-Petersburg: Nestor-History. 600 p. [In Russian]

43. Cravens C. 2002. “Lyric and narrative consciousness in Eugene Onegin”. The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 683-709.

44. Molnar A. 2016. “Bakhtin and Lotman: Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin as space for dialogue”. The Dostoevsky Journal, vol. 17 (1), pp. 65-75.

45. Nabokov V., Pushkin A. 1990. Eugene Onegin: a novel in verse: commentary. Princeton University Press. Vol. 2.

46. Nabokov V., Pushkin A. 1990. Eugene Onegin: a novel in verse: introduction and translation. Princeton University Press. Vol. 1.