SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL (SEEJ)
(Spring, 1998, Vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 139-140)
Selections
"Konstantin Vaginov (1899-1934) is one of the lesser known
figures of Russian Modernism. Although a member of both the Bakhtin
circle and the OBERIUTy, he has not shared in the fame of his
colleagues. Author of four novels and several volumes of poetry,
Vaginov, dead of TB at 34, dropped out of view until the 80's
when his works were reprinted. Thanks to translator Benjamin Sher,
Vaginov's chef d'oeuvre Kozlinaia pesn' (1928) is now available
in English under the title The Tower...."
"The novel is set in the mid-20's and, like Olesha's Envy,
depicts one of the period's common themes -- the dilemma of the
high intelligentsia who, in principle, welcome the revolution
but are dismayed by the reality of the Soviet regime with its
rejection of the cultural glories of the past and free thought.
Vaginov's satirical novel follows the history of a circle of intellectuals
who are submersed in aesthetic and philosophical contemplatiion
of the classical world. Indeed, they see their position vis-a-vis
the Bolshevik regime as that of kulturtragers who will keep the
flame alive, just as their classical predeccessors did in the
crude new world of Christianity. Their fates range from comic
to tragic."
"The novel's style is that of high Modernism. The fictive
narrator-author steps out of the tale, comments on his story in
separate interludes, and ends by taking all of his characters
out for a drink. Vaginov's aesthetic philosophy is summed up in
a passage he assigns to his fictional stand-in, The Unknown Poet.
'No one suspects,' he says, 'that this book has come into being
from the juxtaposition of words. This is not to deny that every
artist experiences a certain something in childhood that impinges
upon him from the outside. We are already dealing here with a
fundamental antinomy or contradiction. The artist is confronted
by a something which has its source in a realm beyond language,
yet it is only by marshalling words and juxtaposing them that
he fashions his soul and comes to know it. That's how it was in
my youth, when I came to know the world by juxtaposing words.
A whole world sprang up for me then out of the depths of language.'"
"The body of readily available material for English-speaking
courses in Russian Modernism is quite slender. Sher's first-rate
translation of Vaginov's most important novel is a worthy addition.
The novel is short, quite readable, deals with an important theme,
and gives a marvelous picture of mid-1920's Leningrad. It might
well serve as a launching point for a discussion of the Bakhtin
group."
Reviewer: Professor D. Barton Johnson, University of California at
Santa Barbara