Introduction Author(s): Jan Plamper Reviewed work(s): Source: Slavic Review, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Summer, 2009), pp.

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EMOTIONAL TURN? FEELINGS IN RUSSIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE

Introduction
Jan Plamper

in the humanities and social sciences is awash with Recent scholarship emotions. Affective social science, the cognitive poetics of emotion, the outer of of of the and the markers emotions, emotions, philosophy history and professionalization?conferences, institutionalization research clus create a solid impression: this ters, dissertations, publications?together
is a "turn," if there ever was one.1

It appears that this turn has reached Slavic studies.2 That it has taken so seem long may surprising. After all, in the western European imagina "the Russia as a part thereof, has long been and linked with east," tion, unmediated and untrammeled emotion?so that an indication of quan a as too much sufficed rather emotion, extreme emotion, tity description:
to Michael Catriona Mark D. Steinberg, and David-Fox, Rosenwein, Kelly, Barbara comments. for very helpful Ilya Vinkovetsky see Patricia Ticineto 1. On emotions with Jean Halley, and the social sciences, Clough on the Social The Affective Turn: Theorizing and emotions, 2007); (Durham, cognitive poetics or see Keith Best Laid Schemes: The Psychology 1992) Eng., ofEmotions (Cambridge, Oatley, on the a Reuven ed. Toward 2d Poetics, Tsur, 2008); (1992; Theory of Cognitive Brighton, see Martha The Intelligence of emotions, C. Nussbaum, of Thought: of Upheavals philosophy of one field, the For signs of the professionalization Emotions 2001). Eng., (Cambridge, in the United the Institute for the Study of Emotion consider States, history of emotions, as and others at Florida Peter State University Steams, (with William inaugural Reddy, at New York Series" series ("The History of Emotions in 2002) and a monograph lecturers Thanks

an Excellence and Jan Lewis) Cluster Press edited by Peter Steams ; in Germany, University on at the Free University Men directed Emotion" of (Berlin), by Winfried "Languages as well as a Center at the Max Institute for Planck of Emotions for the History ninghaus, Human Helveticum Handeln Development (Zurich), und bei der (Berlin), a section headed on at in Switzerland and, Collegium by Ute Frevert; Ihr Anteil bei menschlichem "Die Rolle der Emotion:

of in the professionalization A milestone sozialer Normen." Setzung was a 1998 conference "The Historicity of Emotions," which the history of emotions grew at Hebrew for Advanced at the Institute Studies out of a half-year seminar University, Je was convened and Yosef Kaplan and attended The conference rusalem. Heyd by Michael as Natalie communication Grafton Zemon Davis and Anthony (e-mail by such historians 10 June 2007). from Michal Altbauer-Rudnik, such as Sheila Fitzpatrick's 2. Take only conferences, "History of Emotions workshop a roundtable about of Chicago at the University in Russia" (2003); Feelings: "Thinking of the American at the annual meeting in Russian/Soviet and Culture" Emotions History v russ "Emotsii the conference of Slavic Studies for the Advancement Association (2004); koi istorii (2008); convened in Moscow and myself i kul'ture" Schahadat, Elie, Schamma by Marc organized and Eurasia" in Eastern Emotion the conference Russia, Europe, "Interpreting at the University of Illinois, Urbana Sobol D. Steinberg and Valeria by Mark

Champaign
Slavic Review

(2008).
68, no.

2 (Summer

2009)

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concepts psychoanalytical-anachronistic key (culturally specific Freudian to the universalists, work everywhere and always) .4Emotions, according a in history, but they did not have a history; they moved deserved place time and space more or less unchanged. through By contrast, historical in of France Norbert Elias Theodore Zeldin historian 1939, sociologist in 1973, social historian Peter Steams in 1985, and medievalist Barbara in the late 1990s and early 2000s imagined emotions in a more Rosenwein relativist way as being culturally variable, while allowing room for some universal ofFeel trail-blazing The Navigation aspects.5 William M. Reddy's

than a different kind of emotion. Whence turn? the current emotional some of the roads that led to it. Let me briefly map If there is a single overarching distinction that has structured all and social science emotions humanities itwould have to be a research, versus variant of the nature versus nurture binary, namely universalism can on emotions social constructionism.3 Historical certainly be writings two in 1919, around these Medievalist grouped Johan Huizinga poles. in An Annaliste Lucien Febvre 1941, third-generation first-generation naliste Jean Delumeau in 1978, and psychohistorians (Peter Gay, Lloyd Peter Loewenberg) deMause, during the 1970s all operated with histori either in a straightforward anachro concepts, cally invariable emotions are the same as inmy own time and culture) or in a nistic (past emotions

man

ment

Lucien 1919; London, Febvre, (Haarlem, 1924); reconstituer la vie affective d'autrefois?" d'histoire sociale 3 (January-June Annales see Febvre, to Recon How and History: 5-20 version, 1941): (for an English "Sensibility stitute the Emotional Life of the Past," in Peter Burke, ed., A New Kind History: From the of on the context from which Febvre's article [New York, 12-26; 1973], Writings of Febvre and Emotion: Approaches and Interpretations ed., Religion [Oxford, John Corrigan, La Peur en Occident 28-29n20); (XlVe-XVIIIe si?cles): Une cit? as Jean Delumeau, Peter ed., The History 1978); (New York, 1974); si?g?e (Paris, Lloyd deMause, of Childhood Victoria toFreud, 5 vols. and Peter (New York, 1984-1998); Gay, The Bourgeois Experience: arose, 2004], Loewenberg, aus senschaft "Emotion und Subjektivit?t: Desiderata der psychoanalytischer Perspektive," and Hans-Walter Kuhlemann, Schmuhl, in Paul see

to theEmotions 1. 1999), proaches (Cambridge, Eng., 4. See Johan Huizinga, The Waning of theMiddle in the Dawn Netherlands Thought, and Art inFrance and the

3. Among of this binary those who have noted?and bemoaned?the dominance over the emotions Laban is Alexander Hinton: debates lapse "Unfortunately, frequently into nature/nurture dichotomies." Alexander Laban "Introduction: Hinton, Developing a Biocultural to the Emotions," in Alexander Laban Hinton, ed., Biocultural Approach Ap Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, trans. Fritz of theRenaissance, Hop et l'histoire: Com "La sensibilit?

Geschichtswis gegenw?rtigen Frank Manfred Nolte, Hettling, Michael eds., Perspektiven der Gesellschaftsgeschichte see Adela For overview 58-78. articles in English, and "Emotion (Munich, 2000), Pinch, A Review in Society and History 1 (January Studies Article," 37, no. History: Comparative Barbara H. Rosenwein, in History," American 100-109; 1995): "Worrying about Emotions Historical Review "Fear and Anxiety: Writ 107, no. 3 (June 2002): 821-45; Bourke, Joanna in Modern 55, no. 1 (Spring 2003): ing about Emotion History Workshop Journal History," Peter N. Steams, Issues of Change and Impact," in Michael 111-33; "History of Emotions: M. Haviland-Jones, and Lisa Feldman Lewis, Jeannette Barrett, eds., Handbook ofEmotions, 3d ed. (New York, 2008), 17-31. No one to my has systematically scoured pre knowledge

on emotions. for writings twentieth-century historiography 5. See Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process, trans. Edmund Jephcott 1848-1945 York, 1978); Theodore Zeldin, France, (Oxford, 1973-1977), and the History of Emotions," 15, no. History Journal of Social History

1939; New (Basel, "Personal Zeldin, 3 (Spring 1982):

Emotional

Turn ? Introduction

231

associated mg can be seen as a new synthesis of the social constructionism an with cultural anthropology, which since the 1970s has been uncovering ever greater of cog and the universalism variety of emotion expression, is experiment-based, works with living subjects, nitive psychology, which as Karl and operates with such natural science verification procedures of Popper's principle falsifiability.6 and western Russianists it took longer for Soviet historians Among to gain ground. In the Sec social constructionist Methodology positions tor at the Institute for General of in Nikita Sciences) History (Academy Khrushchev's time, Mikhail Gefter, Boris Porshnev, and others pioneered the Soviet study of the (social) psychology of individuals and groups in Gefter his and took the lead from the history. colleagues prerevolutionary school of philologically oriented St. Petersburg history, from Soviet psy like Aleksandr Luriia and Lev Vygotskii, from Mikhail Bakhtin, chologists of the French Annales from the mentalit?s concept school (mediated and from the Moscow through Polish Annalistes like Bronislaw Geremek), Tartu school of semiotics.7 These were fragile first steps and historians their research in ideologically labored hard to package lan compatible to of the of in Kli the emotion Vasilii guage, pointing category centrality and especially Vladimir uchevskii Lenin.8 The sector was closed down in 1969 and Porshnev died in 1972, but historians like Aron Gurevich and Iurii Bessmertnyi and later, continued the tradition, first underground as the volume in such publications since perestroika, openly, resulting Also during per Chelovek v mire chuvstv (Man in the world of feelings) .9
339-47, phen and Kotkin Zeldin, An Intimate History Humanity of to Zeldin's work) for first alerting me Clarifying 90, no. 4 to Ste (New York, 1994) (I am grateful Z. Steams, with Carol ;Peter N. Steams and Emotional American Standards,"

"Emotionology: Historical Review

the History of Emotions as well as Carol Steams and Zisowitz 813-36, 1985): (October in Americas Peter N. Steams, Control History Anger: The Struggle for Emotional (Chicago, a American Emotional Cool: Constructing 1986), Peter N. Steams, Twentieth-Century Style (New N. Steams and Peter and Lewis, eds., An Emotional York, 1994), of the United Jan History H. Rosenwein, States (New York, ed., Angers Past: The Social Uses of an Emo 1998); Barbara tion in the Middle 6. Consider Ages (Ithaca, 1998); and Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early

Middle Ages (Ithaca, 2006).

sis (Chapter

first there is the universalist the the arrangement of Reddy's chapters: then the constructionist antithesis 1, "Answers from Cognitive Psychology"), in a synthesis, is then aufgehoben the from Anthropology"), which 2, "Answers (Chapter as a Act" and "Emotional 3-4, Expression Type of Speech (Chapters history of emotions The Navigation See William H. Reddy, "Emotional ofFeeling: A Framework for the Liberty"). was one of the first hu In 1990s the late Emotions 2001). Reddy of (Cambridge, Eng., History a life to launch social constructionism. attack against scholars manities science-inspired See William of Emo The Historical M. Reddy, Ethnography "Against Constructionism: 327-51. 38, no. 3 (June tions," Current Anthropology 1997): From and Brezhnev: under Khrushchev "Cultural History 7. See Roger D. Markwick, toMentalit?s," Review 65, no. 2 (April 2006): Russian 283-301. Social Psychology on of emotion Lenin talk in Vladimir the prevalence 8. In their emphasis they 'Class Anna the Spontaneity-Consciousness foreshadowed Paradigm: Krylova, "Beyond 1 (Spring as a Promising Slavic Review of Historical Instinct' 62, no. Category Analysis," 2003): mark 1-23. 9. Western on social history of private See, e.g., Natal'ia the family and sexuality, left a strong life, including kontsa "Mir chuvstv russkoi dvorianki Pushkareva,

this volume.

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estroika,

Slavic Review

informed historiography became immensely ethnographically Lev Gumilev and and "passion his popular. "passionarity" (passionarnost') ate peoples" here is in this rubric. Emotion (passionarnye narody) belong so that the cultural gets ethnicized in fact so much cultural, eminently and biologized.10 It was only when a handful of western (cultural) historians of Russia to absorb the of and especially Reddy, Steams, Rosenwein, began findings as a that emotion constructed entered Russian concept history. socially an emotionally Mark D. Steinberg was one of the first, as he excavated of spiritual affliction" in early twentieth-century charged "vocabulary worker poetry and stated "the still obvious fact that human experience as well as rational and action are composed of emotions of perception, moral sensibilities as well as ethical conviction."11 Catriona Kelly, in her studies on advice Russia?Elias's linear literature, problematized?for some of emotional Sheila traced control.12 process increasing Fitzpatrick of the specifically Stalinist notions of happiness and (schast'e) yearning von Klim? and Malte Rolf found that Nazi ecstasy sadness (toska) .1S Arpad (Rausch) differs from Stalinist enthusiasm (entuziazm) in its objectlessness: Rausch aims at transgressing all boundaries while entuziazm is always ori ex ented toward some goal deemed worthwhile.14 Ronald Grigor Suny the of emotional Soviet and ethnic plored coloring post-Soviet politics.15
XVIII-nachala

XIV veka: Seksual'naia sfera," in lu. L. Bessmertnyi, ed., Chelovek v mire chuvstv: Ocherki po istorii chastnoi zhizni v Evrope i nekotorykh stranakh Azii do nachala novogo roots of 1980s emotions vremeni (Moscow, On 85-119. the family history 2000), history more see Steams, 17-31. Issues of Change and Impact," generally, "History of Emotions: For works on Muscovite western and and eighteenth-century medieval honor inspired by early modern European Society in Early Modern see Shields Bound: studies, Kollmann, Nancy By Honor Russia and Angela Dissens (Ithaca, 1999), Rustemeyer, in Russland (Wiesbaden, 2006). (1600-1800) State and und Ehre:

Majest?tsverbrechen 10. See L. N. larger tradition thankfully

i biosfera zemli (Leningrad, the This?and Gumilev, 1989). Etnogenez of emotions?is of Russian/Soviet Catriona Kelly anthropology something most i strakh v kontekste alerted me to. Consider "Toska recently A. K. Baiburin, obriadnosti (k rituarno-mifologicheskomu ed., Trudy fakul'teta etnologii Evropeiskogo 96-115. 2001): Steinberg, Proletarian Imagination: podtekstu universiteta v odnogo siuzheta)," Sankt-Peterburge, the Sacred no.

pokhoronnoi A. K. Baiburin,

in 1

(St. Petersburg, 11. Mark D.

1910-1925
Catherine

Advice Literature, Polite Culture, and Gender from 12. Catriona Kelly, Refining Russia: to Yeltsin (Oxford, in Emotion: Gender and 2001); Kelly, Sensibility "Regulating Russian Conduct 1760-1820" Literature, (unpublished "History of typescript, Workshop Emotions in Russia," of Chicago, 24 November 2003). University 13. Sheila in and Toska: An Essay in the History of Emotions Fitzpatrick, "Happiness Pre-War 357-71. Soviet Russia," Australian four nal ofPolitics and History 50, no. 3 (September 2004)

(Ithaca, 2002), 232, 15.

Self,Modernity,

and

in Russia,

von Klim? 14. Arpad and Malte und Diktatur," Rolf, "Rausch Zeitschrift f?r Geschichts no. see von Klim? 10 (2003): Also 877-95. and Malte "Rausch Rolf, wissenschaft, Arpad und Diktatur: und in totalit?rer Herrschaft," Emotionen, Erfahrungen Inszenierungen von Klim? and Malte und Diktatur: und Rolf, eds., Rausch Arpad Inszenierung, Mobilisierung am Main, Kontrolle in totalit?ren Systemen (Frankfurt 11-43. 2006), 15. Ronald Ethnic Violence" Grigor (paper You: The Suny, "Why We Hate at delivered Berkeley Program Passions of National and in Soviet Identity and Post-Soviet Studies,

Emotional

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233

riots an emotions-centered Glennys Young gave the 1962 Novocherkassk on "contentious science literature that joins political politics" with reading the history of emotions.16 And Alexander Martin, following Alain Corbin's of the olfactory experience dimensions of lead, hinted at the emotional to late nineteenth in the late eighteenth Moscow centuries.17 than in the case of history, feelings have long been More obviously a on Russian than a century, culture.18 For more staple of scholarship and others have been the rich heritage literary scholars reconstructing of emotion Nikolai talk in Russian poetry, prose, theater, cinema?from Karamzin's On Psychological Prose, from the Poor Lisa to Lidiia Ginzburg's novels of psychological realism to the Stanislavsky method, from symbolist love to Sergei Eizenshtein's films.19 Or they have been exploring emotion's active suppression and absence?from ideinost' in nineteenth-century to socialist from criticism the suspicion of emotions in realism, literary to modernism and formalist cricitism Eikhen (Russian (Boris general) on Mikhail as an baum emotion However, Lermontov).20 analytical? and variable?unit has only recently come into play. Emotion was, as itwere, hidden in plain view. In the new emotion research on Russian versus social constructionism has also culture, the binary of universalism held. Cultural studies and students of rhetoric have tended toward more social constructionist positions.21 Psychoanalytically inspired scholarship

1 February at 2004), (last ac http://repositories.cdlib.org/iseees/bps/2004_01-sunyr cessed 26 February 2009). 16. Glennys Contentious and Empire: Some "Emotions, Politics, Young, Thoughts Ab Imperio, no. 2 (2007): about the Soviet Case," 113-50. M. Martin, 17. Alexander and the City: Filth, Smell, of and Representations "Sewage in Moscow, Russian Review Urban Life Alain 1770-1880," 67, no. 2 (April 2008): 243-74; The Foul and theFragrant: Odor and the French Social Imagination Corbin, Mass., (Cambridge, see Vladimir V. Lapin, i zvuki (St. Petersburg, More 1986). Also 2007). Peterburg: Zapakhi see the thematic issue on the history of the senses, Journal 40, of Social History generally, no. 4 (Summer 2007). to Schamma 18. For the following indebted "Psikholo Schahadat, survey I am much razum: Emotsii s tochki zreniia i filosofii," literaturovedeniia otvrashchenie, liubov', gizm, in Jan Plamper, Marc Elie, and Schamma Schahadat, eds., Rossiiskaia imperiia chuvstv: Pod istorii emotsii (Moscow, 2009). khody k kul'turnoi 19. See Olga Matich, and Joan Delaney "The

of Love: Theory and Practice," in Irina Symbolist Meaning The Aesthetic Russian eds., Grossman, Creating Life: Utopia of Paperno of Russian For a juxtaposition sentimentalist khandra Modernism 24-50. 1994), (Stanford, Chandra-Cesk? veselost: Melancholie with Czech veselost, see Gudrun Langer, "Russkaja in der russischen tschechischen Literatur der ersten und nationale und Identit?tsmuster H?lfte and and des emotions, Stanislavskis Germanoslavica On 19. Jahrhunderts," 7 (2000): 237-49. 147-75, Stanislavsky see Peta Tait, in Chekhov sDrama Gender, Bodies, Spaces, Performing Emotions: Theatre Vt., 2002). (Burlington, Lermontov: otsenki (Len Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum, Opyt istoriko-literaturnoi i emotsiia," Kelly. and Russian and Liter

20. see Eikhenbaum, 1. Iskusstvo ob iskusstve. 1924). Also "Razmyshleniia ingrad, I owe to Catriona 8-9. This is a point Zhizn' iskusstva, no. 11(11 March 1924): see Barbara Terrible Perfection: Women and gender, 21. On emotions Heldt, in Bad Taste: Eroticism Svetlana Literature 1987); Boym, "Loving (Bloomington,

in Jane T Costlow, 'The Tale of Sonechka,'" in Marina Tsvetaeva's ary Excess Stephanie in Russian Culture and the Body eds., Sexuality (Stanford, 1993), Sandier, Judith Vowles, as well. to Catriona I owe these references 156-76. Kelly

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has operated with more universalist concepts. The impact of universalist in the Russian life science has so far been marginal literary field; while are in English departments many of their colleagues "going neuro" and more hes studying brain scans of readers, Russianists have generally been itant. Perhaps the nihilists and the Bazarovs and Rakhmetovs, materialists, time, and the Ludwig B?chner's Kraft und Stoff'during Fedor Dostoevskii's of the 1920s have resulted in a greater skep Soviet scientific experiments ticism about

"bio-revolutions." informed skepticism toward the life sciences is something Historically to the wider field of humanities emotions Russianists could contribute research. Yet there are more general grounds for such skepticism.22 First, scholars rarely access life science research on the primary humanities are a to judge its quality. in if and emotions, hardly they do, they position as Antonio For the most part they rely on such life science popularizers as "translators," yet all of these translators Damasio and Joseph LeDoux are players in the life science field with distinct interests and idiosyncra on many is just getting off life science research sies.23 Second, questions and after the ground; it would be fatal to step?once eugenics again, this in elite?into the Stalinist Aleksei Zamkov's rejuvenation experiments even if certain universal life science Third, findings pseudoscience trap.24 on emotions do hold, they are, as Daniel Gross has written, only "trivially research is variation across culture and true," for the gist of humanities interested in the time.25 The historian of fear, for instance, is not so much true brain chemical reaction to a source of threat but rather in universally the fact that fear of being buried alive was rampant among Britons in the of coffins with in the engineering late nineteenth century, as evidenced and bells and that tubes the wills cutting of throats stipulated breathing around after death, and that this fear object vanished 1914.26 versus social construc as the of universalism binary Just overarching tionism is only one possible way to group what has been done so far, so the turn is far from exhaustive. One list of roads leading up to the emotional could also have retraced the impact of Pavlovian (and that psychology on the western of of Vygotskii and Luriia) neuroscience;27 development
22. For a of an critique of evolutionary attempt to validate with a process civilizing of Biol "The Uses Rosenwein, Cultural and Social History 4, of Culture?"' Norbert Elias's H. and Reason, The Mysterious the Scholars theHuman Underpin Who Make

1998). ofEmotional Life (New York, see Eric Naiman, "On 24. On Zamkov, Russian Review 60, no. 3 (July 2001): Them," M. Gross, The Secret History 25. Daniel nings Brain Science

peculiar psychology, to J. Carter Wood's 'The Limits ogy: A Response no. 4 (December 553-58. 2007): R. Damasio, Descartes' Error: Emotion, 23. See, e.g., Antonio Brain E. LeDoux, The Emotional Brain: (New York, 1994); Joseph Soviet 308-9. Subjects and

brand

see Barbara

356

to Modern of Emotion: From Aristotle's Rhetoric 34. 2006), (Chicago, Fear: A Cultural History 34-43. 26. Joanna Bourke, (London, 2005), Eric R. Kandel, "From Metapsychology 27. For Ivan Pavlov's impact, see, for example, to Molecular into the Nature of Anxiety, 'American fournal Biology: Explorations ofPsychia The Emotional 142-48 1278-79; LeDoux, Brain, 1983): (Pavlov), try 140, no. 10 (October (Luriia).

Emotional

Turn ? Introduction

235

the eastern Eu early (and late) twentieth-century Russian Freudianism;28 of postsocialist ropean field;29 the cultural anthropology everyday life in the eastern bloc writ large;30 the comparative in linguistics of emotion the Slavicist Anna Wierzbicka which has been leading;31 the nonverbal semiotics of the Moscow school of applied sci linguistics;32 the political ence and on studies emotional-ethnic conflict;33 musicology;34 nationality dance studies;35 and many more. to some of the Or one could have pointed of future emo perspectives tions studies. A sustained analysis of emotions in history and culture of ten resembles, not into a new world, but rather putting a new venturing one views one's own world. Once lens on the objective which the through new lens is on, one asks we no is How it have of the incredulously: study on emotional of the realist the novel How reader? impact psychological could we study the Russian gentry without an eye for its notion of disgust are the toward others his (persons, things, times)? Where comparative tories of national or emotions as such Russian toska khandra stereotypes, or Weltschmerz, the British "stiff (and Portuguese saudade, German Angst How could move the of the Russian upper lip")? history revolutionary ment have been written without some idea of its constructs of hatred and have been anger? And how could a history of the Great Terror of 1937-38 to fear? written without attention The articles in this forum try to give an inkling of the range of vistas that open up when the emotions lens is put on. Chronologically, they started range from the late eighteenth century when Andrei Turgenev the diary Andrei Zorin writes about to the Stalin era Adi Kunts keeping man's chronicle. As for disciplinary Zo gulag memoirists background, are rin and Olga Matich literary scholars with a keen eye for the literary talk?the tricks writers use to represent and evoke strategies of emotion
v Rossii 28. See Aleksandr Etkind, Eros nevozmozhnogo: (St. Peters Istoriiapsikhoanaliza Martin A. Miller, Freud and theBolsheviks: Psychoanalysis in Imperial Russia and ; 1993) burg, the Soviet Union (New Haven, 1998). Politics and Emotions in Central and Eastern 29. See Maruska Svasek, ed., Postsocialism: "Slavic Emotion and Vernacular ;Noah W. Sobe, (New York, 2006) Europe Cosmopolitan Diane to Czechoslovakia ism: Yugoslav in the 1920s and 1930s," in Anne Travels E. Gorsuch P. Koenker, Tourist under and East European eds., Turizm: The Russian Capitalism Socialism 82-96. (Ithaca, 2006), 30. On Anna and and

2000).

post-Soviet Wierzbicka, 1999);

Omsk,

see Dale

Pesman,

Russia

and

Soul:

An Exploration

(Ithaca,

31.

Emotions

across

(Cambridge, Eng., uistic Perspective (Berlin, statei (Mos 32. See, e.g., I. A. Sharonov, ed., Emotsii v iazyke i rechi: Sbornik nauchnykh see Efimovich semiotika Also Neverbal'naia cow, 2005); Kreidlin, (Moscow, 2002). Grigorii V. M. Kruglov, veka (St. Petersburg, Imena chuvstv v russkom iazyke XVIII 1998). 33. See Roger D. Pe tersen, Understanding in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe (Cambridge, 34. David MacFayden, Songs for Fat People: 1900 to 1955 (Montreal, Elie, See Irina Sirotkina, 2002). "Pliaska and Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Celebrity and Resentment 2002). Affect, Emotion Eng.,

Jean Harkins 2001 ).

and Cultures: Diversity and Universals Languages and Anna Wierzbicka, in Crossling eds., Emotions

lar Song, 35. 1920kh

in the Soviet Popu veka do kontsa k

i ekstaz

gg.," in Plamper, istorii emotsii. kul'turnoi

Schahadat,

v Rossii ot Serebrianogo eds., Rossiiskaia imperiia

chuvstv: Podkhody

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on cultural a social anthropologist by training, draws feelings. Kuntsman, us to to the alert linkages theory, and literary scholarship theory, queer I and same-sex between disgust, metonymy, sexuality in gulag memoirs. am a historian and my article constitutes an attempt at analysis of a scien that revolved around emotion. tific discourse connections Let us take a closer look at the articles and the numerous both the clich?d but funda them. More generally, all confirm "life and the well-known in Russia true of literature dominance mentally noble imitates art imitates life ..." pattern.36 Early nineteenth-century the men learn to feel with German, French, and British writers (Zorin); russe is Russia's most celebrated modernist novel text ? of la disgust key reached a status of objective (and ethi (Matich); highly literary memoirs this of the gulag and abused documentation historical cally impeccable) that sits un status to slip in and buttress a brand of heteronormativity are seen to memoirs comfortably with the tradition of human rights these fear to their to soldiers learn and after, and (Kuntsman); express belong with, Lev Tolstoi (Plamper). I want to close with a few words on figurative speech and how meta is to are to evoke emotions. Zorin, whose larger project employed phors a ther of presents proliferation put sentiment back into sentimentalism, mic metaphors when his young diarist turns to the emotion of love: "cold," are marked "hot," "burning," "flame."37 These metaphors by their binary as detailed nature. The metaphors in Andrei Belyi's Petersburg, by Matich, are of a dif as described and in prominent by Kuntsman, gulag memoirs, and rest on relations of contiguity. It is ferent order: they are metonymies an abominable of the object and the sign that draws proximity precisely of the reader close and creates a reaction of disgust, of away-movement, contact are too the with into ot-vrashchenie. Humans close, close, brought like pigs in Belyi's novel, blataria.nd koblyin the not-quite-human?animals as disgusting, and this Same-sex sexuality is represented gulag memoirs. and Lip to evoke disgust in readers. Dudkin is intended representation are brought and so into homosexual in closeness, Petersburg panchenko are criminal camp inmates and homosexuals. In their transgressiveness to reinforce the of disgust are in fact meant and contiguity, the metaphors and ho heterosexual binaries of life and death, human and nonhuman, between the first item and thus being ultimately conservative, mosexual, valorizing In the end, then, they in the sense of conserving hierarchy and difference. are not that different from Andrei thermic binary metaphors Turgenev's outlined by Zorin. lie in the very act of analysis that these articles One way out might demonstrates how Belyi mobilizes disgust's trans perform. While Matich means a of of and disgusting excess by baroque poetics gressive potential the the of breaks high classicist city cyclical temporal concept through
36. 37. On see Irina this pattern, Chernyshevsky and theAge ofRealism: Paperno, Behavior 1988). (Stanford, of see I. Iu. Vinitskii, Utekhi melankholii For another study in this vein A Study (Moscow,

in

the Semiotics

1997).

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Turn?Introduction

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text that is St. Petersburg, Kuntsman imbrication lays bare the perfidious via metonymies of disgust. of underclass criminality with homosexuality how this of Kuntsman's work we, the unas suggests transparent making heroic readers of memoir, might morally righteous, Ginzburg's suming how of sticky metaphors, resist being glued to this imbrication by means we out icon of break of the dissident Ginzburg's cycle homophobia might we are otherwise prone to repeat. Ad nauseam. as-disgust foci are the speech, poetics, and scientific discourse?these Figurative and cultural history. They also mark a cer stuff of literary scholarship brain science, evolutionary tain distance from neurobiology, biology, and de other life sciences that currently dominate many public and academic intentional bates traditionally in the domain of the humanities will, (free it remains to be seen whether future humanities ity, selfhood, love). While focus keeps this distance, it seems fair emotions research with a Russian to predict the four articles to that there will be such research?beyond which we now turn.