E-Book Content
ZAMYATIN’S WE A Collection of Critical Essay Edited & Introduced by Gary Kern
Ardis, Ann Arbor
Gary Kern, Zamyatin's We Copyright © 1988 by Ardis Publishers All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Printed in the United States of America
Ardis Publishers 2901 Heatherway Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Zamiatin's We. Bibliography: p. 1. Zamiatin, Evgenii Ivanovich, 1884-1937. My. 1. Kern, Gary. PG3476.Z34M938 1988 891.73’42 88-3502 ISBN 0-88233-804-8 (alk. paper)
Contents
Introduction
9
THE SOVIET VIEW
I.
23
1.
Alexander Voronsky: Evgeny Zamyatin
2.
Viktor Shklovsky: Evgeny Zamyatin’s Ceiling
3.
M. M. Kuznetsov: Evgeny Zamyatin
4.
O. N. Mikhailov: Zamyatin
II.
MYTHIC CRITICISM
25 49
51
56
59
5.
Richard A. Gregg: Two Adams and Eve in the Crystal Palace: Dostoevsky, the Bible, and We 61
6.
Christopher Collins: Zamyatin’s We as Myth
7.
Owen Ulph: I-330: Reconsiderations on the Sex of Satan
III.
AESTHETICS
70 80
93
8.
Carl R. Proffer: Notes on the Imagery in Zamyatin’s We
9.
Ray Parrott: The Eye in We
106
10.
Gary Kern: Zamyatin’s Stylization
11.
Milton Ehre: Zamyatin’s Aesthetics
12.
Susan Layton: Zamyatin and Literary Modernism
118
130 140
95
13.
Leighton Brett Cooke: Ancient and Modern Mathematics in Zamyatin's We 149
IV.
INFLUENCES AND COMPARISONS
14.
Elizabeth Stenbock-Fermor: A Neglected Source of Zamyatin’s We 171 Addendum: “The New Utopia” by Jerome K. Jerome 173
15.
Kathleen Lewis & Harry Weber: Zamyatin’s We, the Proletarian Poets and Bogdanov’s Red Star 186
16.
E. J. Brown: Brave New World, 1984 & We: An Essay on Anti-Utopia 209
17.
John J. White: Mathematical Imagery in Musil’s Young Törless and Zamyatin's We 228
18.
Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.: Zamyatin and the Strugatskys: The Representation of Freedom in We and The Snail on the Slope 236
New Zamyatin Materials:
169
261
263
1.
The Presentists (1918)
2.
Four Letters to Lev Lunts (1923-24)
266
3.
A Letter from Ilya Ehrenburg (1926)
272
4.
Excerpts from Unpublished Letters to his Wife (1929-30)
5.
The Modern Russian Theater (1931)
6.
The Future of the Theater (1931)
7.
Auto-Interview (1932)
Sources
295
301
Bibliography for Further Reading
305
277
290
273
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publications for permission to reprint copyright material: Slavic Review: Richard A. Gregg, “Two Adams and Eve in the Crystal Palace: Dostoevsky, the Bible, and We” (No. 4, 1965).
Slavic and East European Journal: Carl R. Proffer, “Notes on the Imag ery in Zamjatin's We” (No. 3, 1963); Milton Ehre, “Zamjatin’s Aesthetics” (No. 3, 1975); Susan Layton, "Zamjatin and Literary Modernism” (No. 3, 1973); Christopher Collins, “Zamjatin’s We as Myth” (No. 2, 1966). Comparative Literature: John J. White, “Mathematical Imagery in Musil’s Young Törless and Zamyatin’s We” XVIII (1966). Russian Review: Elizabeth Stenbock-Fermor, “A Neglected Source of Zamiatin’s Novel ‘We’” (No. 2, 1973). Other published essays and materials first appeared in Russian Literature Triquarterly, published by Ardis.