Threatening a Utopian World: The Post-Romantic Aesthetics of the “Melusine” in Zamyatin’s We
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/vis.v18i2.29229Keywords:
Zamyatin, we, post-romantic, Modern aesthetics, femme fatale, Zamyatin and Blok, MelusineAbstract
This work analyses the famous anti-utopian novel "My" ("We", in English) by Evgenij Zamyatin, written in Russian in 1920 and published for the first time in English in the United States in 1924. The novel was banned in the Soviet Union and published in the original language only in 1988. Writing a review about it George Orwell was one of the first commentators to recognize its innovative scope and crucial socio-political meaning, calling it «a study of the Machine, the genie that man has thoughtlessly let out of its bottle and cannot be put back again» (Orwell, 1946). We will examine how the author succeeds to construct an evident contrast between the Utopia of the new, exaggeratedly futuristic world of the machines in the "Single State" of the imaginary XXVI century - where the novel is set and where the weather is always sunny, - and the cultural and aesthetic references to the Modernism of the actual early XX century (mainly ”“ to post-romantic and pre-revolutionary Russia), that seem here to be loaded with a strong subversive potential against the utopian and collectivistic State of “We”.
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References
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MILTON, E. Zamyatin’s Aesthetics in Zamyatin’s “We”: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Gary Kern, Ann Arbor: Ardis, p. 130-139. 1988
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SEDOVA, O.V. PoÄ—tika cveta v proze E.I.Zamyatina: dissertacija kandidata filologiceskich nauk: 10.01.01. ”“ Elec, 2006.
SELEZNEVA, E.N. Ženskaja paradigma prozy E.I. Zamyatina v kontekste russkich narodnych kul’tur. Dissertacija kandidata filologiceskich nauk, Tambov: Tambovksij gos. Universitet, 2007.
Å ENCEVA, N.V. “Zritel’nye” i “zvukovye” lejtmotivy v rasskazach E. Zamyatina in Tvorceskoe nasledie E. Zamyatina: vzgljad iz segodnja v 2ch c. ÄŒ. 1. Tambov, pp. 264-265. 1994
ULPH, O. I-330: reconsideration on the Sex of Satan in Russian Literary Triquarterly, 9: 262-75. 1974
ŽELTOVA, N. Ju. Proza E.I. Zamyatina: puti tvorceskogo voplošcenija russkogo nacional’nogo charaktera. Tambov: izdatel’stvo Tambovskogo gos. Universiteta im. Deržavina, 2003.
BEAUJOUR, E. K. Zamiatin’s «We» and Modernist Architecture in Russian Review. 1988. Vol. XLVII. No 1. P. 49”“60. 1988
BRAUN, JA. Vzyskujušcij celoveka: tvorcestvo Evg. Zamyatina. Kn. 5-6. Novosibirsk: Sibirskie ogni, 1923. (Flaubert, cultura occidentale di Zamyatin). 1923
CHATJAMOVA, M.A. Tvorcestvo E.I. Zamyatina v kontekste povestvovatel’nych strategij pervoj treti XX veka: sozdanie avtorsogo mifa. Tomsk: izd.-vo Tomsk. Gos. Ped. Un-ta., 2006.
CHATJAMOVA, M.A. Metatekstovaja struktura romana E. Zamyatina «My» in Pro et contra, Sankt-Peterburg: RchGA, pp. 510-512. 2014.
COLLINS, C. Evgenij Zamyatin: an interpretive study. The Hague: Mouton, 1973.
CONNOLLY, J.W. “A Modernist’s palette”: color in the fiction of Evgenij Zamyatin in Russian Language Journal, N. 33, pp. 82-98. 1979
COOK, B. Zamyatin’s We in Canadian-American Slavic studies N.45/3-4, 2011.
COOK, B. Secondary sources on Zamyatin’s “We” Canadian-American Slavic studies N.45/3-4, pp. 447 ”“ 488. 2011.
CURTIS, J. The Englishman from Lebedian. A Life of Evgeniy Zamiatin (1884”“1837). Boston: Ars Rossica, 2013.
DAVYDOVA, T.T. Zamyatinskaja Ä—nciklopedija, Moscow: Flinta, 2018.
FÐDOROV, N. Socinenija, Moscow, pp. 402-406; 411; 413, 448. 1982.
FOLLIOT, F-R. Présences démoniques et fonctions romanesques de Barbey d’Aurevilly à M. Boulgakov in Revue des études slaves, Paris, LVIII/4, p. 653-659. 1986.
GREGG, R. Two Adams and Eve in the Crystal Palace: Dostoevsky, the Bible and «We» in Slavic Review. Vol. 24. No 4. P. 66. 1965.
GUDELEVA, E.M. Simvolika cveta v tvorcestve E.I.Zamyatina. Dissertacija kandidata filologiceskich nauk: 10.01.01 (Ivanovskij gos. Universitet, Ivanovo, 2008).
HELLER, L. A la recherche d’un nouveau monde amoureux: l’utopie russe et la sexualité in Revue des études slaves, Paris LXIV/4, pp. 583 ”“ 602. 1992.
HOISINGTON, S.- Imbery L. Zamiatin’s Modernist Palette: Colors and their Function in «We» in Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. XXXVI. No 2. P. 168. 1992.
HOISINGTON, S. The Mismeasure of I-330 in A Plot of Her Own: The Female Protagonist in Russian Literature. Evanston, Ill., 1995. P. 88.
KOL’COVA, N.Z. Roman Evgenija Zamyatina “My” i “peterburgskij tekst russkoj literatury” in Voprosy Literatury. N. 4. pp. 66. 1999
KOŽEMJAKOVA, E.A. Simvolika cvetooboznacenij v romane Zamyatina “My” in Naucnye doklady, stat’i, ocerki, zametki, tezisy, Tambov:Tambovskij gos. Universitet im. Deržavina, pp. 106-119. 1997.
LAYTON, S. Zamyatin and Literary Modernism in Slavic and East European Jour- nal. Vol. 17/N. 3. pp. 279”“287. 1973.
LJUBIMOVA, M.Ju.; J. Curtis My: tekst i materialy k tvorcheskoj istorii romana, Mir: Sankt-Peterburg, 2011.
MILTON, E. Zamyatin’s Aesthetics in Zamyatin’s “We”: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Gary Kern, Ann Arbor: Ardis, p. 130-139. 1988
PISKUNOVA, S.I. “My” E. Zamyatina: mefistofel’ i androgin in E. Zamajtin: pro et contra, Sankt-Peterburg: RchGA, 2014.
P’JANYCH, M.F. A.Blok i E. Zamyatin: ljubovyne sjužety v “Dvenadcati” i v romane “My” in E.I. Zamyatin. Licnost’ i tvorcestvo pisatelja v ocenkach otecestvennych i zarubežnych issledovatelej. S.Peterburg: RchGA, pp- 150-155. 2015.
PROFFER, C. Notes on the Imagery in Zamyatin’s «We» in Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 7. No 3. P. 269”“278. 1963
SABAT, A.N. Masterstvo sozdanija portreta v romane E. Zamyatina «My» in Tvorceskoe nasledie E. Zamyatina: vzgljad iz segodnja v 2ch c. ÄŒ. 1. Tambov: Tambov Gos. Universitet, p. 115. 1994
SEDOVA, O.V. PoÄ—tika cveta v proze E.I.Zamyatina: dissertacija kandidata filologiceskich nauk: 10.01.01. ”“ Elec, 2006.
SELEZNEVA, E.N. Ženskaja paradigma prozy E.I. Zamyatina v kontekste russkich narodnych kul’tur. Dissertacija kandidata filologiceskich nauk, Tambov: Tambovksij gos. Universitet, 2007.
Å ENCEVA, N.V. “Zritel’nye” i “zvukovye” lejtmotivy v rasskazach E. Zamyatina in Tvorceskoe nasledie E. Zamyatina: vzgljad iz segodnja v 2ch c. ÄŒ. 1. Tambov, pp. 264-265. 1994
ULPH, O. I-330: reconsideration on the Sex of Satan in Russian Literary Triquarterly, 9: 262-75. 1974
ŽELTOVA, N. Ju. Proza E.I. Zamyatina: puti tvorceskogo voplošcenija russkogo nacional’nogo charaktera. Tambov: izdatel’stvo Tambovskogo gos. Universiteta im. Deržavina, 2003.
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Published
2020-01-17
How to Cite
Carbone, A. (2020). Threatening a Utopian World: The Post-Romantic Aesthetics of the “Melusine” in Zamyatin’s We. Revista VIS: Revista Do Programa De Pós-Graduação Em Artes Visuais, 18(2), 19–35. https://doi.org/10.26512/vis.v18i2.29229
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Imagem e Utopia
