Cover not available

In:The Stylistics of Landscapes, the Landscapes of Stylistics
Edited by John Douthwaite, Daniela Francesca Virdis and Elisabetta Zurru
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 28] 2017
► pp. 123–152

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 8
Landscape as a dominant hero in “Bezhin Meadow” by I. S. Turgenev

Published online: 7 December 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.28.08lan
Abstract
The plot of “Bezhin Meadow” (BM) consists of three almost independent narratives loosely connected to each other. The story does not fall apart owing to continuous flow of time accompanied by ever-present landscapes, changing in concert with the motion of time, and merging with it. The collateral motion of time and landscapes (T&L) provides a reliable thread tying the story together. Due to the steady motion of T&L, an undercurrent, continuous plot arises, in which the union of T&L is endowed with the qualities of animated antagonist clashing with people and suppressing them. The two plots interlace to produce a fatalistic, mystically tinged message. While changing its appearance and character, T&L retains its domineering attitude to human beings, gradually increasing its pressure. Benevolent at its first appearance, T&L becomes evil, aggressive, sends mysterious signals to fearful people, warns and finally annihilates the chosen victim. Being a unique and consummate device connecting the otherwise disunited plot, the undercurrent plot has also a deeper symbolic meaning in the context of Turgenev’s Weltanschauung. The mutable, fast-moving, implacable T&L in BM is a close kin to a formidable natural force in his life-long dark reflections. It seems safe to suggest that the line of T&L in BM is a covert image of the inexorable elemental force ruling over all life.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A glorious July day
  • 3.From sunset to night, roaming in twilight
  • 4.The mystery of night
    • 4.1Night on the earth: Firelight vs. darkness, people vs. demons
    • 4.2Night in the heaven: Cosmic skyscape
  • 5.The new day
  • Notes
  • References
References (35)
References
Aksakov, S. T. 1966[1853]. Zapiski ruzheinogo okhotnika (The Rifle-Hunter’s Sketches), Vol. 5, 3–310. Moscow: Pravda.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Azbelev, S. N. (ed.). 1992. Narodnaia Proza (Folklore Prose). Moscow: Sovetskaia Rossiia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bem, A. L. 2001[1933]. Mysli O Turgeneve (Reflections on Turgenev). In Issledovaniia: Pis’ma o Literature, 373–378. Moscow: Iazyki Slavianskoi Kul’tury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carden, P. 1977. Finding the way to “Bezhin Meadow”: Turgenev’s intimations of mortality. Slavic Review 36(3): 455–464. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dal’, V. 1981. Tolkovyi Slovar’ Zhivogo Velikorusskogo Iazyka (Dictionary of Live Great-Russian Language). Moscow: Russkii Iazyk.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danilevsky, R. I. 2003. Real’nosti Bezhina Luga (The realities of “Bezhin Meadow”). Spasskii Vestnik 10. <[URL]>
Eikhenbaum, B. M. 1983 [1918]. The Sportsman’s Sketches: An introductory essay. S. Hoisington & T. Hoisington (trans.). Canadian-American Slavic Studies 17(1): 7–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feoktistov, E. M. 2003. Letter to I. S. Turgenev, February 24, 1851. Ezhegodnik rukopisnogo otdela Pushkinskogo doma na 1998–1999 god [Yearbook of the Manuscript Division of the Pushkin House for 1998–1999], 20. St. Petersburg: Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House). <[URL]>
Gershenzon, M. 1970[1919]. Mechta i mysl’ I. S. Turgeneva (I. S. Turgenev’s Dream and Thought). München: Wilhelm Fink.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hellebust, R. 2007. The journey to the underworld in Turgenev’s “Bežin Lug”. Russian Literature 61(3): 245–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoisington, T. H. 1997. The enigmatic hunter of Turgenev’s “Zapiski Ochotnika”. Russian Literature 42(1): 47–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
James, H. 1986. Ivan Turgénieff. In The Art of Criticism: Henry James on the Theory and Practice of Fiction, W. Veeder & S. M. Griffin (eds), 133–149. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kurliandskaia, G. B. 2003. Ot “Zapisok Okhotnika” k povestiam i romanam (From “Hunter’s Notes” to novellas and novels). Spasskii Vestnik 10. <[URL]>
Lebedev, I. V. 1990. Turgenev. Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levshin, V.В. 1810–1814. Kniga Dlia Okhotnikov Do Zverinoi I Prochei Lovli, Takzhe Do Ruzheinoi Strel’by I Soderzhaniia Pevchikh Ptits (A Book for Hunters of Animals and Birds, Also of Rifle-Shooting and Songbirds Care). Moscow: Selivanovsky.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maksimov, S. V. 1994[1873–1903]. Nechistaya, nevedomaya i krestnaya sily (Unclean, Unknowable, and Cross Powers). St. Petersburg: Poliset. <[URL]>
Ostrovskii, A. G. 1929. Turgenev v zapisiakh sovremennikov. Vospominaniia. Pis’ma. Dnevniki (Turgenev in the Writings of his Contemporaries). Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Pisatelei V Leningrade.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peterson, D. 1984. The origin and end of Turgenev’s Sportsman’s Sketches: The poetics and politics of a precarious balance. Russian Literature 16(4): 347–358. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pomerantseva, E. V. 1975. Mifologicheskie personazhi v russkom fol’klore (Mythological Personages in Russian Folklore). Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1985. Russkaia Ustnaia Proza (Russian Oral Prose). Moscow: Prosveshchenie.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silbajoris, R. 1984. Images and structures in Turgenev’s Sportman’s Notebook . The Slavic and East European Journal 28(2): 180–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tolstoy, N. I. (ed). 1995b. Slavianskie Drevnosti: Etnolingvisticheskii Slovar’ (Slavic Antiquity: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary). Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Trudy D. K. Zelenina po dukhovnoi kul’ture (D. K. Zelenin’s Works on Spiritual Culture). Introduction to Izbrannye Trudy: Stat’i Po Dukhovnoi Kul’ture (Selected Works: Papers on Spiritual Culture), D. K. Zelenin, 9–25. Moscow: Indrik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1995a. Iazyk i narodnaia kul’tura: Ocherki po slavianskoi mifologii i etnolingvistike (Language and Folk Culture. Essays on Slavic Mythology and Ethnolinguistic). Moscow: Indrik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toporov, V. N. 1998. Strannyi Turgenev: Chetyre Glavy (Strange Turgenev: Four Chapters). Moscow: RGGU.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trollope, A. 1865. Hunting Sketches. London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turgenev, I. S. 1897–2000. Bezhin Meadow. Translated by C. Garnett (1897), translation corrected and modernized by J. Rusk (2000). <[URL]>
1954–1958, Sobranie Sochinenii (Oeuvre), Vol. 12: Letters. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia Literatura.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1963. Zapiski Okhotnika (Hunter’s Sketches). In Complete Works, Vol. 4. Moscow: Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Viardot, L. 1859. Souvenirs de chasse. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Warren, E. A. 2000. Russian peasant beliefs and practices concerning death and the supernatural collected in Novosokol’niki region, Pskov Province, Russia, 1995. Part 1: The restless dead, wizards and spirit beings. Folklore 111: 67–90.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zaitsev, B. K. 1932. Zhizn’ Turgeneva (The life of Turgenev). Paris: YMCA Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zelenin, D. K. 1991. Vostochnoslavianskaia Etnografiia (The Ethnography of Eastern Slavs). Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. Izbrannye Trudy: Stat’i po dukhovnoi kul’ture (Selected Works: Papers on Spiritual Culture). Moscow: Indrik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1995. Umershie neestestvennoj smert’iu i rusalki. (People died by unnatural death and mermaids). Moscow: Indrik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Chrzanowska-Kluczewska, Elżbieta
2022. Lost landscapes of childhood: An ecostylistic analysis of The Issa Valley . Journal of World Languages 8:3 ► pp. 486 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue