Diary of a superfluous person

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Ivan Turgenev in 1859

Diary of a superfluous person , also Diary of a superfluous ( Russian Дневник лишнего человека , Dnewnik lischnewo tscheloweka), is a novella by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev , which began in Paris in 1848 and was published in the Otetschestwennye in 1850 . While the censor under Nicholas I had cut down this first publication properly, the text appeared unabridged in 1856 - that is, after Alexander II came to power .

The translation into German was brought out by E. Behre in Mitau in 1884 .

title

The protagonist Tschulkaturin is as superfluous man , a socio-historical interpretation. This impoverished 30-year-old country gentleman on his deathbed had spanned the miserable existence of a subordinate civil servant during his lifetime, was shunned by his peers and lost contact with society.

Named by Turgenev in the diary - as he abbreviates the novella - the type of superfluous person goes down in literary history. Such a designation was prepared in Russia by Pushkin ( Onegin (1833)), Lermontow (Pechorin in A Hero of Our Time (1840)) and Alexander Herzen (Beltow in Who Has Guilt? (1845)), in Switzerland by Benjamin Constant ( Adolphe (1816)) and in France by Alfred de Musset (Octave in confession of a young contemporary (1836)). Later, after Turgenev's publication in the 1850s, such pre-revolutionary literary critics as Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov wanted the term rather to be understood as "standing apart from the revolutionary struggle".

content

The sensitive, shy, easily irritable first-person narrator Tschulkaturin uses eleven of the last twelve days of his life to record an episode from his life: Tschulkaturin's love for the then 17-year-old, very pretty, lively but gentle Lisa remains unrequited. That story goes back a few years. At that time, Tschulkaturin had to spend six months in a boarding house in the district town of O. and fell in love with his daughter at the opportunity in the home of the wealthy senior official Kirill Matvejewitsch Oshogin. The happiest three weeks of his life had dawned for Tschulkaturin. But the memory of it depresses him; even when he thinks of Bismjonkow, a little clerk from O., who also adored Lisa.

What was that like? Lisa, as Tschulkaturin saw, favored a prince. Tschulkaturin observed that Lisa stopped being a child when she fell madly in love with Prince N., who had come from Petersburg . Prince N. had been assigned to O. to be drafted. Kirill Matveyevich Oshogin soon thought she was the future father of a princess.

At a ball, Tschulkaturin calls the prince a “hollow-headed Petersburg upstart”. The offended remains friendly. His attempts to mediate bounce off the stubborn offender. The prince won Bismjonkow as his second in the compelling duel that followed. Tschulkaturin took the first shot. The prince bears a scratch on the left temple area and declares the duel over. Tschulkaturin, furious, feels humiliated.

When the prince leaves for Petersburg without asking Kirill Matwejewitsch Oshogin for the hand of his daughter, Chulkaturin feels "somehow satisfied". Because Tschulkaturin still loves Lisa, he would like to forgive her. Lisa's father welcomes him with open arms, but the suitor is turned away by Lisa. Lisa's confession: she will love the prince as long as there is life in her and since her lover almost perished in the grazing shot, she hates Chulkaturin. Lisa's parents now treat Chulkaturin in a friendly manner, while Bismjonkov treats Bismjonkov in a dismissive or harsh manner.

Lisa marries Bismjonkov.

Quote

  • “Oh dear, these writers are crazy to me!” The second Captain Koloberdjajew wonders about Tschulkaturin.

Testimonials

  • Turgenev writes to the editor of the Otetschestvennye Sapiski : “I would be glad if you would like the diary; I wrote it con amore . "
  • Turgenev in a lecture on Pushkin: “The time of pure poetry has expired, as has that of the fake, sublime phrase; The time of criticism, polemics and satire has dawned. "

shape

The first-person narrator emphasizes several times that he does not write for the willing reader, but solely for his pleasure. The dying man deals casually with his inevitable end of life; sustains a cheerful narrative tone and presents surprisingly funny twists in the narrative process. If the reader wants to know what happens next, the narrator puts him under suspicion until the next entry in his diary. Towards the end of the text, the narrator overhears Lisa's tête-à-tête with her rival Bismjonkow in the cozy gazebo.

Informal, vivid comparisons loosen up the narrative flow: "I suffered ... like a dog whose rear end got under the wheels."

reception

  • Turgenev's contemporaries Ostrowski and Pissemski praised this work of art. However, a number of other Turgenev colleagues from the Russian writing guild, including even friends of the author, stumbled upon their own writing at the satirical swipes. As if that weren't enough, Turgenev's turn to satire had gotten into the squabbling of Slavophiles with Westerners .

literature

Output used:

  • Diary of a superfluous man , pp. 5–94 in: Iwan Turgenew: Diary of a superfluous man. The duelist. Translated from Russian by Eva and Alexander Grossmann. 191 pages. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Weimar 1972.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 176, 16. Zvo
  2. ↑ Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 179, 11th Zvu
  3. ↑ Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 178, 12. Zvo and p. 181, 9. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 61, 10th Zvu
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 71, 13. Zvu
  6. ↑ con amore (ital.) - roughly: with devotion
  7. ↑ Turgenew quoted in Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 176, 11. Zvo
  8. ↑ Turgenew quoted in Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 179, 7th Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 74, 2nd Zvu
  10. ↑ Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 178, 13. Zvo
  11. ↑ Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 179, 4th Zvo
  12. ^ Grossmann in the afterword of the edition used, p. 177, middle