The Structure of Freedom in Pu&shachek;kin's Lyrical Poetry
David B.
Polet
Although Pu&shachek;kin's art and thought cover a wide range of
areas, one of the driving ideas in his oeuvre is the idea of
freedom.
This idea is so prevalent that he has even
been called a singer of freedom
by
Vy&shachek;eslavcev. How can we, as readers, understand what
Pu&shachek;kin's understanding of freedom is and if a qualitative
distinction exists between the two recognized words for
freedom—svoboda and
volja? By examining various lyrical poems and
analyzing not only the overall poetic structure, but, more
specifically, the socio-linguistic usage of
svoboda in some of his lyrical poems, we begin to
see a pattern developing of his understanding of
svoboda and how this is manifested in his
thought.
Anna Wierzbicka argues that both svoboda and
volja are key words
in analyzing
the Russian language and culture. If they indeed are key
words,
how do they differ from the English translation of
freedom
? By extending her analysis and grounding it in
the lyrical poems, this thesis will semantically investigate the usage
of svoboda. This examination proposes that
Pu&shachek;kin's fundamental understanding of freedom is Western in
origin but becomes modified in the Russian context. To delineate its
uniqueness, I will examine the etymological origins of the word and
trace its development.
The general conclusion that the reader gleans from these semantic
environments is that svoboda is primarily an
externalized structure which governs human interaction and a word
which presupposes restrictedness and
inhibition—stesnenie. Because
stesnenie is an essential element, certain
conclusions can be drawn from this, conclusions which are,
fundamentally, supported by Pu&shachek;kin's usage. For example,
slavery is an important theme in association with
svoboda. Furthermore, Pu&shachek;kin sees a
strong correlation between the idea of svoboda
and its manifestation in society. It is interactive in a larger and
almost religious setting as well. Poems such as N.N.,
Derevnja, and Poslanie k
kn. Gor&chachek;akovu, demonstrate this higher
association. It is this association which is prevalent in the
development of later Russian religious philosophy. These associations,
of course, are not unique in Pu&shachek;kin's usage. Fedotov notes
that much of the history of Russia includes an understanding of
svoboda as an ideal and as a political
reality.
Ultimately, this presentation aims to ground the semantics of
svoboda within the nineteenth-century usage and,
hence, permit further investigation into the metaphoric change over
the last two centuries. Seeing how this word shifts in meaning and
usage, one can also see a greater cultural shift which becomes more
evident in the light of such a linguistic analysis.
Fedotov, Georgij. Rossija i svoboda: sbornik statej.
New York: Chalidze Publications, 1981.
Pu&shachek;kin, A. S. Polnoe sobranie sochinenij.
Vols. 1–4. Moscow: Izdatel&soft;stvo akademii nauk SSSR, 1937.
Wierzbicka, Anna. Understanding Cultures Through Their Key
Words. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.