Russia in the prose of the first-wave emigration (Paris).

This dissertation explores an issue which has not yet been examined systematically: the place of Russia in the literature of the so-called first wave emigration, which occurred after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. This question is a more specific expression of general issues I consider: how exile affects literature; what emigre literature reveals about the writers' sentiments for the homeland; and how the writers convey their profound feelings of loss and nostalgia. I will focus on the prose of three writers who, like a substantial number of their compatriots, settled in Paris: Nadezhda Teffi (1872-1952), Nina Berberova (1901-1993), and Gaito Gazdanov (1903-1971). While these writers differ greatly from one another stylistically, we will see that it is possible to consider them paradigmatic chroniclers of the sentiments of the Russian emigres of the first wave. I ask two principal questions: what is the appearance of the Russia they see; through what methods do these writers evoke Russia? Their relationships to Russia are characterized by an evolution in geographic orientation, which I express with the terms thereness and hereness. Thereness signifies an orientation to Russia, and entails writing about Russia from the perspective of one who has never left it. In contrast, hereness sees Russia through the filter of exile; this Russia therefore becomes a metaphoric Russia embodied in entities such as the Russian microcosm in Paris. The fact that we also observe the shift from thereness to hereness in realms such as the newspaper Poslednie novosti suggests that the changing interest encompassed the emigration as a whole. This progression is clearly marked in the works of the three writers. That Teffi belongs to the older generation of writers who had begun to write before emigrating undoubtedly influences her visions of Russia and how she depicts it. Heavily oriented to Russia, she is the most there of the three writers. In contrast, Berberova begins a shift to here, while Gazdanov, portraying characters at ease in the Russian and French spheres, is the most here. However, the constant presence of Russia illustrates that none of the three writers ever loses sight of the homeland.Ph.D.Language, Literature and LinguisticsSlavic literatureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131581/2/9910031.pd