The Silver Mask Olga Yu. Soboleva The Silver Mask Harlequinade in the Symbolist Poetry of Blok and Belyi PETER LANG Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografi e; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at ‹http://dnb.ddb.de›. British Library and Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library, Great Britain, and from The Library of Congress, USA Cover image: A Woman and a Harlequin, Konstantin Somov (1912). ISBN 978-3-03-910706-3 © Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2008 Hochfeldstrasse 32, Postfach 746, CH-3000 Bern 9, Switzerland [email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfi lming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. Printed in Germany For Anna and Alex Contents List of Illustrations 9 Preface 11 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction 17 Chapter One Harlequinade and Symbolist Art 23 Chapter Two Self and Other in Symbolist Aesthetics 85 Chapter Three Masks, Harlequins and Otherness in the Image Systems of Blok and Belyi 117 Chapter Four The Language of the Mask 157 Chapter Five ‘Poetry is Both Sense and Sound’ 199 Epilogue 257 Appendix 259 Bibliography 281 Index 293 List of Illustrations Mikhail Fokin as Harlequin. Arthur Grunenberg, from the edition: Russian ballet (1910). 28 The photomontage from a fan magazine devoted to the Ballets Russes (Paris, 1911) features the dancers who created the lead roles in Petrushka. 29 Meyerhold in the costume of Pierrot that he wore in his production of Alexander Blok's play The Fairground Booth (1906). 35 Costumes designs for Meyerhold’s production of Columbine’s Best Man: Columbine’s best man, the dance director, a guest. Nikolai Sapunov, (1910). 36 Portrait of Zinaida Gippius. Lev Bakst (1906). 43 A Woman and a Harlequin. Konstantin Somov (1912). 50 Sleeping Young Woman in Blue Dress. Konstantin Somov (1903). 53 Sleeping Young Woman. Konstantin Somov (1909). 54 The King’s Walk. Aleksandr Benois (1906). 57 A Kiss, Head piece for journal The Golden Fleece. Konstantin Somov (1906). 58 9