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Every Woman Loves a Nihilist: Stavrogin and Women in Dostoevsky's "The Possessed"Author(s): Nina Pelikan StrausSource: NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Spring, 1994), pp. 271-286Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1345645 .

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Every

Woman

oves Nihilist:

tavrogin

and

Womenn

Dostoevsky'sThe Possessed

NINA

PELIKAN

STRAUS

Dostoevsky's

itle

Besy),

ranslated

he Possessed

r The

Devils,

uggests

hat

the

nhabitantsf

Skvoresniki

re

"possessed"

by

a modern

evolutionary

de-

ology

dedicated to violence and

separatism

from

ordinary

community.

Dostoevsky's

ttitude

owards

modern

ocial

problems,

o

his characters'

is-

cussions of "the ncidence frobberynd violence .. doubled" (326),to the

"unrestrained

ttitude

that]

was

the fashion"

303),

and

particularly

o

"the

woman

question,"

s

frequently

ead

as evidence

of his

Slavophile

conser-

vatism.

Yet,

as the

philosopher

Charles

Taylor

has

recently

oted,

what is

significant

bout

ThePossessed

is the

way

in

which

hemodern

dentity,

ith

its

transformingowers,

as become

ncorporated

n

Dostoevsky's

ision,

ven

while he

opposes

t"

452).

In

what

sense is

Dostoevsky's olemic

gainst

ocialist/terrorist

eminism

modernist,

nd

what s

that

polemic's

ubtext?

Whatdoes

the

author

mean

by

surrounding

is

nihilist

ero

Stavrogin

with everal

womenwithwhom

he is

sexually

ntimatendwho

successively

xposehisweakness?A woman eading

the

text

n

1995

may

seek differentnswers

to

this

question

han

the

mostly

male traditional

ommentary

ffers.

he tradition

ow

includes

n

incorpora-

tionof

Bahktinian

oetics:

henotion

hat

Dostoevsky's olemic

gainst

mod-

ernist

women s

disturbed,

ndermined,

nd confused

y

a "double-voiced

is-

course"

and "hidden

polemic"

Problems

96).

Does this

polyphony

ffect

ym-

pathy

or

heforces

atirized

nd an

exposure, hrough

tavrogin,

f the

mas-

culinist

yranny

rom

which

feminism

springs?1

he

Possessed

uggests

how

deeply

the

question

f womendisturbed

ostoevsky,

ow

in

writing

gainst

t

hewouldbe compelled oexploret,particularlyntheoncesuppressedhap-

ter,

"At

Tikhon's,"

n

which

Stavrogin

onfesses

to his

rape

of the

girl

Matryosha.

Dostoevsky's

ssociation

of violence with

demonic

possession,

coded

as

the

"great physical

strength"

f

Stavrogin

44)

and the

phallic

"flickeringip

of

[Verkhovensky's]

ongue"

172),

nscribes iblical

llusions

that,

while

osing

only

ome of their

riginal

orce,

an

now be re-contextual-

ized

within

late

twentieth-century

eading

horizon

of

modernist/feminist

questions

nd

critiques

f

masculinist

ulture.

urprising

ntersections

eween

Dostoevsky

nd

contemporary

eminism

merge

rom

he

novel's

references

o

Dostoevksy's

affair

with the feminist

Appolinaria

Suslova,

the fact that feminist

words

were the air he

breathed

and

the

evidence that a

perverse,

willful revisionism

might

be

an

important part

of

his own

writing tendency,

indicate that

Dostoevsky's

relation

o "the feminine

was

anything

ut

simple.

Female heroism

during

the Crimean

war had

persuaded

him that women deserved

"full

equality

of

rights

with the

male

in

the fields of

education,

professions,

enure

of

office,

he

in whom at

present

we

place

all our

hopes

... Of her

own

accord,

she strode

over those

steps

which until

now

had set the

limit

o

her

rights.

She has

proved

what

heights

he

can

ascend,

and

what she is

able

to

achieve"

(Diary

of

MWiter,

46).







272

NOVEL I SPRING

1994

the

abuse and

rape

of

girls

224-25),

the

terrible]

ot

of theRussian

woman"

(285),

and

"women's

rights"

25).

The novelist's

ifficultelations

with

femi-

nists

particularly

.

Suslova), nformed y his readingofChernyshevsky,leave

deep

tracesn

Dostoevsky's

iscourse-so

deep,

on

occasion,

hat emale

voices and

gestures

may

occasionally

shout down the

author,"

s

Jacques

Catteau

uggests

3):

particularly

he uthor's

ossipy

narrator

n

Besy.

This

essay

glances

briefly

t

the

question

f whether 860s

Russian

ocial-

nihilist

women an

be

profitablyompared

with

ne strand

f U.S.

female er-

rorism

hat

rose

in

anti-establishment

roups

of

the

1960s-groups

ike

the

Weathermen nd

Charles

Manson's.

Manson's

ordering

of the Tate

and

LaBianca

murders,

ike

Stavrogin's rdering

f

the

Lebyatkins'

eaths,

n-

volves

a

masculinist

omplex

nd

a

perverse

Nietzschean"

elf-identification.

Atthe ndofthis ssay, will uggestome onnectionsetweenhe onstruction

of

femininity

n

The

Possessed's

nd

Manson's

"family,"

ased

on

Manson's

re-

mark

that "women

...

were

only

a

reflection f their

men,

..

an

accumulation

of

all

the

men

they]

ad

been

close

to."2

In

recent

e-theorizings

f

Dostoevsky's

iscourse,

he

traditional

dea

that

Dostoevsky's

women "mirror"

he hero is transformed

y

the

idea

of a

"structure

f

alterity"

nd

the

rgument

hat

Dostoevsky's

narrator

ejects

n

essentialist

onception

f man

and an

objective

vision

of ideas." Tzvetan

Todorov

rgues

hat

we

have to transcendhe

dea

ofthe utonomous

ext

een

as an

authentic

xpression

fa

subject,

ather

han s a reflection

fother

exts,

as play among interlocutors"89). In The Possessed, ne of thesetexts s

Chernyshevsky's

nd

some

of

these

interlocutors

re women.

Following

Todorov'snotion

hat

n

Notes

rom

nderground

isa

"rejects

oth he

master's

role

and

the

slave's"

(90),

we become

aware that

Liza

Tushina,

Maria

Lebyatkina,

nd

Matryosha ttempt

o free themselves

f

possession

by

Stavrogin's

masculinist

power.

Rather than

reflecting

tavrogin

himself,

women

reflect

itsof

new

consciousness,

races

f

alien views

which

tavrogin

must

ainfully

onfront.'

The

challenge

f

re-reading

ostoevsky's

eferences

o

cruelties

xperienced

by

females

hrough

men

n

the

novel-to

beating,ape,

nd murder-involves

resistance o

reducing

hem o

symptoms

f

Dostoevsky's

ssentialistiewsor

his

pornographic

nd

misogynist

mpulses,

s Freud

tendedto do.

As Louis

Breger

otes,

ostoevsky's epictions

f thematernal

omplex

re

as central

o

his

fiction

s

his

oedipal

and

parricide

themes.

Dostoevsky's

maternal

metaphors

re

associated

with

the dea of the

feminine

omponents

f

faith,

with

arth nd

Russiaas a

mother,

nd with

Jesus

s themother's on

incorpo-

rating

raits

f

suffering,

elf-sacrifice,

nd

compassionate

ove often

ssoci-

ated

with

femininity.

his

sentimental,

nd as Elizabeth

Dalton

notes,

dis-

2 VincentBugliosi, nHelterSkelter,uotes these remarks fManson's

along

with his Nietzscheanbelief n "the masterrace"

and in

the

necessity

f

surrounding

he

Strong

Man

with

women

lovers

225).

3

Dostoevsky's

letter

from1865

see

Selected

Ltters, 212-131

ndicates

that

Apollonaria

Suslova's

fiery

riticisms

f him had

their

effect.These

criticisms

were related to

her feminist deas

in

regard

to sex

(she

found

Dostoevsky

an

inadequate

lover),

and

to

marriage

he

treated

Suslova like

a

bourgeois

mistress

nd refused

o

divorce).

Dostoevsky's

interaction

with

socialist

feminism

esonates

throughout

his

work. See Nina Pelikan Straus's

Dostoevsky

nd the Woman

Question:

Rereadings

at

the

End

of Century

New

York:

St. Martin's

Press,

1994).







NINA PELIKAN

TRAUSI STAVROGIN'S EVISIONIST

WOMEN

273

turbing

iew

of

femininity

evertheless

erges

with

powerful

ision

of

fe-

male

destructiveness,

ebelliousness,

nd disenchantment

ith men

in

The

Possessed. he

novelshareswith atetwentieth-centuryeminismariousex-

plorations

f female

ictimage

nd

critiques

f

masculine

antasy. ostoevsky

explores

he

eminine

ubject,

ot s feminismoes for he

purposes

f

iberating

women,

utfor

he

different

urposes

f

representing

he vilsofthe

oul/body

schism

he

associates

with

westernized

artesian

metaphysics;4

or

he

pur-

pose

of

exposing

he

breakdown f

the acred

hrough

he

mage

of

sexual

vio-

lation;

and

for

the

purpose

of

throwing

nto

symbolic

elief

he

picture

f

Mother

Russia

raped

by

her

nihilist-terrorist

ons.

Stavrogin's

nvolvements ith

Liza,

Matryosha,

aria,

nd

Mary ppear

n

relation

o the

political

activities

he

inspires.

n

The Possessed here re no

metaphysics ithoutrotics. tavrogin's od-defianceakes heform fraping

Matryosha

nd

ruiningMary

Shatov,

s

his

involvement

n

the

revolutionary

cause

takes

the form

of

allowing

Peter

Verkhovensky

o order Maria

Lebyatkina

murdered

o

that

tavrogin

an

run

way

with

Liza.

In

whichever

direction

he

reader

urns

o

interpret

he

novel,

violated

female

ppears,

monstrous

mage

f

masculinitymerges.

The

temptation

o

dolize

Stavrogin

s

nevertheless

major

tumbling

lock

in

attempting

feminist

pproach

ocused n

the

novel's

woman

uestion.

his

temptation

s

not

confined o

characters ithin he

ext,

ut s

part

f the

text's

critical

eception.

tavrogin's

rimes

have

been

described

n

terms f

a

mas-

culinistublime hat he tructurefthe ext ndermines.hePossessedncludes

scenes

f

male

cruelty

nd

self-empowerment

t

woman's

xpense

which ritics

identify

s

Russian

Don

Juanism

Mochulsky

34),

associate

with

Nietzsche's

Superman

hilosophy

Slonim),

nd

describe

n

heroic nd

metaphysical

erms

(Wasiolek).

Mochulsky

otesthat four

women

re

grouped

roundthehero"

and

that

all

of

them,

ike

mirrors,

eflect

arious

mages

of

the

charming

e-

mon."

Feminist

deas

may

be

more f a

problem

or

Dostoevsky's

arrator

nd

less for

ritics

ho

subsume

ostoevsky's

oman

uestion

nder he

tereotype

of

the

"'eternal

eminine'

n

respect

f

which,"

Mochulsky

rgues,

[Stavrogin]

commits

is

greatest

rime

Matryosha)

nd

his oftiestction

hismarriage

o

the

cripple)"

434-35).

Dostoevsky

hints hat hesecret ourceof

Stavrogin's

political

harisma

s his

sexual

activity

withwomen-his

name indicates he

phallic

tag

horn,

fter

ll-and that

cruel

exuality

will

produce perverse

male

following

and a

cruel

politics.

A

focus on

this

cruelty

suggests

Dostoevsky's rovocative

ontributionso

gender

iscourse.

A

negative

nd

de-romanticized

ersionof

Stavrogin

lowly emerges

s

women

close

in

on

him,

deconstructing

oth

his

"lofty"

nd

profane

ctivities

through

their

different

oices

and

perspectives.

Just

s

the

womanizing

Nachaev

(upon

whom

Dostoevsky

ased his

character)

eems

to close in

on

Dostoevsky's

attack on

modern

dualism

associated

with Descartes

and

masculinist

aggressiveness

resonates with

some

recent

feminist

haracterizations

f

Cartesian

philosophy

as "the

pure

masculinisation

of

thought"

and a

"flight

rom he

feminine"

Bordo

441).

Dostoevsky

shares with

feminists ike Bordo but

also with

philosophers

of

postmodernism

ike

Borgmann,

"doubt

whether he

ego

has

the

ndubitable

olidity

hat

Descartes claimed for

t

and ...

whether

t

could serve

as

the

beginning

for he

rational

reconstruction

f

reality....

The modern

project

s

not

simply

the advancement

of an

age-old

human

striving

for

more

comfort

nd

security

but the

mobilization

f

a

peculiar

masculine

ggressiveness

hat

breaks

hrough

ancient

estraints

nd

reserves"

(Borgmann

0-51

my

talics]).







274

NOVEL

SPRING 994

Dostoevsky'smagination

s

he constructed

erkhovensky

nd

Stavrogin

n his

notebooks or

he

novel,

o

women

perform

hat evisionist

unction

n

the

om-

pletednovel'sstructure.eadersremain uzzledabout thechaotic elation f

the

Notebooks

or

ThePossessedo

the

novel,

s well as therelation f

thenov-

el's

two

centers o

each

other.

n

his

introduction

o the

Notebooks,

asiolek

suggests

that the

reader will

be

"skeptical

of

Dostoevsky's

appraisal

of

Nachaevas

naiveand

ignorant"

19),

ut t

s

precisely

men's

gnorance

nd ha-

tred

f

women

that

Dostoevsky's

ovel

exposes.

Stavrogin

ives

n

a worldof

narcissistic

elusionuntil

Dostoevsky

ramatizes

he

way

women

mock,

un-

mask,

nd

repudiate

im.

Yet the

novel

also

contains cenes

n

which

women,

particularly

ocialist

women,

re

sadistically

mocked.

No

doubt

thenarrator's

atire

n

Virginsky's

"student ister"whohas a "frightfulow" withher uncleover "his viewson

the

mancipation

f

women"

375)

confirmshat

ostoevsky

inds

women

s

so-

cialist

revolutionaries

o

less

misguided

nd fanatical han

men.

Dostoevsky's

attack s

directed

mainly

owardswomenwho mouth rude

ocialist ismissals

of

family

ies

and

marriage.

n

the

scene

where

the

nihilist

irl

tudent

alls

her

uncle

"moron" nd

argues

hat is views

"explain

he

behavior

f

ll

your

generation"

379),

we

see

a

mirror f

the

"generation

ap"

violence that

haunted

the

American 960s.

Dostoevsky

atirizes

girls

who

savagely

ttack

the

older

generation,

hile

on the

otherhand he

exposes

the

consequences

f

violentmale

sexism

through tavrogin's

elationswith

the

proud

Liza,

the

childMatryosha,he

crippled

Maria,and the submissive asha. Whether r

not

Dostoevsky

xplicitly

ecognized

he

connection etween

is own

repeated

representations

f

sexually

iolated

nd

oppressed

emales

nd

the

need for

e-

form

nd

protest

gainst

women's

ondition

rticulated

y

feminists,

is

novel

creates

continuum

etween

he

choolgirl's

ruelty

o

her

lders,

evolutionary

ideology's

ruelties o

ordinary eople,

nd

Stavrogin's

exual

ruelties o

ndi-

vidual

women.

Dostoevsky's arody

f

women's earch

or ew

dentities,

isconsecration

f

saintly

ut

"mad"

female

igures

ike

Maria,

nd his

inability

o invent

fe-

male heroinewhois not lso a victim fmalecruelty,as been nterpreteds

evidence f his

male chauvinism

Heldt

37).

Yet

the

question

f

reformulating

female

dentity

ccording

o

strictly

estern eminist

odels has

recently?

n-

vited

rethinking

ithin

eminism

hat

parallels

some

modern

thicists'

m-

braceof

Dostoevsky's

ritique

f

modernism.ilvia

Tandeciarz,

n

her

reading

of

Gayatri

pivak,

notes

some feminists' endencies o

"mechanically

pply

the same

dictums

egardless

f context nd an evident

need to

reexaminehe

presuppositions

which

inform

the feminist

anguard'"

(Tandeciarz

88).

Dostoevsky

irected similar

riticism owardthe

feminist

anguard

of his

own time

which

appeared

to be

"unparalleled

elsewhere

in

the

nineteenth en-

turyWesternworld" in itsdedication "to destroying he administrative ore of

the

Empire

through

ssassination"

(Stites

125).

The Possessed

ndicates how the

"oversaturat[ion]

with

deas about

a

new movement"

22)

offers o some

women

an

exciting

pportunity

or riticisms f the status

quo

but also

for ruel self-em-

powerments

t other

women's

expense.







NINA PELIKAN

TRAUS

I

STAVROGIN'S EVISIONIST

WOMEN

275

Mrs.

Stavrogin

nd Mrs.

Von Lembke

use"

Maria

Lebyatkin

o show

how

progressive they

are. The

crippled

woman whom

Stavrogin

marries

to

"lacerate"himself ecomes thetemporarymascotof radicalfeministhic,

group

supported y

inherited

monies,

uggesting

ostoevsky's

dea

that

the

structuresf

money

ay

at the

heart f socialist

hought,

lthough

t claimed

o

dominate

hem"

Catteau

157).

f

Catteau

draws

our attention

o theeconomic

contradictions ithin

ocialist

evolutionary

tructures,

oanna

Hubbs

illumi-

nates the

political-religious

omplexities

f

Dostoevsky's

woman

question

n

her

comment

bout

Maria. She is "the con

of

Mother

Russia abandoned

and

martyredy

those elf-willedntellectuals

ho claim

o be

her

champions

nd

yet,

ike

petty

utocrats,

espise

her"

Hubbs

229).

Dostoevsky's

ortraits

f

presiding

women,

xaggerated

nd

sadistic,

timulate

difficult

uestion:

If

thepsychological ower ompulsionfmenoriginatedmaledominance], hat

originated

hat-and what can

supersede

t,

other than

the

psychological

power-compulsion

f

women?"

Mitchell

78-79).

The addiction o

cruelty

nd

to the charisma

f a cruel

male leader

is

the

novel's

central heme.

f

one

part

f

Dostoevsky's

ttack

n socialist

ihilism

s

configured y

male violation

f

females

nd female

age

at their

ppressors,

another

nvolves

his

description

f

the

way

women

re

influenced

o

remodel

their

ersonalities

n

masculine

ypes

hat

esult,

n Liza's

case,

n "Amazon"

challenges

to our

society"

nd a

conquerer's

sychology

104-5).

According

o

Mrs.

Drozdov,"

thenarrator

tates,

it had all

started

with

Liza's

'headstrong,

sarcastic ttitude,' hichNikolai Stavrogin],roud s hewas ... couldn't ake

and

returned

n

kind"

64).

Under

the

pressure

f

nihilist

deas,

the

relations

between

tavrogin

nd

Liza

signal

the breakdowns

etween

married

ouples

like

the

Virginskys

nd the

Shatovs,

eading

o

furtherreakdowns

f

ife-con-

firming

estraints

n

sexuality

nd

violence.

Mrs.

Stavrogin's

ontempt

or

Stepan Verkhovensky's

ld-fashioned

iberalism,

ike

Mrs. Von

Lembke's

championship

f

political

revolutionaries

gainst

her

husband's

befuddled

conservatism,

ndicates hat

destroying

radition

may duplicate

what

radical-

ism

eeks o

change.

WithLiza and Stavrogin's elationships a paradigm, ostoevsky eveals

the sado-masochistic

omponents

n

male

chauvinism,

ouples

these

with

he

revolutionary

mpulses

fboth

exes,

nd then

xposes

ontradictions

s

oppres-

sor

and

victim hift

ositions.

ne

result

s the

exposure

f

masculine

aivete,

the

result

f

sexist

gotism.

ike

Nachaev's,

Stavrogin's tupidity

may

consist

in

his

gnorance

f

ove's

power,

is resistance

o

Dostoevsky's

dea,

s

he

put

t

in

The

Diary f

Writer,

hat

in

women

esides

ur

onlygreat

hope,

one

of

the

pledges

of our revival"

Diary

846).

By

dramatizing

he connection

etween

bloody

evolution

nd theviolation f

women's odies

nd

minds,

he

writer

l-

legorizes

the

fit

between

male terrorist

ape

and

imposition

of Western

deas

on

MotherRussia.

Dostoevsky's

exploration

of masculine violence has

engaged

readers,

partic-

ularly

afterFreud's

argument

that

Dostoevsky's "sympathy

for

thecriminal

s

boundless"

(Dostoevsky

nd Parricide

77).

The Possessed

uggests

a turn

n

sympa-

thy

for

the second

sex, however,

dramatized

through

female characters'

ges-







276

NOVEL

I SPRING1994

tures f

rebellion

gainst

menwhich eaders

aturated

n Freud

hardly

oticed.

In

scenes

nvolving

tavrogin

with

Liza

and

Matryosha,

ostoevsky

epeat-

edly nscribes gesture ffist-raisinghat ignals linkbetween eministnd

Christian

rotest.

While

Dostoevsky

mocks

the

revolutionaryarticipants

t

the "cell"

meeting

who

"raised heir

ight

ands,"

ut

then after

aising

hem

at

first,

t

once

put

themdown

again"

381),

he

gesture

ignifies

difference

when

women

enact t. Liza's

anguished

elations

with

tavrogin

ulminate

t

their

meeting

n

Father

emyon's

doorway

nd

her

raising

her

hand

to

the

level of his

face"

o

strike

im

318).

The

gesture

oreshadows

er

exposing

nd

denying

im

ater. he

"unconscious its

f

hatred

hat

Liza]

couldn't

ontrol"

(317)

lso

resonatewith

Matryosha's esture

f

raising

her

"threatening

..

lit-

tle fist"

t

Stavrogin

fter

e

rapes

her

430).

The

revolutionary's

ist-clench

becomes,whenwomen nact t, protest gainstmasculinistruelty, gesture

Mary

Shatova's

"Stavrogin's

beast "

613)

verbalizes.After

iving

birth o

Stavrogin's

hild,

Mary's

words

underscorehe

onsequences

fmen's

ddiction

to more

powerful

men:

"I

bet

f

said

I

wanted o

give

him

that

ther

horrible

name

i.e.

Stavrogin's],

ou'd

have

approved....

Ah,

you're

n

ungrateful,

on-

temptible

unch,

he

ot

of

you "

614).

While

he

bravestwomenunmask

hemale-bonded

lot"

whose

game

s

ex-

ploitation

and

radical

posturing,

he silliest women

succumb

to

men's

"progressive"

deas with unbridledenthusiasmfollowed

by

indignation.

Women

lay

n

importantart

n

thenovel

byestablishing

onnections

etween

what several ritics escribe s thenovel'sdual centers f

gravity:

tsone cen-

ter

ike

a

political

pamphlet

nd

the other

metaphysical

rama

Wasiolek

111);

r

its

division

nto two

plots,

ne

involving

eter

Verkhovensky

nd the

other

Nikolai

Stravrogin

Guerard

62).

Gordon

Livermore

olves

the

novel's

seemingly

racturedtructure

y

emphasizing

ts

"dialectical

nity"

nd

the

tension

etween

levels

of

reality" epresented

n

it

by

the

word

"secret"

185).

But what

s

that ecret nd

whose secret

s it? The

novel's

two

evels of

dis-

course

represent

gendered

chism.

he

revolutionary

nd

religious

trands

n

the

novel-suggested

by

Stavrogin

s the eader

who

will

"bring

s

theNew

Truth" 404) and Stavrogins "a complete theist who]still stands on the

next-to-the-top

ung

of

the adder of

perfect

aith"

421)-cannot

be

severed

from

tavrogin's

nvolvement

n

"sordid"

ove

affairs escribed

s

"whims"

(118)

r

from

he

fact hat

Stavrogin

s unmasked

by

the several

women

he

harms.

Women re

theclues to

the

ecret's

iscovery

nd to the

differencee-

tween

Stavrogin's

evels

of

being

his

appearance

and

his

reality)

s

repli-

cated

by

the

novel's

tructure.

Stavrogin's

ecret

wife,

Maria,

unmasksher

"prince"

s "the

false

tzar"

nd

"the

pretender"

n

Chapter

of

Part

Two.

The

story

f

Matryosha

Stavrogin's

confession)

nmaskswhat

Stavrogin

imselfallshis "sickness"

418).

iza ex-

poses Stavrogin in Part Three,Chapter 3, as an impotentman in need of a

"nurse"

(545).

If

"behind it

all stood Peter

Verkhovensky

with

his ...

mysteri-

ous

network"

685),

behind this s

anothernetwork

of

exploited

but

eventually

courageous

women who

grow

to hate

Stavrogin

afteronce

being

in

love with

him.







NINA

PELIKAN

TRAUS

I

TAVROGIN'S

EVISIONIST

WOMEN 277

Considering

hese

xposures,

he

Possessed

anberead s

a

deconstruction

f

particular

indof

romanticized

asculinistickness

with

evolution,

ape,

the

will to

power,

and emotionalanaesthesia coded

as

symptoms

f

a

cruelNachaevianmodernism. s inKafka's

world,

itis womenwho ... offer

he

only

chance

of

finding

way past

the

barrierwhich

eparates

he alien

from

the world"

(Anders

32).

From

Stavrogin's

relations

with

Matryosha

to

Shatov's

experience

with

his wife

pregnant

y

Stavrogin,

men's

radical,

oot-

tearing

deologies

re

challenged

y

women's

groundings

n

bodily

vulnerabil-

ity

nd the

nsights

ained

as a result.

ven Peter

Verkhovensky's anipula-

tions

f

Julie

Von

Lembke

ackfire

pon

him

s

"her

yes

opened

at

last"

ust

moments

efore

he nnouncement

f

thefire

et

by

revolutionaries

ut

destroy-

ing

only peasants

524).

Mikhailovsky

otes

that

Dostoevsky analyzed

the

sensationsfa wolfdevouring sheepwith uchthoroughness.. even ove"

11-12),

ut

does

not

emphasize

how

many

of

these

sheep

are

female.

n

The

Possessed

his

devouring

s never

ungendered.

t is

specifically

inked

o

what

Albert

Guerard alls the

"paedophilic

hemes

n

Dostoevsky's

works"

93).

Among

Dostoevsky

ritics,

armolinksy

nd Guerard

most

fully

evelop

the

question

of

why

Dostoevsky

was haunted

y

the

particular

rime f

raping

young

girl

nd

why

he

punished

tavrogin

ith t. While

Yarmolinksy

nder-

plays,

but

does not

entirely

ismiss

Strakhov's

llegation

hat his secretde-

sire

was

Dostoevsky's,

he

notes

that "the theme s

adumbrated"

n "A

Christmas ree

and

a

Wedding",

n

The

nsulted

nd the

njured;

hat

t

is ex-

ploredthroughvidrigaylovn Crime ndPunishment,nd that the ame n-

clination s

vaguely

scribed o

Versilov

n A

Raw Youth" s well as

to

Dmitri

Karamazov

312).

Guerard

rgues

hat

Dostoevsky's

esire

o

commit his

rime

forced he

novelist

o

repeatedly

edeem

himself

ymbolically

n

confessional

fiction

101).

riticswho notethat

Bakhtin's

ersion

f

Dostoevsky's

iscourse

does not

take

nough

ccount f "the

negative,

estructive

otential

f

dialogic

discourse

n

a

constant

ower struggle"

Jones

96),

might

eturn

gain

to

Yarmolinsky's

nd

Guerard's

ocus. ower

truggles

ccur etween

tavrogin

nd

the

women

who

finally

efuse o

"mirror"

im.s

Responsibilities

or

rape

and for

female

deaths, hrough

uicidal

hanging,murder,rafterhildbith,re

part

f

Stavrogin's

istory

nd

significance.

is

crimes

re

particularly

asculinist.

n

the

shifting ender

world whereMrs.

Stavrogin

can

advise

Dasha to

marry

Stepan

Verkhovensky

for

his

"helplessness"

67),

where

Mayor

Von

Lembke

goes

"down

on

his

knees to

atone" for

his words

to the

perfectly

diotic

Mrs.

Von Lembke

488),

where

Lebyatkin

an

compare

himself o an

amoeba

n

a love

letter o

Liza

(126),

nd

where

Liputin

an thank

tavrogin

or

humiliating

im

with

his wife

49)-

Stavrogin

lone

plays

the

role

of

the

essentialist

male.

Dostoevsky

urrounds

Stavrogin

with

those the

narrator alls

"scum."

At

the centerof what Maria

5

Dostoevsky's

capacity

for

negative capability

and

writing gainst

himself s remarked

frequently

n the

critical

iterature,

both

by

Bakhtinians nd

by philosophers

like

Charles

Taylor. Lunarcharsky,

or

example,

noted

that

"Dostoevsky's

split

personality,

ogether

with the

fragmentation

f

the

capitalist

ociety

n

Russian,

awoke in him the

obsessional need

to

hear

again

and

again

the

trial

of

the

principles

of

socialism

and

reality,

nd

to

hear this trial n

conditions

as

unfavourable as

possible

to

socialism"

(219).

Dostoevsky's compulsive

need to

put

his ideas about

women

on

trial

is

particularly

vident

in

those

novels

in

which

rape

figures.







278

NOVEL I

SPRING

1994

calls

"this

hird-rate

rowd"

261),

tavrogin

ives

out

a macho

dvertisement

for

himself hat

hrills is

radicalfollowers. he

worship

f

power,

he

dol-

izationofa man"who does notknowwhatfear s,"who "couldkill n cold

blood,"

who

"retained

omplete

ontrol

verhimself"

194)

describes

world

f

masculinist

alues

familiar

o us.

Stavrogin

mbodies

the absence

of

values

that

feministsike

Annete Baier and Carol

Gilligan

associate

with

female

ethics: motional

esponsiveness

s

a

part

f

cognition,

he

values

of

empathy,

and

thedesireto

communicate.

s

the

strong

ilent

ype

who

moving

thers,

remains

unmoved

himself,

tavrogin

eceives

Shatov's

strike

merely

s

an

"opportunity

o

take

ognizance

f

Stavrogin's]

wn

mmense

trength"

233).

A

Lacanian

might

ind

n

Shatov's

mage

of

Stavrogin's

mmobility

he

fan-

tasy

of an

eternally

rigid

phallus,

but

the

most

important

lement in

Stavrogin'sconographys hisrefusal o admitpity r terror.Whatfascinates

[Stavrogin's isciples],

f

course"

ays

the

narrator,

is

overcoming

heir

ear"

(194).

he

overcoming

fmasculine

ear

onstitutes

he

ource

f the

male-bond-

ing

that

educesnot

only tavrogin's

ollowers ut

also some

male

readers

nto

the

masculinist

ircle.

Although

o

critic an

approve

f

Stavrogin's

ctions,

choes

between

isci-

ples

inside nd outside f thetext

emain

art

f the

novel's

critical

pparatus:

"You're the

only

one who

could

have

raised

that

banner,"

ays

Shatov

to

Stavrogin

240).

"In

[Stavrogin's]

oul the

mpulse

o crime

s

paradoxically

he

impulse

to

freedom,"

writes

Wasiolek.

Responding

o critics

who describe

Stavrogin s the"mostcomplete .. embodimentf freedomwithoutGod"

(Wasiolek

131,

36),

he feminist eader utsideof the circle

notes

whose free-

dom s

violated

n

order

or

hat

mbodiment

o be

signified.

f

Stavrogin epre-

sents

hose

who

"challenge

od

and

society

nd their

wn conscience

y

willful

actions

beyondgood

and evil"'

(Slonim

00),

why

must

tavrogin

xpress

his

metaphysical

efiance

hrough ape

or

harming

women?

Among

Stavrogin's

followers,

nly

Kirilov sks the

mportant uestion:

"What has

Stavrogin's

sordid

private

ove affair

o do

with ur movement?"

564).

The moment

f this

answer

begins

with he

narrator's omment hat

tavrogin's

viciousness

was

cold

and controllednd

...

reasonable-themost epulsivenddangerous

here

is"

(195)

and continues

with the

mages

of Liza and

Matryosha

aising

heir

fists

o

Stavrogin.

he

answer

climaxes

n

Stavrogin's

onfession

nd with

Liza's

unmasking

f

Stavrogin

s a

diseased

manwhosefreedom

s

a

negation

f

others hat

rives

him

to

sexual

mpotence

nd suicide.

One

sentenceuttered

y

Shatov releases

Stavrogin

romhis

silence

and

drives

him

to

confess

t Tikhon's: Is

it true hat

you

entice hildren

nd

abuse

them?"

Stavrogin

nswers

Shatov with

a

lie:

"I

never

harmed

hildren,"

statement

which Richard Peace takes

seriously

in his

reluctance

to

find

Stavrogin

a

rapist

(211-13).

et the narrator'scomment-"He

said

it

after

si-

lence that had lasted too long. He had turned pale and his eyes glowed"

(240)-points

to

Stavrogin's guiltypreoccupation

with

his

rape

of

Matryosha.

The

preoccupation appears

even earlier

when

Stavrogin

s

discussing

suicide

with Kirilov.

"Man is

unhappy

because

he

doesn't

know he's

happy,"

the

the-

ory-soaked

Kirilov

rants. "That

stepdaughter

will

die,

the

little

girl

will re-







NINA PELIKAN

TRAUS

I STAVROGIN'S EVISIONIST

WOMEN

279

main-and

everything

s

good,"

he

continues. So it's

good,"

says

Stavrogin,

"that

people

die of

hunger

nd

also that omeone

may

abuse or

rape

that

ittle

girl" 224).

As

a

figure

ramed

n

masculine mbivalence owards emales

nd "modern

vacuity

nd

sullenness"

Borgmann

-12),

tavrogin

s

simultaneously symbol

of

the

Great

Tradition's

machismo,

he Charles

Manson

bad-boy

nside

re-

pressed

male

consciousness,

nd the

ymbolic

iller f

patriarchy

hom

uasi-

liberated

women

hate

to

love. For men ike Peter

Verkhovensky,

hatov,

nd

Kirilov,

tavrogin

s

initially revolutionary

con.

As the narrative

evelops,

however,

tavrogin'smeaning

or

hewomen

undergoes

hange.

or

Liza,

Mrs.

Stavrogin,

ary,

nd

Dasha,

Stavrogin

t first mbodies

n absence ach

mag-

ines can

be

filled

with

herown

presence-either

s

lover,

mother,

ellow

adi-

cal,ornurse.His mask-likeace,uponwhichwomenhungry orpowerpaint

their

antasies;

is

political

harisma

nd

muscular

exuality,

resent

chal-

lenge

to

women

because

these

ualities ignifiy

subversion

fRussia's

patriar-

chal

order

through

which "new"

women

experience

heirrelease.

Stavrogin

represents

is

mother's new

hopes

and evena new

daydream

fhers"

45).

To

Liza

he

embodies

masculine

rchetype

he

wishesto confront

ithher

own

"uncannypower"

and will

to "dominate"

105).

As a model of

rebellion,

Stavrogin

epresents

n

inventory

f

potential

eminist/subversive

ttitudes.

He is

fearless

f and

irreveranto theestablishment

athers. e

is

unconven-

tional

n

his

sexual

behavior,

theistic

ntil

onfessed,

nd

supposedly

dedi-

cated torevolutionaryhange.Desperatemen and frustratedomen thrilled

by

the

thought

hathe

was a killer"

44),

love the

nihilist s Liza loves the

big

male

spider

he

magines tavrogin

ill

omeday

how

her

545).

But

Stavrogin

annot

ive

up

to the

expectations

mposed upon

him. This

"secret"

s never

precisely

rticulated

y

the

narrator,

ut

clearly

evealed

by

women

he is

involvedwith.

Confronting

asha,

Stavrogin

emarks

hat he

seemsto

be

attractedo him

s a nurse s

attracted

o

"a

particularly

harming

corpse"

277).

At

various

times

n

the novel

Maria,Dasha,

and Liza

all

imply

that

he

needs a

woman's

nursing

are

261,

45).

What

ppears

as

theweak

tie

between he woparts f thenovel's tructureurns ut to occurupona female

borderline

here

tavrogin's

dentity

s an erotic nd

political

hero

collapses.

In

scenes

nvolving

omen,

tavrogin

s

revealed o

be

an amateur s a

political

leader,

s

a

lover,

nd even as a

criminal,

icking

n the mostvulnerable

f

women,

he

"mad"

Maria,

and

allowing

thers

o do

his

dirty

work

with

he

Lebyatkins.

f,

as

Catteau makes

clear,

Dostoevsky's epudiation

f revolu-

tionary

ocialism nd

Chernyshevskian

eminism as

part

of his

critique

f

Russian

utopianism

380),

the

utopianism

f

masculinity,

ssociated

with a

western

artesian

isionof

rationality

nd

control,

s

just

as

forcefully

econ-

structed

hrough

henovel's

trange

reed fwomen.

The unmaskingofStavroginbywomen intensifiesn thenovel's second half,

marked

by

Stavrogin's

confession at Tikhon's that

Matryosha's

gaze frightens

him.

He also

craves the

experience

of

that

nforming

ear:

"I

wish she would

look at

me with

her

big

feverish

yes, just

as

they

were

then,

as

if

she could

see...."

Stavrogin

leaves this

sentence

unfinished,

rediting

Matryosha's

view







280

NOVEL

I

SPRING

994

of him

with

power

and

knowledge

e

ambivalently

eeks.He writes

hat

he

could

"keep

Matryosha

way

if

chose

to do

so

...

But that'sthe

snag.

I've

neverwanted okeepher ut andI neverwill.Andso itwillgoon until go in-

sane"

430).

Stavrogin's

xtraordinary

onfession

uggests

he

engths

men

will

go

to avoid

identifying

ith

women's

experience

nd the

way

they

re

also

drawn

back

to t as

they egin

o

understandhe errorist

onsequences

f

their

masculine

rerogatives.

he

description

f

male

eyes

watching

emale

yes

ac-

cords

with n

analysis

f

Dostoevsky's

lterity,ramatizing

hefemale

ubject

as

a

force

hat,

n

penetrating

ale

consciousness,

s

sometimes

apable

of

trans-

forming

man's

alienation

rom

imself.

or

Stavrogin-a

type

of

nineteenth-

century

econstructionist/nihilist

heorist-this

lienation

s

connected

o

a

morality

hat

has

becomes

a

sliding

ignifier:

I

formulated o

myself

n

so

manywords the dea that neither new norfeelwhatevil is; ... that twas

all

a

convention."

et

Stavrogin

lso

understands

he

sexual-political

onse-

quences

of his

self-deconstruction:

I

could be free

f

all

convention,

ut

.. if

ever

ttained

hat

reedom

'd be

lost"

426).

Once

Stavrogin's

ecret oses ts

mysterious

tatus o become

sordid

ymp-

tom,

t

changes

he

way

we read

the

novel.Not

only

do

Stavrogin's

rimes

f

rape

and

complicity

n

the

murder

f

women

allegorize

the destruction f

Mother

Russia,

but

they

lso

illuminate

ostoevsky's

esponse

o

allegories

f

the

romantic

apist

n

modern

ovels

ince

Clarissa.

tavrogin's

ecret

oints

o

a

culturally

onstructed

asculinist

iscourse hat

ationalizes,

ven

cherishes s

"charmingemon[ology]"ntheonesex what twouldrepudiatewithout o-

mantic

excuses

in

the

other. The

Tikhon

chapter

reveals

that

Stavrogin's

"sordid

private

ove

affair[s]"

re

the

central ecret

hat

readershave

been

seeking.

he

crime

f

girl

rape

becomes he

paradigm

or

violent exist

ick-

ness,

delivered

finally

f

romantic

ssociations with aestheticized

rapes.

Stavrogin's

eed to

"kill"

thechild

n

Matryosha

nd

himself,

o

"see"

his/her

eyes

watching,

rives

him

towards

death which

replicates

er uicide and

identifies

is

pain

with

hers.

In

this

chapter

the voice and

image

of

the

"other"

inally

enetrates

s

it

dismantles he

hero'sheroism.

There are

readers

who

nevertheless indDostoevsky's emystificationf

Stavrogin

isappointing:

Throughout

henovelwe havea

Stavrogin

fsilence

and

self-containment,"

rites

Wasiolek,

a

portrait

hat

ccords

powerfully

with

the

silent

wasteland

hat

his inner

trength

akes

forhim.

The

analytic

Stavrogin

f

the

confessional

hapter

mars

this

mpassive,

unattached

ir"

(132).

What

Dostoevsky

lso

mars

s

a

romanticmasculinistdeal

of the unre-

stricted will"

as

the

grandest

f

human

ttributes.

ostoevsky's

ecisionto

connect

tavrogin's

onfessionf

rape

to

his admission

hat

he

is

"really

o so-

cialist,"

ut

"has

some

sort f

sickness"

418),

uggests

hefit etween

ibermen-

sch

sexism nd

political

nihilism.

epudiating

chiller's

omantic

onception

of "man" as "most sublimewhenhe resists hepressureofnature,when he ex-

hibits

moral

independence

of

natural

aws

in

a

condition of

emotional

stress'"

(Berlin

84-85),

Dostoevsky

shows

that

Stavrogin's

inability

to

love "nature"

and

"women"

produces

a

wasteland

that

eads to

psychological,

socio-politi-

cal,

and

metaphysical

terrorism.







NINA

PELIKAN TRAUS

I STAVROGIN'S EVISIONISTWOMEN

281

Exploring

his

own

nihilism,

tavrogin

s

intensely

nvolved

with women

whom

he can

potentially

estroy,

with whom he is

partially

dentified,

nd

whose namesbeginwithMa, implying oththeprefix ortheearthlyword

"mother"

n

Russian nd

the

piritual

ame

of

"Madonna":

Matryosha,

aria,

Mary.

tavrogin

as sexual

relationswith wo of these

women,

while

his

sex-

ual

performance

ith

Liza

appears

to be

a

"complete lop"

550).

As

the

ource

of

Matryosha's

uicide,

Mary's

death,

and Maria's

murder,

tavrogin's

n-

volvements ith

women

uggest

n

unconscious

mother

omplex,

n addictiono

paying

back

or

destroying primal

female

mage.

Louis

Breger uggests

hat

thesewomen

epresent

plit

ragments

f

Stavrogin's

wn

ove-denying

other,

Vavara,

whom

he

has

incorporated

s

the deadened

part

of himself.

f

Matryosha

ymbolizes

he

vulnerable hild

whose

expectations

f

ove

must

be

sadisticallynnihilateds wereStavrogin'sn childhood, tavroginymbol-

izes

for

Matryosha

he

crippling

f

ove

through

exual violence.

Dostoevsky

wrotethat

he

"most

fearful

rime s

to

rape

a child"

because

it

"destroy[s]

faith n

love's

beauty"

cf.

Kjetsaa

327),

confirming

ikhon's

statement

o

Stavrogin

hat

theres not nd

cannot e

any

worse

rime

hanwhat

you

did

to

that

ittle

girl"

(434).

In

his

relation

o Maria

Lebyatkina,

n the other

hand,

Stavrogin

s unable

to

destroy

faith

n

love's

beauty,

and it is ratherMaria

who demolishes

Stavrogin's

aith

n

his

own

impenetrable

ill and

pretensions

o

metaphysi-

cal

sublimity.

eaten

daily by

her

brutal brother

nd

crippled

physically,

Mariadoes notmirrortavrogin'smasculinist athology utrather ears its

marks

n her

body.

Stavrogin

iscovers

hatMaria s not

mad or

docile

enough

to

be

incapable

f

recognizing

hat

he

is a "fraud

..

impersonating"

herevolu-

tion's

"prince"

while

becoming

ts

Jack

he

Ripper.

The wordsof the

crippled

woman

provoke

more

response

n

Stavrogin

han Shatov's

slap

in

the face:

"'What re

you

talking

bout?'"

he

screams

t

Maria,

pushing

heroff

o vio-

lently

hat

he

banged

her head and

shoulders

ainfully."

With

her

words

n

his

mind

bout

the knife"

e

carries

oth s

phallus

nd murder

weapon

263-

64),

he

runs ntothe

treet

houting

a

knife,

knife "-only

o

meet he ow-

life

criminal edka

who is his

truemirror.tavrogin'swill to repress

what

Mariaknowsabout him s

symbolized

n her death

by stabbing

nd fire-a

murder

is

faithful

ollowers

elieve

he

ordered.

In

The

Possessed omen

do not

n

fact

mirror

men

but break nd shatter he

masculine

mirror.

hrough

he

threewomenwho become

disillusionedwith

Stavrogin

nd

eventually

ie,

Dostoevsky

progressively

ramatizes

he de-

grees

and

levels

of

Stavrogin's

uin.

Liza's

final

destruction

f

Stavrogin's

fetish

akesthe

form,

ot of

Maria's

holy

foolChristian

rotest,

ut of

ncipi-

ent

feminist

rotest.

When

Stavrogin

dmits

to her that he has

the

right

o

torment

im,

that"I

knew I

didn't love

you

and

I've ruined

you,"

she

responds

by exposing his "noble sincerity" s anotherformof narcissistic sexism. Her

words contain

feministcid:







282 NOVEL I SPRING

1994

"I

havenot he

lightest

esire obe

sympathizing

urse o

you. may

nd

up

as a

hospital

urse

f

don't

manage

odie

conveniently

his

ery

ay,

ut

'll

certainlyotnurseyou, lthough,f ourse, ou're

s

badly ff

s

anypoor

legless

rarmless reature."

545)

Liza's

description

f

Stavrogin

s

limbless

puts

a sexual

twist n

Maria's

idea

that

tavrogin

s a fraudwhose

onlypower

s the

knife.

esides

tit-for-

tat

revenge

orhis

impotence

nd

inability

o love

her,

he

engages

him n

a

challenge

o his

image

of her

femininity.

he

imagines

hat

he would

take

her

to

"some

place

wherethere

ived a

huge,

vicious

man-sized

pider

nd that

we'd

spend

therest f our

ives

staring

t

it

n

fear"

545).

She

wishes

to

con-

front heheart

f darkness hedominant ex

takes o

much

pride

n

dramatiz-

ing.Herimageof nsect orror ssociatesherwith everal fDostoevskymale

sensualists:with

the

rapist vidrigaylov

who

imagines

hell

full

of

spiders,

with

pollit's spider

dream

n

The

diot,

with

DmitriKaramazov

who

finds

"riddles"

in

"spider"

sensuality

where

"all contradictions

ive

together"

(Brothers

aramazov

08).

But

spiders

n

ThePossessed

re also

associated

with

Matryosha,

nd with

tavrogin'srojection

f

the

nsect

mageupon

herwhich

creates he

young

female s his

horror.

he

big

male

nsect

iza

wishes

o see

as

the

symbol

f the

tragic

iddleof human

nature

s

replicated

n miniature

n

the

dream

tavrogin

xperiences

ollowing

atryosha's

uicide.

In

his

confession,

tavrogin peaks

of

a

paradisal

dream

world

that

s trans-

formed onightmare.Inthemiddleof thebrightight" tavrogineesa "tiny

dot"

which ssumes the

shape

of a

"tiny

ed

spider"

that tabs

him. n that

light

he sees

Matryosha

tanding

reprovingly

nd

threatening

e with

her

little

ist

..

that

mmature reature ith

her mmature rain

hreatening

e

..

but

..

blaming nly

herself"

429-30).

n

Stavrogin's

allucination

e

is

stabbed

by

the female

pider

as he

had stabbed

her

sexually,

o

be

echoed

later

n

Liza's

strange

words.

f

for

iza

the

pider

s

large

nd

male,

for

tavrogin

t

s

small,

female nd

red,

condensation f

his

nsect

ensuality

nd

shame

with

Matryosha's

irgin

lood.

The

fusion f

gender

orrors,

fmale

nd female

en-

etrations

nd

stabbings,

eaches

ts

apotheosis

n

these

two scenes.

While

Matryosha's

esponse

s tokill

herself,

iza's is to articulatehewishto cas-

trate

tavarogin,

o see

themurdered ictims

in

whose

murder

he

knowsher-

self

complicit),

nd to

finally estroy

he

phallocentric

orship

Stavrogin's

image

nspired

n

her.

Dostoevsky's

eduction f

Stavrogin

s not

finally

irected

nly

oother

men.

He

also

mockswomen's

ddictions

o

iibermenschulture

nd

hero-worshipping,

either f

utopian

ocialist deals or

of charismatic

ndividuals.

he

exposure

f

women's

complicity

n

thecreation

f

pseudo-masculinist

eroics s confirmed

n

Stavrogin's

letter

o Dasha

in

which he

expresses

"no

respect"

forher

willing-

ness to sacrificeherself o him,a man who exhibits"negationwithoutstrength

and

without

generosity"

690-91).

Not

through

the

submissive Dasha

but

through

the

resisting

Maria,

Matryosha,

Mary,

and

Liza,

the answers to

Dostoevsky's

woman

question

evolve

through

he

exposure

of

contradictory

hemes with which

contemporary

feminism till

struggles:

women's seduction

by

the dea of

power;

the exhorta-







NINA

ELIKAN

TRAUS

STAVROGIN'S

EVISIONIST

OMEN

283

tion

o women

o

empower

hemselves

s men

do,

and

at the

ame time

he

fem-

inist

ritique

f

power

s

"patriarchal,"long

with he

description

f

women s

better

nurturers r

nurses.By representinghese

unresolved ontradictions

within he

women's

movement,

ostoevsky's

iscourse

n theThePossessed

bridges

ome

gaps

between

roblems

hared

by

nineteenth-

nd twentieth-cen-

tury

eminists.he

novelist

warns

hat he

masculine

ggressiveness

ssociated

with

radical

politics

and

violenttransformations

f

tradition

may

destroy

what s

best boutwoman'sdifference.

If

Dostoevsky

n

any way

prophesized

Charles

Manson's

"family,"

his

s

because

terrorist

topian

deas

carry

with them

ertain

modern

patriarchal

impulses

not

easily

evered rom he

woman

question.

ike

Stavrogin,

anson

cannot ranscend

ood

and

evil

without

rafficking

n

the

women.

It was

only

throughhewomen .. thatCharlie ould attracthemen,"Manson'sbiogra-

pher

was told.

Like

Stavrogin

ho

cannot

feelwhat

vil

s,"

Manson

believed

evil

"was

all in

the

head,

all

subjective....

D]eath

was

a

fear hat

was

born

n

man'shead

and can be

taken

ut of

man's

head,

nd then

t

would

no

onger

x-

ist."

Dostoevsky's

epresentation

fwomen

followers

orshiping

progress"

n

the

name of

the

murderer

tavrogin,

s echoed

in

"Weatherman,"

ernadine

Dohrn's

reation

fManson s

a

countercultural

ero.

More

vicious than

Dostoevsky's

ocialist

irl

who mocks

the

older

genera-

tion,

ohrn

old

Students or Democratic

ociety

onvention

n

1970

hat

he

Manson

family's offing

hose

rich

pigs

with heir wn

forks

nd

knives

nd

then ating meal nthe ameroom"was "far ut " Bugiosi 24,221).The m-

age

of

murderers'

feasting

while victims die

is enacted

both

in

the

Tate/LaBianca

slaughter

nd "The End of

the

Festivities"

hapter

of

The

Possessed. he "true"

murder f

the

pregnant

haron

ate,

whose

arms

re

held

by

the"Manson

woman"Atkinswhile

Tex

does

the

killing"

Bugliosi

81),

nd

the

women's

omplicity

n

theRussian

male terrorism

hat

estroys

he

"mad"

Maria

Lebyatkina

s

she

hallucinates

regnancy,

uggest

rotesque

eplications

of

"art" nd "life"

n

the

history

f

misogyny.

onnections

etween

adical

pol-

itics,

female

sexual

vulnerability,

nd male sexism

link

our

world

with

Dostoevsky'shrough

ne

continuous

istorical

ontext:

heromantic

deologyofthe

uperman

ith ts

ccompanying

yth

fwoman sman's"mirror."

By exploring

he

meanings

f

Stavrogin's

iolations

f females

nd their

e-

actions

o

that

violation,

ostoevsky

makes

his

contribution

o the

politics

f

rape. By

exposing

he maimed

esthetics

f

super-masculinity

s

incorporated

by

bothmen nd

women,

he

Possessed

xposes

he

paradoxes

nspired

y

the

n-

cipient

eminization

f

politics

nd

literature.

6

The

feminization

f

iterature"

hat

ccurred

uring

ineteenth-century

asbeen emarked

y

Terry

agleton

nd

Rita elski

among

thers. elskiwrites

hat

an

maginary

dentification

ith he

feminine

ermeates

uch

f

he

writing

f

hemale

European

vant-garde

n the

atenineteenth

entury,period

n

which

ender

orms

ere

being rotested

nd

redefined

from

variety

f

tandpoints"

"Counterdiscourse"094).







284

NOVEL SPRING 994

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