Beating Mr. Turgenev: "The Execution of Tropmann" and Hemingway's Aesthetic of Witness

Ivan Turgenev's influence on Ernest Hemingway has been widely appreciated, yet important aspects of this link remain unmined. One of Turgenev's most poignant works, his 1870 essay "The Execution of Tropmann," introduces a theme that Hemingway would spend an entire career negotiating: the artist's responsibility to witness violence in all its horror, to observe the most minute details that may challenge one's own humanity, and finally, to render that scene with accuracy, using authenticity to inspire emotion. This article examines the thematics of Turgenev's essay, and then explores Hemingway's own entrance into similar literary terrain.