Beyond the Flesh: Alexander Blok, Zinaida Gippius, and the Symbolist Sublimation of Sex

Contents

ix Contents Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii A Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations xviii Introduction Beyond the Flesh: Russian Symbolism and the Sublimation of Sex 3 I. Poetry against Progeny: Blok and the Problem of Poetic Reproduction 19 1. Unbearable Burdens: Blok and the Modernist Resistance to Progeny 21 2. Recurring Nightmares: Blok, Freud, and the Specter of Die Ahnfrau 41 3. Reproductive Fantasies: Blok and the Creation of The Italian Verses 70 4. A Time of Troubles: Blok and the Disruption of Poetic Succession 106 II. Writing against the Body: Gippius and the Problem of Lyric Embodiment 133 5. Style “Femme”: Gippius and the Resistance to Feminine Writing 135 6. The Dandy’s Gaze: Gippius and Disdainful Desire for the Feminine 160 x Contents 7. Eternal Feminine Problems: Gippius, Blok, and the Incarnation of the Ideal 190 8. Body Trouble: Gippius and the Staging of an Anatomy of Criticism 217 Afterword The Return of the Repressed: Illegitimate Babies and an Unwieldy Body 241 Notes 251 Index 317 ...