Introduction to Semiotics of Cultures, 2010

Juri Lotman – Universe of the MindChapter 7 - SymbolsCase studyDostoevsky’s The Idiot (1868 -1869)

Vesa Matteo Piludu

University of Helsinki

Dostoevsky’s The Idiot (1868 -1869)

Complicate symbolism

Criminal trials as symptoms and symbols

But the symbolism is more subtitle: there is a mystery and is expressed the impossibility to express thing precisely, as in a documentary

The reality is interpreted not with realism but as a metaphorical plot, full of symbols that should be interpreted

The word doesn’t describe things, but allude to more deep concepts

Dostoevsky’s The Idiot Hyppolite’s inexpressible symbolism

Hyppolite

In every idea of genius or in every new human idea, or, more simply still, in every serious human idea born in anyone’s brain, there is something that cannot possibly conveyed to others, thought you wrote volumes about it and spent thirty-five years in explaining your idea;

Something will always be left that will obstinately refuse to emerge from your head

The Idiot and romantic symbolism

In Hyppolite’s there is a clear reference to the romantic concept of the inexpressible truth

The language and the meaning are always inadeguate

The truth could be understood only by approximation, allusions by the interpretation of symbols

Baratynsky from Complete Poetry

The word for Baratynsky

Alien to plain meaning For me is a symbol Of Feelings for which I have not found expression in languages

Nastasya Filipovna

Tragic heroine in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot.

daughter of an aristocrat with no money

still a young child, falls under the "protection" of a rich rogue named Totski.

she had suitable private education

As she grows older, Totski visits her only occasionally on the estate where he has left her

it seems likely that during this time Nastasya was coerced into the position of a kept woman by Totski

Totski married another woman and hopes to satisfy her by giving her an apartment in St. Petersburg

Following adventures

various adventures with Prince Myshkin and Rogozhin

Nastasya, refuses Myshkin, claiming that she cannot 'ruin him,' and tells the company that she will marry Rogozhin.

Myshkin tries again to save her from the fate that she feels she deserves, telling her:

"You're so awfully unhappy that you really think you are yourself to blame... I- I shall respect you all my life, Nastasya Filippovna."

Tragic final

Myshkin makes arrangements to marry Nastasya for fear she will return to Rogozhin. On the day of the marriage, however, Nastasya again runs away with Rogozhin.

Rogozhin kills Nastasya

In St. Petersburg, Myshkin finds Rogozhin, who takes him to his room and shows Myshkin the body of Nastasya

The scene ends with Myshkin and Rogozhin lying outside the room where Nastasya lay dead.

Myshkin, like a child, comforts the raving Rogozhin who has been in a fit for a few hours.

Ultimately, the police, along with several other characters, burst through the door, and to their horror, Nastasya is dead, and their precious prince has succumbed to a complete mental breakdown; Myshkin is, once again, an "idiot".

Nastasya Filippovna: A Woman Scorned by Nicola Smith

From the beginning of Part One, Nastasya Filippovna appears to be a fascinating, wild creature who is rebelling against the "natural” role of woman for her time.

The shock and scandal that seems to surround her exploits suggests that her actions are not within the confines of her "role".

However, the more we come to know her the more we see that she has been exploited by society of the time and the men that surround her and desire to possess her.

Unable to stand up under the destructive forces that surrounded her, the strongest, most promising character was reduced to insanity by Dostoyevsky. It seems that he may sympathize with her situation, given the use of word choice we have seen, and even some of the ironic, yet sad depiction of a young girl violated.

Filippovna must die to escape the tragic and unjust plight of a woman scorned.

Nastasya Filippovna. Illustration for F. Dostoyevsky’s novel “The Idiot.” 1956

The Idiot

the characters are symbols (name, identifying marks)

According to Lotman Nastasya Filipovna is a character based on the La Dame aux Camélias

And also to Susanna and the elders Rembrandt in the Dresden Gallery, visited by Dostoevsky

La Dame aux Camélias

novel by Alexandre Dumas

Adapted for stages, films, ballets

"woman with a past"

Influenced Verdi’s Traviata

La Dame aux Camélias

The lead heroine is Marguerite Gautier, a young beautiful courtesan who is a "kept woman" by counts and dukes -- men of "Fashionable Society".

She meets a young middle class lover Armand Duval who does the unpardonable thing of falling jealously in love with her and breaking all convention of what's expected between a courtesan and her admirers.

He, of course, has no way of sustaining the standard of living which she is accustom.

La Dame aux Camélias

In her fragile physical state (Marguerite has tuberculosis which we learn later) she moves to the country.

There in her new house, a confrontation between the jealous Armand and her rich admirers and "benefactors" takes place.

For the first time she sticks up for her lover -- making a life choice -- and they are left indignantly and alone. 

Armand becomes depressed, his career seems doomed by the intolerance of French society, and knowing he will never be able to support Marguerite to the level she deserves.

Unbeknownst to Armand, his father comes to plead for her to leave Armand to save his son's reputation

To prove her love, she agrees and leaves Armand.

La Dame aux Camélias

The two accidentally meet again in public.  Marguerite is now in the company of a another beautiful courtesan and Armand begins "paying court" not with her but with her friend trying to hurt Marguerite.

Deathly ill, Marguerite visits Armand one last time to plead that he stop humiliating her, and they make love again -- both unable to deny the passion for each other.

But Marguerite is haunted by guilt that she can only harm Armand and remembering her promise to his father -- she abandons him yet again as he sleeps.

La Dame aux Camélias

Armand is incensed when he wakes. Finding Marguerite at a grand ball with all society around, he approaches her and hands her an envelope stuffed full of money – "Here! Payment for your services.”

She collapses as he walks out.

Abandoned by all her friends from the humiliation of Armand act, exposed publicly for what she really is, she dies penniless, painfully and alone -- cast off by all the men that used her.

In prologue, Armand is given Marguerite's diary in which he finally learns of her illness and her undying love for him along with the extent of anguish that he caused.

A Pan-European modern myth?

The play was performed for years by the the French actress Sarah Bernhardt

Then later, equally, though differently, portrayed by the italian actress Eleanore Duse

Greta Garbo played the part in the 1937 movie called "Camille“

Most recently, the story was loosely retold in the 2001 movie musical "Moulin Rouge" with Nicole Kidman in the lead

Sarah Bernhardt

Eleonora Duse

Trailer - "Camille" (Greta Garbo, 1936)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u5uojR5Chc

Theatrical trailer for 1936's "Camille", starring Greta Garbo as Marguerite Gautier, Robert Taylor as Armand Duval and Lionel Barrymore as Monsieur Duval.

Directed by George Cukor and based on the 1852 novel "The Lady of the Camellias", by Alexandre Dumas.

Moulin Rouge - Come What May

Moulin Rouge - Come What May http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvJpJl04cAI&feature=related

Lady with the Camelias

Mucha’s version

Italian film (Mauro Bolognini)

Ballet

1647 Rembrandt - Susanna und die beiden Alten

Susanna and the elders

Susanna and The Elders, Alessandro Allori [Italian Painter - Portraitist, 1535-1607 - Mannerism]

Susanna and the Elders by Jan van Noordt

Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna e i vecchioni 1610

Artemisia Gentileschi’s Susanna

Her first dated and signed work is so remarkably mature for a seventeen-year-old that many attributed it to her father. However, it is the painting that is accepted, without dispute, as being the first autograph painting by Artemisia. Her signaure can be found in the shadow caste by Susanna's legs.

The work shows anatomical accuracy and advanced colour and construction. Her father may have guided her with the design and execution of the painting. Her palette owes much to Michelangelo, a major influence on her style.

Artemisia depicts the biblical story of Susanna, a virtuous young wife sexually harassed by the elders of her community.

Rather than showing Susanna as coyly or flirtatious (as many male artists had painted the scene), Artemisia takes the female perspective and portrays Susanna as vulnerable, frightened, and repulsed by their demands, while the men loom large, leering, menacing, and conspiratorial in her direction.

Artemisia completed this scene prior to her rape by Tassi. The drama probably reflects the sexual harassment by him and other artists at the time that she began training at his studio. The painting drew attention to her professional promise and willingness to experiment with psychological dynamics.

Hans Holbein the younger: The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521)

This painting had an unsettling effect on the character Rogozhin, and later on the romantic Hippolite, and Myshkin says the painting might have a crushing effect on any man's faith

Symbol and artistic inspiration

The symbol accumulate and organize new experience around previous symbols and signs, it turns into a memory condenser

Future authors could selectively combine elements of symbols (Lady of Camelias, Susanna or Nastasya) to build up other plots (ballets, films)

Symbol

Can be expressed in synchronic verbal-visual forms which can be projected onto various texts or transformed under the influence or texts and authors