poet, also a woman poet of genius, but one for whom there is no place in soci-
ety. I found only one allusion to the Greek Corinna among these poets, however:
Kul’man’s depiction of Corinna’s victory over Pindar in the poetry contest at
Delphi (“Korinna,” 1839 ; see Appendix). Kul’man’s knowledge of Greek would
have made Corinna’s work accessible to her.
7. Evgenii Sviiasov, “Safo i ‘zhenskaia poeziia’ kontsa XVIII-nachala XX
vekov,” in Russkie pisatel’nitsy i literaturnyi protsess v kontse XVIII-pervoi treti XX
vv., ed. M. Sh. Fainshtein (Wilhelmshorst: Göpfert, 1995 ), 15–18. Albin Lesky
dismisses as myth the story of Sappho’s suicide over Phaon (History of Greek Lit-
erature[London: Methuen, 1966 ], 140 ). Only two woman poets in this group re-
fer to Sappho. Kul’man wrote a dramatic monologue depicting Sappho’s suicide
(“Safo,” 1839 ). Gotovtseva, who did not know Greek but who studied with Iurii
Bartenev, the classically educated director of the Kostroma gimnaziia(Nikolaev,
Russkie pisateli, 1800–1917, 1 : 166 , 659 ), wrote an imitation of one of Sappho’s
lyrics that was never published, “Ozhidanie (podrazhanie Safo),” Bartenev
Archive, f. 46 , op. 2 , d. 426 , poem no. 28 , RGALI.
8. Mikhailov, “Istoriia drevnei slovesnosti,” 612. Presumably, this author is
Mikhail Larionovich Mikhailov (1829–65), later known as a publicist for
women’s emancipation (see Stites, Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia, 38 , 41 ).
Although Mikhailov would only have been eighteen at this time, V. A. Vik-
torovich writes that he was a contributor to Literaturnaia gazeta(“Zotov, Vadimir
Rafailovich,” in Russkie pisateli,ed. P. A. Nikolaev, 3 : 355 ).
Although Pushkin in “Safo” ( 1825 ) has her declare her love for a young man
who, in his first youth, resembles a woman, Sappho was not generally identi-
fied as a lesbian until the beginning of the twentieth century. See Taubman,
“Women Poets of the Silver Age,” 173.
9 .Rostopchina’s “Ot poeta k tsariam” (From the poet to the tsars, 1856 ), in
which she addresses all tsars in the name of poets.
10 .In the Bible God only speaks directly to prophets, never to any woman.
While he does communicate through angels with two women—Hagar and
Mary—in both cases the messages they receive are not religious truths or com-
mands, but rather the news that they are pregnant (Genesis 21 : 17 , Luke 1 : 26–
38 ). On the significance of God’s not talking to women in the Bible, see Homans,
Women Writers and Poetic Identity, 30.
11. On cross-gendered poems, see Parker and Willhardt, “The Cross-
Gendered Poem,” 193–210. In Russian literature, see Sarah Pratt, “The Obverse
of Self: Gender Shifts in Poems by Tjutcev and Axmatova,” in Russian Literature
and Psychoanalysis,ed. Daniel Rancour-Laferriere (Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s
Publishing, 1989 ), 225–44; Anna Gotovtseva, “Videnie,” in Literaturnyi Muzeum
na 1827 g. (Moskva: Tip. S. Selivanovskogo, 1827 ), 162. Gotovtseva also wrote a
much more powerful (but unpublished) religious vision poem, “Probuzhde-
nie,” reminiscent of Pushkin’s “Prorok” ( 1826 ) (Bartenev Archive, f. 46 , op. 2 , n.
426 , poem no. 34 , RGALI); Teplova, “Videnie,” 1838.
See also Bakunina’s poem titled “Videnie” (A vision) in an archival copy
(Oleninykh Archive, f. 542 , n. 124 , RNB) but which is called “Siialo utro ob-
novleniem” (The morning shone with a renewal) in the published version, al’-
Notes to Pages 39–41 235