Reinventing Romantic Poetry : Russian Women Poets of the Mid-nineteenth Century

Sexualization

Not only Rostopchina’s life but also her work have been sexualized by

both positive and negative criticism. The “positive” earlier reviews con-

descendingly but dismissively praised her work for its “femininity” or

leeringly pointed to its revelations of feminine secrets. The negative re-

views condemned Rostopchina for being banal and boring (too femi-

nine) and/or immoral or indecently sexual (not feminine enough):

Definitely the best verse that has ever fluttered down to paper

from sweet, ladylike little fingers. (critic Aleksandr Nikitenko, re-

viewing her 1841 collection, cited in Romanov, editor’s intro-

duction, 17 )

Here are ten years of a woman in full bloom, here is the story of a

most beautiful creature in its most beautiful period [Rostopchina’s

poems were dated 1829–39, that is, from her seventeenth to

twenty-seventh year]. (Konstantin Aksakov, 1841 review)^35

A woman of high society, in whom all the best gifts of nature and

fate are crowned by the star of a poetic gift, gives us her secrets,

her intimate thoughts. (Stepan Shevyrev, 1841 review, “Kritika,”

171 )

A coquette, generally speaking, can only be a woman with a dry,

evil heart and an empty head. And if a woman can become a co-

quette, she will remain a coquette to the end of her life.... Now

judge whether the persona that Countess Rostopchina favors [in

her poetry] belongs to the usual woman of society.... She has

found all her happiness only at balls... in the course of the last

twelve years. (Nikolai Chernyshevsky, “Stikhotvoreniia grafini

Rostopchinoi” [ 1856 ], 6–7)

A girl from the gentry, a lady—these are the images that first and

foremost arise before us in the biography of the poetess.... Ros-

topchina’s life, so ordinary and so touching in its banality, is all

the same, somehow more prominent than her poetry. (Vladislav

Khodasevich, “Grafinia E. P. Rostopchina” [ 1916 ], 35 )

Her collected poetry is a woman’s motley diary. (Boris Romanov,

editor’s introduction [ 1986 ], 24 )

Of course, the author of such a lyrical novel [Neizvestnyi roman]

could only be a woman—“a woman in the full meaning of the

word” (as she herself recommended herself). (V. Kiselev-

Sergenin, “Taina grafini E. P. Rostopchinoi” [ 1994 ], 284 )

Some critics, abandoning any pretense of evaluation, simply use Ros-

topchina’s work to titillate or shock readers by suggesting that it pro-

Evdokiia Rostopchina 99