Twentieth-Century Russian Literature. Selected Papers from the ...

24
6 Pasternak does not say explicitly that, after her departure from Varykino, Lara was married to Komarovsky.
However, the author clearly wished the reader to believe that "Raisa Komarova was the wife of comrade Komarov".
This conclusion can be made on the basis of the story told by Lara's daughter Tania (XVI,4:495). Comparing Tania's
story with what Komarovsky himself told Lara of his prospects for the future (XIV,1:409 and XIV,11:433), one can
see that the two stories have many details in common: a minister in Far East (White Mongolia), a special train, a
flight from the Reds.
7 See note 5 *.
8 On the realization of metaphors in Doctor Zhivago see Willem Weststeijn 'Metaphor and Simile in Doktor
Zhivago, Essays in Poetics X, 2 (1985) 41–57.
9 On Lara's association with water see Livingstone, op. cit., p. 67. Notably, after Yurii's death, Lara redirects this
metaphore to him: she likens him to a "swift, deep river", and "the cold waves" of the sea (485).
10. This was first noted by Henry Gifford Pasternak: A Critical Study. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1977] p. 194)
11. The author ends Lara's biography with the possibility that she may still be alive. But if alive, she is out of life,
placed in one of the countless northern camps, stripped of her name, and given a number instead. The number is
included in a list, which is lost. The passage is notable for the abundance of lexical uncertainties: "umerla ili propala
neizvestno gde, zabytaia pod kakim-nibud' bezymyannym nomerom iz vposledstvii zapropastivshikhsya spiskov v
odnom iz neischislimykh obshchikh ili zhenskikh kontslagerei severa" (XV,17:486).
12. One could justify the affinity of Lara and Evgraf by their outlandish natures. They both are exotic, and not only
due to the remoteness of their birthplaces, the Urals and Siberia. This is more obvious in the case of Evgraf, who is
mysterious and Asiatic-looking. He is also 'black' (XVI,3:494); Evgraf's name and his Siberian home are first
mentioned on the same page where the legendary Ural muzhiks are described, and a phonetic parallel between his
name and the names of the muzhiks can hardly be overlooked. The name is 'ringing and bulging' (zvuchnoe i
vypukloe) resembling by its three-consonant cluster the neighboring names of Favst, Vakkh and Avkt. (For an
extensive interpretation of the Evgraf–Vakkh connections see Jerzy Faryno, 'Knyaginya Stolbunova-Enritsi i ee syn
Evgraf /Arkheopoetika Doktora Zhivago, 1/; in: Anna Majmieskulow (ed) Pasternak's Poetiks, (Studia Filologiczne,
Zeszyt 31 /12/), Bydgoszcz 1990, pp. 155–221; especially 174-175). As for Lara, her foreignness is not forced upon
the reader: this is hardly needed, since the foreign lands and cities are found in her soul (358).
13. Resurrection is one of most important problems set in the novel. Part XVI ends with the hope and expectation of
unattainable 'freedom and light'; this makes a bridge to Yurii's book of poetry, in Part XVII. In the poems,
resurrection is placed into a powerful context of universal redemption. Yurii Zhivago is given another chance to pass
through his life, under the protection of Hamlet, Christ, and Pasternak himself. Cf. Per Arne Bodin Nine Poems
from Doktor Zhivago: A Study of Christian Motifs in Boris Pasternak's Poetry. (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell,
1976).
14. I am drawing here on the distinction between the events and motives as different textual units suggested in my
earlier papers: see M. Langleben, 'The grades of reading', in M-E. Conte, J.S. Petöfi, E. Sözer (eds), Text and
Discourse Connectedness (Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1989), pp. 441-461.; specifically on the iterational motives see
M. Langleben, D. Langleben, 'Iterational structures in anomalous texts', in: B. Wårwik, S.-K. Tanskanen, R.
Hiltunen (eds), Organization in Discourse: Proceedings from the Turku Conference (Turku: U. of Turku, 1995) pp.
329-340.
15. Besides these three shots, there is plenty of additional shooting in the novel. Taking account of all instances of
all the instances of shooting, Elliott Mossman finds in Doctor Zhivago a deeper plot based on the evolution of the
predicate 'shoot', in which Lara's shot takes a determining position. ('Linguistic Fictions: The Grammar of the Plot in
Doctor Zhivago (manuscript), 1990.)
16. To assess the relation of the plot and the LC, in Doctor Zhivago, a distinction between two types of reading can
be helpful. Linear scanning builds up the surface of text, but brings little understanding; non-linear digesting
interconnects the elements of the text into a meaningful whole. See Maria Langleben 'Bakhtin's Notions of Time and
Textanalysis', Russian Literature XXVI(1989), 167–90.