Diana Lewis Burgin - Sophia Parnok: The Life and Work of Russia’s Sappho

SOPHIA PARNOK

The Cutting Edge:
Lesbian Life and Literature

The Cutting Edge:
Lesbian Life and Literature

Series Editor: Karla Jay

Ladies Almanack
BY DJUNA BARNES
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SUSAN SNIADER LANSER

Adventures of the Mind:
The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney

TRANSLATED BY JOHN SPALDING GATTON
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KARLA JAY

Faint It Today
BY H.D. (HILDA DOOLITTLE)

EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
CASSANDRA LAITY

(Sem)Erotics: Theorizing Lesbian : Writing
BY ELIZABETH A. MEESE

The Search for a Woman-Centered Spirituality
BY ANNETTE J. VAN DYKE

I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840

EDITED BY HELENA WHITBREAD

No Priest But Love: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1824-1826

EDITED BY HELENA WHITBREAD

Lover
BY BERTHA HARRIS

Changing Our Minds: Lesbian Feminism

and Psychology
BY CELIA KITZINGER AND RACHEL PERKINS

Elizabeth Bowen: A Reputation in Writing
BY RENEE C. HOOGLAND

Sophia Parnok: The Life and Work of Russias Sappho
BY DIANA LEWIS BURGIN

The Cutting Edge:
Lesbian Life and Literature

Series Editor: Karla Jay

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND WOMENS STUDIES
PACE UNIVERSITY

EDITORIAL BOARD

Judith Butler
Humanities Center
The Johns Hopkins University

Blanche Wiesen Cook
History and Womens Studies
John Jay College and
City University of New York
Graduate Center

Diane Griffin Crowder
French and Womens Studies
Cornell College

Joanne Glasgow
English and Womens Studies
Bergen Community College

Marny Hall
Psychotherapist and Writer

Celia Kitzinger
Social Sciences
Loughborough University, U.K.

Jane Marcus
English and Womens Studies
City University of New York
Graduate Center

Biddy Martin
German and Womens Studies
Cornell University

Elizabeth Meese
English
University of Alabama

Esther Newton
Anthropology
State University of New York
Purchase

Terri de la Pea
Novelist/Short Story Writer

Ruthann Robson
Writer
Law School at Queens College
City University of New York

Ann Allen Shockley
Librarian
Fisk University

Elizabeth Wood
Lesbian and Gay Studies
Sarah Lawrence College

Bonnie Zimmerman
Womens Studies
San Diego State University

The Life and Work of
Russias Sappho

DIANA LEWIS BURGIN

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London

Copyright 1994 by New York University
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burgin, Diana Lewis.
Sophia Parnok : the life and work of Russias Sappho / Diana Lewis
Burgin.
p. cm. (Cutting edge : lesbian life and literature)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-1190-1 (cloth : alk. paper).ISBN 0-8147-1221-5
(pbk.)
1. Parnok, SofiaCriticism and interpretation. 2. Lesbians
writings, RussianHistory and criticism. 3. Lesbianism in
literatureHistory20th century. 4. Women in literature
History20th century. 5. LesbiansRussiaIntellectual life.
I. Title. II. Series: Cutting edge (New York, N.Y.)
PG3476.P25915Z59 1994
891.7142dc20 94-1266
CIP

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the memory of Sophia Parnok

All illustrations appear as a group following page 134.

Despite the efforts of lesbian and feminist publishing houses and a few university presses, the bulk of the most important lesbian works has traditionally been available only from rare book dealers, in a few university libraries, or in gay and lesbian archives. This series intends, in the first place, to make representative examples of this neglected and insufficiently known literature available to a broader audience by reissuing selected classics and by putting into print for the first time lesbian novels, diaries, letters, and memoirs that are of special interest and significance, but which have moldered in libraries and private collections for decades or even for centuries, known only to the few scholars who had the courage and financial wherewithal to track them down.

Their names have been known for a long timeSappho, the Amazons of North Africa, the Beguines, Aphra Behn, Queen Christina, Emily Dickinson, the Ladies of Llangollen, Radclyffe Hall, Natalie Clifford Barney, H. D., and so many others from every nation, race, and era. But government and religious officials burned their writings, historians and literary scholars denied they were lesbians, powerful men kept their books out of print, and influential archivists locked up their ideas far from sympathetic eyes. Yet some dedicated scholars and readers still knew who they were, made pilgrimages to the cities and villages where they had lived and to the graveyards where they rested. They passed around tattered volumes of letters, diaries, and biographies, in which they had underlined what seemed to be telltale hints of a secret or different kind of life. Where no hard facts existed, legends were invented. The few precious and often available pre-Stonewall lesbian classics, such as The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan [Patricia Highsmith], and Desert of the Heart by Jan Rule, were cherished. Lesbian pulp was devoured. One of the primary goals of this series is to give the more neglected works, which constitute the vast majority of lesbian writing, the attention they deserve.

A second but no less important aim of this series is to present the cutting edge of contemporary lesbian scholarship and theory across a wide range of disciplines. Practitioners of lesbian studies have not adopted a uniform approach to literary theory, history, sociology, or any other discipline, nor should they. This series intends to present an array of voices that truly reflect the diversity of the lesbian community. To help me in this task, I am lucky enough to be assisted by a distinguished editorial board that reflects various professional, class, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds as well as a spectrum of interests and sexual preferences.

At present the field of lesbian studies occupies a small, precarious, and somewhat contested pied-a-terre between gay studies and womens studies. The former is still in its infancy, especially if one compares it to other disciplines that have been part of the core curriculum of every child and adolescent for several decades or even centuries. However, although it is one of the newest disciplines, gay studies may also be the fastest growing oneat least in North America. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual studies conferences are doubling and tripling their attendance. Although only a handful of degree-granting programs currently exist, that number is also apt to multiply quickly during the next decade.

In comparison, womens studies is a well-established and burgeoning discipline with hundreds of minors, majors, and graduate programs throughout the United States. Lesbian studies occupies a peripheral place in the discourse in such programs, characteristically restricted to one lesbian-centered course, usually literary or historical in nature. In the many womens studies series that are now offered by university presses, generally only one or two books on a lesbian subject or issue are included, and lesbian voices are restricted to writing on those topics considered of special interest to gay people. We are not called upon to offer opinions on motherhood, war, education, or on the lives of women not publicly identified as lesbians. As a result, lesbian experience is too often marginalized and restricted.