Spring 2000 Cyberseminar in Objectivist Studies
Nietzsche and Objectivism

Unit Four: April 17 - May 14

Chris Sciabarra on
on Rand and the Russian "Silver Age."

To: TOC Cyberseminar <cybersem@objectivistcenter.org>

Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2000 11:21 PM

Subject: Cyberseminar: Rand and the Silver Age

[From: Chris Matthew Sciabarra ]

Rand and the Silver Age


I have found the subject-matter of our Cyberseminar to be both fascinating
and provocative, and while I have not been regularly contributing, I wanted
to thank all of our participants and Stephen and Will especially, for the
enlightening discussions.

As we have now turned to the relationship of Rand and Nietzsche, I wanted to
make a few points of historical interest. As many of you are no doubt
aware, I wrote a book called AYN RAND: THE RUSSIAN RADICAL. In that book, I
argue that Rand absorbed a certain dialectical method from her Russian
teachers. But I also explored an historical link between Rand and the
Russian Silver Age. For our purposes here, I want to recommend to all of
you a more intensive study of that era from which Rand emerged because it
may help us to understand the context and substance of Rand's fascination
with the German writer.

Bernice Rosenthal has edited a volume called NIETZSCHE AND RUSSIA, which
features some excellent essays on the Nietzschean motif of much Silver Age
thought. She is also the author of NIETZSCHE AND SOVIET CULTURE, and has a
third book on the way dealing with the Nietzschean impact on Russia. What
emerges from these studies and others, is the vast influence of Nietzsche on
many different intellectual traditions, including the neo-Idealists, the
Russian Marxists, and - most importantly - the Russian Symbolist poets. I
am currently working on a longer-term writing project that deals with the
links between Rand and at least one of the Symbolists: Aleksandr Blok.
Rand credited Blok, a Nietzschean-influenced writer, as her favorite poet -
and this is one interesting intersection that has yet to be explored
comprehensively.

Ironically, the Symbolists stressed the "Dionysian" elements in Nietzsche's
work; there are definite parallels between Rand's ultimate view of Nietzsche
and the Symbolist view: the fundamental difference is that Rand rejects in
Nietzsche that which the Symbolists celebrate.

The connections between Nietzsche and antiquity are also of interest. In
fact, while Rand never took a formal college course on Nietzsche at the
university, she was probably exposed formally to Nietzsche's work in some
capacity in courses that she took on the History of Greece and the History
of Rome. (This would have made her among the last students to study
Nietzsche in ANY formal capacity prior to the Soviet's banning of
Nietzsche's works from People's Libraries.) For example, F. F. Zelinsky,
one likely teacher of such courses (and a big influence on other historians
in the Petrograd history department) interspersed his discussions of ancient
literature, mythology, and civilization with those of Nietzsche's works that
"recovered" the values of antiquity. Zelinsky (and other teachers
influenced by him) was well-known for his championing of Nietzsche's
"Dionysian" impulse as a corrective to Judeo-Christian morality.

Curiously, the Symbolists, somehow, integrated Judeo-Christian symbols and
Nietzschean imagery, projecting artists as Supermen, self-integrated
"God-builders" who would re-create the world in art and literature as a
preface to social change - a theme that finds expression in writers as
diverse as Volsky, Gorky, Trotsky, and Ayn Rand.

It is not my purpose to make this a forum for the discussion of my own
interpretive work; but I do believe that Rand's interest in Nietzsche was
both philosophical, and of a particular time and place, and that it can be
read as a manifestation of the whole Silver Age engagement with Nietzsche.
For those who are interested in the history of ideas, this remains an open
invitation to further research.

Cheers,

Chris
=====================================
Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Visiting Scholar
NYU Department of Politics
715 Broadway
New York, New York 10003-6806
=====================================

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Spring 2000 Cyberseminar in Objectivist Studies
cybersem@objectivistcenter.org

All Cyberseminar posts are working papers with copyright
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