Lermontov in combat with Biblioteka dlia chteniia

Susan Layton, Lermontov in combat with Bibliotéka dlia chteniia. Inspired by Bakhtin's analyses of double-voiced discourse, this article examines Lermontov's attacks on two pieces of low-brow orientalia published in Bibliotéka dlia chteniia in 1838 — Dmitrii Kropotkin's poem "Pal'ma" and the semi-anonymous prose tale "Beduinka." In the first case, Kropotkin was the target of a hidden polemic in Lermontov's "Tri pal'my," a verse which critics have long associated with Pushkin's "Podrazhaniia Koranu." In the second case, Lermontov subversively parodied "Beduinka" in "Bela," first published separately in 1839 and then incorporated into Geroi nashego vremeni. The analysis suggests that Lermontov's combat with Bibliotéka dlia chteniia was to some extent a criticism of his own sadistic streak (notably manifested in "Hadji-Abrek"). But most of all, the author was derisively exposing the Russian readership's taste for vulgar tales of oriental "savagery."