Turgenev quotations, dating, and the problem of small poorly networked elite universities


Author: Doctor Terence Rajivan Edward
Abstract. I present an interpretation of a page from Turgenev's Fathers and Children, according to which Bazarov is challenging aristocratic discourse.
Draft version: Version 2 (Burke reference added 3 September 2026; version 1 22nd August 2023)
Deleted from academia.edu by me: see https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc1zJY3tmJ7/ 

        I was rereading parts of Turgenev's Fathers and Children - I still use the Constance Garnett translation for this one. Bazarov meets Fenitchka while he is returning from a walk. She can't understand anything of his book. He replies:
"Well, I didn't give it to you for you to understand it. I wanted to look at you while you were reading. When you read, the end of your little nose moves so nicely." (1895: 259)
Later he praises her elbow. First she says:
"And how can you care to listen to me? You have talked with such clever ladies." (1895: 259)
He replies:
"Ah, Fedosya Nikolaevna! believe me; all the clever ladies in the world are not worth your little elbow." (1895: 259)
        There are a few remarks I wanted to make about these quotations.
        (a) I interpret Bazarov as challenging aristocratic discourse on the most beautiful part of a woman (e.g. Burke 1757), and also on what size nose is best.
        (b) An answer to her question is that it is difficult to understand their discourse.
        (c) I wonder whether, if you go to an elite university, and then you start dating someone from a non-elite university, you hear words like hers a lot.


References
Burke, Edmund. 1757. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. An 1885 New York edition, published by John B Alden, available at:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/On_the_sublime_and_beautiful_%28IA_onsublimebeautif00burk%29.pdf
Turgenev, Ivan. (translated by Constance Garnett). 1895. Fathers and Children. London: William Heinemann. Available at: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47935