Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov’s 'Prophetic' Dream, or How Russian Gentry Learned to Dream Sentimentally

• In Event: Dream Records as Historical Sources and Literary Narratives

Abstract

My talk analyzes a “prophetic” dream in the autobiography of Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov (1764–1823), an original writer (nowadays almost forgotten) and a noteworthy figure on the Russian cultural scene of his time. The decision of Ivan Mikhailovich to dwell on one of his dreams in his voluminous ego-text is not casual. The author does not just record his night vision but transforms it into a symbolic-foretelling episode in his life, aiming to achieve the didactic and apologetic goals of his autobiographical prose. Thus, his dream record helps him substantiate his idealized self-image as a “sentimental” dvorjanin. As I shall show, Dolgorukov’s dream record is clearly influenced by his fascination with the oneiric world of sentimentalism and early romanticism that provided him with literary and cultural models of how to dream accordingly.

Author

• Rebecca Gigli, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)