Is There a Relationship Between Illness and Creativity? an Analysis of the Life and Poetry of A. V. Koltsov

Abstract

Considerable interest has been shown in the relationship between illness and creativity. A study of the life of A. V. Koltsov, a famous Russian poet of the nineteenth century, can make a valuable contribution to this subject because he was, to a most unusual extent, a self-made man. Unlike most "men of achievement", he did not come from an eminent family or a famous educational establishment. He was born in a small provincial town, on the fringe of the civilized world, and he spent less than eighteen months at school. If there is such a thing as "natural genius", Koltsov has a strong claim to be considered in this category. His life was also profoundly influenced by mental and physical disorders, and it is interesting to speculate on whether there may have been a connection between these and his great achievements.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler, Alfred : The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler. A Systematic Presentation in Selections from his Writings. Edited and annotated by H. L. and R. R. Ansbacker. Basic Books , New York, 1956.

Bayley, John : Pushkin: A Comparative Commentary Cambridge, 1971.

Belinsky, V.G. : Polnoe Sobranie Sochinenii 13 vols. Moscow, 1953-9

Bowman, H.E. : Vissarion Belinski 1811-1848: A Study in the Origins of Social Criticism in Russia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1954.

De-Pule, M.F. Alexei Vasilievich Koltsov: A Study of his Everyday Life, Family Environment and Literary Works. St. Petersburg, 1878.

Dubos, Rene and Jean : The White Plague. Tuberculosis, Man and Society. Victor Gollanz , London, 1953.

Dobroliubov, N.A. : Sobranie Sochinenii v deviati tomakh. Moscow - Leningrad, vol.1. 1961. pg.440.

Hingley, R. : Russian Writers and Society in the Nineteenth Century. 2nd edition. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 1977.

Jarintzov, N. : Russian Poets and Poems. "Classics" and "Moderns" with an Introduction on Russian Versification. Oxford, 1917 .

10.

Katz, M.R. : The Literary Ballad in Early Nineteenth Century Russian Literature . Oxford University Press, London , 1976.

11.

Koltsov, A.V. : Poetical Works of Koltsov: With the portrait of the author, his facsimile, and an article on his life and works written by V. Belinsky. St. Petersburg, 1846.

12.

Koltsov, A.V. : Complete Works of A. V. Koltsov. The Academy Library of Russian Writers , ed. A. I. Lyaschenka. Publication of the Department of Literature of the Imperial Academy of Science . St. Petersburg., 1911.

13.

Koltsov, A.V. : A.V. Koltsov : Poetry and Letters ed. V. Tonkov , 2 vols. Moscow, 1958.

14.

Lincoln, W. Bruce : Nicholas I. Emperor and Autocraft of all the Russias. Allen Lane, London 1978.

15.

Mackenzie Wallace, D. : Russia 2 vols. London , 1877.

16.

Mirsky, Prince D. S. : A History of Russian Literature.edited and abridged by F. J. Whitfield , Routledge and Kegan Paul, London , 1968.

17.

Moiseeva, A. : A. V. Koltsov: A Critical Essay Moscow, 1956.

18.

Newmarch, R. : Poetry and Progress in Russia London, 1914.

19.

Pickering, Sir George : Creative Malady: Illness in the lives and minds of Charles Darwin , Florence Nightingale , Mary Baker Edd , Sigmund Freud , Marcel Proust , Elizabeth Barrett Browning . George Allen & Unwin, London , 1974.

20.

Pipes, R. : Russian under the Old Régime. London, 1974.

21.

Pushkin, A.S. : Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v desiati tomakh Moscow — Leningrad, 1949.

22.

Ralston, W.R.S. :"A Russian Poet". Fortnightly Review, Old Series, Vol VI. Sept. 1966.

23.

Robinson, G.T. : Rural Russia under the Old Régime: A History of the Landlord — Peasant World and a Prologue to the Peasant Revolution of 1917. New York, 1949.

24.

Rom, Paul : Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology and its History. Alderian Society of Great Britain, 2nd edition, London, 1979.

25.

H. Seton-Watson : The Russian Empire 1801-1917, Oxford, 1867.

26.

Storr, Antony : The Dynamics of Creation Secker & Warburg, London. 1973.

27.

Terras, V. : Belinsky and Russian Literary Criticism: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974.