Stock character in mid-19th century Russian literature
A superfluous man (Eugene Onegin) idly polishing his fingernails. Illustration by Elena Samokysh-Sudkovskaya, 1908
The superfluous man (Russian: лишний человек, líshniy chelovék, "extra person") is an 1840s and 1850s Russian literary concept derived from the Byronic hero.[1] It refers to a man, perhaps talented and capable, who does not fit into social norms. In most cases, this person is born into wealth and privilege. Typical characteristics are disregard for social values, cynicism, and existential boredom; typical behaviors are gambling, drinking, romantic intrigues and duels. He is often unmindful, indifferent or unempathetic with society's issues and can carelessly distress others with his actions, despite his position of power. He will often use his power for his own comfort and security and will have very little interest in being charitable or using it for the greater good.
The character type originates in Alexander Pushkin's verse-novel Eugene Onegin (1825–1832). This term was popularized by Ivan Turgenev's novella The Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850) and was thereafter applied to characters from earlier novels.[1] Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time (1840) depicts another superfluous man – Pechorin – as its protagonist. He can be seen as a nihilist and fatalist. Later examples include Alexander Herzen's Beltov in Who Is to Blame? (1845–46), Turgenev's Rudin (1856), and the title character of Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov (1859).[1]
Russian critics such as Vissarion Belinsky (1811-1848) viewed the superfluous man as a byproduct of Nicholas I's reign, when the best-educated men would not enter the discredited government service but, lacking other options for self-realization, doomed themselves to live out their life in passivity. The radical critic Nikolay Dobrolyubov (1836-1861) analyzed the superfluous man as by-product of Russian serfdom.[2] Scholar David Patterson describes the superfluous man as "not just ... another literary type but ... a paradigm of a person who has lost a point, a place, a presence in life" before concluding that "the superfluous man is a homeless man."[3]
^ abcChances, Ellen (2001). "Ch. 10: The Superfluous Man in Russian Literature". In Cornwell, Neil (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature. New York: Routledge. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-415-23366-8.
^Superfluous man at the Encyclopædia Britannica
^Patterson, David (1995). Exile: The Sense of Alienation in Modern Russian Letters. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 2. ISBN 0-8131-1888-3.
The superfluousman (Russian: лишний человек, líshniy chelovék, "extra person") is an 1840s and 1850s Russian literary concept derived from the Byronic...
The Diary of a SuperfluousMan (Russian: «Дневник лишнего человека», Dnevník líshnego chelovéka) is an 1850 novella by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev...
as an adjective, meaning something is mediocre or unremarkable. The superfluousman (Russian: лишний человек, lishniy chelovek) is an 1840s and 1850s Russian...
significant figures The Diary of a SuperfluousMan, an 1850 novella by Russian author Ivan Turgenev Superfluousman, a Russian archetype inspired by the...
best-known books are Memoirs of a SuperfluousMan and Our Enemy, the State. Throughout his life, Nock was a deeply private man who shared few of the details...
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil : 262 Endling Superfluousman The End of History and the Last Man Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §5. Gay Science...
Depression. Dangling Man can be seen as a superfluousman narrative, raising interesting parallels with Turgenev's The Diary of a SuperfluousMan and exploring...
1839, published in 1840, and revised in 1841. It is an example of the superfluousman novel, noted for its compelling Byronic hero (or antihero) Pechorin...
romanized: Zhizn' nenuzhnogo cheloveka, also translated as The Spy: The Story of a SuperfluousMan) is a 1908 novel by Maxim Gorky. It concerns the "plague of espionage"...
Turgenev wrote several novellas (povesti in Russian): The Diary of a SuperfluousMan ("Дневник лишнего человека"), Faust ("Фауст"), The Lull ("Затишье")...
ruffled shirts, tight pants and high-heeled boots. Hipster Metrosexual Superfluousman The Regency era dandy, Lord William Pitt Lennox, even described someone's...
character of the novel, portrayed as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluousman, a symbolic character in 19th-century Russian literature. Oblomov is...
have also drawn parallels between the Byronic hero and the so-called superfluousman, solipsist heroes of Russian literature. In particular, Alexander Pushkin's...
old man Elderly martial arts master Young American mappillai Himbo Ivan the Fool Jack Jock Little Johnny Nice guy Nice Jewish boy Superfluousman Prince...
a typical man of this generation (known as 'the men of forties'), intellectual but ineffective. This interpretation of the superfluousman as someone...
considered a modern-day version of what is expressed in the poem The White Man's Burden (1899) by Rudyard Kipling. The term has been associated with Africa...
Heinemann (1894) The Diary of a SuperfluousMan and Other Stories London: Heinemann (1894) The Diary of a SuperfluousMan A Tour in the Forest Yakov Pasinkov...
poem was written in 1844 and deals with the then popular issue of a "superfluousman" of the 1840s. Scholars usually see it as the author's reaction to...
were all rowers as well as fighting men; for there was not a single superfluousman among them." While this passage fails to give him a specific title...
ISBN 9788176257848, Sarup & Sons publishing Nock, Albert Jay. Memoirs Of A SuperfluousMan. p. 147. John Ralston Saul (2005). The Collapse of Globalism. Richard...
most of the things we're accustomed to are superfluous. I can't think of a single unnecessary shot in A Man Escaped." Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski...
The Globe and Mail, Jade Colbert found the unnamed narrator to be "a superfluousman of the type Chekhov might recognize" and commended Shanbhag for subtlety...
Global Information