The Mad Genius

Abstract

Perhaps the most characteristic feature in the hegemonic interpretations of Nijinsky relates to language, or rather, the lack of it. Most reminiscences, even those by people with whom he collaborated, depict Nijinsky as reticent, inarticulate and shy (for example, Karsavina 1998, 92–3; Rambert 1998, 110, 115). In the company of his seniors and social superiors, as in meetings with Diaghilev’s collaborators, he tended to stay silent, which made some think him meditative and others slow-witted and dull (for example, Benois 1945, 289; Stravinsky 1975, 27–8). Nijinsky’s Diary has been used as proof of his inability to express himself verbally and the great pains he took to overcome this handicap: for example, Peter Ostwald (especially xviii–xxi) claims it proves Nijinsky was a highly specialised genius who replaced speaking with movement, as evinced by his total inability to express himself in words. Rather alarmingly, Christian Dumais-Lvowski, the translator of the ‘unexpurged’ Diary version, shares this view (in Snow 1996, 34, 36).