Solipsism or a Dream: the Question of Reality in Vera Pavlovna’s Ninth Dream by Victor Pelevin

Abstract

Victor Pelevin often explores the question of reality in his works, as he does in his 1991 short story Vera Pavlovna’s Ninth Dream. This story is frequently interpreted from the perspective of solipsism, a philosophical concept that explains the world only through one’s own mind and senses, casting doubt on the existence of anything outside the individual. In this way, a cleaning lady of the men’s restroom on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow becomes the source of all changes in her environment, and the reader is introduced to her world solely through her perspective. This provides a basis for a solipsistic interpretation of the reality in which she exists. As the author mentions in the epigraph about the overlap between solipsism and realism, and concludes the story by describing a woman with solipsism in the third stage, all these elements justify discussing solipsism in the context of Vera Pavlovna's reality. On the other hand, the title itself emphasises the dream as a significant element of the story, which the author undoubtedly uses to establish a connection with Chernyshevsky’s novel What Is to Be Done and the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna. A dream, as one of the possible realities, as defined by Vadim Rudnev, offers another valid interpretation of this work, one that is well-supported by the text itself. In this way, the specific play with the text, intertextual connections, and numerous interpretative possibilities, which are dominant features of Viktor Pelevin's poetics, remain evident in this story as well, as reader cannot determine with certainty which reality the story is referring to.