ON THE FRAGMENTARY PERCEPTION OF FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE 18TH CENTURY RUSSIA AND SWEDEN

Apply

ON THE FRAGMENTARY PERCEPTION OF FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE 18TH CENTURY RUSSIA AND SWEDEN

Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 3

Abstract

The essay examines the problem of the fragmentary perception of European literature in the 18th Century Russia. The author compares the body of 17th Century French poetical works translated into Russian and Swedish languages and published in the Russian and Swedish editions in the middle of the 18th Century. Regardless of many predicted coincidences, Russian and Swedish lists are not identical. Some 17th Century French poets unknown in Russia were, however, extremely popular in the 18th Century Sweden. The essay focuses on the work of E. Pavillon, a member of the French Academy and of the General R. de Bussy-Rabutin. The “Våra fӧrsӧk” edition released in Sweden in the 1750s, included numerous translations of the poems by these two authors as well as discussions about the specifcity of their poetic gifts. Pavillon’s works are in the center of discussion by Swedish authors. In G. F. Gyllenborg’s “Satire öfver Sprätthökar,” E. Pavillon is compared with J.-B. Rousseau, in H. Ch. Nordenﬂycht’s “De svenska poeter” he is identifed with a famous Swedish poet J. Frese. Swedish poems mentioning R. de Bussy are absent in the edition of “Våra fӧrsӧk”, however the French poet was familiar to Swedish authors, and the interest in his works drew on his role in the 17th Century Franko-Swedish history. Swedish and French participation in the Thirty Years War and a visit of Christine, Queen of Sweden, to Paris were well known to Swedish authors. The paper argues that the lack of interest in the work of these authors in Russia is conspicuous if compared with their Swedish perception. This may be explained by cultural and historical circumstances and also by the lack of demand for some of the “species” of the 17th Century French poetry in the Russian poetry of the 18th Century.

Authors and Affiliations

Mikhail Yu. Ljustrov

Keywords

Poetics of Octavio Paz’s The Violent Season

The poetics of Octavio Paz’s book The Violent Season (1958) is in great part defined by its autobiographical canvas: the sequence of the 9 poems that compose the lyrical series corresponds chronologically and geographi...

THE CATEGORY OF THE INTER-LITERARY AND THE PROBLEM OF THE AUTHOR’S NATIONAL IDENTITY: On the Example of Switzerland and its Literary Ties with the Same-language Countries

The problem of the author’s national identity manifested itself as part of the nation-making process and aggravated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the spread of theories about the superiority of nation...

EP ID EP26113
DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2016-1-3-4-193-204
Views 285
Downloads 16