Article

Name: Sculptural codes of Russian literature: on the history of perception of the monument to V. A. Zhukovsky

Authors: E. E. Anisimova

Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The paper analyses how places of memory dedicated to V. A. Zhukovsky were emerging in Russian sculpture and urban toponymy. The object of research is examined in historical and cultural documents which refer to the turn of the 19–20th centuries. They reflect the debates about locating of monuments and renaming the streets after Zhukovsky. Also, the author studies some works of the Russian authors which contain the images of Zhukovsky’s busts and streets named after him. The analysis involves the jubilee periodicals, K. Fofanov’s manuscripts and published verses, the poem by V. Mayakovsky, the oeuvres of I. Ilf, E. Petrov and D. Kharms. The famous authors’ allusions on Zhukovsky (just discovered as well as earlier revealed by scholars) are used in the present study. The paper studies the regularities of formation and rethinking of Zhukovsky’s professional reputation as a national classic and the mentor of a crown prince Alexander Nikolayevich. On the one hand, the installation of monuments in honor of Zhukovsky supported some family and local myths, and on the other hand, Zhukovsky’s charisma became the significant part of the imperial culture and symbolic space of Saint Petersburg. The latter is particularly important because there were no monuments dedicated to Zhukovsky in Moscow. Zhukovsky’s bust located near the Winter Palace became not only the constituent part of the canonization of the classical writer as a cultural strategy but was also embodied as a motif in a number of Russian literary pieces. Most of the literary allusions actualizing the artificial images of the inanimate substitutes of the poet (e. g. monuments and streets named after him) refer to the imperial capital in particular: the bust modeled by Kreitan and Zhukovsky Street. The history of appearance and perception of places of memory associated with Zhukovsky finally becomes the important marker for conceptualizing the Russian classical writers’ pantheon. It clarifies not only the process of formation of Zhukovsky’s personal professional reputation in a broad scale of historical time, but also the dynamics of the Russian literature inner self-consciousness. The authors at that time were attracted by the places of memory representing new literary cults as the primary objects for cultural reflection along with biographies and oeuvres of their precursors.

Keywords: v. a. zhukovsky, literary jubilee, canonization of classical literature, monument, aesthetic perception

Bibliography:

Аntonov V. Admiralteyskaya alleya – Aleksandrovskiy sad [Admiralty alley – Alexander garden]. In: Nevskiy arkhiv. Istoriko-kraevedcheskiy sb. Vyp. 3 [Nevsky archive. Historical and regional collection. Iss. 3]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Atheneum, Feniks, 1997, pp. 324–343.

Brooks J. Russian nationalism and Russian literature: the canonization of the classics. Nation and ideology. Essays in honor of Wayne S. Vucinich. Boulder, New York, 1981, pp. 315–334.

Burd’e P. Pole literatury [Literary field]. New Literary Observer. 2000, no. 45, pp. 22–87.

Gerasimova A. Daniil Kharms kak sochinitel’ (Problema chuda) [Daniil Kharms as a composer (The problem of miracle)]. New Literary Observer. 1995, no. 16, pp. 129–139.

Guzairov T. Zhukovskiy – istorik i ideolog Nikolaevskogo tsarstvovaniya [Zhukovsky – the historian and ideologist of Nicholas I reign]. Tartu, 2007, 153 p.

Fofanov K. Stikhotvoreniya i poemy. Vstup. st., sost., podg. teksta i komment. S. V. Sapozhkova. [Verses and poems. S. V. Sapozhkova (Comp.)]. St. Petersburg, izd. Pushkinskogo Doma, 2010, 592 p.

Il’f I. Zapisnye knizhki: Pervoe polnoe izdanie khudozhestvennykh zapisey [Note-books: First full edition of artistic notes]. А. I. Il’f (Comp.). Moscow, Tekst, 2008, 397 p.

Il’f I., Petrov E. Dvenadtsat’ stul’ev: Pervyy polnyy variant romana. Komment. M. Odesskogo, D. Fel’dmana. [The twelve chairs. First full variant of the novel. Comm. by M. Odessky and D. Feldman]. Moscow, Vagrius, 1999, 543 p.

Loshchilov I. “Soediniv bezumie s umom…” O nekotorykh aspektakh poeticheskogo mira N. A. Zabolotskogo [“Combining the insanity with the mind…” On some aspects of N. A. Zabolotsky’s poetic world]. In: Semiotika bezumiya: sb. st. Sost. N. Buks [Semiotics of insanity: Coll. art. N. Buks (Comp.)]. Paris, Moscow, 2005, pp. 143–171.

Mayakovskiy V. V. Sobranie sochineniy: V 12 t. [Collected works: in 12 vols]. Moscow, Pravda, 1978, vol. 1, 431 p.

Molok Yu. A. Pushkin v 1937 godu [Pushkin in 1937]. Moscow, NLO, 2000, 226 p.

Nedel’noe obozrenie (Blagoustroystvo goroda S.-Peterburga [Prodolzhenie]) Weekly review (Municipal improvement of Saint Petersburg [Continuation])]. In: Nedelya stroitelya [Week of the Builder]. 1887, no. 37, Sept. 13th, p. 147.

O vybore ulits dlya naimenovaniya ikh v pamyat’ russkikh pisateley N. V. Gogolya i V. A. Zhukovskogo po sluchayu ispolnyayushchegosya v 1902 godu 50-letiya so dnya ikh smerti [About selecting the street for naming it in memory of Russian writers N. V. Gogol and V. A. Zhukovsky on the occasion of 50 years jubilee in 1902 since their death]. Bulletin of Saint-Petersburg City Duma. 1902, no. 4, pp. 529–537.

O postanovke byusta poetu Zhukovskomu [On the construction of the bust of poet Zhukovsky]. Bulletin of Saint-Petersburg City Duma. 1886, no. 43, pp. 669.

Otkrytie pamyatnika – byusta Zhukovskogo [v Aleksandrovskom sadu] [The unveiling of the monument-bust of Zhukovsky]. Birzhevye Vedomosti. 1887, no. 151, June 6th, pp. 1–2.

Papernyy V. Z. Kul’tura Dva [Culture two]. Moscow, NLO, 2011, 408 p.

Petrosov K. Zemlya i nebo v poeme Mayakovskogo “Chelovek” [Earth and sky in Mayakovsky’s poem “A Man”]. Voprosy Literatury. 1987, no. 8, pp. 121–145.

Proskurina V. Mify imperii: Literatura i vlast’ v epokhu Ekateriny II [Myths of the empire: Literature and authority in the age of Catherine II]. Moscow, NLO, 2006, 328 p.

Toporov V. N. O dinamicheskom kontekste “trekhmernykh” proizvedeniy izobraitel’nogo iskusstva (semioticheskiy vzglyad). Fal’konetovskiy pamyatnik Petru I [On dynamic context of “Three-dimensional” works of fine art (The semiotic view)]. In: Toporov V. N. Peterburgskiy tekst [The Petersburg’s text]. Moscow, Nauka, 2009, pp. 778–813.

Vdovin А. V. Godovshhina smerti literatora kak prazdnik: k istorii traditsii v Rossii (1850–1900-e gg.) [Anniversary of writer’s death as a holiday: on the history of tradition in Russia (1850–1900-s)]. Festkultur in der russischen Literatur (18. bis 21. Jahrhundert). Kul’tura prazdnika v russkoy literature XVIII–XXI vv. [Culture of the holiday in Russian literature of the 18th-21st centuries]. Hrsg. von A. Graf. München, UTZ Verl., 2010, pp. 81–93.

Veys Z. A., Grechnev V. Ya. S Mayakovskim po Sankt-Peterburgu [With Mayakovsky along Saint Petersburg]. St. Petersburg, LIO “Redaktor”, 1993, 232 p.

Yakobson R. O. Statuya v poeticheskoy mifologii Pushkina [Statue in Pushkin’s poetic mythology]. In: Yakobson R. O. Ra-boty po poetike: Perevody. Sost. i obshch. red. M. L. Gasparova [Works on Poetics: Translations by M. L. Gasparova (Comp., Ed.). Moscow, Progress, 1987, pp. 145–180.

Zabolotskiy N. A. Sobranie sochineniy: V 3 t. [Collected Works: in 3 vols]. Moscow, Khudozh. lit., 1983, vol. 1, 655 p.

Zenkin S. N. Ot teksta k kul’tu [From Text to cult]. In: Kul’t kak fenomen literaturnogo protsessa: avtor, tekst, chitatel’ [Cult as phenomenon of literary process: author, text, reader]. Moscow, IMLI RАN, 2011, pp. 133–140.

Zeydlits K. K. Zhizn’ i poeziya V. A. Zhukovskogo. 1783–1852. Po neizdannym istochnikam i lichnym vospominaniyam [Life and poetry of V. A. Zhukovsky. 1783–1852. On unpublished documents and private memoirs]. St. Petersburg, Tip. M. M. Stasyulevicha, 1883, 257 p.