The Boundaries of Advice Literature: The Theme of Vadim Novgorodskii in Literary Texts and the Discussion on Autocracy, Liberty and Equality, 1786-1831

Author: Weeda, Ed

Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 87, Number 2, 1 April 2009 , pp. 227-258(32)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

In this article, literary texts from Catherine II, Kniazhnin, Plavil′shchikov, Kheraskov, Raevskii, Ryleev and Lermontov about Vadim Novgorodskii and Riurik - representing republican and autocratic values respectively - are analysed. It is demonstrated how the dialogical principle of justification and critical advice literature was abandoned in the final decade of the eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth century. The influence of Radical Enlightenment thought, a phenomenon that has remained undiscussed in the context of Russian eighteenth-century literature, plays an important role in a process that begins with a plea for equality, in Kniazhnin's Vadim Novgorodskii, and is followed by fierce reactions from the government, Plavil′shchikov and Kheraskov, finally culminating in the radicalism and materialism of the Decembrist poets and a sombre concluding poem by Lermontov.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Dordrecht, Holland

Publication date: 2009-04-01

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The Review is the oldest British journal in the field, having been in existence since 1922. Edited and managed by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, it covers not only the modern and medieval languages and literatures of the Slavonic and East European area, but also history, culture, and political studies.