Alexandre Ostrovski, bâtisseur d'un panthéon du théâtre européen sur la scène russe

Abstract

Alexander Ostrovsky's dramatic heritage has been primarily regarded as "slice-of-life" plays in the Russian historico-theatrical tradition, due to detailed descriptions of everyday life and sociopsychological characters/types it formed. However, this perspective is rather one-legged and even incorrect. Ostrovsky's personal library materials kept in St. Petersburg demonstrate that he was engaged in a thorough research of the history of theater (from ancient times to the present day) not only in Russian but also in several European languages. Ostrovsky was building a pantheon of European theaters of his own throughout his career-consciously and consistently, sometimes following the common trends and sometimes digressing from them and being guided by his own preferences. The theatrical pantheon Ostrovsky created in his translations, articles and plays embraces virtually all the eras of European theater and involves all national schools. His point of view was close to the contemporary understanding of "classical heritage". European dramatists selected by Ostrovsky form the basis of the so-called classical repertoire of modem Russian theater. Being the foundation of the Russian national repertoire, Ostrovsky's plays at the same time represent a form of digesting the pan-European theatrical heritage.