Die klassische Tradition in der russischen Literatur: zum Problem ihrer Genesis

Abstract

Summary The article considers the poetry of S. S. Averintsev. The analysis of its dominating thematic, generic and verse features allows us to see in this poetry a peculiar development of literary trends of the late 17th/early 18th centuries, which were connected with the transformation of autochthonous artistic sources and generated a whole range of original texts, including poetic ones (“Povest’ o Gore-Zlochastii”, Songs of P. Kvashnin-Samarin). On the basis of another historic correlation Averintsev’s poetry can be considered an attempt to present the classical tradition of Russian literature as a direct development of medieval verbal principles in their Moscow variant. This position was supported by the scholar’s philological conceptions and was also confirmed by the statements of a number of literary critics, as well as by the poetic practice of Olga Sedakova, which was close to that of Averintsev. The article explores the correlation of these perceptions with historical and literary facts.