I. A. KRYLOV — THE FABULIST IN THE ASPECT OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

The article deliberately addresses the issue of self-consciousness of I. A. Krylov the fabulist. It identifies the factors that contributed to the concentration of an already mature poet, playwright and prose writer on work in a particular genre, as well as the impulses of his entry into the specifics of the fable and the world genre tradition in the conditions of the formation of an internal request for the status of a national poet and the authority of expressing folk wisdom. The crystallization of the macro-intention of Krylov’s nine books of fables, the identification of the strategy of his book-making is understood as the explication of the dynamics and structuring of the author’s self-awareness, his aesthetic and poetological purposefulness and value success in Russian culture on the transition from the traditionalist to the individual creative paradigm of the development of artistic literature. The meaningful component of the fable is seen as a system of requirements for the arrangement of the peacekeeping apparatus of the master of the word and the possibilities of the national speech tradition to respond organically to the common challenge. Krylov’s subjectivity is seen as a purposeful process of building oneself as a national and competitive global figure into a number of the highest representatives and exponents of the wisdom of mankind. The authors of the article proceed from the fact that the type of self-consciousness of the fabulist pre-establishes the synthesis of nature, society and the individual, striving for a reasonable, orderly and optimistic coexistence, taking into account the genetic experience of universal metaphor and aphorism, genre inclusions of sentimentalism and romanticism. The links in the promotion of Krylov’s individual artistic system are also fixed, in particular his comedic practice, as a prerequisite for the transition to the decisive choice of the form of aesthetic expression. The research methodology is focused on combining elements of cultural, historical-genetic, semiotic, typological approaches to the analysis of literary phenomena with a common frame of achievements of Russian historical poetics.