RUSSIAN ROMANTICISM FROM LERMONTOV TO NABOKOV. WEISSKOPF M.M. AGONY AND THE REVIVAL OF ROMANTICISM. MOSCOW, NOVOE LITERATURNOE OBOZRENIE PUBL., 2022. 600 P.

Abstract

The analysis of the romantic tradition in Russian literature is a crosscutting plot of the collection Agony and the Revival of Romanticism. The main objects of research are the style (plot motifs, images, verbal formulas) of famous romantic writers against the background of their contemporary literature of the second and third rows and reminiscences from romantic writings in the works of authors of later eras. Mikhail Weisskopf’s book is an important scientific study. The revealed echoes of the works of M. Lermontov and N. Gogol with contemporary romantic works are an extremely valuable result: against this background, it is more obvious what belongs to the era, being a common property, and what belongs to the artistic discoveries of this or that writer. An interesting and convincing interpretation of The Pied Piper by A. Grin, in which symbolism is found, goes back to Judeophobic mythology. Of great importance for commenting and researching the works of V. Nabokov of the Russian period are numerous reminiscences, mainly from romantic and neo-romantic works, indicated by the scholar. The book is clearly lacking in theoretical reflection on the found textual overlaps. Non-functional inclusions of ‘alien text’ - borrowings (this is the case of Lermontov and Gogol) and significant references to other texts - reminiscences (the case of Nabokov) are not distinguished. This flaw is explained by the fact that The Agony and Revival of Romanticism, despite the presence of several main plots in the book, is not a monograph, but a collection of articles written at different times.