The Gallophilia and Gallophobia of A.N. Ostrovskii, or Some considerations on the pragmatics of distinct identity: To the 200th anniversary of the birth of Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences A.N. Ostrovskii

Abstract

What was the role of French literature and culture in the work of A.N. Ostrovskii, one of the most original, “soil” authors of the 19th centure? Why did contemporaries find a French trace in his most original dramas, and why did mastery of the French language (which he himself knew by no means perfectly) become one of the constant topics discussed by the characters of his dramas? These are the questions asked by the author of this article, dedicated to the anniversary of perhaps the most famous Russian playwright, who was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. The use of French words, Gallicisms, and macaronic language is analyzed by Ostrovskii from the point of view of the processes taking place in Russian culture from the mid-19th century, when it ceased to be a culture of bilingualism but was still actively and sometimes painfully experiencing, this time at the everyday level, its failed bilingualism. Along the way, in the context of Ostrovskii’s Gallophilia/Gallophobia, the question is raised about the specifics of the playwright’s attitude to the literary tradition and, in particular, to the tradition of N.V. Gogol.