Abstract
This essay discusses Russian reception of Andre Chenier's 1794 ode to Young Captive, written while poet was awaiting execution in Saint Lazare prison. The French ode itself describes a scene of reception, as lyric subject overhears plaintive song of a female prisoner on other side of his cell wall and plies her lament into the gentle laws of verse. This scene depicts foundational tension of modern political subject, as naive, vitalist impulse to liberty (or revolution) is contained within a constitutional, juridical order. In his 1825 elegy to Chenier, Pushkin lays bare violence of this dialectical encounter, undermining foundational promise of European modernity. Subsequently, Lermontov rereads Chenier (and rewrites Pushkin) to recover ambivalence of modern subject's impossible position between liberty and law.
Published Version
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