Vasily Zhukovsky

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Vasily Zhukovsky
Portrait by Karl Bryullov, 1837–38
BornVasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky
9 February 1783
Mishenskoe, Belyovsky Uyezd, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire
Died24 April 1852(1852-04-24) (aged 69)
Baden-Baden, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Confederation
SpouseElizabeth von Reutern
IssueAlexandra Zhukovskaya
OccupationPoet
This article is part of a series on
Conservatism in Russia
Ideologies
Principles
Intellectuals
Politicians
Parties
Active

Defunct

Organisations
Media
Related topics


Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (

Tsar-Liberator Alexander II
.

Zhukovsky is credited with introducing the

Byron, and others. Many of his translations have become classics of Russian literature, regarded by some to be better written and more enduring in Russian than in their original languages.[1]

Life

Zhukovsky was born in the village of Mishenskoe, in Tula Governorate, Russian Empire, the illegitimate son of a landowner named Afanasi Bunin and his Turkish housekeeper Salkha.[2][3]

The Bunin family had a literary bent and some 90 years later produced the

Moscow University Noblemen's Pension. There, he was heavily influenced by Freemasonry, as well as by the fashionable literary trends of English Sentimentalism and German Sturm und Drang. He also met Nikolay Karamzin
, the preeminent Russian man of letters and the founding editor of the most important literary journal of the day, The Herald of Europe (Вестник Европы).

In December 1802, the 19-year-old Zhukovsky published a free translation of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" in Karamzin's journal. The translation was the first sustained example of his trademark sentimental-melancholy style, which at the time was strikingly original in Russian. It made him so well known among Russian readers that in 1808 Karamzin asked him to take over the editorship of The Herald of Europe. The young poet used this position to explore Romantic themes, motifs, and genres—largely by way of translation.

Zhukovsky was among the first Russian writers to cultivate the mystique of the Romantic poet. Much of his original work was inspired by his half-niece Maria "Masha" Protasova, the daughter of one of his several half-sisters, with whom he had a passionate but ultimately Platonic affair. He also came under the influence of Romanticism in the medieval

Tartu University
) had been reopened as the only German-speaking university in Imperial Russia.

Zhukovsky's rise at court began with

Goethe
, were made as practical language exercises for Alexandra.

Zhukovsky's pedagogical career removed him in some respects from the forefront of Russian literary life, while at the same time positioning him to become one of the most powerful intellectuals in Russia. Among his first acts on moving to St. Petersburg was to establish the jocular Arzamas literary society in order to promote Karamzin's European-oriented, anti-classicist aesthetics. Members of the Arzamas included the teenage Alexander Pushkin, who rapidly emerged as his poetic heir apparent. Indeed, by the early 1820s, Pushkin had upstaged Zhukovsky in terms of the originality and brilliance of his work—even in Zhukovsky's own estimation. Yet the two remained lifelong friends, with the older poet acting as a literary mentor and protector at court.

Much of Zhukovsky's subsequent influence can be attributed to this gift for friendship. His good personal relations with Nicholas spared him the fate of other liberal-intellectuals following the ill-starred

Decembrists
.

On Pushkin's early death in 1837, Zhukovsky stepped in as his literary executor, not only rescuing his work from a hostile

Nikolay Gogol
, another close personal friend. In this way, he acted as an impresario for the developing Russian Romantic Movement.

Bust of Zhukovsky in Baden-Baden

Like his mentor Karamzin, Zhukovsky travelled widely in Europe, above all in the German-speaking world, where his connections with the

Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich
.

Zhukovsky died in Baden-Baden in 1852, aged 69. His body was returned to St. Petersburg and buried in the

Dostoevsky
.

Works

Zhukovsky on a 1952 stamp

In the opinion of Vladimir Nabokov, Zhukovsky belonged to the class of poets who verge on greatness but never quite attain to that glory.[citation needed] His main contribution was as a stylistic and formal innovator who borrowed freely from European literature in order to provide high-quality models for "original" works in Russian. His translation of Gray's "Elegy" is still cited by scholars as the conventional starting-point for the Russian Romantic Movement. He also wrote some prose, the best known example of which is the 1809 short story "Marina roshcha" ("Mary's grove"), about the ancient past of Moscow; it was inspired by Nikolay Karamzin's famous story "Bednaya Liza" ("Poor Liza", 1792).[4]

Zhukovsky translated from a staggeringly wide range of sources, often without attribution, given that modern ideas of intellectual property did not exist in his day. In his choice of original, however, he was consistently motivated by formal principles, above all generic. Following his initial success with the "Elegy", he was especially admired for his first-rate melodious translations of German and English

Dostoevsky
, who famously called them "nash Schiller" ("our Schiller").

Zhukovsky also wrote original verse. His love lyrics to Masha Protasova, such as "Moi drug, khranitel'-angel moi" ("My friend, my guardian angel ..."), are minor classics of the genre. Probably his best-known original poem is the patriotic ode "A Bard in the Camp of the Russian Warriors", which he wrote to boost the morale of Russian troops during his service on Kutuzov's general staff. He also composed the lyrics for the national anthem of Imperial Russia, "God Save the Tsar!"

In the late 1830s, after a period of partial withdrawal from the literary scene, Zhukovsky staged a comeback with a highly original verse translation of his German friend

Tchaikovsky
.

On retiring from court, Zhukovsky devoted his remaining years to hexameter translations of Eastern poetry, including long excerpts from the

Russian poetry. Some scholars argue that both his Undina and his Odyssey—as long narrative works in verse—made a significant, albeit oblique contribution to the development of the 19th-century Russian novel
.

All in all, Zhukovsky's work probably constitutes the most important body of literary hermeneutics in the modern Russian language. He is often considered the founder of a "German school" of Russian poets and as such has influenced figures as far afield as Fyodor Tyutchev and Marina Tsvetaeva.

Notes

  1. ^ "Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky". max.mmlc.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  2. ISBN 9780199882304
    , Zhukovsky, Vasily (1783-1852): Russian poet, the natural son of a wealthy landowner father and a captive Turkish girl.
  3. ISBN 9780141972268
    , Vasily Zhukovsky (1783-1852). The son of a small landowner and his Turkish housekeeper...
  4. ISBN 0-691-12573-2
    ), p. 269, n. 8.

Sources

  • Nabokov, Vladimir (1981). Lectures in Russian Literature. New York: Harcourt.
  • Pein, Annette (1991). Schiller and Zhukovsky: Aesthetic Theory in Poetic Translation. Mainz: Liber.
  • Rueckert, George (2003). Zhukovsky and the Germans: A Study in Romantic Hermeneutics. Seattle: Univ. of WA Doctoral Dissertation.
  • Semenko, I.M. (1975). Zhizn' i poeziia Zhukovskogo. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura.
  • Semenko, I.M. (1976). Vasily Zhukovsky. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
  • Veselovsky, A.N. (1999). V.A. Zhukovskii: Poeziia chuvstva i "serdechnogo voobrazheniia". Moscow: Intrada.
  • Yanushkevich, A.S. (1985). Etapy i problemy tvorcheskoi evolutsii V.A. Zhukovskogo. Tomsk: Izd. Tomskogo Universiteta.
  • Yesuitova, R.V. (1989). Zhukovskii i ego vremia. Leningrad: Nauka.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vasily_Zhukovsky&oldid=1215206351"