Article

Name: Ya. B. Knyazhnin’s Tale in Verses Flor and Lisa in the Context of Early Russian Ballads

Authors: L. A. Kurysheva

Institute of Philology of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Plot and Motive: Theory, Typology, Systematization

Abstract:

One of the popular plots of the Russian literary ballad of the last third of the 18th – the first decade of the 19th century was the story of treacherous love. Ya. B. Knyazhnin’s Flor and Lisa. A Tale in Verses (1778) is one of the first Russian ballads. In addition, this is the first Russian ballad with the appearance of the dead man – the plot situation is so productive in the subsequent, romantic period.

It is characteristic that at the early stage of the formation of a new literary genre, the nomination “ballad” does not appear for all authors. Poets get along either without a genre designation, or use more familiar nominations, genres in origin related to a lyro-epic ballad: song, romance, “fairy tale in verses”. We observe, on the one hand, the variability of genre nominations for the lyric-epic narration of a personal dramatic event, and on the other hand, the instability of ideas about the formal and substantive components of the genre of “ballad”.

The most typologically close to Flor and Lisa is the N. M. Karamzin’s ballad Alina (<1790– 1791>). Both ballads are devoted to the theme of infidelity and both develop a ballad version of the fairy-tale plot “The husband at the wife’s wedding”, which ends with the transition to the world of the dead and the reunion of lovers. In addition, the similarity lies in a detailed narrative manner and the psychologization of the ballad conflict through direct author commentary.

In Flor and Lisa, all events – love, betrayal and the reunion of lovers in death – are presented as extraordinary. The tragic ending is due to the mysterious connection of the fate of the two characters, reinforced by the mythology of the “plant code”. The verification technique (quatrains, four-footed iambic, cross-rhyme, alternating female and male clauses) emphasizes the tightness of the love story.

In Karamzin’s Alina, the course of action is due to a combination of universal laws of human existence and the fateful connection of characters. The ballad event is the final union of lovers, despite their stay in different worlds, earthly and heavenly. The mythopoetic basis of the plot is composed of images of changing elements and nature. The verification technique (non-strophic four-foot iambic with free rhyme) supports the idea of fluidity, whimsicality of the elements of life.

Keywords: Russian literature of 18th – early 19th century, motives, plots, ballad, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, N. M. Karamzin, fairy-tale plot “The husband at the wife’s wedding”

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