Article

Name: The Werther plot in V.A. Zhukovsky's life and poetry

Authors: Nikonova N.E.

Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The article is focused on «Werter’s trace» in the literary heritage of V.A. Zhukovsky, the first Russian romanticist. The author gives a joint analysis of little-known biographical, literary-aesthetic material and criticism, which all are connected with Zhukovsky’s perception and understanding of Goethe’s great novel «The Sorrows of Young Werter». It’s for the first time that limelight is thrown on the novel editions, which were found in Zhukovsky’s private library, these exemplars containing his marginalia. The author of the article is also the first to introduce both the complete translation of the chosen abstracts from Goethe’s novel, with this translation once conceived and partly performed by the «union of the tree» (A.I. Turgenev, A.F. Merzlyakov, V.A. Zhukovsky), and unedited letters (1840-1850s). The total study of the way Zhukovsky perceived the story about Werter lets us speak about a subtle conscious «werter-anism», which has traces in the poet’s life and work.

Keywords: werter's plot, v.a. zhukovsky, poet's private library

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