The problem of the reader in V.A. Zhukovsky's literary criticism

One of the issues Zhukovsky, a literary critic, raised was a major problem of the reader. Despite the previous studies of Zhukovsky as a reader, the general aspect of the problem has still not attracted the attention of researchers. Meanwhile, the problem of the reader acquires a special significance in the Russian culture of the first half of the 19th century, which is determined by the culture transition from that of the Enlightenment to the culture of the Romantic era, by the change of orientations from education and upbringing of the individual by the outside influence of the arts and sciences to the idea of self-development, creative life. The literary criticism of Zhukovsky contains a very full and deep understanding of the problem as well as the search for its solution, which, in turn, allows a new approach, in terms of receptive aesthetics, to the analysis of the critical legacy of the poet. In addition, Zhukovsky's search in the culture of reading is extremely in tune with our time, also marked with trends of transition. The analysis of Zhukovsky's literary and critical articles shows that in the first half of the 19th century the first Russian romanticist successfully formed independent concepts of contemporary reading and the Russian reader, as well as the general typology of the reader, with the literary critic, a potential mediator between the writer and the reader, at the top of the typology. The concepts are based on Zhukovsky's deep penetration into the nature of a literary text, the perception of which requires a mandatory dialogue of the text with the reader, as well as on the leading ideological and aesthetic idea of a creative life. This idea defined the creative and intellectual activities of the writer throughout his life and decisively influenced the transition of the Russian culture of the Enlightenment to the era of Romantic philosophy, ethics and aesthetics. Zhukovsky's reflections about the reader clearly show trends of further development of literature and its reader's perception.

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