“Revelations Beneficial to Heart...” on the Book by Yuri Prozorov (2017) V.A. Zhukovskiy v Istoriko-Literaturnom Osveshchenii. Estetika. Poetika. Traditsii [V.A. Zhukovsky in a Historical and Literary Interpretation. Aesthetics. Poetics. Traditions]. St. Petersburg: Poligraf

The last book of an outstanding Petersburg literary critic Yu.M. Prozorov on the poetic and critical legacy of Vasily Zhukovsky is regarded as a theoretically significant study, which has a deep scientific potential, traces the historical fates of the traditions of the poet in Russian literature, in the works of not only his younger contemporaries, but also the poets of the second half of the 19th century, as well as artists of the 20th century. An integrated approach to the study of the creative legacy of Zhukovsky proposed by the author is relevant. The direct and immediate relationship that the poet had to the modifications that occurred in Russian literature under the influence of European literature of the 18th and 19th centuries was rightly emphasized. The breadth of the material is combined in the monograph with its in-depth study, account and careful analysis of materials and documents not previously introduced into scientific discourse, which substantially corrects the existing ideas about the features and evolution of Zhukovsky's creative talent. Prozorov built the parabola of the historical development of literature, the general outline of which, for all its schematics, gives an accurate picture of the specific individual phenomena of the process. The book has three dominant objects of study of Zhukovsky's creative legacy: aesthetics, poetics, traditions (which is emphasized in the title itself), the categories of Zhukovsky's poetic thinking are thoroughly observed. The scale of the analysis allowed Prozorov to harmoniously and convincingly solve the issue of the development of Zhukovsky's traditions not only by his younger contemporaries, but also by the poets of the second half of the 19th century, as well as by artists of the 20th century. The thoughts about the presence of Zhukovsky in the poetic horizon of N.A. Nekrasov are convincing. Nekrasov's works are considered both independently in the context of the entire history of Russian literature, and as a transition to a conversation about Russian realism in general, as a continuation of the literary discoveries of Zhukovsky. The arsenal of evidence is in a parallel analysis of the themes, motives, images of the poetry of Zhukovsky and of Nekrasov. The author outlines new ways of thinking about the categories of “melancholia” and “the terrible” that are key to the poetic thinking of Zhukovsky. It is convincingly shown that the historical fates of Zhukovsky's traditions can be traced in the works of B.K. Zaitsev. Of particular appreciation is the Appendix to the thesis on Zhukovsky's translation of fragments of Holy Scripture. The poet's philosophical and journalistic articles on religious themes, written in the second half of the 1840s, very rarely came to the attention of researchers. The published texts are the result of Prozorov's source study and textual work. From the point of view of Russian academic textual tradition, the work was done flawlessly.

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