Images of Arcadia in Russian literature of the 18th- 19 th centuries

For over two centuries of the history of Russian literature of modern times different variants of the Russian image of Arcadia do not follow each other as stratigraphic layers: originating in a short period of time, they overlap. At first, for several decades positive, ironical estranging and destructive tendencies interact. At this time, the image of Arcadia is correlated with the topos of the Golden Age, Elysium, paradise or fairy utopia, the land of milk and honey. Late reception transforms the cliched image of Arcadia to the status of a stereotype that, to some extent, has lost its value of a common cultural legacy. "Russian Arcadia" certainly should be considered in the idyllic tradition. The peculiarity of the Russian version of the image of Arcadia lies in the fact that the product of this tradition, the texts of Theocritus, Tasso, d'Urfe and Gessner, was perceived simultaneously, not separately and alternately, not in its intrinsic value, but in parallel with the criticism of the idyll and Arcadia in the works of Kant, Schiller and Hegel. These leading figures of German culture were almost demi-gods in Russia: their verdict on Arcadia had an unquestioned authority. Their ethics and philosophy completely undermined the reputation of all the Arcadian, including literary genres associated with this image. The objective reception of Arcadia was further complicated by the discussion of theodicy and pessimistic view on nature revived in the middle of the 18th century. Voltaire immediately attracted the attention of Russian readers to the problem of the relationship between man and nature by his poem about the Lisbon earthquake, and most of the Russian recipients, up to Herzen and Dostoevsky, experienced its powerful influence. Growing skepticism about nature was a very heavy burden for the theme of Arcadia, especially since the 19th century gave birth to new thinkers. Causing a the furor in Russia, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in his book Beyond Good and Evil. Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future: ""According to nature" you want to live? O you noble Stoics, what deceptive words these are! Imagine a being like nature, wasteful beyond measure, indifferent < . . .> imagine indifference itself as a power - how could you live according to this indifference? Living - is that not precisely wanting to be other than this nature?" Rilke (18751926), Oscar Wilde (1854-900) and many others expressed similar ideas. Modern science largely changed natural philosophy and its poetry. In Russia the seeds of doubt about Arcadia and nature fell on fertile ground. The "Northern Country" with its Siberian space was absolutely not Arcadian in its climatic and geographical characteristics. Serfdom that existed until 1861 was contrary to the notions of pastoral bliss and "peaceful corn growers" who nobody exploited. The harsh climate and social oppression, as well as the Russian tendency to dive into the dark depths of the human soul, were not conducive to Arcadian innocence and simplicity. Therefore, the charming, idealized, aesthetic and undramatic potential of Arcadia as a kind of "oasis of Utopia" did not show in Russia in full. Many educated Russians of the 19th century did not believe either in the potential of Arcadian nature as such or in the metaphorical Arcadia of the soul. Already around 1830, only a few decades after the interest in Arcadia appeared, pessimism reached its climax, and was expressed in characteristic views at the beginning of the period of great Russian literature that made it available to the world culture. In 1829, Delvig published a poem called "The End of the Golden Age". In the same year, Gogol debuted with his imaginary idyll "Ganz Kyuhelgarten". In January 1830, Pushkin published his poem about "indifferent nature" and Chaadaev began writing his critical "Philosophical Letters" about Russia. It is worth noting that in the 1830s artist K.P. Bryullov (1799-1825) painted his famous "The Last Days of Pompeii". At the same time the first remarkable discussion of nihilism began in Russia. Moscow critic and professor of literature N.I. Nadezhdin (18041856) started it calling the "fruits of pseudo-Romantic Byronism", including works by Pushkin, "aesthetic underworld" and "destructive nihilism" in his articles "Sonmishche Nigilis-tov. (Stsena iz literaturnogo balagana) ("A Crowd of Nihilists. (A Scene from a Literary Farce)"), published in The Herald of Europe, 1829, 1-2, and "O proiskhozhdenii, prirode i sud'bakh poezii, nazyvaemoy romanticheskoy" ("On the Origin, Nature and Destiny of Poetry Called Romantic"). Later this debate, along with motifs of horror mortis and "indifferent nature", was used by Turgenev, Herzen, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and many others. Summa summarum, it can be stated that Russian classic s begins with the final loss of Arcadia.

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