Foreign inclusions in the correspondence of Vasily Zhukovsky and Avdotia Elagina

The paper studies the nineteenth-century Russian literary multilingualism, which has never been given scholarly attention before. The author analyses the role of German, Latin, English and Italian inclusions as a form of literary multilingualism in the correspondence of Vasily Zhukovsky and Avdotia Elagina. The German language represents concepts of family, friendship, existential philosophical categories and aesthetics of romanticism, which were important in the life of both correspondents and organized coherent communicative code of their epistolary dialogue. The discussion of the sorrowful family events often switches into German, which symbolizes axiological orientations, recollections and meanings that counterbalance their real experience. The epistolary dialogue between Zhukovsky and Elagina should be considered in the broader context of the Romanticism literary tradition. The correspondence includes the most important concepts of German Romanticism related to aesthetics of sensitivity -"Heimweh" and "Sehnsucht." "Heimweh" serves to realise the motive of "native land." The address to this constitutive concept makes alive the image that received an individual artistic perception in the poet's literary dialogue and became providential for his creative biography. "Sehnsucht" in Elagina's letters is connected with Zhukovsky's personality and equally refers to their common past, related to the "philosophy of recollection" of the dearly departed Maria Protasova-Moyer and Aleksandra Voeikova, as well as future, in which Elagina hopes to meet the poet. German becomes constitutive for the formation of Zhukovsky's creative semiosphere, which Elagina captures and develops in her letters. She uses more German inclusions in her letters than Zhukovsky, which is evident of her own strategy. However, there are common artistic strategies for their use of inclusions, too. These strategies reflect the main images and poetisms of Zhukovsky's poetry incorporated into Russian literature due to his Germanophilism. Latin inclusions in the correspondence perform a typically utilitarian role, represented by abbreviations NB, PS and sic. They are used to mark the text and attract attention of the addressee to an important semantic fragment. The winged phrase "terra incognita" gives a sacred hue to the meaningful chronotopes. In its turn, English is significant in Elagina's educational system. She uses it to translate her feelings, however its use is limited by her personal reading scope. Italian can be found in Zhukovsky's letters as well. The poet fixes the island names Isola Bella and Isola Madre in Italian graphics. They form the image of Italy in the perception of Zhukovsky-traveler, The concept of "far niente" is associated with the image of Elizabeth von Reutern.

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