Sources of V.A. Zhukovskys epistolary heritage (based on the poets lettersto his mother)

The earliest letters of V.A. Zhukovsky to his mother date from the end of the 1790s - 1800s.Their autographs and copies are preserved in the Manuscript Department of the Pushkin House. Theywere first published in 1872 by P.I. Bartenev in Russian archive with minimum comments. Thenthese materials were transferred to the poets Complete Collection of Writings edited in 1902 by А.S.Archangelskiy.On the one hand, these letters describing the first pages in the poets life are well known, on theother hand, they have no exact dating, their number is not stated at their publication, they were notcollated with the autographs. They were paid special attention neither as a separate part in the firstRussian romanticists writings, nor as a significant egodocument in the Russian culture of the beginningof the 19th century, nor as a communicative structure. The article addresses the stated problems.The letter addressee, Yelizaveta Demetievna Turchaninova, her role in Bunins family, relationswith her son, his position in the family are presented in the article based on the documents, familystories, memoirs in connection with the poets early diaries and his correspondence with his mother.The article presents all discovered letters of Zhukovsky to Ye.D. Turchaninova, collated with the autographs(or copies), specified with the dates. The letter of the end of March - beginning of April, 1805is first published by the autograph.The letter analysis has shown that they could be called neither the poets chronicle nor his mirrorof the soul (in contrast, for instance, to his letters to А.I. Turgenev of the same period), but in theirseparate details one can see Zhukovskys attitude to family, home, i.e. to the things that the poet hadnot had from his childhood and wanted to have all his life long, from his early years. Even in his earlyletters the evolution of his social-ethical principles, his psychological problems connected with therelation to the mother, with M.G. Bunina and her children, his striving to find the place in the worldare displayed. In those letters one can find the delineation of Zhukovskys ideals and the core of hisworld perception based on the sentimental system of esthetical values and romanticist philosophy ofdiscrepancy between ideals and life. The genre of letter appeared in Zhukovskys biography at theinterfaces of two directions - life and work. Hence, the letter poetics demonstrates the organic interactionof information and artistic capacity as ambivalent elements of the narrative structure.

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