Evolution of communicative and narrative structure of Vestnik EvropyV.A. Zhukovsky (1808−1811)

DuringZhukovsky's editorship in 1808-1811 Vestnik Evropy (Herald of Europe) passed several stages ofdevelopment, having transformed from the author's literary magazine to an encyclopaedic poly-subjectedition. The image of the author-publisher developing a panorama of the ethic and aesthetic idealsbefore the reader and resorting to forms of the subjective letter was the main feature of the magazine in1808-1809. Zhukovsky proved the communicative strategy of "diary" cyclisation in a number ofarticles: orientation to aesthetic formation and education of the secular reader ("The Writer in theSociety"), the account of readiness and interests of public to the universalism of material - literature,publicism, documentary-information genres, criticism ("The Letter from District to the Publisher"),clarity of the author's thought ("On the Critic"), complete ethic and aesthetic influence ("On MoralAdvantage of Poetry").This program was fully developed during the second period of editing of Vestnik, in autumn of1808 − autumn of 1809, when the "diary" core of the magazine had already declared itself, havingconnected the issues by the intimate worldview semantics and the general image of the author, whichallowed complicating the metatext structure. The essential role here belonged to M.T. Kachenovsky'sreturn, first as an employee who was responsible for news and historical materials, later as a co-editor(November 1809 − the end of 1810), persistently developing magazine towards specialization, totransformation of the "secular" universalism into the genre and substance differentiatedencyclopaedism.As a result from the end of 1809 the magazine raised the role of documentary genres from thediary (the ethic and psychological essence) to the chronicle (the problem of the "external" life of theperson). The informative component was expressed in regular sketches about trips, popular scientificnotes and stories about well-known scientists, cultural figures, historical articles and documents (in thesection "Sciences and Arts"). The specificity of an encyclopaedic magazine demanded response totopical public questions, which resulted in Zhukovsky's reference to new genres of publicism (section"Politician") and stories on social themes (section "Literature"). The last to appear was the section ofcriticism, which Zhukovsky long refused.Thereby, the logic of the literary process put in the forefront the model of a poly-thematic andpoly-subject journal ensemble. Kachenovsky realized this model making the magazine the forerunnerof romantic journalism, when Zhukovsky left the post of the editor of Vestnik Evropy in 1811.

Keywords

Authors

References