Hereditary congeniality'' of I.A. Goncharov and W. Scott (novels The Precipice and The Pirate)

The article discusses the question of romantic tendencies significance in I.A. Goncharov's works. W. Scott's novel The Pirate (1821) is in the circle of creative search of the writer in connection with writing The Precipice. The article is an attempt to prove the fact of Goncharov's attention to The Pirate conditioned by the forming aesthetics of the writer under the influence of N.I. Nadezhdin who considered W. Scott's works as an embodiment of modern art synthesizing the bases of classicism and middle-age romanticism, as well as features of epic forms, lyrics and drama in the genre of the novel. The author of the article researches the typological proximity of W. Scott's and I. Goncharov's works. The typical similarities of The Pirate and The Precipice are conditioned by Scott's and Goncharov's sensation of the dramatic state of life they describe and historical and philosophical conceptions of the progress of society development. Proximity shows in the distinctive architectonic of novels, in dramatic structures of heroes' characters, in space organization. The Pirate interacting with other ''fundamental types'' that enriched the imagination of the writer played a big role in the process of creating The Precipice. For Raiskiy (hand-written copies testify to it) the novel by W. Scott could be of interest as a form of expression of romantic ideas (including the historical and philosophical ones) about ideals, passions, tragedies in the sphere excluding the interest to common life, unlike W. Scott. For Goncharov this Walter-Scott novel gave a possibility to see and to colour the routine with whirls of spiritual upheavals. Goncharov's address to the Walter-Scott type of the novel that recreated the situation of a historical break and psychological damage in the epic frame of eternal renovation of life helped create a literary form that allowed Goncharov to make a picture of Russian life of the post-reforms age, with its restless spirit, catastrophes and new moral findings.

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