Shakespeare’s heritage in the Stroganovs’ book collection in Tomsk University Research Library

The paper presents a case study of several publications in English and German related to the oeuvre of Shakespeare: «The plays of Shakespeare» (1793), «Collection of Prints, From Pictures Painted for the Purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare, by the Artists of Great-Britain» (1791-1804), «Gallerie zu Shakspeare’s Dramatischen Werken. In Umrissen erfunden und gestochen von Moritz Retzsch» (1828) and «The Shakspeare Gallery, Containing the Principal Female Characters in the Plays of the Great Poet» (1836). The key premise here is the assumption that these works, which are a part of the personal library that used to belong to the aristocratic family of Earl Grigoriy A. Stroganov (1770-1857), contributed to the formation of the national myth about W. Shakespeare in the English literature of the XVIIIth century and were indicative of the evolving «Shakespeare studies» in the West European countries and Russia. It is argued that Shakespeare’s chronicles are illustrative of how the imperial myth in the English literature of the Renaissance period was being constructed. What was functioning as a scaffolding for the myth to emerge was an evolving feeling of the national identity based on a dialogue between the «Englishness» that reflected the dominance of the English nation in the political and cultural areas of life in the country and the «Britishness» viewed as an opportunity to unite peoples institutionally and culturally under the aegis of the enlightened monarchy. The graphic works in the Stroganovs’ library should be regarded as an illustration of an expanding trend of cultural appropriation of Shakespeare’s ideas encompassing West European visual arts in the XVIII-XIXth centuries. The English playwright was the first in the European literature to portray the utmost degree of moral sufferings, which inspired painters and engravers to use visual tools in order to produce an enhanced and insightful perception of the characters and their emotional conditions both on the verbal and visual levels. Attempts to convey people’s inner feelings and emotions entailed new reflections on the concept of femininity in literature and visual arts which was considered as the nature embodiment opposite to masculinity. In addition, M. Retzsch’s drawings are analyzed in the light of the formation of the «Hamlet-type» text in the German paintings at the beginning of the XIXth century.

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