Benjamin Constant's Adolphe and Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time: Comparative poetics

The aim of the study is to analyze the genre and compositional features of Benjamin Constant's Adolphe and Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time in a comparative aspect. To reach this aim, the author considers a brief background of the problem, reveals the originality of the genre form and structure of the novel. The research material is novels Adolphe by Constant and A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov. The research is based on the method of literary comparative studies. The comparative analysis revealed the genre similarity of Constant's Adolphe and Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, which consists in both works' belonging to the genre of psychological (“personal,” “analytical,” “confessional”) novel. Unlike the chamber French novel, A Hero of Our Time has a more complex genre and compositional design. The structure of Lermontov's novel, characterized by chronological violations, a change of narrators, fragmentarity, is original and has no parallels in French literature of the first third of the 19th century. The theory of an “influence” of the novel by Constant on A Hero of Our Time still remains only a hypothesis. However, the analysis confirms the undoubted creative connection of Lermontov with the European literary process of the first third of the 19th century. The similarity of the genre, composition, and the problems of the novels of Constant and Lermontov allow us to see the general direction of the development of Russian and French prose in the first third of the 19th century. Adolphe, as well as A Hero of Our Time, is a psychological novel that became widespread in European literature in the first third of the 19th century. The revealed closeness of the novels is balanced by equally striking differences in the works. A Hero of Our Time is much more complex than the French novel in genre terms. The peculiarity of Lermontov's novel consists in a broader coverage of reality and deeper philosophical issues, compared with the intimacy of French romantic prose. A Hero of Our Time has a unique composition with chronological violations, changing narrators, fragmentary construction, in which the central part is elusive. The complex genre and compositional structure of the novel, involving the play of narrative points of view, the expansion of the “objective” part is the original feature of Lermontov's novel.

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