Poetry issues in the Karamzins critical articles

Poetry is a special part in Karamzins heritage. Most articles about poetry, its substance, characteristics and selected poets are created byKaramzin during one and a half decades. These articles are out of the researchers' attention. There are almost no works devoted to the topic.Furthermore, the same is related to Karamzins letters about his perceptions of poetry and poets. However, Karamzins works and essays onpoetry and poets are significant for understanding of this outstanding author and his aesthetic attitudes, as well as criteria of analysis andvaluation of poetry. They also are very much important to estimate Karamzins editorial activity. The goal of the provided article is toeliminate the gap and to systemize and research the material related to Karamzin as literature critic. The first of the articles was published in1795. The twenty-year-old author surprises by his self-sufficiency and deep thinking despite the young age. Young Karamzins approach isfree from any jaundice and one-wayness. A special attention is focused on his historical thinking and full-fledge diversity of the nationalliteratures. Karamzin explains that perfection is both time limited and eternal. It is different in different time and depends on various epochsand style and changing according to exposition of beauty ideas. New poetry cannot and should not copy ancient poetry. Poetry, including itscharacteristics and place, was in the centre of Karamzins thoughts and developed from article to article. Karamzin summarized the resultsof his thoughts and provided his requirements to poetry and poets in time when he planned a new edition and started its realization. It isimportant that Karamzin used the word poetry as part of the terminology related to the more general literature. It is important to see thatfor him poetry was the centre and the heart of literature, the purest realization of literature essence. Karamzin presents rich content and kindsof the Russian poetry. Russian songs and romances reflect sincere and frank feelings as well as specifics of the Russian national character.The author also mentions folk tales; he names them old knights novels. This article allows confirming that despite critical articles takequite a modest part in Karamzins literature heritage, they provide veridical introduction of the person and highlight his aesthetic system as aspecial and significant phenomenon. They show how Karamzin as a critic combined evaluation of the poetry of his predecessors andcoevals, goodwill and exactingness, breadth and historical approach to literature with ability to estimate them according to the contemporarytrends. Lessons of Karamzins critique are a matter of further research, perception and learning.

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