UDC

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Abstract

This article studies the artistic originality of V.I. Maykov’s poem “Elisey, or Bacchus Enraged”. The concept of its artistic world turned out to be very original against the background of Russian literature of that time. However, even centuries later, the nature of this poem’s originality remains somewhat unclear and the discussion of this issue, incomplete. The argument which started as far back as in the 18th century and continued in the 19th, remains topical to this day. In fact, it only escalated in the 20th century. For some researchers, V.I. Maykov’s Elisey bears the features of a protester, a rebellious hero from the lower class. Although Maykov does emphasize that his hero is out of place among other characters of the poem, Elisey’s originality cannot be understood solely in terms of the opposition between upper and lower classes. A different interpretation of the special nature of “Elisey’s” artistic world is based on the opposition between the world orders of the heroic poem and the festive carnival life (according to N.I. Nikolaev). In many ways, such interpretation of the poem’s content should be recognized as fair, but the author of this article does not believe it can be accepted as an argument exhausting the issue of originality of this poem’s artistic world. This work suggests an original estimation of Elisey as a marginal person dropping out of the usual social world order. According to the author of this paper, it is social uncertainty that makes Maykov’s hero so special. Moreover, deliberate representation of a marginal person and marginal world largely defines the novelty of V.I. Maykov’s comic poem.

Keywords

References

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