Literary criticism

The article deals with the transformation of Pushkin and Derzhavin myth in two poems by A. M. Gorodnizky; an attempt is made to explain the author’s individual interpretation of the myth (controversial to that established in the mass cultural consciousness) by means of analyzing the autobiographical and autopsychological components of the works under investigation. It is also undertaken to enter those poems in the wider context of the bard’s reflections on the Russian history problems, presented in poetic and memoir texts.

The article studies the motif of waiting for game situation that often occurs in the story-line of the XIXth century Russian comedies, gives ground for its essential importance for the plot-building and creating the characters of the plays, points to the connection of this intertextual situation with the reality of the Russian society, its social, moral and psychological climate.

Based on the material of biographical studies about E. A. Boratynsky in the literary criticism of the ХХth century the researcher examines the process of the poet’s personality mythologizing, the problem of formation and development of the myth about Boratynsky; the most common characteristics of the emerging biographical myth of the poet are identified.

The article studies the peculiarities of how the provincial problems were reflected in the Russian journalism and belles-lettres in the XIXth century; the main questions within the scope of the present issue are also considered.