Essipov, V. (2018). The myths and reality of Pushkin studies. Selected articles. Moscow, St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya. (In Russ.)

Abstract

In his book, Essipov contrasts ‘myths’ with ‘reality’, namely, historical facts and documents unearthed by the scholar through exploration of Pushkin’s works and the poet’s world. Essipov’s judgement of the value of findings by fellow Pushkin scholars and their approach to the study of the poet’s works published during his lifetime relies on Pushkin’s holistic personality. The same paradigm is assumed to solve the perennial problems of Pushkin studies. There is plenty of evidence that Essipov prefers working with poetry and is capable of a dedicated analysis of individual words, words groups, stanzas, leitmotifs, dates, numbers, and metres. However, analysis of Pushkin’s works as artistically complete forms, characterized by a special genre-specific meaning and connected with the poet’s life and times obliquely rather than directly, presents an altogether different challenge.