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The Stone Guest [Kamenniy gost]: Shifting ideals in literature
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2024-3-13-38
Abstract
The article examines the change of ideals in the metaplot of A. Pushkin’s drama The Stone Guest [Kamenniy gost] through the prism of A. Veselovsky’s concept of ‘counter-current.’ The author shows that the play’s three female characters epitomize an ideal of the respective period. Don Juan’s three muses – Inez, Laura, and Donna Anna – appear in the play as three principal ideals symbolizing the ‘spiritual currents of the epoch’ (in the words of I. Rodnyanskaya). As a result, Pushkin’s metaplot features Don Juan as an embodiment of a wavering ‘literary mind,’ whose constant pursuit of a new ideal in each given period eventually brings him to a deadlock. This is a depiction of literature emerging at the ‘counter-current’ and confronted with the question of ‘Quo vadis?’ The author also demonstrates that the dramatic cycle of Little Tragedies [Malenkie tragedii] centres on the problem of an ideal influencing the development of literature and history. Pushkin views both categories as inseparable as communicating vessels – an approach similar to that expressed by Veselovsky in his Historical Poetics [Istoricheskaya poetika].
About the Author
V. K. ZubarevaRussian Federation
Vera K. Zubareva, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania writer, literary critic, independent researcher
10 Bolshoy Gnezdnikovsky Ln., Moscow, 125375
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Review
For citations:
Zubareva V.K. The Stone Guest [Kamenniy gost]: Shifting ideals in literature. Voprosy literatury. 2024;(3):13-38. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2024-3-13-38
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