RUSSIAN

LITERATURE
BY: LOGRONIO, LAGUNA K, JORDAN, OLAYA
• Russia is the largest country in the world by area,
covering more than one-eighth of the Earth inhabited
land area.
• 9th most populous
• Russia’s capital, Moscow, is the one of the largest
cities in the world

RUSSIA
 Russian Literature
• Early History
• 18th Century
• Golden Age
• Silver Age
• Post-Soviet Era; 21st Century
 • Old Russian literature consists of several masterpieces written
in the Old Russian language.
• The main type of Old Russian historical literature
were chronicles, most of them anonymous.
• Anonymous works also include The Tale of Igor's
Campaign and Praying of Daniel the Immured.
• Hagiographies "lives of the saints“ formed a popular genre of
the Old Russian literature.
• Life of Alexander Nevsky offers a well-known example.
• Other Russian literary monuments
include Zadonschina, Physiologist, Synopsis and A Journey
Beyond the Three Seas.
• Bylinas – oral folk epics – fused Christian and pagan traditions.
• Medieval Russian literature had an overwhelmingly religious
character and used an adapted form of the Church
Slavonic language with many South Slavic elements.
• The first work in colloquial Russian, the autobiography of
the archpriestAvvakum, emerged only in the mid-17th century.

Early History
• is an anonymous epic poem written
in the Old EastSlavic Language.
• The poem gives an account of a
failed raid of Igor Svyatoslavich
• against the Polovtsians of the Don
River region.
• The Tale of Igor's Campaign was
adapted by Alexander Borodin as an
opera and became one of the great classics
of Russian theatre.
• Entitled Prince Igor, it was first
performed in 1890.

The Tale of Igor's

Campaign
• is an Old East Slavic literary monument of the 13th
century.
• The work is written in the form of an epistle to Yaroslay
Vsevolodovich, Prince of Pereyaslay and Suzdal.
• The author appears to be in great need and begs the
prince for help, depicting him as a defender of all his
subjects.
• Some Russian researchers consider the "Praying..." as a
first trial of the Old Russian social and political
journalism.

Praying of Daniel the

Immured
• It describes the life and achievements of Alexander
Nevsky, a Russian ruler and a military leader, who
defended the northern borders of Rus against
the Swedishinvasion, defeated the Teutonic knights at
the Lake Chud in 1242 and paid a few visits to Batu
Khan to protect the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality from
the Khazar raids.
• The work is filled with 'patriotic spirit' and achieves a
'high degree of artistic expressiveness' in its description
of Alexander's heroic deeds and those of his warriors.

Life of Alexander Nevsky

• After taking the throne at the end of the 17th century, Peter the
Great's influence on the Russian culture would extend far into
the 18th century.
• Peter's reign during the beginning of the 18th century initiated
a series of modernizing changes in Russian literature.
• The reforms he implemented encouraged Russian artists and
scientists to make innovations in their crafts and fields with the
intention of creating an economy and culture comparable.
• Russian writers began to form clear ideas about the proper use
and progression of the Russian language.

18 Century
th
• Antiochus or Antioch Kantemir or Cantemir
• 8 September 1708 – 31 March 1744
• was a Moldavian who served as a man
of letters, diplomat, and prince during
the Russian Enlightenment.
• He has been called "the father
of Russian poetry".

Antiochus Kantemir
• was a Russian poet, essayist and playwright who helped lay the foundations
of classical Russian literature.
• a Russian literary theoretician and poet whose writings contributed to the
classical foundations of Russian literature.
• The son of a poor priest, he became the first Russian commoner to receive
a humanistic education abroad, at the Sorbonne in Paris.
• In 1735 Trediakovsky published"A new and brief way for composing of
Russian verses", a highly theoretical work for which he is
best remembered.
• It discussed for the first time in Russian literature such poetic
genres as the sonnet, the rondeau, the madrigal, and the ode.
• In 1748 appeared his ”A Conversation on Orthography", the
first study of the phonetic structure of the Russian language.
• He continued his advocacy of poetic reform in 1752;
"On Ancient, Middle, and New Russian Poetry“
• Trediakovsky was also a prolific translator of classical
authors, medieval philosophers, and French literature.

Vasily Trediakovsky
• Moscow – 12 October 1777
• was a Russian poet and playwright who single-
handedly created classical theatre in Russia,
thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate
the reign of classicism in Russian literature.

Alexander Petrovich
Sumarokov
• The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the
"Golden Era" of Russian
literature. Romanticism permitted a flowering of
especially poetic talent
• Vasily Zhukovsky and later that of his protégé Alexander
Pushkin came to the fore. Pushkin is credited with both
crystallizing the literary Russian language and
introducing a new level of artistry to Russian literature.
• His best-known work is a novel in verse, Eugene Onegin.
• The first great Russian novelist was Nikolai Gogol.

Golden Age
• the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian
literature in the first half of the 19th century.
• Zhukovsky is credited with introducing the Romantic Movement into
Russia.
• The main body of his literary output
consists of free translations covering an impressively
wide range of poets, from ancients
like Ferdowsi and Homer to his
contemporaries Goethe, Schiller, Byr
on, and others.
• Many of his translations have become
classics of Russian literature, better written
and more enduring in Russian than in their
original languages.

Vasily Zhukovsky
• was a Russian poet, playwright, and
novelist of the Romantic era who is
considered by many to be the greatest
Russian poet and the founder
of modern Russian literature.
• 6 June 1799 – 10 February 1837

Alexander Sergeyevich
Pushkin
• The beginning of the 20th century ranks as the Silver Age of Russian
poetry.
• Well-known poets of the period include: Alexander Blok, Sergei
Yesenin, Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont, Mikhail Kuzmin, Igor
Severyanin, Sasha Chorny, Nikolay Gumilyov, Maximilian
Voloshin, Innokenty Annensky, Zinaida Gippius.
• The poets most often associated with the "Silver Age" are Anna
Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam and Boris
Pasternak.
• While the Silver Age is considered to be the development of the 19th-
century Russian literature tradition, some avant-garde poets tried to
overturn it.
• Though the Silver Age is famous mostly for its poetry, it produced
some first-rate novelists and short-story writers.

Silver Age
• 23 June 1889 – 5 March 1966
• was one of the most significant Russian poets of the 20th century.
• She was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in 1965.
• Akhmatova's work ranges from short lyric poems to intricately structured
cycles, such as Requiem (1935–40),
her tragic masterpiece about the Stalinist terror.
• Her style, characterised by its economy and emotional
restraint, was strikingly original and distinctive to her contemporaries.
• The strong and clear leading female voice struck a new
chord in Russian poetry.
• Her writing can be said to fall into two periods –
the early work (1912–25) and her later work
(from around 1936 until her death), divided by a
decade of reduced literary output.

Anna Akhmatova
• 1912 Vecher/Вечер (Evening)
• 1914 Chetki (Rosary or literally Beads)
• 1917 Belaya Staya (White flock)
• 1921 Podorozhnik (Wayside grass/Plantain).
• 1921 Anno Domini
• Reed – 2 Volume Selected Poems (1924–1926) was compiled but never
published.
• Uneven – compiled but never published.
• 1940 From Six Books
• 1943 Izbrannoe Stikhi (Selections of poetry)
• Iva not separately published
• Sed'maya kniga (Seventh book)
• 1958 Stikhotvoreniya (Poems)
• 1961 Stikhotvoreniya 1909–1960 (Poems: 1909–1960)
• 1965 Beg vremeni (The flight of time Collected works 1909–1965)

Anna Akhmatova’s works

• 8 October 1892 – 31 August 1941
• a Russian and Soviet poet.
• Her work is considered among some of the
greatest in twentieth century Russian literature.
• She lived through and wrote
of the Russian Revolution of
1917 and
the Moscow followed it.
• Tsvetaeva committed suicide in 1941.
• As a lyrical poet, her passion and daring
linguistic experimentation mark her as a
striking chronicler of her times and the depths
of the human condition.

Marina Tsvetaeva
• Marina Tsvetaeva: Selected Poems, trans. Elaine Feinstein.
• The Ratcatcher: A lyrical satire, trans. Angela Livingstone
• A Captive Spirit: Selected Prose, trans. J. Marin King (Vintage Books, 1994)
• Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922, ed. & trans. Jamey Gambrell (Yale
University Press, 2011)
• Poem of the End: Selected Narrative and Lyrical Poems
• In the Inmost hour of the Soul: Poems
• Black Earth, trans. Elaine Feinstein (The Delos Press and The Menard Press,
1992
• Phaedra: a drama in verse; with New Year's Letter and other long poems
• "Starry Sky to Starry Sky (Miles)", trans. Mary Jane White.
• "Poem of the End" in "From A Terrace In Prague, A Prague Poetry Anthology
• "After Russia", trans. Michael Nayden (Ardis, 1992).
• "To You - in 10 Decades", trans. by Alexander Givental and Elysee
• Marina Tsvetayeva: Selected Poems, trans. David McDuff.

Books of Tsvetaeva poetry in

English translation
• 15 January1891 – 27 December 1938
• was a Russian Jewish poet and essayist. 1913 Kamen (Stone)
• Selected poetry and prose collections:
• 1922 Tristia
• 1923 Vtoraia kniga (Second Book)
• 1925 Shum vremeni (The Noise Of Time) Prose
• 1928 Stikhotvoreniya 1921–1925 (Poems 1921-1925)
• 1928 Stikhotvoreniya (Poems)
• 1928 O poesii (On Poetry)
• 1928 Egipetskaya marka (The Egyptian Stamp)
• 1930 Chetvertaya proza, (The Fourth Prose).
Not published in Russia until 1989
• 1930-34 Moskovskiye tetradi (Moscow Notebooks)
• 1933 Puteshestviye v Armeniyu (Journey to Armenia)
• 1933 Razgovor o Dante, (Conversation about Dante);
published in 1967
• Voronezhskiye tetradi (Voronezh Notebooks), publ. 1980
(ed. by V. Shveitser)

Osip Mandelstam
• 29 January 1890 - 30 May 1960
• was a Russian poet, novelist,
and literary translator.
• In his native Russian, Pasternak's
first book of poems, My Sister, Life (1917),
is one of the most influential collections
ever published in the Russian language.
• As a novelist, Pasternak is also known
as the author of Doctor Zhivago (1957),
a novel which takes place
between the Russian Revolution of 1905
and the Second World War.

Boris Pasternak
Poetry collections:
• Twin in the Clouds (1914)
• Over the Barriers (1916)
• Themes and Variations (1917)
• My Sister, Life (1922)
• On Early Trains (1944)
• Selected Poems (1946)
• Poems (1954)
• When the Weather Clears (1959)
• In The Interlude: Poems 1945–1960 (1962)
Books of prose
• Safe Conduct (1931)
• Second Birth (1932)
• The Last Summer (1934)
• Childhood (1941)
• Selected Writings (1949)
• Collected Works (1945)
• Goethe's Faust (1952)
• Essay in Autobiography (1956)
• Doctor Zhivago (1957)

Selected books by Pasternak

•
• The end of the 20th century proved a difficult period for Russian
literature, with relatively few distinct voices.
• the political and economic chaos of the 1990s affected the book market
and literature heavily.
• The book printing industry descended into crisis, the number of printed
book copies dropped several times in comparison to Soviet era, and it
took about a decade to revive.
• Among the most discussed authors of this period were Victor Pelevin,
who gained popularity with first short stories and then novels, novelist
and playwright Vladimir Sorokin, and the poet Dmitry Prigov.
• The tradition of the classic Russian novel continues with such authors
as Mikhail Shishkin and Vasily Aksyonov.
• Russian poetry of that period produced a number of avant-garde greats.

Post-Soviet Era
• In the 21st century, a new generation of Russian authors appeared
differing greatly from the postmodernist Russian prose of the late
20th century, which lead critics to speak about “new realism”
• Having grown up after the fall of the Soviet Union, the "new realists"
write about every day life, but without using the mystical and
surrealist elements of their predecessors.
• The "new realists" are writers who assume there is a place for
preaching in journalism, social and political writing and the media,
but that “direct action” is the responsibility of civil society.
• Leading "new realists" include Ilja Stogoff, Zakhar
Prilepin, Alexander Karasyov, Arkady Babchenko, Vladimir
Lorchenkov and Alexander Snegiryov.

21st century