“Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation

The methodology of the article is based on the ideas of historical poetics by A.N. Veselovsky and M.M. Bakhtin. The author examines the reception of Shakespeare’s heritage in Russia in the last third of the 18th century. This idea is demonstrated in the analyses of the adaptation of the bourgeois dr...

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Main Author: Elena M. Lutsenko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 2024-12-01
Series:Литературный факт
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Online Access:https://litfact.ru/images/2024-34/6_Lutsenko.pdf
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author Elena M. Lutsenko
author_facet Elena M. Lutsenko
author_sort Elena M. Lutsenko
collection DOAJ
description The methodology of the article is based on the ideas of historical poetics by A.N. Veselovsky and M.M. Bakhtin. The author examines the reception of Shakespeare’s heritage in Russia in the last third of the 18th century. This idea is demonstrated in the analyses of the adaptation of the bourgeois drama The Tombs of Verona (L.-S. Mercier) by V.P. Pomerantsev (the first Russian interpreter of the plot of Romeo and Juliet). In this regard, the author focuses on the genre poetics of Mercier’s play and Pomerantsev’s translation in their correlation to the poetological and pragmatic factors of the epoch. Special attention is paid to the sources of the plot of Mercier’s play, thus confirming the idea of the indirect reception of Shakespeare’s heritage in Europe (and Russia) in the 18th century as well as its genre transformation. Despite the similarity of the genre of Mercier’s play and its Russian interpretation, discrepancies are revealed at the level of poetics. Mercier replaces sonnet imagery vital for Shakespeare’s play with the images familiar to his contemporaries, i. e., the elegiac intonations of E. Parny. Russian readers became acquainted with Parny’s poetry long after Pomerantsev’s translation. That’s why the translator replaced Parny’s gallant imagery with the elegiac imagery of the Russian verse of the 18th century (much more ponderous than Parny’s) as well as with the intonations of the Russian Rousseau. Mercier’s play, like most 18th-century adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, ends happily. Pomerantsev agrees with it because he perceives the genre of this plot as a bourgeois drama, not a tragedy.
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spelling doaj-art-4f0dcda2de98468f91f8e96439bf2e2a2025-08-20T02:39:55ZengRussian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World LiteratureЛитературный факт2541-82972542-24212024-12-0143410212410.22455/2541-8297-2024-34-102-124“Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretationElena M. Lutsenko0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1993-0983Russian State University for the Humanities; The School for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public AdministrationThe methodology of the article is based on the ideas of historical poetics by A.N. Veselovsky and M.M. Bakhtin. The author examines the reception of Shakespeare’s heritage in Russia in the last third of the 18th century. This idea is demonstrated in the analyses of the adaptation of the bourgeois drama The Tombs of Verona (L.-S. Mercier) by V.P. Pomerantsev (the first Russian interpreter of the plot of Romeo and Juliet). In this regard, the author focuses on the genre poetics of Mercier’s play and Pomerantsev’s translation in their correlation to the poetological and pragmatic factors of the epoch. Special attention is paid to the sources of the plot of Mercier’s play, thus confirming the idea of the indirect reception of Shakespeare’s heritage in Europe (and Russia) in the 18th century as well as its genre transformation. Despite the similarity of the genre of Mercier’s play and its Russian interpretation, discrepancies are revealed at the level of poetics. Mercier replaces sonnet imagery vital for Shakespeare’s play with the images familiar to his contemporaries, i. e., the elegiac intonations of E. Parny. Russian readers became acquainted with Parny’s poetry long after Pomerantsev’s translation. That’s why the translator replaced Parny’s gallant imagery with the elegiac imagery of the Russian verse of the 18th century (much more ponderous than Parny’s) as well as with the intonations of the Russian Rousseau. Mercier’s play, like most 18th-century adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, ends happily. Pomerantsev agrees with it because he perceives the genre of this plot as a bourgeois drama, not a tragedy.https://litfact.ru/images/2024-34/6_Lutsenko.pdfvasily pomerantsevwilliam shakespearelouis-sébastien mercierbourgeois dramatranslationadaptation
spellingShingle Elena M. Lutsenko
“Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation
Литературный факт
vasily pomerantsev
william shakespeare
louis-sébastien mercier
bourgeois drama
translation
adaptation
title “Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation
title_full “Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation
title_fullStr “Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation
title_full_unstemmed “Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation
title_short “Russian Garrick” and his French Shakespeare: “Les Tombeaux de Vérone” by L.-S. Mercier in V. Pomerantsev’s interpretation
title_sort russian garrick and his french shakespeare les tombeaux de verone by l s mercier in v pomerantsev s interpretation
topic vasily pomerantsev
william shakespeare
louis-sébastien mercier
bourgeois drama
translation
adaptation
url https://litfact.ru/images/2024-34/6_Lutsenko.pdf
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