Vasily Zhukovsky's Romanticism and the Emotional History of Russia (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory)

Ilya Vinitsky

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810131854 ISBN 13: 9780810131859

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2015

The first major study in English of Vasily Zhukovsky (1783–1852)—poet, translator of German romantic verse, and mentor of Pushkin—this book brings overdue attention to an important figure in Russian literary and cultural history. Vinitsky’s “psychological biography” argues that Zhukovsky very consciously set out to create for himself an emotional life reflecting his unique brand of romanticism, different from what we associate with Pushkin or poets such as Byron or Wordsworth. For Zhukovsky, ideal love was harmonious, built on a mystical foundation of spiritual kinship. Vinitsky shows how Zhukovksy played a pivotal role in the evolution of ideas central to Russia’s literary and cultural identity from the end of the eighteenth century into the decades following the Napoleonic Wars.

Review:

"Vinitsky's study is so complete as to leave little room for questions.... Vasily Zhukovsky's Romanticism is a fascinating account of a seminal early Russian writer and of the origins of a key Russian cultural practice." --Slavic Review

About the Author:

Ilya Vinitsky is an associate professor in the Department of Slavic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.