A. F. Pisemsky’s late comedies in the dialogue with the Russian comedy tradition of the 18th century

Abstract

The aim of the research is to reveal the forms of continuity of A. F. Pisemsky’s late plays “The Predators” and “Financial Genius” to the 18th century Russian social comedy. Scientific novelty: Pisemsky’s late comedies are considered for the first time in terms of their orientation towards a dialogue with the national genre tradition, originating in the plays of the 18th century. It has been established that Pisemsky’s comedies enter into a dialogue with the tradition, as evidenced by their similarities to Y. B. Knyazhnin’s “The Boaster” and V. V. Kapnist’s “The Sneak”. Similarities have been found in the sphere of problems, plot, motives, character system, finals’ poetics, and characterology techniques. In “Financial Genius”, as well as in “The Boaster”, cunning deceit is exposed, and the motives of imposture and boasting are similar. The connection of “The Predators” with “The Talebearer” at the level of the problem is manifested in the condemnation of the social “calamity”, which in both comedies takes the place of the main character; the comic fades into the background, the finals convey the idea of the incurability of social evil, which brings in tragic overtones. Pisemsky’s orientation towards the artistic experience of the comedy writers of the 18th century testifies to the continuity of the Russian comedy tradition in the literature of the following century.