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Abstract: The paper traces the reception stages of the Oedipus myth in the Russian literature at the turn of the 18th – early 19th centuries. The scope of research embraces the tragedies “Bloody Night, or the Final Fall of Kadmov’s House” by V. Narezhny (1800), “Oedipus in Athens” by V. Ozerov (1804), “Oedipus the King” by A. Gruzintsev (1811) and “Antigone” by V. Kapnist (1814). The study also touches upon some aspects of the creative activity of M. Lomonosov, N. Karamzin, V. Zhukovsky and K. Batyushkov. The in-terpretations of one of the most important European myths associated with the change of the cultural paradigm – the turn of the 18th – early 19th centuries was marked by the crisis of Classicism. The ancient myth of Oedipus, with its aspiration to the invisible, corresponded to the propensity of pre-Romanticism for the irrational spheres of existence. At the same time, the process of the ancient plot adaptation was complicated and contradictory – the previous rhetorical models slowed down the assimilation of new issues for the Russian culture. The binary structures, which underlay the classicist tragedy, came into conflict with the ancient tragedy, which tended towards the myth. The Russian classicist playwrights rationalized the myth of Oedipus to a great extent by adapting it for the Russian cultural conditions. The ancient tragedy was directed towards a reality hidden from a human person, whereas the classicist tragedy testified to the functioning of rational laws in the world; the antiquity solved the problem of the invisible and incomprehensible Fate, and the Russian Classicism solved the problem of human virtue. The study concludes that the true assimilation of the Oedipus myth in the Russian culture would only occur during the epoch of Romanticism – in the 1820s–1830s.

About the author(s) :

Tatyana V. Zvereva
Udmurt State University (Izhevsk, Russia)
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0485-7664

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 02.05.2024; date of publication: 24.06.2024

References:

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