[“The English Humorists” by W.M. Thackeray in the Interpretation of A. V. Druzhinin: the Experience of Cultural Mediation

Abstract

The article analyzes A. V. Druzhinin’s work W. Thackeray’s Lectures on the English Humorists (1854). It examines Druzhinin’s role as a cultural mediator introducing Russian reader to the works of W. M. Thackeray and his view of English humorists of the past. Druzhinin interprets the personality of Thackeray the lecturer, destroying the established myth of the cold satirist and creating the image of a moralist wise through experience. Additionally, the article analyses the critic’s observations on the specific perception of humor by the English public. A. V. Druzhinin’s work recorded an important stage in the formation of the “Russian Thackeray” and contributed to the dialogue between two literary cultures.