MAIN PERIODS IN THE RECEPTION OF BENJAMIN DISRAELI’S FICTION IN RUSSIA, 1840–1915: PROBLEM STATEMENT
Keywords:
English literature, reception, Benjamin Disraeli, critical reviews, periodicals, fiction, politician, Jew, silver-fork novels, political novels.Abstract
The article attempts to present a holistic picture showing the reception of fiction works written by Benjamin Disraeli, a brilliant British statesman and famous novelist, in Russia throughout the period of 1840–1915. Literary criticism published in Russian periodicals during the above-mentioned period has been studied, and there have been determined three main periods of Disraeli’s fiction reception based on the ups and downs of the interest in his works and private life.The name of Benjamin Disraeli is not as well known to the Russian audience as the names of his contemporaries belonging to the ‘brilliant pleiad’ of the 19th century English novelists – Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. Nevertheless, his fiction is worth studying since Disraeli was an outstanding representative of the popular 19th century genre of English literature known as silver-fork novels and he made a great contribution to the emergence of the genre of political fiction. His works concerning the vital aspects of cultural and public life were highly demanded by Russian readers and critics throughout the 1840–1915 and were often read in the original and discussed on the pages of the Russian periodical press.In Russian literary studies, the novels of Benjamin Disraeli have practically not been studied. Some individual works by the writer were considered by such eminent researchers as Georgy An. Andzhaparidze, Boris M. Proskurnin, Evgeniya V. Ermakova, Valentina V. Ivasheva, Irina A. Matveenko. However, the issue of the critical as well as translation reception of Disraeli’s fiction in Russia has not been raised in Russian or foreign literary studies thus far.Literary-critical analysis has shown that the attitude to Disraeli’s fiction was different in different historic periods depending on the Russian literary process development and on the political activity of Disraeli on the international stage. The cycles of active reception were replaced by the periods of relative indifference to Disraeli’s novels. As a result, three obvious periods in the reception of Disraeli’s fiction have been marked. The first period, 1840s – 1850s, is associated with considering Disraeli as a mass literature author. The second period, 1870–1881, correlates with the peak of Disraeli’s popularity in Russia in spite of his negative image as a politician. The third period covers 1900–1915 and can be characterized as an attempt to read the novels by Disraeli in the context of his Jewish origin and the Jewish issue.References
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