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Bunyn - копия

Following Peter's death in 1725, Russian literature saw the influence of French classical standards, with writers blending Western forms and traditional Russian themes. Prince Antioch Kantemir is noted for merging life and poetry, using neoclassical forms to critique Russian society, while Vasily Trediakovsky introduced a more natural syllabo-tonic system to Russian poetry. This period marked a significant evolution in the literary landscape of Russia.

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2 views1 page

Bunyn - копия

Following Peter's death in 1725, Russian literature saw the influence of French classical standards, with writers blending Western forms and traditional Russian themes. Prince Antioch Kantemir is noted for merging life and poetry, using neoclassical forms to critique Russian society, while Vasily Trediakovsky introduced a more natural syllabo-tonic system to Russian poetry. This period marked a significant evolution in the literary landscape of Russia.

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distortion504
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In the thirty-seven years of political upheaval that followed Peter’s death in 1725, the

first four greats of Russian literature imposed French classical standards on Peter’s
simplified Russian language. All writers imported Western literary forms and theories
while employing at the same time traditional Russian materials.

Prince Antioch Kantemir (1708-1744) is widely considered the first Russian writer to
“blend life and poetry in his works.” Kantemir served as Russian ambassador to London
and Paris, and as a confirmed neoclassicist concurred with Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
that the highest of literary forms were the ode and the satire, which he used to attack
reactionary Russian political and social elements. Kantemir’s language is realistic, but
his satires are framed in the imported syllabic verse dependent on fixed accents, a form
of versification unnatural to the Russian language. Kantemir’s less talented and
nonnoble contemporary Vasily Trediakovsky (1703-1769) freed Russian poetry from
these unnatural constraints by introducing a syllabo-tonic system based on equal
bisyllabic metrical feet, a rhythm found in the Russian popular ballad.

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