Vasily Zhukovsky's Romanticism and the Emotional History of Russia

Download or read book Vasily Zhukovsky's Romanticism and the Emotional History of Russia written by Ilya Vinitsky and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-31 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major study in English of Vasily Zhukovsky (1783–1852)—poet, translator of German romantic verse, and mentor of Pushkin—this book brings overdue attention to an important figure in Russian literary and cultural history. Vinitsky’s “psychological biography” argues that Zhukovsky very consciously set out to create for himself an emotional life reflecting his unique brand of romanticism, different from what we associate with Pushkin or poets such as Byron or Wordsworth. For Zhukovsky, ideal love was harmonious, built on a mystical foundation of spiritual kinship. Vinitsky shows how Zhukovksy played a pivotal role in the evolution of ideas central to Russia’s literary and cultural identity from the end of the eighteenth century into the decades following the Napoleonic Wars.