• “Сhatsky’s return to Moscow…” by Evdokiya Rostopchina and “Woe from Wit” by Aleksandr Griboedov: Peculiarities of the text structure

УДК: 821.161.1.0-2"18"

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2022-1-50-61

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Andrey M. Ranchin

Dr. Sc. in Philology, Professor of the Faculty of Philology
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: aranchin@mail.ru

“Сhatsky’s return to Moscow…” by Evdokiya Rostopchina and “Woe from Wit” by Aleksandr Griboedov: Peculiarities of the text structure

Abstract

The article contains a comparative analysis of two comedies: Woe from Wit by A.S. Griboedov and Return of Chatsky to Moscow… by E. P. Rostopchina. The dramatic composition by Rostopchina (1856) is a kind of continuation of Griboedov’s play. The Rostopchina’s play suggests Chatsky’s new arrival in Moscow, timed to 1850, and its consequences. It is a frank pamphlet in nature, representing mainly a satire on personalities. The pamphlet is created primarily due to the obvious portraits of two characters added by the writer: the Slavophile poet Eleikin and the Westernizer Evlampy Moiseevich Feologinsky. The prototype of the first is the Slavophile A.S. Khomyakov, the second ― N.G. Chernyshevsky. Rostopchina dramatically changes the ratio of the center and the periphery in the system of characters. If Griboedov’s characters are tertiary, then in his successor’s play they come to the forefront: the conflict between the Slavophile Eleikin and his adherents Gorich with the Westerner Feologinsky and his adherents Tsurmayer, Petrov, the wife of Feologinsky (nee Mimi Tugouhovskaya) and her sister Princess Zizi Tugouhovskaya is the main spring of action in Return of Chatsky…. Another transformation made by Rostopchina is the rejection of a love affair as the basis of the plot. In addition, the writer completely deprives the image of Chatsky of the potentially comic elements that the first critics found in him. In the character system, she balances his image with the figure of his confidant Princess Olga Yuryevna Tsvetkova, the prototype of which is the writer herself. The Return of Chatsky… is an ideological satirical comedy.

Keywords

“Woe from Wit”, A. S. Griboyedov, “Return of Chatsky to Moscow…”, E. P. Rostopchina, Russian dramaturgy, dramatic sequel, ideological comedy.

For citation

Ranchin A. M. “Return of Chatsky to Moscow…” by Evdokiya Rostopchina and “Woe from Wit” by Aleksandr Griboyedov: Peculiarities of the text structure. Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2022, no. 1. pp. 50–61.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2022-1-50-61

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Received: 20.12.2021

Revised: 09.02.2022

Accepted: 13.02.2022