A.M. GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
Issues
About Moliere’s Source of the Lost Work of Young Pushkin
- DOI:
- EDN:
- УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.0
- Publication Type: Research Article
- Received: 17.03.2025
- Approved after reviewing: 16.06.2025
- Date of publication: 25.12.2025
- Issue:
no. 4 (38), 2025
- Abstract:
The article is based on research into Russian-French literary connections and explores the influence of Molière’s comedies on Pushkin’s work. The focus is on an issue that has not yet been studied in Russian literary studies: the direct source of the lost play of the young poet, to which the epigram “Dis-moi, pourquoi l’Escamoteur <…>” refers, known from the memoirs of his sister Olga Pavlishcheva. Based on a lexical-semantic analysis of Pushkin’s epigram title, an assumption is made that the plot of Molière’s play, which served as the basis for the composition of the aspiring Russian poet, included the motif for the heroine’s kidnapping by her lover (Le Médecin volant, publ. 1819; L’Amour médecin, 1665; Le Médecin malgré lui, 1666; Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre, 1667). The plays of the French playwright containing this motif are examined from the point of view of their significance in the plot, linguistic means of expression, genre specificity, their correlation with the courtly and salon customs of the reign of Louis XIV, and popularity in the Russian cultural field. The study refutes the assumption in Russian science that the source of Pushkin’s borrowing could be one of Molière’s early farces. The author comes to the conclusion that the comedy that Pushkin was guided by was gallant in nature, meeting both the tastes of the French public of the second half of the 17th century and the atmosphere of home readings and improvisations, familiar to the Russian poet from childhood. The conclusions contain the author’s hypothesis about Molière’s comedy, which became the basis of Pushkin’s lost play and is mentioned in his epigram.
- Keywords: Alexander Pushkin, Molière, literary source, literary influence, Russian-French literary connections, gallantry.
- For citation:
Pavlova, S.Yu. “About the Molière Source of Young Pushkin’s Lost Work.ˮ Literaturnyi fakt, no. 4 (38), 2025, pp. 358–374. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2025-38-358-374
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