“The Bronze Horseman” in Anglo-American Pushkin Studies of the 20th Century: Symbolism of Space and Plot

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The study was supported by a grant of the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 24-28-00706 “Pushkin in the Western European Canon of Russian Literature: Dynamics and Variants of Understanding (The Period Between the 1920s and the1960s).”
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Koroleva, S. B. “ʽThe Bronze Horseman’ in Anglo- American Pushkin Studies of the 20th Century: Symbolism of Space and Plot.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 7, no. 4, 2025, pp. 326–351. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-4-326-351
Abstract:
This article explores approaches to understanding A.S. Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman” in 20th-century Anglo-American Pushkin studies. The examined texts allowed us to identify four periods of scholarly engagement with Pushkin’s work in Anglo-American Slavic studies and to link them to their socio-political and cultural-historical contexts. The first period (1910s–1930s) is characterized by a significant emphasis on the poem’s descriptions of St. Petersburg, bolstered by the thesis of glorifying a highly Europeanized noble culture. The second period (1950s–1960s) is marked by a predominantly socio- historical approach to interpreting the poem. The studies of the third period (1970s–1980s), although complex in their methodology, recreated established imagological parallels. The fourth period (since the 1990s) is characterized by a tendency to perceive the poem in terms of literal mythologism.
Keywords: A. S. Pushkin, “The Bronze Horseman,” Anglo-American Pushkin studies, M. Baring, D. S. Mirsky, E. Wilson, V. Lednicky, J. Bailey, E. Briggs, ethnocultural interpretation, imagological myth.
Author: Svetlana B. Korolev
Information about the author:
Svetlana B. Koroleva, DSc in Philology, Associate Professor, Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Minina St., 31a, 603155 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7587-9027

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: June 10, 2025
Approved after reviewing: September 23, 2025
Published: December 25, 2025
Issue: 2025 Volume 7 No. 4
Department: Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries
Pages: 326-351
DOI: Visit Website
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/OWPDIO
UDK: 821.161.1.09"19/20"
Publication Type: Research Article

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