Information about the author:
Dmitrii V. Zaitsev
Dmitrii V. Zaitsev, PhD Student, Junior Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2235-4591
E-mail:
Acknowledgements:
The research was carried out at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 22-18-00347 “Ivan Bunin’s Early Work: Poetry, Prose, Criticism, Journalism, Translations (1883–1902)”).
Abstract:
In the article, the synchronous literary contexts of Maxim Gorky’s “The Song of the Stormy Petrel” (1901) are scrutinized, aiming to establish its genesis despite the established interpretive tradition. In the latter half of 1900, the journal “Zhizn’” (“Life”) published two compilations of poems dedicated to Gorky. The June issue featured a compilation by Konstantin Balmont, while the October issue showcased Ivan Bunin’s works. Both these occurrences suggest that Balmont’s and Bunin’s works could have been perceived by readers’ consciousness as a cohesive textual realm, within which significant works for the genesis of “The Song” were actualized. Thus, Balmont’s poem “Albatross” (1900), distinguished by Gorky, and Bunin’s story “The Celebration” (1891) are interpreted by the article’s author as significant precursors to Gorky’s work. The conclusion drawn is that the neo-romantic narodniks discourse, at the core of which lies “The Song of the Stormy Petrel”, was shaped under the influence of diverse literary forces. Its configuration in the early 1900s appeared considerably more unexpected and contradictory than subsequent cultural strata might suggest.
