AGAINST THE RULES OF LITERARY AESTHETICS: “IN THE VILLAGE” AND LITERARY DEBATES ABOUT REPRESENTATIONS OF THE COMMON PEOPLE

This paper argues that Nikolai Nekrasov’s poem is closely related to a topical discussion on the representation of peasants in literary texts that was unfolding in the criticism of 1850s. Critics such as Pavel Annenkov, who published his articles in The Contemporary edited by Nekrasov, insisted that the modern literature created by the westernized elites was incapable of correctly describing the social and psychological circumstances of the life of common people. His opponent Stepan Dudyshkin, to whom Nekrasov dedicated the first edition of his poem, replied that the whole idea of a perfectly correct representation of human life in a work of art is an illusion created by German philosophers, while a poet should rather influence the reader and evoke strong feelings. Analyzing the poem by Nekrasov, I demonstrate that he closely follows the advice of Dudyshkin, showing that such feelings as pity and sympathy can overcome social and cultural borders between the characters of his poem.