Practically since the founding of the city, St. Petersburg has adhered to a rich literary tradition that reached new levels during the period of Pushkin's romanticism. In his poem The Bronze Horseman, Pushkin portrayed St. Petersburg in a way completely different from his predecessors. His literary invention is closely connected with the so called "Petersburg text", known from further creations of Gogol, Dostoevsky and Bely. It was only with the appearance of the "Petersburg text" that St. Petersburg was assigned a special role, which left an enduring mark on Russian literature. The purpose of my research is to compare various aspects of the literary depiction of St. Petersburg and to reveal why a city like St. Petersburg has experienced so many different interpretations. At the same time, I want to find out whether the qualitative change in St. Petersburg’s literary tradition is linked to spontaneous artistic intent, or whether there was a more compelling reason for it, stemming from historical circumstances and various urban events.
|