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Fjodor Tjutchev's "Cicero" in the Russian Literary Canon

Student: Ostrozhkova Apollinariia

Supervisor: Alexey Vdovin

Faculty: Faculty of Humanities

Educational Programme: Philology (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 10

Year of Graduation: 2020

The paper deals with the canonization of F. Tjutchev’s poem “Cicero” (1829). The poem had scarcely been noted by the readers of the XIX century and entered the Russian literary canon only in the beginning of the 20th century. The text of “Cicero” had occupied place in the cultural field by the end of the 1920s and then actively replicated during the next one hundred years. Methodology of the present research is based on the memetic theory that was developed by R. Dawkins and S. Blackmore. Memetic theory allows to concentrate on the replication process of a text and to evaluate the efficiency of its performance in the cultural field. “Cicero” has occupied a strong position in the literary hierarchy due to its poetics and external conditions that promoted its canonization. Actualization of Tyutchev’s poem was influenced by the revolutionary transformations that were followed by the long-term reorganization of Russian society. Afterwards, memes of “Cicero” appeared regularly in contexts that raised a question of one’s place in the historical continuum. Aphoristic nature of the second stanza made a considerable impact on the reception of “Cicero”. The poem was perceived as an instruction that prescribed readers the behaviour pattern in the spirit of Hegelian historicism, that circulated among intellectuals of the 20th century. The constant need for self-conceptualization within “big history” assigned to Tyutchev’s “Cicero” a significant role in the cultural memory and Russian literary canon.

Full text (added May 29, 2020)

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