European Plots in N. A. Nekrasov’s Epic Poem Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia? The Last One as Don Quixote

Abstract

Nekrasov’s epic poem Who can be Happy and Free in Russia? is traditionally regarded as a realistic work whose poetics is based on Russian folklore. In the article, we suggest a different view and argue that the fund of European literary plots was no less important for the poet. We show that the chapter of the poem The Last One is an original variation of the plot model of the second volume of Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote (the stay of the knight in the dukes’ castle). Nekrasov consistently used the plot collisions of Don Quixote, forcing Prince Utyatin, like the knight, to find himself in a theatrical reality, which the hero takes at face value. Nekrasov also varied the characterology of Cervantes’s heroes: like Don Quixote, the Last One is an insane hero who believes in ideals of the past, whose views are shared only by a devoted servant. In the article, we discuss in detail both the nuances of the transformation of Cervantes’s novel in Nekrasov’s epic poem and the historical context. We reveal the genesis of the poet’s ideas about Don Quixote, and also analyze the difference between Nekrasov’s transformation of Cervantes’s novel and other classical works of Russian literature. The article’s subject allows us to assert that in Who can be Happy and Free in Russia? Nekrasov did not always describe reality—he also constructed the folk according to models of high elitist texts.

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2024.1.05