“Lucius, or the Ass” as Adapted by O. I. Senkovsky

The article examines “Lucius, or the First Tale” (1842), written by O. I. Senkovsky under the pseudonym B. B. and loosely based on “Lucius, or the Ass” (Λούκιος ἢ ῎Oνος), one of the works preserved in the classic corpus of Lucian’s texts. The study refutes the established critical opinion (rooted in V. G. Belinsky’s views) about the text as an “unsuccessful distortion” of Apuleius’s “Golden Ass” and reveals its multi-layered nature. It is argued that Senkovsky’s “Lucius” was a bold literary experiment that synthesized creative translation, adapted retelling and classic stylization, elements of a scientific article, parody and feuilleton. Senkovsky’s techniques of working with the classic text included the introduction of realities and language of 19th century Russia, dialogization, censorship, the creation of a double chronotope, and author’s insertions. The role of the literary mask was crucial: the name of B. B. (Baron Brambeus) relieved Senkovsky the professor of literature of responsibility for his loose handling of the ancient Greek text and allowed Senkovsky the editor to join the magazine polemics without violating the principle of responding to critics’ attacks with silence proclaimed by the “Library for Reading”. The analysis of “Lucius” by B. B. reveals that the publication of the story was Senkovsky’s witty response to criticism from Belinsky and the controversy surrounding N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls.” Hidden parodic references to Belinsky’s articles on Russian novels and on Gogol’s works are identified through a detailed comparison of the texts. The article highlights Senkovsky’s use of the ass theme to create satirical portraits of his contemporaries, K. S. Aksakov, S. P. Shevyrev, and S. S. Uvarov. The image of the “donkey-philosopher” is interpreted as a metaphor of a thinking person in society and among the highly educated elite. The authors conclude that Senkovsky’s “Lucius” is not a marginal text, but an important phenomenon in the history of Russian satirical prose and magazine polemics of the 1840s, which requires re-evaluation and further study in the context of Senkovsky’s work and the literary process of his time.