The image of Alyosha Popovich in N. A. Radishchev's “Bogatyr songwriting”: the issue of genre transformations

In the 18th-19th centuries, there were attempts of literary appropriation of folklore heroes and genres. One of the literary characters was the epic and fairy hero Alyosha Popovich. N. A. Radishchev used this name as the title for his poem (1801). Imitating folkloric and literary genres, the unfledged writer created an original work, which comprised a synthesis of bylina (heroic epic song), fairy and bogatyr tale, heroic and sentimental poem. It is difficult to consider Radishchev’s hero as a bogatyr who vanquishes his rivals by force of his sword and strength of his mind. He uses magic items and transcendent capacities in his fight with wicked and hostile enemies. Having become the hero of a fairy tale the epic hero ceases to be a bogatyr; the poetics of the fairy tale disrupts the poetics of the bylina. In the fantasy world, there live and act heroes of another age who deliver sentimental speeches in accordance with the literary fashion, chop logic exaltedly, weep and suffer, in spite of reflection they accomplish their feats of love and create family happiness: Alyosha comes back to Kiev with his found wife, and the bogatyr becomes sexton again. In defence of these genre experiments and transformations, it is possible to showcase the success of another poet - “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by A. S. Pushkin who was inspired by Radishchev’s poetic fairy tale.