V. A. Zhukovskii and N. G. Chernyshevskii: the concept of artistic time and its poetic interpretation

The article analyzes the category of ‘artistic time’ and its specific function in the problematic aspect as represented by the works of V. A. Zhukovskii, a Romanticist, and N. G. Chernyshevskii, a Socialist and utopian thinker. From this point of view, we review the unique ‘parable tract’ by V. A. Zhukovskii «The Three Sisters» and the ‘tract novel’ by N. G. Chernyshevskii «What Is to Be Done?». We analyze the poetic forms of the category of time and the specific poetic methods which create a natural aesthetic combination of the category of ‘future’ and the ‘category’ of past. We pay special attention to the typological meaning of this temporary relatedness, which is realized in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century, starting with V. A. Zhukovskii and ending with A. P. Chekhov. While performing our analysis, we discover that both writers focus their artistic gazes on the future of the world while maintaining strong ties to the present and the past. This makes them typologically similar, and it shows some fundamental principles of development of poetic systems in Russian literature of the 19th century. Being a Romanticist, V. A. Zhukovskii directs his artistic gaze at the ‘bright future’, and N. G. Chenyshevskii demonstrates a strong connection to this kind of outlook. V. A. Zhukovskii writes about the profound importance of temporal categories for humanity as a whole. For N. G. Chenyshevskii, the present is constructed as a historically modified version of the past, while the future is viewed as a hypothetical yet possible version of the present crossing the border to the zone of the future. Ultimately, we see that N. G. Chenyshevskii confirms his perfect social image of the ‘bright and beautiful future’ with the help of a religious doctrine, which is highly important for the social conscience; because of this, the concept of the ‘bright future’ cannot be doubted by anyone. The writer’s artistic aim is to combine the future and the present in his storytelling structure - as it had been predicted by V. A. Zhukovskii before. The synthesis of the present and the future is framed as a dream: all of N. G. Chenyshevskii ‘predictions’ are revealed in the dreams of Vera Pavlovna, a major character in «What Is to Be Done». This proves to be effective, since dreams are impossible to deny or disprove. Here, we note that the same poetic method was employed by V. A. Zhukovskii in his ballads, as he established an artistic connection between dreams and divine revelations. Following the literary and spiritual example set by V. A. Zhukovskii, N. G. Chenyshevskii shows that the bright dreams of Vera Pavlovna effectively serve as her awakening from the deceitful, illusory dream of life. Through them, she manages to perceive the fundamental truth about the world. Eventually, this artistic perception of time is finalized in A. P. Chekhov’s «The Three Sisters», and thus, V. A. Zhukovskii discovery goes through several stages of reflection in Russian literature.