J. G. Herder and N. M. Karamzin: A study of similarity and influence
Lewis, Samuel Mark
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22350
Description
Title
J. G. Herder and N. M. Karamzin: A study of similarity and influence
Author(s)
Lewis, Samuel Mark
Issue Date
1992
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Marchand, James W.
Department of Study
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Discipline
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Literature, Comparative
Literature, Germanic
Literature, Slavic and East European
Language
eng
Abstract
"Scholars of letters, philosophy, and history who have regarded Johann Gottfried Herder as the spiritual inciter of the ""Sturm und Drang"" and as a precursor to Romanticism, continually draw attention to the manifold aspects of modern thought which derive in some way from this innovative representative of irrationalism."
It is therefore not surprising that numerous studies have been devoted to the relationship between Herder and those artists and thinkers who are indebted to him for his original principles and theories. One figure from Russian literature whom many have linked to Herder is N. M. Karamzin, the famous Russian translator, poet, author of sentimentalist prose, and historian of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Thus far, the question of a genuine connection between Herder and Karamzin has been considered only vaguely and the conjecture of the former's influence on the latter has not been sufficiently investigated.
In addition to highlighting the similarities existing between Herder and Karamzin, the present study equally illuminates the significant influence exercised by the former on the latter. To distinguish between cases of mere similarity and those of genuine influence, I refer to the definitive criteria in Goran Hermeren's Influence in Art and Literature. The essential areas of similarity include the following: notions of aesthetics; contributions on the level of style and language; praise of Homer, Shakespeare, Ossian and Klopstock; promotion of national folk literatures; and advocation of historicism. Remarkably, Herder's influence on Karamzin is traceable in all five of these areas to varying degrees.
Finally, through the Herderian magnifying glass as applied here, Karamzin's persevering interest in history emerges as his most urgent and well-founded concern, both as a literary personality and as a historiographer. Indeed this aspect of Karamzin's contribution to Russian literature is one which provides new and stimulating insights for the evaluation of his impact on the generations to follow.
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