The Russian Fate of John Gayʼs Fables

The article, in a pioneering effort, offers to consider the history of the Russian reception of the fable creativity of the English writer John Gay (1685–1732), from its beginnings to the present day. It is noted that close attention to the fables of J. Gay in the last quarter of the 18th century, this was largely due to the interest of the Russian society in novelties in French books; as a result, prosaic translations of poetic texts from an intermediary language prevailed, against which the poetical readings of English originals created by I. Ilyinsky were undoubtedly more successful. The subsequent “surge” of interest in J. Gayʼs fable heritage at the end of the XIX century connected with the demand of society for the works of foreign authors, accessible to the mass, common reader, focused on the traditional culture of their countries. In the Soviet period, J. Gayʼs fables found themselves on the periphery of the preferences of translators and critics who interpreted mainly the writerʼs dramatic texts (“The Beggarʼs Opera”, “Polly”). The research of A.I. Zhilenkov and the translations of E.D. Feldman, published in recent decades, marked a new stage of the Russian reception, characterized by the identification of the artistic originality of Gayʼs fables, the desire for the most complete, holistic perception of the heritage of the Gay-fabulist, taking into account ancient and English literary traditions

Aesthetics · Art · Creativity · Fable · Literature · Originality · Poetry · Sociology · Discourse Analysis and Cultural Communication · History · Psychology