The third lecture of the educational program The Long 19^th Century is now available in Manege’s VKontakte community and on its YouTube channel. 

Our guest speaker is Alina Bodrova, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Higher School of Economics National Research University, Research Fellow of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, contributor to academic editions of works by Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, and Evgeny Boratynsky, and historian of early 19^th-century Russian literature.

In this lecture we make an attempt to reconstruct the literary background and poetic context of the ideas brought up in the exhibition title and to demonstrate how integral they were to the Romantic era overall. As metonymical synonyms of happiness, the words serenity (покой) and delight (радость) repeatedly occur and are reflected in Russian lyrical poetry of the early 19th century.

Many Russian poets sought to answer the question of whether personal happiness was attainable. To illustrate, this lecture cites the poetry of Evgeny Boratynsky, an eminent lyrical poet of the Pushkin era to whom this subject was pivotal. It is interesting to note that the answers suggested by Boratynsky, for the most part, dovetail with the scenes of blissful serenity and delight on display at the exhibition: rural life at the country estate, the feast for the eye that is Italy, the circle of family and friends, and creative pursuits. Springing from a shared rhetorical and artistic tradition, this kinship is only natural, yet it eloquently brings out individual idiosyncrasies in the interpretation of common themes.

Manege’s educational program partner — Mikhial Bazhenov Foundation.

Media partner for Manege’s lecture program — VK Video.