Alexander Blok’s last play – the “historical picture” Ramses (1919), is in a complex relationship with other dramatic works of Blok, including its genre. Some researchers (Pavel Gromov, Evgenia Ivanova) deny the artistic and genre originality of the play. Others (Nikolai Volkov, Andrei Fedorov, Grigory Bongard-Levin, etc.), on the contrary, consider the play to be quite worthy of attention. The article deals with the genre nature of the play. Like Blok’s “lyrical dramas” Theatrical Balagan [Balaganchik], The King in the Square [Korol’ na ploshchadi], Stranger [Neznakomka], which have their roots in the romantic dramaturgy of the 19 th century, Ramses also finds an analogue in one of its genre offshoots. We dare to call this genre – which was not very productive during the entire 19 th century at least in the Russian literature – “historical fantasy”. This includes sometimes remained at the level of plan works by Alexander Shakhovskoi, Aleksei Timofeev, Dmitrii Struiskii (Trilunnyi), the young Alexander Herzen, Apollon Maikov and others. The article shows the genre specificity of these works and compares them with Ramses.
Alexander Blok; Alexei Timofeev; Dmitrii Struiskii (Trilunnyi); Ramses; “historical fantasy”; romantic dramaturgy.
Man’kovskii, A.V. “On the Question of the Genre Nature of Alexander Blok’s play Ramses (1919)”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 3(61), 2023, pp. 106–123. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2023.61.07