| Titre | Chateaubriand et Karamzin, témoins de leur temps | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Il´ja Serman, Jean Breuillard | |
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Revue | Revue des Etudes Slaves |
| Numéro | Vol. 74, no 4, 2002 | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | Le sentimentalisme russe, sous la direction de Jean Breuillard Articles |
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| Page | 701-718 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Chateaubriand and Karamzin as Witnesses of Their Time
The paper compares N. M. Karamzin' s Russian Traveller's Letters (1801) with An Essay on Revolutions (London, 1797) [Essai historique, politique et moral sur les révolutions anciennes et modernes, considérées dans leurs rapports avec la révolution française de nos jours] by F. R. de Chateaubriand (London, 1797). Both works were written by the same period and are now examined from different points of view: politics, history, literature. Rather surprisingly, they have much in common: both refer to ancient Greek and Roman history in order to assess present-day events; they share the idea that the French Revolution was inescapable and remains irreversible; they reckon the French Revolution and contemporary England played a leading role; strangely enough revolutionary leaders (Cromwell, Robespierre, Marat) are highly regarded; utopian views in political matters are strictly rejected; any existing gap between the age of Enlightenment and previous periods is denied; both writers show a similar awareness of the importance of time-lag and that it had taken several century-old efforts and sufferings to build Europe as it was. While traveling around Europe (1789-1790) Karamzin discovered that freedom needed to be fought - and sacrificed for, by nations and such a painstakingly acquired freedom determines each people's achievement in civilization and its economic prosperity. As for Chateaubriand he searched a key for European history through going back to the time when the Christian religion was being spread.
The paper points out at how much both pieces of literature express a common typology. It also underlines dissimilarities between both writers (in their appraisal of contemporary England and of the role played by Christianity in European history, etc.). Later on, each author's major work (Karamzin's A History of the Russian State and Chateaubriand' s The Genius of Christianity) which young writers and poets from the two countries will abundantly feed from, emphasized divergence in ideology and arts. Whereas Chateaubriand epitomized religion as the only bastion against the reign of money-based profit, Karamzin kept confident in moderate deism and definitively rejected aesthetic apologia of Christianity. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | https://www.persee.fr/doc/slave_0080-2557_2002_num_74_4_6840 |
