( 1813 ), both works described as epics of “visionary and libertarian subversion”
(Curran, Poetic Form, 173 ). The only epic heroine celebrated in Russia appeared
in Ivan Kozlov’s poema, Kniaginia Natalia Dolgorukaia( 1828 ). Dolgorukaia, who
followed her husband into exile and became a nun after his execution, did not
challenge gender norms.
14 .See Curran, Poetic Form, 173 ; Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature,344–
45 ; and Zhirmunskii, Bairon i Pushkin, 239.
15 .K.K. Bukhmeier, “N. M. Iazykov,” in Iazykov, Polnoe sobranie
stikhotvorenii, 36.
16 .The one exception I have found is Elisaveta Shakhova’s “Sila pokaiania
(asketicheskaia poema, v trekh chastiakh)” (The force of repentence [an ascetic
poemain three parts], 1841 ). Shakova also subtitled her play Iudif ’(Judith, 1876 )
“poema po bibleiskomu tekstu, v dramaticheskoi forme v stikhakh, v piati
deistviiakh” (A verse epic after the biblical text in dramatic form in verse in five
acts).
Discussion of the use of the term “poema” by Pushkin, Lermontov, and
Baratynskii follows. For discussion of Iazykov’s poemy,see K. K. Bukhmeier,
“N. N. Iazykov,” 37–42. Perhaps because of the prestige of the term “poema,” ed-
itors often posthumously bestow it on works. My focus here is on poets’ own
generic subtitles, as will be discussed later.
That Russian literary scholars continued to consider the poemaboth a presti-
gious and a male-identified genre through much of the twentieth century may
be seen from such studies (in which no women writers appear) as Aleksandr
Sokolov, Ocherki po istorii russkoi poemy, XVIII i pervoi poloviny XIX veka (Moskva:
Izd-vo Moskovskogo universiteta, 1955 ); Leonid Dolgopolov, Poemy Bloka i
russkaia poema kontsa 19 -nachala 20 vekov (Leningrad: Nauka, 1964 ); Iu. Lebedev,
N. A. Nekrasov i russkaia poema 1840–50gg.(Iaroslavl’: Verkhne-volzhskoe
knizhn. izd-vo, 1971 ); and A. N. Berezneva, Russkaia romanticheskaia poema: Ler-
montov, Nekrasov, Blok (Saratov: Izd-vo Saratovskogo universiteta, 1976 ).
17 .See Siniavskii and Tsiavlovskii, Pushkin v pechati. Bakhchisaraiskii fontan
appeared again as sochineniein 1830 , and Kavkazskii plennikappeared as sochi-
neniein 1829. In general, women do not seem to have written romanticheskie po-
emy,with or without generic titles. Among the authors of the two hundred po-
emyand excerpts from poemythat Zhirmunskii surveys, he mentions only four
women: Aleksandra Fuks (“Kniazha Khabiba,” 1841 , and “Osnovanie goroda
Kazani,” 1836 ); Z-va (“Vziatie Azova,” 1829 ); Ol’ga Kriukova (“Donets,” 1833 );
and V. Lizogub (“Ziuleika,” 1845 ).
18 .E.A. Baratynskii, Stikhotvoreniia, poemy,ed. L. G. Frizman (Moskva:
Nauka, 1982 ), 629 , 630 , 633 , 638.
19 .The five works Lermontov referred to as poemyare Sashka(subtitled
“Pravstvennaia poema”); an unfinished fragment titled “nachalo poemy”; Kor-
sar,subtitled poema; Angel smerti,to which he referred in his notebook as a po-
ema;and the 1831 version of Demon,subtitled poema,although in the final 1841
version he changed the subtitle to vostochnaia povest’.
Konstantin Aksakov described Dvoinaia zhizhn’as a poemain 1847 (quoted in
Sendich, “Life and Works of Karolina Pavlova,” 229–31). Aksakov is identified
as the author of this anonymous article in Valerii Briusov, “Materialy dlia bi-
244 Notes to Pages 62–64