The Mary Stuart myth in 20th century Russian literature (Valerii Briusov, Marina Cvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, Joseph Brodsky)

In this thesis, I trace the mythogenesis of Mary Stuart in Russian lyric poetry, epistolary prose, essay and drama in writings of Valerii Briusov, Marina Cvetaeva, Boris Pasternak and Iosif Brodskii. By examining these Russian texts in the context of the French, German and English Mary Stuart tradition from 1901 to 2001, the dissertation demonstrates the complexities of translating the 16th century Scottish queen Mary Stuart to 20th century Мария Стюарт(Mariia Stiuart).; In the introduction, I describe the four key elements of the Russian Mary Stuart myth and define my usage of the term 'myth'. The first chapter discusses Briusov's poem 'Maria Stuart' (1901) in the historic and mythic context of the books of poetry in which it appears. The poem's historically-set opening is juxtaposed to the fictional, necrophiliac closure after the queen's execution. Pasternak selected Mary Stuart's poetry as the impetus for poetry per se in 'A few positions' (1919/1922). The second chapter treats the essay's role in the epistolary prose of Pasternak, Cvetaeva and Rilke and juxtaposes Cvetaeva's and Pasternak's poetics as exemplified in their usage of Mary Stuart's poetry. The third chapter focuses on Cvetaeva's inclusion of Mary Stuart's poetry in her letters to Rilke in 1926 and treats Cvetaeva's poem 'Douce France' (1939), in which she fuses her poetry with that of the Scottish queen. The fourth chapter provides a reading of Pasternak's translation of Schiller's Maria Stuart (1956) in relation to the original and his poetic depiction of a performance of the play in the long poem Bacchanalia (1957) within the context of Doctor Zhivago (1957) and When the weather clears (1956--1959). Chapter five investigates the metamorphotic aspects of losif Brodskii's 'Twenty sonnets to Marie Stuart' (1974).; During the course of the 20th century a peculiar Russian myth arises that has developed its own intertextual dynamic and is far removed from the historical figure of Mary Stuart. The conclusion provides an outlook onto the continuation of the Mary Stuart myth in the late 20th century. It briefly introduces Sergei Slonimskii's opera-ballada Maria Stuart (1980) and Elena Chizheva's 'Tragedy of Mary Stuart---Queen of Scotland' (1991) and treats Elena Fanailova's 'Poems to Marie S.' (1995) and Maria Stepanova's 'Twenty sonnets to M.' (2001) in relation to the preceding tradition.