TWELVE SLEEPING MAIDENS BY V. A. ZHUKOVSKY IN CONTEMPORARY PARODY RESPONSES (I. V. PROTASHINSKY, A. A. VOEIKOVA, S. P. SHEVYREV)

Abstract

The article deals with parody responses to the Twelve Sleeping Maidens (1811–1817) by V. A. Zhukovsky, using the texts by I. V. Protashinsky, A. A. Voeikova, S. P. Shevyrev as case studies. Protashinsky’s parody Twelve Sleeping Butoshniks (1832) was very popular, and an approving reference to it in Voeikova’s letter to Zhukovsky allows us to date it back to 1819. The article describes the history of Shevyrev’s writing of the libretto for A. N. Verstovsky’s opera Vadim, or the Twelve Sleeping Maidens Awakening (1832). The discussion of the libretto in the letters to M. P. Pogodin highlights parodic elements in Shevyrev’s rendition of Zhukovsky’s plot.