Folk Adaptation of the Sentimental Romance by M. V. Zubova “I`m Going to the Desert

Abstract

The paper presents the collection and analysis of the folklore adaptations of Maria Zubova's sentimental romance “I am going away into the desert” in the 19th and 20th centuries. The transformation of the author's work in folk song and theatre culture demonstrates a complex interaction between folklore and book poetry. The biography of the author, a representative of the artistic milieu and one of the few female poets of the late 18th century, is reflected in some journal sources (“Materials for the History of Russian Female Authors” by M. N. Makarov) and fiction sources (“Russian Women of New Times” by D. L. Mordovtsev) which confirm possible authorship of the poetess. The study highlights stylistic features of love, spiritual and prison lyrics, as well as the work of folk theatre, which uses the text under study. Women's love songs, including choral songs, vary the motif of infidelity, transform the spiritual meaning of the image of the desert into a symbol of conjugal loneliness. In an Old Believer environment, the work was included in spiritual songs developing a motif of renunciation of the secular life in the wilderness. Researcher P. A. Bessonov discusses the devastating impact of “pseudo-folk” song on Russian spiritual culture. Echoes of the sentimental romance may also be found in the prison lyrics of the 20th century collected from the Siberian narrator I. K. Beketov. The final part of the study deals with the folk drama “King Maximilian”, where the cited text appears as a precedent for the Russian culture, which is proved later by its active use in numerous works of fiction.