Onegin type of hero in the Russian poetry of 1840s and 1850s (N. M. Yazykov, Ap. Grigoriev, N. P. Ogarev, N. A. Nekrasov)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the transformation of the Onegin type of hero in the poetic works written in 1840s-1850s. The European models Pushkin's character is based on are indicated directly in the text of the novel: these are the works of J. G. Byron, Ch. R. Maturin, B. Constant, F. R. Chateaubriand and Ch. Nodier. They embody two types of heroes: demonic (characters of Byrons oriental poems, Melmoth, Jean Sbogar) and passive and reflective (Rene, Adolphe, Childe Harold). The combination of their features in Onegin gave the image volume and ambiguity. Inheriting the Onegin type of hero, the later literary tradition often retained the features of only one of the two named types. The transformation of the image was determined by the fact that the hero, firstly appeared in the 1840s, was moved from the poetic reality into the context of prose and its social interests. However, at the same time, Onegin type of hero still continued to appear in poetic texts, showing the transition of tradition from one quality to another: tendencies characteristic of prose develop directly within the framework of poetic texts. In the works of N. M. Yazykov and Ap. Grigoriev's passive and demonic types were embodied: the first - in the poetic dramatic scenes of Yazykov, the second - in the poems of Grigoriev. And both poets are concerned with the problem of their hero's social unproductivity. N. P. Ogarev in his poem "Character" summarizes current idea of the spiritual biography of the Onegin type of hero. "Confession of an Superfluous Man" by Ogarev as well as "A Strange Case" by Yazykov are texts in which the problems associated with the measurement of high poetry are paired with modest everyday prose. In Nekrasov's poem "Sasha" almost all the characteristics of the Onegin type, as the authors of the 1850s saw it, are collected and condemned.