THE FIRST LOVE THEME IN I.S. TURGENEV AND S. BECKETT’S CREATIVE WORKS
Authors: Бурмистрова Ю.Д. 
Published: July 2024

Русская литература получила широкое признание в мировом культурном пространстве только в конце XIX в. В этом вопросе примечательна роль И.С. Тургенева, который, в отличие от других русских писателей, был известен в Европе с 50-х гг. XIX в. и рассматривался иностранными авторами как близкий им литературный деятель, который русскую оригинальность изложения сочетал с доступным для понимания иноязычным читателям содержанием. В настоящем исследовании речь пойдет о реминисценциях из Тургенева в творчестве С. Беккета и, в частности, в его рассказе «Первая любовь», который во многом, полагаем, создавался в контексте одноименной тургеневской повести. Тема взаимоотношений Тургенева и ирландского писателя ранее не поднималась в исследовательской литературе, однако литературные связи двух авторов, которые удается проследить по письмам и библиотеке Беккета, позволяют нам говорить о знакомстве последнего с текстами русского писателя.

Russian literature acquires wide-spread acknowledgement in the world cultural environment only in the late years of the 19th century. After that the creative works of such Russian writers as F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy or A.P. Chekhov become the source of allusions and reminiscentia for the foreign authors. E.M. de Vogue even claimed that in terms of the crisis of the national literature writers must address the Russian texts which offer new and original strategies for literature development. First and foremost, he spoke about I.S. Turgenev’s figure. He was one of the few Russian writers known in Europe from the middle of the 19th century and sometimes appeared as an author uniting both the Russian original way of thinking and depicting world with understandable for foreign public plots and ideas. Turgenev’s creative talent was known outside Russia and some foreign writers even considered themselves as his apprentices (like H. James). Our current research deals with the Turgenev’s figure in S. Beckett’s creative works who was quite familiar with Russian literature in general. By studying Beckett’s letters and library it was discovered that he indeed had different Turgenev’s works in his collection. There stand out two works — “The First Love” and “A Month in the Country” — where the first one was as we believe the plot forcing Beckett to address this topic in his eponymously-named short story. The both stories have a lot in common in the plot and character sections. First of all, the father figure appears in both books in relation to the first love thus creating love triangle: main character — father — lover. Moreover, both fathers appear distant to characters and at the same time close to their hearts. Female lover is also expressing some similarities namely in their scandalous behavior for their time. As for the main heroes, they both have romantic understanding of life which is largely travestied in Beckett’s work. But the most significant part is connected to the definition of love in both books. Turgenev underlines the poisonous and destructive nature of love that just has tragic meaning and destroys people without hesitation or regret. Beckett, in his turn, focuses on abstract, senseless and plainly uncontrollable side of love which makes the whole process chaotic. His characters also pass the love trial which Русская и зарубежная литературы: сопоставительные планы 57 is common for most of Turgenev’s works demonstrating their vanity and loneliness in the universe