Denis I. Fonvizin

Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (Russian: Денис Иванович Фонвизин) (14 April 1744?– 1 December 1792) is the only playwright of the Russian Enlightenment whose plays are still staged today. Events 43 BC - Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar 's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Year 1744 ( MDCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Events 800 - Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican Year 1792 ( MDCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The Russian Age of Enlightenment was a period in the eighteenth century in which the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.

Life

Born in 1745, in Moscow, of a family of gentry, he received a good education at the University of Moscow and very early began writing and translating. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of He entered the civil service, becoming secretary to Count Nikita Panin, one of the great noblemen of Catherine the Great's reign. Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin (Ники́та Ива́нович Па́нин () was an influential Russian statesman and political mentor to Catherine the Great Catherine II, called Catherine the Great (Екатерина II Великая Yekaterina II Velikaya;) reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years Because of Panin's protection, Fonvizin was able to write critical plays without fear of being arrested, and, in the late 1760s, he brought out the first of his two famous comedies, The Brigadier-General.

A man of means, he was always a dilettante rather than a professional author, though he became prominent in literary and intellectual circles. In 1777-78 he traveled abroad, the principal aim of his journey being the medical faculty of Montpellier. Montpellier ( Occitan Montpelhièr) is a City in the south of France. He described his voyage in his Letters from France — one of the most elegant specimens of the prose of the period, and the most striking document of that anti-French nationalism which in the Russian elite of the time of Catherine went hand in hand with a complete dependence on French literary taste.

In 1782 appeared Fonvizin's second and best comedy The Minor, which definitely classed him as the foremost of Russian playwrights. His last years were passed in constant suffering and traveling abroad for his health. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1792. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River

Works and influence

Fonvizin's reputation rests almost entirely on his two comedies, which are beyond doubt the most popular Russian plays before Alexander Griboyedov's Woe from Wit. Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (Александр Сергеевич Грибоедов alternative transcription Griboedov ( January 15, 1795 – February They are both in prose and adhere to the canons of classical comedy. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and Fonvizin's principal model, however, was not Molière, but the great Danish playwright Holberg, whom he read in German, and some of whose plays he had translated. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known by his Stage name, Molière, ( January 15, 1622 – February 17 1673) was a French Ludvig Holberg Baron of Holberg ( December 3, 1684 – January 28, 1754) was a writer essayist philosopher historian and playwright born in

Both comedies are plays of social satire with definite axes to grind. The Brigadie-General is a satire against the fashionable French semi-education of the petits-maîtres. It is full of excellent fun, and though less serious than The Minor, it is better constructed. But The Minor, though imperfect in dramatic construction, is a more remarkable work and justly considered Fonvizin's masterpiece.

The point of the satire in The Minor is directed against the brutish and selfish crudeness and barbarity of the uneducated country gentry. The central character, Mitrofanushka, is the accomplished type of vulgar and brutal selfishness, unredeemed by a single human feature — even his fondly doting mother gets nothing from him for her pains. The dialogue of these vicious characters (in contrast to the stilted language of the lovers and their virtuous uncles) is true to life and finely individualized; and they are all masterpieces of characterization — a worthy introduction to the great portrait gallery of Russian fiction.

As a measure of its popularity, several expressions from The Minor have been turned into proverbs, and many authors (amongst whom Alexandr Pushkin) regularly cite from this play, or at least hint to it by mentioning the character's names^{1 2 3}.

References

This article incorporates text from D.S. Mirsky's "A History of Russian Literature" (1926-27), a publication now in the public domain. DS Mirsky is the English pen-name of Dmitry Petrovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky (Дми́трий Петро́вич Святопо́лк-Ми́рский (&ndash June 6 The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

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