Abstract
<jats:p>The article analyzes the 19th-century literary-critical polemic surrounding two alternative versions of the Russian Romantic ballad created by V. A. Zhukovsky and P. A. Katenin. The study aims to identify the mechanisms of literary criticism through which the struggle between supporters of these two ballad varieties was conducted, and more broadly, the strategies for adapting “imported” genres to national soil. The article compares the approaches of V. A. Zhukovsky, P. A. Katenin, and A. S. Pushkin to the creation of a domestic ballad. The positions of the literary critics N. I. Gnedich, A. S. Griboyedov, and K. A. Polevoy regarding the national nature of these works and the artistic skill of their authors are examined. Furthermore, the article explores the influence of this discussion on the formation of the criteria for narodnost (national spirit) in art, the literary reputations of Zhukovsky and Katenin, and the historical poetics of the ballad genre. The scientific novelty of the research lies in a new interpretation of the 1810s-1830s polemic as a competition between two strategies for the “transplantation” of Western European genres onto national soil, identifying three stages of this discussion and the mechanisms of interaction between criticism and literary practice of the period. The findings show that the discussion unfolded simultaneously in the literary and literary-critical fields in three stages: (1) the ballad “duel” between Zhukovsky and Katenin and Zhukovsky’s literary-critical manifesto “On Translation in General, and Particularly on Verse Translations” (1808-1815); (2) the polemic between N. I. Gnedich and A. S. Griboyedov in the journal “Syn Otechestva” (Son of the Fatherland) (1816); and (3) reflection on the dispute during the subsequent literary era by K. A. Polevoy, V. A. Zhukovsky, and A. S. Pushkin (1830s).</jats:p>