Two Worlds (drama)

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Two Worlds
Author Apollon Maykov
Original titleДва мира [Dva mira]
Country Russian Empire
Language Russian
Subject The conflict between Paganism and Christianity
Genre tragedy
Publication date
 1882

Two Worlds (Dva Mira, Два ми′ра) is a tragedy in verse by Apollon Maykov first published (in its full form) in February 1882 issue of The Russian Messenger . It represents the final part of the poetic cycle dealing with the conflict between paganism and Christianity. In 1882 Two Worlds won its author the Pushkin Prize for literature and was hailed as his most prominent work to date. [1]

Tragedy form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences

Tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it.

Apollon Maykov Russian poet and translator

Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov was a Russian poet, best known for his lyric verse showcasing images of Russian villages, nature, and history. His love for ancient Greece and Rome, which he studied for much of his life, is also reflected in his works. Maykov spent four years translating the epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign (1870) into modern Russian. He translated the folklore of Belarus, Greece, Serbia and Spain, as well as works by Heine, Adam Mickiewicz and Goethe, among others. Several of Maykov's poems were set to music by Russian composers, among them Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Contents

History

After the 1857 publication of Three Deaths Maykov continued to investigate the moral and the ethical aspects of the original clash between Ancient Rome and early Christianity. In 1863 he published "The Death of Lucius" (originally conceived as the second part of Three Deaths), but was dissatisfied with the result. The piece called "Death of Lucius. Part 2" (the manuscript of which was discovered in Maykov's archives years later) proved to be the basis of the Two Worlds. "The Death of Lucius", radically re-worked, has found its way into it too, first as the second (in 1872) and then as the third part, in 1882, when it was published by The Russian Messenger and received the prestigious Pushkin Prize. [1]

"Three Deaths: A Tale" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy first published in 1859. It narrates the deaths of three subjects: a noblewoman, a coachman and a tree.

Ancient Rome History of Rome from the 8th-century BC to the 5th-century

In historiography, ancient Rome is Roman civilization from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire. The civilization began as an Italic settlement in the Italian Peninsula, conventionally founded in 753 BC, that grew into the city of Rome and which subsequently gave its name to the empire over which it ruled and to the widespread civilisation the empire developed. The Roman empire expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world, though still ruled from the city, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants and covering 5.0 million square kilometres at its height in AD 117.

The Russian Messenger or Russian Herald has been the title of three notable magazines published in Russia during the 19th century and early 20th century. Since 1991, in Moscow, a new publication named the Russian Messenger has appeared once again. It is published weekly and its editor-in-chief from 1991-2013 was Alexei Senin, from 2014 Oleg Platonov.

Reception

The Two Worlds was widely discussed and favourably reviewed by contemporary critics. Most of them agreed that with it the poet reached his artistic peak. "The poem of Maykov is so maturely conceived and meticulously executed, that we have to regard it as one of those gains our literature should be very proud of," Yakov Grot declared on 19 October 1982, speaking at the Russian Academy of Sciences meeting. [1]

Russian Academy of Sciences academy of sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such as libraries, publishing units, and hospitals.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Two Worlds. Commentaries". az.lib.ru // The Works of A.N.Maykov in 2 Volumes. Vol.2, Moscow, Pravda Publishers. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
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