Memory as a Process of Transforming Feelings in Alexander Sumarokov’s Love Elegies

Abstract

The article analyses Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov’s love elegies in relation to the motif of “memory of the heart” in Russian literature of the 18th century. The aim of the work was to compare the Russian translation by Alexander Khrapovitsky A Dictionary of Love by the French writer Jean-François Dreux du Radier with the Sumarokov elegies. The author points out that this work, out of light entertainment in France, became an enlightening reading for the young generation in Russia, dealing with issues of social life and memory and feelings. The translation of Dreux du Radier’s work for Sumarokov became an inspiration, and his love elegies can be called a kind of continuation, according to the author, this continuity is expressed in the choice of words related to the theme of memory — eternity, years, hours, minutes. The latter, in particular, express the value of human life according to Sumarokov — both strong feelings and the memory of them later, when over time human passions are mitigated, which allows to talk about the process of transformation under the influence of the memory of feelings presented in love elegies.