Court literature. The Institute of Literature and the Construction of Absolutism in Russia of the middle of the XVIII century

The Institute of Literature in Russia began to take shape in the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741-1761) Its formation was closely connected with the practices of court patronage - the heyday of literature was considered an important sign of a prosperous monarchical state. Developing the works of literary critics who studied the connections of the Russian literature of the 18th century and statehood, K. Ospovat poses a theoretical question about the interaction between poetics and politics, between the literary form, writing and the absolutist model of society. How did the authoritative ideas about poetry adopted in Europe affect the works of Russian authors of the Elizabethan time - Kantemir, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Trediakovsky and others? What communicative schemes stood behind their works and what place in the model of society was reserved for a literary act? In what forms did the literature present and justified its claims for public recognition? What was the lyrical modus with the constructions of the monarchical power and the political subjectivity of the subject? Kirill Ospovat is a philologist, associate professor of the University of Wisconsin in Madison