Sushko, E. L. Ideas and Motives of Oscar Wilde’s Tragedy ‘The Duchess of Padua’ in Valery Bryusov’s Creative Writing

Abstract: Oscar Wilde’s tragedy ‘The Duchess of Padua’ and its Russian translation made by a distinguished poet of the Silver Age Valery Bryusov are interesting from the point of view of not only literary but also cultural research. The tragedy reflects Wilde’s passion for Italian Renaissance culture and literature. The same passion for Italian Renaissance culture and creative work of a famous Florentine Dante Alighieri were typical for Valery Bryusov, too. In this article based on the example of Bryusov’s translation of Wilde’s tragedy ‘The Duchess of Padua’ Sushko analyzes ideas, motives and images that were typical for Oscar Wilde’s writing and had an influence on Valery Bryusov’s poetry. Analysis of motives and images allows to define important ideologemes important for the tragedy, especially in terms of color images and symbolism. Having analyzed the influence of images and symbols of ‘The Duchess of Padua’ on Valery Bryusov’s poetry, the author concludes that Oscar Wilde’s aesthetics played an important role in creative writing of Russian senior generation of symbolists. Italian Renaissance aesthetics and religious philosophy were also very important for the senior generation of symbolists. Both the poetry of the senior generation of symbolists and Oscar Wilde’s plays had Dante’s motives and images

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