Tyutchev as a predecadent: the experience and language of love in the 'Denisyeva' cycle

Abstract

It is generally agreed by scholars that in the ‘Denisyeva' cycle, Tyutchev's work sounded a new voice. This study looks at the elements of experience and language that made up this new voice. More specifically, because of its quality and power and its seminal influence on the Symbolists and Decadents of the 1890s, this thesis proposes a different canon to the one of Romanticism that has generally been applied in the past - that of Tyutchev as a 'predecadent' Defining, observing, following and evaluating this 'predecadent' aspect of Tyutchev's sensibility in the 'Denisyeva' cycle is one of the aims of this thesis. The second aim is to refute the claim of Professor Gregg that Tyutchev's love was not authentic or lasting and to endorse the view traditionally held, that as the language and experience of love documented in and around the ‘Denisyeva' cycle testifies, this love was profound and enduring. This study moves from a definition and background of Decadence, through the cultural circumstances of Tyutchev’s life, to a selection of poems chosen by this study as pertaining directly to the 'Denisyeva' cycle. The central part of the thesis deals with the selected poems in chronological order. Some references to relevant examples from Tyutchev's earlier work as well as reference to examples of contemporaneous writers are used both as apposition and foil to anchor the work in its new context of 'predecadence'. The thesis concludes by suggesting that the 'predecadent appellation to Tyutchev is appropriate and useful to the understanding of his work in the 'Denisyeva' cycle.