The term “Pushkin Pleiad” (Pushkinskaia pleiada) is widely used in modern literary studies, but is notoriously difficult to define. The Soviet
Literary Encyclopaedia(
Literaturnaia entsiklopediia) of 1934 defines it succinctly, but vaguely, as “a group of writers, contemporaries of Pushkin and close to him in different aspects of his work: Batiushkov, Baratynsky, Iazykov, Viazemsky, Del'vig and others”. The definition is unsatisfactory since it does not make clear that the “writers” were above all poets and that it was to aspects of Pushkin's poetry, rather than of his other writings that they were all close. Furthermore, although the last four named are on any list of the Pleiad members, many would question whether Batiushkov should be included in the list, while the phrase…
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Citation: Pursglove, Michael. "The Pushkin Pleiad". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5543, accessed 21 November 2024.]
