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Vasilii Zhukovskii as a Translator and the Protean Russian Nation

“…Pushkin himself had defined narodnost' in his 1825 article in just such a manner with Shakespeare as an example, perhaps even in polemics with Somov's use of the term in relation to Goethe. 61 However, the example of Goethe and Somov's reading of his narodnost' suggested a new possibility, especially when juxtaposed to the special receptivity of Zhukovskii. 62 In the article on the particularity of Russian literature, then, Gogol gives to Pushkin the attributes of the protean poet: "In Spain he is a Spaniard, with a Greek-a Greek, in the Caucasus he is a free mountain dweller in the full sense of the word."…”