Et in Arcadia Ego: Toward a Historical Analysis of the Russian Pastoral Mode

By investigating the origin, character, import, and ultimate fate of the web of associations and reader expectations that is the Russian pastoral mode, this study attempts to determine how and why certain pastoral themes, tropes, and other literary conventions derived from the Classicist tradition of idyll and eclogue became divorced from their original generic context before eventually developing into crucial aspects of the Russian Romantic and Realist conceptions of the countryside. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of Aleksandr Pushkin in adopting, transforming, and propagating pastoral associations, which in turn provides insight into his own oeuvre and legacy.