Narrative potential of the June issue of A. Sumarokov’s journal “Hardworking Bee” (1759)

Abstract

Most of the studies of Sumarokov’s work as a journalist regard the writer as a satirist. In contrast, this article suggests a different perspective on the problem of Sumarokov’s literary legacy. Based on the analysis of the narrative potential of the June issue of “Hardworking Bee”, the study proposes to look at the public activity of Sumarokov the publisher as a special communicative strategy. The journal began to claim the formation of a public sphere, offering its conception of personal and social identity. Sumarokov’s journal became an entirely new institution with its audience, along with literary and scientific societies, secular salons, public theatres, and Masonic lodges. The article contains historical commentary and interpretation of the historical-literary and personal contexts of June 1759. The aim of the article is to study the journal metatext of the June issue of “Hardworking Bee”, to examine the problematics and poetics of the texts published in it. The article uses methods of literary studies: historical-typological, cultural-historical, biographical and comparative-historical. The study demonstrates that Sumarokov’s metatextual narrative realized a new model of cyclization for Russian literature. At the lowest, ordinary level, the reader could remain a profane, and at the highest level the reader the reader is turned into a hermetic wise man. We can conclude that Sumarokov’s journal “Hardworking Bee” stimulated the creation of most monthly editions not only in the Russian 18th century. The article emphasizes the importance of Sumarokov’s experience as a publisher and editor for the evaluation of his creativity in general.