BORIS SADOVSKOY’S PLAY “THE KNIGHT OF MALTA”: ISSUES OF CREATIVE HISTORY, POETICS AND PROBLEMS

Abstract

The object of research attention in the article is B.A. Sadovskoy’s play “The Knight of Malta”. The author examines the creative history of the play, shows the origins of the Sadovskoy’s interest in the drama genre, and points out the importance of publication of unknown to Sadovskoy’s biographers materials about his relationship with the world of theatre. Aspects of the stage interpretation of the play are highlighted, and unknown responses from contemporaries are given. Intertextual links between the “The Knight of Malta” and the “The Captain’s Daughter” of A.S. Pushkin are revealed. Some resemblance of particular storylines of the two works is accentuated, as well as the functional propinquity of their main characters. The author concretizes the genre definition of Sadovskoy’s play proposed by the first play researcher I.P. Andreeva as “fairy-tale poems”. The thesis is put forward and justified that the figure of the knight of Malta should be understood as the Emperor Paul I, whom the convinced monarchist Sadovskoy particularly valued among the powerful rulers of Russia, along with Nicholas I and Alexander III. It is summarized that although “The Knight of Malta” is not one of the best works of Sadovskoy, a careful reading of it is important in terms of understanding the characteristic features of his creative worldview.