Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov

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Ivan Goncharov, Portrait of Ivan Nikolajewitsch Kramskoi (1865)
Ivan Goncharov - signature.jpg

Ivan Goncharov ( Russian Иван Александрович Гончаров ., Scientific transliteration Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov * June 6 jul. / 18th June  1812 greg. In Simbirsk , † September 15 jul. / 27. September  1891 greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian writer. His most famous work is the novel Oblomow (1859).

Life

Goncharov's birthplace in Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk)
Portrait of Goncharov
Goncharov in 1886
Russian postage stamp, issued on the occasion of the 200th birthday of Ivan Goncharov in 2012

Ivan Goncharov grew up as the son of a rich grain merchant who had died in 1819 and whose business was continued by his mother. The grandfather had been transferred to the hereditary nobility , so that Goncharov was able to observe the crisis of the patriarchal land nobility and its culture and the rise of a multifaceted liberal financial and commercial elite in his own environment. After attending the Moscow Business School from 1822 to 1830, Goncharov completed his training at Moscow University in 1834 and then served for 30 years in Saint Petersburg, first as a translator, then as a minor civil servant, from 1856 as a senior censor in the Ministry of National Education, and later as a senior civil servant in the top one Press authority.

After early poetry, he turned to realistic prose works from 1838 - influenced by Pushkin , Lermontow and Gogol . In 1847 Goncharov's first novel, A Everyday Story (Obyknowennaja istorija), was published, which dealt with the conflicts between the Russian nobility and the rising class of merchants. The novel was followed by the psychological-naturalistic sketch Ivan Sawitsch Podjabrin (1848).

Between 1852 and 1855 Goncharov traveled to England , Africa , Japan and via Siberia back to Russia as secretary of Admiral Putyatin . His keenly observing travelogue The Frigate Pallas (Fregat Pallada) was published in 1858 and received international attention. The following year his novel Oblomow , which was also extremely successful internationally , was published, the title character of which is compared to Shakespeare's Hamlet , who asked the question to be or not to be? with no! answered. Dostoevsky , among others, considered Goncharov to be a remarkable writer of high quality, by whom he showed himself to be influenced.

In his first works, Goncharov's basic theme, the boundless boredom, became clear, which he made such a central content in his main work Oblomow that the drivelessness of the title hero became proverbial in Russian: Oblomovshchina , sinking into idleness to final decay.

Goncharov's tomb in the Volkovo Cemetery

In 1867 Goncharov retired from his post as government censor and published his last novel; The Gorge (Obryw) (1869) is the story of a rivalry between three men who seek the love of a mysterious woman. This novel was rejected almost unanimously, because the conservative turn of the author in the new era after the reforms of 1861 could not be understood. He spent the rest of his life in solitary seclusion in the face of the negative criticism this and some of his other works received. Goncharov also wrote short stories, reviews, essays and memoirs, but these did not appear until 1919.

Works

Letters

from the estate

  • 1875 The Christmas tree , complete new translation by Vera Bischitzky in FAZ of November 30, 2013, pages L1 and L2.

expenditure

  • Goncharov: The hill attackers of St. Petersburg . Stories, translated from Russian by Beate Petras, Evelyn Beitz and Bogdan Kovtyk. Kiepenheuer, 1989. ISBN 3-378-00005-8 .

Radio plays

literature

  • Milton Honor: Oblomov and his creator. The life and art of Ivan Goncharov. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. 1973. (= Studies of the Russian Institute / Columbia University) ISBN 0-691-06245-5 .
  • Annette Huwyler-Van der Haegen: Goncarov's three novels - a trilogy? Munich: Sagner. 1991. (= Lectures and treatises on Slavic Studies; 19) ISBN 3-87690-442-0 .
  • Volker Klotz : Idlers: Non-perpetrators. No good in Struwwelpeter, Datterich and elsewhere , two essays. Magistrate, Press and Information Office, Darmstadt 2001, DNB 961918373 ( Darmstadt documents , volume 12).
  • Jan Kusber : Colonial expansion and the perception of “Asia” around the middle of the 19th century. The example of Ivan A. Goncarov. In: Stephan Conermann / Jan Kusber (eds.): Studia Eurasiatica, EB-Verlag, Schenefeld / Hamburg 2003, pp. 189–213. (= Asia and Africa; 10) ISBN 3-930826-99-2 .
  • Ulrich M. Lohff: The Imagery in the Novels of Ivan Aleksandrovič Gončarovs (1812-1891). Munich: Sagner. 1977. (= Slavic contributions; 108) ISBN 3-87690-129-4 .
  • Walter Rehm: Goncharov and Jacobsen or boredom and melancholy. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht. 1963. (= Small Vandenhoeck series; 154/155/156)
  • Heide Rohse: Invisible Tears. Effi Briest - Oblomow - Anton Reiser - Passion Christi. Psychoanalytic literary interpretations on Theodor Fontane, Iwan A. Gontscharow, Karl Philipp Moritz and the New Testament. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann. 2000, ISBN 3-8260-1879-6 .
  • Hans Rothe: The gorge. Ivan Gontscharov and “Realism” after Turgenev and before Dostojevsky (1849–1869). Opladen: Westdt. Verlag 1991. (= treatises of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften; 86) ISBN 3-531-05104-0 .
  • Mechtild Russell: Investigations into the theory and practice of typing at IA Gončarov. Munich: Sagner. 1978. (= Slavist contributions; 118)
  • Vsevolod Setchkarev: Ivan Goncharov. His life and his works. Würzburg: Jal-Verlag. 1974. (= Colloquium Slavicum; 4) ISBN 3-7778-0091-0 .
  • Garth M. Terry: Ivan Goncharov. A bibliography. Nottingham: Astra Pr. 1986. (= Astra Soviet and East European monographs; 6) ISBN 0-946134-07-3 .
  • Peter Thiergen (Ed.): IA Gončarov. Contributions to work and effect. Cologne among others: Böhlau. 1989. (= building blocks for the history of literature among the Slavs; 33) ISBN 3-412-03089-9 .
  • Peter Thiergen (Ed.): Ivan A. Gončarov. Life, work and effect. Contributions from the 1st International Gončarov Conference, Bamberg, 8.-10. October 1991. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1994 (= building blocks for Slavic philology and cultural history ; Series A, Slavic research; NF, 12) ISBN 3-412-04394-X .

Web links

Commons : Ivan Goncharov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Iwan Alexandrowitsch Goncharov  - sources and full texts