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Denis Fonvizin | |
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 Portrait,c. 1780s | |
| Born | Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1745-04-14)14 April 1745 Moscow, Russian Empire |
| Died | 12 December 1792(1792-12-12) (aged 47) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Resting place | Lazarevskoe Cemetery,Saint Petersburg |
| Occupation | Writer, playwright, translator |
| Alma mater | Imperial Moscow University |
| Spouse | Ekaterina Ivanovna Rogovikova (1774–1792) |
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (Russian:Денис Иванович Фонвизин,IPA:[dʲɪˈnʲisɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕfɐnˈvʲizʲɪn]; 14 April [O.S. 3 April] 1745 – 12 December [O.S. 1 December] 1792) was a Russian playwright and writer of theRussian Enlightenment. He was one of the founders of literary comedy in Russia. His main works are two satirical comedies—includingThe Minor, which mocks contemporaryRussian gentry—which are still staged today.
Denis Fonvizin was born inMoscow into anobleRussian Orthodox family. He was the first of eight children.[1][2][3] His mother Ekaterina Vasilievna Fonvizina (née Dmitrieva-Mamonova) (born 1718) belonged to theSmolenskRurik branch on her father's side and to theGrushetsky family on her mother's side; she was a cousin-niece ofTsaritsaAgafya Grushetskaya and an aunt toAlexander Dmitriev-Mamonov, who was famously a lover ofCatherine the Great.[4][5]
His fatherIvan Fonvizin (1705–1785) started as an army officer, then served in theCollegium of Accounting, becoming aState Councillor in 1783.[2][3] His ancestor Baron Berndt von Wiesen belonged to theLivonian Order, was captured during theLivonian War and became a naturalized Russian citizen; his descendantsRussified, and the family name transformed over the years, but it was Ivan Andreevich who started writing it as Fonvizin.[6][7]
Denis Fonvizin received a good education at theImperial Moscow University and very early began writing and translating. He entered the civil service, becoming secretary to CountNikita Panin, one of the great noblemen of Catherine the Great's reign. Because of Panin's protection, Fonvizin was able to write critical plays without fear of being arrested. In the late 1760s, he completed the first of his two famous comedies,The Brigadier-General.
A man of means, he was always a dilettante rather than a professional author, though he became prominent in literary and intellectual circles. In 1777–78 he traveled abroad, the principal aim of his journey being the medical faculty ofMontpellier. He described his voyage in hisLetters from France—one of the most elegant specimens of the prose of the period, and the most striking document of that anti-French nationalism which among the Russian elite of the time of Catherine went hand in hand with a complete dependence on French literary tastes.
In 1782 Fonvizin's second and best comedyThe Minor appeared, which definitely classed him as the foremost of Russian playwrights. His last years were passed in constant suffering and traveling abroad for his health. He died inSaint Petersburg in 1792.
Fonvizin's reputation rests almost entirely on his two comedies, which are beyond doubt the most popular Russian plays beforeAlexander Griboyedov'sWoe from Wit. They are both in prose and adhere to the canons of classicalcomedy. Fonvizin's principal model, however, was notMolière, but the great Dano-Norwegian playwrightLudvig Holberg, whom he read in German, and some of whose plays he had translated.
Both comedies are plays of social satire with definite axes to grind.The Brigadier-General is a satire against the fashionable French semi-education of thepetits-maîtres. It is full of excellent fun, and though less serious thanThe Minor, it is better constructed. ButThe Minor, though imperfect in dramatic construction, is a more remarkable work and justly considered Fonvizin's masterpiece.
The point of the satire inThe Minor is directed against the brutish and selfish crudeness and barbarity of the uneducated country gentry. The central character, Mitrofanushka, is the accomplished type of vulgar and brutal selfishness, unredeemed by a single human feature—even his fondly doting mother gets nothing from him for her pains. The dialogue of these vicious characters (in contrast to the stilted language of the lovers and their virtuous uncles) is true to life and finely individualized; and they are all masterpieces of characterization—a worthy introduction to the great portrait gallery of Russian fiction.
As a measure of its popularity, several expressions fromThe Minor have been turned into proverbs, and many authors (amongst whomAlexander Pushkin) regularly cite from this play, or at least hint to it by mentioning the characters' names.[8][9][10]
This article incorporates text fromD.S. Mirsky's "A History of Russian Literature" (1926-27), a publication now in thepublic domain.
