The tradition of civic poetry occupies a unique place in the history of Russian literature. The civic poet (grazhdanskii poet) characteristically addresses socio-political issues and injustices relevant to the era in opposition to the established authority. This often comes out of a sense of responsibility to the nation. During the Thaw period (1953-63), an interval of relative artistic freedom that followed decades of severe artistic control, Y. Yevtushenko (1932- ) was among the first poets who dared to speak critically about the social and political injustices that occurred during Stalin’s dictatorship. At that time, his civic-oriented poetry focused primarily on the reassessment of historical, social, and political values in the post-Stalin era. The aim of the present study is to evaluate Yevtushenko’s position within the tradition of civic poets and to illustrate his stylistic ability to combine lyrical intimacy and autobiographic experiences with national and international issues in the genre of civic poetry. I approach the subject using a methodology of close examination: a formal and structural analysis of select poems in the original Russian. In addition, relevant social, political, and historical conditions are taken into account, as well as Mayakovsky’s influence on Yevtushenko’s poetry. This research offers a definition of the term “civic poet” and supplies a historical survey of civic poetry that dates back to the satires of the eighteenth century. I specifically refer to the Russian icons of this genre: G. Derzhavin, A. Pushkin, K. Ryleev, M. Lermontov, N. Nekrasov, and V. Mayakovsky. I start my evaluation of Yevtushenko as a civic poet by examining his narrative poem, Stantsiia Zima (1956), and proceed with a detailed analysis of his most important political poems of the Thaw period: “Babii Yar” (1961) and “Nasledniki Stalina” (Heirs of Stalin, 1962). In addition, I assess Yevtushenko’s political and cultural acts throughout his career. Finally, I further analyze select poems by Yevtushenko that were published from 1990 to 2005, to offer a new and more complete view of Yevtushenko’s place in the canon of Russian civic poets.

The tradition of civic poetry occupies a unique place in the history of Russian literature. The civic poet (grazhdanskii poet) characteristically addresses socio-political issues and injustices relevant to the era in opposition to the established authority. This often comes out of a sense of responsibility to the nation. During the Thaw period (1953-63), an interval of relative artistic freedom that followed decades of severe artistic control, Y. Yevtushenko (1932- ) was among the first poets who dared to speak critically about the social and political injustices that occurred during Stalin’s dictatorship. At that time, his civic-oriented poetry focused primarily on the reassessment of historical, social, and political values in the post-Stalin era. The aim of the present study is to evaluate Yevtushenko’s position within the tradition of civic poets and to illustrate his stylistic ability to combine lyrical intimacy and autobiographic experiences with national and international issues in the genre of civic poetry. I approach the subject using a methodology of close examination: a formal and structural analysis of select poems in the original Russian. In addition, relevant social, political, and historical conditions are taken into account, as well as Mayakovsky’s influence on Yevtushenko’s poetry. This research offers a definition of the term “civic poet” and supplies a historical survey of civic poetry that dates back to the satires of the eighteenth century. I specifically refer to the Russian icons of this genre: G. Derzhavin, A. Pushkin, K. Ryleev, M. Lermontov, N. Nekrasov, and V. Mayakovsky. I start my evaluation of Yevtushenko as a civic poet by examining his narrative poem, Stantsiia Zima (1956), and proceed with a detailed analysis of his most important political poems of the Thaw period: “Babii Yar” (1961) and “Nasledniki Stalina” (Heirs of Stalin, 1962). In addition, I assess Yevtushenko’s political and cultural acts throughout his career. Finally, I further analyze select poems by Yevtushenko that were published from 1990 to 2005, to offer a new and more complete view of Yevtushenko’s place in the canon of Russian civic poets.

Cette thèse présente la première monographie française sur le grand écrivain russe et sibérien Victor Astafiev. Peu traduite en français, son œuvre importante (15 volumes) est généralement considérée par la critique comme s’inscrivant dans la veine de la prose rurale qui se développa en Russie à partir des années 70. Cependant, la biographie de l’écrivain et la multiplicité des thèmes qu’il aborde (société, guerre, musique, sons et nature) impose une remise en question de cette interprétation. L’auteur de la thèse s’attache à analyser finement les textes mis en contexte, à étudier l’évolution et la spécificité linguistique de leur écriture pour situer Astafiev dans la tradition de la grande littérature russe et faire apparaitre la profondeur et l’actualité de ses écrits. Le volume II livre une série de traductions inédites, annotées et commentées, ainsi que les versions reconstituées de chansons dont les textes révèlent un trésor de la culture populaire de l’époque. / This thesis presents the first French monograph on the great Russian and Siberian writer, Viktor Petrovich Astafiev. His important work (15 volumes), little-translated into French, is generally praised by critics as taking place within the same framework of the Village Prose, which started growing in Russia from the seventies onwards. However, the biography of the writer and the multiple themes which he takes up (society, war, music, sounds and nature) call into question this interpretation. The thesis author attempts to carry out a shrewd analysis of the texts placed within their context and to study the linguistic development as well as the specificity of Astafiev writings in order to situate him in the tradition of the great Russian literature and to highlight the depth and the topicality of his work. The second volume delivers a whole series of unpublished translations, duly annotated and commented as well as restored versions of songs, the texts of which reveal a treasure of the popular culture in the context of that time.