Reading with Maps, Prints and Commonplace Books, or How the Poet V. A. Zhukovsky Taught Alexander II to Read Russia (1825-1838)

This paper deals with how the poet Vasilii Zhukovsky taught the future tsar Alex­ander II to read, analysing the main didactic tools that he employed in educating the heir to the Russian throne (1825-1838). In particular, the focus is on the different supports used by the tutor during their readings, to clarify and help fix the content of the texts they read in the pupil’s memory. Zhukovsky had indeed selected three different tools that could help him in his task: 1) iconographic material (maps, city and building maps, prints); 2) two different types of commonplace books; 3) mne­monic tables designed to help the reader to recall the context of the texts read. Each of these tools could shape the dynamic reality of a text, emphasising some of its aspects, conferring a particular sense to it and thus obtaining a precise effect on the reader. By investigating the memory aids he used to help the reader fix texts in his mind and the intellectual processes behind them, this paper identifies some of the reading methods that the poet elected for his pupil. Contrarily to what critics maintain, Zhukovsky tried to use with his pupil some historicising reading methods that could favour contextualisation, instead of privileging romantic and mythopoeic readings. The poet taught the heir to read using a comparative and contrastive scientific method, rather than educating him to seeing history in a romantic and nationalistic way. Thus, Zhukovsky contributed to developing, in the future tsar, an interpretative habit that proved relevant later on in the sovereign’s political activity