M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin's Plays in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Russian Drama

The subject of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s drama and theatre has long been neglected as an area of research both in Russia and in the West. This thesis studies certain characteristic features of the dramatist’s oeuvre; it begins with an attempt to define the term drama. The analysis of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s dramatic oeuvre begins with his first attempts in the field of drama – the dramatic sketches included in the cycle Dramatic Scenes and Monologues (Драматические сцены и монологи), and continues through his mature ‘short’ – Recent Comedies (Недавние комедии) and A Morning at Khreptiugin’s (Утро у Хрептюгина) – and ‘classic’ – Pazukhin’s Death (Смерть Пазухина) and Shadows (Тени) – dramas, to finish with the last plays included in the cycles Abroad (За рубежом) and The Contemporary Idyll (Современная идиллия). His temporary abandonment of drama in the middle of the 1860s for the sake of his epic works, as well as his criticism of Russian and European drama, proved to be fruitful for Saltykov-Shchedrin not only as a dramatist but also as a literary critic of drama. When speaking about Saltykov-Shchedrin’s dramas, the topics of stageability and the genre of his plays cannot be omitted and these are closely analysed resulting in the conclusion that the playwright indeed created his plays with the intention of their being staged. The analysis of the characteristic features of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s dramas, concentrating on the plays’ structure, objective world, plot construction and subject matter, leads to the conclusion that the writer was a conscious and talented playwright who skilfully used a variety of different artistic tools and whose works, despite lacking a wide audience, occupy a significant place in the development of Russian drama