Um nokkur ljóð í lausu máli úr Senilia eftir Ívan Túrgenev

Abstract

Senilia. Poems in Prose (Senilia. Стихотворения в прозе) is a collection of prose poems and the last work by Ivan Turgenev that was published during his lifetime. The majority of the texts first appeared in the journal The Messenger of Europe (Вестник Европы) in December 1882. The remaining texts, however, were not published until 1929 in France in a French translation. Senilia was the first work of its kind in Russia. It attracted attention as such, as Turgenev was still considered one of the major authors in his homeland despite having lived abroad for nearly twenty years. Although the work’s reception was generally favorable, not everyone was equally impressed. Here, the creation and publication of Senilia will be told, and analyses will be made of the work’s themes and characteristics. The reception of the work in Russia is also examined, and how different scholars and critics understood and received the work’s title.