Mikhail Lermontov’s drama “A Strange Man”: a polemic with Alexander Griboyedov

The aim of this study is to identify the artistic techniques used by Mikhail Lermontov to engage creatively with Alexander Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit” in the former’s drama “A Strange Man”. The polemical perspective on the relationship between the two plays has not yet been the subject of literary criticism, which determines the scholarly novelty of this study. The analysis revealed that, despite superficial plot and imagery parallels with Griboyedov’s comedy, Lermontov’s drama contains a different type of conflict, harking back to Romantic poetics. The key characteristic based on which the protagonist is contrasted with all others is not intelligence and enlightenment, but a non-rational knowledge of the ideal world. Consequently, Lermontov imbues the motif of the protagonist’s madness with fundamentally different semantics. The love storylines are also significantly transformed, and a number of the motifs and character roles in Lermontov’s drama are pointedly inverted compared to Griboyedov’s comedy. Thus, Lermontov’s orientation toward an established dramatic model manifested itself not in mere imitation, but in creative debate, emphasizing the young author’s determination to develop his own artistic system.