Vol. 10, No 4: 138–148.

Philological sciences

2025

Scientific article

UDK 821.161.1

pdf-version

Alexandra A. Pankova
bachelor’s degree, Smolensk State University
(Smolensk, Russia),
sovapankova@yandex.ru

The Promethean Subtexts in Wilhelm Kuchelbecker's Lyric Poetry

Scientific adviser:
Leonid G. Kaianidi
Reviewer:
Aleksandr A. Lebedev
Paper submitted on: 09/26/2025;
Accepted on: 12/15/2025;
Published online on: 12/15/2025.
Abstract. The article examines allusions to the myth of Prometheus in Wilhelm Kuchelbecker's lyric poetry, specifically in the poems "To Prometheus", "They Will Not Understand My Suffering...", and "Before Death, I was Threatened by Death's Darkness...". The aim of the study is to analyze how the myth of Prometheus is received and interpreted within the works of this Romantic poet. The research employs comparative analysis, figurative-paradigmatic, motivic-thematic, and subtextual methods. In Kuchelbecker's poetry, Prometheus is depicted as a suffering titan, a cultural hero, and a demiurge. The study also reveals a figurative paradigm "poet → Prometheus" as a unique feature of Kuchelbecker's lyric poems.
Keywords: Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, Goethe, Prometheus, mythopoetics, Russian Romanticism, subtext, ancient motifs, figurative paradigm

For citation: Pankova, A. A. The Promethean Subtexts in Wilhelm Kuchelbecker's Lyric Poetry. StudArctic forum. 2025, 10 (4): 138–148.

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