Denis Fonvizin

Denis Ivanovich Fonvisin ( German Dennis of meadows, Russian Денис Иванович Фонвизин, scientific transliteration Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin; * 3 Apriljul / April 14 1745greg in Moscow, .. † 1 Dezemberjul / December 12 1792greg in Saint Petersburg.. ) was a Russian satirist and comic poet.

Life

As the son of a landowner, he received a thorough education and later joined the civil service. In his first comedy " The Brigadier " (1769 ), he criticized the lack of education and immorality of the civil service and the lower nobility and the Gallomania the young generation.

In 1782 he completed his major work, directed against the crude, uneducated gentry comedy " The Squire " ( Недоросль ), which caused great enthusiasm in their performance in the same year. She was the first Russian theater with a progressive political tendency. Decorated with a large force of satirical images of serfdom were understood as a social indictment.

After a polemic directed against Catherine the Great, the poet any more literary activity was prohibited. Fonvisin reformed with his works, the Russian literary language and pioneered in poetry, drama and prose to the realism of the 19th century the way.

In addition to Nikolai Novikov, he was from the end of the sixties of the 18th century pioneer and leading literary representative of the Russian Enlightenment.