Skoropadskaya, A. (2025) “Genius Creates, Mind Imagines“: The Question of the Relation Between the Concepts of Genius and Mind in Russian Journalism of the First Half of the XIX Century – МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

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Anna A. SKOROPADSKAYA
Petrozavodsk State University
33 Lenin St, 185910 Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation
Associate Professor of the Institute of Philology
PhD (in Philology)
e-mail: san19770@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0001- 6593-5526

Skoropadskaya, A. (2025) “Genius Creates, Mind Imagines“: The Question of the Relation Between the Concepts of Genius and Mind in Russian Journalism of the First Half of the XIX Century

Abstract: The article explores the concept genius. Borrowed from antiquity, it has become an important object of comprehension in the European theory of literature, both by itself and through other aesthetic concepts. For example, French enlighteners often compared the concept of génie (genius) with the concept of esprit (mind/spirit), thereby explaining the nature of genius and inspiration. The purpose of the article is to identify semantic transformations of the concept genius in the context of its comparison with the concept mind using the example of Russian publications. The research is based on a comparative-comparative method that allows determining semantic and typological convergence in the prism of historical change. In parallel with the translated ones, original publications appear that comprehend the nature of creativity, in which the concepts genius and mind are adjacent and (apparently, by analogy with the French language) synonymously converge. For example, archaists are trying to find Russian equivalents to the borrowing genius, using the concepts wit and high intelligence in their works. However, most authors, including adherents of conservative views use genius as an independent concept. Since the beginning of the second decade, the mind and genius have acquired terminological independence, although they are in the same semantic field: Russian theorists who adhere to different ideological principles, trying to determine the nature of genius, declare its direct connection with the mind. The study revealed that already at the beginning of the XIX century Russian publishers showed interest in the topic of genius, publishing translations of French articles referring to the comparison of genius and mind. Translated publications, on the one hand, actualize the problem of translating into Russian the complex and polysemantic French concepts of génie and esprit, and on the other hand, they initiate independent comprehension by Russian writers of the essence of genius through comparing it with the concept of mind. Defining the relationship of mind and genius in different ways, Russian publicists agree on one thing: it is genius that is endowed with creative potency, while the mind is an instrument for evaluating creativity both of its own and someone else's.

Key words: genius, mind, literary magazine, national literature, aesthetic concept.

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For Citation:

Skoropadskaya, A. (2025) “Genius Creates, Mind Imagines“: The Question of the Relation Between the Concepts of Genius and Mind in Russian Journalism of the First Half of the XIX Century. International Journal of Cultural Research, 1 (58). 99–111. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_1_99

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_1_99