Anna Petrovna Bunina ( rus, А́нна Петро́вна Бу́нина, p=ˈannə pʲɪˈtrovnə ˈbunʲɪnə, a=Anna Pyetrovna Bunina.ru.vorb.oga; January 18, 1774 – December 16, 1829) was a Russian poet. She was the first female Russian writer to make a living solely from literary work.
She is a relative of Nobel Prize winner
Ivan Bunin
Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin ( or ; rus, Ива́н Алексе́евич Бу́нин, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈbunʲɪn, a=Ivan Alyeksyeyevich Bunin.ru.vorb.oga; – 8 November 1953) was the first Russian writer awarded the ...
.
Biography
Anna was born in the village of Urusovo in
Ryazan Governorate
Ryazan Governorate (russian: link=no, Рязанская губерния, ''Ryazanskaya guberniya'', Government of Ryazan) was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, wh ...
(present day
Lipetsk Oblast
Lipetsk Oblast (russian: Липецкая область, Lipetskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Lipetsk. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,173,513.
Geography
Lipets ...
). Her mother died in childbirth. She was raised by various relatives, and received only a rudimentary education. She began writing around the age of 13. She published her first work in 1799.
She moved to Saint Petersburg in 1802 with the help of a small inheritance from her father,
where she established her own home and furthered her education by employing tutors. She devoted herself entirely to writing, supporting herself with help from patrons, and profits from the sales of her works. The
Russian Imperial Family
The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to t ...
awarded her pensions in 1809, 1810 and 1813. From 1807 to 1810 she was part of the literary circle of
Gavrila Derzhavin
Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin ( rus, Гаврии́л (Гаври́ла) Рома́нович Держа́вин, p=ɡɐˈvrilə rɐˈmanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪrˈʐavʲɪn, a=Gavrila Romanovich Dyerzhavin.ru.vorb.oga; 14 July 1743 – 20 ...
and
Alexander Shishkov
Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov (russian: Алекса́ндр Семёнович Шишко́в) (, Moscow - , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian writer, literary critic, philologist, memoirist, military and statesman, Admiral (1824). He created a n ...
. She had been introduced to Shishkov by her family connections, and he became a mentor to her.
In 1811, she was given honorary membership in the
Lovers of the Russian Word The Colloquy of Lovers of the Russian Word (russian: Беседа любителей русского слова, ''Beseda lyubitelei russkogo slova'') was a conservative and proto- Slavophile literary society founded in St. Petersburg in the early ...
.
Her first work ''The Inexperienced Muse'' was published in 1809, followed by a second volume under the same title in 1812. She travelled to Britain in 1815-17 for breast cancer treatment, which was unsuccessful. She published a volume entitled ''Collected Works'' in 1819. In 1820, she was made an honorary member of the
. She left Saint Petersburg in 1824 due to continuing illness, and lived with relatives, but retained financial independence. She died in Denisovka,
Ryazan Governorate
Ryazan Governorate (russian: link=no, Рязанская губерния, ''Ryazanskaya guberniya'', Government of Ryazan) was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, wh ...
in 1829, aged 55, and was buried at Urusovo.
Critical reception
She used more varied themes and style, and a wider metrical range in her works than earlier female Russian poets. Her work includes original and noteworthy observations on the experiences of women, especially when she focuses on their conflicts with men. Her poetry was popular at the time; she became famous and was satirised by the Colloquium's rivals, including the
Arzamas Society
The Arzamas Society (russian: "Арзамас") was a literary society in Saint Petersburg in 1815-1818. The society received its name after a humorous work by a Russian statesman Dmitry Bludov called ''A Vision at the Inn at Arzamas, Published ...
. Her works were forgotten to a large extent after her death, due in some measure to the attacks on her and her works by the Arzamas Society and others, limiting her influence on future poets.
English translations
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunina, Anna
1774 births
1829 deaths
People from Lipetsk Oblast
People from Ranenburgsky Uyezd
Russian nobility
Poets from the Russian Empire
Women writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century writers from the Russian Empire
Russian women poets
18th-century poets from the Russian Empire
19th-century poets from the Russian Empire
18th-century women writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century women writers from the Russian Empire
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in Russia