RUSKÁ ĽUDOVÁ HRA CÁR MAXIMILIÁN A JEJ EURÓPSKE KONTEXTY
THE RUSSIAN FOLK PLAY TSAR MAXMILIAN AND ITS EUROPEAN CONTEXTS

Summary/Abstract: The play Tsar Maximilian originated in the first half of the 18th century and was one of the most widely performed Russian folk plays on the territory of present-day Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. We find some of the dramatic elements of this play in European folk dramas, and also in Slovak and Czech plays about St. Dorothy. The aim of this study is, through a detailed analysis of Tsar Maximilian, to find historical, social and dramatic parallels with European and especially Slovak and Czech folk theatre. I proceed from the premise that Tsar Maximilian has common historical roots with the St. Dorothy play, and had its origins in the school drama of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, which drew principally on the literature of the Middle Ages. The central motif in both plays is essentially very similar, and Tsar Maximilian, despite its humorous interludes, has (like the St. Dorothy play) the character of a tragic play. By means of comparative analysis, using the method of illustrative comparison, I identify dramatic, textual and scenic similarities, and at the same time I attempt to elucidate the mutual associations of both plays and their connections with Euro pean folk theatre.

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