Love of poetry and literary creation in Turgenev's 'First love'

This article discusses poetic insertions and literary references in Turgenev's 'First Love' (1860). Dependent on variable temporal and evaluative points of view, they function as means of characterization, as indices of a mentality of the past (the Romantic 1830s), and as allusions and potential clues to the unelucidated plot situations the characters are involved in. Turgenev confronts the literary products of the fictional heroes Maidanov, Zinaida and Volodia with poetic works by Pushkin and other authors. In the article a nummer of allusions to real-life and literary antecedents are explored as well.