Dmitriev's consistently more decen...

Dmitriev's consistently more decent description of himself reveals a frequently humbler narrative strategy, especially in his consistent emphasis forward the communal nature of his poetic identity. Indeed, the repeated attempts to inscribe himself within a broader community of bards rather than to differentiate himself from these potential competitors has actually been described through Tartakovskii as an indication that Dmitriev's passage has its roots in older generic conventions rather than contemporary undivideds After all, humility has already gone not at home of style in autobiography of the 1820's, Tartakovskii writes.30 This leads to the intriguing suggestion that in at least this reverence Derzhavin's decidedly less humble autobiography is more innovative and contemporary than Dmitriev's, despite being written ten years earlier.