Contemporary Russian Literature in Reading Anthologies (1843–1904) and the Literary Canon

This article studies the quantitative and qualitative status and cultural functions of modern literature in 46 Russian reading anthologies designed for two major types of high schools (“gymnasia” and “nonclassical secondary schools”) from 1843 to 1904. Such analysis is relevant due to an outdated understanding of the importance of Minister Dmitrii Tolstoy’s conservative reforms between the 1870s and 1880s. Using genealogical, institutional, and historical and functional methods to study the history of education, the author explores the function and consequences of both the exclusion of modern literature from the school curriculum and its presence in some readers. As a result, curriculum classicisation after the 1871 reform and the preservation of the literary curriculum were less unambiguous than was considered previously. The ban on the study of literature written after 1842 and the concurrent significant expansion of texts from Old Russian literature led to a paradoxical and unpredictable sacralisation of the “Russian classics” and discredited many important texts in the eyes of the younger generation. The article demonstrates that in such a situation, educational readers played an important role, being a buffer zone between a strictly limited curriculum and modern literature that was prohibited in class. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content of the readers demonstrates that from 1860 to 1900, the share of texts by contemporary authors (i. e. those published 20–30 years before the publication of a reading book) increased from 4 to 35 %. Similarly, starting with 1861, the number of new readers on the educational market increased significantly. Qualitative analysis allows the author to identify the writers whose works were most frequently included in textbooks between the 1860s and 1890s. By the beginning of the 1900s, many fragments of frequently reproduced texts became canonical, were memorized, and, although they could not give a complete picture of the whole text, performed an important cultural function, attracting teenagers to modern texts and often still living authors. As a buffer zone between the official curriculum, the school historical and literary narrative, and the current literary process, readers thus made an important contribution to the canonisation of modern literature in Russian society in the 19th century, even in spite of the ministerial ban on its study.

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The Lexicographic Problems of Compiling Argot Dictionaries

Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Serija 2 Jazykoznanije ◽

10.15688/jvolsu2.2019.1.5 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 62-73

Author(s):

Mikhail Grachev

Keyword(s):

Russian Literature ◽

Objective Evaluation ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Scientific Basis ◽

Russian Society ◽

Lexical Unit ◽

Old Russian ◽

Historical Method ◽

Dictionary Structure ◽

Meaning Interpretation

The article argues for the need to compile a new fundamental argotic dictionary on a scientific basis. Using the comparative and historical method, the paper provides the criticism of the previous lexicons reflecting the language of the criminal world. With respect to the mistakes and inaccuracies made by compilers of the available dictionaries, the author develops the principles of lexicographic representation of the Russian argot, determines the sources of the language material included in the dictionary (folklore, old Russian literature, speech of modern representatives of the criminal subculture), proposes criteria and methods of the qualifying a lexical unit as argot. The article describes the new dictionary structure that reflects complex characteristics of its constituent units (a headword with stress, reference articles, meaning interpretation, context of use, phraseological units, grammatical characteristics, etymology). It also identifies tendencies of the modern Russian argot evolution caused by the influence of changes in the Russian society in general and in the criminal world in particular, as well as the reasons for penetrating argot in the spoken language and media texts. Besides, the paper shows the possibilities of using the new qualitative linguistic dictionary to study the linguistic picture of the world of argot speakers, to form an objective evaluation of this phenomenon and to improve the speech culture of Russian society.

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From the Comments on the Typology of the Visions in Old Russian Hagiography (The Plot of the Beating a Demon by a Saint)

Studies in Theory of Literary Plot and Narratology ◽

10.25205/2410-7883-2021-2-5-15 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 5-15

Author(s):

Tatyana I. Kovaleva ◽

Keyword(s):

Russian Literature ◽

Transitional Period ◽

Structural Scheme ◽

Old Russian ◽

12Th Century ◽

Literary Process

This article examines the plot of visions on the beating a demon by a saint is not typical for the original Old Russian writings. This plot is included in the typology proposed earlier. It represents one of the possible ways of organizing a vast, thematically diverse material of vi-sions. Most of the examples of our typology are plots in the composition of hagiographic nar-ratives of various types. The considered plot is one these cases. We have analyzed two examples of visions containing scenes of beating demons from literary compositions of different times. From the Byzantine Life of Andrew the Fool that one of the first in the 12th century in-troduced the Russian reader to this plot. Also from the Life of the Monk Epiphanius written at the end of the Old Russian tradition. Typologically similar features of visions are noted: the presence of a common structural scheme, participation in the formation of the event of two characters of the sacred and infernal worlds at once. The revealed specificity of the scene of beating demons is explained by tradition, the time of writings and their pragmatic orientation. Thus, an interesting, visual story on the beating the demon full of artistic details in the Byzan-tine Life characterizes the height of the spiritual feat of the saint. In the Life of Epiphany, a similar story reflects the worldview of an ascetic, also demonstrates the phenomenon of “lit-erary materialization of visions”. Examples of visions from the Lives of Andrew the Fool and the Monk Epiphanius demonstrate the evolution in the depiction of the scene of the beating demons in the literary process of medieval Russia, reflecting significant changes in the genre of visions in the transitional period of Russian literature.

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«Russia, Russia! Keep Yourself, Keep it!..» Book review: Essays on the History of Russian Custodians (‘Khranitel’stvo’

Almanac “Essays on Conservatism” ◽

10.24030/24092517-2021-0-1-367-370 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 367-370

Author(s):

Boris Yu. Aleksandrov ◽

Olga Ye. Puchnina

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Precise Definition ◽

Russian Society ◽

Intellectual Culture ◽

Old Russian ◽

Russian State ◽

History Of ◽

Original Phenomenon ◽

The 19Th Century

The ideas of conservative modernization of Russian society are currently very relevant. However, the concept of «conservatism» in modern discourse is very ambiguous, and most importantly, not fully relevant to the complex of domestic socio-political and religious-philosophical ideas that have developed since the existence of the Old Russian state. A much more precise definition in this regard is the concept of “Khranitel’stvo”, which organically developed in the Russian tradition almost until the end of the 19th century and which is a unique and original phenomenon of the intellectual culture of Russia. On the basis of large historical and theoretical material, the authors of the monograph study the ideological origins, essence and evolution of «Khranitel’stvo» as a specific socio-political direction of Russian thought.

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The “Big Twenties” in the History of Russian Literature of the 20th Century: to the Сentenary of the Magazine Krasnaya Nov

RUDN Journal of Studies in Literature and Journalism ◽

10.22363/2312-9220-2021-26-2-311-316 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 311-316

Author(s):

Alexey Yu. Ovcharenko

Keyword(s):

20Th Century ◽

Significant Contribution ◽

Russian Literature ◽

Review Article ◽

Literary Process ◽

History Of

The review article presents various views on the periodization of Russian literature in the 1920s and 1930s and provides arguments in favor of new, refined approaches to the boundaries of the period. Particularly noteworthy are the works of those authors who point to the need for an expanded understanding of the twenties. The concept of the Big Twenties is of particular value in connection with the centenary of the magazine Krasnaya Nov , which made a significant contribution to the literary process of that time.

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“The Escape in the Desert” in Book Culture and Literature of Pre-Peter Russia

Проблемы исторической поэтики ◽

10.15393/j9.art.2020.6822 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 56-72

Author(s):

Tatiana A. Isachenko

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

17Th Century ◽

Russian Society ◽

Western Literature ◽

19Th Century Literature ◽

Old Russian ◽

World Outlook ◽

The Subject ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

Century Literature

<p> The motif of “the escape from paradise” has recently become one more time the subject of historical poetics. This motif is opposed to “the expulsion from paradise” accepted in Western literature. In the perception of scholars the motif of “the escape from paradise” in 19th century literature took a paradoxical form of “loneliness” (Dmitriev, Pushkin, Ostrovsky and Batyushkov) and then was designated as a “moving” model of a Russian man’s life who escapes from Paradise — a “homeostatic” society (L. N. Gumilev). The transformation of the motif from a “stable” model to a “moving” one led to formation of a new Russian character — a “homeless wanderer” mentioned by F. M. Dostoevsky in his “Pushkin Speech”. The article puts forward a thesis that under the influence of wandering a part of Russian society feel inclined for Old Russian forms of world outlook that incites person’s searches for life paradise in his own soul. This trend appears in the pilgrimage and theological literature of the 19th century. The transformation of the ratio between the “stable” and the “moving” towards the Old Russian ideal of wandering brings man to the saving paths of evangelical commandments. The theme of “escape in the desert” is closely related to the theme of “Mental Paradise”. In this regard, the key plot of the popular collection “Mental Paradise” popular in the 17th century and released in Wallay Iversky Monastery in 1658–1659 is considered. Based on the manuscripts the article shows how the motives of “Paradise” and “escape in the desert” having preceded the trends and having been developed in the 19th century leading to the prosperity of pilgrimage literature, are presented in literature of pre-Peter Russia.</p>

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Jeden z herezjarchów? Przedstawienia ikonograficzne Mahometa w rękopisie Рнб, f.IV.151 w kontekście staroruskich narracji na jego temat

Vox Patrum ◽

10.31743/vp.3216 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 70 ◽

pp. 449-469

Author(s):

Zofia Brzozowska

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Russian Literature ◽

Byzantine Empire ◽

Extensive Sequence ◽

Old Russian ◽

The Third ◽

Russian State ◽

Identical Manner ◽

History Of ◽

Ivan The Terrible

The РНБ, F.IV.151 manuscript is the third volume of a richly illustrated historiographical compilation (so-called Лицевой летописный свод – Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible), which was prepared in one copy for tsar Ivan IV the Terrible in 1568-1576 and represents the development of the Russian state on the broad background of universal history. The aforementioned manuscript, which contains a description of the history of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire between the seventies of the 1st century A.D and 919, includes also an extensive sequence devoted to Muhammad (Ѡ Бохмите еретицѣ), derived from the Old Church Slavonic translation of the chronicle by George the Monk (Hamartolus). It is accompanied by two miniatures showing the representation of the founder of Islam. He was shown in an almost identical manner as the creators of earlier heterodox trends, such as Arius or Nestorius. These images therefore become a part of the tendency to perceive Muhammad as a heresiarch, a false prophet, and the religion he created as one of the heresies within Christianity, which is also typical of the Old Russian literature.

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FROM THE “NOTEBOOKS” OF PROFESSOR A.V. KARAVASHKIN

RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. "Literary Theory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies" Series ◽

10.28995/2686-7249-2021-7-18-30 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 18-30

Keyword(s):

Cultural History ◽

Russian Literature ◽

Old Russian ◽

First Time

It is for the first time ever that the excerpts from the diary of A.V. Karavashkin (1964–2021), Professor, Doctor in Philology, are published. An outstanding researcher of Old Russian literature, Professor Karavashkin was an all rounded man of versatile personality, a truly major representative of the humanities, he was close to different fields of knowledge: philology, linguistics, cultural history, philosophy. Diary entries show an extraordinary personality in his time of life. Thoughts and judgments of the humanist were aimed at the most acute and deepest issues of life.

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