scholarly journals «Вечный муж» и традиция мениппеи

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Nina Segal-Rudnik

The article examines the motif structure of the main characters in Dostoevsky’s The Eternal Husband against the background of menippea and its various genres. The parodic transformations of the images and motifs of Dostoevsky's previous texts, especially the novel The Idiot, modify the traditional love triangle of the short story. The relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist reflects the ambivalence of the archetypal scheme “king vs jester” and the way it appears in Hugo’s romantic drama Le Roi s’amuse and Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. The plot of revenge and vindication of trampled dignity dates back to the genre of medieval mock mystery (R. Jakobson) and its narrative of the Easter resurrection, posing the problem of Christianity and its values in the Russian society of the time.

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gray

In William Patrick Patterson’s Struggle of the Magicians, a detailed study of the relationship between the prominent figures of Western esotericism, G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky, he writes ‘Only in a time as confused as ours could one think that the teacher–student relationship – an archetypal and sacred form – exists as an option, rather than a necessary requirement, a station on the way’ (1997: 92). My paper examines the numerous ways in which the famous teacher–disciple relationship that existed between Muhammad Jalal ad-Din, known to the anglophone world as Rumi, and his spiritual guide and mentor, Shams of Tabriz, is represented in Elif Shafak’s novel The Forty Rules of Love (2010) and how her depiction of this relationship is predicated upon her knowledge of, and belief in, the general principles of what can be termed ‘Western Sufism’. Although she had previously thematised elements of Sufi dialectics in her earlier fiction and clear, if minor, references to Sufi philosophy permeated novels such as The Bastard of Istanbul (2007), Shafak’s fascination with the teachings of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz reaches its culmination and most significant artistic expression in The Forty Rules of Love. Published in 2010, the novel situates a fictionalised representation of the relationship between Rumi and Shams at the centre of the narrative and provides an overt depiction of the emanationalist, perennialist and universalist ethics contained within Sufi dialectics. In addition, given that Shafak’s text represents one of the more prominent and commercially successful contributions to what Amira El-Zein (2010: 71–85) has called ‘the Rumi phenomenon’ my paper examines how, in privileging the aesthetics and the interests of American readers over conveying a more complete and more nuanced image of Sufism, Shafak succumbs to the oversimplification and decontextualisation of Rumi’s teachings perpetrated by the Western popularisers of his work.


Author(s):  
Ingunn Lunde

This chapter sets out to investigate how the implications and broader dimensions of the Soviet linguistic legacy is represented in two post-Soviet prose texts, Evgenii Popov’s novel Podlinnaia istoriia ‘zelenykh muzykantov’ (The True Story of the ‘Green Musicians’, 1998) and Vladimir Sorokin’s short-story ‘Monoklon’ (2010). Popov’s ‘novel in footnotes’ comments on a text from the 1970s (reproduced in the novel), using humour and satire to expose the emptiness of clichés and make links to the present-day language debates. Sorokin, in turn, invokes the historical memory of Soviet speak through fragments, slogans, words and concepts, creating in his text a ‘simultaniety of the non-simultaneous’ by juxtaposing elements from two very different parts of the Soviet past and showing the need to tackle this past (or these pasts) in present-day Russian society.


MELUS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-69
Author(s):  
Diego Millan

Abstract This article takes up the representation of voice in Frank J. Webb's 1857 novel The Garies and Their Friends to examine the relationship between Blackness, aurality, and text. Doing so requires an approach tuned to the novel's aural-linguistic dimensions that acknowledges that a character's speaking produces a diegetic sound and that the way characters interact with one another relies, in part, on how each perceives another's voice. It also means looking for how a text conveys a sense of sound both through techniques such as italics and capitalization and through instances of overt narration. Specifically, moments of mistaken identity pivot on the disruption of one character's accumulated presumptions concerning the sound of another character's voice and highlight how sound and listening reinforce processes of racialization, a dynamic Jennifer Lynn Stoever identifies through her work on the sonic color line. Instances of vocalization—moments when characters are depicted speaking and when the text itself performs vocality—defamiliarize social formations along the sonic color line long enough for the novel to scrutinize their underlying premises. Scenes in which characters' voices escape their assumed meaning trouble constructions of racial identity, particularly whiteness and its assumed control over speech. The Garies and Their Friends thus generates an alternative mode through which to critique the safeguarding of whiteness. Ultimately, the novel brings together overlapping meanings of voice, such as physiologically produced acoustic sounds and distinctive literary or authorial decisions, as a meditation on the interplay between voice and writing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (132) ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Farah Hafedh Ibrahim

There has always been a belief that women in general are treated oppressively, viewed as inferior to men and subject to personal and institutional discrimination. Since literature reflects the way people think and shows the relationship between linguistic choices and socially construed meanings, this paper tackles Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” through a feminist stylistic approach to find out how female characters are represented. It also aims to explore whether the writer of the text under investigation reinforces or challenges the stereotypical image of women by viewing them as inferior or equal to men. Conducting a feminist stylistic analysis, by utilizing Sara Mills’ (1995) model of analysis involves the employment of a three-tiered level of analysis i.e. the level of the word, the level of the clause and the level of discourse. From the analysis of the short story under investigation, it has been concluded that the way women are represented is socially influenced by the prevailing held beliefs that women are passive, submissive, dependent on men, inferior to and unequal to men.


Author(s):  
Наталья Евгеньевна Купцова

Введение. Представлена совершенно неисследованная тема в отечественном лермонтоведении – академическая рецепция романа М. Ю. Лермонтова «Герой нашего времени» в США. Автор статьи собрала наиболее представительные на сегодняшний день публикации, вышедшие в США за всю историю американского лермонтоведения и посвященные этому роману. Цель – провести исследование академической рецепции романа М. Ю. Лермонтова «Герой нашего времени» в США. Материал и методы. Поиск публикаций, посвященных роману М. Ю. Лермонтова «Герой нашего времени», вышедших в США, и их анализ по предложенной автором периодизации. Результаты и обсуждение. Предложена периодизация по трем периодам: публикации 1900–1960-х гг., публикации 1970–1980-х гг. и публикации 1900-х гг. по настоящее время. Особенностями публикаций 1900–1960-х гг. является прежде всего осмысление того, как М. Ю. Лермонтов изобразил русское общество 1830-х гг. и главного героя своего произведения, акцент на психологичности романа, а также сравнение с героями А. С. Пушкина. Среди исследователей нет согласия относительно жанра романа – так, Мерсеро относит его к жанру психологического реализма, а в предисловии к первому англоязычному изданию в США отмечен байронический характер Печорина. Для публикаций 1970–1980-х гг. наблюдаются совершенно другие акценты у американских исследователей. На первое место выходит интерес к внутреннему устройству романа: его фабуле, сюжету, структуре. Несмотря на то, что по-прежнему нет полного согласия относительно жанровой принадлежности романа, большинство исследователей считают, что именно в роман «Герой нашего времени» покончил с романтизмом в русской прозе, в чем и заключается его главное новаторство. Изменился и взгляд на главного героя романа – в Печорине видят уже не байронические, а демонические черты. На современном этапе изучения романа «Герой нашего времени» у американских исследователей появляются новые темы в изучении романа. Так, например, красной нитью проходит тема отражения в романе взаимоотношений между русскими и кавказскими народами. Кроме того, если раньше в центре внимания исследователей был только Печорин, то теперь изучаются и другие герои и героини романа. Интересно и то, что Печорина теперь считают постромантическим героем и сам роман большинство исследователей считают постромантическим. Заключение. Проведенный анализ и предложенная периодизация наглядно иллюстрируют эволюцию интереса исследователей из США к различным аспектам романа и его героев. Библиографический список статьи внушителен и сам по себе представляет значительный интерес и вклад в лермонтоведение. Авторы публикаций, вошедших в обзор, – филологи, публицисты, политологи и антропологи. Introduction. The article is devoted to the completely unexplored subject in Russian Lermontov studies – the academic reception of the novel “Hero of our time” by the scholars from the USA. In the article the most reputable and representative works published in the USA about this novel are outlined and analyzed in accordance with the following periodization: publications of 1900-1960s, publications of 1970-80s and the modern publications of 1900s until now. The goal. Research of the academic reception of the novel of M. Lermontov «Hero of our time” in the USA. Materials and methods. Search and analysis of the publications, devoted to the novel “Hero of our time” by M. Lermontov issued in the USA in accordance with the periodization proposed by the author. Results and discussion. The focus of publications 1900–1960s is primarily the understanding of how M.Yu. Lermontov portrayed the Russian society of the 1830s and the main character of his work, an emphasis on the psychological nature of the novel, as well as a comparison with A.S. Pushkin. Among the researchers there is no agreement on the genre of the novel - for example, Mercereau classifies it as a genre of psychological realism, and in the preface to the first Russian-language edition in the United States, the Byronic character of Pechorin is noted. In publications from the 1970s to 1980s, there is a completely different emphasis. First of all, the internal structure of the novel is in the focus. Despite the fact that there is still no full agreement on the genre of the novel, most researchers believe that the novel «A Hero of Our Time» that he put an end to romanticism in Russian prose, which is the main innovation of Lermontov. The view on the main character of the novel has also changed - in Pechorin they see not Byronic, but demonic features. At the present stage, American researchers have new topics in the study of the novel «Hero of our time”. For example, the topic of the relationship between the Russian and Caucasian peoples attracts a lot of attention. In addition, if earlier only Pechorin was in the center of attention of researchers, now other heroes and heroines of the novel are also being studied. It is also interesting that Pechorin is now considered a post-romantic hero, and most researchers classify the novel as post-romantic. Conclusion. The conducted analysis and the proposed periodization demonstrably illustrates the evolution of approaches and interest to the various aspects of the novel and its heroes. The bibliography of the article is impressive itself and makes a significant contribution to the Lermontov studies. The authors of the publications included in the review are philologists, publicists, political scientists, anthropologists.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4(17)) ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Melida Travančić

This paperwork presents the literary constructions of Kulin Ban's personality in contemporary Bosnian literature on the example of three novels: Zlatko Topčić Kulin (1994), Mirsad Sinanović Kulin (2007), and Irfan Hrozović Sokolarov sonnet (2016). The themes of these novels are real historical events and historical figures, and we try to present the way(s) of narration and shape the image of the past and the way the past-history-literature triangle works. Documentary discourse is often involved in the relationship between faction and fiction in the novel. Yet, as can be seen from all three novels, it is a subjective discourse on the perception of Kulin Ban today and the period of his reign, a period that could be characterized as a mimetic time in which great, sudden, and radical changes take place. If the poetic extremes of postmodernist prose are on the one hand flirting with trivia, and on the other sophisticated meta- and intertextual prose, then the Bosnian-Herzegovinian romance of the personality of Kulina Ban fully confirms just such a range of stylistic-narrative tendencies of narrative texts of today's era.


Idäntutkimus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Karina Lukin

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan nenetsikirjailija Vasili Ledkovin romaania Pienen pimeän kuukausi (Mesjats maloi temnoty), joka on historiallinen, porojen kollektivisoinnista 1920- ja 30-lukujen Nenetsien kansallisessa piirikunnassa kertovat teos. Romaania tulkitaan kyläproosan keinoja ja keskustelutilaa hyödyntävänä tekstinä, joka nostaa esiin porojen omistamiseen ja ihmisen ja poron vuorovaikutukseen tulleiden muutosten aiheuttamia ristiriitoja sekä kollektivisointiin liittyvää väkivaltaa. Lukutapaa luonnehtii jälkikoloniaalinen ote, jossa painottuu vähintään kahdenlaisten tulkintojen yhtäaikainen läsnäolo ja niiden limittyminen toisiinsa. Analyysissä keskitytään tekemään ymmärrettäväksi poron ja ihmisen välistä suhdetta poropaimentolaiskäytänteissä ja tuodaan esiin, miten romaanin hahmojen erilaiset tavat toimia heijastavat nenetsien konventioita tai asettuvat niitä vastaan. Samalla osoitetaan, että teksti tuottaa myös sosialistisen realismin ja neuvostoliittolaisen kyläproosan perinteen mukaisia mielikuvia, ja pohditaan, miten nämä ovat osa romaanin tarjoamaa kriittistä katsetta nenetsien menneisyyteen. Colonial in-betweens in The Month of the Small Darkness The article discusses the Nenets writer Vasili Ledkov’s historical novel The Month of the Small Darkness, which describes the collectivisation of the reindeer in the Nenets national district in the 1920s and 1930s. The novel is analysed as a text using the textual and poetic strategies of the discursive space created by what was called the village prose movement. At the same time, the novel brought out the violence related to collectivisation and the ambivalence produced by changes in the ownership of the reindeer and the interaction between the humans and reindeer. The novel is read from a postcolonial perspective, emphasising at least two kinds of simultaneous interpretative models and the way they fold into each other. The analysis focuses on understanding the relationship of reindeer and humans in the practices of nomadic reindeer-herding and on explaining the differing actions of the characters and their relations with Nenets conventions or Soviet ideologies. According to the interpretation, the novel gains its critical gaze towards the Soviet past from its position within socialist realism and the discourses of the village prose movement that are, as such, hybrid forms of literature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Jameel Ahmed Alghaberi

The paper discusses the concepts of ‘home’, ‘cultural identity’, and ‘transnationalism’ in Randa Jarrar’s fiction. Being a diasporic Palestinian American, Randa Jarrar in her debut novel A Map of Home presents a particular view of ‘homeland’ and of what ‘historic Palestine’ means to her. The attempt in this paper is to critically analyze her fiction and to highlight the issues that she tackles as a writer of Palestinian origin. The paper also explores the way Randa Jarrar approaches the concept of ‘home’, and an examination of the relationship between Palestinian diasporas and their homeland-Palestine is presented. There is much wandering that Randa Jarrar is experimenting with in rather a creative space, and there is also a counter-narrative ideology embedded in the novel, a way to resist the stereotypes that have fixed the Middle Eastern female body as propagated in Orientalist discourse. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Vernadakis

In E. M. Forster’s ‘The Story of the Siren’ (1920), humility and the humble are highlighted by the empowering status bestowed on an embedded story told by an illiterate Sicilian boatman to a sophisticated English tourist and prospective Cambridge Fellow. The latter, who is also the narrator of the embedding narrative, proves to be transformed by the qualities (philosophic, ethical and literary) promoted by the humble status of the embedded one. As the existence of the Siren of the title is problematic – she never shows up – and the story offers a case of structuring a full intrigue on the invisible, there may be a connection between the humble and the invisible. In order to investigate this assumption, I propose to explore the way in which the myth of the siren, a myth that relates to desire, is brought into dialogue with Frazer’s evolutionary theory and Plato’s theory of ideas. The interplay between philosophy, anthropology and desire provides a critique of Edwardian society and a self-criticism based on Socratic irony, itself an irony of humility. I shall eventually suggest that the humble but desirable Sicilian storyteller functions like an avatar of the Siren. Instead of writing a dissertation on the Deist Controversy and becoming an academic, the homodiegetic narrator allows himself to be seduced by the ‘Siren’s song’ – the young Sicilian’s story – and (ironically) become a writer. For, as I will attempt to demonstrate, the relationship between this short story and the life of E. M. Forster is highlighted by the figure of metalepsis, a device that reveals the author, rather than the narrator, at work.


Author(s):  
Lisa C. Robertson

This chapter examines Rhoda Broughton’s novel Dear Faustina (1879), which engages with the conventions of the New Woman novel for the purpose of commenting on the difficult social position of independent women. The novel’s representation of two key forms of new housing, women’ residences (or ladies’ chambers) and settlement housing, uncovers the way that these new domestic spaces made legible the relationship between economic and sexual power. While this novel has often been interpreted as a narrative of inversion or exchange between homosocial and heterosexual relationships, this chapter focuses on the ways that the novel is instead characterised by ambivalence in both form and theme.


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