scholarly journals Эпистолярия как литературные беседы: Письма Г. В. Адамовича А. В. Бахраху [_Epistolaria_ as Literary Conversations: Letters of Georgy Adamovich to Alexander Bacherac]

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 238-283
Author(s):  
Olga Demidova

This article is an attempt at close reading an extensive ego text (Georgy Adamovich’s letters to Alexander Bacherac of the 1940s – 1972) as a thirty-year-long literary conversation of two Russian émigré writers. Regarding the letters as a single cultural text, and relying on the hermeneutic and semiotic approaches, the article singles out three major layers of the text in question, and analyzes the textual body “inwardly,” i.e. starting from the purely existential-informational upper layer, proceeding to the layer of literary criticism, and finally reaching the layer of literary quotations and cultural allusions used as one of the basic devices forming Adamovich’s epistolary style. Comparing the letters with Adamovich’s famous Literary Conversations (Literaturnye besedy) of the 1920s, the author argues that in his correspondence with Bacherach Adamovich followed the tradition of the Russian friendly literary-philosophical discourse borrowed from the West in the 1800s and developed in the 1820s – 1830s by Alexander Pushkin and his circle. KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian Literature, Georgy Adamovich (1892—1972), Alexander Bacherac (1902—1985), Correspondence, History of Literature.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Pakhomova

The article analyzes War Stories (Voennye rasskazy, 1915) by Mikhail Kuzmin and offers a new interpretation of the book’s pragmatics. Most students of War Stories have not treated this collection in much detail, mainly seeing it as Kuzmin’s unsuccessful attempt to become a part of the mainstream patriotic movement during WWI. Contrary to her predecessors, Alexandra Pakhomova argues this particular book has a definite and consciously motivated authorial strategy. What Kuzmin did in War Stories was an attempt to establish his new literary reputation, and also to create an entirely new genre of short fiction in Russian literature. KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian Literature, Mikhail Kuzmin (1972—1936), Voennye rasskazy (1915), Literary Reputation, History of Literature.


2020 ◽  
pp. 449-472
Author(s):  
Mihail A. Robinson

The article analyzes the methodological views of the academician V. N. Peretz, an outstanding Russian researcher and teacher. Refusing to follow the canons of the cultural-historical school of Russian literary criticism, in his works “From Lectures on the Methodology of the History of Russian Literature” (Kiev, 1914) and “A Brief Essay on the Methodology of the History of Russian Literature” (Petrograd, 1922) the researcher tried to find new approaches to the analysis of literary works. He believed that “the history of literature examines and studies the formal side of the works of verbal creativity, its evolution, leaving the cultural historian to study the content, the ideological side of the monuments of the past as such.” Peretz’s judgments were similar to those adopted by the followers of the OPOYAZ school (The Society for the Study of Poetic Language), and even had a certain influence on the development of formalism at the initial stage. This circumstance was noted by such researchers close to this research community as V. M. Zhirmunsky and its active members like Roman Jakobson. The relationship of Peretz’s theoretical positions with the methods of the Russian formalist school caused criticism from the followers of “Marxist” methodology in the 1920s. In the disputes between the formalists and the “Marxists”, Peretz clearly sympathized with the former believing that they were trying to “resurrect philology.” Peretz himself characterized his “Methodology” as “not Marxist” and had faint hopes for the possibility of its publication, although he continued to work on it. However, he never finished and published the extended version. His “Short Sketch” was reprinted twice abroad before being printed again in his homeland in 2010, 88 years after the first edition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
Olga Proskurova-Timofeeva

This article is an inquiry into the possible origin of the title of Vladimir Nabokov’s second Russian novel King, Queen, Knave (Korol’, dama, valet, 1928). It proves a long-forgotten hypothesis that the title’s likely source is a lesser-known fairy-tale by Hans Christian Andersen, published in several translations into Russian in Berlin and Riga émigré newspapers at the very end of the 1920s. KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian Literature, Vladimir Nabokov (1899—1977), Korol’, dama, valet (1928), Hans Christian Andersen (1805—1875), Russian émigré Press, History of Literature.


Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 755-764
Author(s):  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Wenxin Lin

Russian literature is an important part of world literature and is studied all over the world. In comparison with the history of literature, the history of literary criticism is more an interaction between the objectivity of literary facts and the personality of the compiler of this history. This work presents a description of the personality in research using the example of the book “History of Russian and Soviet literary criticism of the XX century” written by Chinese scientist Zhang Jie, the main task of which is to provide a theoretical basis and methods of criticism for analyzing the mechanism of reproducing the meanings of literary texts and images. We analyze the functions of literary criticism and explain the interaction and harmony of objective historical facts of literature and the compiler’s personality in the study. We define three currents of Russian and Soviet literary criticism of the 20th century: religious and cultural criticism, real literary criticism, and aesthetic criticism. We prove that history reflects not only the objectivity of factors, but also its compiler’s personality, which is an indicator. We explain the need to coordinate the objectivity of historical facts and the subjectivity of the compiler, and we present a value-based reflection of a scientific linguistic personality in the Chinese ethnoculture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 94-114
Author(s):  
Vera Polishchuk

The article is aimed to trace some significant parallels between Nabokov’s Russian prose and drama, and a number of Soviet fantastical novels. A close reading reveals a whole network of allusions to Alexander Grin’s The Glittering World (Blistaiushchii mir, 1924) in Invitation to a Beheading (Priglashenie na kazn’, 1935—36), including the usage of the Romantic hero model, canonic female figures and gnostical imagery, originating from The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. As for The Waltz Invention (Izobretenie Val’sa, 1938), the tragicomedy gives us compelling evidence that Nabokov deliberately wrote a parody on The Garin Death Ray (Giperboloid inzhenera Garina, 1926—27), a famous Soviet sci-fi novel by Alexey Tolstoy. In general, it can be said that Nabokov is scrupulously using implicit allusions and sophisticated wordplay on every level of his texts, widening the genre boundaries of science fiction, dystopia and adventure novel to invent a new literary strategy and new genres of his own. KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian Literature, Vladimir Nabokov (1899—1977), Priglashenie na kazn’ (1935—36), Izobretenie Val’sa (1938), Alexander Grin (1880—1932), Alexey Tolstoy (1883—1945), Allusion, History of Literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 178-237
Author(s):  
Roman Timenchik

This article is an attempt to expand the chronology of a poet’s life and works as a genre. It offers not to limit a poet’s biography to poem publication dates, lists of reviews, friendships, or crucial historic events, but to include such marginal texts as rumors, and even dreams—all contributing to the existence of a poet’s name in the semiosphere. KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian Literature, Anna Akhmatova (1889—1966), Chronology, History of Literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-316
Author(s):  
Alexey Yu. Ovcharenko

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-136
Author(s):  
Marina Ch. Larionova

The article reviews contents, theoretical grounds, and significance for the contemporary philology of a large-scale work of Ural scholars – The History of Literature of the Ural Region (The 19th Century). In the 1920s, the idea of cultural nests – regional cultural centres, which have their own history and traditions, – was formulated in the works by N. K. Piksanov. The idea was followed and further developed by N. P. Antsiferov, who wrote about an attractive and magnetic power of locus, which organizes the cultural space around itself. That was the beginning of regional literature studies. V.N. Toporov and N. E. Mednis introduced the notions of the urban text, local text, and super-text of the Russian literature, which were accepted by the humanities geography (D.N. Zamyatin). Regional philological studies fitted into the frontier discourse smoothly: space and territory began to be perceived and considered as historical and socio-cultural factors. The reviewed book is the Ural text of the Russian literature incorporating literary and journalistic works about this poly-ethnic macro-region, written by authors biographically and territorially connected with the Large Ural Region; data on bibliography, book publishing and book trade, library management, the history of theatre, etc. The scale of research and the widest coverage of topics and data deserve the highest appraisal and make the work by the Ural colleagues exemplary.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 7-26
Author(s):  
Rimma I. Sokolova

The article discusses such a new phenomenon of modernity as the rehabilitation of utopia, which has not yet become widespread, but it is a serious symptom of the crisis of civilization in Russia and in the West. It is shown that attempts to rehabilitate utopia are associated with the situation of crisis, uncertainty, unpredictability caused by the ongoing transformations of the modern epoch. Under these conditions, the utopia is not only a reflection of the existing situation but also an opportunity for the formation of new ideas and the reduction of uncertainty. Many astute researchers in both the West and Russia demonstrate a positive attitude towards utopia, as they see the opportunities offered by utopia, especially in times of crisis. It is noted that in Russia there is a gradual overcoming of the negative attitude to utopia, which was associated with the collapsed socialist system. A summary history of utopia shows that utopia is a significant factor in history that accompanies the development of mankind throughout history. Despite this, in the earlier decades of the 20th century and the beginning of 21st century the “death of utopia” was declared, it was driven by ideological and political reasons and by globalization in general. Meanwhile, at present its importance is again actualized in relation to the complex international situation. Therefore, both in the West and in Russia there is a growing demand for the ideal concepts of the future of human existence in the form of utopia.


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