scholarly journals Czy tylko socrealistyczna powieść-agitka? Próba re-lektury Matki Maksyma Gorkiego

Author(s):  
Joanna Dobrowolska

My paper is a proposal for a non-standard reading of Mother by Maxim Gorky, often perceived as a piece of propaganda with low artistic value, a novel overfilling with ideology, subjugated to the doctrine of social realism. I would like to step beyond these stereotypes and show some contexts that have hardly been identified in the Polish reception of Russian literature from the early 20th century. I distinguish three main issues in the content of the novel: the image of the mother (novel about a mother), socialism as the “new religion” and the utopia of the “new man”. I see the current of Marxism called God-Building as a very important ideological context. I refer to research by Polish and Russian literary scholars and to my own findings.

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-443
Author(s):  
Siwen Guo

The work of I. Turgenev was translated into Chinese in the first half of the twentieth century and later spread widely in China, having a great influence on the new generation of Chinese writers. At the same time, more and more literary critics began to study the works of Turgenev. Extensive research and analysis, as well as the study of works from different angles, contributed to a better understanding of Turgenev and Russian literature by Chinese readers. The article discusses the publications of Chinese litterateurs and critics from the second half of the 20th to beginning of the 21st century, the work of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, notes the enduring interest of the Chinese audience to the work of Russian prose writer, in particular, to the novel “Rudin”. Special attention is paid to the prose writer's “path” to the novel; it is proved that the high interest of scientists to Dmitry Rudin, the protagonist of this novel, caused by Chinese specifics and the relevance of many problems associated with this image. The article explains the evolution of the attitude of the Chinese to Rudin: from agreement with Russian researchers considering him as a superfl person to disagreement with them. At the same time, Rudin is compared with typically similar images in Chinese literature. An analysis of Turgenev's works by Chinese literary critics will provide detailed information for future studies in international literary circles, and can also lay the foundation for finding differences between Chinese and Russian literary criticism.


Author(s):  
Tatiana I. Radomskaya

The topic of the present paper is the process of transformation of old Russian poetics in Russian literature in the beginning of the 20th c. and particularly the concept of light. The concept of light is very specific in Old Russian literature and can be perceived as phenomenological image and associated with sacral world. The concept of light may be transformed and manifested in different images such as protective veil or as a boundary between light and dark (which is explored through the example of old Russian literature). The literature of the early 20 c. proves that the concept of light is similar to one of the Old Russian literature and plays special role in works by M. Tsvetaeva, B. Pasternak, O. Mandelshtam, A. Akhmatova. It is due to transcendental vector of their works. In Tsvetaeva`s works light is shown through opposition “colour – light” that reveals sacral nature of it and white color. The works by Mandelshtam and Akhmatova demonstrate that light also can be white (similar to Tsvetaeva) but also connected with red color as it is associated with death of millions. In the Christian tradition it symbolizes martyrdom. The novel “Doktor Zhivago” by B. Pasternak illustrates that the source of light is inside material life. Thus, the concept of light in the works of postrevolutionary years reveals 2 types of consciousness (according to S. Frank) — immanent presence of common in nature and in human soul and strong feeling of transcendency.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-134
Author(s):  
M. A. Dudareva

An appeal to the novel “Poor Lisa” by Nikolay Karamzin in an extensive cultural and historical context provides an opportunity to pose a question on the transmission of culture, its “vertical” dimension. This makes it possible to distinguish between the characters according to their cultural types: Liza is a person of “soil”, endowed with ancestors’ sacred knowledge, while Erast is a man of «culture» out of touch with the ground. In this regard, it proves to be relevant not so much the social inequality of the characters, as noted by the researchers, as their different worldview, attitude to nature, love, etc. Parallel with the Russian folklore tradition, lyrics, where the concept of «love» is represented through the lexemes «sweetheart», «soul», «heart» are also challenging in this respect. It is to this archaic knowledge, the heritage of centuries, that Liza, the main character, is attached. Separation from love, a broken heart in this context is equivalent to the loss of life. Based on such representations, Liza’s act is considered from a different angle: death is the only possible outcome for the heroine, for her heart life. In the typological aspect, it is fruitful to refer to Montaigne’s Essays, to his statements on heart life, which is to a great extent consistent with the life of nature. At that time, Montaigne’s philosophy was well known to Russian literary figures.The methodological basis of the study includes structural-typological, comparative, and system-complex (culturological) research methods, ensuring a comprehensive approach to the analysis of the artistic text and making it possible to show the national space in Karamzin’s novel. The results may be interesting to both philologists and cultural scientists, and can also be used in courses on the history of Russian literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Turysheva

This article considers the Russian motifs present in the narrative of The Goldfinch (2014), a novel by the American author Donna Tartt. These include the depiction of the main character’s Russian friend, allusions to the creative work of Dostoevsky, the interpretation of his novel The Idiot made by the characters, and a detail testifying to the Siberian descent of the second main character. The author makes an attempt to analyse previously unstudied motifs connecting the story of the character with the Russian context. More particularly, she substantiates the importance of Boris Pavlikovsky’s Siberian roots. The author concludes that Tartt portrays the Russian person not only as a complex of stereotypes found in culture but in close connection with the Russian literary tradition. The article combines immanent analysis of text with hermeneutic, mythopoetical, intermedial, and intertextual methods. The author concludes that by referring to the Siberian descent of the second main character, Tartt introduces the Siberian myth into the receptive context of her novel formed on the basis of the whole corpus of Russian literature. It is a myth of Siberia as a space of liminal death and Christological initiation (acc. to V. I. Tyupa). It is proved that relying on this mythologeme makes it possible for the reader to decode the underlying semantics of the novel. It relates to the idea of the resurrection of the character facing the tragedy of death. The plot of The Goldfinch is interpreted as a plot of returning to life through the experience of staying in the land of the dead, crime, and dying. Additionally, the author analyses the function of motifs connected with Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot. It is not only present as an allusion in Tartt’s work but as an object of the characters’ reflection. For Theo Decker, this reflection results in the acceptance of Dostoevsky’s idea of the resurrection of a great sinner. It is demonstrated that relying on his perception of Dostoevsky’s works, the character realises the circular plot of accepting life and redemption. This interpretation makes it possible to reconstruct the evangelical subtext of the novel. The novel’s ekphrastic aspect also proves it by means of the character’s reflection on The Goldfinch, a painting by Carel Fabritius. Apart from the liminal chronotope, the author analyses other chronotopes of the character that are also of considerable importance: the Christmas chronotope and the road chronotope. The poetological peculiarities revealed prove that Tartt’s works belong to the genre tradition of Bildungsroman (initiation novel). This is illustrated by other images of Dostoevsky’s works, including the ones Tartt used in her first novel The Secret History (1992).


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-656
Author(s):  
Eleonora F. Shafranskaya ◽  
Tatyana V. Volokhova

The article deals with the problem of orientalism in literature, narrowed to the question of Russian orientalism and its Soviet derivation. The names of Nikolai Karazin and Andrey Platonov are mentioned among Russian literary Orientalists. The researchers identify the differences between Soviet Orientalism and the Orientalism of the XIX century. The analytical paradigm presented in the article outlines the prospects for the scientific study of Uzbek impressions. Salir-Gul (1933) by Sigismund Krzyzanowski and Pavel Zaltzman's novel Central Asia in the Middle Ages (1930s). For the first time, the novel The nomad (Kochevye) by the Russian writer of the twentieth century Leonid Solovyov written in 1929 and published in 1932 is analyzed in detail. Appeal to the folklore, ceremonial, and ritual life of the peoples of Central Asia becomes one of the main techniques of Leonid Solovyov's Oriental poetics. Solovyov's narrator is not a traditional orientalist observer of an alien, and therefore exotic, picture of the world. In Solovyov's poetics, the subject of the story merges with its object and represents a single whole: Russian literature spoke in the voice of a stranger. The material of the article corresponds to the intentions outlined in modern postcolonial studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (44) ◽  
pp. 269-281
Author(s):  
Hadeel Ismaeel Khalil ◽  

Maxim Gorky’s Mother is one of the most important literary genre in social realism, in which he depicts female characters with revolutionary fervor and enthusiasm, projecting his social ideologies and dreams. Though the novel unique importance lies in the fact that it has been thoroughly analyzed by many writers, historians and sociologists, there are almost no studies devoted to the role of women out of a Marxist and feminist point of view. The present paper sheds light on the Russian woman‘s important role in overcoming all adversity and gain her position on Social Realism. Одно из центральных мест среди произведений, написанных в таком литературном жанре, как социалистический реализм, занимает произведение Максима Горького "Мать", в котором он изображал женские персонажи с революционным задором и энтузиазмом, проецируя через них свои социалистические мысли и мечты. Актуальность данной работы заключается в том, что произведение Горького "Мать" было анализировано многими литераторами, историками и социологами, однако почти отсутствуют исследования, посвящённые революционной роли женщин с марксистской и феминистской точки зрения. В заключении делается вывод о том, что Максим Горький в романе "Мать" дал чёткий портрет русской женщине в рамках социалистического реализма, которая смогла преодолеть все невзгоды, переродиться и стать полноправным членом общества.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eshgane Babayeva

In the 1920s and 1940s, the socialist realism (trend) flow in both Turkish and Azerbaijani literature shows itself in certain degree. Class struggle, conflict between opposing forces, such as master-peasant, intellectual-ignorant-superstition, has become the main topic of the Turkish and Azerbaijani novels. In both literatures, the subject of village was at the forefront. It is no coincidence that “Homeland Literature” has gained special popularity in Turkish literature in this period. The life, love, joy, sorrow, troubles and pains of ordinary peasants have become the main topic of literature. The story of the urban man, not the peasant, his or her life, feelings and thoughts came to the center of the novel, not the destiny of townsman. However, for a long time, the place in the Turkish novels was chosen only as Istanbul, and the fate of the people of Istanbul was mentioned. In the article, the Turkish and Azerbaijani novels from 1920 to 1930will be comparatively explored and parallels will be emphasized.


2020 ◽  
pp. 35-50
Author(s):  
Nina L. Ermolaeva

The article deals with the mythological sub-text as one of the connective means in the novel trilogy by Goncharov. The author of the article assumes that the creative thinking of Goncharov’s is epic and his understanding of world literary types can be seen as the basis for the theory of literary archetypes. The novelty of the approach to the sources is justified by the aim of the article, the latter being to show the reflection of the evolution of the author’s mythological thinking in his creating the literary archetypes by using various mythological and folk sources. Analysis of the mythological sub-text in the novel “A Common Story” allows to say that the author applied mainly the European tradition of the ancient myths, namely the myth of Oedipus to the modern life in Russia. Viewing “Frigate ‘Pallada’ ” the author of the article concludes that Goncharov returned from the world-wide journey “more Russian” than he had been before. Thus in the novels “Oblomov” and “The Precipice” he used not only the European cultural tradition but also the Slavonic mythology and Russian folklore. The result of his turning to the fairy-tale and Russian literature was the appearance of the archetype images of Oblomov and oblomovism and that of gown in his creative work. “The bylina sub-text” in the novel “The Precipice” helps to understand the rivalry of the atheist Mark Volokhov with the proponent of “the old truth” Tushin as the fight of the Russian epic hero with the serpent. The analysis of Goncharov’s articles of 1870s allows one to see his wish to create the archetype images of the characters from the Russian life. Arguing with A.I. Zhuravleva’s opinion that Goncharov did not manage to fulfill this task in “The Precipice”, the author of the article proves that the image of grandmother has come into the national consciousness as an archetype. It has direct connection with the archetype of the village that came into being in the Russian literature of XIX–XX centuries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-150
Author(s):  
Elena S. Sonina

An enormous amount of research has been devoted to studying the Russian classics. Nevertheless, the issue of reflecting social ideas about the writers whose works were included into the Russian literary canon has been insufficiently studied, especially with regard to satirical graphics. Caricature in the legitimate press is considered to be a popular visual art, with the image of a Russian writer demonstrating the attitude of society towards his work. The purpose of this paper is to study the frequency of the portrayals of Russian writers in the satirical graphics of the early 20th century, which are viewed as a reflection of the established (and constantly updated) literary canon of Russia. Our objectives include identifying the images of Russian writers found in the satirical graphics, comparing the visualization techniques used to portray the authors in the caricatures of the 19th and early 20th centuries, highlighting the visual motifs used to contrast the literature of the past and the contemporary magazine issues and pointing out the persistent satirical characterizations and tropes of the images of famous writers, depending on the periodical. On the basis of a selective scan of 25 thin magazines and two newspapers published from 1877 to 1917, more than 200 caricatures and satirical cartoons were identified, including benevolent and spiteful caricatures of Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Nicolai Nekrasov, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and many others. The cartoons held the readers’ interest in their literary work, forming the people’s attitude towards the human qualities of the writers and highlighting their personality among the rest of their peers. The prevalence of humor or satire was directly related to the historical context, either to the works of a particular writer, the editorial policy of publications or the position of a caricaturist. The cartoons of the early 20th century reflect the social atmosphere of the Silver Age: creative, critical, nervous and overthrowing the idols of the bygone eras. The article would prove useful for literary critics, historians of journalism and visual content researchers interested in the Russian pre-revolutionary press.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Aygul Ochilova ◽  

Although the work of James Joyce has been studied in English and Russian literature and translation, it has not been studied in detail in Uzbek literature and translation studies. In this work, along with revealing the problems of tradition and innovation in the work of J. Joyce, we study how the stylistic means used in the text of the novel "Ulysses" are preserved in the Russian and Uzbek translations by means of comparative-typological analysis of the original and translated texts. We identify alternatives and non-alternatives to the original Russian and Uzbek translations


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