scholarly journals Translating the transition: the translator-detective in Post-Soviet fiction

Author(s):  
Brian James Baer

This article explores the ways in which the figure of the translator-detective in contemporary Russian literature functions to express and neutralize a range of fears and anxieties engendered by the post-Soviet transition. Tracing the roots of the motif of the translator in Russian literature back to F. M. Dostoevsky ’s Crime and Punishment, the paper then examines the translator-hero in the detective fiction of the best-selling contemporary authors Aleksandra Marinina, Boris Akunin, Dar’ia Dontsova, and Polina Dashkova. Representatives of the embattled Russian intelligentsia, their translator-detectives embody resistance to mindless cultural borrowing from the West.

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-618
Author(s):  
Lyudmila K. Ryabova ◽  
Maria I. Kosorukova

The authors consider the problem in which extent did the Bolshevik authorities allow a coverage of Russian émigré life and work in France, under conditions of ideological confrontation and censorship. The present study is based on materials of Soviet literary and socio-political magazines such as Book and Revolution and Krasnaya Nov’ of the fi rst half of the 1920s. These journals off ered chronicles of events, literary reviews, information in special sections (‘In the West,’ ‘Relations with Russia,’ ‘Russian literature and art abroad,’ and particularly in the section ‘France’) that off ered a fairly complete picture of cultural events in France and activities of Russian émigrés in the country. Characteristic was the reproduction of large fragments of works authored by emigrant authors, which acquainted readers with the development of emigrant thought of that time. The article concludes that with regard to the fi rst half of the 1920s, we can speak about a kind of dialogue between the Russian intelligentsia in France and that in Soviet Russia. This communication was not always politicized and often remained in the fi eld of literature and art theory. In those years the cultural life of France in general was subject of constant attention. It is argued that most publications on French literature and art were free from ideology, thereby continuing the tradition of pre-revolutionary cultural relations between the two countries.


Author(s):  
Steve Bruce

Understanding why Islam has contributed little to contemporary religious and spiritual innovations allows us to see the principles underlying cultural borrowing. With its creator God, authoritative text, religious dogmas, and defined ways of life, Islam is too much like Christianity for cultural appropriation, and there is a considerable Muslim presence in the West that constrains borrowing. Such appropriation is easiest when ideas are not embedded in a large faith community (feng shui is an example), when they are retrieved from an ancient and undocumented past (as with Celtic Christianity), or when they are entirely fictional (as with the supposed characteristics of Atlantis).


2021 ◽  
pp. 257-271
Author(s):  
Денис Владимирович Макаров

Основная цель исследования состоит в выявлении основной проблематики романа «Александр Невский» и в исследовании особенностей художественного образа святого благоверного князя Александра Невского в художественном произведении одного из выдающихся представителей советской военной прозы Бориса Львовича Васильева. Начиная со второй половины 1990-х годов писатель воплощает в литературе образы выдающихся древнерусских князей и создаёт в своих исторических романах целую галерею художественных портретов: Владимира Святого, Ярослава Мудрого, Владимира Мономаха и многих других. В работе применяется сравнительно-исторический метод и метод филологического анализа. Для достижения указанной цели анализируется основная проблематика романа Бориса Васильева. В качестве наиболее актуальных для Руси XIII в. вопросов, поднимаемых автором, выделяются проблемы духовного наследия Византии, феодальной раздробленности, двоеверия, взаимоотношения власти (государства) и Церкви, исторического выбора между Востоком и Западом. Автором статьи предпринимает сопоставление образа святого благоверного князя Александра Невского прежде всего со знаменитым памятником древнерусской литературы XIII в. «Повесть о житии Александра Невского». Также в статье указываются предшественники Бориса Васильева в создании образа благоверного князя Александра Невского в русской литературе XIX и XX вв., среди которых поэты Аполлон Николаевич Майков, Лев Александрович Мей, Константин Михайлович Симонов и писатели Алексей Кузьмич Югов, Василий Григорьевич Ян, Анатолий Александрович Субботин, Сергей Павлович Мосияш. Наиболее важные результаты исследования состоят в выявлении основных особенностей художественного образа святого благоверного князя Александра Невского в романе Бориса Васильева. The main purpose of the research is to identify the main problems of the novel «Alexander Nevsky» and to study the features of the artistic image of the saint Prince Alexander Nevsky in the artistic work of one of the outstanding representatives of Soviet military prose - Boris Lvovich Vasiliev, who turned in the second half of the 1990s-2010s to the embodiment in artistic images of outstanding Ancient Russian princes and created in his historical novels from 1996 to 2010 a whole gallery of artistic images: Vladimir the Saint, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh and many others. To achieve this goal, the main problems of the novel by Boris Vasiliev are analyzed. The research highlights the problems of the spiritual heritage of Byzantium, feudal fragmentation, dual faith, the relationship between the government (state) and the Church, the historical choice between East and West are highlighted as the most relevant issues for Russia of the XIII century raised by the author, the problems of the spiritual heritage of Byzantium, feudal fragmentation, dual faith, the relationship between the government (state) and the Church, the historical choice between the East and the West. The comparison of the image of the saint Prince Alexander Nevsky is undertaken, first of all, with the famous monument of ancient Russian literature of the XIII century «The Story of the Life of Alexander Nevsky». The work also identifies the literary predecessors of Boris Vasiliev in creating the image of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky in Russian literature of the XIX and XX centuries, among them the poets Apollo Nikolaevich Maykov, Lev Alexandrovich May, Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov and the writers Alexey Kuzmich Yugov, Vasily Grigoryevich Yan, Anatoly Alexandrovich Subbotin, Sergey Pavlovich Mosiyash. The comparative-historical method and the method of philological analysis are used in the work. The most important results of the study are to identify the main features of the artistic image of the saint Prince Alexander Nevsky in the novel by Boris Vasiliev.


Slavic Review ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-417
Author(s):  
Rufus W. Mathewson
Keyword(s):  

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-91
Author(s):  
Codruţa Goşa ◽  
Dana Percec

Abstract The paper looks at the afterlife of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as envisaged by detective fiction writer and theorist P.D. James who imagines, in one of her novels, a sequel to the famous Regency book. This intertextual connection is analysed in terms of reader orientedness, the paper describing a survey that was conducted by the two authors among MA students in humanities at the West University of Timișoara and the conclusions that were reached after processing the data of the survey.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (Extra-B) ◽  
pp. 106-111
Author(s):  
Almaz Ildarovich Zakirov ◽  
Albina Mazgarovna Sayapova ◽  
Rinat Ferganovich Bekmetov ◽  
Chulpan Afraimovna Chetiniv

The coming century of globalization dictates the need to change the perspective in the study of the work of the leading classics of Russian literature in the context of the unity of philosophy and aesthetics of the West and the East, understood as the foundation of the world integrity. This understanding of the world can become the "language" for comprehension the deep layers of the writer's consciousness. At the same time, it should be noted that the forms of reflection of eastern cultural realities and codes in the work of Russian classics occupied many Russian and foreign scholars. The task that the authors of this article have set themselves is the need to show the origins of the creative thinking development among Russian classics (poets and prose writers), so that the picture of the dialogue between the West and the East in their artistic and philosophical heritage acquires completeness, integrity and more solid evidence.    


Author(s):  
O. О. Kryzhanovska

The article deals with the study of L. Lunts' report «Go West!» in the context of the leading ideas of the literary discussion of 1925–1928. L. Lunts was a theorist of the Russian literary collective «Brothers Serapions», his literary-critical articles represent such depth and perspectives that were ahead of his time. In the article by O. Kryzhanovska, it turns out that reflections on the ways of development of modern Russian literature turned out to be consonant with many world literatures, in particular Ukrainian. Report by L. Lunts «Go West!» (1922) fully represents his creative convictions and reveals much in common with the main vectors of the literary discussion of 1925-1928. The article proves that L. Lunts's article «Go West!» allows us to see the commonality of those artistic and aesthetic searches that existed in the 1920s in Ukrainian and Russian literature and represented the European vector of artistic landmarks. L. Lunts positioned himself as a «Western» writer. He emphasized the need to turn modern literature to the traditions of the West, in particular, to the tradition of fable prose. In the report «Go West!» the author notes that the provinciality of Russian literature is manifested in a dismissive attitude to the plot, to intrigue and an interesting plot. O. Kryzhanovska proved that under the dramatic plot L. Lunts understood the presence of such effective techniques that allow the viewer to arouse interest and emotional reaction. L. Lunts calls all modern literature boring and illiterate. The author insistently encourages writers to study Western literature and orient themselves towards Western traditions. O. Kryzhanovska proved that in two years the ideas of L. Lunts were consonant with the main dominant of the literary discussion of 1925-1928 in Ukraine. The conviction of the need to assimilate European artistic experience, get rid of the provincial and secondary, the call to learn from the world's best artists demonstrates the typological similarity of the views of such authors as Lev Lunts, Mykola Khvylovy and Mykola Zerov.


2019 ◽  
pp. 117-132
Author(s):  
Elena K. Chkhaidze

One of the last interviews given by Andrey Bitov, often considered a founder of Russian Postmodernism, before his death. His books are a symbiosis of knowledge (of history, culture, and literature) and play, which is perceived as the driver of alternating meanings constantly undergoing a transformation. The idea behind the conversation was not only to clarify the questions left unanswered upon the reading of Bitov’s epic Empire in Four Dimensions [ Imperiya v chetyryokh izmereniyakh ] and other books, but also to identify the foundations of the writer’s views. In one of his last interviews, Bitov discussed his vision of Russia’s imperial identity and Russian mentality, the Soviet regime and the Soviet period, Stalin’s role in history, his attitude to the West, the Russian language, secrets of his books and his favorite authors. Bitov reminisced about his trips to the Soviet republics of Georgia and Armenia, as well as his friendship with R. Gabriadze and G. Matevosyan. The writer offered his original vision of the development of Russian literature in the 19th c. in light of his fascination with astrology.


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