Motives of Story “Queen of Spades” by Alexan der Pushkin in Novel “Bad Weather” by Alexander Ivanov

The novel by A. Pushkin “The Queen of Spades” and the novel by A. V. Ivanov “Bad weather” from the point of view of literary relationships is examined in the article, the method of intertextual analysis is used. The aim of the study is to identify parallels in the problematic, motivational structure and systems of images of these works. The article analyzes the relationship between the work of A. Ivanov and directly with the text of “The Queen of Spades”, and with the epigraph to it. The results of the research allow us to conclude that the image of bad weather as a background for the development of action connects the Pushkin story and the novel by A. V. Ivanov. It is noted that in both works the theme of the change of epochs is artistically realized, and the past is interpreted as a time much brighter and more meaningful than the present. The studied works are also united by the plot-forming motive of playing with fate, which, in turn, is associated with the theme of passion for money. In addi tion, commonality can be noted in the nature of the characters and the principles of their representation; to a certain extent, the fates and nature of women characters of the works are similar. Comparison with Pushkin's story helps to see deep philosophical problems in A. Ivanov’s novel “Bad Weather”.

Reading, Fast and Slow

Reading literature is often contrasted to the use of digital media in terms of speed. While readers engage slowly with a book, they rush through digital environments at an ever faster pace. This article argues against a simple binary between slow/literary and fast/digital. This binary is in fact not native to the public debate about literature in the digital age but can be traced back from the digital revolution to modernist attitudes on literature, as they emerge in Viktor Shklovsky and Walter Benjamin. Drawing on results about reading speed in reading science and on current narrative theory, this article devises an alternative argument for literary reading as a process that unfolds over multiple time scales linked to different layers of meaning making. Reading literature, from this perspective, is not exclusively slow but, rather, works through a combination of both fast and slow processes. The article develops its argument through the example of Alexander Pushkin's classic novella “The Queen of Spades” and then applies this new theoretical account of multispeed literary reading to two novels engaging explicitly with the digital revolution.

The Power of Irony

The 1970s saw a mass exodus of younger, artistically ambitious directors from moviemaking for the big screen into TV. Among the beneficiaries of the new medium was Igor Maslennikov, who had struggled to establish himself as more than “promising.” Maslennikov’s TV adaptations of Sherlock Holmes rapidly made him one of the most famous filmmakers in the USSR. The main subject of this chapter, however, is an adaptation for “quality TV” of a different kind, The Queen of Spades, by Russia’s most famous writer, Alexander Pushkin. Where Maslennikov’s Conan Doyle adaptations were studiedly casual (The Hound of the Baskervilles is an exercise in playful eccentricity rather than a plunge into Victorian Gothic), his reworking of Pushkin went precisely in the other direction. This “hyperauthentic” interpretation of the Russian author sought to retain “every last comma” in the original, right down to scene-setting commentaries presented by an on-screen narrator. As this chapter argues, had it not been for the exceptionally vexed history of attempts to film The Queen of Spades (Maslennikov was the fourth director selected to make the movie), his “hyperauthentic” approach might have proved more controversial. Whichever way, the adaptation more closely resembles late modernist films of the era such as Eric Rohmer’s The Marquise of O than the conventional literary adaptations of the later Soviet era, which came from a tradition where reconstructing the source text was the accepted norm.

CULTURAL CONTACTS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA IN THE FIELD OF MUSIC AND DRAMA THEATER (50s of the XXth century)

The article is devoted to the cultural cooperation between the USSR and the People's Republic of China in the field of musical theater. The Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance between these two countries, signed in Moscow on February 14, 1950, became a starting point in the development of cultural contacts. The most productive period was from 1949 to early 1960s. An important marker of the development of Soviet-Chinese cultural relations was the tour of theater troupes from both countries to the Soviet Union and the Celestial Empire. The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Musical Theater team visited China in 1954, and later the artists of the Shaoxing Opera and the Shanghai Theater of Beijing Musical Drama demonstrated their art in Russian cities. The two countries' directors showed mutual interest in the classical opera art of their counterparts: in Beijing and Tianjin P. I. Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades" were performed by Chinese singers, while in Russian cities the traditional Chinese theatre plays "The Spilled Cup" and "The Grey-Haired Girl" were staged by Russian artists.

When Pushkin's Blackness Was in Vogue: Rediscovering the Racialization of Russia's Preeminent Poet and His Descendants

This essay investigates interconnections between the novelist, Henry James, Ivan Turgenev, and Aleksandr Pushkin and identifies the racial subtext of these associations. Several scholars have connected Pushkin and James. But none of this scholarship has speculated on whether it was the poet's African heritage that was at the root of hidden connections between these authors. Moreover, though most scholarship on Pushkin's reception in the United States focuses on twentieth-century African American literature, his African heritage was publicized much earlier. In fact, nineteenth-century commentators on both sides of the Atlantic frequently discussed Pushkin's racial heritage as a canonical European writer of African descent. This essay recovers how Henry James used Pushkin's daughter, the morganatic Countess Merenberg, as a model for the racially ambiguous “morganatic” Baroness Münster in The Europeans (1878). A decade later, James seems to have invoked the Countess Merenberg once more in his rewriting of Pushkin's “The Queen of Spades” (1833) in The Aspern Papers (1888). While James publicly attributed Byron and Shelley as inspirations, the discourse surrounding the African heritage of Pushkin and his heirs helps explain why the novelist minimized and erased the racial lineage at the center of The Europeans and The Aspern Papers.

Pushkin’s allusions in the comedy of A. P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard"

The study of Pushkin's allusions in the works of Anton Chekhov has been carried out for several decades. The relevance and novelty of this topic is associated with new observations and searches for intertextual connections, the expansion of the context of analysis, including in connection with the appeal to the dramatic works of the writer. This work considers the allusions from the works of A. Pushkin "The Queen of Spades", "Boris Godunov" and others, their role in the artistic whole of the comedy of A. P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard". The effectiveness of the approach which was outlined in the studies of R.G. Nazirov in the 1990s, as well as S.A. Kibalnik, M.V. Litovchenko and other domestic scientists is confirmed. Literary allusions resonate in Chekhov's artistic world, cumulatively marking a transitional stage of cultural and historical life and its personal comprehension. The intertextuality of Chekhov's works allows us to create an integral image of Russian culture: the semantic relations of allusions and reminiscences are combined with the multilayered symbolism of sound, hearing, gesture, touch - in general, the experience of time and the multiple meanings of words. The semantic "expansion" of Chekhov's play text leads not only to comparisons with Russian classics, but also to an open finale - a future literary context, implementing the "principle of plot uncertainty" and removing the uniqueness/truthfulness of any interpretation.

COMMENTS TO THE QUEEN OF SPADES: 11–16

The analysis of the playing card terms paroles and paroles-pe clarifies why the secret of the three sure cards made Chaplitsky win back his loss, but proved fatal to Hermann. Besides, the report comments on the epigraph to the third chapter of Pushkin’s novella, as well as on the literary sources of the late Countess’s visit to the protagonist; it is specified which particular pistol Hermann used to threaten her, and what gerboviielenty are.

‘Graphomania is a writer’s first and indispensable prerequisite’

The interview of E. Konstantinova with the prose and script writer and social activist L. Ulitskaya mainly focuses on the latter’s books, their origins and unique features and principles. In particular, Konstantinova brings up the fate of screen adaptations of Ulitskaya’s works, including the scripts for the episode A Hundred Buttons [Sto pugovits] in the almanac A Joyful Roundabout [Vesyolaya karusel] (1983) and for the cartoons The Toys’ Secret [Tayna igrushek] (1986) and A Lazy Dress [Lenivoe platie] (1987), which became a sort of springboard for her career in grown-up literature. Also mentioned are films: This Queen of Spades [Eta pikovaya dama] (2003), The Kukotsky Case [Kazus Kukotskogo] (2005), and others. As the interview was conducted remotely due to the pandemic, it also discusses the ways in which the novel coronavirus may change the world (if at all). Ulitskaya also shares her opinion on what a writer should do in these changing times.

Scenery by M. V. Dobuzhinsky as a Version of Pushkin Studies

The sets by M. V. Dobuzhinsky for the operas by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky based on Pushkin’s works represent an attempt to reconstruct Pushkin’s world and Pushkin’s attitude to history. The libretto required a stylization and standardization of scenography, but Dobuzhinsky continued to interpret the images of St. Petersburg and central Russia, correlating the plots of operas with a new national upsurge. Thus, the plot of The Queen of Spades was understood as part of Pushkin’s view on the successes and failures of the Petrine reforms, about the connection between adventurism and the imperial style, which corresponded to the general cultural myth of Petersburg but was supplemented by a number of observations on the Pushkin text. The plot of Boris Godunov was read not as a Russian story, but as a common one for countries inheriting the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. The plot of Eugene Onegin was brought closer to the dacha plots of Russian literature, becoming part of the integrated image of a lost Russia. It is proved that Dobuzhinsky in his decisions followed not the structure of the libretto, but a close reading of Pushkin’s texts.

Images of game and gamer in the space of literature and computer games

The subject of this research is the images of game and gamers. In the space of literary work, they are arrayed in metaphorical and often demonic raiment, receiving moral-ethical interpretation in one or another way. The problem of game and gamer in criticism was regarded by Y. Mann (“On the Concept of Game as a Literary Image”), V. V. Vinogradov (“Style of the Queen of Spades”), E. Dobin (“Ace and Queen”, A. Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades”), R. Caillois (“Games and People”), British writer and researcher of online games R, Bartle, American scientist Nick Yee, and many others. However, juxtaposition of literature sources on the topic to the research in the field of computer games is conducted for the first time. The scientific novelty consists in the comprehensive examination of the psychological game of the gamer based on the material of Russian literature (A. S. Pushkin “The Queen of Spades”, V. V. Nabokov The Luzhin Defense”) , as well as the modern computer games practice, in which psychological type of the gamer found its realization and development in accordance with genre diversity. Even the Russian classical literature depict game as an autonomous space that encompasses the gamer, and often has devastating effect on their personality. The author also observes an important characterological trait of the gamer: the conceptual, “literal” perception of the world, which is based on the reception of visual images of the world against verbal. Therefore, the Russian literature alongside the research practice of modern videogames from different angles approach examination of the images of “game and gamer”, cognize the factors and consequences of the problems that emerge in this object field, as well as seek for their solution. The data acquired in the course of the conducted comparative analysis is mutually enriching.