Recipe for an Ideal Language: Proezia as a stylistic concept in Sasha Sokolov's "Triptych"

The article considers the book of Sasha Sokolov "Triptych", which reflects his views on the language system. The author explores the term "proezia", formulated by the writer, and analyzes the origins of "proetic" stylistics using the example of the work of Gongora, Simeon Polotsky, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, V.V. Nabokov. The results reflect an attempt to establish an analytical order in the lyrical nature of the Sokolov's prose.

Between Modernity and Tradition. Sasha Sokolov’s Works and its Connection with the Old Russian Literature

The article focuses on the importance of old Russian literature in the works by Sasha Sokolov, with a specific reference to his first book A School For Fools (1976). The analysis of this text takes into account lexical choices made by the author and their meaning in the context of the narration. This approach lies at the basis for the proposal of a tripartite model that describes the relationship between Sokolov’s works and the old Russian tradition. The model includes the following categories: 1. Allusions to religion; 2. Presence of elements pertaining the realm of folklore; 3. Allusions to episodes or figures related to old Russian literature. The results of this research contribute to the broadening of knowledge in the field of contemporary Russian literature and its relations with the old literary heritage. Moreover, this investigation allows a deeper comprehension of Sokolov’s writing style.

Stylistics of Sasha Sokolov’s Novels “School for Fools” and “Palisandria” (“Astrophobia”): Is It a Tribute Paid to Vladimir Nabokov’s Tradition or Typological Convergence?

The paper analyses stylistics of two famous novels by Sasha Sokolov published in the USA: “School for Fools” (1976, 1977) and “Astrophobia” (1985). The first one was highly appreciated by Vladimir Nabokov who saw a close affinity of its poetics with his own style of writing though before emigration Sokolov couldn’t gain access to his books. However the insane marginal hero fully immersed in his own fantasy and hallucinations, numerous double-characters, repeated key-words and symbolic details creating metaphoric style of writing, the multi-layered intertextuality, literary allusions, etc. – all these artistic means happened to be just similar typical features of their novels. But as the author of the article states, such poetic similarity manifests only their multiform typological convergence. A grotesque parody on “Lolita” and “Ada” – “Palisand­ria”, written in exile, on the contrary carries the peculiarities of Nabokov’s poetics to the point of absurdity by means of the same creative approach – postmodernism.

On the first English translation of Sasha Sokolov’s novel “Between Dog and Wolf”

The article is devoted to the analysis of the main problems and challenges (as well as their solutions) of the fi rst English translation of the novel “Between Dog and Wolf” written by Sasha Sokolov in 1980. For a few decades this novel had no English translation, until the work of Alexander Boguslawski, Sokolov’s friend and translator. In this article we analyze and summarize the diffi culties of this text for translation and the ways Boguslawski solved them, based on his own experience that he shared in the fi rst English edition of the novel: “Between Dog and Wolf”. Columbia University Press, 2016. 296 p. (Russian Library).