Times and masks in texts by and about Emiliyan Stanev

The article explores the masks Emiliyan Stanev uses to participate in the literary life of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. It also analyzes the attitude of literary scholarship towards the writer’s various manifestations. It comes to the conclusion that in order to defend his literary existence and to ensure literary publicity for his texts, the author had to simultaneously perform several – in certain cases mutually exclusive – social roles.

The Story of a Drawing from Chukokkala Miscellany

A novel detailed analysis of a page from Chukokkala , Korney Chukovsky's handwritten miscellany with drawings by Yuri Annenkov, dated March 1923, is given. Involvement of archival sources makes up the history of the drawing creation. It turns out that Annenkov worked at the page of the miscellany and the portrait of Leo Trotsky at the same time. The analysis of the stylistic features of the drawing reconstructs the elements of the literary life of the 1920s. The study of the depicted persons clarifies the circle of friends and associates of prominent cultural figures of the first post-revolutionary decade. The article provides little-known biographical information about the characters depicted in the drawing. It specifies how Annenkov met Gorky's closest associate, the prominent public figure Albert Pinkevich. The author highlights little-known facts of friendship of A. Pinkevich, Boris Pilnyak, a Soviet writer, and the avant-garde artist Boris Shaposhnikov. The history of the creation of graphic portraits of Soviet writers made by Annenkov is considered. In conclusion, the page of the handwritten miscellany, and Chukokkala as a whole, are presented as a unique monument that captures the living passage of time.

The “Bird Catcher” From Remizov’s “Nest”: To the Paris Biography of the Poet Dmitry Kobiakov

The article is dedicated to unknown plots from the biography of Dmitry Kobyakov – one of the poets of “lost generation” who shared the fate of post-war Soviet repatriates. On the basis of unpublished letters of Kobyakov from the American archive of A. M. Remisov the author reveals the motives of the rapprochement of a famous writer and an aspiring poet. At the external level it was connected with the publication of Kobyakov’s verse books, but on a latent level had according with innovative trends in artistic poetic and prosaic discourse of the second half of the 1920s. The article presents the first part of the study devoted to the literary life of Russian Paris, in the center of which with the support of Remizov appeared unknown Dm. Kobyakov; it contains substantial additions to the literary portrait of young Remizov’s correspondent, as well as to the bibliography of Russian abroad. The description of the history of these creative contacts is the object of new documentary materials that also fill the gaps in Remizov’s biography concerning the topic of literary mentorship of the writer and ‘nest’ of young writers had formed around him in the 1920s – early 1930s.

The International Poetic and Cultural Manifestation “Ante Popovski – Ante’s quill” – a traditional event that is yet to become a synonym for the true values of the Macedonian literary reality

The text raises the question of the significance of literary manifestations for literary reality. The thesis is that the significance of a specific literary manifestation in this digital age is not predominantly conditioned by its format and how conventional or modern it is, but by whether its mission is primarily based on aesthetic and literary criteria and consequently, by its content – how much new impulses it gives to the literary life. As a confirmation of this perception, the text highlights the international poetic and cultural manifestation “Ante Popovski – Ante’s Quill”, which has been part of the Macedonian literary reality for four years. Although it is quite new, with an aspiration to become traditional manifestation, and although it is organized in a conventional format and program, without pretentious efforts for non-standard program contents, it is already recognizable on the Macedonian cultural map, as an event that simultaneously seeks to invest in the valorization and affirmation of the lasting values of the Macedonian culture, to promote the Macedonian literary production, to enable less affirmed authors to emerge from the shadows of living literary monuments and to encourage literary science. Moreover, the text analyzes and valorizes the achievements of this year’s edition of the manifestation. Particular emphasis is placed on the international scientific symposium which posed key and hitherto unactualized questions about the creative work of one of the greatest Macedonian authors of the 20th century – Ante Popovski. At the same time, the concept of the manifestation is analyzed, which is constantly evolving, enabling it to be an event that leaves a mark and can lead to happenings that will one day have to be written down in literary history.

The impact of women in the literary life of Gibran Khalil Gibran

Gibran Khalil Gibran loved women, but he did not love one woman, for he shared his life with a number of women, and these women saw him under different names such as mother, sister, beloved, friend and others, but did Gibran appreciate their great role in the stages of his life and did they influence These women in his literary life and how they affected? This research aims to shed light on this aspect of the life of this writer, answering such two questions, to show the extent of the impact of women in Gibran's literary life, using the descriptive-analytical approach. And the most important findings of the research. The results are that the woman played a great role in the formation of Gibran's literary personality, as his works gave a special color and character that differed from the works of others, and this is evident through his writings. This Mary Haskell was unique among all women with the first lover in his literary life, as he still frequently shows his love for her in his words to the point of illusion that he did not love another woman.

‚Arbeit an den Sachen selbst‘. Zu Praxis und Programmatik der Literatursoziologie Karl Viëtors

This article focuses on Karl Viëtor’s (1892–1951) literary-sociological oriented Baroque research and follows its development up to a generalized literary-sociological research program. Viëtor defines his stance on the sociology of literature by distancing himself from two strands of thought: on the one hand, from different versions of “Geistesgeschichte” (represented e. g. by Fritz Strich, Oskar Walzel, or Emil Ermatinger), and, on the other hand, from various materialistic positions based on the base/superstructure-model (such as those by Franz Mehring or Karl August Wittfogel). First, I will examine Viëtor’s unpublished lecture History of German Literature in the Age of Baroque (Geschichte der deutschen Literatur im Zeitalter des Barock, 1922/1923 until 1937), which is his repository for his baroque publications in the 1920 s, that also inspired in-depth research conducted by his students. Secondly, I will analyze Viëtor’s Program of a Sociology of Literature (Programm einer Literatursoziologie, 1934), a critical examination of relevant contributions by Erich Rothacker and others, both from bourgeois and Marxist backgrounds. In this text, Viëtor outlines the sociology of literature in two ways: as a sociology of literary life and as a sociology of literary works.

„Ein Unbekanntes ist nur der Geschmack“. Zu Levin Ludwig Schückings literatursoziologischem Ansatz

The article reconstructs Levin Ludwig Schücking’s History of Taste as a method of writing literary history. Moreover, it lays out, for the first time, the cultural and literary-political dimensions of his approach by considering the context of the history of literary studies comprehensively. The article demonstrates how Schücking refers to sociology in a twofold manner: as a way of scholarly thinking that is related to certain methodological techniques, and as a way to overcome the “crisis of modernity” manifested in the rift between authors and readers in literary life.

Echo, Narcissus, and the Translator’s Distress

This article argues that the story of Echo and Narcissus as told in Ovid’s Meta­morphoses can serve as a fruitful, suggestive metaphor or ›myth‹ of the translator, especially of the driving passion and the unavoidable frustrations characteristic of the translation process. The connection between Echo and the translator seems obvious – they both share the principle of repetition, »echoing« a primary text – but there are also interesting differences between the two: whereas Echo’s repetition is forced, partial, and mechanic, that of the translator is a creative and holistic choice. As for Narcissus, I suggest that both Narcissus and the translator are engaged in a magic yet futile dance of intimacy, reflection, and passion with their beloved (image or text). They both try to get as close as possible to their beloved while risking its loss paradoxically from getting too close. I conclude with a table, mapping important similarities and differences between the story of Echo, Narcissus, and the »story« of the translator, emphasizing that, unlike the tragic ending of Echo and Narcissus, the activity of the translator is a vital and fertile part of literary life.

RASUL GAMZATOV AND NIKOLAY TIKHONOV: PERSONAL AND CREATIVE CONTACTS

The object of the article is the creative and personal ties of Rasul Gamzatov and Nicolay Tikhonov, the famous Soviet poet, writer, and translator, who played an important role in the literary life of Dagestan, made a great contribution to the development of its verbal culture, one of the first opened it to the Soviet reader. Their strong friendship continued for many years. It was cemented by a common cause, a love of literature, a desire to develop it and convey to the reader their new ideas. Their relationship was of a trusting nature and was based on respect for each other.