A HISTORIAN OF LITERATURE AHAPII SHAMRAI: TEXT, WORK, AND ENVIRONMENT

The paper aims to reconstruct the research activity of the Ukrainian literary scholar Ahapii Pylypovych Shamrai (1896—1952) in the period from 1922 to 1929. For this purpose, the works of the scholar, his personal files, materials from the newspapers and journals of the time, as well as correspondence have been examined. It was necessary to describe A. Shamrai’s postgraduate studies at the Research Department of History of Ukraine (literary and ethnographic section) (1922—1924). Much attention is given to the textbook “Ukrainian Literature. A Brief Survey” (1927, 1928) that was among the first structured presentations of the history of Ukrainian literature. The paper analyzes the perception of the textbook by contemporary readers and outlines the specifics of Shamrai’s sociological method of this period. Considering the research work of A. Shamrai in the context of literary criticism of the 1920s, the author of the paper reconstructs the scholar’s dialogue with M. Zerov and the polemic with “New Generation” magazine. One of the central topics for A. Shamrai in the 1920s is examined in detail: it is his study of H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s work. In particular, the discussion between A. Shamrai and Ye. Aizenshtok on the publication of H. Kvitka’s works in 1928 has been highlighted. A. Shamrai’s scholarly concepts of the 1920s characterize him as a textual critic (‘text of the work’, ‘canonical text’) and historian of literature (‘literary fact’, ‘work’, ‘environment’, ‘style’, ‘literary school’, ‘template’, ‘minor writers’, ‘influence’). The category ‘reader’ was also very important for Shamrai’s works of this period. A range of examples shows how Shamrai used the methodology of comparative studies.

From the History of the Research on Dostoevsky. The Legacy of Vasily Komarovich

The review is devoted to the edition of collected works by the outstanding scholar Vasily Komarovich (1894–1942), researcher of the life and work of Fyodor Dostoevsky, philologist, textual critic, and folklorist. Most of the articles included in the book were published in small editions during the author’s lifetime and have never been reprinted since then. The book also contains materials on Vasily Komarovich.

“Thorough Bass”: on the History of a Musical Image in L. N. Tolstoy’s Novel Anna Karenina

The article deals with the history of a musical term, transformed by L. N. Tolstoy in his novel Anna Karenina into imagery employed for the conveying of ideas about running farmlands in Russia, which are so important for the author and his character Konstantin Levin. Having chosen a musical term to express his idea in the most accurate way, Tolstoy draws parallels between various narrative arcs and certain parts in a polyphonic composition where the main role is that of the “thorough bass” which is Levin’s impressions of the household of an old and wise peasant. Quite expectable of the writer, who loved and studied music, this artistic solution seemed to be so unusual to the editors preparing the publications of Anna Karenina during the entire 20th century that they considered it to be a misspell of a copying clerk or a type setter. As a result, a polysemic musical term “thorough bass” was replaced by “fundamental basis”. Looking up in the autographs does not give the answer to the question, which of these two options is correct, as manuscript collection has not been fully preserved. The only formal source which allows a textual critic to reconstruct the initial version is the text of the first publication of the novel in the magazine Russky Vestnik (1875–1877) corrected by Tolstoy himself in 1877, in accordance with which Anna Karenina is being published in academic Complete works of L.N. Tolstoy in 100 volumes.

From the History of Research on Dostoevsky. The Legacy of Vasily Komarovich

The review is devoted to the edition of collected works by the outstanding scholar Vasily Komarovich (1894–1942), researcher of the life and work of Fyodor Dostoevsky, philologist, textual critic, and folklorist. Most of the articles included in the book were published in small editions during the author’s lifetime and have never been reprinted since then. The book also contains materials on Vasily Komarovich.

Textual Studies of Nekrasov’s Poetry

The article discusses some complex issues of N.A. Nekrasov’s poetry textual criticism, which the author had to solve in the course of preparing a new threevolume edition in the “Poet's Library” series. The status of the so-called “Posthumous edition” (1879) of Nekrasov's poems edited by S.I. Ponomarev, who used the now lost copy with the author's notes and revisions, is discussed. The textual critic is faced with the task of separating copyright editing from Ponomarev's conjectures, which he resorted to. The authoritative Soviet editions of Nekrasov did not take into account the versions of the “Poems” of 1879, which was sometimes erroneous, as is demonstrated in the article on the example of individual readings of such works as “Vlas”, “Philanthropist” and others.

NOTES ON THE TEXT OF CATALEPTON 10

Catalepton 10 (Sabinus ille) is a unique survival from antiquity: it is the only parody of an entire poem to reach us, and is written in pure iambic trimeters, a near intractable metre. Addressed to Sabinus, an upstart muleteer, the poem launches a stinging attack at him, and draws attention to his status as a parvenu. It remains incredibly close to its charming model—Catullus 4 (Phaselos ille)—in structural, lexical, stylistic and metrical terms, but rather different in purport. In attempting to reassess a number of problems in the text of the poem, the textual critic ought largely to be guided by the relationship of Sabinus ille to its model, as it is clear that the author of Catalepton 10 was an incredibly close reader of the Catullan text and sought not only to imitate through parody but also to subvert and deflate his predecessor's poem.