ON THE PERCEPTION OF I.S. TURGENEV IN BRITAIN

The subject of the article is I.S. Turgenev’s reputation in Great Britain. He gained international fame in 1860s-1870s, was the first to present the great Russian novel in Britain, where for some time he was perceived as a «strong energetic writer», but later, as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky appeared on the literary scene as «sages» and «prophets», he was relegated to the status of esthete, «pure artist». Victorians had the «Hall of fame» for the «first row» writers and a chapel for lesser deities - «pure artists», where paradoxically they gave a place to a «large, strong hunter» Turgenev.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC AS A PREDECESSOR OF SCIENCE FICTION PROSE

The article considers the genre of Cyranoʼs novel «Another world», widely discussed in both domestic and foreign literary studies. It explores the elements of science fiction in contrast to those of the miraculous, as they appear in the 17th-century literature, and identifies the features of utopianism and the peculiarities of scientific forecasting in the work. Both parts of «Another world» are examined in their similarities and differences from one another, as well as combination of universalism and topical issues of the novel with narrative irony and burlesque.

RUSSIA VERSUS ENGLAND: W.S. MAUGHAM - THE AUTHOR OF «ASHENDEN», «CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY» AND «WRITER’S NOTEBOOK»

The article demonstrates that the works by William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) are «a real storehouse» of Western ideas about Russia, the focus of British stereotypes of Russians, because he was not an «elite», but a «minor» writer - a brilliant witty storyteller and a «copier of life». It is evident that young and mature Maugham perceived the Russian world in a book of stories «Ashenden, or the British agent» (1928), in a novel «Christmas Holiday» (1939), in «A Writer’s Notebook» through the prism of Dostoevsky’s novels, he argued with the Russian writer and in a way was even obsessed with him. But when Maugham became old he lost his attraction to the Russian world.

LEO TOLSTOY’S DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE TO EVIL BY FORCE AS A «LIFE-TEACHING»

The reflection and transformation of philosophical ideas in the fiction and essays by Leo Tolstoy and in his life is demontrated in the discussion of the doctrine of non-resistance to evil by force. The spiritual growth of a person is not only a philosophical idea, but also a life plan and «life-teaching» of Leo Tolstoy presented in the works A Confession, The Gospel in Brief, My Religion, On Life, The Law of Love and the Law of Violence and in the novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina and Resurrection.

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON LITERARY WORK IN STENDHAL’S LEGACY

The article clarifes Stendhal’s aesthetic position. It analyzes the singularity of his interpretation of the term «romanticism», traces the evolution of his critical views from the early notes of the 1800s to the Manifesto «Racine and Shakespeare», which reflected the disputes of his time about drama, as well as to the statements about the purpose of the art in his article «Walter Scott and the Princess of Cleves» and in the novel «Red and Black».

AFTER WEINBERG. BOOK REVIEW: THE RECEPTION OF ARISTOTLE’S POETICS IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND BEYOND. NEW DIRECTIONS IN CRITICISM / ED. BY BRAZEAU B.

The book written by an international team of scholars and edited by B. Brazeau explores literary criticism and reception of Aristotle's «Poetics» in early modern Italy. Revisiting the «intellectual history» of Renaissance poetic studies written by Bernard Weinberg in 1960-s, the contributors find its own place whithin the 2000-years long tradition of translations, commentaries and polemic treatises. The authors apply new methods from book history, translation studies, history of emotions and classical reception to early modern Italian texts, placing them in dialogue with 20th-century literary theory, and thus map out avenues for future study.

THE ELEMENTS OF BLOCK’S AND PASTERNAK’S POETICS IN THE RESEARCH BY A.K. ZHOLKOVSKY

The review concentrates on the works by Aleksandr Zholkovsky, professor in the Literature department at University of Southern California (USA). Bearing on the structural method, Zholkovsky discusses the poems by Aleksandr Block and Boris Pasternak, based on the technique of «poetics of expressiveness» and «infinitive poetics».

N.A. BERDYAEV ON THE RESULTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WRITERS IN DEFENSE OF CULTURE (PARIS, 1935) AND CREATIVE FREEDOM

ust like the Russian literary emigration generally, Berdyaev expected at the International Congress of Writers a fundamental discussion on freedom, humanism and rights of individuals. However, the Congress did not meet the hopes of the intellectual elite of the Russian diaspora. According to Berdyaev, an era of the «deep crisis of freedom» has begun, while it is precisely the «spiritual understanding of freedom», which presupposes in a person an element independent of state and society, that «can save freedom».

«SUPERNATURAL» AND «FANTASTIC» IN DOSTOEVSKY’S POETICS: THE RECEPTION BY USA RESEARCHERS IN SLAVIC STUDIES

The review analyzes Slavic literary studies of the USA discussing the motives of unreality used by F.M. Dostoevsky to create atmosphere of fantastic and supernatural in his prose. It focuses on the works by R.B. Anderson, R.L. Jackson, D. Lowe, N. Perlina, St. Rachman, and E. Slivkin, exploring the role and functions of supernatural in the Dostoevsky's novels «Notes from the House of the Dead», «Crime and punishment», «Idiot», «Devils», and «The Brothers Karamazov».

NIZHNY NOVGOROD TEXT AND ITS CREATORS

Defining the cultural and literary code of the Nizhny Novgorod land is an important philological task, and the Nizhny Novgorod text has become an object of literary reflection. The search for spiritual meaning, the analysis of aesthetic systems in the phenomenon of the Nizhny Novgorod text, its creators are discussed in this review of scientific articles.