ON SOME FEATURES OF POST-SOVIET POLEMICS (BASED ON A REVIEW IN THE “VOPROSY LITERATURY” JOURNAL)

The article critically examines some techniques used in post-Soviet polemics based on the material from E. Abdullayev's note “New Understanding and old myths” (book review of Esaulov I. A. Russian Classics: New Understanding. St. Petersburg, Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy Publ., 2017) and traces the dependence of the interpretation and evaluation of the literary scientific system on the axiological views of the author of the description. At the same time, it demonstrates the influence of axiology on evaluation of philological work. The negative ideologems of the Soviet philological science and their presence in the philological practice of our time are revealed. A reduced understanding of the task of historical poetics (and poetics in general), which is characteristic of both Soviet philology and influential post-Soviet publications, prevents the construction of a new history of Russian literature and the identification of the role and place of Christian tradition in the text and subtext of works of Russian classical literature.

THE MOTIF OF THE PRODIGAL SON IN THE PLOT OF IVAN BUNIN’S NOVEL THE LIFE OF ARSENIEV

The article is devoted to the research of the reception and transformation of the subject of the Gospel Parable of the Prodigal Son in the novel The Life of Arseniev by Ivan Bunin. The key events in the Parable of the Prodigal Son are present in the structure of The Life of Arseniev: leaving the ancestral home — leaving God behind; temptations of the spirit and flesh, dissolute life, spiritual lust, spiritual death; confession; return to the ancestral home — return to God, to the Heavenly Father’s Home. Arseniev's departure from his ancestral home differs from the departure of the Gospel Parable’s hero, yet this event is one of the landmarks in the main character’s life path of life. Unlike the prodigal son, Aleksey Arseniev leaves his home seeking the highest meaning and purpose of life as the key aim; the sense of God’s presence had been present in his soul since his very childhood. However, the youthful thirst for glory and pleasures of life led Bunin's hero to the abandonment of the Heavenly Father and to immersion in sinful life. The tropes of sensuality, temptation, desire, degradation, sins, unfaithfulness, adultery are the key motifs in the description of the hero’s dissolute life. Arsenyev’s immoral life became the main reason for the damage to his relationship with Lika and her breakup with him. The most important events in the Gospel Parable of the Prodigal Son are repentance of sins, penance before his father and before God — these events appear in Bunin’s novel in an altered form. Since Arseniev did not experience deep repentance before God for his sinful youth, the resurrection of his soul and his return to the Home of the Heavenly Father were impossible. Bunin demonstrates that an entire life is required for the hero to experience true repentance and his final return to God, thus Bunin leaves Arseniev on the path to God. Scenes from the Gospel Parable of the Prodigal Son, such as departure from the ancestral home, dissolute life and spiritual death are recreated most completely in Bunin’s novel The Life of Arseniev; while repentance and return to God, which take up the remainder of the hero’s life, are described by the author in a complex altered form.

UTOPIA AS AN ANTI-UTOPIA (ANDREY PLATONOV'S SHORT NOVEL BREAD AND READING)

The article analyzes A. Platonov's novel Bread and Reading, which is the first part of an unfinished trilogy called Technical Novel. Different approaches to the analysis of the writer's anti-utopian strategy are considered, and certain terms related to the intra-genre typology of his works, which are still the subject of controversy in Platonov studies, i.e., utopia, anti-utopia, metautopia, dystopia, and cacotopia are clarified. The article offers a new perspective on this problem and concludes that the short novel is characterized by a complex conflict between utopia and anti-utopia, namely, utopian consciousness is embodied in the form of anti-utopia, which leads to the ambivalence in meaning and the appearance of internal antinomies. This mainly revealed in the title of the story, the epigraph, a special type of plot situation and the character system structure. Platonov's work is characterized not only by the problem of the relationship between man and nature, but also that of between man and technology, which becomes a part of the anthropological worldview and acquires human features. Platonov's characters dream of a time when technology, nature and man are in a harmonious relationship, helping each other overcome universal entropy. The motif of construction sacrifice, traditional in the poetics of Platonov's works, plays an important role in the story: it is premature and shameful to think about personal happiness in the world of socialism that has not yet been built, without enough “bread and reading.” The work reflects Platonov's own hopes and doubts, and if the “principle of hope” (E. Bloch) is the main principle of utopian consciousness, then the writer's doubt becomes the main feature of his anti-utopia strategy. On the one hand, this makes it difficult to identify the genre of the short novel Bread and Reading (utopia or anti-utopia), on the other, it does not lead to an “imbalance” of forces, but, rather, to a meek awareness of the place of man in the world and his limited capabilities. An important role is also played by the fact that The Juvenile Sea was supposed to become the second part of the trilogy, and Dzhan may have made up the third part: the three works not only complement, but also “explain” each other. In the finale of Bread and Reading, the characters remain focused on the “distant,” as they stay in the same utopian dream space. Likely never having found a way out of the “impasse of utopia,” Platonov leaves Technical Novel unfinished.

BIBLE QUOTES AND IMAGES IN THE POETRY OF MARIA SHKAPSKAYA

This article is the first to examine in detail the complete corpus of Biblical quotations in the poetry of Maria Shkapskaya, including unpublished handwritten texts. The article uses the material in books Mater dolorosa (1921), Chas vecherniy (1913—1917) (The Evening Hour (1913—1917), 1922), Baraban Strogogo Gospodina (The Drum of the Strict Master, 1922), Krov’-ruda (Blood-ore, 1922), Zemnye remyosla (The Earthly Crafts, 1925) and the poem “Yav’” (“Reality,” 1923), as well as texts from the notebooks of 1903—1907, 1913—1920 and Vcherashnee, a project of a book of poems (Yesterday, 1916) with a preface by Z. Gippius. The intention is to explain the role and significance of the biblical corpus of texts for the author's poetry. The task is to consider in chronological order all the poems by Maria Shkapskaya that are somehow related to the texts of the Holy Scripture, while clarifying the author’s basic principles of working with these texts. The thematic inversions characteristic of Shkapskaya’s poetry are revealed. The general thesis states that the nature of Shkapskaya’s appeal to the texts of Holy Scripture has changed over the years, and her attitude to them has consistently shifted from neutral-calm to a tense one that requires dialogue. Growing increasingly more conflicted and questioning over time, Shkapskaya’s quoting of biblical texts assumes the nature of a personal experience, which clearly indicates the author’s reflections in this direction and a deeply religious understanding of the surrounding reality and poetic creativity as such.

“A WONDERFUL CORNER OF THE EARTH”. LA FAVIÈRE AS LOCUS AMOENUS IN THE LITERATURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMIGRATION

The article is dedicated to representations of the southern French village of La Favière in the literature of the first wave of Russian emigration. It aims to examine the representations of a colony founded on the Côte d’Azur by Russian refugees, scholars, writers and artists, which existed until the outbreak of World War II. The objects of study include Favière-inspired poetry by Sasha Chernyi, published in the Poslednie novosti journal between 1927 and 1932, Aleksandr Kuprin’s series of essays entitled Huron Headland (1929), and Marina Tsvetaeva’s poems written in the summer of 1935. Emphasis is also placed on the epistolography and memoirs of Russian emigrants visiting the “Russian village”: letters by Georgi Griebenshchikov, memoirs by Ludmila Wrangel, Ksenia Kuprina, and Galina Rodionova. The La Favière phenomenon in the works of Russian emigrants has not been discussed before, which is what makes this article timely. The analysis of the above-mentioned works covers primarily their subject matter, but their connections with composition, stylistics and the question of genre affiliation are also discussed. Research demonstrates that despite the different ways in which the countryside is portrayed (its idealization in the poetry of Chernyi, comparison with Crimea — a true but lost paradise in Kuprin’s prose, rejection of Provence in Tsvetaeva’s poems), the tendency in Russian expatriate literature to interpret La Favière as locus amoenus persisted. In the works of Russian emigrants, the countryside evokes positive connotations, enchants with its landscape and tranquility, the naturalness of life replete with manual labor and close contact with nature. As a result, in the system of local texts of Russian emigration, bound together by the motif of foreignness as locus horribilis, La Favière holds a unique place, representing a rare example of Arcadia found in exile.

PRECEDENTIAL INTERTEXT IN THE POEM “THE GRAND INQUISITOR”

The poem "The Grand Inquisitor" is part of the novel "The Brothers Karamazov," written by Ivan Karamazov about Christian freedom of will and told by him to his brother Alyosha, who rightly perceived it as an Orthodox theodicy. The article presents an intertextual analysis of the precedent texts used by F. M. Dostoevsky in the poem "The Grand Inquisitor". In particular, the meanings of direct quotations from the New Testament, especially its last book, the Revelation of John the Theologian, and the translated apocrypha "The Walking of the Virgin in Torment" are interpreted; medieval Western European mysteries in the paraphrase of V. Hugo; poetic quotations from the works of A. S. Pushkin, V. A. Zhukovsky, F. I. Tyutchev, which linked together the axiological concepts of the narrative text. Appeals to the precedent texts of world literature contribute to the disclosure of the multifaceted symbolism of the poem, which glorifies the spiritual freedom of humanity as an act of faith, and help to generalize and deepen its axiological discourse. The author analyzes the speech and behavioral tactics of the Grand Inquisitor, based on the substitution of concepts characteristic of the techniques of "black rhetoric". In contrast to the Grand Inquisitor's distortion of cause-and-effect relations and the concepts of good and evil, and his denial of the idea of Christian freedom, direct and indirect quoting of texts that have become part of the heritage of world culture creates a text rich in axiological meanings, designed to influence the spiritual space of the reader, enriching it and orienting it to the correct understanding of eternal truths.

RHETORIC AND POETICS OF DOSTOEVSKY’S PUSHKIN SPEECH

The article examines the F. M. Dostoevsky’s Pushkin's Speech in the context of modern studies of the way ancient heritage was reflected in the writer's work. The analysis of the speech was carried out in the categories of rhetorical poetics. The author proves that the speech is structured according to the rules of epideictic eloquence, with a pronounced emotional component characteristic of Christian preaching. The author identifies established stylistic figures, the use of which is always justified: repetition, parallelism, gradation, amplification, polyphonic forms, period, allusion, irony. Rhetoric is translated into poetics. Pushkin's characters (Aleko and Onegin, Tatiana, Pimen) become images with apparent features of both Christian culture and antiquity. Evangelical motifs and images, allusions to antiquity, concepts of Orthodox and ancient culture are integrated in a journalistic form. Christ and Pushkin are connected figuratively in poetics and rhetoric of the speech. Dostoevsky creates a portrait of the Russian poet, his image, and it is no accident that the "speech" is called an essay by its author.

THE “BRIGHT CITY” MYTHOLOGEME IN LYRIC POETRY OF PIMEN KARPOV

The article analyzes the poet Pimen Karpov’s understanding of the “Bright City” mythologeme. The need to analyze this mythologeme stems from the fact that the image of the Bright City is at the core of the mythopoetic concept that forms the basis of Karpov’s worldview. The toponymy of the sacred space of the Bright City, the Heavenly City, the City of God in Karpov’s lyric poetry is multifaceted. It is realized in poetry both as a real earthly space, and as a certain symbol with blurry borders: it is a heavenly city, a potential paradise on earth, the promised land, the land of the forefathers, and even simply the land for the peasant. The ideal world order has both spatial and temporal reference points. According to Karpov, it is only possible to reach the Bright City through self-sacrifice. Out of pain and suffering, happiness is born, and this is the only possible way to attain the coveted Paradise. But for Karpov, it is not merely a personal path, but also Russia’s path, its mission, and the lyrical hero’s participation in its fate is undeniable. Karpov sees Russia’s historical mission in sacrificial self-immolation as a path to Transformation. The paradoxical convergence of Christ and the antichrist in his works reflects the spiritual context of the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the extreme ambivalence of personal principles. The fragmentary and aphoristic nature of Karpov’s poetic language, the kaleidoscopic nature of his artistic space, on the one hand, and the hidden integrity emanating from the unity of the visible and invisible worlds, on the other, make his poetry akin to the culture of modernism.

TRUTH AS AN AXIOLOGICAL DOMINANT (V. M. SHUKSHIN IN A RETROSPECTIVE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE)

The concept of “truth” in Russian literature is historically associated with justice, righteousness, truth and fairness. In the second half of the 19th century, this concept was actualized in the works of F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, and A. P. Chekhov. In Dostoevsky's “ideological novel,” the emphasis is on the hero's finding “truth-verity,” “to live according to the truth” means to live with Christ. Besides the “truth of God”, the “truth of the people” is also of great importance in Dostoevsky's axiology. It is the people who carry the ideal of Christ in their hearts. The writer also discusses the truth of everyday life in his work: in politics, in the relationships among people in society. Leo Tolstoy created a whole gallery of characters who live “according to the truth.” First and foremost, the works of A. P. Chekhov reveal the truth of life; the writer is interested in the character's existential choice. God's truth and the people's truth, as a rule, are revealed to him in the self-awareness of a character "of the people." In 20th century Russian literature, the concept of “truth” plays an important role in the work of V. M. Shukshin and other rustic writers. Shukshin suggests distinguishing between truthfulness and truth, the truth of character and the truth of action. The truth of life involves the problem of the meaning of life. According to Shukshin, “people know the truth,” and this is not rational knowledge, but a way of life. The truth becomes the basis of national existence. Shukshin's Pravda was provocative in relation to the aesthetics of socialist realism with its main principle of partisanship. The writer relied on Russian axiology, rather than on party attitudes. The concept of “truth,” which is associated with the Christian worldview and Christian values, is the foundation of Russian culture and determines the main vectors of its development.

VALUE OF ACTIVE COMPASSION IN THE HEROIC EPIC: RUSSIAN EPIC CONCEPT

The article uses the comparative historical method to analyze epic folklore from around the world with regard to the functioning of the concept of active compassion. Proceeding from extensive factual material, the author demonstrates that different national and civilizational traditions imply various interpretations of this concept. While The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Iliad, and medieval Western European epic songs don’t treat mercy as an axiologically important principle, the folk epics created by the Orthodox peoples maintain its value in accordance with the Christian ideal of sacrificial love. This interpretation is clearly presented in the Byzantine epic poem Digenes Akritas, in Serbian heroic songs, and, especially, in Russian bylinas, where one of the main heroes, Ilya Muromets, is very often motivated precisely by compassion. The author’s observations suggest that the concept of mercy, organically inherent in Russian folk epics, influenced the subsequent literary tradition as well, being reflected, for instance, in the poetics of the Russian psychological novel.