Vladimir Titov’s Letter to Vladimir Odoevsky as a Well-Known Response to Ivan Turgenev’s Article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” (Contemporaries’ Reception of Turgenev’s Interpretation of the Image of Hamlet)

For the first time, in the article, Vladimir Titov’s letter (dated 12/24 February 1869) is published and commented. In the 1820s, in Russia, Titov was well-known as a writer and literature theorist, the author of a romantic novella The Remote House on Vasilyevsky Island (1829) close to Society of Lyubomudriye. The letter extracted from the archives of the National Library of Russia is addressed to Duke Vladimir Odoevsky whose relationship with Titov was friendly from the very beginning of their acquaintance. The letter focuses on Ivan Turgenev’s speech published in the first issue of Sovremennik and titled “Hamlet and Don Quixote”. Reacting to Turgenev’s article, Titov shortly and critically accesses the comparison concentrating mainly on the image of Hamlet and thoroughly expresses his opinion on the essence of his tragic state. Titov’s opinion is just the opposite of Turgenev’s complex and multidimensional interpretation. Having experienced the great impact of the philosophy of German idealism at the beginning of his career, Titov to a great extent idealizes Shakespeare’s character whom he long knows and whom he is clearly eager to vindicate. Meanwhile, Titov does not pursue the aim to absolutely advocate the romantic halo of Hamlet as a Titanic personality (grandiose intellect and scale of feeling) and to enact the tragic pathos of the inner fight only. Developing Goethe’s definition of the essence of the character’s inner conflict, Titov, on the one hand, approaches its real understanding underlying the prince’s necessity to stay in a derogatory position of a “pitiful semiclown, indecisive grouch and shred”. On the other hand, the assessment can not be absolutely objective because Titov wants to see Hamlet as a victim of the fatal fortune which turns him into a character of an almost classical tragedy of fate. Titov’s bright and developed reaction (in the document of private nature) to Turgenev’s article is attractive and important first of all for its vividly demonstrated novelty and creativity of the writer’s view, wideness and multimodality of the author’s perception of Hamlet’s image. For the first time, Turgenev gave a developed interpretation of Shakespeare’s image in the tale “Hamlet of Shchigrovsky Province” (1848). Continuing his searches in the area of “Russian” (or “steppe”) Hamlet, Turgenev creates moral and philosophical problems of the English tragedy in the crisis socio-historical and cultural atmosphere of Russia of the 1840s. However, the principles of the artistic generalization and the peculiarities of the new reading, not mentioned and not fully comprehended by his contemporaries, were surprising and rejected when the speech “Hamlet and Don Quixote” appeared, in which Shakespeare’s character is presented ultimately vividly and lively in the then current interpretation.

German Incunabula Herbals from the Russian State Library: Towards Popular Literature

Early printed herbals have a special place in the 15th-century book production as they were popular both with academics, including medical scientists and pharmacists, and with the common reader. The popular response to the mass production of herbal books made possible by the invention of printing left textual and linguistic evidence in the form of handwritten marginal notes. In the present study, six copies of illustrated herbals printed in Mainz by Peter Schoeffer in 1484 and 1485 are compared as to the subject, language and function of the marginal notes found in them. Five of these books are from the Rare Books Department of the Russian State (former Lenin) Library, the sixth copy from the Moscow University Library is used to enable better comparison. The analysis has shown that the types of marginal notes vary significantly depending on the owners’ social status, interest, background, and on the time and region. Marginal notes in Latin or Greek are considered from the point of view of their thematic (content) and chronological (dating) characteristics. As the result of many centuries of natural science, herbals were an important source of professional knowledge for academics, including medical scientists and pharmacists, of the time. Thematically, linguistically and paleographically, marginal notes of this type can be ascribed to professionals or students of natural sciences. Notes made considerably later than the incunabula era can in fact only be explained by an academic interest on the part of the reader (some notes date after 1700). Marginal notes made in German and, judging by the handwriting, dating closer to 1500 reflect work of common medical practitioners or even of lay readers, who used their herbals to cope with practical problems of their everyday life. These German marginal notes are of high interest as a source for German language history, as they contain synonymous names of plants, additional to those used in the printed text. The analysis of their form, dialect, and distribution proves that they offer valuable lexical material (regional names) in the semantic field usually scarcely documented in medieval literary texts. Those descriptions, which are indicative of region or dialect, show a distinct Southern German origin of their authors.

Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “Hypertext” About the Female Warrior. Article I

This article deals with Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “hypertext” about the female warrior, i.e. with the totality of her manifestations in the works of the writer and the semantic continuum that they form. This type of character is defined as a heroine with outstanding physical abilities (such as strength, horse-riding and shooting skills, etc. - and also great beauty), a strong, proud personality, persistence, ability to fight back, determination to gain the upper hand, to win at all costs - especially in the game of power and armed conflict with the male character that is in love with the heroine and/or is loved by her. The author identifies Zamyatin’s works in which the woman warrior appears, analyzes the plot functions and the characteristic motif complex associated with this image. The author demonstrates that the female warrior represents a very frequent type of heroine in Zamyatin’s works: the image appears at the beginning of his career as a writer, in the short story “Kryazhi” (1915), and accompanies him until the end, manifesting itself in the screenplays written in the 1930s. The author reveals that a specific variant of the plot featuring the female warrior is implemented in Zamyatin’s works: the heroine is shown as equal in strength with the male character, and the test of power happens, in particular in the form of a literal duel. Whatever its outcome is and whoever wins, the storyline usually finishes with the death of one or both characters - either during the combat or as its remote consequence. While the type of the plot is usually the same, the female character itself shows a wide variety: there are Valkyrie-like heroines (Ildegonda in the play Atilla), polenitsas from Russian bylina songs (such as Nastasya Mikulishna in the screenplay “Dobrynya” or Marya in “Kryazhi”), Mongolian women warriors (Borte, Ulek), and even contemporary heroines of this type (Zinaida in the screenplay “The God of Dance”). Usually such characters are attributed in Zamyatin to the legendary epic past or rooted in “folk archaics”; they belong to the rural world, to the Russian village. The constant topoi and the evolution of the female warrior in Zamyatin’s artistic works are revealed; in particular, such motifs as love-hate, test of strength (in the form of a duel or a competition), mutual intendedness of two “strong ones” and their tragic non-encounter are considered. The author notes that the supervalue of the female warriors in Zamyatin’s works is love, while for some other writers of the Silver Age, for instance, for Marina Tsvetaeva or Lyubov Stolitsa, such values were female agency, independence, control over one’s life, freedom, or even spiritual salvation. The play Atilla and its heroine Ildegonda are analyzed in this article in particular detail; the sources of this image are revealed.

LITERARY AND EDITING STUDIES IN THE CLASSROOM: EXPERIMENTAL TEXTUAL AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

The aim of the article is to demonstrate the connection between literary and editorial studies and their mutual dependence in the process of analysing and interpreting texts of literature on the basis of a passage from Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. In this essay, significant outcomes will be reported to, later, show the specific analysis of the literary passage in the process of answering questions from textual through contextual considerations.

Review: Pigin, A.V. & Andrianova, I.S. (Eds) (2019) Filologiya kak Prizvanie: Sbornik Statey k Yubileyu Professora Vladimira Nikolaevicha Zakharova [Philology as a Vocation: Collection of Articles to the Anniversary of Professor Vladimir Nikolaevich Zakharov]. Petrozavodsk: Petrozavodsk State University. 664 P.

The review draws attention to a great contribution made by Professor Vladimir Zakharov to the study of the history of Russian literature, especially of Dostoevsky’s oeuvre. The longstanding and continuing research of Dostoevsky’s works made him deduce that Russian literature in whole was Christian with its particular evangelic text, Christian chronotope and general paschal, conciliar and salvational character. It is em-phasized that these pivotal concepts do not contradict the complexity (sometimes ambi-guity) of the nature of Russian literature and confirm the relevance of Pyotr Chaadaev’s call to recognize the impact of Christianity wherever and in whatever manner the hu-man thought touches upon it, even with the purpose of competing with it. The articles published in the collection prove the efficiency of Zakharov’s academic research. The articles cover various themes and attract a wide scope of materials, such as Old Russian literature and literature of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as well as that of the Soviet period and Russian literature abroad. The review takes into consideration the originality and potential of a number of remarks made in the articles, and introduces some clarifi-cations and supplements. Special attention has been paid to the articles dedicated to Dostoevsky’s oeuvre and his relations with other authors. The review emphasizes that one must understand the difference of Dostoevsky from other writers. Thus, with regard to the use of the “poetics of paradox” by Dostoevsky and Osip Senkovsky (as stated in V.A. Koshelev’s article), it is asserted that the concept of paradox and the image of a paradoxer play a significant role in Dostoevsky’s reasoning, but not with the aim of brandishing his originality and pinpointing the comic and absurd character of objective reality. In Dostoevsky, ideas inconsistent with common notions yet comprising the truth turn out to be paradoxical. The review also draws attention to differences in the out-looks of Dostoevsky and Chekhov, thus entering into a debate with the researcher N.V. Prashcheruk regarding the spiritual kinship of the two great Russian writers. The review distinguishes the articles of V.A. Viktorovich, B.N. Tarasov, and B.N. Tikhomirov for the abundance of sources, accuracy and consistency of their key theses. The academic hypothesis stated by I.A. Esaulov about two cultural currents (European culture of Modern Times and Christian tradition) influencing the formation of Russian literature should be taken into account when creating the history of national literature that must capture the essence and character of its genesis correctly. The review states that articles on Old Russian literature (L.V. Sokolova, T.F. Volkova, A.V. Pigin) are characterized by a detailed study of the material and a broad philological background on the whole. Finally, the review states that the collection has again proved the diversity of Zakha-rov’s research interests, the potential of his ideas as well as his own beneficial role in the activity of Russian and international philological community.

Genre and Stylistic Features of the Modern Audiobook

Modern technological conditions make it possible to create, quickly replicate and use audio books conveniently. Audio books are one of the fastest growing segments of the global publishing market. Informative issues of creating audio books, not technological ones, are in the research focus of the article. The content of an audiobook is a voiced text that refers to the “auditory literature”. Assessments of the quality of the auditory literature are polar. On the one hand, it is considered secondary to the original literary text; on the other hand, it is a self-contained artistic phenomenon with its own aesthetic nature. In this article, an audiobook is considered precisely in the aspect of its artistic value, which is highlighted when speaking about the genre nature of the voiced text. The genre features of the voiced text in this study are identified taking into account the communicative features of its formal-stylistic features. The communicative nature of the audiobook genre is associated with two types of reading, which reflect the opposite positions of the two participants in communication. On the one hand, this is an expres-sive reading aloud, which can also be defined as staged reading. Genetically, this type of reading is associated with public performances of artists and initially assumed live reading. Further, this type of reading is transformed into the genre of radio plays, called “theater at the microphone”. In modern communicative practices of creating and repli-cating audio content, including one related to the actor’s readings of works of art, there is no binding to time and place. On the other hand, this is auditory reading, a modifica-tion of which is audio reading in modern technological conditions. If auditory reading is the first reading practice of a child mastering books from the voice of a parent, then audio reading is the choice of an adult who can read. The acoustic representation of a literary work is associated not only with the performance of elementary technical characteristics of sound, but also with the introduction of a certain aesthetic value into it. The creative translation of a literary text from verbal to acoustic should preserve its value in the aesthetic plane, without reducing it to a purely pragmatic one. Actualization of the aesthetic value of an audiobook outside of its paper format is associated with the principles of its directing and editorial preparation – the principles associated with the implementation of the stylistic characteristics of the genre form of an audiobook. Translation of a verbal literary text into an audio one is carried out as a result of comparing reading a book to dramatic action. In this case, the forming element of the genre becomes the sounding text itself. In the case of audio books, the reader’s voice as a performer’s instru-ment and the musical noise accompaniment of the text read is a style-forming genre element. The article traces the publishing strategies for the embodiment of the formal-stylistic features of the audiobook genre in the context of modern audio cultural practices.

Book Review: Sharafadina, K.I. (2018) Selam, otkroysya! Floropoetika v Obraznom Yazyke Russkoy i Zarubezhnoy Literatury [Selam, Open Up! Floropoetics in the Figurative Language of Russian and Foreign Literature]. St. Petersburg: NestorIstoriya

The reviewer draws attention to the author’s integrative interdisciplinary methodology. First of all, it is the interdisciplinarity of the research algorithm, which allowed the well-known scholar to conceptualize and present the textual embodiment of the correlation of the “text of life” by the “text of culture” in a new way. This approach allows the author to comprehend the “polygenism” of floristic components of a literary plot. The reviewer considers the creation of the concept of an original and, in many respects, innovative research practice – floropoetology – to be the main achievement of the author, a literary critic with significant research experience. The author proposes refined translations and subscripts of French and English texts, archival materials, which adds to the value of the work. The book is intended for a wide range of readers.

Siberian Merchants as a Factor in the Formation of the Cultural Landscape of the Region in Nikolay Naumov’s Essays and Stories of the 1870s–1880s

Siberian merchants as a special social and cultural phenomenon that played a role in the formation of the cultural landscape of the region was reflected in several works of the Russian literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. An important place among them belongs to the stories and essays of the Siberian writer Nikolay Naumov created in the 1870s–1880s and included in the pantheon of populist fiction. These works can be attributed to the texts of “local consciousness”, and they were quite actively studied in the Soviet and post-Soviet times. At the same time, the image of Siberian merchants in Naumov’s works that addresses the problem of regional identity in the context of national identity remained practically unexplored. Important factors in the study of this image in the works of the writer-official Naumov are the interaction of his literary and official activities; the ideology of Siberian regionalism, whose member he was a that time; and the ideology of populism, which also had a strong influence on him. Accordingly, the aim of the article is to analyze the features of the depiction of Siberian merchants in Naumov’s works of the 1870s–1880s as an implication of the archetype, the national type of a merchant in Siberian plots. The analysis carried out in the context of the mutual influence of the various social fields occupied by the writer demonstrates the dominance of the pragmatic possibilities of Naumov’s works over the literary ones. Focused on creating a “reality effect”, all the stories are characterized by essay beginning, abundant use of facts, real events, specific details of everyday life. However, with all his efforts to focus his gaze on the material and its reliability, Naumov certainly and quite clearly communicates his ideological conception to the reader. As a rule, the presented image of the Siberian merchant class is completed and consistent, and therefore rather superficial and schematic, extremely typified. Moreover, the image of the Siberian merchant miroed (lit. “world eater”; exploiter) is part of the collective image of the miroed, which also includes kulaks and officials. The influence of the field of public service can be traced both in the subject matter of the works and in their poetics. In particular, they contain an autobiographical image of the hero-narrator (official), and they are also characterized by clearly defined temporal and spatial boundaries, which strengthens the essay element. Telling the reader about the ethnography and geography of Siberia, the writer (through the hero-narrator) draws attention to its “natural” merits, on the one hand, and persistently voices the idea, which performs a cycle-forming function, that Siberia’s natural well-being and harmony is violated by human intervention often coming to Siberia from outside, on the other. Accordingly, Naumov sees the common role of officials and writers in the development of Siberia as the protection of Siberia from predatory exploitation, which is not typical for the region, and from the destruction of lasting values.

The Concept “Family” in the Oral Autobiographical Stories of Siberians

The aim of the article is to analyze the implementation of the concept “family” in the speech genre of an autobiographical story. The research material is 200 oral autobiographical stories, which were recorded in the villages of Tomsk Oblast during dialectological expeditions from 1946 till 2021. The informants are residents of villages of Tomsk Oblast; they are representatives of different types of speech culture (native speakers of dialect and literary language). All stories are characterized by a relatively stable theme, means of language implementation, and structure, which allows qualifying them as a speech genre whose communicative purpose is to tell about life from the moment of birth to the moment of communication. The novelty of the article is connected with: (1) its appeal to the problem of interaction and mutual influence of the concept and the speech genre in oral everyday discourse, (2) the identification of cognitive features of the concept, (3) the definition of factors of transformation of ideas about the family in ordinary consciousness. The analysis of the concept makes it possible to obtain new data about the speech genre of the autobiographical story and its construction. The speech genre shows the dependence of the features of the content and implementation of the concept “family” on the sphere of functioning. This factor determines the theoretical significance of the results obtained. The analysis of the concept in the speech genre is carried out using the method of modeling and description of the conceptual, figurative, and value layers in the structure of the concept. As a result of contextual analysis, 16 cognitive features were identified; they are represented in the conceptual layer of the concept “family” and actualized in the speech of informants (family size, social status, compliance with moral norms, relations between family members, attitude to work, etc.). The conceptual layer is developed in detail in the oral everyday communication of Siberians. It is represented by a large number of lexical units. The figurative layer of the concept is characterized by single actualizations. At the same time, the variety of their expression is noted: metaphor, metonymy, comparisons are used. The world of the family can form the initial and resulting spheres of metaphorical models. In the initial sphere, the world of plants (roots, mushrooms), products (noodles) is mainly reflected; the semantics of unity and kinship is actualized in the initial sphere. The value layer of the concept “family” is well represented in the oral autobiographical discourse. It indicates that the family occupies one of the main places in the system of life values of peasants. The specifics of structuring this concept in the oral everyday discourse are determined mainly by the attitudes, norms of traditional culture (the family should be large, friendly, hardworking, young members of family honor the older ones, etc.). At the same time, changes in the system of family values determined by sociohistorical processes are noted. These changes are evaluated ambiguously by informants, and the family is still one of the main values of life for them. Regional (natural, social, historical, geographic) specificity is reflected in the actualization of the concept.

The ProSiberia Platform: The First Year of Operation and Development Prospects

The article aims to review the experience of creating and launching the ProSiberia platform, and to discuss the prospects for its further development. Based on the aggregation of digital sources of Siberian origin, the ProSiberia project aims to create a research platform that will bring together scholars, content curators (libraries, museums, archives) and society in order to study Siberia and position the region in the global information space. Work on the platform began in 2020 within the framework of the Program for Increasing the Competitiveness of National Research Tomsk State Unversity by the staff of the Tomsk State University Research Library. Now the platform has implemented opportunities both for humanitarian researchers and for civic science representatives (volunteers). For researchers, access to digital copies of texts about Siberia with detailed description and full-text search is organized; it is possible to create one’s own collections of texts; there are some text collaboration tools. It is also possible to find researchers with similar interests and exchange views. A volunteer can edit texts, operate a blog, participate in challenges. The platform is also being filled with new texts. Prospects for the development of the project are considered; they were formulated based on the results of surveys and focus groups. The main directions of development include: work on improving the quality of texts (attracting volunteers for their correct recognition); aggregation of digital tools for the humanities in one place for effective work with texts; attraction of partners; integration into the educational process. The most difficult issue is the aggregation of digital tools. The article lists their most interesting groups: tools for creating and working with digital facsimiles, textometric tools, and a number of tools for working with digitized manuscripts. Thus, at the moment, the initial version of the ProSiberia platform has been created. It allows implementing remotely the basic functions characteristic for any research in the field of humanities. However, most probably, the most important and difficult will be the next stage of the work, which includes, among other things, the aggregation of digital tools for working with the text of interest for the researcher. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a broad discussion in the professional community of both the work already done within the ProSiberia project and the further prospects for its development.