![Диалози за руската литература на XX век (III. Столица / Провинция)](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2020_60074.jpg)
We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
In this paper, dance is considered as an element of the artistic structure of dramatic works of Russian, Belarusian and Polish authors of the 1990s–2010s. It was revealed that this element represents the level of the chronotope: it becomes one of its expressive modes (creating an atmosphere due to emotional «charge»), manifests itself as a «non-everyday form of behavior» of a character (J. Faryno), as a «spatial motive» (O. Bagdasaryan) as a sense-forming centre of the artistic universe. A comparative analysis of the plays written by Russian, Belarusian and Polish playwrights of the indicated period showed that in Russian drama the transition occured from the dance – a «spatial motive» to the dance – a semantic center representing author’s model of the world and a Nietzschean man in the terms of a spontaneous, unstable world order. That was caused by the strengthening of the performative and receptive potential of modern drama. At the same time, in the Belarusian drama, due to more strong genetic ties with folklore, the dance for a long time has been manifesting itself as a game form of non-everyday behavior, however, since the mid-1990s it is often introduced as a «spatial motive» representing the extremely deformed consciousness of characters. If it comes to Polish drama, despite the actualization of the dance in the significant for its development works, in the latest plays it rarely functions as a semantic center, because of political and social themes predomination. The authors of this paper made an attempt to clarify the reasons for differents of the dance in the Russian, Belarusian, Polish drama of the 1990s–2010s, based on sociocultural factors, as well as on the logic of the development of the literary proces.
More...
The paper is concerned with the issue of textual visualisation of Caucasus in Russian travelogues performed in 1820-1830th – the decades of the Caucasus War escalation. Taken as example entries from the travelogues of I.T. Radojitsky and V.B. Bronevsky published in Russian Empire in early XIX c., the authors show deep connections of the outlook on the region and people inhabited it with the foundation of the Orientalism as an approach to describing native people of the Imperial frontier.The research underlines the importance of scrutinised study of travellers experience they endured on voyages by the Caucasus in deep connection with the political course on “pacifying” the region, proclaimed by the Imperial authorities. Racy images of the Cossacks, Russian settlers, native peoples and “unpacified” highlanders were performed in order to legislate the Imperial annexation of lands and their acquisition by Russian civilisation. Together with the motives of showing huge contrast between the pastoral life of Russian peasants and towns dwellers with the backwardness of the natives, matched the common ideas of European colonialism, the authors show public awareness of the “unpacified” highlanders expressed by the travellers in the image of “a Circassian”. We traced features of Russian literature Romanticism in the travellers depicture of a Highlander as a “noble savage” did for a living by robs and plunders. The authors came to the conclusions that images, elaborated by Russian travellers and righters were utter vivid and influenced on the perception of the region by Russian layman until the early XX c.The paper is concerned with the issue of textual visualisation of Caucasus in Russian travelogues performed in 1820-1830-th. – the decades of the Caucasus War escalation. Taken as example entries from the travelogues of I.T. Radojitsky and V.B. Bronevsky published in Russian Empire in early XIX c., the authors show deep connections of the outlook on the region and people inhabited it with the foundation of the Orientalism as an approach to describing native people of the Imperial frontier. The research underlines the importance of scrutinised study of travellers experience they endured on voyages by the Caucasus in deep connection with the political course on “pacifying” the region, proclaimed by the Imperial authorities. Racy images of the Cossacks, Russian settlers, native peoples and “unpacified” highlanders were performed in order to legislate the Imperial annexation of lands and their acquisition by Russian civilisation. Together with the motives of showing huge contrast between the pastoral life of Russian peasants and towns dwellers with the backwardness of the natives, matched the common ideas of European colonialism, the authors show public awareness of the “unpacified” highlanders expressed by the travellers in the image of “a Circassian”. We traced features of Russian literature Romanticism in the travellers depicture of a Highlander as a “noble savage” did for a living by robs and plunders. The authors came to the conclusions that images, elaborated by Russian travellers and righters were utter vivid and influenced on the perception of the region by Russian layman until the early XX c.
More...
This article studies the Cossacks, a group of people that emerged in the northern steppes of the Black Sea during the fifteenth century. It mainly focuses on the community's political and social effects on the powerful states of the geography, namely Tsarist Russia, Poland, the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. After examining the etymology of Cossack and Hetman in the introductory part, it analyzes Don Cossacks’ relations with the Ottomans and the Russian state. Don Cossacks migrated from Russia, where they had a dispute under the leadership of their Hetman Ignat Nekrasov, to the Ottoman lands. Nekrasov's will strictly asked Don Cossacks to protect their identity and beliefs after his death during the period. In this manner, they lived in Anatolia for more than two hundred and fifty years and preserved their language and culture. In the 1960s, they migrated to the USA and Russia due to some customary reasons related to marriage and population decrease. By scrutinizing Don Cossacks' changing contexts, this study aims to draw a framework for the life of the community through the lens of Ottoman documents and Turkish and Russian sources.
More...
The paper explores hybrid identities of main characters in chosen contemporary authors as Kafka, Dürrenmatt, Bulgakov, Dukaj, and in particular Brown. They all contribute to the posthumanist literary genre and to better comprehension of condition posthumana as a leading utopia in the age of advanced technologies. The author argues for affinities between the human and the non-human brain, far beyond the anthropocentrism and anthropodenialism controversy.
More...
In this paper, we observe the chapter “The Great Inquisitor” in the novel The Brothers Karamazov as a literary field in which the dominant discourse of Power, the Church elite, represented by the Grand Inquisitor, is confronted by the subversive aspirations of marginalized social groups, embodied in the figure of Christ. Initially considering that the “poem” is an eminent text of culture, in which a vast number of textual clues have been absorbed, primarily the Holy Bible, we discover how the character of the Grand Inquisitor was constructed from the generic-hermeneutic angle. This implies a contextual theological, (inter)textual and semantic framework. In the central part of the paper, the focus of our analysis is the mechanisms by which institutions of power control subversive elements and aspects of their rebellion from the perspective of New Historicism. At the end of the paper, we point to the histori-cal and civilizational implications of an antagonistically conceived narrative on the problems of human freedom, action, and the implementation of power in history and, consequently, the organization of the (contemporary) world.
More...
The article attempts to identify the classical linguistic and cultural context of F. M. Dostoevsky’s education at the L. I. Chermak boarding school. It lists the programs and textbooks that Dostoevsky studied in 1834‒1837 to learn about the intricacies of classical languages and ancient history, and the teachers who may have influenced his perception of ancient history and culture. Using the issues of the “Biblioteka dlya chteniya” (Library for Reading) journal, the authors investigate which texts related to classical antiquity were available to Dostoevsky outside of the curriculum. The period of Dostoevsky’s studies at the Chermak boarding school can be characterized as extremely favorable for the assimilation and comprehension of ancient heritage. The reason for this is the emphasis on classical languages in education set by government decisions, successfully augmented by the brilliant teaching staff at the boarding school, i. e., K. M. Romanovsky, N. I. Bilevich and A. M. Kubarev, Dostoevsky saw Greco-Roman antiquity not as a boring and tiresome collection of dead forms, but as a source of fantasies, reflections, comparisons, and sublime ideas. The publications in Library for Reading on history and archeology, literature and art of Ancient Greece and Rome revealed antiquity in a multi-faceted manner, taking the teenager inclined to serious reading far beyond the school curriculum into the world of stunning discoveries, sharp scientific controversy, bold comparisons with modern times and vivid artistic images.
More...
The article is devoted to the biography of the Soviet-Iranian researcher F. Riza-Zade, also known as F. Sayyah, and her studies of Dostoevsky’s literary heritage. A number of archival materials that reflect the professional and friendly relations of F. Riza-Zade in 1929–1930s have been introduced into scientific circulation. A review of the articles “Dostoevsky and Modern French Literature (On the Influence of Dostoevsky)” and “Dostoevsky in Western Criticism,” as well as the preface to the Persian translation of Dostoevsky’s novel White Nights, published in Tehran, has been carried out. It is noted that the researcher’s works have laid the foundations of Soviet and Iranian comparative studies: Dostoevsky’s work was interpreted in the broad context of French literature, German philosophical and aesthetic tradition and Iranian cultural symbols of good and evil. The key methodological principles of F. Riza-Zade are analyzed: the focus on sociological criticism of the Pereverzev school, a cultural and aesthetic approach to the analysis of genre problems, tendency towards self-sufficiency in literary research and rejection of philosophical speculation. The conclusion is made about the importance of the works of F. Riza-Zade in the study and popularization of Dostoevsky’s work and in the fostering of Russian-Iranian cultural ties.
More...
This article discusses the status of thievery in the East Slavic tradition. The prime objective of the publication was to determine the place of the thief in the system of characters with supernatural abilities who also belong to the “knower” category. This category usually includes masters, magic experts, and semi-demonic beings. The work is based on the materials of the peasant culture of the mid-19th — early 20th centuries. A systematic description of the image of the thief as a character with supernatural abilities comprised the first stage of research. The research study reveals the reasons for the inclination to theft and typical characteristics and motifs that confirm the demonological status of the thief. The set of supernatural qualities placed this status higher than that of magic experts, but lower than that of semi-demonic beings. Thus, on the conventional scale ‘man — semi-demonic creature’ thieves are above sorcerers and witches. The characters acquired common motifs and characteristics; a lexicological rapprochement between them is revealed in the research. Additionally, the ideas of the thieves’ special social status, which associates them with sorcerers and witches, in the rural community were revealed.
More...
The article presents the analysis of the stoyanie na kostyakh (standing on bones) topos, which is present in battle narratives of the 13th–17th centuries. In battle chronicles this topos is most often expressed by the verbal formula stal na kostyakh (meaning “he has won”), referring either to a prince or to soldiers in general. Instead of the formula stali na kostyakh (they have won), it is sometimes reported how many days the victorious soldiers stoyali na kostyakh, that is, how many days they stayed at the site after the battle. The most interesting use of the topos is revealed in the The Tale of the Battle with Mamai. In this text the fixed expression stal na kostyakh refers to Prince Vladimir Andreevich, whom the author depicts as the main hero of the battle, despite tradition. At the same time, the author provides a detailed account of the stoyanie na kostyakh ritual performed by the victorious soldiers led by Dmitry Ivanovich and reports that “the great prince has been standing on the bones for eight days behind the Don.” Both ancient Russian authors and modern researchers understand the meaning of this ritual reflected in the works of poets and artists in different ways.
More...
In this work, a list of the house nominations, stylistic and poetic means and techniques used to describe the groom’s and bride’s houses are considered based on published and archival materials of the 19th — early 21st centuries. The description of the newlyweds’ houses is formed by depicting three macrolocuses: the adjacent territory, or courtyard; the zone connecting the courtyard with the interior of the dwelling (porch, door, threshold) and the interior of the house, the image of which is formed by sequentially naming the loci that are most significant from the ritual viewpoint (place of honor, wide bench, furnace, etc.). The houses of both the groom and the bride are described using the very same poetic means of the ‘house’ semantic group. The concept of the bride’s house as a “strange” space for the groom’s party is manifested in speeches related to climbing the porch, opening doors, crossing the threshold and entrance. As the groomsman progresses and claims the house territory, the sense of the house as “strange” intensifies, reaches a critical point at the moment of crossing the threshold and declines after the entrance to the house. The dynamics of the groomsman’s image is revealed in speeches emphasizing the crossing of the threshold. The entrance of the best man to the house is interpreted as a case of crossing the boundary: penetration of the “strange” space is accompanied by a deterioration in vision, the onset of limpness and muteness, being marked, losing clothes or shoes, and giving away material values (money). As he claims the “strange” space and transcodes it into “own space,” the temporary physical indisposition of the groomsman passes. The courtyard, staircase, steps, porch, and threshold are regularly depicted in the descriptions of houses and adjacent territory. The most frequent epithets are wide and new. Numerous diminutives are another feature of the texts that describe the house.
More...
A. P. Chekhov’s short story The Fidget (1892) is an abridged hypertext of G. Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary (1856). The article undertakes a detailed comparison of the characters who occupy a similar place in the narrative and figurative system of these two works: Osip Dymov and Charles Bovary. Both of them are doctors, but Chekhov’s character seems to realize the untapped potential that was laid down in the character penned by Flaubert. He is no longer a failed doctor, but a talented one, with all the qualities required to become an excellent medical scientist. Thus, Chekhov does not merely stand up for the medical community, which he is no stranger to. Thanks to this, the story of the Russian writer transforms into a polemical interpretation of the classic French novel. In Flaubert’s Emma’s imaginary search for the meaning of life, which explains her two adulteries in Madame Bovary, Chekhov seems rather inclined to see the selfishness and lack of responsibility that destroy her family and lead to her own death. It is not by chance that Dymov, rather than Olga Ivanovna dies as a result of her own similar behavior in Chekhov’s short story. At the same time, Chekhov’s text is also a polemical interpretation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1873–1877), which was created as an explicit hypertext of Flaubert’s novel. In the short story, Chekhov’s critical reinterpretation of these two works is clearly based on a kind of “folk” morality of the Ant from the canonical Krylov fable The Dragonfly and the Ant (1808), which is clearly referenced in the title and text of the story. The intertextual structure of Chekhov’s story is examined in the article primarily as a system of its pretexts, some of which relate to it in unison, and others-dissonantly. At the same time, the former are the object of polemical interpretation, while the latter are the subject of stylization and value orientation.
More...
The article explores the poetics of Yu. O. Dombrovsky’s novel The Monkey Comes for its Skull (1943–1959) through the prism of medical discourse, which occupies a prominent place in the structure of the work. Every appeal of the novel’s characters to medical discourse indicates a situation of communicative shift, the breakdown of connections between words and things. Thus, “medicalization” becomes one of the symptoms of the new paradoxical reality of occupied and post-war Europe. Contrary to the Enlightenment paradigm, a medical view of the motifs of human actions does not reveal the truth, but on the contrary, leads away from it. For Dombrovsky’s work, ancient Stoic philosophy with its understanding of wisdom as therapy of the soul, the completeness of self-control and absolute spiritual freedom is also important. Sooner or later, each of the characters has to remain one-on-one with his own conscience and moral dilemmas, while auxiliary discursive practices cease to be an effective means of social camouflage. The ideological composition of the work corresponds to a specific narrative technique and motif structure, which is characterized by the use of genre techniques of detective and spy novels. In general, the novel The Monkey Comes for Its Skull offers the reader an alternative to “new prose,” with its demonstrative rejection of fictionality, its accent on documentary, factography. Dombrovsky prefers to overcome the “literariness” of literature from within the prevailing genre and aesthetic conventions, synthesizing and transforming various types of discourses, including medical ones.
More...
The article presents an analysis of Christian topics in prose works about the island of Kizhi. Methodologically, the study combines the approaches of studying the local text that have already become conventional, with the principles of historical poetics, bringing back the possibilities of diachronic analysis. This allows to take into account both the timeless semantic constants of the Kizhi Island image in literature, and the intellectual context of late Soviet literature, which is now attracting the attention of many researchers. 1960–70s are the period when the largest number of texts about the island appeared. The article offers a classification of the Christian topoi in the texts of that period. Three works by different authors are considered in more detail (Yu. Kazakov’ short story Adam and Eve, I. Mazuruk’s short story Kizhi, and V. Pul’kin’s book The Kizhi Tales), in which the Christian topic is represented both explicitly and implicitly — in the images of the church, icons, biblical story about Adam and Eve, gospel images of the apostles. In Soviet prose and poetry, the primordial religious meaning of Christian topoi is most often concealed in the subtext. The depiction of Christian symbols is ambivalent and requires legitimization: through folklore, through the theme of historical memory, dialogue of the past and present, etc. This kind of ambivalence clearly illustrates the complexity of the intellectual and spiritual atmosphere of the Thaw and the contradictory attitude of Russian literature towards the Christian traditions.
More...
The following paper presents techniques that arise in translating nouns of foreign origin in Russian opinion journalism. Translational texts published under the common name of Vesti-Kuranty served as the source. The material for analysis was extracted from all available editions of the manuscripts produced in 1600–1670. The article aims to present selected techniques used by 17th century translators that were meant to serve as prompts for understanding words unknown in Russian at that time and demonstrate different translation solutions aimed at introducing foreign phrases and values.
More...
The article is devoted to Russian translation of the book Inni ludzie by Dorota Masłowska that has been done for the theatrical adaptation. Particular focus is put on the genre specificity of the text and its specific linguistic, narrative and cultural indicators, some of which have not been reflected in the Russian version. Text orientation towards the different recipient results in the transition of certain threads affecting interpretation of the text. An image of the Pole depicted in the translated theatrical adaptation is softened in comparison with the original text and issues related to the collective Polish awareness sound more universal.
More...
The present article focuses on the problem of inter- and intralingual translation — or, more precisely, its adaptation. Adaptation is considered here in terms of the translation studies as well as the theatre studies — as a transfer of written text into the language of theatre. The research materials are Chekov’s play The Cherry Orchard, its translation into Polish made by Agnieszka Lubomira Piotrowska and its stage realization. The performance was staged by the Georgian director David Mgebrishvili in 2017 in Teatr Nowy in Zabrze, Poland. The author analyses how to transfer the sounds, which are thought to be a typical motive in Chekhov’s works.
More...
The given paper is dedicated to the analysis of the word combination “administrative delight,” which was firstly used by F. Dostoevsky in his novel Demons to describe the bureaucratic arbitrariness, and later on became a figure of speech. By considering the examples of the usage of the mentioned stylistic device in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish mass media, the context extension and the change of semantics were pointed out by the author of the paper. The undertaken research leads to the conclusion about the universality and the convincing factor of the viability of the figure of speech created by F. Dostoevsky.
More...
The article deals with the ways of transferring words and phrases naming things, phenomena, and objects typical for life, daily routine and culture of the Muscovites during the first decades of Soviet power, used for translation of the novel “The Master and Margarita” into South Slavic (Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian) languages. The complexity of the novel’s artistic structure, the combination of several cultural, historical and religious traditions, stylistic and linguistic layers, possess a very difficult task for translators. One of the necessary conditions for its solution is the presence in the translated edition a reference device (reference comments) explaining difficult passages.
More...