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This article begins with a reading of a diary which is not explicitly “literary”; namely, the diary of the theologian Father Alexander Schmemann; it continues with A Writer’s Diary by Fyodor Dostoevsky and ends with the “diary of a country priest” from the novel of the same name by the French author Georges Bernanos. Under what conditions, to what extent and from what angle can we compare the journals of a renowned theologian, a well-known novelist like Dostoevsky and an anonymous novel character? The three texts turn out to be united by the search for an interface between everyday life and transcendent reality, as well as by the fact that in all three cases this interface is found through the revelation of “transcendent beauty” (as beauty simultaneously being and not being part of this world). The texts also have in common the fact that beauty was discovered in each case through an experience that marked the existence of the diarists and gave them strength to follow their life paths to the end.
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The paper examines the selection, structuring and dramatic rendition of the fairy tale plots in the Francophone and the Slavic symbolist dramas, to point out their typological resemblances and inner richness. The study finds out that rewriting the magic stories and their syncretic approach characterize both theatres and mark out their similitudes. However, the Francophone symbolists attempt to intensify the universal and mystical meaning of the folktales. On the other hand, the Slavic authors insert some national and parodic trends in their plays, strengthen the art synthesis and anticipate, in that way, the dramatic experiments in the European vanguards.
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The proposed text interprets the incriminated from totalitarianism book of Panait Istrati „Confessions of a defeated” and his political reorientation from left to right. It shows his deep disappointment from Stalinist Russia, too.
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1–4 июля 2013 года при поддержке Института литературы имени Тараса Шевченко Национальной академии наук Украины на базе Нежинского государственного университе- та имени Николая Гоголя состоялся ІІІ Международный научный семинар из серии «Studia Sovietica». Тема этого семинара — «Хронология советской культуры: константы и транс- формации».
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The article analyzes Lomonosov’s theory of the three styles. It also considers the basic developmental stages and the correlation of Russisms and Slavisms in the Old Russian period. The study involves extensive factual material collected from a variety of historical sources. The research matches Russisms with archaisms and proves that the opposition between the concrete-common and the abstract-high vocabulary is not genetically determined. The paper traces the history of the three-part system of the stylistic fund of the Russian literary language.
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The article deals with the problem of critical perception of religious and philosophical views of L.N. Tolstoy by Orthodox Church. The analysis is focused on a critical speech by A.F. Gusev, professor of Kazan Theological Academy, dedicated to Tolstoy’s attitude towards church rituals. It is considered how the critic understands and estimates the teaching of Tolstoy, which found expression in his religious and philosophical works, particularly in “A Confession” (“Ispoved”). A conclusion is made that Gusev in his polemics with Tolstoy uses a logically well-knit system of arguments. He refers to the Gospel, historical examples, scientific and court practice data. Thus, his attempt to discuss the problem of Orthodox cult and church ritualism should be recognized as successful.
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The article considers quantitative methods potentials (methods of corpus linguistics) in studying of biographical texts. On the base of autobiographical texts key words and interpretative method «the semiotic square» of A. J. Greimas the author describes the features of men's and women's life scenarios. The given express-analysis allows revealing the peculiarities of autobiography construction by men and women, and shows the dependence of individual histories on cultural scenarios.
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The image of traveller created by I.A. Goncharov in his book of essays “The Frigate Pallada” (1855–1857) has been considered for the first time as a phenomenon of artistic genealogy of the similar image in M.M. Prishvin’s travel essays (1909–1914). This article is focused on the philosophical and aesthetic perception of the world typical of both travelling artists, their creative motivation for travelling and attention towards pictures of nature, which are always associated with the feeling of homeland. An assumption about the similarity of the artistic natures of M.M. Prishvin and I.A. Goncharov and the consonance of their creative thinking is made. This expands the idea of the origin of Prishvin’s world-view and allows us to feel its originality.
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The paper addresses the process of theatricalization of Russian reality in different historical periods. It retraces the influence of political situation on the nature of theatrical dialogue with the audience and specifies its forms in the periods from 1917 to the 1930s and from the 1950s up to now. The authors come to the conclusion that the blurring of borders between the stage and the audience served different goals in different periods: it helped to release the internal energy of the masses at one time and became the means of its oppression at another time, but finally it led to democratization and a person’s acquisition of internal freedom.
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The paper establishes types of dialogical relations between G. Tukai and N.A. Nekrasov’s works belonging to the genres of invective, message, and memorial lyrics. The conclusion is made that similarities in form and functions (organizational principles of the subject sphere, genre and stylistic features) do not stem from the same sources and nature. The principles of artistic generalization in Tukai’s lyrics are different from those used by N.A. Nekrasov. The individual and typical, singular and unified are located at the same level and stand in the relations of compliance and coincidence. The poetics of N.A. Nekrasov’s lyrical works is connected with the hierarchy of artistic content aspects at different levels. The subject structures of Tukai’s lyrics are distinguished by the features of personality development in the Tatar literature of this period, as well as the logic of meaning formation, which is characteristic of this type of culture.
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The paper is devoted to the problem of family in M.Yu. Lermontov’s poem “The Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the Young Oprichnik, and the Daring Merchant Kalashnikov”. The most authoritative scientific concepts are considered. The moral and ethical content of the work is evaluated. The figurative and narrative features of the poem are explored in relation to their conformity or discrepancy with those of the Old Russian literature. The subjects of comparative analysis are literary works representing the Old Russian literature (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”) and A.S. Pushkin’s novel “The Captain’s Daughter”. It is concluded that the realities of the 14th century depicted in the poem serve mainly as a historical background expressing the worldview, which was alien to the culture of the Ancient Rus’.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider the genre of drinking songs in N.M. Yazykov’s works. The comparative analysis of drinking songs created by this poet and in the earlier works by G.R. Derzhavin and D.V. Davydov makes it possible to find similar themes and trace their development. Patriotic motifs prevailing in the works of all these poets are expressed in different ways. G.R. Derzhavin poeticizes the native customs, describing in details the national way of life. D.V. Davydov’s lyrical character is a brave soldier fighting for the motherland and considering the feast as a continuation of the battle. In N.M. Yazykov’s early works, the feast of students symbolizes their ability to think and speak freely. In his later poems, it turns into the readiness to fight for motherland, in terms of ideological fight rather than real battle.
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The article, which deals with the novel “Shining Clouds” by K.G. Paustovsky, reveals the individual author’s specificity of coloristic perception and visualization of the character’s space, which is significant for K. Paustovsky’s romantic worldview. As the coloristic portrait of the characters in the novel is created mainly on the basis of somatic and vestial descriptions, the specificity of the author’s coloristic explication of the somatic and vestial space of the novel is subsequently presented. The main results of the research are 1) a list of somatisms and vestonyms functioning in the novel is provided, as well as the number of their word usage; 2) a list of somatisms and vestonyms correlating with the terms of color is compiled; 3) the color range used by the writer to create somatic and vestial descriptions is defined; 4) the dominance of the somatisms face, eyes, hair in the coloristic representation of the somatic code is established; 5) the specifics of their individual author’s coloristic visualization and their functional potential is described; 6) the color dominant of the vestial code is found and its functionality is revealed; 7) the unique features of K. Paustovsky’s color style of writing, identified in the coloristic visualization of the somatic and vestial space of the novel, are described; 8) the conclusion about the significance of characters’ color portraits for the reconstruction of the writer’s linguistic picture of the world is drawn.
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This paper explores the evolution of the terms “system” and “structure” as applied to literature and art by Russian formalists (Yuri Tynianov) and (para)formalist phenomenologists (Gustav Shpet), and subsequent structuralist theorists in Prague (Roman Jakobson, Jan Mukařovský) and Tartu (Juri Lotman) from the 1920s to the 1980s. Initially favoured by Petrograd formalists, the term “system” gradually shared space with “structure”, introduced by Shpet in 1923 and embraced by his followers at the Moscow Linguistic Circle and the State Academy of Artistic Sciences. In 1928, Jakobson, collaborating with Tynianov in Prague, adopted both terms as synonyms but eschewed “system” in his post-1929 works. For Mukařovský, the relations between the elements in a structure create dialectic contradictions. These shifts paved the way for Lotman’s “metaleptic conversion” of system and structure. On the one hand, according to Lotman, each structure (= text) is a realization of more than one system (= language); on the other hand, a structure (= text) birthed from a system (= language) transmutes into a system in itself, consequently giving rise to new structures (= texts).
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The paper focuses on the Soviet Union as presented in Bulgarian interwar travelogues – Nikola Iliev’s Kakvo Vidyah v Savetska Rusia: Istinski Razkaz (What I Saw in Soviet Russia: A True Story) (1921), P. Stoyanov’s Istinata za Ruskia Bolshevizam (The Truth about Russian Bolshevism) (1921), Ivan Abadzhiev’s Prez Velikite Karvavi Dni na Rusia (During the Great Bloody Days of Russia) (1929), and Boris Dimitrov’s Na Iztok – Vsichko Novo! S.S.S.R.: Vpechatlenia i Razmishlenia (To the East – Everything New! U.S.S.R.: Impressions and Reflections) (1941). The country is depicted in these travelogues as a totalitarian “hell” – an enclosed society isolated from the outside world. Moreover, it is governed by means of repression and terror, with the intention to subjugate not only the bodies, but also the minds of its people. The Soviet citizens described by those Bulgarian writers not only find themselves deprived of basic human rights and civil liberties, but also their existence is reduced to the level of survival amid everyday restrictions and poverty, as well as fear of an omnipresent and threatening police aggression.
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The article analyzes the portrayal of Persian women in the 19th-century literary travelogues using an imagological approach. The study aims to critically examine the colonial discourse employed by Stanislav Yulyevic Lomnitsky (1854–1916) in his 1901 travelogue, Persia and Persians, which establishes Persia and the Persians as the “other” in contrast to the Russian “self ”. Moreover, it delves into how Lomnitsky’s work frames the East from the perspective of the West. By shedding light on these perspectives, the research provides a critical examination of Lomnitsky’ s colonial discourse within the context of Persia, offering insights into the interplay between cultures.
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