СОФЬЯ МИХАЙЛОВНА ЛОЙТЕР — ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬ ДЕТСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ И ФОЛЬКЛОРА: К 90-ЛЕТИЮ СО ДНЯ РОЖДЕНИЯ

The article explores the biography and research activities of philologist, paleographer and specialist in folklore Pavel Konstantinovich Simoni. In 1888, being a graduate of the Historical and Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg University and a disciple of I. V. Yagich, he was involved in the work on the publication of the dictionary of the modern Russian language, which was being prepared by the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Having proved himself in the course of this work in the best possible way, in January 1892 P. K. Simoni received an invitation to join the Department of Russian Language and Literature and take up a new position of clerk, established shortly before. Since then, the whole life of the scholar has been inseparably linked with the Academy of Sciences and the Department of Russian Language and Literature, where he worked for almost 35 years. P. K. Simoni had a wide range of research interests and often worked simultaneously in several different areas: he conducted studies in the field of Russian paremiology, studied and published old recordings of Russian songs and epics, prepared several works on the history of bookmaking in Russia, etc. After the revolution of 1917 P. K. Simoni turned to a new for him kind of activity — teaching. He began to give lectures and hold seminars on Slavic-Russian paleography, the history of printing houses, the history of books and book distribution in various educational institutions of Petrograd. Recognizing P. K. Simoni’s scholarly merits, in December 1921 the Russian Academy of Sciences elected him as its corresponding member to the Department of Russian Language and Literature and by the specialty “Russian literature”. After the retirement in 1926, the scholar continued his active research and teaching activities, not giving it up until the last days of his life.

The review covers the materials of a research seminar dedicated to the anniversary of Professor Evgeniy Neyolov (1947–2014), which was a continuation of the seminar in memory of his teacher, Professor Irina Lupanova. The purpose of these seminars is to broaden the scope of the study of folklore and literary fairy tales, modern school folklore, children’s literature, science fiction and fantasy through in-depth familiarity with the personalities and works of Irina Lupanova and Evgeniy Neyolov. The purpose of these seminars is to broaden the scope of the study of folklore and literary fairy tales, modern school folklore, children’s literature, science fiction and fantasy. The discussion of the proposed topics involves professional polemics and deepens and consolidates the material, as the participants include not only educators and scholars but also undergraduate and graduate students as well as high school teachers and students. The papers and presentations delivered at this seminar reveal the innovative and original nature of Ev- geniy Neyolov’s research and demonstrate the continuity of the approaches of contemporary researchers and the methodology developed by the scholar. In the world of fairy tale and fantasy unexpected associations, meanings and motifs are revealed, which is shown in the presentations, primarily devoted to the work of a variety of writers: Yevgeny Baratynsky, Konstantin Gnetnev, Veniamin Kaverin, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Mikail Bulgakov, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and Viktor Pelevin.

This study addresses the scientific problem of the limited understanding of the unique characteristics of the Russian-language literary fairy tale genre in Buryatia within the region’s contemporary literary landscape. Modern literary fairy tales in Buryatia artistically synthesize mythological foundations with literary traditions and demonstrate a fusion of diverse cultures. The aim of this research is to identify the specific features of the fairy tale genre at the intersection of these cultures. The literary fairy tale “Grandpa Pusuu’s dragon” by Erzhena Batorova serves as the source material for this study. The methodology incorporates principles and techniques from comparative-historical literary criticism, alongside psychological approaches to literary analysis. Erzhena Batorova’s “Grandpa Pusuu’s dragon” is defined as a literary fairy tale. The analysis of the work’s ideological and artistic structure is conducted within the context of mythological and folklore traditions. The study examines the interplay of Russian, Buryat, and Chinese artistic traditions, defining the specific nature of its intertextuality. It also reveals the significance and role of myth and oral folklore in the development of the literary fairy tale genre. The analysis identifies motifs of magic, journeys, transformations, initiation, the spiritual path, exchange and deception, illness, return, disruption and the restoration of order. The realization of archetypal figures – the child, the shadow, and the trickster – is explored. The author’s reinterpretation of folklore heroes, such as the seeker, the victim, the antagonist, the helper, and the giver, is investigated. The correlation between types of heroes and their associated functions is established, and the scope of their actions is examined. The authorial perspective is revealed through an analysis of elements from folk cultures. The study identifies the inadequacy of the semantics of mythological images and the disruption of the sequence of hero functions. The individualization and increasing complexity of the author’s fairy tale characters, whose images are rooted in folklore, are traced. The practical significance of this research lies in enriching theoretical knowledge of the modern literary fairy tale genre in Buryatia. Future research directions may involve further investigation of the Russian-language literary fairy tale genre.

Research on the Transformation of Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction

Reviewed by: Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries by Ingo Cornils Christina Becher Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries. By Ingo Cornils. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2020. Pp. x + 322. Cloth $80.00. ISBN 978-1640140356. Ingo Cornils's Beyond Tomorrow: German Science Fiction and Utopian Thought in the 20th and 21st Centuries is the third major publication on German science fiction literature, or more specifically, on science fiction from a German vantage point, within the last three years, among Hans Esselborn's Die Erfindung der Zukunft in der Literatur. Vom technisch-utopischen Zukunftsroman zur deutschen Science Fiction (2019) and Dietmar Dath's monumental essay "Niegeschichte. Science Fiction als Kunst- und Denkmaschine" (2019). This series strongly indicates a rising academic interest in an engagement with German science fiction that is long overdue. Cornils's book comes at just the right time to open up the discussion for international students and scholars: by providing an English-language study on German science fiction (SF), he tackles the fact that "German Studies has a blind spot when it comes to speculative fiction" (3). Cornils's contribution is led by his hypothesis "that German SF is an ongoing project of Zukunftsbewältigung" (9). Drawing on seventy novels and twenty-five films (a chronological list is provided in the appendix) he maps out [End Page 629] the didactic potential of science fiction to make its recipients aware of the changes and ethical pitfalls that go along with new technologies, to enhance their resilience in a world that grows more complex, and how that helps them to make informed choices as responsible citizens. In doing so, Cornils draws a historical panorama with an emphasis on West Germany and recent literature. Beyond Tomorrow contains two main parts: the first explores what Cornils presents as the three tributaries for science fiction, namely futurism, utopian thought, and utopian/dystopian fiction. While utopian thought is concerned with philosophical questions, i.e., "what the future ought to look like," futurism identifies "probable futures (plural) and determin[es] which of them are likely to become reality" (33). As a third tributary, utopian, dystopian, and apocalyptical fiction supplies the aesthetic level that processes the other discourses. One of the great advantages of an English-language perspective on German science fiction is shown by Cornils's presentation of two corresponding angles on the three discourses: the Anglo-American and British context, that, in a sense, represents the target group of his publication, and the German discourse, which is unilaterally influenced by the English one. Despite this impact, Cornils raises the question of whether "there is a distinctively German flavor to the texts" (192) and answers it by historically referring to Germany's participation in World Wars I and II, the Holocaust, its position during the Cold War, the country's division into the FRG and the GDR, its reunification, and also to a "strong sense of belonging (Heimat)" (82) that is condensed in German science fiction. I would argue that this rather schematical explanation might apply for every other genre as well. Cornils infers that it is especially the German science fiction after the millennium that points "to strategies that could lead to a mindset that is better equipped to face the moral, ethical and ideological challenges we will be facing," that is Zukunftsbewältigung (222). Since "there is no such thing as a canon of German SF" (77), Cornils points to the three threads of futurism, utopian thought, and their fictional processing that are used to weave any science fictional textum. Instead of giving a rigid definition, this rather loose approach reflects the difficulty of defining the heterogeneous field ranging from the Zukunftsromane around 1900 to today's posthuman conceptions and allows for a broad overview that is not concerned with differentiating between low- and highbrow literature. This "inclusive" (7) approach also enables Cornils to talk about literature as well as film. The second part of Cornils's study follows a systematic structure that extrapolates thirteen main themes that are displayed in German science fiction and also relate to their specific historical context. I will exemplarily address...

This book provides students and other interested readers with a comprehensive survey of science fiction history and numerous essays addressing major science fiction topics, authors, works, and subgenres written by a distinguished scholar. This encyclopedia deals with written science fiction in all of its forms, not only novels and short stories but also mediums often ignored in other reference books, such as plays, poems, comic books, and graphic novels. Some science fiction films, television programs, and video games are also mentioned, particularly when they are relevant to written texts. Its focus is on science fiction in the English language, though due attention is given to international authors whose works have been frequently translated into English. Since science fiction became a recognized genre and greatly expanded in the 20th century, works published in the 20th and 21st centuries are most frequently discussed, though important earlier works are not neglected. The texts are designed to be helpful to numerous readers, ranging from students first encountering science fiction to experienced scholars in the field.

This book provides students and other interested readers with a comprehensive survey of science fiction history and numerous essays addressing major science fiction topics, authors, works, and subgenres written by a distinguished scholar. This encyclopedia deals with written science fiction in all of its forms, not only novels and short stories but also mediums often ignored in other reference books, such as plays, poems, comic books, and graphic novels. Some science fiction films, television programs, and video games are also mentioned, particularly when they are relevant to written texts. Its focus is on science fiction in the English language, though due attention is given to international authors whose works have been frequently translated into English. Since science fiction became a recognized genre and greatly expanded in the 20th century, works published in the 20th and 21st centuries are most frequently discussed, though important earlier works are not neglected. The texts are designed to be helpful to numerous readers, ranging from students first encountering science fiction to experienced scholars in the field.

Introduction. The relevance of the research lies in the need of modern Russian pedagogical science to master the positive pedagogical experience accumulated by domestic education in previous historical periods. The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the pedagogical ideas of a prominent Russian democratic teacher of the second half of the 19th century, one of the founders of the methodology of teaching Russian language and literature in secondary school Vasily Ivanovich Vodovozov (1825-1886). Materials and methods. In the course of the research, the author used a comparative method and a method of retrospective analysis, an axiological methodological approach. The use of these research tools made it possible to identify the value content of Vodovozov's methodological and practical pedagogical activities. Results. The methodological and practical pedagogical activity of V. I. Vodovozov was of great importance for the development and implementation of advanced teaching methods of the Russian language and literature in the practice of the Russian secondary school. Russian methodologist Vodovozov was the first methodologist to substantiate the cognitive and educational importance of literature for the development of a student's personality. His works (textbooks, articles, etc.) became the fundamental basis for the development of methods of teaching Russian language and literature in Russian gymnasiums. Fruitful methodological work was carried out by him as a teacher and organizer of teacher courses. His wife E. N. Vodovozova made a significant contribution to the development of memoiristics, Russian preschool pedagogy and pedagogy of primary education. KEYWORDS Discussion. Leading Russian teachers (K. D. Ushinsky, D. D. Semenov, etc.) highly appreciated the importance of V. I. Vodovozov's personality and the influence of his works on the development of Russian pedagogy and schools. An objective, comprehensive analysis of the methodological and practical pedagogical activity of Vodovozov gives reason to conclude that it was progressive in nature and had an impact on the development of the professional pedagogical environment, which, in particular, explained his suspension from work at school and teacher courses under the tsarist regime. His most significant works, such as "Russian Literature", "Ancient Russian Literature", "Practical Slavic Grammar", "The Ideal of a national teacher", "A new plan for the organization of a national school", "Literature in samples and analyses with an explanation of the general properties of the composition and the main types of prose and poetry", "New Russian Literature", "Ancient Russian Literature", "Practical Slavic grammar", "The Ideal of a national teacher", "A new plan for the organization of a national school" and others were actively used in school practice; they had a certain impact on the development of Russian education and on the formation of methodology of teaching Russian literature in a Russian school. Conclusion. V. I. Vodovozov is one of the largest Russian methodologist teachers of the second half of the XIX century, the author of a large number of works that laid the foundations of the methodology of teaching Russian language and literature in secondary schools. His theoretical and methodological works remain, in general, relevant, and serve as an important source for studying the state of education in Russia. Their further study seems to be a rather urgent task of the modern Russian history of pedagogy.

: The aim of this review article is to demonstrate the developmental process of Russian language and literature education in Turkey from a historical perspective. The historical process reveals that Russian language was first taught in the madrasas in the 18th century. Due to the increased use of the Russian language in the army after the reforms initiated by Tsar Peter I, the teaching of the Russian language in military schools officially started in 1882. In 1935, the Department of Russian language and literature was established at the Faculty of Language, History and Geography of Ankara University. Starting in the 1990s, Russian language and literature departments have been opened in many universities such as Istanbul University, Selçuk University, Erciyes University, Gazi University and Kafkas University. Currently, there are Russian language and literature departments in seventeen universities in Turkey, and four universities offer programs in Russian translation and interpretation. The article provides information about the cities, faculties, student quotas and the number of academic staff of these departments as of the year 2023. Additionally, the article elaborates on the ‘‘ÖYP’’ (Teaching Staff Training Program) and the Law No 1416 on Sending Students to Foreign Countries, which is facilitated by the Ministry of National Education. Thе information was obtained from the official website of the Higher Education Council of the Republic of Turkey (YÖK) and the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey (M.E.B.). This study applies the traditional review method. As a result of this research, the need for expanding scientific and educational cooperation between Russia and Turkey is emphasized to continue and encourage interest in research in the fields of Russian language, literature, culture, and history.

With the notable exception of his paleolithic feminism, 1 Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) was a twenty-first-century writer writing in the twentieth century. As early as the 1960s, he anticipated much of the twenty-first century's information technology and biotechnology-tablets, personal computers, smart phones, eBooks, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, holograms, advanced prosthetics, humanmachine interfaces. Yet he also surmised that technology would have a profound effect on human life and culture-not all of it foreseeable, and not all of it good-that it could take on a logic of its own, one that portended catastrophic consequences for the future of civilization and humankind. As a survivor of the Holocaust against all odds, Lem was a writer searching for new forms, hybrid forms, impure forms adequate to a post-catastrophic world and its possible futures. The forms he ushered in are most conspicuous when one examines his works as a whole. His centennial has provided an impetus for a large body of his previously untranslated works to be published in translation, allowing for a fuller picture to emerge. Throughout, the long Lem centennial articles appeared in prominent journals notably from Jonathan Lethem ("My Year of reading Lemmishly" in the London Review of Books) and from Caleb Crain ("A Holocaust Survivor's Hardboiled Science Fiction" in The New Yorker), bringing renewed attention to Lem and his works, while Roisin Kiberd chronicled the many events of the anniversary in The New York Times. 2 1. On one hand, Lem cultivated friendships with several accomplished women (Ursula Le Guin, Ariadna Gromova, and Helena Eilstein) whose intellect and opinion he valued as reflected in their correspondence. On the other hand, there is a dearth of female protagonists in his fiction. Lem himself, in a 1992 interview, stated that to include women in his fiction would increase narrative complexity at the expense of the cognitive issues he sought to highlight, whatever that might mean.

Fairies and fairy tales continue to intrigue both academic and popular audiences. This article, while exploring the diverse approaches of recent scholars in this field, also raises disciplinary questions. Should the study of folklore and of the literary fairy tale be seen as separate research areas, one the preserve of the cultural historian and folklorist, the other the remit of the literary scholar? Can we even make a clear distinction in the nineteenth century between authored, literary fairy tales and orally collected supernatural folktales? If it is reductive to assume that the fairy tale can always be classified (and potentially dismissed) as children's literature, how might recent trends in Victorian studies suggest new ways of seeing and teaching the genre? Discussing the fairy tale in the context of debates over orality and authenticity, literature and science, all of these questions will be examined below.

120 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 47 (2020) Premendra Mitra’s Fiction” by Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, analyzes the famous 1955 Bandung conference’s rarely documented racism, as examined through the lens of Premendra Mitra’s seemingly prescient work, a short story cycle about Ghana-da, “the irascible Bengali teller of tall tales” (193-95). By using these short stories as a case study, Mukherjee explores the seeming lack of historicization of science, notting Suvin’s neglect of the intersectional and race-based facets of sf that depend on such historicization—partially rectified, as he notes, by the work done by various scholars in SFS (196-97). “The Afterlife of the Post-Apocalypse: Dmitry Glukhovsky in China” by Jinyi Chu discusses the cross-cultural exchange with Glukhovsky. He has become quite well-known in fandom, pop culture, and literary circles in China (216-17). Primarily focusing on historicizing and comparative translations, Chu’s contextualization of the Soviet-Chinese “friendship” is enthralling, offering background to just why Metro 2033, Glukhovsky’s 2005 novel, was not only such a big hit, but also how transformative fandom and archival fandom mixed to create their own interpretations and translations where the official translations lagged behind, or even censored content. This piece was my personal favorite, as I am a fandom studies scholar. Chu describes in a nuanced manner the many translations of Chinese to Russian, Russian to Chinese, English to Chinese, and Chinese to English works. Most intriguing to me was the process of fans attempting to translate Metro 2033 after the video game adaptation’s release, with one netizen (now an official government employee) publishing a translation on a fandom website that became so wellknown that she was tapped to do the official translation of the novel’s sequel, Metro 2034 (2009). She even consulted the gamers to discuss names that were not localized in the original novel or on which she was a bit hesitant (228-29). Combined with Chu’s translation of a fan-made parody of a famous Cold War ballad that had been translated from Russian into Mandarin, this chapter is a fine examination of translations, localization, and fandom discourse and engagement with sf. Each chapter offers a new analysis of global sf. The first section, “An Other Transatlantic,” takes a historical lens to Russian, Mexican, and Cuban sf to contextualize cross-cultural exchange between world cultures and how these literatures were able to work around the constraints of government censorship. The second section applies these ideas to Eastern Europe, especially regarding translation studies. The final section takes readers into Bengali myth and history to examine a subtle undercurrent of racism, and then to early-2000s China, where fandom practices keep Russian literature in translation alive and well online and in gaming. These articles continuously engage with the work of Suvin, Jameson, Žižek, and many other notable scholars, placing each into conversation relevant to contemporary literature. If one has any interest in global sf, Science Fiction Circuits of the South and East is a valuable book.—Katherine Randazzo, University of Iowa Meeting the Alien Face to Face—in Italy. Simone Brioni and Daniele Comberiati. Italian Science Fiction: The Other in Literature and Film. STUDIES 121 BOOKS IN REVIEW IN GLOBAL SCIENCE FICTION. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 289 pp. €62.03 hc; €43.42 ebk. When I co-wrote with Arielle Saiber the introduction to SFS’s special issue on sf in Italy (42.2), we decided to end the text—which complained about the scarce interest in sf in Italian academia, the rarity of studies devoted to Italian sf abroad, and the prejudice against sf in Italian culture in general—by optimistically declaring that the cat was out of the bag. This book by two relatively young Italian scholars based in the US and France (Simone Brioni teaches at Stony Brook University in New York and Daniele Comberiati at the University Paul-Valery Montpellier 3 in France) seems to prove that Saiber and I were not over-optimistic. It also confirms that scholarly work on Italian sf seems to be at home only on the border between Italy and the rest of the world. This book is the work of two...

120 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 47 (2020) Premendra Mitra’s Fiction” by Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, analyzes the famous 1955 Bandung conference’s rarely documented racism, as examined through the lens of Premendra Mitra’s seemingly prescient work, a short story cycle about Ghana-da, “the irascible Bengali teller of tall tales” (193-95). By using these short stories as a case study, Mukherjee explores the seeming lack of historicization of science, notting Suvin’s neglect of the intersectional and race-based facets of sf that depend on such historicization—partially rectified, as he notes, by the work done by various scholars in SFS (196-97). “The Afterlife of the Post-Apocalypse: Dmitry Glukhovsky in China” by Jinyi Chu discusses the cross-cultural exchange with Glukhovsky. He has become quite well-known in fandom, pop culture, and literary circles in China (216-17). Primarily focusing on historicizing and comparative translations, Chu’s contextualization of the Soviet-Chinese “friendship” is enthralling, offering background to just why Metro 2033, Glukhovsky’s 2005 novel, was not only such a big hit, but also how transformative fandom and archival fandom mixed to create their own interpretations and translations where the official translations lagged behind, or even censored content. This piece was my personal favorite, as I am a fandom studies scholar. Chu describes in a nuanced manner the many translations of Chinese to Russian, Russian to Chinese, English to Chinese, and Chinese to English works. Most intriguing to me was the process of fans attempting to translate Metro 2033 after the video game adaptation’s release, with one netizen (now an official government employee) publishing a translation on a fandom website that became so wellknown that she was tapped to do the official translation of the novel’s sequel, Metro 2034 (2009). She even consulted the gamers to discuss names that were not localized in the original novel or on which she was a bit hesitant (228-29). Combined with Chu’s translation of a fan-made parody of a famous Cold War ballad that had been translated from Russian into Mandarin, this chapter is a fine examination of translations, localization, and fandom discourse and engagement with sf. Each chapter offers a new analysis of global sf. The first section, “An Other Transatlantic,” takes a historical lens to Russian, Mexican, and Cuban sf to contextualize cross-cultural exchange between world cultures and how these literatures were able to work around the constraints of government censorship. The second section applies these ideas to Eastern Europe, especially regarding translation studies. The final section takes readers into Bengali myth and history to examine a subtle undercurrent of racism, and then to early-2000s China, where fandom practices keep Russian literature in translation alive and well online and in gaming. These articles continuously engage with the work of Suvin, Jameson, Žižek, and many other notable scholars, placing each into conversation relevant to contemporary literature. If one has any interest in global sf, Science Fiction Circuits of the South and East is a valuable book.—Katherine Randazzo, University of Iowa Meeting the Alien Face to Face—in Italy. Simone Brioni and Daniele Comberiati. Italian Science Fiction: The Other in Literature and Film. STUDIES 121 BOOKS IN REVIEW IN GLOBAL SCIENCE FICTION. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 289 pp. €62.03 hc; €43.42 ebk. When I co-wrote with Arielle Saiber the introduction to SFS’s special issue on sf in Italy (42.2), we decided to end the text—which complained about the scarce interest in sf in Italian academia, the rarity of studies devoted to Italian sf abroad, and the prejudice against sf in Italian culture in general—by optimistically declaring that the cat was out of the bag. This book by two relatively young Italian scholars based in the US and France (Simone Brioni teaches at Stony Brook University in New York and Daniele Comberiati at the University Paul-Valery Montpellier 3 in France) seems to prove that Saiber and I were not over-optimistic. It also confirms that scholarly work on Italian sf seems to be at home only on the border between Italy and the rest of the world. This book is the work of two...

At the end of the last century Alfred Trubner Nutt, distinguished folklorist and celticist, was president of the Folklore Society. On the occasion of his untimely death by drowning in 1910, Jessie Weston published an appreciation in the Folklore Society's journal which contained a succinct summation of Nutt's contributions to folklore and to Celtic studies: The great value of Mr Nutt's work has been his appreciation of the fact that the progress of Arthurian romance has been along the road of evolution, that direct literary invention has played but a secondary part in the growth of this wonderful body of romance ... he pointed out the part which specifically Celtic tradition had played in this evolutionary process (Weston 1910, 512-14). While no scholar, even today, would eliminate cultural continuity entirely as a factor in narrative development, ideas about origins have moved dramatically away from this evolutionary position. Indeed attitudes to the entire process of transmission have changed, and both the disciplines of folklore and Celtic studies give more consideration to the integrity of the text and the creativity of authors. While Nutt was not the originator of the evolutionary approach to narrative analysis nor even to its specific application to Celtic material, in the course of his career as scholar and publisher he provided a focus for the development of these ideas. Nearly a century later, it seems appropriate to look at his contribution to discussions of the nature and origin of folklore, and its continuing effects. Nutt was a founding member of the Folklore Society and participated actively in discussions about folklore theory. Linked to his interest in folklore and its methodology was an interest in Celtic studies. He encouraged scholars such as Whitley Stokes, Kuno Meyer, Eleanor Hull and Jessie Weston to edit medieval romance and Celtic texts, many of which were published by his family publishing house, David Nutt and Co. He himself wrote extensively on Celtic tradition and the Grail material in particular. His own writing, his contact with other scholars, and his publishing ventures were key influences in extending the evolutionary approach to narrative analysis into the area of medieval romance and Celtic tradition. Some of his ideas were adapted to more esoteric uses such as the belief that the Grail romances concealed a secret initiation rite and that Celtic religion was based on shamanic practice. Both these ideas owe much to Nutt's suggestions about Dionysian initiation cults, and although Nutt himself saw such matters in academic terms, in some form they continue to influence modern neo-Celtic traditions. Inevitably this discussion will imply a primacy for Nutt which he would never have claimed for himself. He collaborated with many scholars and authors, and was generous in his thanks and in identifying their contributions. He synthesised the earlier work of other scholars, and here too he was very precise in noting their contributions. Nevertheless, as head of David Nutt and Co., he favoured subjects such as folklore and Celtic studies which had not been prominent in the firm's lists prior to his taking over. Since the firm continued this policy under the guidance of his wife and son for some years after his death, it seems not unreasonable to suggest that Nutt had a wide-ranging and long-lasting influence on the subject. The output of Nutt and Co. during the twenty-five years or so when Alfred was proprietor is truly astonishing, and he was active in all aspects of the business, editing, writing, commissioning and encouraging works on folklore. His influence is perhaps most obvious in the series published by the firm. Nutt clearly functioned as a kind of general editor, advising and commissioning, producing notes, commentaries and introductions to many volumes, and of course writing several himself. Ideas Alfred Trubner Nutt was born into a publishing family in 1856, the son of David Nutt whose firm specialised in continental books on classics and religion (see booksellers' catalogues 1837-1933). …

The interest of the Tajik academic community in the Russian language, literature, and culture has remained consistently high for a considerable period. Following Tajikistan’s independence, this interest has not diminished, but rather, it has been reinforced. In accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan, Russian is the language of interethnic communication. Tajiks, who were historically bilingual in ethno-contact zones, received Russian as a second or third language during the Soviet era. Nevertheless, despite the extensive scholarly literature, the issues of a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the Russian language, culture, and literature in a comparative manner remain largely unaddressed. This article examines the issue of studying Russian linguoculture in descriptive and comparative terms, as well as in a bilingual context. In examining this topic, the research of the academic school “Applied Linguistics in the Republic of Tajikistan,” led by D. M. Iskandarova, and the Research Laboratory “Interdisciplinary Applied Research” of the Russian-Tajik (Slavic) University serve as a foundation for this discussion. The objective is to examine the status of interdisciplinary research on the Russian language, literature, and culture within the Tajik scholarly discourse, as well as the functioning of the Russian language in bilingual communicative environments. This study examines the perception and reflection of the concept of “Russian” in the linguistic consciousness of the youth of Tajikistan. The analysis of this perception provides insight into how the Russian linguocultural space is reflected in the linguistic picture of the world of a bilingual individual. Additionally, examples of interdisciplinary studies are provided, which present a comparative analysis of the empirical material of Tajik scholars. The interest in Russian literature, the Tajik-Russian literary and cultural ties, the translations of Russian poets and writers into Tajik, as well as the appeal of Russian poets and writers to the literary heritage of Tajik-Persian poets and thinkers, has remained consistently high. This article presents an analysis of the works of Tajik literary scholars on this issue. A review of the presence of the Russian language, literature, and culture in the scholarly discourse of Tajikistan enables the identification of existing problems and the delineation of prospects for the development of research in these areas, as well as the formulation of recommendations for the advancement of scholarly collaboration between Russia and Tajikistan.