Russian Classical Literature Research Articles

Development of the empathic culture of students of secondary professional educational institutions on the basis of works of Russian classical literature

Introduction. Empathic culture is one of the most important communicative phenomena potentially inherent in a person. An approach based on the use of works of Russian classical literature turns out to be very productive for solving the problem of developing the empathic culture of the younger generation. This direction of research is especially relevant for students of secondary vocational educational institutions, which are a harmonizing factor in relationships both within the youth environment and in modern society. The aim of the work is to determine the degree of influence of Russian classical literature on the development of empathic culture of students of secondary vocational educational institutions. Methods. The study involved 60 students of the Moscow State Institute of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism. Yu.A. Senkevich, studying at the department of secondary vocational education. As a toolkit for diagnosing the levels of development of empathic culture, we used the methodology for diagnosing the level of development of the ability to interpret non-verbal behavior in interpersonal communication; the questionnaire of the severity of emotional empathy by A. Mehrabyan and N. Epstein and the method of express diagnostics of empathy by I. M. Yusupov. Research results. In order to increase the level of development of empathic culture, works of Russian classical literature were used, the study of which was accompanied by specially composed questions and tasks for each of the selected works. By observing and analyzing the answers, the dynamics of changes in each of the components of the empathic culture of students was recorded. As a result, the number of students in the experimental group with very high and high levels of empathic culture increased by 26.6% and 23.4% (χ2 = 13,084; p < 0,05), respectively, while the level of empathic culture of students in the control group increased by 3.4% (χ2 = 1,034; p > 0,05).

The Suffering Hero in Leonid Andreyev’s Novel The Yoke of War: From the Personal to the Universal

This article analyses Leonid Andreyev´s novel The Yoke of War. The authors of the study point out the gradual transition from “objective” diary records to highly subjective records that show an ambivalent attitude towards the war as a cause for damaging changes on the home front. The main character, whose thoughts are rational at the beginning, experiences a lot of personal and social catastrophes generated directly or indirectly by the war. Gradually, he comes to the conclusion that neither he as an individual (as a “cell”) nor other people of his type have any impact on the course of history; he sees that the war is killing both enemies and “our people”. Contradictory changes in the character’s inner world show his doubts about patriotism and the righteousness of the “people”, while his belief that war only benefits a small group of greedy entrepreneurs grows. Feeling that the war cannot have a happy ending, the main character is no longer able to act rationally. He accepts all losses – personal and social – and comes to a purely emotional feeling about the universal unfairness of war. The only remaining possibility is to help wounded soldiers. Andreyev depicts a broad range of issues that thematically concern the experience and destiny of an individual, his inner transformation, the fate of his family members, and the destiny of both real and abstract society. The novel touches upon certain philosophical issues concerning such notions as patriotism, Russia’s fate, the sense of belonging to the masses, and being an individual. In this way, the novel can be regarded as a philosophical and panhuman view of World War I. Following the traditions of classical Russian literature to a considerable extent, Andreyev is concerned with questions based not on narrow class or national foundations but on panhuman ones.

Understanding the nature of the main character in russian literature on the material of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by M.Y. Lermontov

The relevance of the study: The relevance of the study is conditioned by the necessity to popularize the Russian language in classes with a foreign audience by referring to Russian classical literature (on the example of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by M.Y. Lermontov) with the use of innovational education technology of graphic and symbolic analysis of fiction. The purpose of the study is to create a system of lessons on the analysis of the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by M.Y. Lermontov for teaching the Russian language to a foreign audience with the application of modern technologies of teaching Russian literature to foreigners, using innovational teaching forms such as graphic symbols and key concepts reflecting the history, philosophy, traditions, and customs of the first quarter of the 19th century. Methods: The main method of study used for this problem is a creation of a graphic and symbolic system of analysis for the novel "A Hero of Our Time" by M.Y. Lermontov during Russian language classes for foreign students that would allow viewing this problem as an innovational method of teaching the Russian language to foreigners on the material of fiction. Results: The paper presents a system of graphic and symbolic analysis of the work of fiction, demonstrates the features of its application, develops an algorithm for the implementation of this system into teaching Russian to foreigners. Practical significance: The proposed system of graphic and symbolic analysis of a work of fiction in the context of teaching Russian to foreigners is an effective form of mastering the educational material for students which contributes to their realization of the communicative and linguoculturological competencies.

Образ России в романах Джулиана Барнса «Попугай Флобера» и «Шум времени»

The purpose of the article is to determine specificity of the image of Russia in the novels “Flaubert’s Parrot” and “The Noise of Time” by Julian Barnes. The study is novel in that it is the first to demonstrate how the image of Russia fits into the context of a postmodernist work and correlates with the idea of chaos, irony and culture mixing. As a result, it is proved that the image of Russia is based, on the one hand, on national myths and stereotypes and, on the other hand, on works of the classical Russian literature. The former are used to describe everyday life and are inextricably linked to such phenomena as alcohol abuse, the image of the “brown bear”, etc. In the second case, there are constant references to Turgenev, Nabokov, Shostakovich, the so-called high culture.

Влияние русской литературы на творчество Чулпана: роман «Ночь и день»

The novel Night and Day was initially published in the journal Sovetskaya Literatura (Soviet Literature) in 1934, but was soon banned. In 1989 the Russian translation of the novel was published. The influence of the Russian novel writing school is manifested in the conflict, composition and imagery of the work. In this article, the novel Night and Day is reviewed from the point of view of literary influences on the author. While analyzing the ideological concept, storyline and dramatic episodes of the novel, the author gives some analogies from the classical Russian literature.

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

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

The dialectic of purpose and means in the life, work, and worldview of I.A. Dedkov

The article deals with I.A. Dedkovs views on the ratio of the goal and the means on the way to the high social ideal. The analysis reveals the humanistic ontology of his worldview. I.A. Dedkov was a convinced anti-Stalinist, a supporter of the 20th Communist Party of the Soviet Union Congress decisions. Throughout his life and creative work, in his letters, diary entries, literary-critical and practical activities he consistently denounced the anti-humanist principle the end justifies the means, drawing arguments from the traditions of Russian classical literature and Russian prerevolutionary liberal-oriented philosophy, as well as from the Western European existentialism. This article reveals the latent humanistic-minded intension that existed in the Soviet period in the literary heritage of the critic and journalist I.A. Dedkov. The main methods used by the author in preparing this publication are elements of systematic and comparative (comparative) analysis, biographical, discursive and narrative research methods. The main conclusions from this study are the disclosure of the humanistic nature of I.A. Dedkovs worldview, sharply different from the amoral methodology of political expediency, which neglects the choice and use of ethically justified and adequate to the goal of its implementation. This position is supported by textual analysis of a number of sources, including Yu.V. Trifonovs story Impatience from the series Fiery revolutionaries about the revolutionary folk activist A.I. Zhelyabov. I.A. Dedkov consistently defended his theoretical and ideological postulates based on rejection and rejection of anti-human and inhumane political practices in his literary and journalistic activities, as well as in his personal life, maintaining his devotion to the socialist (communist) ideal in its humanistic (anthropocentric) ideal.

Концепт «маленький человек» в современном русском кинодискурсе

The article deals with the peculiarities of the existence of the concept «little man», «a person of no importance» in modern Russian cultural space. The author selects two opposite tendencies in understanding the concept that have been outlined in modern art. One of the tendencies shows that the comprehension of the concept in literature, journalism is transferred to the psychological system of co-ordinates that is connected with leveling and oversimplifying national humanistic perception of concept. The other tendency shows that renascence of the concept has emerged in word usage that was set by Russian classic literature in the cinema discourse. This tendency is illustrated by examining A. Zvyagintsev’s films.

Траектории словесности в научной судьбе Елены Владимировны Душечкиной

The article deals with the scientific fate of Elena Vladimirovna Dushechkina, the professor of St. Petersburg University. Using the metaphor of movement and the concept of trajectory the author shows that, being formed at the University of Tartu as a researcher of ancient literature, E.V. Dushechkina, follows this trajectory and expands the range of studied texts to poetry and prose of classical Russian literature, of proper names in literature and the reality of children's literature and pioneer songs, and leaves us with wonderful books and articles which can serve as a model for studies of Russian literature.

ИДЕЙНО-ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОЕ СВОЕОБРАЗИЕ РАССКАЗОВ АЛИМА ТЕППЕЕВА

The article is devoted to the study of the ideological and artistic features of A. Teppeev's short prose in the aspect of identifying the main problem-thematic trends in its development. The paper notes the influence of the aesthetic experience of the classics of Russian literature on the formation of the creative worldview of national writers of the second half of the twentieth century. The main objects of artistic and philosophical understanding (the spiritual world and the search for heroes, moral values) in the stories of A. Teppeev of the period of the 1960s-1980s are determined. The role of the artistic symbol in the structure of the narrative is considered, the content-aesthetic dominants, the ethno-cultural specificity of the works are revealed. Against the background of the motivational and thematic diversity (the motives of doom – "The Bridge of the Humpback Geuz", "Kara", the inevitability of fate – "Bitter Earth drink", "Target", the collisions of love – "Unconquered Peaks", "Whitefly"), the key task of the writer is determined-the artistic understanding of the spiritual and moral potential of a person in the context of historical time (Civil War, Great Patriotic War, modernity). As a result of the work carried out, a conclusion is made about the ideological and artistic originality of the stories of A. Teppeev, expressed in deep psychologism, in the actualization of the spiritual and moral principle (the image of the evolution/degradation of the characters who find themselves in dramatic circumstances, in situations of moral choice between good and evil, honor and dishonor, loyalty and betrayal), in the creative originality of the solution of moral and ethical, philosophical problems of human existence.

КЛЮЧ К ОТКРЫТИЮ РУССКОЙ КЛАССИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ. РЕЦЕНЗИЯ НА УЧЕБНИК Ю.В. ЛЕБЕДЕВА «РУССКАЯ ЛИТЕРАТУРА XIX ВЕКА: КУРС ЛЕКЦИЙ ДЛЯ БАКАЛАВРИАТА ТЕОЛОГИИ»: в 2 т. М.: ОБЩЕЦЕРКОВНАЯ АСПИРАНТУРА И ДОКТОРАНТУРА им. СВЯТЫХ РАВНОАПОСТОЛЬНЫХ КИРИЛЛА И МЕФОДИЯ; ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ДОМ «ПОЗНАНИЕ», 2020

The textbook Russian Literature of the 19th Century in two volumes written by the famous scholar, Doctor of Philology Yuriy V. Lebedev is regarded as one of the most important publications in the author’s entire patriotic series of educational books. The review notes the scope of the textbook, the peculiarities of its structure, the position of the author and his concept of the development of Russian classical literature. The concept is particularly emphasized: Russian classical literature is more than just literature, for Russian people it is both philosophy and a moral guideline, and the best description of a certain period of the life of the country and the people. The review reflects the main advantages of the textbook, emphasizes its scientific basis, many valuable discoveries and generalizations that make the book relevant not only for students, but for a wide range of literary critics. Despite the primary educational goal of the reviewed work, both volumes – in terms of the depth of the covered material, the number of new thoughts and significant conclusions – are a scientific publication with a simplified system of references and minimized argumentation. Lebedev, together with the reader, takes the path of academic search, raising all questions openly. The textbook accumulates the findings Lebedev made throughout his career in articles and monographs dedicated to many classics of Russian literature, as well as minor writers of the 19th century. Lebedev recreates the conceptual connection of all events and phenomena of the literary process of the period under consideration. The review notes that the History of Russian Literature of the 19th Century attracts the reader by the researcher’s initiative in presenting parallels that reveal the connection between Russian and European literatures, the original path of our classics, as well as general ideas and life schemes that never disappeared from the writers’ field of vision but were creatively mastered in each new generation. Much attention in the textbook is paid to poetics: changes and dynamics of genres, blending of certain features of currents and trends, the image of a person and their psychology and inner world. Lebedev traces how the writers’ manner, voice, and themes are transformed along the creative path: from early to late works, how they increasingly feel the deep religious crisis growing in the country.

Тип беспокойного человека в русской литературе

The article is devoted to the analysis of the type of characters in Russian classical literature, for which the author proposes the definition of “restless person” (by analogy with “superfluous” and “little man”). According to the observations of the author, “the nickname of a restless person” was first formally applied to the hero of one of the stories by V.I. Dahl (1842). A similar type (the type of Don Quixote), clearly manifested in the image of Chatsky from “Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboyedov, became quite common in prose and drama of the 19th century. The article examines characteristic features of this type of literary characters in the heroes of A.N. Ostrovsky, N.S. Leskov and others, analyzes the perception of this type in Russian criticism, reflection by its writers, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky.

The problem of spiritual and moral potential fulfillment in the works of Russian literature in the context of the contemporary educational system

The article considers the possibilities of using Russian classical literature in the contemporary learning activity. The authors reveal promising areas and pedagogical strategies for involving the younger generation in the learning of literary classics, as well as propose new conceptual approaches to solving this problem in contemporary society. The article deals with the results of the conducted study on the capabilities of fiction in forming the worldview and value orientations of the younger generation, as well as outlines the further prospects in improving the efficiency of spiritual and moral upbringing of the younger generation based on literary works. The article describes the advantage of value-oriented immersion of pupils in literary and artistic reality, which consists in the possibility of discussing many personal problems of children, adolescents, and young people in an indirect form, using the example of literary plots, characters, situations described in the works, which contributes to the necessary self-revelation of the participants in such discussions. The pedagogical strategy considered in the article is implemented through the creation of a kind of “intertext”, which, in contrast to its usual postmodern version of the information space with computer information technologies, is a process of “imposition” of several communicative spaces, namely, pedagogical, “existential experience” of students, literary and artistic reality, and scenery-directing space.

THE LITERARY TRADITION IN THE NOVEL “THE FAMILY”BY NINA FEDOROVA

The article discusses the specifics and features of the functioning of the literary tradition in the novel “The Family”by Nina Fedorovain the context of phenomenon of literarycentricity,which characterizes works of Russian émigré literati.In the work by the writer of the Russian abroad, there are many similarities with the novel by I.A.Goncharov “The Cliff”: at the level of the chronotope structure, individual images (the image of the Grandmother) and the image system as a whole, plot moves, motives, as well as stylistic devices. “The Family” is characterized by literary-centricity, it reproduces the atmosphere of the Russian manor culture and the topic of the Russian manor novel, the structural elements of Russian prose of the second half of the 19th century. Following the tradition allows the writer to keep in touch with Russian classical literature and Russian culture as a whole. At the same time, the recognition of the literary tradition reinforces the tragic register in the novel dedicated to the life of Russian emigrants of the first wave.The paper also considers some features of the poetics of the novel “The Family”: the role of symbolism in the figurative system of the work, the specifics of its spatial-temporal organization, the peculiarities of using metaphors, some characteristics of the narrative

Образ газеты и значение периодической прессы как одной из основ информационного мира в романе И. А. Гончарова «Обломов»

The article is devoted to the analysis of the artistic functions of the image of newspaper in the novel by I. A. Goncharov Oblomov and the comprehension of moral and philosophical results of the confrontation of protagonist with the profane information challenges of the external environment. Particular attention is paid to the semantic content of the Oblomov paradigm – the information world, interpreted taking into account the rich experience of Goncharov's work in the newspaper editorial field. The author of the article proves that one of the central tenets in the moral and philosophical concept of the writer is the preservation of humanity. The dialogues of heroes and the clash of their positions show that humanity in Oblomov's understanding echoes the corresponding understanding of it by Goncharov, revealing the complex and multifaceted worldview of the writer. The study outlines the evolution of attitudes towards the information model in Russian classical literature and examines the issue of the proportionality between external inertia and internal dynamics characteristic of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. A hypothesis is put forward about the intense spiritual life of Oblomov, the expediency of pronouncing the name of Pushkin by the protagonist is deciphered.

Сергей Третьяков и Эзра Паунд: диалог о коллективизации литературы между левыми и правыми

The paper is dedicated to the dialogue between Ezra Pound and Sergey Tretyakov on the pages of a Dutch magazine Front edited by a Dutch writer Sonja Prins, and other periodicals. This particular episode of Pound’s contacts with left-wing writers hasn’t been duly researched so far. In spite of the dangerous political atmosphere in the 1930s, authors with different ideological views could freely exchange their ideas in the periodicals. The Front published a wide range of anti-bourgeois authors — their views varied from communist to fascist. The Federation of Organizations of Soviet writers (FOSP) was mentioned as a co-founder of Front, although later its name was withdrawn because of the magazine’s publishing policy, which allowed right-wing writers. Tretyakov’s essay “Writer-kolkhoznik” was published in the first issue of the Front; the next issue contained Pound’s response to this essay. In spite of his pro-fascist views, Pound seemed interested in Tretyakov’s work on the kolkhoz. Later both writers continued to argue outside the magazine — Tretyakov mentioned Pound in his Berlin lecture The Writer and the Socialist Village, Pound referred to Tretyakov, this time purely ironically, in Italian press. In the end the dialogue failed, both writers tended to speak about their own main topics — Tretyakov continued to reflect on the writer in the kolkhoz, and Pound was interested in the classical Russian literature and in the attitude to the classical Russian literary heritage in the new socialist Russia.

A new concept of three-dimensional study of fiction at the university

The relevance of the study is due to the need to modernize the methodology of teaching literature in Russian regional universities, taking into account the current processes of globalization. The proposed method is conventionally called “Three flanks”, and provides for the study of national literature in close correlation with classical Russian and foreign literature. From the pedagogical standpoint, the system-synergetic approach is especially important for a multiethnic region, such as the North Caucasus. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the expediency and effectiveness of the comparative method of studying fiction and to propose a three-dimensional model, which is currently being tested at the framework of a special course at the Faculty of Philology of Kabardino-Balkarian State University. The authors used comparative-historical, system-structural, and axiological methods of scientific analysis. In order to harmonize the multicultural material, logical principles of analysis were used, namely, classification, typology, generalization, as well as the method of continuous sampling to identify representative texts. The article presents a pedagogical experiment that is currently being conducted in one of the North Caucasus universities. The essence of the experiment is a comparative study of national literature at the level of comparisons with world literature.

Проблематика и поэтика малой прозы Д. Рубиной 1970–1980-х годов

We consider thematic, genre-compositional, stylistic features of D. Rubina’s works of the early period of her work. We focus on the analysis of stories “On Saturdays”, “This wonderful Altukhov”, “The House behind the Green Gate”, “Thorns”, which were included in the collection of short prose by D. Rubina of the 1970s–1980s. The relevance of study is associated with the need to study the work of one of the leading modern literature authors in order to clarify the general picture of the literary process at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries and the place of a particular artist in it. We formulate the main features of D. Rubina’s early works, which consist in the increased role of the autobiographical beginning, the presence of special heroes-representatives of creative professions, attention to the problems of childhood and the relationship between the older and younger generations, the introduction of mystical elements, the proximity of stories to the novelistic genre. We draw parallels with some of the writer’s later works from the perspective of development of images, artistic techniques. We define the prospects for the study of D. Rubina’s short prose: the study of the cross-cutting motives of writer’s stories, novellas and novels from the initial to the present period of creativity, the analysis of the intertextual connections of author’s works with classical and modern Russian and foreign literature.

«БОЛЬШОЙ ТОЛКОВЫЙ СЛОВАРЬ ЯКУТСКОГО ЯЗЫКА»: НОВОЕ ДОСТИЖЕНИЕ ЯКУТСКОЙ ЛЕКСИКОГРАФИИ

The present article describes the Great Explanatory Dictionary of the Yakut Language. The Dictionary is the outcome of 46 years of work done by lexicographers at the Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The editor of the Dictionary is Pyotr A. Sleptsov, professor, Doctor of Philological Sciences, member of the Academy of Sciences of Sakha Republic. The Dictionary includes 15 volumes of about 800 sheets, 9,500 pages in total, containing some 80 thousand words and phraseological units. The Dictionary provides a full description of Yakut vocabulary in all its centuries-old richness. The lexical units are from various sources: phraseological units, compounds, archaisms, rarely used words or folk terminology, as well as common dialect words. The authors point out that the Dictionary employs almost all literature written in Yakut: published folklore texts of various genres; translations of classic Russian and world literature; works of all Yakut writers, from classic to modern. The Dictionary is based on the academic card index which presently includes over three million cards with citations showing the lexical and phraseological stock of the Yakut language in its fullness. It would not be possible to create such a huge lexicographic work without a high level of theory of the Yakut language and the present lexicographic tradition that has been bilingual since its foundation. The article shows the relevance of the great multi-volume lexicographic work, describing some characteristics of Yakut vocabulary as reflected in the Dictionary. Also, examples of lexicographic presentation of certain groups of vocabulary are provided. These include a bulk of figurative words and their verbal derivatives, a large number of modal words, particles, and word groups, compound words and terms, phraseological units. The authors of the Dictionary paid great attention to words denoting various ethnographic notions. These words denoting realities that in many cases disappeared from modern life as well as purely Yakut phenomena needed encyclopedic, or close to that, treatment. The Dictionary is targeted at the widest audience. However, its academic reference direction is also important since it will become an essential source for comparative studies of the lexico-semantic system in three large language families: Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages, at the intersection of which Yakut developed.

Предостерегая от «академической книжности»: из истории перевода на абхазский язык русской классической литературы

The article examines the experience of Abkhaz translators, writers and scientists in translating Russian classics into the Abkhaz language. It is shown that literary translation in Abkhazia developed in stages and in parallel with domestic literature, becoming its integral part, revealing the potential expressive capabilities of the native language. Briefly describing the legacy of the founder of Abkhaz literature D. I. Gulia, who was engaged in the translation of liturgical literature in the early 20th century, the author dwells on the most significant achievements of modern translators of Russian classical literature. Important theoretical and practical observations concerning the translation technique are presented, variants of some texts in the Abkhaz language are given, by examples of which the article illustrates the most significant discoveries and achievements of translators in the field of transferring the figurative system of the original text, rhythm and meter (when it comes to verse speech), composition, general tonality of the work.