Emigre Literature Research Articles

Anthropological markers of existential imagery in Gaito Gazdanov's 1930s novels “Night Roads” and “Th e Story of a Journey”

The article examines the problem of existential imagery of Gaito Gazdanov’s 1930 novels “Night Roads” and “The Story of a Journey” in the aspect of anthropological characteristics of the formation of a system of characters, outlines the prospect of their analysis in the context of studying the literature of emigration (in particular, “sociological novels” by A. Zinoviev). The identification of gastronomic markers significant for expressing the point of view of the author and the narrator-hero makes it possible to clarify the characteristic features and the juxtaposition of static and mobile figures forming the world of novels. As a result of the analysis of the texts, a conclusion is made about the effectiveness of using gastronomic markers as an artistic means of creating existential imagery in the novels “Night Roads” and “The Story of One Journey”.

Dissemination of the Russian emigrant literature and the literature of the Book Program in East Europe in 1950-1990

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Pojęcie ojczyzny w twórczości białoruskich emigrantów i osób represjonowanych

The article analyzes contexts with nouns that express the concept of homeland in Belarusian: radzìma, ajčyna, bac'kaǔščyna. The main meanings of these words are 'place of birth, small homeland’ and 'native/home country’. The works of emigrants and repressed citizens in different periods of the 20th and 21st centuries are considered, including the changes that the concept of homeland in these works has undergone over the past hundred years. In the first half of the 20th century, bac'kaǔščyna 'fatherland’ predominated, at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, the word radzìma and especially the proper name Belarus prevailed. The noun ajčyna, which belongs to the highest style, was and is used most rarely. In emigration literature, ajčyna and bac'kaǔščyna meant 'homeland’, only the lexeme radzìma sometimes meant 'small homeland, place of birth’. The importance of the country’s history and historical studies for the formation of the concept of homeland is noted.

EXILE AND RUSSIAN INTELLECTUAL RESPONSE: A STUDY OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S PNIN

Russian first-wave emigre literature portrays the experiences of Russian exiled intellectuals who were opponents of the ideology of Leninized Russia, or the Russia of Bolshevism and Bolsheviks. Numerous thousands of Russian intellectuals were forced to leave as a result of their country’s totalitarian leaders. For these intellectuals, Leninized Russia has become a dangerous place, even a prison. In Pnin, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov shows the lives of first-wave Russian intellectuals in exile and their responses. Through the main character, Professor Pnin, Nabokov tries to illustrate to his readers the path taken by many Russian exiles. He also intends to show how intellectuals in exile like Timofey Pnin wish to be part of a social community and strengthen their sense of belonging in order to overcome loneliness and alienation in the new country. Professor Pnin and other representatives of the first wave’s feeling of toska towards their homeland, pre-Revolutionary Russia, became stronger when they faced difficulties in the United States of America and when they felt inferior among other colleagues. The study reveals that Russian intellectuals in exile like Professor Timofey Pnin may partially compensate their feelings of toska towards their home, pre-Revolutionary Russia, through writing. By doing this, they may motivate themselves to achieve peak experience and transform exile into an enriching experience. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine Vladimir Nabokov's protagonist, Professor Timofey Pnin's exile experience and his response. The paper intends to show that Nabokov, through his main character, displays the fact that, despite the pain of being far from their homeland, for Russian intellectuals like Professor Timofey, the unwitting choice of exile becomes the right decision.

Prayer Motifs and National Consciousness in Changing Conditions of Reception: As Exemplified by the Works of Ivan Shmelev and Boris Zaitsev

This article presents the role of selected motifs of prayer depicted in the works of first-wave Russian emigrants in the creation of a certain type of national mythology. The starting point of the considerations is a reflection on the status of emigrant literature at the time of its creation, during the period of political changes in the Soviet bloc, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and today. From the beginning, émigré literature has served as a certain treasury of images and symbols, which are treated as necessary elements for maintaining the national identity of emigrants. The article presents selected motifs from the works of Ivan Shmelev’s The Year of the Lord and Pilgrimage, and Boris Zaitsev’s Saint Sergius of Radonezh, showing prayer as an element of ritual, as a collective request, and as an act of deep contact with God. The analysis of the selected examples shows that regardless of the literary form, narrative perspective, or the way the subject was presented, the writers showed prayer motifs in a patriotic context, while mythologizing pre-revolutionary Russia and bringing the idea of “Holy Rus” to life. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been an increased interest in emigrant literature, and the ideas contained therein have proven to be very important for the formation of the new national consciousness of Russians. Today, due to another political change in Russia and its political isolation, émigré literature is of renewed importance in Russian circles. The writers whose works are discussed in this study are regarded as the main Orthodox writers of the twentieth century, and the image of praying Russia is again the basis for building a new national identity. The study concludes with the observation that the value of emigrant literature should be studied in the context of the time of its creation.

Полемика о путях развития русской литературы в эмигрантской критике 20–30-х гг. XX в.

The paper is devoted to the polemics on the ways of development of Russian literature in emigration, in which Mark Slonim, Zinaida Gippius, Alfred Bem, Vladislav Khodasevich, and Georgii Adamovich all took part. The article considers the critical views of Khodasevich and Adamovich in relation to the position of Slonim, whose article “Living Literature and Dead Critics” made these polemics central to the emigrant critical literature of the 1920–1930s. Slonim thought that emigrant literature was only a branch of the common trunk of Russian literature that remained in Soviet Russia. According to Khodasevich, any literary tradition representing Russian literature in emigration never developed, and the array of different works of individual authors could not form the unity called emigrant literature. Adamovich, even though he denied the possible development of Russian literature, believed that the problem could be solved by the artistic expression of an individual’s self in simple forms of language devoid of any beauty.

Художник-шпион в рассказе В. Набокова «Ассистент режиссера»: репрезентация сенсорного и эстетического опыта

he article is devoted to the analysis of The Assistant Producer, Vladimir Nabokov’s first short story in English. The study explores how V. Nabokov interprets the problem of the author’s identity in foreign readers’ audience. The structural-semiotic and intertextual methods are used in the paper to identify the narrative techniques organizing the intrigue in the short story: the exposure of the character as a triple agent and the narrator as an artist. The narrator focuses on the optical and sound effects of cinema as well as on the foreign accent in other characters’ speech. These peculiarities of the narrator’s perception show his perceptive and language sensitiveness inherent in an artist. The pseudo-documental cinema world includes the legends of Stepan Razin, portraits by impressionists and post-impressionists, and emigre literature. The artistic world is constructed through the images conveying the aberrations of perception, smells and the senses of touch, which are difficult to verbalize, unmotivated alliterations, allusions that are hard to interpret for foreign readers. Perceptive images and literary allusions construct the plot about the communicative mistake: from the narrator’s point of view, the cinema shows the world of Russian emigre inaccurately, but it reveals the banality of the intentions of the character-executioner. V. Nabokov assesses incompleteness as a key characteristic of intercultural communication, motivated by the differences in recipients’ sensorial and reading experience. V. Nabokov’s strategy is to highlight the inexpressible characteristics of his sensorial and creative (reading and writing) experience. Communicative mistakes inspire co-creative reading. At the beginning of his American career, V. Nabokov develops the idea that a genius writer can convey his sensorial, aesthetic, and language experience despite the communicative borders.

The Mythologeme “Home” in the works of Russian Emigration writers of the Second Wave (using the example of R. Berezov’s works).

The article is devoted to the representation of the image of home, one of the dominants of Russian culture, in the works of émigré writers. In the literature of the Russian emigration, it acquires a special tragic character and is interpreted differently by representatives of different waves. However, one can single out typological features that unite émigré writers: autobiographical narrative, nostalgic motifs in the depiction of Russia, apocalyptic perception of the loss of connection with home. The analysis of the work of Rodion Berezov, a representative of the second wave, reveals the main ways of implementing the mythologeme in the prose of post-war emigration and allows us to trace the transformation of the perception of the loss of home by emigrants of different waves. The novelty of the study is due to the lack of literature studies of the second wave of emigration in the context of this issue.

The anatomy of literary success. On the first bestselling book in the literature of Russian emigration

Only in the late 1980s, in the now legendary ‘perestroika’ times, the works of M. Osorgin began to be published in the USSR. The novel Sivtsev Vrazhek (1928), now rightfully considered the main artistic achievement of the writer, has gone through several publications and become the object of literary study included into academic programmes on Russian émigré literature. However, lost in the flow of ‘returned literature,’ Sivtsev Vrazhek did not cause a furor. It is hardly possible to talk about its popularity in modern Russia. Meanwhile, this novel is the only work of post-revolutionary Russian emigration which became an international bestseller in the interwar twenties. In his article, N. Melnikov focuses on Russian and English-speaking critics’ perception of Osorgin’s novel Sivtsev Vrazhek. On the basis of extensive material, such theoretical and literary problems as the interpretation of a work of art, the formation of a writer’s reputation, the phenomenon of success, etc. are comprehended.

THE ARTISTIC WORLD OF I. S. SHMELEV’S WORKS AS VIEWED BY LITERARY CRITICS IN CHINA

The aim of the study is to determine the value of the artistic heritage of I. S. Shmelev in the eyes of Chinese critics in the process of creating spiritual realism as part of the literature of the Russian emigration. The article presents analysis of the current state of the study of I. S. Shmelev’s heritage in China. The authors identify possible directions of research on this writer among Chinese literary scholars. The scientifi c novelty of the work is due to the fact that studying of I. S. Shmelev’s works in the context of Christian traditions still remains on the periphery of the interests of researchers, and is practically not represented from the standpoint of Chinese literary scholars in terms of spiritual realism. For the fi rst time, a scientifi c rationale is given and a research development is carried out on the state of the study of the writer’s heritage at the moment in China. As a result, it is proved that the interest in research on Shmelev and his work is gradually changing in China.

UKRAINIAN EMIGRATION LITERATURE AS A HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENON: PROBLEMS, DIRECTIONS AND PERSPECTIVES OF RESEARCH

The paper is devoted to the main problems, directions and prospects of the study of Ukrainian emigration literature of the 20th century. In particular it studies the history of its research as a separate scientific problem, analyzes the main directions of its research, and marks the most important scientific achievements in its development. Based on the analysis of the works of Ukrainian literary scholars and critics – both emigration and mainland – devoted to the problem of studying emigration literature (historical-literature, theoretical, methodological), some comments are made about the peculiarities of its development, difference from others – diaspora, expatriate, as well as the relationship of these closely related but not identical concepts. The article analyzes features that internally unite emigration and mainland literary processes, as well as their differences and moments of interactions, it emphasizes the complexity and inconsistency of this interaction. An opinion is expressed on the opportunity to consider the relation between mainland and emigration literatures as a metropolis and the periphery and, at the same time, peculiar cultural monopolies. One aspect of the study concerns the issue of the discontinuity and functioning of emigration literature as developing not because of the change of generation, as mainland literature, but through "waves" that influence its external contours and internal movement. The article notes the significance of historical, cultural, moral and aesthetic experience, which Ukrainian emigration literature brought to history and the canon of national literature, expanding them ideologically, genre and thematically. The paper substantiates the importance of the theoretical and historical-literature conceptualization of Ukrainian emigration literature of the 20th century, the need for an integral scientific approach, which would become the theoretical basis for future research.

Bibliographic practice as an object of bibliographic studies

Review of the joint monograph “Essays on bibliographic activity of the Russian State Library: A monograph” / Russian State Library ; ed. by G. L. Levin. Moscow : Pashkov dom, 2022. 734 p.The author reviews the joint monograph by the leading specialists of the Russian State Library (RSL). The article is publishedon the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the reference and information office as the division of the library of State Rumyantsev Museum in December 1918. The office rendered all types of bibliographic user services (e. g. address, subject, specifying bibliographic references). The reviewed monograph covers all the main fields of RSL’s bibliographic activity: development of reference library collection, reference and information services, building of all the main types of bibliographic directories, bibliographical information service in culture and arts, making of bibliographical indices of Russian emigration literature, research in theory of bibliography, etc. The choice of RSL bibliographic activity as the main object of study makes an appropriate contribution to the development of Russian theory of bibliography. The reviewer regards intensification of research activities of larger libraries (e. g. national) as an attribute of the modern theory of bibliography. The joint monograph is one of few large-scale research works covering the full range of the national library's bibliographic activities of the last century; therefore, it is of high value.

The Early Reception of Georg Brandes in Germany and France. A Comparative Study

The publication of Emigrant Literature, the first volume of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature (1872–1890), constituted Georg Brandes’ breakthrough work and the beginning of his career as a European literary critic. However, the work was very differently received in the two major literary cultures of the time, Germany and France. In the German press, Brandes was saluted as a cultural reformer and icebreaker of literary modernity, “a good European and cultural missionary”, as Friedrich Nietzsche called him in a letter from 1887, whereas French critics reacted with much greater skepticism to Brandes’ work. This situation was especially annoying to Brandes as he regarded French literary and intellectual culture as superior to any other culture of the world and more than anything else he longed for recognition from the French literati. The uneven distribution of critical acclaim was a paradox that also affected Brandes’ self-understanding and position as a lcritic. The following article will examine this tension by providing a comparative study of the reception of Emigrant Literature in Germany and France from 1872 to 1893.

«Эмигрантская» и «советская» литература в освещении Георгия Черкасова (Г. И. Газданова) на «Радио Свобода»

The paper considers G. Gazdanov’s journalistic and editorial work for Radio Liberty from 1953 to 1971 In this period, the distinctive literary-centrism of the writer’s creative personality was manifested in several cultural and educational programs (“In the World of Books”, “On Books and Authors”, “Round Table Talks”, “Before the Curtain”, “Diary of a Writer”), reviews (“Review of cultural life”, “Review of thick magazines”), and “special programs” related to literature. Using the pseudonym Georgy Cherkasov, Gazdanov talks about culture with his friends and professional colleagues: poets, prose writers, critics of the first Russian emigration, orders “scripts” and organizes the writer’s radio performances, and creates his own series of radio monologues. Apparently, he becomes a certain personified authority for Soviet listeners, shaping for them the images of Russian émigré literature, the European literature of the twentieth century and, finally, Soviet literature as seen from within a Western world. Currently available recordings of G. Cherkasov’s radio speeches were studied and his business correspondence with G. Adamovich, R. Gulym, Y. Ivask, L. Rzhevsky, Gen. myakov (Andreev), and other writers of the Russian emigration were analyzed. Gazdanov’s assessments and views on the literature of the Russian emigration and the literature created in the metropolis were collected, systematized, and examined. Despite Gazdanov’s desire to maintain parity between culture and politics, his journalistic, propagandistic, and culturist activities were found to be biased by objective and subjective factors, manifested primarily in a superficial, often tendentious, and intolerant attitude toward all the literary works bearing the stamp of Soviet life and influence.

“Silenced Generation”: South African Emigrant Writers and Their Fates (1950–1960s)

The article is devoted to the problem of emigration of writers from South Africa in the 1950s–1960s. Using the example of the fates of three South African writers – Peter Abrahams, Nat Nakasa and Arthur Nortier – the author raises the following questions: what were the reasons that forced the creative intelligentsia to leave their country? What was the state policy towards emigrants in the 1950s and 1960s? Why did emigration become an opportunity for some writers to gain political and creative freedom, while for others it became a path to self-destruction, loneliness and death? The problem of emigration and emigrant literature of South Africa is almost unexplored both in South Africa and in foreign historiography. However, the study of the fate of South African emigration sheds light on similar processes and problems in the history of other countries: the causes of emigration of intellectuals, the relations between writers and authorities, the problem of self-identification of representatives of various diasporas abroad, as well as the problem of intercultural and interracial dialogue both in literature and everyday life.

YEVHEN MALANYUK AND YURIY DARAGAN – FACTOLOGICAL OVERCOME OF THE MYTH ABOUT THE «FIRST» AND «SECOND» POETS OF EMIGRATION

Variants of the interpretation of the genesis of the theme of Ukrainian emigration poetry of 1920s and 1930s are revealed. For the first time, the main works of modern Ukrainian scientists who researched the specified problem are comprehensively analyzed. It has been asserted that the vast majority of literary critics associate the genesis of the topic of Ukrainian emigration poetry of the interwar period with the name of Yu. Daragan. At the same time, E. Malanyuk is considered the most prominent emigration poet. The opinion of one of the modern researchers is singled out, who drew attention to the tendency to somewhat simplistic praise of Yu. Daragan’s work, which is quite small in scope, in particular, his collection «Sagaidak». The comparative method and the method of factual verification proved that the book «Sagaidak» was not actually the first poetry collection printed in exile. It was noted that modern researchers, who called Yu. Daragan the first poet of the «Prague School», did not provide convincing facts for such a statement. Instead, they only used the rather subjective Євген Маланюк і Юрій Дараган – фактологічне подолання міфу ... 248 opinions of their predecessors, expressed in ideologically rather contradictory articles of the pre-war period. It has been established that the publication of the book «Sagaidak» was preceded by the publication of E. Malaniuk’s collection «Stiletto and Stylos». It was also revealed that the publication of the book «Stiletto and Stylus» by E. Malanyuk was met with reviews and articles by individual Ukrainian critics both in Ukraine and abroad. Instead, only M. Shapoval, who belonged to the same party (Socialist-Revolutionaries) as Yu. Daragan, published a review of the «Sagaidak» collection. It has been proven that the statement about Yu. Daragan as the first poet of emigration, who personally influenced the ideological and thematic direction of E. Malanyuk’s work, is just a literary myth. In fact, the facts indicate that it was E. Malanyuk who was the leading writer of Ukrainian emigration literature of the interwar period, even at the beginning of its formation Keywords: the genesis of the theme of Ukrainian emigration poetry of the 1920s –1930s , the collection of E. Malanyuk «Stylet and Stylos», the collection of Y. Daragan «Sagaidak», «Prague School», «visnykivstvo»

Дискуссия о русской эмигрантской литературе в журнале «Меч» и вокруг него

The understanding of the ways of development of Russian emigrant literature was reflected in the discussion between V.G. Fyodorov, D.V. Filosofov and D.S. Merezhkovsky in the Warsaw journal "Mech" ("Sword") and further in the polemic between V.F. Khodasevich and G.V. Adamovich. Should national literature in emigration be connected both with the native language and with national traditions and culture, or should it be based on the Western cultural tradition? For Khodasevich, the possibility of the development of literature was connected with the creation of new poetic artistic forms based on the national tradition, while Adamovich believed that it needed an artistic expression that was a documentary record of life, which was linked to an orientation towards Western European literary models.

Protest Scenes in the Poetry of Muhammed Salih

This article examines the appearance of protest elements in the poetry of Muhammed Salih, an Uzbek poet, a representative of the «Metaphorist school» in Soviet Uzbek literature and the founder of protest and emigration poetry. In order to clarify this issue from all angles, the poet's protest poems were classified into two macrogroups: Soviet Union period (anti-Sovietism) and post-Soviet period protest (post-anti-Sovietism). The protest motif in the poet Salih's poetry can be noted as a new facet of the research work in the context of this article for the first time in the literature of Kazakhstan. In the first part of the article, the problem of nationalism (Turkism) and anti-Sovietism, which have become the main theme in M. Salih's work in the last forty years, was comprehensively analyzed. By using several literary methods, the characteristics of anti-Soviet protest, longing for independence and the achievement of sovereignty in the poet's poems were determined. The object and subject of the leitmotif «awakening» were studied in such poems as «Mother's Word», «Mouse in the Cage», «Awakening» written in this period. Focusing on the physics and metaphysics of the poems, the influence of the literature of the modernists before him was discussed. Special attention was paid to the beauty of allegory and metaphor in his poems and the peculiarity of writing, the meaning hidden in the surface of his poetry. The use of symbols and motifs characteristic of the classicist literature in the poet's poems was studied. In the second part of the article, the feature of protest poetry in the post-Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan was studied. On the basis of M. Salih's poetry, the expression of critical ideas and values such as independence, civil society, freedom of speech, and human rights were analyzed. The process of development of emigration literature in modern Uzbek literature was differentiated based on the poet's poems such as «Strange tree», «Love of the enemy of the people for the homeland», «Prayer of the exiled exile». The characteristics of Salih's poetic nature were comprehensively demonstrated. The influence of the poet's political and literary life in emigration was analyzed in a comparative and synergistic aspect. In M. Salih's protest poetry, the themes of Turkish unity and independence of Turkestan, which are of special importance, are partially connected with his nationalist (Turkish) poems. In the framework of such studies, an analytical forecast was made for the development of protest literature in modern Uzbek literature, the topics and issues raised, poetic power, and influence in the formation of civil society. The article focuses on the manifestations of protests during the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet period in M. Salih's works, and his poems are studied from several angles. His struggle for justice and his contribution to world knowledge were also taken into consideration.

Motif of Death in Ukrainian-Canadian Poetry

Purpose of the research is to study the originality of interpretation of death in the lyrics of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada in the context of the opposition "foreign land – motherland", based on its existential development in philosophical anthropology and culture of the last two centuries. Its implementation presupposes, first of all, analysis of the forms of development and disclosure of the death motif by figurative and artistic means. Theoretical basis. The author uses the well-founded tradition of interpreting the death motif in philosophical literature of the last centuries, i.e. non-classical and modern philosophical thought. Originality. The present study is an attempt at systematization of the notions of death in Ukrainian poetry in Canada in the second half of the 20th century. It is based on the study of artistic texts and the worldview of Ukrainian emigrants. Appeal to the fiction of the Ukrainian Diaspora allows illustrating the originality of philosophical understanding of death in the context of the national culture. Conclusions. Reference to Ukrainian-Canadian poetry allows expanding the space of philosophical understanding of death in the form of figurative fiction. Concretizing the character of their interpretation of the motif of death, it is necessary to focus attention on its two basic forms of manifestation: existential, associated with living abroad, and sacrificial death for the benefit of the homeland. Thus, the motif of death occupies a significant place in the lyrics of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. The concept of human death is closely connected with the concept of life, which is concretized through their meaningful comprehension. This is a matter of interpretation of despair and loneliness motifs, as well as the illumination of the images of a foreign land, which is one of the features of emigrant literature in general.

Terror rewolucyjny i represje komunistyczne w Jugosławii w latach 1941–1946. Zarys problematyki

This article is a scientific study of an issue that is rather little known to the Polish reader. The communist terror and repression in Yugoslavia during World War II were used by Tito's partisans and later by soldiers and functionaries of the security apparatus of the communist Yugoslav state. In the years 1941–1946 the victims of communist terror were tens of thousands of political and class opponents of the KPJ, actual or merely alleged collaborators of the occupiers, as well as representatives of national minorities. The events described in the article created an extremely complex picture of the reality of the years of war and the first year of communist rule in Yugoslavia, which included: collaboration, ethnic cleansing, communist revolution, civil war and the beginnings of the communist order. The presented article is based on the available literature on the subject: Yugoslav literature, including emigration literature, as well as scientific studies published after 1991 in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have been supplemented with selected items from Western and Polish literature on the subject.