Korney Chukovsky Research Articles

The commandments of Korney Chukovsky in the children’s poetry of Evgenios Trivizas: comparative analysis and translation strategies

The commandments of Korney Chukovsky in the children’s poetry of Evgenios Trivizas: comparative analysis and translation strategies

Литературная критика Корнея Чуковского и остроумие по Фрейду

The originality of literary criticism by Korney Chukovsky is examined in the article through the prism of the contradictory principles of his critical method: on the one hand, he saw the goal of criticism as revealing the hidden (unconscious) soul of the artist through the analysis of his style, on the other hand, he was initially aimed at self-expression in creativity and achieving success with caustic wit. It is shown that from the point of view of promotion his literary reputation, Chukovsky’s focus on wit was more productive than his “psychologism,” which is due to the feuilleton genre of his literary criticism and the desire to win recognition among the mass reader of periodicals. In this regard, it is proposed to draw typological parallels between Chukovsky’s critical techniques and the techniques of wit described in S. Freud’s work “Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious” (1905). As a result, it is concluded that Chukovsky’s literary criticism contains many of the mechanisms of wit described by Freud, namely: verbal and tendentious witticisms (of an unconsciously aggressive nature), ridiculing literary authorities and morals, as well as the tastes of the mass reader; techniques of condensation, semantic shift, nonsense, witticism-exaggeration, witticism with unification or with a hint, depiction through the opposite (close to irony); image through a trifle, on what a caricature, cartoon, parody, travesty, etc. are based.

НЕИЗВЕСТНАЯ СКАЗКА К. И. ЧУКОВСКОГО: «ПРИКЛЮЧЕНИЯ БАБАРА» И «БАБАР И СЕЛЕСТА В МОСКВЕ»

The article analyzes materials found in the Korney Chukovsky’s archive in the Russian State Library. The texts presented in the article were depicted by Chukovsky as “based on the drawings and French text by Jean de Brunoff” that means — The Travels of Babar (1932) by the French writer and artist Jean de Brunoff. The Russian translation is entitled The Adventures of Babar. The supplement to the article presents different versions of the translation found in the archive, which reflect Chukovsky’s edits, as well as texts written by Chukovsky as the continuation of the original plot — The Adventures of Babar and Celeste. Part two. Babar and Celeste in Moscow. These texts have never been published before. Their textual analysis makes it possible to depict The Adventures of Babar as a retelling, and the sequel episode Babar and Celeste in Moscow could be considered as an original story that has no French analogue. An attempt has been made to find out the dates when Chukovsky worked on the texts and to describe the specifics of editorial changes. The first version of The Adventures of Babar, which consisted of two parts, judging by the documents found, dates back to 1946–1948 and was intended for publication as a calendar with illustrations by famous animator and artist Mstislav Pashchenko. The second version of The Adventures of Babar was made with the aim of possible publication in the illustrated children’s periodical Funny Pictures in 1957. Work on this text was presumably continued at the very beginning of the 1960s, the purpose of the third revision is unknown. Korney Chukovsky didn’t include The Adventure of Babar and Celeste in Moscow in the second and third versions. Analysis of various versions of The Adventures of Babar allows us to judge that Chukovsky has significantly revised and expanded de Brunoff’s original. This could partly be due to the fact that the Russian edition was not supposed to use original illustrations from the French book and in that case the visual narrative needed to be retold in the Russian text. We could also assume that Chukovsky set a goal to adapt the text for the young Russian readers through significant domestication: for example, introducing Russian names — Aibolit, Barmaley, as well as transferring part of the story to Moscow.

Gender inversion in the ‘critique of a critic’. Zinaida Gippius on Korney Chukovsky

Examined in the article is an obscure feuilleton called ‘An immature critic’ [‘Nevzrosliy kritik’] (1914), penned by Anton Krayniy (Z. Gippius) with Korney Chukovsky in mind. The article sets out to identify the role of gender inversion in the feuilleton’s intended purpose and unique genre characteristics. Having analysed the semantics of two variants of the title and subtitle (‘A study in inverted commas’ [‘Etyud v kavychkakh’]), critical techniques and quotation strategies, the scholar finds that Gippius’ metacritical piece is a spoof. A female critic (in a male disguise) expounds on the ‘feminine soul’ of a male critic, employing his own techniques and making a witty use of a female stereotype according to Weininger (‘a prostitute’). It appears that the feuilleton’s initial title implied not just an individual characteristic of Chukovsky’s, but ‘journalistic prostitution’ in general and critical feuilletons in particular — a genre practised by Gippius as well. The final choice of the title stresses the distinction of Krayniy’s journalistic (‘masculine’) criticism from the aesthetic (‘feminine,’ ‘immature’) criticism espoused by Chukovsky.

НАЧАЛО ТВОРЧЕСКОГО ПУТИ ДЕТСКОГО ПИСАТЕЛЯ И ПОЭТА САШИ ЧЕРНОГО

The article presents the results of the study of the satirist poet’s journey into children’s literature. The beginning of the formation of the children’s poet and writer Sasha Cherny dates back to the pre-immigrant period of his work. The first publications of his works for children appeared in various newspapers and magazines: “Kiev Thought”, “Sovremennik”, “Russian wealth”, “For children”. Common interests and views on the content and design of children’s books contributed to his rapprochement in the 1910s with Korney Chukovsky and Maxim Gorky, together with whom he participated in the creation of new children’s literature, which was being formed at that time. Sasha Cherny was invited by Korney Chukovsky to the almanacs “The Firebird” (1911) and “The Christmas Tree” (1918); participated in the collection “Verbochki” (1913). The compiler of the “Blue Book” (1912) was Sasha Cherny himself, in the publication of which he involved Maxim Gorky and Kasimir Mill. In these collections, the then-novice children’s author Sasha Cherny holds first place for the number of published works. Reviving the history of the development of children’s literature of the pre-revolutionary period, one should not forget about the role and significance of the poet excluded from it by emigration. Sasha Cherny’s participation in the organization of new communities of children’s poets and writers, even if these were created only for collective publishing projects like collections and almanacs, is an important touch in the history of the formation of the community of writers working for the young reader in the first decades of the twentieth century. For Sasha Cherny himself this experience was a part of his path to children’s literature, and the publication of his collected works marked the fact that he saw himself as an independent contributor to children’s literature, which was already quite evident in the time of emigration. Along with the recognized classics of children ’s literature of the twentieth century. Sasha Cherny stands at its origins.

«Не делать не в ее характере» (Новые материалы к биографии В. И. Икскуль фон Гилленбанд) [“She’s Not Accustomed to Staying Inactive”: New Materials Concerning the Life Story of Varvara Uexküll von Gyllenband

The article is based on a series of memoirs dedicated to a pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg socialite baroness Varvara Uexküll von Gyllenband (e.g., those of Ekaterina Letkova-Sultanova and Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik). It also specifies the date of a sculptor Prince Sergei Ukhtomsky’s (1886—1921) arrest, and makes public a previously unknown letter from Korney Chukovsky concerning the living conditions of Uexküll von Gyllenband in 1921. Keywords: 20 th -Century Russian History, Bolshevik Revolution, Varvara Uexküll von Gyllenband (1850—1928), Life Story, Russian Emigration, Soviet Terror.

The Story of a Drawing from Chukokkala Miscellany

A novel detailed analysis of a page from Chukokkala , Korney Chukovsky's handwritten miscellany with drawings by Yuri Annenkov, dated March 1923, is given. Involvement of archival sources makes up the history of the drawing creation. It turns out that Annenkov worked at the page of the miscellany and the portrait of Leo Trotsky at the same time. The analysis of the stylistic features of the drawing reconstructs the elements of the literary life of the 1920s. The study of the depicted persons clarifies the circle of friends and associates of prominent cultural figures of the first post-revolutionary decade. The article provides little-known biographical information about the characters depicted in the drawing. It specifies how Annenkov met Gorky's closest associate, the prominent public figure Albert Pinkevich. The author highlights little-known facts of friendship of A. Pinkevich, Boris Pilnyak, a Soviet writer, and the avant-garde artist Boris Shaposhnikov. The history of the creation of graphic portraits of Soviet writers made by Annenkov is considered. In conclusion, the page of the handwritten miscellany, and Chukokkala as a whole, are presented as a unique monument that captures the living passage of time.

Было ли первое чтение «Незнакомки» на Башне Вяч. Иванова?

The article is devoted to the history of creation of the poem “Unknown Lady,” written in by A. Blok April 1906 during the preparation for state exams at St. Petersburg University. Some parts of Vl. Piast’s memoirs and the correspondence of contemporaries reveal the first impressions of the poem in a narrow circle of friends. The article examines in detail Blok's reading of “Unknown Lady” in January 1907 at Blok's apartment with the presence of Vyach. Ivanov and his wife L.D. Zinovieva-Annibal, and the echo that the poem received in their work. The author of the article questions the version of Korney Chukovsky that this reading took place at the Ivanov’s Tower and that Chukovsky was personally present.

Русскоязычная детская книга 1920–30-х гг. в критике (на материале рижской межвоенной периодики)

The article represents an analysis of the Russian-language children’s book reviews published in the interwar Riga’s major Russophone press. In 1920s and 30s, children’s literature relatively rarely got the attention of newspaper reviewers. Usually, the importance of reading for Russophone youth was brought to light before upcoming holidays, e.g., Easter or Christmas. Most often critics offered reviews of the books published in the centers of Russian emigration (Berlin, Paris). Since the mid-1920s Russian émigré circles were deeply concerned about the denationalization of the younger generation and stressed the lack of efforts to distribute children’s books in “Russia Abroad”. The attitude of the Riga critics towards imported from the USSR children’s literature demonstrated chronological change: from sharply negative in the early 1920s to rather favorable at the end of the studied period. Until the the mid-1930s, the works of Soviet authors were graded by the reviewers from positions opposite to the ideology of Bolshevism; since the mid-1930s there was a gradual expansion of the recommendation lists of the Soviet children’s books in the Latvian Russophone press. Only Korney Chukovsky enjoyed the constant favor of Riga-based critics. Local Russophone authors, who wrote for children, were mostly neglected by the book reviewers of major newspapers. Objectively, this might be explained by a small amount of original content production for the Latvian Russophone children. However, such disregard by the reviewers could also contribute to the disinterest of the local Russophone writers, who settled in Riga after the exile from post-revolutionary Russia, in producing more content for children.

CREATIVE WORKS OF JOHN WILLIAM CHEEVER IN THE LITERARY-CRITICAL INTERPRETATION OF KORNEY CHUKOVSKY

The article deals with the comprehension of the features of perception of works of American prose writer John William Cheever (1912-1982) by Korney Chukovsky. The appearance of the works of J. Cheever in Russian language was accompanied by the comments of Soviet researchers who considered him to be an active propagandist of socialist ideas. Literary critical works written by Korney Chukovsky provoked a more thoughtful reading of the works of the American writer by Russian readers. Korney Chukovsky is the author of the preface to the collection of short stories written by J. Cheever in translations of Tat’yana Litvinova entitled «Giant Radio» published in 1962. In the future, this introduction, with amendments and additions, was published as an article of «John Cheever». The American writer’s work perception by Korney Chukovsky of was not unique. He criticised the fi rst collection of short stories by J. Cheever «The Way Some People Live» (1943), for his student imitation of the recognisable style of predecessor writers. Korney Chukovsky believed that the best stories of J. Cheever were collected in the book «The Enormous Radio and other stories» (1953), the central themes of which were the imperfection of the social structure and the causes that caused it social inequality of people, their spiritual devastation. Analysing the stories of J. Cheever, Korney Chukovsky noted a signifi cant detail – despite the seeming impartial attitude towards his heroes in trouble, J. Cheever empathises them, wants to draw public attention to important problems of our time.

Notes about Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin

Spanning over a decade from 1990 until 2003, the transcripts of interviews with Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin mostly deal with literary topics. I. Lisnyanskaya discusses her works and poetic methods and talks about her friends and acquaintances in the literary world. Featuring on these pages are 20th-century authors: Sergey Averintsev, Vasily Aksyonov, Bella Akhmadulina, Anna Akhmatova, Eduard Bagritsky, Andrey Bitov, Joseph Brodsky, Elena Bulgakova, Igor Vinogradov, Andrey Vosnesensky, Rasul Gamzatov, Lidia Ginsburg, Evgeny Evtushenko, Olga Ivinskaya, Yury Kublanovsky, Feliks Kuznetsov, Vladimir Maksimov, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Osip Mandelstam, Yury Nagibin, Boris Pasternak, Maria Petrovykh, Evgeny Popov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Arseny Tarkovsky, Korney Chukovsky, Anastasia Tsvetaeva, and Marina Tsvetaeva. I. Lisnyan skaya’s opinions are often biased and extremely subjective: they are interesting not despite, but because of it. Another important topic is the repercussions of publishing the Metropol almanac. The transcripts also help reconstruct the history of some of Lisyanskaya’s poems.

Creative work of Edmund John Millington Synge in literary and critical perception of Korney Chukovsky

The article considers the specifics of Korney Chukovsky’s perception of dramatic art of Edmund John Millington Synge (1871–1909), one of the greatest personalities of national revival of Ireland. Synge, who created his works in English, not only revived legends of his nation, but also expanded the idea of the Irish national originality, having offered his own vision of the image of an Irish of his time. Korney Chukovsky is the author of one of the first translations of Synge’s dramatic art into Russian (a comedy "The Playboy of the Western World") and of the introductory article to its publication in 1923. The article "Synge and His "Playboy"" reflects the Russian writer’s understanding of the moral and aesthetic questions of the play. According to Korney Chukovsky, tSynge's complex art method was formed under the influence of the ideas of revival of the national drama theatre. This direction in perception of Synge’s heritage was determinative in Russian literature and, in general, reflected the nature of the attitude of Russian cultural consciousness to the Irish playwright’s creative work.

Odessa City Spaces in Literature: «Potemkin Days» by Karmen, Jabotinsky and Chukovsky

In the revolutionary year 1905, Odessa became an area of violence in the tension of social, religious and cultural upheaval. In this year there were strikes, escalations of revolutional mood, a fire in the port after the arrival of the battleship «Knjaz´ Potemkin-Tavričeskij» («Potemkin») in the night of June 14-15. Arrival of the rebellious battleship was a significant event not only for the city of Odessa and the Russian revolution, but also for the history of the fate of Jews of the early 20th century. This was the first armed insurrection in the course of the revolution, which moved Odessa and its social, geographical and semiotic city spaces. The «Potemkin days» entered the history of the city of Odessa mainly through the periodicals of that time but also through the Russian-Jewish literature such as Lazar Karmen’s story «Potemkin Days» (1907), Korney Chukovsky’s essay «1905, June» (1958) and Vladimir Jabotinsky’s novel «The Five» (1936). These works depict not only the resulting collective violence but also its semiotic and social spaces in the city. Up until now, this field has not been investigated in any historical, cultural or literary research. The focus of this paper is to analyse geographical, social and symbolic city spaces in Odessa with the help of the space theories by Jury Lotman and Michel de Certeau. Both scholars work with the definitions of the city, the place and the space, which are significant for the selected literate works about Odessa in 1905. The analysis will show not only the ambivalence, mobility and variability of city spaces, but also the narrators expectations and thus the fate of Jews in Odessa and the perspectives in the historical processes for them — assimilation or emigration.

«В этой легкой церкви — Корней архиерей»: «сквозные» образы в поэзии К. Чуковского и его современников

«В этой легкой церкви — Корней архиерей»: «сквозные» образы в поэзии К. Чуковского и его современников

Laughing Children and Funny Children: Laughter and Early Childhood

Laughter is a significant part in the lives of children and youth. Statistically speaking, children laugh much more than adults. Our paper deals with preschool children’s laughter, the ways children laugh and make each other laugh in everyday communication, and the ways in which children of this age make adults laugh. We will look into children’s laughter, ranging from spontaneous expression and verbalization of good mood (a phenomenon that Korney Chukovsky refers to as “ekikiki”) through children’s nonsensical puns, various types of phonetic and semantic scrambling and distortion of words and phrases, euphonic games and puns to children’s jokes. We will try to show how children’s laughter-making oral literary complex (constituted of specific genres and stylistic forms) is expressed, and how this expression, mutatis mutandis, facilitates the formation of a social community of laughter of preschool children. On the other hand, preschool children, with their naive thinking, establishment of unusual and unexpected symbolic relationships and misunderstanding of social relations between adults, often make adults laugh. This phenomenon of “children’s mouths” has its reflexes in oral genres (jokes) as well as in narrative subjects and focalizers in written literature (poetry, short story, novel). narrative subject, childhood, laughter, community of laughter, children’s mouths

Russia and Europe: Dialogue of Cultures and Universal Values in Lidiya Chukovskaya’s Perception

Objectives: The article aims at understanding of images of the German world in the Notes about Anna and analyzing the correspondence with her father Korney Chukovsky and the long-term friend, the poet David Samoilov. Methods: In the methodological plan, the research relies on the works in the field of the international literary relations, cross-cultural communication, and on the researches of a creative heritage of the Chukovskys, A.A. Akhmatova, D.S. Samoilov, etc. In the course of the analysis, social and cultural, biographic, comparative and historical, comparative and typological and concrete historical methods are used. Findings: In Notes about Anna German realities arise in direct correlation with the phenomena of the Russian reality, events in public, literary and cultural life, and also with circumstances of private life of the poetess Akhmatova and her biographer Chukovskaya, such as relationship with Punin, life in evacuation in Tashkent at the beginning of the World War II. Separate responses became the result of reading works of the Russian and German writers, getting acquainted with the work of the Russian translators of German literature. The correspondence with her father in the 1920-1960s deals with the presented, bought, read books of the German writers, the judgments about Marx and Engels, Tynyanov's activity as a translator of H. Heine, the ideas connected with preparation of transposition of Reynard the Fox by Goethe for children. Chukovskaya's correspondence with Samoilov reflected mutual interest in the new edition of Ekkerman's book Talks with Goethe in Declining Years of His Life and to the correspondence of Rilke, Pasternak and Tsvetaeva published in the Issues of Literature magazine. Novelty: The circle of images of the German world comprehended by Chukovskaya is wide and multidimensional, however at the same time it is considerably focused on a concrete Russian situation.

The Foregrounding Function of Praesens Historicum in Russian Translated Adventure Narratives (20th Century)

This research focuses on the functioning of praesens historicum forms which Russian translators use to substitute for English narrative forms referring to past events. The study applies the Theory of Grounding and Russian Communicative Functional Grammar to the comparative discourse analysis of English-language adventure stories and novels created in the 19th and 20th centuries and their Russian translations. The Theory of Grounding is still not widely used in Russian translation studies, nor have its concepts and fruitful ideas been related to the achievements of Russian Narratology and Functional Grammar. This article presents an attempt to find a common basis in these academic traditions as they relate to discourse analysis and to describe the role of praesens historicum forms in Russian translated adventure narratives. The corpus includes 22 original texts and 72 Russian translations, and the case study involves six Russian translations of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, focusing on the translation made by Korney Chukovsky, who employed historic present more often than in other translations of the novel. It is shown that the translation strategy of substituting the original English-language past forms with Russian present forms is realized in foregrounded and focalized segments of the text, giving them additional saliency. This strategy relates the use of historic present to the functions of deictic words and words denoting visual or audial perception, locating the deictic center of the narrative in the spacetime of the events and allowing the reader to join the focalizing WHO (a narrator or a hero). Translations that regularly mark the foreground through the use of the historic present and accompanying lexical-grammatical means are often addressed to young readers.

Sergey Chekhonin: the sickle and the hammer or the monster cockroach (Tarakanishсhe)

A number of Soviet artists were working in 1918 on the emblem of the RSFSR that became four years later the basis for the Soviet coat of arms. Sergey Vasilievich Chekhonin was the one who gave the coat of arms and the flag of the newlyborn Russian Federation their final form. The symbol, expressive and stripped of the macabre meaning of the reality behind it, found an impeccable composition and form by virtue of one of the most virtuous and talented Russian graphics. Chekhonin’s artistic heritage has not been studied enough. The author of the article, based upon study of bibliographic rarities, illustrated and designed by Chekhonin, addresses the most important pages of the master’s creative work, studying as well the publications of the late 1910s–1920s, and diaries of that time. Chekhonin’s enthusiasm and keenness in cooperating with the new uthority, and working on Soviet emblems, bewildered his fans. The article examines hekhonin’s attitude to contemporary events in the aspect of the topic “Mir iskusstva” and the Revolution. Members of Mir iskusstva community, having sympathetically met the overthrow of the autocracy, ever since the October Revolution were ready to take an active part in the work on the protection of architectural monuments and museum treasures, on improving artistic pedagogy, publishing and theater business. However, their enthusiasm soon gave way to a feeling of anxiety and frustration. In the mid-1920s, many of Mir iskusstva members found themselves abroad. Chekhonin was no exception. The artist developed critical and skeptical mood, most fully manifested in his illustrations to The Monster Cockroach, a famous fable in verse by Korney Chukovsky. Analyzing the text of The Cockroach and comparing it with other fables by Chukovsky, as well as with the diary entries of the writer, the author of the article argues that The Cockroach was not addressed exclusively to children. It is not by chance that the image of a ‘monster cockroach’ also appeared in the ominous poem by Osip Mandelstam (Tarakan’i smeyutsya glazishcha i sverkayut yego golenishcha… (“The Cockroach’s eyes are laughing, and the shafts of his boots are shining...”)); further on, in the famous play by Evgeny Shvarts, the Cockroach grew to the size of a giant dragon. Chekhonin undoubtedly caught an adult intonation of Chukovsky’s fables; his illustrations to it became a kind of an alternative to the official Soviet heraldry created by him.

Латентний атеїзм дитячої літератури радянського часу

The article treats the status of the change of aesthetic general cultural paradigm in the period of socialist realism, which raises as completed phenomenon and is interpreted as a version of popular culture (Tatiana Sverbilova), or “artistic force field” (Leonid Geller, Antoine Bodin) with the kitsch basis of the “politicization of aesthetics” (Tamara Hundorova), on the basis of their respective ideological party resolutions of Soviet times. The confrontation with social realism with the modernism and avant-garde (Dmitry Zatonsky) is accentuated. Maria Litovska notices that in totally-ideological tendency of art when the child has acquired the status of State property, her consciousness through literature was formed in perspective of latent atheism. Literature was changed into “long-term propaganda element” (Andrei Fateev). As a result, the range of texts of children’s literature suffered from the ideological, thematic and genre compression, those “atheistic times” the “atheists union” generated a faith in the original “worshipping” of Joseph Stalin. Party strategy of socialist realism began its practice actively and rigidly, basing on literature for children, which suffered not only from the compression of the genre spectrum of texts, but also from the selection of the necessary to a child themes, motifs, images. This children’s literature lost not only its creative originality, but also a thinking recipient. It became a powerful tool of total ideologization of society, by its world outlook program, first of all, depriving the younger generation of faith in God. The poem by Eduard Bagritsky “Death of Pioneer” is analyzed as a typical example of such an ideologization. The poem was based on real events, the renunciation of God appears highest feat. In Soviet times, from the position of former ideological platform, the poem has received extremely appreciation. The heroization of the image of the dying Valentina in the times of socialist realism has contributed to strengthening in the consciousness of recipients her implicit atheistic faith. The suggestive resource of the text is reinforced by phonetic and syntactic repetitions: alliterations, anaphoras, lexical repetitions, variated duplicate address of the girl’s name, parallelisms, as well as a number of rhetorical questions and calls. Bravura pathos of trochee trimeter poem “Youth Guided Us”, which became the famous song, tragically contrasts with the suffering of girl’s mother. Despite the fact that the ideology of socialist realism aspired to “sterilize” the author’s consciousness of the religious dominants in the case of other children’s classics – Agniya Barto, Samuil Marshak, Nicholay Nossov, Korney Chukovsky, refusing to accept the principles of the method, especially total atheism, deviation from the Soviet standard of art for children, provided their lyrics (of course, along with high artistic value and diversification), by the ability to move from contemporaneity to the space of “great time”.

Korney Chukovsky in Britain

Korney Chukovsky is a neglected figure in the story of the British reception of Russian literature. This essay attempts to recover his place in the complex networks of translation, criticism, and interpretation in the twentieth century by examining his three visits to Britain (1903-4, 1916, and 1962), his activities as an intermediary for British writers in Russia, and the British dissemination of his literary criticism.In his alternate guises as indigent newspaper correspondent, feted member of a wartime delegation, and recipient of an Oxford honorary doctorate, Chukovsky came to be both a key contributor to and a keen observer of British perceptions of Russian literature.