Leonid Andreev Research Articles

Lu Xun’s Heteromodal Realism

Abstract This article posits modern Chinese realism as heteromodal, capable of encompassing many modes of narration from a plurality of literary movements. Heteromodality results from the heterochronic Chinese importation of Western literary history, the simultaneous reception of what were originally successive historical periods. The fountainhead of heteromodal Chinese realism is Lu Xun’s 1918 “Diary of a Madman,” one of the first modern vernacular Chinese short stories. Though Lu Xun has long been considered a foundational writer of realism in China, critics have complicated this designation by pointing out his modernist or symbolist proclivities. This article redefines Lu Xun’s realism by enlarging the scope of inquiry beyond “Diary” itself to scrutinize its main Russian intertexts: Nikolai Gogol’s 1835 story “Diary of a Madman” and Leonid Andreev’s 1904 novella Red Laugh. Examining the elements that Lu Xun’s story cannibalizes from Russian intertexts, which have themselves defied straightforward categorizations such as realism, the article intervenes in long-standing discussions about the nature of realism in modern China and, more broadly, in recent conversations about peripheral realism.

Исповедальное слово в прозе Л. Андреева (рассказ «Мысль» и повесть «Мои записки»)

This paper examines the role of confessional discourse in Leonid Andreev’s “Thought” and “My Notes.” In these works, confession not only serves as a significant narrative device that creates a particular mode of psychological reality. It is also directly related to the interpretation of the meaning of the stories. On the one hand, the confessional intention presented in the texts shows the struggle to gain self-knowledge and the urgency of overcoming the isolation of one’s existence. On the other hand, it does not lead to the discovery of truth and only unveils its elusive quality. With a particular focus on the representation of existential consciousness and the realization of the poetics of play, this study examines, among others, the principle of dialogism and the significance of paratextual elements. The paper argues that the desire for selfdisclosure reflected in “Thought” and “My Notes” reveals the paradoxical nature of the confessional narrative, which is transformed into a certain kind of play, leading to selfdeception and the fictitious construction of identity.

An Object In Between

By interrogating how the original composition and textual reincarnations of Lu Xun's “Diary of a Madman” manifest his idea of an “object in between,” this article celebrates an intertextual event in world literature. It traces how Lu Xun's “Diary of a Madman” came into being in conversation with preexisting literary creations and how the intertextual recasting of Lu Xun's story both within and beyond the Sinophone world incorporates postcolonial contexts and recent cyberculture. The intertextuality not only calls for a dynamic negotiation with Lu Xun's “Diary of a Madman” but also involves unexpected engagement with the literary antecedents to Lu Xun's work. By examining the transculturation of cannibalism and insanity in the works of Lu Xun, Liang Wern Fook, Ōe Kenzaburō, and Leonid Andreev, among others, this article reveals how “Diary of a Madman” as an object in between projects a vision of a future that resists the pressures of historical impasse.

BINARY OPPOSITIONS IN LEONID ANDREEV’S CHRISTMAS STORY “ANGELOCHEK”

The article analyzes the story “Angelochek” (“The Little Angel”), which has an important place in the creativе work of Leonid Andreev, and is included in the school curriculum, where its plot is considered within the framework of the established literary approach to the Christmas story. Most of the researchers note the changes that occurred to the boy after his meeting with the angel, and believe that the Christmas miracle did happen, positively affecting Sashka’s life. The authors of this work propose a different approach to the story: binary oppositions (living-inanimate, truth-lie, real-fake, friend-alien, man-beast, earth-sky, etc.) are revealed, reflecting the ambivalence of the writer’s view of the problem; onomastic units, which, being part of symbolic and autobiographical contexts, make it possible to clarify the intent of the work, are considered. The plot of the story is autobiographical (the angel, once removed by the future writer from the Christmas tree and placed on the stove, melts), but the main character is now a boy from a poor family who goes to celebrate the holiday to the rich patrons, the Svechnikovs. The space of the Svechnikov house is ambivalent: for the father it is a symbol of lost paradise, and for the son it is the habitat of devils, because the Christmas symbols filling the house are fake. Acquisition of humanity through the rebirth of the soul is the most significant theme of the story, realized through the “man-beast” opposition. Sashka’s family is inscribed in the zoomorphic code of the text of the story. Possessing the angel creates a feeling of “human happiness,” which results in the elimination of the animal element in the boy’s image. However, the memory of his father, who is part of the anti-house, brings Sashka’s animal appearance back. The “iving-inanimate” opposition sets the parameters of Sashka’s fate, for whom “non-life” is the only possible way out of the cycle of meaningless existence. The hope for the rebirth of the boy’s soul is illusory (the opposition is “real-fake”). By the end of the story, the motifs of gravity and immersion in the abyss are intensified: the personification of salvation — a melted angel with dragonfly wings — falls to the floor at the end of Christmas. A cockroach that is unable to fly now becomes the symbol of substitution. The illusory nature of hopes is confirmed by the chronotope of the story. Christmas breaks the cycle of existence and introduces the boy to the circle of eternity, but the striking of the clock brings the heroes back to earth and accelerates their biological time. The image of the “frozen water carrier” in the story’s finale is a symbol of the return of cyclicity to the child’s life and a sign that the revival did not take place.

Голос Шаляпина как феномен в вокальном искусстве

February 13, 2023, is the 150th anniversary of the birth of the phenomenal opera singer, worldfamous bass Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (1873-1938). Chaliapin’s voice is an undeniable phenomenon in the world vocal art. It was comparable to a Stradivarius violin in its uniqueness and flight. It is the art of intonational reincarnation, subtle work of conveying the psychological characters of heroes. His scale went beyond the scope of one vocal art, because he was also a brilliant actor, sculptor, painter and wrote superbly. The latter is evidenced by his correspondence and friendship with the writer Maxim Gorky. The genius of the performer was confirmed by the rave reviews of both his contemporaries: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Leonid Andreev, and an extensive list of research literature that problematized the phenomenon of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. This is a great art that we will have to study and learn from the great bass for a long time to come.

«Дочь писателя»: женская идентичность в автобиографической прозе В. Л. Андреевой

The paper explores the female identity in the autobiographical prose by Vera Leonidovna Andreeva (1910–1986), daughter of the famous writer Leonid Andreev. The materials for the study are the story “The House on the Black River” and the novel “Echo of the Past”. Firstly, we examine the process of gender identification in the writer’s childhood, which was determined by her growing up and communicating with peers and relatives. Further, we research the formation of female subjectivity during the emigration, under conditions of intercultural interaction, adaptation to foreign cultures, collision with local stereotypes. Important factors for the gender self-determination of the writer are the image of her mother and communication with representatives of the Russian diaspora, including Sasha Chorny, Marina Tsvetaeva, Alexander Vertinsky etc. The reflections of the modern era are the writer's attempts to master women's professions, the circle of which was still quite narrow. Finally, by the example of Vera Leonidovna Andreeva, the paper focuses on the phenomenon of the “writer's daughter”, which often affected the attitude of other people towards the narrator and, of course, influenced the formation of her writing talent.

British and American Reception of The Red Laugh by Leonid Andreev

The article deals with the English-language reception of The Red Laugh , one of the most well-known of Leonid Andreev’s texts both in Russia and abroad. As the examples of this reception, a number of newspaper and magazine publications, memoirs, translators’ prefaces, and works of fiction are analyzed. There exist several waves of interest in Andreev’s story. They could be explained either by the appearance of new translations or by significant historic events of the time (the Russian Revolution, World Wars I and II). Andreev’s critics in Britain and America place his story in a variety of contexts - historical, social, cultural, and literary. Some literary parallels are quite expected and seem to come from Russian sources (parallels with Gorky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Turgenev), others are completely original and ‘indigenous’ to Britain and America (commentators of Andreev’s text see its resemblance with the horror and “weird” fiction of Poe, Hawthorne, Henry James, as well as with some works of war fiction, such as The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane). A wide spectrum of characteristics is given to the author of The Red Laugh ; he is perceived as a realist, expressionist, an author of horror and weird fiction, a symbolist, and a decadent.

Figurative and stylistic features of judicial thinking in Leonid Andreev’s prose

The paper aims to describe the impact of judicial thinking on the style and imagery of L. Andreev’s prose. The research provides a theoretical interpretation of such central symbol-metaphors related to judicial issues as court, sentence, defence, and prosecution. The study draws parallels between the writer’s biography and the existential themes which L. Andreev reproduces in his writings by applying specialised terminology to metaphysical problems. To identify the above-mentioned parallels, traditional literary analysis is employed. It aims to generalise the writer’s aesthetic views on literature in the light of the judicial peculiarities of his thinking. Particular attention is directed to the influence of judicial stylistics on the poetics of L. Andreev’s writings. As a result, the application of linguostylistic analysis (aimed mainly at examining the lexical and syntactic structure of L. Andreev’s texts) enables the author of the paper to conclude that there is a sudden reorientation of the writer’s artistic strategy. L. Andreev replaced the rhetorical expressionist impact on the reader’s mind with the sharp, abrupt syntax of the story "The Seven Who Were Hanged". The form of judicial rhetoric manifestation also changed. The author substituted the deliberately monotonous stringing of "formulae-sentences" for the ornamental suggestion of the previously used techniques. The concise and compressed bare phrase became the method of conveying the author’s marked tendency that is indicative of the enormity of executions. The methods of statistical calculation and the linguostylistic analysis of excerpts from the short story "The Seven Who Were Hanged" were used to reinforce the derived conclusions. Additionally, theoretical material which helps to comprehend the specific features of courtroom prosecution speeches with regard to L. Andreev’s texts is analysed. The literary generalisations provided in the paper can be used in Russian language and literature lessons.

The conceptual and denotative aspect and its artistic realisation in Leonid Andreev’s short story <i>Lazarus [Eleazar]</i>

L. Andreev’s short story Lazarus [Eleazar] deals with death. Having returned with the knowledge of Death, the resurrected Lazarus becomes a Shadow of himself, or the Shadow he experienced There. The publication of Andreev’s Lazarus in 1906 unleashed a heated polemic in the press. Critics tended to see Lazarus in a negative light. The article outlines the opinions of the authors who participated in the discussion of the concept and contents of Lazarus: Z. Gippius, M. Gorky, M. Voloshin, and A. Lunacharsky, among others. The existential dichotomy of life and death offers a key to unlock the secret of the story. The protagonist, familiar with death, refuses to divulge the mystery of the divine revelation: to the world of the living, death shall remain a mystery. Andreev’s oeuvre was always dominated by matters of life and death. Lazarus’ borderline and existential mood is exaggerated to the absurd. The writer perceives death as the sole purpose of life and its metaphysical meaning.

A Child in Soul, an Executioner by Fate? (review on the premiere performance of “The Story of the Seven” based on Leonid Andreev᾿s “The Story of the Seven Who were Hanged”)

The review is a detailed analysis of the premiere performance “The Story of the Seven”, based on the “The Story of the Seven Who were Hanged” by Leonid Andreev directed by Ivan Komarov on the “Other” Stage of the Sovremennik Theater at the end of 2021. The author of the review focused on the problem of “translating” the epic work into the language of drama. Particular attention is paid to the “key” moments of the prose text, which became an impulse for the director, pushing him to the figurative embodiment of the word. A comparison of the composition of Andreev’s story with the compositional solution of the play is made. It also is pointed to a particular expressionism of the stage performance, which does not coincide with the stylistic of Andreev’s expressionism, which shows the freshness and originality of the director’s and actors’ approach.

Письма Леонида Андреева к Зинаиде Сибилевой. Часть 2 (1892, 1902)

This is the first complete publication of Leonid Andreev's letters to his first lover, Zinaida Nikolaevna Sibileva. The course of their relationship between 1889 and 1892 was stormy and very uneven. The letters reveal many previously unknown features of Andreev's life as a schoolboy and student. But they are more important for what might be called the diary of their writer's “inner states” reflected in them, the stream of his complex, sometimes “liminal” psychological experiences. Accepting (on Maupassant's authority) that letters illuminate someone's personality more clearly, that they “expose the soul without any embellishments”, Andreev nevertheless regarded his epistolary output (as well as his diaries) as a kind of exercise in creative writing.

Linguostilistic analysis of the short story by Leonid Andreev "Petka at the Dacha" (to the 150th anniversary of the birth)

The paper attempts to perform philological commenting on one of the most well-known Leonid Andreev’s short stories "Petka at the Dacha". Linguostylistic analysis enabled the author to discuss the specific features of the images of time, space and the characters in their language representation. The system of the conceptual oppositions "non-childhood – childhood", "dirty – clean", "gloomy – light", "dead – alive", "slow – fast", "ignorance – awareness", "existence – life" is the centrepiece of the inner text composition. The description of the boy’s behaviour, his relationships with those around him and the changes in his inner world creates the basic opposition of the two spheres in the protagonist’s life – "childhood" versus "non-childhood". Shifting viewpoints, subjectivation of the author’s speech and the use of imperfect predicates are important for the narrative structure organisation. Studying the key images of the work and comparing the elements which comprise its circular plot structure (the introduction and ending) allow the author to conclude that the ending strikes an optimistic note and generates a life-asserting pathos.

On the Issue of Literary Reputation and the Role of the Media in Its Formation (Based on the Prose of Leonid Andreev)

This article examines the problem of literary reputation, which is urgent for today’s literary science, in the context of modern reputation theory. Among the many aspects that together create a public image of the writer, the main focus is on the role of the media. Based on the analysis of the reception of one of the characteristic works, it is shown how the modern contributed to the creation of the “phenomenon” of Leonid Andreev.

The Plot of Leonid Andreevʼs “The Abyss” as a Bifurcation in a Literary Work?

The article analyses the development of the plot of the story by Leonid Andreev “The Abyss”, paying particular attention to the changes taking place in the internal structure of the “self” of the main character of the story, understood as a non-equilibrium system. A number of external impulses, initiated from the outside, causes gradually so powerful fluctuations that the character’s “self” undergoes a process of restructuring, which reveals until then hidden, unknown, primitive composite only partly overlaid by cultural memes.

«Русские — скитальцы нашей эпохи»: воспоминания о детстве внучки Леонида Андреева

The article is a review of the childhood memories' book by Leonid Andreev's granddaughter O. Andreeva-Carlisle — the novella “An Island for Life,” first translated (by L. Shenderova-Fock) into Russian from English and French, the languages of the first publications. In the novel, the author recreates the five-year period (1939–1945) of her family's stay on the island of Oleron, occupied by the Nazis, reconstructs the “Russian world” of the diaspora, created by reading books, socializing with compatriots (G. Fedotov, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Remizov, etc.), and ardent interest in Russia. The review analyzes the genre of the book, which combines fidelity to fact with fictionalization of documentary material in the spirit of a girly story; it also reveals the “book code,” allowing the author to romanticize the narrative and present the events of the Resistance, in which the family was included, in an adventurous manner. It is demonstrated that the depicted events and the atmosphere in the village of Saint-Denis on the ocean coast are associated in the book with the artistic world of E.A. Poe, read aloud to the children by their father, Vadim, who lived as a child in Finland in a house on the Black River. The image of the author’s famous grandfather, the Russian writer Leonid Andreev, recreated from the stories, also merges with the notion of the American romantic Poe. The portrait of Leonid Andreev in the book appears mythologized, refracted by the prism of perception of his son Vadim and determined by the literary reputation of the writer himself.

Э. фон Гартман и Л. Н. Андреев: переклички двух пессимизмов. Статья 1

This article discusses the infl uence of Eduard von Hartmann’s philosophy on Leonid Andreev’s worldview and creative writing. It introduces new evidence from the holdings of the Leeds Russian Archive (Great Britain), extracts from Andreev’s school diary related to von Hartmann’s The Philosophy of the Unconscious.

Итальянские масоны и русское революционное движение: история Всеволода Лебединцева (о прототипе героя «Рассказа о семи повешенных»)

The Archives of A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences keep a record of the lecture of the Italian freemason, writer and journalist Arrigo Rizzini “Ideas and Dramas of Maxim Gorky,” read on March 13, 1903 at a meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Circle of the University of Rome. Rizzini prefaced the recordings of the lecture on the Gorky's work with an unexpected dedication: “I dedicate with brotherly love to Maria Feliksovna Zelenskaya and Vsevolod Vladimirovich Lebedintsev.” This early dedication reveals a very important, but little-known page in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement — its connection with Italian Masons and the secret assistance of Italian Masonic organizations to Russian emigrant revolutionaries. The story of V. Lebedintsev is well known, in particular, thanks to the story of Leonid Andreev “The Tale of the Seven Hanged,” where Lebedintsev was bred under the name of Werner. However, Lebedintsev’s connection with Italian Freemasons has so far remained out of sight of Russian researchers. The well-known fact of the execution of a militant Social Revolutionary under the name of the Italian Mario Calvino sheds light on the rather large-scale and effective activities of Italian Masons to legalize Russian revolutionaries in Russia and in Europe by providing them with passports of members of Masonic lodges (just in 1907 more than 100 passports were handed over, according to the results investigation by the Italian Ministry of the Interior). Masons, who were opponents of violent actions, saw in Russian revolutionaries, first of all, victims of autocracy and fighters for civil society, and not terrorists, as the case of M. Calvino testifies.

Письма Леонида Андреева к Зинаиде Сибилевой. Часть первая (1890–1891)

This is the first complete publication of Leonid Andreev’s letters to his first lover, Zinaida Nikolaevna Sibileva. The course of their relationships between 1889 and 1892 was stormy and very uneven. The letters reveal a lot of previously unknown features of Andreev’s life as a schoolboy and student. But more important is a certain diary of writer’s “mental states” reflected in them, the stream of his complex, sometimes “borderline” psychological experiences. Believing (with a reference to the authority of Maupassant) that the letters most accurately highlight the personality of a person, that they “reveal the soul without any embellishment,” Andreev at the same time regarded his epistolary opuses (as well as his diaries) as a kind of writing exercise.

Мои встречи и переписка с Еленой Александровной Полевицкой (1958–1968). В.Н. Чувакова

The published diary entries of the famous literary critic and bibliographer V.N. Chuvakov are devoted to his meetings with the actress E.A. Polevitskaya in 1958–1961. In the text there is an image of an actress who was extremely popular in the 1910s, who had a long and difficult creative path, but still needed theater and acting. From Polevitskaya’s memoirs about her theatrical activity and about the theater of the early 20th century Chuvakov builds the main plot for him, associated with the name of Leonid Andreev. Fragmentary, inconsistent, but vivid, the actress’ memories about her creative relationships and personal meetings with Andreev complement our ideas about the writer, bring new shades to the picture of theatrical and artistic life of the early 20th century. The publication includes a letter from Polevitskaya to prof. K.I. Platonov, the author of a “forensic psychopathological study” on Andreev’s play “Ekaterina Ivanovna.” In the letter, the actress expounds her original, deep interpretation of the image of the mysterious and attractive Ekaterina Ivanovna and the motivation for her actions. Chuvakov's notes create an idea of Polevitskaya as an actress, capable of seriously, analytically approaching work on the role, delving deeply into the author's intention, which makes the diary's author's conclusion reasonable: Polevitskaya is the best Ekaterina Ivanovna (the heroine of Andreev's play).

Leonid Andreev’s Metaprose: Poetics and Conceptual Basis

The article proposes a typology of metatexts by Leonid Andreev, summarizes the study of his feuilletons, letters, diaries and fiction of the 1890-1900s. With this in mind, the specifics of the poetics and the conceptual basis of the metatexts of the writer of the 1910s - Letters About the Theater in the context of his dramas, “panpsychic dramas”, “one-act little comedies”, short stories of the 1910s and the final myth novel The Diary of Satan are characterized. An important genre-forming and conceptual role of artistic imagery in the Letters on the Theater (intertextuality, metaphors, irony, paradox, etc.), characteristic of his prose and dramaturgy of this period, is shown. It is revealed that the metaphors in Letters on the Theater sought to fulfill the functions of concepts, but being artistic images at the same time, they were characterized by semantic ambiguity, which created an opportunity for different interpretations of what was said. Therefore, the interpretation of the “panpsychic “panpsychic theory in the Letters on the Theater is still ambiguous. In turn, the artworks of the writer of the 1910s were characterized by metatextuality. Andreev’s ironic short stories (Donkeys, Herman and Martha, Cuckolds, Suitcases, etc.), his “one-act little comedies” (Love for the Neighbor, Honor (The Old Count), Beautiful Sabine Women, Horse in the Senate, Monument, etc.) and the myth-novel Satan's Diary are characterized as meta-text, which reflected Andreev’s views on the “old”, Shakespearean, and “new” drama, debates about the creation of which were conducted at the beginning of the twentieth century . In the dramas of the 1910s (Ekaterina Ivanovna, Thought, Samson in Shackles, Requiem, etc.), the theory of the “panpsychic” theater was tested, and concrete forms of the embodiment of the conflict not generated by primary passions (hunger, love, ambition, etc.), but by human thought in its suffering, joy and struggle, were sought.