Literary Associations Research Articles

Hebel and Tolstoy. Towards the problem of the characteristic genre features of Leo Tolstoy's stories for children

The article considers a possible influence of J. P. Hebel's works on Leo Tolstoy's stories for children. The author compares and contrasts the two writer's approaches to their genre of choice: the didactic, and entertaining literature. Noted are matching plots used by both, as well as stylistic and narrative differences. The scholar elaborates on the extent to which Tolstoy was familiar with Hebel's works and examines Tolstoy's ‘stories for children' in comparison with the religious and moralistic ‘stories for the people' he produced in later life. His works for younger audiences could have only resulted from Tolstoy's artistic assimilation of Hebel's experience. They are viewed as a sequel to the Treasure Chest of the Family Friend from the Rhine [Schatzkastlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes] inspired by Russian realia. The article describes the ways in which Tolstoy further developed the traditions of the ‘calendar/almanac stories.' Hebel's Russia-themed works are analysed in the context of Russo-German literary ties since the German writer followed Russian events with keen interest.

К ВОПРОСУ О ФАУСТОВСКОЙ ТОПИКЕ В «ПОЛНОЧНЫХ СТИХАХ» АННЫ АХМАТОВОЙ

This essay examines Anna Akhmatova’s lyric cycle “Midnight Poems” (“Polnochnye stikhi”, 1963–1965) as a textual space where Faustian motifs and allusions intersect with Shakespearean and other intertexts associated with erotic, oneiric, and thanatological motifs. It explores the polygenic nature of the “Midnight Poems” cycle, in which Goethe’s “Faust” (as well as texts by Valery, Eliot, Annensky, Pasternak and others) became for Akhmatova one of those “filters” of world literature, through which themes and images of Shakespeare got into her poetry. The context of the interpretation is also broadened by introduction of selected writings from Akhmatova’s notebooks and lyrics, where Goethe’s characters appear (for example, Goethe’s Margaret as one of the “mirrors” of Akhmatova’s lyrical heroine; the selected Christian topics of “Faust”, etc.). In this way, the direction of a comparative analysis of Akhmatova’s cycle in the context of Russian-German literary ties is outlined.

THE CONCEPT OF TRANSL THE CONCEPT OF TRANSLATION AND PRA TION AND PRAGMATICS

Background. Translation is a powerful tool that serves the interests of friendship, brotherhood and cooperation between peoples, the expansion of economic, political, scientific, cultural and literary ties between them [10, 29]. Translation accelerates the process of interaction and interaction between the literatures of different peoples. Thanks to the translated works, readers will enjoy the masterpieces of world literature, their aesthetic sense will increase, their tastes will grow, and they will have an idea about beautiful things. Translation, as a necessary tool for the development of languages, accelerates their development, increases and improves the richness of vocabulary. Translation enriches a person's spiritual life, expands the possibilities of the native language, enriches it. Methods. A comparative study of the means of different languages to create a translational consistency requires the identification of the aesthetic specificity of the literary text, the methodological and pragmatic features of its material-logical, emotionally expressive and figurative elements, and the stylistic basis.

On The Question Of The History Formation Of Uzbek-German Literary And Cultural Relations (1960-1975)

The productive value of a literary work depends on its functioning. The very development of national literatures is impossible without interrelationships with other literatures, mutual influence and mutual redemption, the study of interethnic literary contacts has acquired special significance and relevance. Literary ties between Uzbekistan and Germany have their own history and interesting facets of modern interaction. German fiction is well known in Uzbekistan. The interaction and relationship of literatures are associated with the cultural and economic interaction of peoples.

Horizontes Comerciais, Políticos e Literários na Imprensa de Floriano Entre os Anos de 1902 e 1921

The first twenty years of the 20th century were of great transformation to the city of Floriano, considered, at the time, one of the active hubs of the import-export trade in the state of Piauí, in the hinterland of Brazil. In this historical context, journalistic and literary journalism emerged and witnessed the changes in habits of its society, which was witnessing the arrival of modern airs. Favorable to this transformation, the commercial and political conjunctures operated by the Republican Party, especially between the years 1916 and 1924, were responsible for forming in town one of the significant literary circuits of the state and, consequently, as if it had been experienced in newsrooms of newspapers and literary associations, cultural environment such as theater, cinema and clubs – evidence of a relatively active literary life. This article analyzes these changes and their resistance, starting in 1902, when the first periodical was founded in the city, in 1921, the end of the first phase of the most important newspaper of the period, O Popular.

«Чинари» в дневниках М. Кузмина

The paper presents selected records from Mikhail Kuzmin’s diary that deal with – directly or indirectly – Daniil Kharms and his literary associates since the first mentioning of “mystic-futurist Vvedensky” on March 16, 1924, and up to the arrest of Kharms and Vvedensky in “Gosizdat Juvenile Sector case” in December 1931. The records reveal lots of new biographical facts and aspects of literary life of the time. The publication is provided with the necessary commentary and the introductory article that recreates the background of Kuzmin’s relations with “Chinary” and later with OBERIU in the context of Leningrad culture of the late 1920s-early 1930s. A special attention is paid to the writers of “Kuzmin circle” that had personal relationships with Vvedensky and Kharms.

Graphic “Diaries” by Victor Zamirailo in the context of poetics of the symbolist artist`s work

The paper aims to analyze the creative “laboratory” of a talented symbolist artist Viktor Dmitrievich Zamirailo, whose art is associated with the development of original features of Russian modernism. Due to the tragic circumstances caused by Soviet ideology, as well as the irrational nature of poetics of the master’s work, Zamirailo’s legacy is poorly studied, but extremely rich in literary and philosophical associations, at the turn of the 20th century. His imaginative world, full of chivalry dreaminess, allows revealing internal (spiritual) sources of the formation of an idealistic system of symbolist thinking, which found its original reflection in the works of such aesthetically close to Zamirailo contemporaries as M. A. Vrubel, A. N. Benoit et al. The paper focuses on the albums with sketches by the master from the collection of the State Russian Museum, unique in their creative potential, for the first time analyzed by the author. Albums allow us to comprehend the individual logic of the Zamirailo iconographic system, as well as to understand the general laws of the fantasy of imaginative illusions of symbolist artists.

Литературный центр конструктивистов на пути в РАПП (К истории литературной жизни рубежа 1920–1930-х гг.)

The article examines one of the episodes of the literary struggle of the late 1920s — early 1930s — the history of the entry of the Literary Center of Constructivists (LCC) into the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP). At the beginning of 1930, almost all literary groups and associations faced the need to define a new level of interaction with RAPP. LCC, as one of the literary groups closest to RAPP, seemed to have all the prerequisites for a successful association with the RAPP. But in reality, this did not happen. Members of RAPP are suspicious of constructivists; attacks at LCC are becoming more frequent in the press. Always considered a left-wing association, LLC is declared a petty-bourgeois group, with which, despite its disbandment, an irreconcilable struggle is required. This article bears upon not only the periodicals of 1930 but also and mainly upon the hitherto unstudied transcripts and other archival documents of RAPP. New archival materials reveal internal processes of the literary struggle at the turn of the decade, and make it possible to demonstrate how, even after the acceptance of the Constructivists by RAPP, the former continue to be perceived as a hostile group whose past was to always blame them.

Особенности раннего периода развития бурят-монгольской литературы

The article examines the genesis of Buryat literature, which is key to the modern literary studies of Buryatia. Its aim is to recreate the history of Buryat literature and place it in the cultural and philosophical context of the history of Mongolian ethnos. It is well known that the genesis of Buryat literature owes to the literary work as well as to the theoretical and literary research of the first Buryat scholars and writers from among the Buddhist clergy. The search, introduction, and study of literary works written by Buryat authors in the 18 th — early 20 th centuries is one of the relevant research tasks that opens new perspectives for modern Buryat literary criticism and for humanities in general. The emergence and development of Buryat literature is closely connected with the spread of Buddhist culture, the Buddhist vision of the world, therefore it should be studied in the context of Buddhist aesthetic thought. The article pays special attention to the literary history of Mongolians that, since the 13 th century, has been developing in the context of multilateral literary ties and contacts. It examines the following typical genres: travelogue, hagiographic, hymn poetry, subhashita, and poem.

“A certain expansion of cooperation is planned”: A view of the Yugoslav diplomacy on Yugoslav-Soviet literary exchange. 1961–1964

Relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR in 1961–1964 differed for the better in comparison with the previous period. Intensive cooperation in the field of culture and literature characterized those years. The article traces the activities of Yugoslav diplomats in maintaining literary ties between Yugoslavia and the USSR. Yugoslav diplomats, in negotiations with their Soviet colleagues, publishers and editors of magazines, presented their country’s literature as a reflection of the current state policy of Yugoslavia. According to the reports of the embassy, Soviet partners were unofficially recommended to publish contemporary Yugoslav works. By encouraging Soviet publishers to negotiate directly with Yugoslav writers and their union, which was more competent in matters of literature, the embassy tried to present the matter as if the state in Yugoslavia did not interfere in the activities of independent creative associations. An exhibition of Yugoslav books, including political ones, organized in the USSR, was supposed to present the Yugoslav path to socialism. The mutual trips of the writers demonstrated the closeness and friendship of the two countries. The Yugoslav diplomats were faced with the task of maintaining positive relations between Belgrade and Moscow through interaction with Soviet partners, on the one hand, and with Yugoslav publishers and the Writers’ Union, on the other. It was necessary to prevent cultural contradictions that could darken bilateral political relations. This instrumentalization of culture, reflected in diplomatic reports, demonstrates that despite the public demonstration of the differences between Yugoslavia and the USSR, in practice, both states had a similar approach to culture policies.

The Circulation of Sciences in Europe, or Peter the Great’s ‘Greek project

In his famous speech of 1714, Peter I depicts Europe as a single organism with Greece as its heart: it is from here that “the sciences,” like blood, once flowed and along the homeward path they run, having first gained a firm foothold in Russia. The18th century perceived this comparison as a real political program: the similarity was supposed to imply that the European culture should be brought back to Greece on Russian bayonets. This rendering was born with the utopian “Greek project” of Catherine II and lasted until the end of the century. Neither confirming nor contradicting it, the 19th century prefers to see in Peter’s words pride in the successes of the Russian enlightenment which was introduced during the two decades of his reformist activity. The 20th century, burdened with the baggage of literary associations, interprets this image as commonplace for baroque rhetoric, a routine metaphor for translatio studii with little or no actual political meaning. Undoubtedly authentic, transmitted by several early witnesses, the speech became part of the ‘Petrine myth,’ but, surprisingly enough, was never the subject of critical source analysis. Thus, its historical context and intended meaning remained largely obscured. A comparative study leads to the conclusion that all its renderings originated from a common literary source. The archetypal version was that of F. Chr. Weber, while the other variants are more or less remote copies containing deliberate amendments. A closer look at the relevant paragraphs of Weber’s notes reveals the true pathos of the speech. Peter’s rhetoric, prompted by his immediate concerns, boils down to an admiration for the culture of Western Europeans. The historical context clarifies what motivates the central image of the simile — Greece as the heart of European enlightenment: shortly before the episode, the tsar was treated to a Greek speech delivered by the six-year-old son of the learned Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir who was one of Peter’s principal allies.

Soviet “Defense Literature” of the Early 1930s and (Anti)colonialism: Literary Formation of the New Ideology

The article deals with the problem of Soviet propaganda in literature, specifically with the combination of anticolonial and defense aspects. The Literary Association of Red Army and Navy was the main organization introducing defense theme into Soviet literary discourse. The Association issued a journal named LOKAF, which had to make all literature “defense literature”. This term was invented by the members of the Association themselves. Soviet propaganda of the interwar period had a special interest in making the reader believe that the new war was inevitable because of the “imperialistic” ambitions of foreign governments. This aspect was also realized in conjunction of defense and colonial topics. This conjunction provided specific patterns of literary discourse. The authors developed specific strategies in order to follow this point of view. They combined their original field of literary interest (such as Soviet Central Asia or marine theme) with anti-colonial discourse in different ways. Literary reviews also integrated colonial patterns into defense literature in order to show that issues of colonialism were defense issues too. The reader had to learn that Soviet politics was anti-colonial. Defense literature aimed to legitimize Soviet politics, both external and internal.

Сон в прозе Гайто Газданова как литературная проблема

We highlight the problem of dream in the poetics of G. Gazdanov’s prose. We consider dream from the perspective of creativity pragmatics, self-knowledge and its role in the architectonics of the text. We trace the dynamics of the development of the artistic dream representation as an intertextual phenomenon. In the light of literary associations with the works of A.S. Pushkin, F.M. Dostoevsky and E. Poe, dream in G. Gazdanov’s works is defined as the development of the mythologeme Narcissus in the interpretation of A. Gide in the homonymous essay. We analyze the convergence of the dream theme and delusiveness of the real world and the oniric divinology’s influence on the narrative as a whole. The anarrative elements of metanarrative that undermine the evidence of events are described as a system of opposing the current situation to eternity. The author’s position in the novels related to the Civil War and emigration is considered in terms of M.M. Bakhtin’s work “Toward a Philosophy of the Act”. The author’s “outsideness” to the every-day world, delimiting the inverted world of violence from culture, is manifested as “different” to the narrated world. The dream appears as the universals not only in terms of the poetics of possible fictional worlds, but also as a totality in the characters’ development. The acquisition of reality is only possible in the last writer’s works, in altruism as the “awakening” of the characters and in the intention to the state of samadhi. Nirvana as a mode of the author’s “outsideness” “descends” into the characters’ world as a result of “movement of feelings” or “spiritual fire” – the prevailing feature of G. Gazdanov’s works. Thus, the delusiveness dream as a generalizing formant of metanarrative weakens as one moves away from the “horrors of history” as a traumatic experience of participation in a war and the ensuing unsettled-“unnoticed” image of the author. The polyphonism of the voices of the author and the characters in recent novels forms a single narrative field, and here and now it acquires the status of reality as enlightenment, or, in G. Gazdanov’s thesaurus, “rebirth”.

Из истории «Северного вестника». Комментарий к комментарию

The history of literary associations, including the history of any journal, is primarily the history of people's relationships with each other. In such a history, personal likes and dislikes play the most essential role. This law of personal sympathies and antipathies manifests itself very expressively in a rather short history of the journal “Severny Vestnik”, published by L.Ya. Gurevich (1891–1898). The article offers significant additions to comments to published texts on the history of the journal. A.L. Volynsky and N.K. Mikhailovsky showed equal harshness and indelicacy in their polemics, but their contemporaries almost unanimously sided with Mikhailovsky as an older and deserved writer. Volynsky acquired a reputation as an unscrupulous person and gossip begins to gather around his name. Volynsky demonstrated unacceptable immodesty towards D.S. Merezhkovsky and Z.N. Gippius and allowed himself to use of someone else's material, bordering on plagiarism. But most importantly, in the plot of the book about Leonardo da Vinci, he depicted his personal relationship with Merezhkovsky and Gippius and his interpretation of the relationship between them. In addition, he expelled Merezhkovsky from the journal “Severny Vestnik”, which closed for him the opportunity to publish his novel about Leonardo da Vinci.

«ТЕМУ ГРАЖДАНСКОЙ ВОЙНЫ НЕЛЬЗЯ СДАВАТЬ В АРХИВ»: ОБ ОТНОШЕНИИ ЛБО ЛОКАФ К ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКОМУ ПРОЕКТУ МАКСИМА ГОРЬКОГО

The article deals with the interactions between the Literary Association of the Red Army and Navy (Leningrad Baltic Branch) and Gorkij’s publishing project «History of the Civil War»: the critics and the heads of the branch encouraged its other members to support the project, but moved no further to achieve a result. The situation seemed to have emerged from their predominant interest in exploring the theme of the modern army and navy.

Lively Roots: How the Grand Rapids Public Library Found Its Footing in the Early Years

Lively Roots:How the Grand Rapids Public Library Found Its Footing in the Early Years Colleen Alles A few days before Christmas, on December 21, 2021, the Grand Rapids Public Library will celebrate a big birthday: its sesquicentennial—150 years of providing a library free to all. Few things can last a century and a half without being open to change. This public library, established in a city that, in the 1870s, was in some ways a rival to Detroit, survived in part due to the inclusion of one key idea: a willingness to grow—changing and adjusting its operations to fit whatever the community needed at the time, and in how it could best serve its patrons in the face of logistical constraints and realities.1 Founded in 1871, the Grand Rapids Public Library (GRPL) has been a beacon in a west Michigan city with its own rich history and place as the second largest city in the state. The idea for the GRPL began several years after the end of the Civil War, when members of the Grand Rapids Board of Education agreed to combine their book holdings with those of two other organizations—the Ladies Literary Association (known then as the Ladies Library Association) and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).2 A library committee hired the first librarian, Miss Frances Holcomb, at an annual salary of $500, and the library was born.3 The history of the GRPL involves a number of evolutions—everything from introducing the Dewey Decimal System and eschewing traditional card catalogs for online platforms, to streaming audiobooks directly to patrons' devices. Julie Tabberer, the current head of the GRPL History & Special Collections department, notes how "the things that [End Page 127] Click for larger view View full resolution An entry from the 1872-73 Grand Rapids city directory shows the first appearance of the Grand Rapids Public Library, humbly listed among residents and businesses in the "L" section. Source: J. D. Dillenback, ed., Godfrey's Annual City Directory of Grand Rapids, Mich, 1872-3 (Grand Rapids: Daily Eagle Steam Printing House, 1872), 157. we've provided access to have changed over the years, but [access is] a constant."4 The story of the GRPL as told through its branches makes it clear that above all—and despite many types of circumstances—the library has demonstrated a commitment to growing and changing along with its city. What began above a dry goods store downtown evolved into a large institution that serves thousands of patrons annually. The library piloted branches early in the twentieth century when the idea of branches was new. It embraced traveling branches and bookmobiles when budget concerns made operating hours tricky in the 1950s. Through two world wars, the Great Depression, pandemics, economic hardships, and tumultuous social change—hallmarks of the twentieth century—the GRPL opened new branches, closed branches when circumstances dictated, and, overall, ensured its citizens access to a free library, guaranteeing a legacy of inclusion that the city hopes will endure for years to come. Impermanent Spaces In the early years, the GRPL called several downtown spaces home, changing locations every few years. Those spots included a room above a dry goods store, space in the prominent Ledyard Building, and several rooms inside city hall. [End Page 128] Click for larger view View full resolution This was the first home of the Grand Rapids Public Library. The library was on the second floor of H. Leonard and Sons dry goods store, seen here as the second building from the left. Source: Collection 18, George E. Fitch Collection, box 3, folder 3, image 248, Grand Rapids Public Library History & Special Collections, Grand Rapids Public Library (hereafter GRPL). The population of Grand Rapids when the library opened its doors in 1871 was approximately 16,000. "Like other cities across the nation, Grand Rapids had a hodgepodge of libraries and book collections, but the system stood in unconnected pieces, awaiting the glue that would fit them together," noted former city historian Gordon L. Olson.5 Print books were, of course, in addition to being more precious than perhaps they are today, available via school libraries and through the Grand...

«Ламарк сибирской литературы» (к столетию В. П. Трушкина)

The paper is dedicated to the centenary of the birth of a well-known researcher of Siberian lit-erature, doctor of philological sciences, Professor Vasily Trushkin. The main milestones of the scientist’s creative path, his methodological principles as the “great worker of science” and the most significant systematist and bibliographer of literary Siberia are considered. The paper includes diary materials and the memoirs about V. Trushkin written by Valentin Raspu-tin and Anatoly Prelovsky, colleagues of the scientist at Irkutsk State University. A special place is given to the role of V. Trushkin in the discovery of the talent of Alexander Vampilov, a member of the university literary association, guided by the scientist.

А. С. Бодрова. Литературные общества в России первой половины XIX века: проблемы междисциплинарного описания

The review article systematizes the principle achievements in the studies of the literary societies and associations in the Russian and foreign historiography of the 1990–2010s, and analyzes approaches to this material within the framework of various disciplines and methodologies. The author suggests an institutional approach as the basis for the development of a conceptual and fact-fortified language for describing the literary societies in Russia in the fi rst half of the 19th century. An institutional approach provides an opportunity to link the history of the literary associations with the broader socio-historical context and to describe the role played by the literary societies in the formation of the «public sphere» and civil society in the 19th-century Russia

Калмыцко-белорусские литературные связи XX – XXI вв.

The article describes the Kalmyk – Belorussian literary ties that started in September 1940 when the writers from Belarus Philip Pestrak and Maksim Tank participated in the celebration of 500th anniversary of the Kalmyk heroic epos Jangar. These contacts actively developed at the end of 1950s due to the initiative of the poet from Belarus Petrusya Brovka and a Kalmyk writer Mikhail Khaninov. The publications of works and translations of Kalmyk and Belorussian writers appeared in the press of both republics, Kalmyk translations of the poems by the classics of Belorussian poetry Yanka Kupala and Yakub Kolas were published in Elista, Belorussian translation of the poems by Mikhail Khaninov and David Kugultinov were published in Minsk, literary evenings were organized. The succession of generation in 1980s led to a thirty year break in this dialogue of culture which was reestablished in the new millennium on the Post-Soviet space. The publication exchange, new translations of the poetry, prose and drama, participation in the book exhibitions, “A Writer and the Time” symposium, ‘round tables’ contribute to the activation of the creative powers of both nations.

LITTLE-KNOWN PAGES OF THE BALTIC FLEET PARTICIPATION IN LENINGRAD’S DEFENSE

The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the domestic historiography rather weakly covers the participation of the Baltic Fleet tactical formations in the defense of Leningrad. As a rule, special attention is paid to the tragic events of the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War and to the loss of a significant part of the Baltic Fleet ships. In this regard, the proposed article focuses on the history of the defending Tallinn, the Moonsund Islands, the Hanko Island, as well as on the participation of the Baltic Fleet artillery units and formations in checking the advancing Wehrmacht parts. Special attention is paid to the role of Leningrad in the history of the Great Patriotic War. St. Petersburg was the capital of the Russian Empire for over two centuries. With its embankments of the Neva River, bridges, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace and dozens of other unique structures, it was not only the capital for two centuries but its largest cultural center as well. No Russian city causes such a multitude of literary associations as St. Petersburg, and then Leningrad. The siege of the city, where more than a million people died, was unlike any of the tragedies of this war. Sieging Leningrad in September 1941 the fascists condemned almost three million people to starvation; more than a third of them died of starvation and exhaustion, but did not surrender to the fascists. A significant amount of scientific literature, journalistic, memories, etc. are devoted to the coverage of the heroic battle for Leningrad. However, there are still quite a few pages of this war that, in our view, have not received sufficient coverage in domestic historiography.