Literary Contacts Research Articles

ПЕРЕКЛАДАЦЬКИЙ БРИКОЛАЖ: УКРАЇНСЬКО-ГРУЗИНСЬКИЙ ЛІТЕРАТУРНИЙ КОНТЕКСТ

Background . The research of literary contacts expands the boundaries of national literature, involving it in a single historical-literary process determined by the general process of social-historical development of mankind. Translation becomes a mediator between cultures and involves equal cultural interaction of individuals of different linguistic and cultural communities, taking into account their ethno-cultural identity. Methods. The following methods were used: biographical, comparative, cultural-historical and the method of receptive aesthetics. Using the observation method, we consider a number of scientific works, as well as analyze the artistic works of Raul Chilacava. Results. Artistic translation has a special place among all types of translation, because in addition to the content, it aims to convey the aesthetic and philosophical views of the author of the original work, which belongs to a certain culture and represents it. Therefore, the translator must possess extraordinary abilities in order to convey, in addition to the content of the work, the spiritual message of the original source. We analyzed external and internal literary connections which influenced the creativity and translation activity of Raul Chilacava; the peculiarities of the process of selecting texts for translation by him, the development of the writer-translator's mastery, the influence of the translation activity on his own creativity, as well as the role of the author's translations in interliterary communication. Conclusions. The study showed that artistic translations become a certain accented point where comparative studies and translation studies come together. Raul Chilacava managed to successfully combine two hypostases in him – a translator and a poet. Being bilingual (fluent in Ukrainian and Georgian), he found like-minded people in two cultures and represented their works in the other culture for each of them precisely through translation. The combination of different approaches when analyzing the translation heritage of Raul Chilachava gives an opportunity to highlight different facets of a single whole, which is the creative work of the writer in all its complexity and multifacetedness.

A Prince in the Body of a Parrot (Cuckoo)

Abstract The eighteenth-century Tibetan narrative The Tale of Moon Cuckoo and its subsequent adaptation as a Mongolian traditional opera was performed from the nineteenth century up to the early twentieth. The story is based on the motif of a prince who is tricked into entering the body of a cuckoo; later on, he is not able to regain his human form, stolen by his evil-minded companion. The narrative, along with its Mongolian-language versions and operatic adaptation, is a vivid example of Tibet-Mongolian literary transmission. The underlying motif of the tale is also closely linked to the so-called frame narratives of Indian origin concerning King Vikramāditya; the popularity of these narratives was very widespread in Central and Inner Asia in times past. This paper describes some of the literary contacts concerning the narrative and motifs of The Tale of Moon Cuckoo in Central and Inner Asia and beyond, with a view as well to cross-genre considerations.

A Contribution to the Sudies of the History, Languages and Cultures in Southeast Europe

The review analytically presents the volume entitled "Southeast Europe through the Centuries: Social History, Contacts of Languages and Cultures". It contains 25 articles grouped in three sections: “Trade in Southeast Europe,” “Sources, History, New Interpretations,” “Linguistic and Literary Contacts”. The diverse topics of the articles outline both diachronically and mosaically the picture of the European south-east. The century-long culture of the region is studied from various research perspectives in order to outline the complicated and multi-layered essence of this phenomenon of the Balkans and its dynamics together with the intertwined divergent relations that modeled this civilizational continuum in the past and that unite it today.

KAZAKH LITERATURE OF THE INDEPENDENCE ERA IN THE AZERBAIJANI LANGUAGE

The article describes the features of Kazakh-Azerbaijani inter-literary relations in the post-Soviet period, and also analyzes the works of Kazakh authors and folklore works of the Kazakh people translated into Azerbaijani. The paper notes the high intensification of inter-literary contacts between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Such an expansion of interpersonal relationships among creative figures is, of course, determined by the general state of interstate relations. 
 In the post-Soviet period, Turkic-speaking writers, representatives of various national literatures began to feel their inner involvement in the general Turkic processes with particular clarity due to deep historical and socio-political changes and the strengthening of creative contacts. For example, such works translated into Azerbaijani as "Turkestan", "And me, you, death, lull me to sleep" ("Olum, mane agi de") Magzhan Zhumabayeva, "Kazakhstan's Way", "The Heart of Eurasia" by Nursultan Nazarbayev, "The Clay Book" by Olzhas Suleimenov, "When the Wolves Howled" by Sabit Dosanov, "Idikut" by Akhmetzhan Ashiri were highly appreciated among Azerbaijani readers. "Alash Arystary" in the Azerbaijani language shows that translators in their creative activity go not only beyond the national geographic framework, but expand the internal boundaries of the national artistic worldview.
 The works of the Kazakh genius confirm that the historical and cultural ties of the Kazakh and Azerbaijani peoples go back centuries. In particular, in the "Words of Edification", in the poems "Iskander", "Masut", "Tales of Azim" traces of centuries-old oriental wisdom are found. In the era of independence, the fame of classical Kazakh writers went far beyond the borders of their country. Many of them have become internationally significant personalities. So Abai as a universal cultural phenomenon at the turn of the century became an essential fact of world culture. The interrelation and literary contacts between writers of Turkic speaking countries have given rise to well-known Turkologists to talk about the concept of a single "Turkic speaking literature" and the need to accelerate the creation of a "new era".

The Linguistic-Textual Markers in the Late Medieval Slavonic Biblical Translations from Jewish Originals

The article raises the question of language items (words or phrases) which could be the markers of a textual relationship between Biblical translations and their originals, on the examples of two East Slavonic texts created presumably in the 15th century in the Ruthenian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The article is based on the data of the edited Slavonic-Russian Pentateuch and two versions of the East Slavonic translation of the Song of Song, from the museum (Russian State Library, Moscow, mid-16th century) and Vilna copies (Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Vilnius, first quarter of the 16th century), including the glossary for both versions from the so-called Zabelin Set, a cluster of Biblical texts translated from Jewish sources into Old Ruthenian from the 17th-century manuscript (State Historical Museum, Moscow). These examples demonstrate the importance of the search for possible intermediary languages for texts, which, by all formal indicators, are the fruit of direct language and literary contacts between Slavs and Jews. There are proposed methods of ascertaining an original language and the language of a possible intermediary through a system of linguistic-textual markers. The weakest linguistic-textual markers are Hebrew loanwords written with Cyrillic script, especially when these are proper names only. Such forms do not exclude the possibility that their source was not the Masoretic Text itself, but translations of the latter made within the framework of the same Jewish tradition, i.e., the Targums (cfr. in particular the ‘Old Yiddish Targum’ and the ‘Judeo-Turkic Targum’). The most reliable linguistic-textual marker turns out to be the presence of words that are not just foreign-language borrowings and not from the Hebrew language, but that also qualify as hapaxes that were not adopted by the language of the book tradition into which the corresponding translation was made. Between these two extreme types of markers there are intermediate steps, which in different ways reveal the presence of an intermediary language and an intermediary text, but as a whole, all the markers speak in favor of the existence of these intermediaries.

Е. Замятин и А. Платонов как критики советской власти

This article analyses the influence of Soviet on the destinies and works of Yevgeny Zamyatin and Andrei Platonov. There were hardly any literary contacts between them, but there is an ideological kinship. Both were critical of the death penalty actually used by the Bolsheviks, of the emergence of the Soviet Party elite in the USSR, of the plight of workers during the Civil War, and of the possibility of utopian social and political projects. Zamyatin and Platonov were persecuted by the Soviet authorities, the leaders of the All-Russian Writers’ Union and the Rappian critics. The writers analyses in detail Zamyatin’s journalistic articles, including Lenin's implicit image, as well as the genesis of some plot motifs, ideas, characters of the anti-utopian novel “We” (1920). The authors delves into Platonov’s literary criticism and examines the comparative typological similarities between Zamyatin’s journalism of the late 1910–20s and Platonov’s “The Innermost Man”, “Chevengur” and “Happy Moscow”.

К. Д. Бальмонт в феврале–марте 1903 года (из комментария к одному рисунку)

The article deals with the public speeches delivered by K. D. Balmont in the early 1903, including his lecture The Calderonian Drama of Personality, and the refl ection of this event in a drawing preserved in the archive of M. A. Voloshin. Balmont’s speeches and lectures are analyzed as an explication of his creative stance that informed his literary contacts with his contemporaries.

ON THE QUESTION OF THE HISTORY OF UZBEK-GERMAN LITERARY AND CULTURAL RELATIONS (1960-1975)

Productive value of a literary work depends on its functioning not only as an artistic text in a specific autonomous literary space, but also on how it is included in the context of social, cultural and literary factors of the world, reflects socio-cultural guidelines. It is precisely this inclusion in the world literary process that is ensured by literary contacts between different countries, the interaction of national literatures, and translation activities, because it is through translation that the popularization and functioning of any national literature in the global literary space is ensured. Literary ties between Uzbekistan and Germany have their own history and interesting facets of modern interaction.

ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫХ ИНСТИТУЦИЙ ПРИГРАНИЧНЫХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ ДАЛЬНЕГО ВОСТОКА ПО УКРЕПЛЕНИЮ РОССИЙСКО-КИТАЙСКИХ ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫХ КОНТАКТОВ

The article examines the results of the activities of literary institutions to strengthen literary contacts between residents of the border territories of the Far East and Northeast of China in the twentieth century and the first decades of the XXI century. An overview of the most significant projects in this area is presented. The main publications of Russian and Chinese authors contributing to the development of cross-border cultural cooperation are briefly considered. It is concluded that such activities contribute to a deeper understanding of the mentality and culture of China and Russia and strengthen friendship and good neighborliness

Диалог культур в ранней лирике удмуртского поэта Флора Васильева

The article is devoted to the analysis of lyrics by Flor Vasiliev (1934–1978) which is a new page in the history of Udmurt Soviet poetry. The young poet went beyond the generally accepted standards thanks to the rich literary context. This article is devoted to the study of the early lyrics of Flor Vasilyev in the aspect of the dialogue of cultures. The subject of analysis is poems written in the early 1960s. The purpose of the study is to identify and describe literary contacts with representatives of different cultures. The method of analysis is comparative studies. The result of the study is as follow: Flor Vasiliev introduces the names Remarque, Picasso, Grieg, Rembrandt into his poems to depict the general cultural atmosphere of Russia in the 1950s – 1960s, the poet follows the tradition of Russian pop lyrics. Interest in impressionism (Renoir and others) helps to hone style when portraying landscapes and the inner world of the hero. Irony begins to play a large role in the poems of early Flor Vasiliev, the poet learns in this direction from Heinrich Heine. Thus, thanks to the dialogue of cultures, there is a transition from «loud» to «quiet lyrics», humanistic traditions raise the poetry of Flor Vasiliev to a new qualitative level.

Wielka sztuka niewielkiego narodu: Polska na tle kontaktów literackich Chin z Europą Środkowo-Wschodnią

In 2020, Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog published the Polish version of Chiny i Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia. Historia kontaktów literackich (China and Central and Eastern Europe. The History of Literary Contacts) by Chinese literary scholars: Ding Chao and Song Binghui. The book is part of the series Historia Kontaktów Literackich między Chinami a Zagranicą (The History of China’s Foreign Literary Contacts) which aims to become a comprehensive description of China’s cultural exchange with other countries. Volume 17 is devoted to China’s relationships with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. In this group, Poland occupies one of the central positions due to, among other, a high interest in Polish history among Chinese intellectual elite of the early twentieth century and among the reformers of Chinese literature in that period. The article discusses the sources of the popularity of Polish themes in the formative period of modern Chinese literature and the reception of Polish literature in China today. It also attempts to familiarise the readers with the themes studied by the researchers, the goals they set for themselves and the methods they used to achieve them, and presents the benefits of publishing the book in Polish.

The 1862 Case of the Writer F. M. Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky's first trip abroad in the summer of 1862 took place in the midst of an aggravated political situation in Russia, facilitated by radical revolutionary unrest in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other cities, fires that followed the proclamations and raised suspicions of arson. To combat radical propaganda, an Investigative Commission for the dissemination of revolutionary appeals was established under the chairmanship of Prince A. F. Golitsyn. F. M. Dostoevsky, who had met with Herzen in London in July 1862, came to its attention. The article examines materials from the investigation file of the III Department “On the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky,” which have not been previously published and which allow to clarify both the facts of the writer’s biography, and the significance of this historical and literary event. The register of books and papers seized from Dostoevsky at the border is of particular interest. An analysis allows to understand what concerned the writer, what he read and deliberated. The first issue of the magazine "Russische Revue", published in May 1862, is of particular importance. Its editor V. Wolfson witnessed Dostoevsky's literary success in 1845. He witnessed Dostoevsky’s triumph at the salon of Prince Odoevsky, and was an admirer and translator of his works. The article establishes new facts of German-Russian literary contacts in 1840-1860 and Dostoevsky’s biography

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World

From humanitas to amicitia

The article aims to investigate Cicero’s epistle Fam. 15.21 (46 BC), which is addressed to Trebonius, a former colleague of him and now a lieutenant of Caesar, and deals with the oratory of Calvus, an Atticist (and Catullus’ best friend), to whom Cicero had given praise and rhetorical advice in a previous letter. Cicero shows affection to Trebonius, and care to Calvus, although they weren’t quite friends of him and belonged to different parties, both in politics and oratory. An examination of the text from the point of view of form and content shows here a double example of humanitas both as benevolence (philantrophia) and as an intellectual and didactic approach (paideia). It seems the prelude to a true friendship (which is also the theme of a future dialogue of Cicero), maybe with further effects (Trebonius will participate in the conspiracy against Caesar). Moreover, several allusions and some playful situations related to the letter (such as the gift of a book containing Cicero’s jokes) recalls Catullus’ poems to his friends (above all to Calvus), confirming the idea of ​​a literary contact between the poeta novus and the orator. The result is an intertwining of personal and cultural relationships between personalities who are traditionally believed to be on opposite sides, but are closer than one might think in Cicero’s correspondence.

Onze poèmes de Marinetti dans “Anthologie-Revue” (1898-1900). Édition et commentaire

This paper provides the first integral edition of eleven poems by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of Futurism. These eleven poems were all published from march 1898 to january 1900 in a now very rare journal: “Anthologie-Revue de France et d’Italie”. In these pages one can see Marinetti at work, ten years before the foundation of Futurism, both as a french poet and as a fin-de-siècle poet, both as a poet in verse and as a poet in prose. Since “Anthologie-Revue” was printed in Milan by a parisian editor, its redaction group was deeply concerned with franco-italian cultural relations. In this context, along the Milan-Paris axis, we can examine Marinetti’s earliest poetry and its evolution from sonnet to free verse. A decade before launching his avant-garde movement, young Marinetti faces the very last wave of the nineteenth-century Symbolism, showing a general predilection for french poetry. Moreover he had composed french verse since his adolescence. A main editorial principle is at the basis of the present work: the dedication preceding each poem and the place and date following it are always transcripted and possibly commented. New data about european literary contacts are thus documented. New information and details about circumstances of composition are often offered. Texts receiving a new light from either a contemporary historical event or a particular place and landscape.

KAZAKH-AMERICAN LITERARY COOPERATION:DEVELOPMENT DYNAMICS AND CULTURAL TRANSFER

The subject of this article is the newest period of Kazakh-American literary cooperation in the historical and literary perspective. The author aims to provide a summary of modern Kazakh-American literary contacts, popularization and promotion of the model of national cultural development, national cultural code and Kazakh literature in the United States. Defining international literature connections in the modern comparative studies is important as it helps to understand the specifics and awareness of the deep processes in Kazakh and American literature, allows to observe the dynamics of their development and to reveal the mechanism of inheritance and the change of traditions, as well as accumulation of artistic values. The novelty of this article is conditioned by systematization of fragmentary facts of a descriptive nature in the field of Kazakh-American literary connections and the newest period of studying Kazakh-American literary cooperation, revealing new phenomena, world trends and innovations in the system of literary and cultural contacts. The analysis of different levels of literary interaction – from contact links to the identification of genetic and historical typological convergence – allows to discover regular phenomena in the development of the literatures of two countries and provide scientific justification for their comprehensive comprehension in terms of multiculturalism. Multicultural feature (cultural diversity) and multiculturalism are important in the US and Kazakhstan literatures as a set of theories and practices for understanding the new situation. The modern author is open to worldwide cultural experiences perceived by him through cultural experience of his own nation. Literature connections and collaboration in different historical periods have their one development algorithm and level of intensity. Literatures of USA and Kazakhstan today experience a special development dynamics. Self-identification and dialogue are the main categories of modern literature connections.

The role of Polish writers from Lithuania in the development of Polish-Lithuanian literary relations in the 21st century

Poles are the largest national minority in Lithuania. Among them, several dozen people are involved in creating literature in Polish, and a dozen actively participate in literary life. Despite such a significant potential, the participation of this group in the development of Polish-Lithuanian literary relations was negligible until recently. Polish writers from Lithuania mainly participated in Polish literary life and published their works in Poland. They did not translate them into Lithuanian and did not participate in Lithuanian literary life. The text lists a few examples of the participation of Polish writers from Lithuania in creating literary contacts between Poland and Lithuania, as well as in translation and publishing activities in the field of Polish-Lithuanian literary cooperation. Only in recent years has the activity of Polish writers from Lithuania in this field increased significantly thanks to the involvement of the young literary generation.

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.

Пять путешествий Уильяма Дюбуа в СССР

Soviet contacts with African-American authors are an important part of both Soviet-Ame­rican literary contacts and African-American literature history. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963), the most prominent African-American thinker, writer, public figure of the 20th century, occupies a special place. He travelled to the USSR five times (1926, 1936, 1949, 1958–1959, 1962) and had repeatedly addressed the subject of Russia and the USSR in his letters, essays, and fiction.
 The incentive for Du Bois’ first visit to the USSR was his interest in the Revolution of 1917 and the Russian social experiment, namely, the solution to the race and ethnicity problem. The following visits allow tracing not only the evolution of Du Bois’ viewpoint (which became increasingly leftist), but also the development of his public and literary reputation in the Soviet Union — from wariness (for Du Bois being a liberal and unreliable associate) to honoring him as a major African-American classic and a great friend of the USSR. The fact that William Du Bois had joined the US Communist Party six month before his death and his relocation from the US to Ghana finalized the Soviet idealistic attitude towards the writer’s life. The essence of Du Bois’ journey was perceived as a gradual transition from errors and misconceptions to a more complete acceptance of Marxism-Leninism.

Moscow in Russian-Polish Academic and Cultural Contacts from the End of the Eighteenth to the First Half of the Nineteenth Centuries

The question of Russian-Polish academic and literary contacts, which began to take on a systematic character after the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and formation of the autonomous Kingdom of Poland within the Russian Empire, has traditionally drawn the attention of both Russian and Polish historians. In this regard, of great interest is the period from the late 18th to the first half of the 19th centuries, which, in turn, can be divided into two stages: before the uprising of 1830–1831 (November Uprising), when the western provinces of the Russian Empire, as well as the Polish Kingdom, enjoyed an autonomous system of Polish education; and after the uprising, when universities and many academic societies in these territories were closed and the process of integrating Polish education into the all-Russian system began. In addition to St. Petersburg, which occupied a leading place in building contacts between representatives of Russian and Polish science and culture, Moscow, which was the second largest Polish colony after St. Petersburg, also played a significant role in maintaining these contacts. Before the uprising of 1830, these contacts took the form of personal ties between individual scholars and writers, including members of academic societies and editorial offices of periodicals. After 1830, Russian-Polish academic relations were mainly limited to the sphere of activity of the Slavophiles. However, during this period, Moscow received its status as one of the educational centres for Polish youth, and it became one of the places of scientific activity of Polish professors. Among the graduates of Moscow University there were many famous doctors, lawyers, philologists, natural scientists, and other representatives of the Polish intelligentsia. The Polish scientists who taught there contributed to the development of not only Polish, but also Russian science.