History Of Russian Literature Research Articles

The genre has a pulse: Ode in modern Russian poetry

The article seeks to disprove the assumption that the ode as a poetic genre breathed its last in the 1830s–1850s. The scholars suggest that no genre remains a form cast in concrete, but instead serves as a toolkit facilitating the creative process. To prove that the genre of ode is still relevant, the authors consider works of four eminent modern poets — A. Belyakov, V. Gandelsman, I. Ermakova, and A. Kushner — and describe their use of the genre. In each case, ode features prominently, its importance recognized by the poets themselves. The article argues in favour of a more in-depth study of the evolution of the ode in the non-canonical period of Russian literary history.

On the reception and transformation of Russian literature in Azerbaijan in the post-Soviet period

In the article some issues of Russian literature reception and transformation in post-Soviet Azerbaijan are covered. The publication was prepared on the basis of observations made by the author while working on the second part of the “History of Russian Literature”, in his scientific and pedagogical activities, as well as the report at “The Golden Age of Russian Literature: the experience of reading” the educational-cultural forum, held in the capital of the Republic of Serbia – Belgrade on 28-29 June 2022. It is dedicated to the problems of reception and transformation of Russian classical literature in Azerbaijan in the post-Soviet period. The problem is considered in two aspects: 1) principles and difficulties of selecting samples of Russian classical literature for inclusion in curricula, textbooks and manuals for schools and universities of the republic, as well as for their translation and publication in Azerbaijan language; 2) reasons of increasing interest to study of Russian literature, necessity of deep studies of creativity of its individual representatives in Azerbaijan in postSoviet time.

Мирискусники и генезис акмеистических исканий (по поводу обзора одной выставки)

The article presents the experience of comprehension V. Narbut’s publication “Mir Iskusstva” (“The World of Art”) in the St. Petersburg newspaper “Theater and Sport”. The article, dedicated to the exhibition of the same name, is written in the genre of art criticism, unique for the poet’s creative biography, and is perceived as a capacious manifestation of the author’s artistic preferences. The significance of comprehension this publication is due to its chronological correlation not only with the beginning of the poet’s creative path, but also with key events in the history of Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century.

УЧЕБНИК ПО ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ ПРЕДПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОДГОТОВКИ ИНОСТРАННЫХ СЛУШАТЕЛЕЙ НА ДОВУЗОВСКОМ ЭТАПЕ ОБУЧЕНИЯ

This article discusses the issues of teaching humanities to foreign students of additional educational programs. The authors share their experience of teaching literature to students of philology at the pre-university stage at the Institute of International Education of Voronezh State University. The relevance of the article lies in the characteristics of the language of the specialty in the field of literary studies. The relevance of this article is to identify the features of pre-professional training in the literature of foreign students at the pre-university stage of education. The authors emphasize the need to form the language of the specialty among foreign students-humanities, along with students of other fields. A brief overview of productive techniques and methods of teaching the discipline "Literature" in a foreign audience is given. The authors pay special attention to the practical significance of the textbook "Literature. Fundamentals of the Theory and History of Russian Literature", developed and published at the Institute of International Education. This publication is an effective and modern tool that allows you to form the language of the specialty of foreign students-humanities during the pre-university stage of training. The textbook on literature is universal in content for different specialties of humanitarian orientation. It also contains a system of methodological tools that form students not only the basics of the specialty language, but also language and speech competencies. In conclusion, the authors share the results of further training of graduates of additional educational programs.

Член Союза благоденствия С. Д. Нечаев в Обществе любителей российской словесности при Московском университете

The terms “literary Decembrism” and “Decembrist literature”, which have become established in literary studies, denote the civil trend in Russian romanticism of the 1810s-1820s. In addition to the Decembrist writers themselves, an important role in this direction is assigned to A.S. Pushkin, who has never been a member of secret societies. As an alternative, we consider the case of the writer S.D. Nechaev. He was a member of the Decembrist secret society Union of Prosperity, but remained in the history of Russian literature as the author of sentimental album poems and moralizing aphorisms. His only poem filled with truly civic pathos was “The Drinking Song of the Greeks” (1823). However, for Nechaev, membership in a secret society was not an empty formality. At the end of October he also became a member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature at Moscow University. And already in November, Nechaev spoke to “lovers of Russian literature” with a speech “On the choice of objects in the fine arts in general”. The speaker promoted ideas and aesthetic principles that he did not adhere to in his own work, but which were enshrined in the statutory document of the Union of Prosperity. So he denied his own value of art and saw its purpose in serving the “common good”, strengthening morality and virtue, and educating youth. This article substantiates the proposal to consider the speech of Nechaev not as his individual speech, but as a propaganda action of the Union of Prosperity.

Шмелев в СССР. (Статья вторая: издания и рецепция в послевоенный период)

The article examines the history of the publication and reception of I.S. Shmelev’s works in the USSR from the point of view of his emigrant status after the Great Patriotic War. In the after-war decade, Shmelev practically disappeared not only from the readers’ but also from the research area. He is not considered a figure of sufficient significance in the literary process, even in the fundamental academic “History of Russian Literature.” Only in 1957, Shmelev’s first book with a preface by B.V. Mikhailovsky was published in the USSR after a long break, and then two more collections prepared by O.N. Mikhailov (in 1960 and 1966), which gradually filled in the gaps in educational and academic works. Shmelev’s works entered the scholarly interpretation of the literary process as full-fledged components only in the 1970s, but this applies only to the pre-revolutionary period. The complete description of the emigrant period is still a few pages in the preface by O.N. Mikhailov (1966). In 1957–1966, Shmelev was published but practically not studied, and in the 1970s and early 1980s, Shmelev was studied but not published. Only since 1988 Shmelev’s books begin to be published in the USSR one after another. A new stage of his “presence” in his homeland begins, during which his emigre works first rose to the level of pre-revolutionary works and then came forward.

D. P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky on Slavs

The article highlights the place of the Slavs in the work of D. P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky, first a Eurasianist and then a Marxist. The key role of Russian studies in his Slavic studies is noted. It is argued that the vast majority of Svyatopolk-Mirsky’s thoughts and assessments regarding the history of Russian literature have not yet been fully studied. Significant results on Ukrainian studies were presented in his articles of the 1920s and in an article in the Encyclopedia Britannica; Svyatopolk-Mirsky was one of the first to highlight the problems of Belarusian studies there. His legacy as a (geo)political thinker and researcher of culture and literature of other Slavic peoples, though unevenly represented throughout his body of work, is considered and evaluated: for example, a lot has been written by Svyatopolk-Mirsky about the Poles, and almost nothing about the southern Slavs, but still, when considering them, one can find not only accurate observations and assessments, but also original ideas.

Творческие задания как фактор повышения мотивации к изучению литературы

This article presents creative tasks in the disciplines "History of foreign literature", "History of Russian literature". Their importance for the training of students in the specialty "Acting" is substantiated. Acting requires not only mastery of stage speech skills and the skill of reincarnation, but also a deep understanding of the problems, the system of images of literary works on the basis of which performances are staged or films are shot. The proposed creative tasks can become a significant factor in motivating students to read and closely study the texts of literary works, which, in turn, will contribute to the professional development of future actors.

Representation of cultural meanings when using national cultural codes in fiction

The article is devoted to the consideration of the representation of cultural meanings when using national cultural codes in fiction. Research objectives: to substantiate the use of the category of cultural code in the analysis of a literary work; to characterize the features of the functioning of the national cultural code in relation to cultural universals; to show the specifics of national images associated with spatial and temporal cultural codes. Methods (historical and literary, structural, semantic) and methodological basis of the work are the works of Russian, Belarusian and foreign scientists in the field of philology (Yu. Lotman, R. Jacobson, M. Epstein, N. Tolstoy, S. Tolstaya, etc.), cultural studies and sociology (K. Rapay, J. Murdoch). The result of the work is that the main approaches to the definition of the cultural code are identified, cultural meanings, translated using national cultural codes, associated with images of the Motherland, small homeland, and Fatherland are identified on the example of works of Russian and Belarusian literature. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the features of the representation of cultural meanings when using national cultural images in Russian and Belarusian literature are analyzed. The practical scope of the results of the work is seen in the possibility of using this material for deep understanding and studying such academic disciplines as "History of Russian Literature", "History of Belarusian Literature", university historical and literary courses, during independent research work of students, when writing term papers and theses.

Духовное пространство Нило-Сорского монастыря в книге С. П. Шевырева «Путешествие в Кирилло-Белозерский монастырь...»

The aim of the study is to characterize the features peculiar to the artistic structure of the spatial image of the Nilo-Sorsky monastery in S. P. Shevyrev’s book “Journey to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery…” (1850). The scientific novelty of the study is accounted for by the fact that the work itself is little known, by the localization of the research subject (the image of the Nilo-Sorsky Monastery) and the emphasis on the philosophical and geographical categories of “frontier”, “topos”, “locus”, “cultural landscape” as research aspects. The paper traces the connection of “Journey…” with the “Russian idea” of the writer and his work “The History of Russian Literature”; demonstrates the significance of the image of St. Nilus of Sora as a key figure of Russian medieval thought; characterizes the specificity of the spatial-geographical method of research. Special attention is paid to the specifics of space in the writer’s book: details of frontier poetics, a combination of an ekphrastic (local) view of space and a topological one. As a result, it is shown that the “Journey…” combines factual descriptions of the essay genre and historiosophical generalizations: Shevyrev revealed the integrity of the cultural landscape of the Nilo-Sorsky skete and saw the connection of the spatial organization of the monastery with the ideas of non-acquisitiveness and mental prayer.

«Вехи» Д. П. Святополк-Мирского в историческом пространстве русской литературы

The aim of the research is to determine the specifics of D. S. Mirsky’s speech worldview, the metaphorical style of his scientific thinking, which are relevant and insufficiently studied aspects of his creative heritage. The paper analyses the literary discourse of D. S. Mirsky, in particular, catalogues the techniques of stylistic summarisations and their author’s individual terminological expression using the material of “A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1925” in the context of methodological searches of criticism of the Russian émigré community. The author emphasises the genre originality of the scientific work, which reflected the following oppositions: general/separate, original/translated, personal/nonpersonal, aesthetic/sociological. The scientific novelty of the concept lies in identifying the functions of Mirsky’s narrative techniques and critical optics, combining micro- and macropoetic worlds, a view of Russian literature from the outside and from within the national tradition. The research findings showed how, through the techniques of stylistic compression, metaphorical imagery and narrative reduction, the author’s individual vision of the artistic ontology and conceptology of Russian literature, its vice versa and modus vivendi, is formed and formulated by Mirsky.

Teaching the Russian literary language to foreign master and postgraduate students within the special course “Modern Russian literature”: key problems and prospects

The article puts insight into current issues of teaching the Russian literary language to foreign under-graduates and postgraduates, specializing in “Linguistics and Intercultural Communication”, in the course of studying “Modern Russian Literature”. We use a broad historical and cultural context to substantiate the fundamental role of Russian literature in the formation of world culture and the global literary canon, and highlight the great influence that such Russian classical writers as Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov had on the development of foreign literature in the East and West. We observe and trace continuity in classical and modern literary eras and the best long-lasting spiritual, moral and linguistic traditions of the Russian people. We assume that the key problems the teacher should focus on are: Russian literature as a significant phenomenon of world culture, the development of classical traditions in the history of Russian literature at present, the dialogue among cultures and the translation of modern writers’ works into foreign languages, historical and philosophical problems in literature, and historical heritage of the Russian language. The article comprehensively studies the Russian language value dimensions and linguistic axiological directions. The data show the presence, stability and preservation of the fundamental values (life, love, truth, good, beauty, hope, grace, honour, etc.) in the Russian literary language. These values form the spiritual conceptual sphere in Russian culture and constitute its main moral foundations. Serious attention is paid to the aesthetics of the language. We show the aesthetic potential, artistic expressiveness and stylistic richness of the modern Russian literary language, based on the works of E. Vodolazkin, L. Ulitskaya, M. Shishkin, M. Kucherskaya, M. Stepnova, D. Rubina and others. We focus on the problem of preserving the Russian literary language and the high status of Russian in general, revealing complex realities of modern multinational and multicultural world. We recommend such modern masterpieces as “Laurel” by E. Vodolazkin, “The God of Rain” by M. Kucherskaya, “The Garden” by M. Stepnova, “The Writer” by M. Shishkin, “Yakov’s Staircase” by L. Ulitskaya as sources to improve literacy and general cultural competence of foreign students.

“In an interesting and little-known land…”: Middle East everyday life in S. Kondurushkin’s notebooks

S. Kondurushkin’s notebooks are an important but little-known part of his literary heritage. They are crucial for understanding his creative laboratory and the most important documents of Russian literary history of the 1900–1910s. This article introduces the materials of Kondurushkin’s notebooks, relating to the time of his stay in the Middle East, into scientific circulation. Special attention is paid to Kondurushkin’s notebooks from the early 1900s. At that time, he was a teacher and later an inspector assistant of Arab schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in Syria. In the notebooks, he records details of everyday life in the Arab East, anecdotal incidents and his work with various sources, including Arabic folklore. The essential historical and literary part of the notebooks are the sketches and fragments of Kondurushkin’s works, which he prepared for publication in Russian magazines and newspapers, as well as the details of his correspondence with the editors. Our analysis shows how the realities of Middle Eastern daily life become a tool for learning one’s own ethnicity, for heightening its sense in an alien cultural environment. Materials of Kondurushkin’s notebooks make it possible to clearly see how the “other culture” is perceived and reproduced by a person who finds himself in the Middle East for the first time and is interested in understanding the new land and its people. The attitude of the young author is note-worthy, demonstrating his maximum openness to all forms of manifestation of “otherness”, his readiness not only to understand, but also to accept it. For the first time, the article introduces materials from Kondurushkin’s notebooks, relating to the time of his stay in the Middle East, into scientific discourse.

The concept of "love" in the artistic world of V. Tokareva: the specifics of the embodiment, varieties and connection with the conceptual sphere of A. P. Chekhov

The purpose of the study is to analyze the concept of LOVE as a macro concept of the artistic world of V. Tokareva, which includes many layers and varieties, which contributes to a deeper penetration into the artistic conceptual sphere of the writer, helps to understand the internal laws by which the characters of the work live and act. The research is based on the material of the writer's stories published in different years. The research methodology is based on a component analysis of the text, conceptual and functional methods, there are elements of comparative and descriptive methods. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that the author for the first time attempts to analyze the artistic concept of LOVE in the works of V. Tokareva from the point of view of its content and varieties, and also traces the continuity with the conceptual sphere of A. P. Chekhov at the level of this concept. The results showed that the concept of LOVE is explored by the writer not only at different levels of human relationships, but also at the level of love for creativity. The concept of LOVE organically combines the individual author's perception with the ideas of the predecessor author. The practical significance lies in the fact that the research materials can be used in the practice of university teaching of special courses devoted to the problem of the functioning of artistic concepts in the works of Russian authors of the second half of the XX – first quarter of the XXI centuries, as well as in conducting seminars on the history of Russian literature. The relevance of the research is determined by the interest of modern literary criticism to the artistic concept, as well as the fact that the work of V. Tokareva from the point of view of the content of the artistic concept of LOVE has been studied incompletely and requires further development.

P A U T K I N A. A. OT KNIZHNOSTI K LITERATURE (IZ LEKCIY I NABLYUDENIY): SBORNIK STATEY (RUSSIAN LITERATURE, FROM MEDIAEVAL TO MODERN (LECTURES AND OBSERVATIONS): COLLECTED PAPERS). MOSCOW, 2020. — 240 p.

The new book by Alexey Pautkin, professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, is a collection of papers on various aspects of Russian literary history. Th e book comprises two parts, the fi rst one concerning mediaeval and the second modern literature. The book features diverse research approaches, comparing mediaeval and modern as well as Russian and foreign literature and interweaving criticism with adjacent disciplines, from chronology to art history and cultural studies.

Almanacs of the late XVIII<sup>th</sup> – first half of the XIX<sup>th</sup> centuries in the funds of the state museum-estate of V.G. Belinskiy

The publication contains a list of literary almanacs presented in the fund collections of the State Museum-Estate of V.G. Belinskiy. The authors reveal the role of publications of this type in the popularization of Russian poetry and prose of the late XVIIIth first half of the XIXth Centuries, give an assessment of the degree of rarity of certain copies, the presence of inscriptions in the them, marginal notes and stamps of the previous owners. The article highlights the importance of almanacs as a source of study of the great critics creative heritage as well as museum exhibits which reveal peculiarities of this period in the history of Russian literature.

“Bulgarin's Manor” by F.V.B.: on the Question of the Properties of Network Paraliterature

The article analyzes the anonymous poetic text “Bulgarin's Manor”, which is a small anonymous poem published on the Internet systems Ridero and Amazon on February 2, 2022 under the laconic cryptonym F.V.B., referring to the initials of one of the main anti-heroes of Russian literature - Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin. This context, connected with Russian-Estonian relations, on the one hand, and the history of Russian literature, on the other, seems to us the most significant for commentary. Based on historical and literary observations and reconstructing the historical and cultural contexts reflected in the textual structures of the work, we show how the anecdotes that accompany the personality of Thaddeus Bulgarin (1789-1859) and the myths that describe the history of Karlovo are transformed in a naive, amateur mind. Special attention is paid to the explicit intertext, represented primarily by the works of Nicolay Gogol and Prosper Merimee and implicit intertextual connections leading to the work of Alexander Pushkin. The study of the work allows us to be convinced of the total mastery of the idea of a palimpsest by modern actors of network literature.

A. F. Labzin is the Author of “The Lamentations of Jeremiah, Translated into Verse”: The Experience of Attribution

This article is about “The Lamentations of Jeremiah, translated into verse”, published without a signature in the magazine “Evening Dawn” (1782). We prove that the author of this work was A.F. Labzin (1766–1826), an influential writer in the reign of Alexander I, translator of European mystics and publisher of the magazine “Zion Bulletin”, who participated in the activities of the Russian Bible Society. This Paraphrase of The Lamentations of Jeremiah is one of the first works of Labzin and the most voluminous of those written in verse, and in the history of Russian literature this is one of the first complete paraphrase of an entire (albeit small) Biblical book.

Mythopoetic Space of Banya in Poems of B. A. Slutsky and V. S. Vysotsky

The image of the banya (a Russian steam bath) with its deep mythopoetic roots in the history of Russian literature is embodied in the works of the Soviet literature as well. Thus, the poems “Banya” by B. A. Slutsky and “White Banya” by V. S. Vysotsky create the archetypal images of the bathhouse, which, despite the realities of the Soviet life described in them, manifest their archaic syncretic nature. The plot of the banya visit is represented by talking about the past ‒ the military one in the first case and the labour camp one in the second. The motive of spiritual and physical purification connecting the two texts, accumulates the change of the temporal boundaries of the plot. As a borderline and a sacred space, banya locus seems to take the heroes into the past. It is typical that poets resort to the same dominants of artistic language in order to express such meanings. The poetics of repetitions and homogeneities, with the help of which the orientation towards assimilating oral-colloquial rather than literary-book speech is carried out, immerses the reader in the world of fabulousness and reveals the concept of paradise. At the same time, the poem by V. S. Vysotsky can be regarded as a logical continuation of Slutsky’s poem: the camp past of the lyrical hero depicted in “White Banya” fills the gap in the representation of the picture of that period. Initiating a dialogue with the text of B. A. Slutsky, the poem by V. S. Vysotsky makes the image of the era complete.

Kuban State University: Russian Philology on the 45th Parallel

The article represents the history and modernity of philological scholarship in Kuban State University, the oldest university of classical education in the south of Russia, which has been preserving and developing the traditions in the sphere of education, science and social and educational activity since 1920. The authors describe the principal directions of philology development at the faculty: teaching Russian language and literature, academic research work in the field of literary studies, the history of Russian literature from its beginning up to present times, including literature of Russian expatriate community, literature of the peoples of Russia, literary regional studies, literary criticism, folklore studies, etc. One of the main directions of the research activities which the scholars have chosen is the search and comparison of the universal and nationally specific in the works of foreign and Russian poetry and prose. The problems of contemporary Russian language are discussed in the research and development project “Russian language potential”. The scholars of Kuban State University devote a lot of attention to studying Russian language from the perspective of psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, linguoculturology, cross-cultural communication, sociolinguistics, terminology studies, discourse theory. The leading idea of scholarly interests of professors and associate professors is the theme of “Linguoaxiology”, revealing a valuable component of Russian language unit and Russian discourse field. It’s necessary to point out that the research of linguistic and methodological basic training of Russian as а Foreign language/Russian as Non-Native language, the training of specialists in this field, questions of linguo-didactic testing in Krasnodar region are carried out only at the department of Russian as а Foreign language at the Kuban State University. The scholars deal with the description of the semantics of Russian language, study the regional cultural component of onomastics and problems of language policy. The development and teaching of Russian as а foreign language are also aimed at the perception of the uniqueness of Russian civilization. Russian philology on the 45th parallel is trying to preserve and develop the world of the Russian word, and the Russian world as a concept containing natural bounds of language, mentality and culture.