Russkaâ literatura

Tyutchev’s poem «Nature is not what you Imagine…» (the autograph has not survived) is known in two drastically different versions. One of them was published in Pushkin’s literary periodical Sovremennik in 1836, the other in Tyutchev’s lifetime collections of poems in 1854 and 1868. How can the coexistence of two very different versions of this poem be explained? What are the differences between them? Which version is the initial one, and which is the result of a later revision? The article offers the answers to these questions.

The article deals with Grigoriy Novitskiy’s book Brief Description of the Ostyak People, a document of Siberian writing of the early 18^th century. Our studies focus on the literary features of the text that formerly has been researched as a source of historical data only. Artistic features of the book, such as references to the medieval literary tradition, versified inclusions, citation of the Ancients etc. are analyzed in the article.

The short Italian and Spanish travelogues by P. P. Pertsov are samples of exploring and appropriating alien cultural spaces from within. Invoking the «image» of a country as reflected in the Russian culture, Pertsov tried to transcend the existing stereotypes and come up with his own image of a country and a cultural space as implanted in his own spirituality. Spanish Sketches and Florence resonate with Pertsov’s book Venice that was first published in 1905. Based on the manuscripts, all the stages of the writer’s work on his texts can be reconstructed. His studies of I. P. Muratov and H. Taine’s books on Italy (he translated the latter into Russian) led to the emergence of his own concept of representing the images of the «unknown» people and countries, of an anthropogeopraphy of culture of sorts.

The article considers the publishing history of the novel Moscow (Moscow Weirdo, Moscow under the Attack, 1926), using the new archival data and putting it into the context of the Communist Party guidelines and of the literary life of the 1920s, in connection with Bely’s publishing projects of the time. The focus is on Bely’s relations with the literary periodical Rossiya and Krug Publishing House, as well as on the involvement of B. A. Pilnyak and D. K. Bogomilsky in solving the writer’s literary and financial problems. The «portraits» of the contributors to the publishing history of Moscow who remain obscure in contemporary academic literature (N. E. Helminsky and D. K. Bogomilsky) are outlined.

The article is a reconstruction of a phantom dialogue in the form of a literary game based on projecting a translated French article about Laurence Sterne on the topical issues of national literature between two like-minded persons, Ivan Martynov, the editor of the Messenger of the North, who in 1804 published the French review in his magazine with the editor’s notes, and Mikhail Kaysarov, translator of Tristram Shandy, who responded with a «Letter», which, however, remained unpublished.

As for its quality, The Humpbacked Horse, a fairy-tale by P. P. Ershov, is comparable to Pushkin’s masterful tales that the young author used as his reference point, mostly under the influence of his teacher, Professor P. A. Pletnyov. The first thing to consider, however, is the folklore background of Ershov’s story, arguably based on The Tale of Ersh Ershovich (The Tale of the Ruffe the Ruffe’s Son); and it is for this reason that this character, with the name consonant to the name of the author, made his way into the tale about the Humpbacked Horse. The interest of the young man from Siberia in the Old Russian literature and folklore is also worth considering. Many fantastic images from Ershov’s fairy-tale (the magic horse, the Firebird, The Tsar Maiden) have insidious mythological origin, which certainly enriches the poetical quality of Ershov’s tale.

The article explores the censorship history of the early Russian translations of Alessandro Manzoni’s novel The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi). Examining the specific institutions of cultural transfer, the Foreign Censorship Committee that regulated the circulation of foreign language books and the rank-and-file censorship departments that were responsible for the translations into the languages of the Russian Empire, the author focuses on the institutional mechanisms of decision-making, ideological and social contexts of judgments and actions. Using archival documents and materials from the Rare Books and Manuscripts Departments of the Academic Library of St. Petersburg State University and the Academic Library of Moscow State University, the article reconstructs the history of the Russian translations of The Betrothed of 1833, 1840, and 1854, as well as the Polish translation of 1836; the author of the first translation of Manzoni’s novel, published in book form (1833), is identified, numerous censorship omissions and alterations in Vasiliy Mezhevich’s translation (1854) are noted. The study focuses on the analysis of translated literature within the internal political climate of the Russian Empire in the 1830s. This approach to translated literature, treating it through the prism of the reception of the foreign editions, expands the boundaries of Translation Studies on Russian material, as well as enables us to place the history of translated literature into the broader context of the social history of Russian literature of the Imperial period.

This article analyzes the conflict between I. A. Goncharov and I. S. Turgenev, placing it into the framework of social and literary contexts. Contrary to the traditional interpretations that emphasize the psychopathological aspects of the issue and focus on verification of plagiarism, this study proposes to examine the conflict as an episode in the evolution of the writers’ social roles and transformations in literary communication. Apart from clarifying the reasons for the conflict, this approach provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that shaped the literary field in Russia on the eve of the Great Reforms.

The article examines the works of fiction by K. N. Leontiev, produced in the 1850s and 1880s. It shows that the writer was gradually distancing himself from the attitudes of the Natural School and the thematic and stylistic trends of Critical Realism that shaped the literature of the day. Leontiev was cultivating the genre of retrobiographical novel, introducing new ethical and aesthetic ideas into his fiction. He was the pioneer of detailed treatment of the «Oriental» theme in the Russian belles-lettres, describing the life in the European regions of Turkey, where he had spent several years in the diplomatic service.

The article shows that the correlations of the progress from Realism to Modernism in literature and art of the late 19^th century should be considered, in literary terms, as a shift of the value center of the artistic system from the Realistic narrative to lyrics, from social determination to the emergence of individual sensitivity, from the criteria of wholeness, completeness and non-redundancy to randomness and incompleteness as the signs of «animated life».

The article outlines the history of the relationship between A. M. Remizov and Vl. V. Gippius. The period of their work at the Repertoire Section of the Theater Department, People’s Commissariat of Education, in 1918–1919 is briefly traced. The article focuses on the writers exchanging letters in April 1915, as well as on the poem by Gippius of 1919, dedicated to Remizov. These texts, stored at the Manuscript Department of the IRLI, are published for the first time. An attempt to interpret the poetic message of Gippius is made.

The article analyzes Yu. M. Nagibin’s novella Get Up and Go (1987). The «bifurcation» of the official and unofficial line of Yu. M. Nagibin’s creative work in the early 1940s disrupted his creative identity, and the first work of perestroika era is an attempt to overcome the crisis and regain one’s place in the world.

The article analyzes the first published Russian translation of the Spanish picaresque novel The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities, made by the serf writer V. G. Voroblevsky. The historical-comparative, textual and linguistic analysis of the Spanish original, the French mediator text and the Russian translation allowed the author of the article to identify the year of the first publication of the Russian translation (1777). The original source of the translation was also established as the Brussels edition of 1698. The version of the existence of a 1792 publication under the title Terpigorev is examined separately.

This article examines the reception and interpretation of V. Ya. Propp’s ideas in China and identifies the distinctive features of the perceiving subjects in the process of its sinicization. Chinese researchers use Propp’s insights to solve problems in domestic literary theories, which has major methodological and historical significance for building the Chinese literary theory and improving the critical practices.

[Review:] «Nevidimaia velichina». A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin: teatr, literatura, zhizn’ / Sost. E. N. Penskaia, O. N. Kuptsova; otv. red. T. V. Sokolova; Natsional’nyi issledovatel’skii universitet «Vysshaia shkola ekonomiki». M.: Izd. dom Vysshei shkoly ekonomiki, 2024. 472 s. + 20 s. tsv. vkl.