Volume 3, 1994 year

Russian literature and Christianity

Abstract:
The article describes Russian literature in the Christian context, explains the need for establishing a new concept of the Russian literature history and studying it in the Christian context, as well as studying its national peculiarities in terms of ethnopoetics.

Keywords: literature, philology, Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, ethnical poetics, Evangelical text

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Cyrillic alphabet: deciphering and interpretation of the first Slavic poetic text

Abstract:
The article aims to develop and prove a theory of basic alphabetic letters nomination principle and of original value of most of those letters as certain atoms of our writing culture, intended by their creator to lay the foundation of the Slavs everyday spiritual life.

Keywords: Slavonic alphabet, alphabetical names, Cyrillic script, Glagolitic alphabet

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The category of sobornost` in Russian literature

Abstract:
The article explains the need of using Eastern Orthodox category of sobornost` (conciliarity) in the process of Russian literature learning. It also gives the reasons why literary historians do not use this term. The author emphasizes that sobornost` is the most crucial attribute of Orthodoxy and demonstrates the trans-historical character of sobornost` using Russian literature as an example.

Keywords: Sobornost’, Logos, goodness, contexts of understanding, binary perception

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Russian kenotizm: reassessment of a term

Abstract:
The author analyzes popular Western terms kenotic and kenotizm in relation to the Russian religious mentality.

Keywords: kenoticism, theology, hagiography, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, Georgy Petrovich Fedotov, Vladimir Nikolayevich Lossky

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From a quote to the topic. The role of the parable in the formation of a new Russian literature

Abstract:
Writers appeal in the XIX and XX centuries to Old Russian legends required understanding and exploration of its artistic principles. The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that almost all stories classified in the genre of parable in the XVII century have been developed in the literature of the early modern period. Old Russian parable based on the Gospel quotations easily fitted into the literature of another era.

Keywords: literary process, parable story, rambling plot

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Apocriphal tale The Passion of Christ: some aspects of its structure and poetics

Abstract:
The article examines structural and poetic aspects of apocriphal tale The Passion of Christ. The author compares existing variants of the story, defining difference between apocryphal literature and the sacred text of the Gospel. The article also identifies two ways of the tale's text development: similarities with hagiographic and religious didactic literature, on the one hand, and with the folk tales, on the other hand

Keywords: Story of Christ’s Passion, Apocrypha, poetics, hagiographic literature, folklore text (russian)

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The combination of ancient and Christian traditions in Alexander Pushkin’s lyric poetry of 1820’s — 1830’s

Abstract:
The article traces the proximity and convergence of ancient and Christian imagery in the lyric poetry of mature Alexander Pushkin, which creates the special depth of the abyss of Space of his symbols.

Keywords: Pushkin’s lyrics, classical and Christian traditions, the interrelationship

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Evangelical calendar of Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (studying the issue of internal chronology of a novel in verse)

Abstract:
The article examines the cultural semantics of the calendar concept in the vocabulary of Alexander Pushkin and his era, where church tradition played a special role. The author identifies the role of calendar-type cyclic organization of the novel in verse timeline. The author concludes that the central events of the novel Eugene Onegin receive new interpretation in light of the evangelical calendar.

Keywords: Gospel, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, Eugene Onegin, calendar, cyclicity

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The archetype of the prodigal son in Russian literature of the XIX century

Abstract:
The article makes an assumption that Russian literature of the XIX century was exposed to the archetype of prodigal son and, in essence, did not have any original atheist writers, using works of Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov and others as evidence.

Keywords: archetype, Christian literature, myth, Gospel, Arthur Schopenhauer

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The correlation between the artistic and religious perceptions in Vasily Zhukovsky’s aesthetics (1830—1840)

Abstract:
The author examines one of the latest periods of Vasily Zhukovsky's relationship to religion. The key issues discussed in the article are the problem of faith, the Christian grief as a key concept of Zhukovsky's psychological concept, the poet's relationship with the Decembrists, and intrinsic relation between Zhukovsky and Gogol in 1840’s.

Keywords: Vasily Zhukovsky, Decembrists, Nikolai Gogol, philosophy of religion, Christian sorrow

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Motifs of the Blessed. Virgin Mary in Tyutchev's landscape lyrics

Abstract:
In article the author shows a role and place Bogorodichnye motives in Tjutchev's landscape lyrics. The given motive helps to understand a national originality of Christian sights of Tyutchev, formation of evangelical principles of its poetics.

Keywords: Tjutchev, landscape lyrics, сhristianity, tradition, motives, The eternal Virgin

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Fyodor Dostoevsky and Eastern Orthodoxy: preliminary notes

Abstract:
The article raises the following questions: how to conceive and interpret Fyodor Dostoevsky`s words about his faith held by many doubts; how Dostoevsky himself understood Christianity; and what theological aspects his religious philosophy contained.

Keywords: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Eastern Orthodoxy, philosophy of religion

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The problem of laughter and Christianity in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov

Abstract:
This article deals with the problem of laughter and the Christian worldview in the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The article reveals a special role of the laughter-inducing elements in the novel The Brothers Karamazov, highlights the importance of the relationship to joy and gaiety for understanding each character and the novel as a whole.

Keywords: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov novel, Christianity, laugh, joy, mirth, poetics, semantics text (russian)

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The role of a blessed fool for Christ hero in the dialogue of Fyodor Dostoevsky`s hierarches

Abstract:
The article interprets the foolishness for Christ concept as a dialogue between the spirit and the social environment, illustrating this view with the example of two Fyodor Dostoevsky's characters — Prince Myshkin and Alexey (Alyosha) Karamazov.

Keywords: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Christ, Old and New Testaments, foolishness for Christ, dialogue

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Dispute between Paul Claudel and André Gide about the image of Jesus Christ in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works

Abstract:
The author examines the influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky`s view of Christian dispensation on French Roman Catholic writers André Gide and Paul Claudel, exploring their dispute concerning Dostoevsky’s works.

Keywords: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, André Gide, Paul Claudel, Christ

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Evangelical background (semantic and stylistic) in the Nikolai Leskov’s novel At Daggers Drawn

Abstract:
This paper analyzes the content, methods of introduction, format and function of biblical motifs, images, quotations, which determine specific features of the semiotic poetics in the novel At Daggers Drawn and contribute to the artistic expression of Nikolai Leskov’s position, given his active involvement in polemics with the ideology and practice of Russian nihilism.

Keywords: evangelical background, biblical borrowings, symbolic poetics, complex of themes, polemics, Nikolai Leskov

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Characteristics of the national archetype of the Christ mythologeme in Ivan Turgenev’s literary works

Abstract:
The article analyzes the functional role of the New Testament allusions in Ivan Turgenev’s works, such as The Hunting Sketches ("Living Relic"), and Poems in Prose (Charity and Christ). Turgenev's artistic interpretation of Jesus Christ’s image creates a dialogue with this mythologeme interpretations in Christian theology and European art.

Keywords: national archetype, Ivan Turgenev, Christ

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Easter story as a Russian literary genre

Abstract:
The article describes genesis, evolution, and poetics of the Easter story as a genre of Russian literature and illustrates its fundamental distinction from Christmas and Christmastide stories

Keywords: literature, Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Christmas and Easter archetype, Charles Dickens, Aleksey Khomyakov, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Leskov, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Bunin

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From the fairy tale to literature: folklore transformation of evangelical traditions in Nikolai Fedotov

Abstract:
The article analyzes the correspondence between Nikolai Fedotov's philosophy of the common cause and the problematics of Russian folk fairy tale. The author also analyzes the causes of this correspondence and its impact on literature.

Keywords: folklore fairy tale, Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov`s philosophy, folk Christianity

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Anton Chekhov's last psalm (The Bishop)

Abstract:
The author examines Anton Chekhov's story The Bishop in light of two aspects of the biblical traditions problem. The first aspect is the moral and artistic nature of Chekhov's interpretation of Gospel plots and images, as well as genres as means of epic incarnation. The second aspect of the research concerns the problem of Chekhov’s attitude toward religion and Christian faith.

Keywords: Psalter, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, biblical traditions, image, plot, genre

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Christian motifs in K. Fofanov's poetry

Abstract:
The author traces the principles of artistic presentation of biblical motifs in K. Fofanov’s lyric poetry and their evolution. The article shows how the Christian worldview is integrated and transformed in the aesthetics of neo-romanticism and modernism.

Keywords: Bible, Christianity, lyric poetry, K. Fofanov, Neo-Romantism, modernism, motif

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Alexander Blok’s Guardian Angel

Abstract:
The article analyzes Alexander Blok’s poem Guardian Angel, which reveals an unexpected and unfamiliar part of Blok’s personality — his Christian identity.

Keywords: guardian angel, Alexander Blok, lyrical persona, history of the text, motif

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The Sinai Patericon in Mikhail Kuzmin’s Wings (Christian text in a non-Christian context)

Abstract:
The article discusses the role and transformation of the Old Believers’ traditions in Mikhail Kuzmin’s modernist aesthetics representing the synthesis of polar cultures. The analysis of Mikhail Kuzmin’s artistic re-interpretation of a story from The Sinai Patericon in his story Wings (1905) suggests that this Christian literary artifact is included by the writer into the context of Neo-Platonism and is assimilated by it.

Keywords: Mikhail Kuzmin's "Wings", "The Sinai Patericon", Old Belief (staroobryadchestvo), modernism, Neo-Platonism, synthesis of cultures

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The resurrected soul in Nikolai Klyuev’s poetry

Abstract:
The idea of salvation is one of the key messages of Nikolai Klyuev’s poetry, from his spiritual verses to his final poems. This article is aimed at showing the meaning of this idea for creating key images (the Mother and the Son), plots, and Klyuev’s philosophy of history. Nikolai Klyuev established a link between the idea of the country’s resurrection and maternal cult restoration in Russia.

Keywords: Nikolai Klyuev, spiritual verse, Mother’s image

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Principles of paganism, Old Belief and Christianity in Nikolai Klyuev’s poetry

Abstract:
The article examines the nature and the role of religious principles for Nikolai Klyuev’s artistic concept of the world. It analyzes biblical reminiscences, images of saints, and the role of the icon concept in Klyuev’s poetry. The article also indicates the poet’s religious syncretism — the synthesis of paganism, Old Belief, Christianity and revolutionary ideas in his poetry.

Keywords: Bible, Christianity, Old Belief (staroobryadchestvo), paganism, revolution, Nikolai Klyuev, artistic concept of the world

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Religious feelings in the context of consciousness of passions (Ivan Bunin’s The Life of Arseniev. Youth)

Abstract:
The article analyzes Ivan Bunin’s novel The Life of Arseniev, tracing the way the consciousness of passions embodied in the literary reality of his novels and stories changes the traditional concept of religiousness. The nature of this transformation is determined by the synthesis of pagan, Buddhist and Russian Orthodox ideas.

Keywords: Ivan Bunin, consciousness of the passions, Eastern Orthodoxy, paganism, Buddhism, poetic reality

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Christian and anti-Christian tendencies in Andrei Platonov’s literary works (1910’s — 1920’s)

Abstract:
The article focuses on Andrei Platonov’s early works. The article examines the conflict of Christian values and revolutionary ideas in his journalism, poetry and prose of the late 1910—1920’s, and also analyzes the use and transformation of Christian images, symbols and plots.

Keywords: ценности Христианства, революция, идея, образ, символ, сюжет, А. Платонов

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Christianity theme in Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago

Abstract:
Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago is analyzed in light of the interpretation of images of Christ and the Gospel, which were seen by Boris Pasternak as the eternal foundation of human history and culture. The author identifies the dominant Christian motifs, compares author’s representation and quotation outline of the novel. The analysis results suggest that the novel’s poetics and philosophy is determined by the evangelical concept of the Incarnation mystery.

Keywords: Christianity, Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, theme, motif, quotation, interpretation

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Axiology of literary criticism: concept establishment experience

Abstract:
The article assumes that the understanding of a literary work depends on the attitude of a person describing it (i.e., his or her interpretation). The authors identifies existing contexts of understanding, used by researchers — historical and literary, along with mythopoetic. Besides, the author suggests a new context of understanding, which is derived from the existence of different types of cultures and mentalities.

Keywords: Axiology of literary criticism: concept establishment experience

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