Volume 19, 2021 year

In this work, a list of the house nominations, stylistic and poetic means and techniques used to describe the groom’s and bride’s houses are considered based on published and archival materials of the 19th — early 21st centuries. The description of the newlyweds’ houses is formed by depicting three macrolocuses: the adjacent territory, or courtyard; the zone connecting the courtyard with the interior of the dwelling (porch, door, threshold) and the interior of the house, the image of which is formed by sequentially naming the loci that are most significant from the ritual viewpoint (place of honor, wide bench, furnace, etc.). The houses of both the groom and the bride are described using the very same poetic means of the ‘house’ semantic group. The concept of the bride’s house as a “strange” space for the groom’s party is manifested in speeches related to climbing the porch, opening doors, crossing the threshold and entrance. As the groomsman progresses and claims the house territory, the sense of the house as “strange” intensifies, reaches a critical point at the moment of crossing the threshold and declines after the entrance to the house. The dynamics of the groomsman’s image is revealed in speeches emphasizing the crossing of the threshold. The entrance of the best man to the house is interpreted as a case of crossing the boundary: penetration of the “strange” space is accompanied by a deterioration in vision, the onset of limpness and muteness, being marked, losing clothes or shoes, and giving away material values (money). As he claims the “strange” space and transcodes it into “own space,” the temporary physical indisposition of the groomsman passes. The courtyard, staircase, steps, porch, and threshold are regularly depicted in the descriptions of houses and adjacent territory. The most frequent epithets arewide andnew. Numerous diminutives are another feature of the texts that describe the house.

Keywords: wedding ritual, speeches of wedding groomsmen, folklore image of the world, concepts of house, genre vocabulary

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The article examines the peculiarities in the formation of the Orpheus mythologeme in the ancient cultural tradition. An analysis of the works of ancient authors, including Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, Apollonius of Rhodes, Virgil and Ovid allows to single out the specifics of creating the image of Orpheus. The latter is seen by the above-mentioned authors not only as a poet and musician who had lost his beloved Eurydice, but also as the founder of cult rites known as Orphic mysteries. “Orphism” as a system of religious and philosophical views became most widespread in the era of Peisistratus in the 6th century BC in Attica. Dionysus, revered by the Orphic, was important for farmers as a deity of eternal rebirth and powerful natural forces. In the ancient cultural tradition, the image of Orpheus develops under a double sign: both Apollo and Dionysus. The ideas of Orphic philosophy can be found in the religious and philosophical teachings of the Pythagorean school and in the writings of Plato. The original transformation of the Orphic-Pythagorean ideas and the mythologeme of Orpheus occurs in Virgil’s Georgics and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which are also the subject of this article. The comparative historical analysis of artworks and philosophical treatises of antiquity carried out in the course of this study indicates that the mythologeme of Orpheus in the ancient cultural tradition is an example of the embodiment of the syncretic unity of art and religion in the archaic consciousness.

Keywords: myth of Orpheus, philosophical and religious teachings, Orphism, antiquity, comparative historical poetics, mythopoetics, mythological intellection

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An analysis of the works devoted to the poetics of the title demonstrates that although the majority of facts are presented correctly, the lack of a systematic approach and the required historical perspective makes the explanation of their origin completely unsatisfactory. It actualizes the need to review all the discovered facts in the history of the title as a form of the author’s reflection on the text framework in the context of historical poetics. Periodization of historical poetics in the terminology proposed by S. S. Averintsev demonstrates that the title is absent in the period of pre-reflexive traditionalism and appears only when moving to the next period, namely, reflexive traditionalism. The most archaic titles include the widely understood genre and theme of the text. Later, the title transforms into merely a name; common titles with predication occur sporadically. During the Renaissance, the title may have acquired a conditional character (numerical name), and the identification of the text was carried out through the development of the predicative part, which annotated the text and was sometimes of a promotional nature. The title in its modern form emerges during the transition from reflexive traditionalism to the anti-traditionalist tendencies of the bourgeois era. In the 19th century, the abstract becomes an independent genre and breaks away from the title, while the author, who was initially in the last position, subsequently moved to the first in the title complex (book name, genre, author).

Keywords: title, title complex, abstract, historical poetics, pre-reflex traditionalism, reflex traditionalism, anti-traditionalist tendencies of the bourgeois era

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The article examines the correlation of the Russian classic novel with the Easter archetype dominant in Russian culture. The authors believe that the novel assumed a central position in the genre system of 19th century Russian literature, not only because of its natural openness, which allowed it to recreate life and man both in the general dimension and in private manifestations, but also because of the greatest responsiveness of this genre to the spiritual needs of Russian culture. The article examines the “plot space” of the Russian novel, which gravitates towards the archetypal model, actualizing the scenario of rehabilitation (Dostoevsky) / awakening (Goncharov), or salvation. Not only doesn’t the hero’s line in the Russian novel imply an end; moreover, as it lines up vertically, it suggests his rebirth to a “new life,” sometimes even posthumous, as was the case with Turgenev’s Bazarov, or through the fear of falling into the hellish abyss of modern life, as is it was with Oblomov. Using the example of novels by F. Dostoevsky, I. Turgenev, I. Goncharov and L. Tolstoy, the article demonstrates that the main mission of the hero of the Russian novel was that of personal salvation, the achievement of “new happiness” (Prince Andrei Bolkonsky), which is associated with forgiveness, a willingness to accept God and with the “new life.” The Easter nature of Russian culture predetermines the gravitation of the Russian classical novel (as a typological variety of the Russian novel) to the artistic realizations of the idea of salvation present in world literature in genres of a non-novel nature. The Russian novel primarily developed the storylines and motifs that originated in Dante’s Divine Comedy and Goethe’s Faust, which suggested two options for personal salvation: the awareness of sins and “behind the door of the grave.” The second option was more relevant for the 19th century Russian novel. The savior hero, rooted in Cervantes’s novel, was also relevant for Russian literature, although not as popular. Taking into account the complex explorations of modern writers in the field of the novel genre, the authors conclude that there is a present-day connection with the Russian classic novel, i.e., in E. Vodolazkin’s prose: apparent signs of a “Dante plot” are present in the novel Lavr. Regardless of all the metamorphoses, the Russian classical novel is still a national literary model in the space of Russian culture.

Keywords: Russian classic novel, Easter, plot space, salvation plot, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, Turgenev, Pasternak, Vodolazkin

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Motley Tales (1833) is one of the completed cycles by V. F. Odoevsky. The writer wished to create a number of cycles, but did not complete a significant number. The article substantiates the importance of viewing Motley Tales as an aesthetically integrated whole due to the order of their arrangement, and common themes and motifs, and despite their “motley” nature. The author discusses the diversity of subject matter in fairy tales, but focuses on only one motif — that of “objectification”. It is important for the entire corpus of work by Odoevsky. The author substantiates the cyclical nature of this motif in the Motley Tales. The term “objectification” is understood in the article in accordance with the concept put forth by M. M. Bakhtin. This scientist called “objectification” of various transformations of a person into an object, or the reduction of a person to an object. The “objectification” motif will be vital for F. M. Dostoevsky, and will already emerge in N. V. Gogol’s work, but even before that — in V. F. Odoevsky's Motley Tales. “Objectification” is immediately mentioned in the prefaces by the publisher and the writer. Subsequently, this motif manifests itself in all the fairy tales, whose characters are either inclined to objectify others, or are themselves subjected to objectification. Sometimes they do not notice it or even find pleasure in it, yet at other times they recognize their position with horror. The motif of revival is also present in the cycle: a person throws the death veil off his soul, while objects proclaim their humanity. On the whole, however, the deadness of the world in Motley Tales remains unresolved. Inert captivity fetters objects and people who are increasingly more immersed in everyday life. At the same time, the bleak state of the ethically tense world of characters is overcome in its own way in the cycle’s aesthetic reality. Awareness of materiality, its humorous play upon it, conviction in the inexhaustibility of the eternal poetry of being, open up a scintillating opportunity for the resurrection of “living life.”

Keywords: V. F. Odoevsky, “Motley Tales”, cycle, aesthetic unity, objectification, fiction, the fantastic, the impossible, the fantastika

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The article analyzes the role of Latinisms in the literary and journalistic texts of F. M. Dostoevsky. By virtue of his education, the writer was wellacquainted with Latin literature, which undoubtedly affected his poetics. Multilingualism becomes one of the polyphonic tools of the latter: combination of languages performs a characterological function, enriching the characters’ speech portrait and expanding the linguocultural context of their worldview. Latin quotations are either provided by Dostoevsky as independent sentences, or integrated into the text and adjusted to the Russian syntax and grammar. Truncated or modified aphorisms integrated in the characters’ words are an attempt to substantiate their beliefs through an appeal to cultural constants. Most often, a change of this sort takes on a parodic character and turns into an alteration of meanings and a denial of spiritual values. Expressions from the Catholic culture occupy a special place in Dostoevsky’s poetics. On the one hand, Latin Catholic names complement the figurative embodiment of the Christian faith. On the other hand, while being the object of irony, ridicule or criticism, for Dostoevsky church Latin formulas illustrate an important topic in Roman Catholic Christianity: using the example of the so-called “Roman question,” the writer develops the idea of the life and death of religion in Europe.

Keywords: F. M. Dostoevsky, Latin, quotation, aphorism, idiostyle, author’s thesaurus

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The article clarifies the genre content of the novel The Raw Youth as a novel of education, reveals the philosophical and pedagogical ideas of F. M. Dostoevsky regarding the principles and content of spiritual and moral upbringing in the Orthodox environment. The connection between the artistic presentation of the upbringing process in the novel and the author's ideas, which are essentially similar to the ideas of the Christian anthropology school in late 19th century pedagogy, is outlined. In contrast with and in overcoming the “accidental family,” which is extralegal in the spiritual and civil sense, Dostoevsky offers society the idea of kindred love, which is manifested in the “mind of the heart” (emotional intelligence), the unity of value and moral grounds, mutual respect and support and non-violent relations. Depicting the story of the “accidental family,” which was the result of God's indulgence of human infirmity and lack of reason, F. M. Dostoevsky allows the heroes and the reader to see the human relations ideal in the phenomenon of the family. The former correlates with the will of God and the essential world order. The novel is understood as a representation of a person’s spiritual path. The interpretation of the negative role of Versilov in the spiritual formation of Arkady Dolgoruky undergoes a critical examination. Positive changes in the soul of the Raw Youth are determined by the desire to know and the knowledge of the father’s spiritual make-up. The space of kindred love and family is revealed to be instrumental in the emergence of the collective personality of the Raw Youth and in the spiritual enrichment of all family members. The author concludes that the development of a young person is conditioned both by his own search for the ideal, which is typical for youth, and by the joint efforts of the family that moves towards its ideal through overcoming the separation, which is a source of suffering.

Keywords: spiritual growth, “The Raw Youth”, Orthodox upbringing, kindred love, novel of upbringing, family, F. M. Dostoevsky

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The article provides an analysis of the poem by A. A. Fet Sevastopol Bed of Honor and considers the historical, literary and biographical context of this work. The creation of the poem is connected with Fet’s trip to the Crimea in September 1879 and his visit to the Sevastopol Bed of Honor. Crimean impressions were first conveyed in Fet’s prose (in the article Famusov and Molchalin. Something About Our Nobility (1885)). During the work on the book of memoirs My Memories (1887–1889), the poet’s Crimean impressions were “revived” and found a poetic manifestation in the poem Sevastopol Bed of Honor, dated June 10, 1887. They were initially published as a part of the third issue of Evening Lights. This poem holds a special place in Fet’s lyrics due to its great civic pathos, patriotic ideas, the expression of the Gospel sermon about love and the all-conquering belief that there are no dead for God. An ideal image of the defender of the fatherland is created and the feat of Russian weapons is glorified in Fet’s lyric work. The death motif is the central one Sevastopol Bed of Honor. However, in this work death is nothing like non-being or insignificance (as in the poems Insignificance, To death, Never), but, rather, life in eternity. The features of the poem’s rhythmic structure are analyzed. The most important verse in terms of meaning is emphasized by rhythmic and syntactic means. It is directly related to the Christian understanding of higher love, which is manifested in the willingness to give one’s own life for friends.

Keywords: Fet, lyric poem, “Sevastopol Bed of Honor,” Crimean war, impression, memory, motif, death, patriotism, “higher love”

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A. P. Chekhov's short story The Fidget (1892) is an abridged hypertext of G. Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary (1856). The article undertakes a detailed comparison of the characters who occupy a similar place in the narrative and figurative system of these two works: Osip Dymov and Charles Bovary. Both of them are doctors, but Chekhov's character seems to realize the untapped potential that was laid down in the character penned by Flaubert. He is no longer a failed doctor, but a talented one, with all the qualities required to become an excellent medical scientist. Thus, Chekhov does not merely stand up for the medical community, which he is no stranger to. Thanks to this, the story of the Russian writer transforms into a polemical interpretation of the classic French novel. In Flaubert's Emma's imaginary search for the meaning of life, which explains her two adulteries in Madame Bovary, Chekhov seems rather inclined to see the selfishness and lack of responsibility that destroy her family and lead to her own death. It is not by chance that Dymov, rather than Olga Ivanovna dies as a result of her own similar behavior in Chekhov’s short story. At the same time, Chekhov's text is also a polemical interpretation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1873–1877), which was created as an explicit hypertext of Flaubert's novel. In the short story, Chekhov's critical reinterpretation of these two works is clearly based on a kind of “folk” morality of the Ant from the canonical Krylov fable The Dragonfly and the Ant (1808), which is clearly referenced in the title and text of the story. The intertextual structure of Chekhov's story is examined in the article primarily as a system of its pretexts, some of which relate to it in unison, and others-dissonantly. At the same time, the former are the object of polemical interpretation, while the latter are the subject of stylization and value orientation.

Keywords: Chekhov, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Krylov, doctor, physician, medicine, pretext, intertext, hypertext, short story, structure, novеl, fable, parable

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The concept of “degeneration” is associated with the fin-de-siècle period and came to Russian soil from Western Europe. First and foremost, it was represented there by Cesare Lombroso and his popularizer, the author of the book Degeneration, Max Nordau. The concept of degeneracy was studied by the scientist using the work of outstanding representatives of European art, including Leo Tolstoy. The book was a scandalous success in Russia and a subject of numerous magazine reviews. Chekhov implicitly participated in this polemic. The writer’s cryptic review of the fashionable problem of degeneracy can be seen in the image of Dr. Dorn, which allows to examine the elements of Chekhov’s cryptopoetics. The surname of this character in The Seagull is considered as a transformation of the surname Nordau. An analysis of Dorn’s behavior and speech suggests that the author of the play uses it to express his position regarding the “nervous age” and the fatigue and degeneration associated with it. The intertextually expressed polemic between Chekhov and Nordau allows to define the role of Dorn as a hidden trickster. This is an additional argument that proves the validity of the author’s definition of The Seagull as a comedy.

Keywords: A. P. Chekhov, Max Nordau, the concept of degeneracy, “The Seagull”, cryptopoetics, intertext, artistic polemics, irony

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This study examines the early phase of the self-defining process in Russian literary modernism, which demonstrated a desire to establish clear demarcation between “decadence” and “symbolism” on one hand and to be free from the psychopathological discourse in the evaluation of new artistic phenomena, thereby shifting the conventionally recognized border between “norm” and “pathology.” This paper analyses Aleksander Blok’s own views on “decadence” and “decadents” on the basis of his ego-documents (his diary and notebooks), discusses “decadents” and “symbolists” in the press, and, finally, the poet’s response to them and its literary embodiment — the poem “A. M. Dobrolyubov” (1903). In this poem Blok represents the image of one of the first Russian decadents A. Dobrolyubov, whose life became a legend, giving rise to a certain narrative. The basic concepts of the image created by Aleksander Blok in this poem are investigated, in particular, the image of a “sick child”: its sources, which date back to the polemics of the early 1900s and to a corpus of articles written by Z. Gippius, are identified along with a number of intertextual parallels (D. Merezhkovsky, F. Dostoevsky, A. Dobrolyubov). The article traces the poem’s textological history (from a note in the autograph book and the first publication to the inclusion in the “lyrical trilogy”) and reveals the functions of the epigraph as a marker of the “Petersburg text.”

Keywords: symbolism, decadence, psychopathology, psychiatry, life creation, poetics of the “Petersburg text,” epigraph, paratext

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The article is devoted to the analysis of the early lyrics of N. A. Klyuev: its socio-political motifs are considered, both in the context of the poet’s biography, and through the prism of Modern slavery, a work by the ideologist of social Christianity F.-R. Lamennais. This kind of rapprochement is rooted in the content of Klyuev’s works, as well as a number of circumstances related to the place of publication of Lamennais’ work in Russian, namely, the revolutionary publishing house “Seyatel’,” well-known among socialist revolutionaries, to whom Klyuev was close in the mid-1900s. The integration of Klyuev into the circle of socialist revolutionaries in 1905–1907 suggests that the poet was familiar with the literature that was widespread in this circle, including Lamennais’ work Modern Slavery. This work of the ideologist of social Christianity is considered one of the sources of the life-creating pathos of Klyuev’s early lyrics, aimed at the universal transformation of being. The article conditionally identifies and reveals two stages of the formation of Klyuev’s social Christianity poetics. At the first stage, Klyuev’s works reproduce the main message of Lamennais’ work: the rejection of slavery inherited through the “modern slave’s” awareness of his human dignity and his rebellion, against the established socio-historical tradition. At the second stage, the most important categories of Lamennais’ work — brotherhood, co-labor, and sacrifice — find their full meaning in Klyuev’s works: practical revolutionary work “for the brothers” now becomes a form of co-laboring with God, and the experience of difficulties and hardships on the revolutionary path — a form of spiritual co-crucifixion with Christ.

Keywords: N. A. Klyuev, F.-R. Lamennais, creative dialogue, poetics, poetry, image, plot, composition, motif, philosophy, social Christianity, life creation

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The article examines the artistic depiction of vicious passion in Vladimir Nabokov’s Russian-language novels King, Queen, Knave and Camera Obscura. The purpose of this work is to describe the stylistic and narrative mechanisms used by Nabokov to examine the roots, development and final reign of the forbidden passion that enslaves a human soul. Contrary to the common stereotype of Nabokov as a predominantly “aesthetic” writer, the texts of his works reveal a profound moral dimension. Moreover, Nabokov’s approach to the concepts of sin and virtue, ethics and aesthetics often echoes, and sometimes completely coincides with the teachings of the founders of Christian theology and asceticism (Marcus Eremita, Peter of Damascus etc.). For example, the four-step description of the evolution of sinful passion into a destructive obsession finds unconditional embodiment in the texts analysed herein. On the other hand, marital love, based on kinship of souls and mutual fidelity, stays in clear contrast to an ordinary consumer lust. A happy and harmonious marriage, understood precisely in the spiritual and personal sense, overcomes social and everyday boundaries in Nabokov’s work, definitely breaking into a transcendent dimension. This fact is all the more curious because Nabokov was never a religious person and, judging by his own words, never displayed any interest in theological matters. Consequently, the common features that unite Nabokov’s morality and metaphysics with the foundations of the Christian

Keywords: Nabokov, sin, passion, patristic heritage, temptation, suffering, asceticism, marriage, religion, theology, aesthetics and ethics, love

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The article analyzes the origins of the last term motif in V. Rasputin’s prose. An early short story by V. Rasputin Bearskin for Sale (1967) examines this motif from the standpoint of Christian Orthodox axiology. The analysis uses the first two editions of the short story: 1966 and 1967. The motif of the last term determines the plot of the work and reveals biblical and evangelical reminiscences that connect the story with the traditional image of the world in Russian culture, where the leading ideas are human repentance and salvation of the soul. A. N. Uzhankov’s research, which reveals the patterns of development in ancient Russian literature, explains the presence of the idea of “last times” in the minds of the ancient Russian chroniclers. V. Raspustin’s prose restores the continuity of post-1917 Russian literature with the origins of Russian literature. The story of the hunter Vasily in Bearskin for Sale reveals the psychology of human renewal, the emergence of a new attitude towards time, life, oneself and the animate in nature. Cyclic, repeated and expected time, in which a person was previously included, is replaced for him by that which is discrete, interrupted, expressed in the feeling of every moment of life as the last. A person who is ripped by sin out of harmonious coexistence with the world becomes different through an inner admission of his guilt. The motif of the last term, characteristic of the main works of V. Rasputin, the stories Money for Maria, The Last Term, Live and Remember, Farewell to Matyora is revealed from the very beginning of his literary path.

Keywords: biblical reminiscence, cultural memory, cyclical time, eschatological time, the motif of the last term, ancient Russian literature

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The article explores the poetics of Yu. O. Dombrovsky's novel The Monkey Comes for its Skull (1943–1959) through the prism of medical discourse, which occupies a prominent place in the structure of the work. Every appeal of the novel’s characters to medical discourse indicates a situation of communicative shift, the breakdown of connections between words and things. Thus, “medicalization” becomes one of the symptoms of the new paradoxical reality of occupied and post-war Europe. Contrary to the Enlightenment paradigm, a medical view of the motives of human actions does not reveal the truth, but on the contrary, leads away from it. For Dombrovsky's work, ancient Stoic philosophy with its understanding of wisdom as therapy of the soul, the completeness of self-control and absolute spiritual freedom is also important. Sooner or later, each of the characters has to remain one-on-one with his own conscience and moral dilemmas, while auxiliary discursive practices cease to be an effective means of social camouflage. The ideological composition of the work corresponds to a specific narrative technique and motive structure, which is characterized by the use of genre techniques of detective and spy novels. In general, the novel The Monkey Comes for Its Skull offers the reader an alternative to “new prose,” with its demonstrative rejection of fictionality, its accent on documentary, factography. Dombrovsky prefers to overcome the “literariness” of literature from within the prevailing genre and aesthetic conventions, synthesizing and transforming various types of discourses, including medical ones.

Keywords: Dombrovsky, medical discourse, antifascist novel, poetics, Aesopian language, pragmatics, detective genre, patient, Stoicism

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The article presents an analysis of Christian topics in prose works about the island of Kizhi. Methodologically, the study combines the approaches of studying the local text that have already become conventional, with the principles of historical poetics, bringing back the possibilities of diachronic analysis. This allows to take into account both the timeless semantic constants of the Kizhi Island image in literature, and the intellectual context of late Soviet literature, which is now attracting the attention of many researchers. 1960-70s are the period when the largest number of texts about the island appeared. The article offers a classification of the Christian topoi in the texts of that period. Three works by different authors are considered in more detail (Yu. Kazakov’ short story Adam and Eve, I. Mazuruk’s short story Kizhi, and V. Pul'kin’s book The Kizhi Tales), in which the Christian topic is represented both explicitly and implicitly — in the images of the church, icons, biblical story about Adam and Eve, gospel images of the apostles. In Soviet prose and poetry, the primordial religious meaning of Christian topoi is most often concealed in the subtext. The depiction of Christian symbols is ambivalent and requires legitimization: through folklore, through the theme of historical memory, dialogue of the past and present, etc. This kind of ambivalence clearly illustrates the complexity of the intellectual and spiritual atmosphere of the Thaw and the contradictory attitude of Russian literature towards the Christian traditions.

Keywords: Kizhi, Russian literature, local text, the Thaw, plot, Christian topic

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