Volume 15, 2017 year

The article deals with Nikolai Gogol’s first novel “Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” (1830), and studies the difference between its early and canonical editions, that argues for an attempt of an emerging author to create the “poetic history” of the people. The history in question is based on the traditional motifs of Slavic folklore: the love between two orphans, the separation of lovers (and the death of one or both of them afterwards), the soul selling, the “accidental” crime and God’s punishment for apostasy. Such a motif system of the story refers to an epic coverage of the events, that is characteristic for a fairy tale, while the description of the hero’s life — from his birth to his marriage and death — and of the typical for those times path to Cossacks can be attributed to the formal signs of the novel. However, the key feature of the novel is the negative characterization of the institution of Cossacs given here, conditioned by the previously existing official point of view, which contradicts its image in other Little Russian novels of the great writer. In the early prose of Gogol, Little Russia was first depicted as the land of miracles, the area of poetic world, with its history translated in legends, songs, and tales of its people.

Keywords: Nikolai Gogol, “Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, “poetic history” of Little Russia, Cossacks, historical mythology, legends

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Turgenev’s novel “On the Eve” (“Nakanune”) is studied in relation to the Holy Scripture, in interaction with new lyrical and semantic contexts against the broad background of Turgenev’s creative works, as a whole. In the inner plan of the novel the system of biblical allusions and reminiscences is revealed, and their artistic functions in the poetics of the literary work. Attention is drawn to unrenowned, at first glance, artistic details, motifs and images, that contributes to a deeper penetration into Turgenev’s text and subtext. Associative links, formed by the thickening of figurative-symbolic elements, allow us to turn to a new interpretation of the novel “On the Eve”, in the title of which the thematic and symbolic beginnings of the text are concentrated. The analysis of the paratextuality of “On the Eve” is conducted; it becomes clear how the artistic text interacts with its own name. The novel gives a new interpretation of the title of the novel in the Christian vein. Based on the analysis, the main conclusion that the general religious and philosophical orientation of the novel “On the Eve”, lyrical and symbolic images and generalizations, Christian allusions allow the possibility of combining an artistic text with the evangelical context, is rooted in the proof that it leads to boundless spiritual and semantic depths.

Keywords: I. S. Turgenev, novel “On the Eve” (“Nakanune”), meaning of the title, Gospel, Christian allusions

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The article presents the analysis of the main problems of the long short story “Plastun” by Nikolay Tolstoy (the elder brother of Leo Tolstoy), that is the life of a man kidnapped during the Caucasus War and forced to live all his life in captivity. In the centre of narration there is a real man though described as a generalized character as far as he does not have a personal name. Different periods of his life are marked by certain nicknames, such as Zaychik-Volkovoy-Zaporozetz. The main character tells the listener Tolstoy N. N., who shows the interest and compassion to his life, the story of his childhood and youth. As a child his nickname was a Zaychik. As an adult he became an experienced hunter and an expert in animal habits the fact that explains his new nickname – Volkovoy. The composition of the long short story is full of philosophical, psychological and ethic symbols and personifications, based on Sacred Writings and the Patristic Tradition. The childhood-youth part of the short story is particularly symbolic as then the virgin soul of the hero felt the presence of God and  strived to pray. The images-symbols play an important role in the artistic world of the short story: a singing nightingale, birds, men-mice, the “glass” sea, fish and palaces in the Zaychik’s dreams.

Keywords: N. N. Tolstoy, “Plastun”, long short story, poetics, image, motive, symbolical implication, religious and philosophical aspects

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The article deals with the parable-short story of I. A. Goncharov “Fish Soup” (“Uha”), written presumably in July-August of 1891. It is aimed at altering the predominating opinion about the writer’s final literary work as a local Simbirsk joke about cuckold husbands and a quick-witted psalm reader. The short story is considerably a literary hoax, that behind the events nay conceal the gospel parable about the confrontation between the “wise and prudent” on the one hand, and passionate believers, “the innocent”, “babies” on the other hand. According to the allusions and reminiscences the short story contains by a trivial story-line about fishing on the Volga the author means a probable scene of the apostleship, where the sexton plays the role of an illiterate Apostle-fisherman, a “Men Fisherman”. This fact completely changes the meaning of the literary work and of its title. The short story reveals the spiritual interest of late Goncharov to people of simple but deep faith. The “Fish Soup” (“Uha”) is imbued by autobiographical motifs of incomprehension of a person by other people. The author defends untouchability of a person’s soul secrete and relies not on human opinion, but on unbiased and merciful justice of Heaven. In Russian literature, Goncharov was the main defender of a human person responsible only to God.

Keywords: The Gospel, Goncharov, plot, composition, autobiographical character, hoax, “Fish soup”, “Uha”

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The present article deals with the biblical themes of the escape to Egypt and the exodus from Egypt as depicted in the narrative and the epistolary fiction of the writer. In the letters of A. P. Chekhov Egypt is associated with favorable living conditions for those who suffer from lung diseases. Besides, the author was taken with the idea of visiting this country, but his dream did not come true. In the early Anton Chekhov’s short story “Holiday” [“Prazdnichnye”] the motif of the escape to Egypt is put in a humorous context. The same motif along with the motif of the Exodus from Egypt was used by the author in the story “Men” [“Muzhiki”]. Both in the letters and in the stories and novels of the writer, the motif of the escape to Egypt keeps the Christian semantics of Salvation. In the short story “Misery” [“Toska”] Egypt is implicitly present — it is linked with the epigraph to the text, the basis for which is a spiritual verse “Weeping of Joseph, when his brothers sold him in Egypt”. The motif of being in Egyptian slavery — another aspect of the theme in question — translates into a number of works and letters of A. P. Chekhov. This motif is associated with the meanings of freedom and grief. The article reveals and analyses the antinomic images of St. Mary of Egypt and Cleopatra of Egypt. Besides, it explores semantic realization of the set expression “plague of Egypt”.

Keywords: Chekhov, short stories, Egypt, literary motif, biblical images, semantics, Mary of Egypt, Cleopatra of Egypt

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The article studies the special aspects of the author’s conception of the East and the principles of the reconstruction of the way of life and mentality of the Turks in “Eastern legends” by D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak within the context of the general interest the Russian literature of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries experienced toward orientalism. Based on the “Legend of the Siberian Khan, Old Kuchum” the process of evolution of the poetic stylization into an individual and author’s version of the genre form is analyzed, as a result of comprehension, aesthetic mastering and the embodiment of the culture of another nation, folkloristic and mythological figurativeness in the artistic text of the Russian writer. In the “Legend…” there is clearly seen the aspiration of the author to show life of the nomadic people “internally”, to look beyond the existing estimative stereotypes about Siberian peoples set in the perception of the Russian in the period of the conquest of Siberia by the troops of the Russian Tsar with ataman Yermak at the head. For the purpose of a comparative analysis the annalistic sources are used (the Esipovsky chronicle). The research is conducted from the perspective of cultural and historical, imagological and motive approaches.

Keywords: D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak, “Eastern Legends”, orientalism, genre model, mentality, tradition, imagology

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The article investigates the cross-cutting images and themes related to topography of the Kirghiz steppe (now North-Eastern Kazakhstan) in the works of M. M. Prishvin. Three early Prishvin’s texts — a Siberian diary “A Journey from Pavlodar to Karkaralinsk”, essays “Adam and Eve” and “A Black Arab” became an empirical base for it. The marginality of Prishvin’s texts in which the itinerant writer crosses the border between Europe and Asia as well as the border of consciousness, dwelling simultaneously in the space of its own and in the others’ space, permitted to reconstruct the landscape consciousness of the Kirghiz and Russian emigrees. The methodological feature of the study of these works along with the study of the poetics of the steppe images, the Kazakh, local legends and nomadic subjects, was a description of their imagological component induced by socio-historical, political and ethnic processes of the early twentieth century, the writer talks about in his books. So, the overall strategy of the narrative, moving from a documentary and essay principle to the poetic saturation by images is formed in his diaries. The essay “Adam and Eve” considers the issue of Russian immigrants, demonstrates the incompatibility between sedentary and nomadic life as two types of national behavior. A twofold image of the steppe — a foodless and saline steppe, and a rich and populated one — sets the parameters of social behavior of the rich and the poor in his essay “A Black Arab”. Basing on its materials the distinctive marks of the steppe as the Paradise are explored. Thus, the Asiatic world is seen by Prishvin through the principle of the landscape consciousness, which allowed reconstructing the features of the national image on the whole.

Keywords: travel notes, essay, Mikhail Prishvin, imagology, steppe, emigrees

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The article is devoted to the analysis of M. I. Tsvetaeva’s poem “V pustynnoy khramine...” (1922). The rejection of Mark Slonim’s opinion about the lack of religiousness in M. Tsvetaeva’s poems became a starting point for the analysis. An initial perception of the text as that one belonging to “love lyrics”, has been disproved due to analytical reading. The ambiguity of interpretation is possible by virtue of the fact that M. I. Tsvetaeva creates multilevel system of the hints, which darkens the message of the poem. Only some artistic details such as “incense”, “Logos”, “earthly hands” are mentioned, thus expanding the boundaries of the semantic field of the poem. For instance, “earthly hands” are seen as a symbol of Jesus Christ praying in the garden of Gethsemane, and refer to the Gospel of John. It is this way of interpretation that makes possible the opposition “the Divine” and “the Earthly”. Thus, the poem “V pustynnoy khramine...” embodies M. Tsvetaeva’s world perception and expresses her ideas of essence of poetic work.

Keywords: M. Tsvetaeva, the Gospel of John, "V pustynnoy khramine...", biblical allusions, sacrifice, motif

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The article is devoted to the analysis of a Christian motif of the Path by the Will of God in the novel “The Life of Arseniev” by I. A. Bunin. The novel “The Life of Arseniev” is full of images of the main character’s movement in space as well as of the motifs of motion which as a whole form and allow discovering the most ancient mythologem of the Path in the text that has high semantic potential. In course of the study the author has revealed several meanings and invariants of this mythologem in the novel, among which the motif of Life Path by God’s Will plays a peculiar role and is taken into account while making researches. For that purpose, the key spatial images of the Christian chronotope of the novel (temple, church, cathedral) have been disclosed and analyzed, the role of the Bible quotations, subjects, motifs, images the main character appeals to in the course of his insights into searching for the true Path has been revealed. The motifs of the Path to God and the Path by God’s Will play a key role for understanding hero’s strivings and leading author’s ideas, and fulfill in the novel a subject-making function as well as a sense-making one.

Keywords: I. A. Bunin, “The Life of Arseniev”, motif, Path by the Will of God, True Path, Cathedral, Bible quotations

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The motif of the Second Coming of Christ takes a special place in Russian fantastic fiction at the turn of the millennium. In the recent decades allusions to the Gospel topic appears in increasing frequency in the genre of fantasy. The aim of the given article was to analyze the peculiarities of the depiction of the subject of Advent in Russian fantastic fiction. As the basis for the research the novels of Y. Voznesenskaya, N. Perumov, V. Khlumov, S. Lukyanenko and T. Ustimenko are of particular interest. The Advent motif appears in the story line of each of the novels in question. Though, the attitude of the authors to the image of the Savior and his second coming to the world fluctuates: from a respectful expectation (Y. Voznesenskaya, T. Ustimenko, S. Lukyanenko) to the depiction of the Savior as a monster (N. Perumov). The possibility of an ambivalent interpretation of the Savior is the eloquent evidence of desacralization of this image. The profaning of the sacred is one of the tendencies of the modern popular culture. The genre of fantastic fiction, as a product of mass culture, has caught this trend quite precisely.

Keywords: Second Coming of Christ (Advent motif), russian fantastic fiction, fantastika, mass literature, Gospel, biblical allusions

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