Volume 18, 2020 year

The article analyzes the contribution of Russian literary critic, doctor of Philology, Professor Ivan Andreevich Esaulov to the study of theoretical and historical poetics revealing his central scientific ideas and principles of building a new concept of the history of Russian literature. The researcher introduced several concepts as philological categories that had never been used in Philology before. These are sobornost (conciliarism), paskhalnost (Easter character), Zakon i Blagodat (Law and Grace), Christocentrism. Esaulov proposed a new definition of the content of Russian literature thanks to these categories. The researcher proved the fruitfulness of his approach for understanding Russian literature. The material for analysis is rather extensive: from Metropolitan Hilarion's Word about Law and Grace to the works of writers of the late 20th century. Esaulov's most important methodological position is the need to distinguish between analysis, understanding and interpretation. These are different approaches to studying a work of art. The scholar also introduces and justifies the concept of “spectrum of adequacy”, which implies a plurality of interpretations of a literary work.

Keywords: Ivan Esaulov, conciliarism, paskhalnost, analysis, spectrum of adequacy, interpretation, understanding and cultural unconscious, paraphrase

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The paper examines theoretical, methodological and comparative problems related to the studies of literature of Slavia Orthodoxa. Special attention has been focused on different evaluations of this literary method in various scholarly circles, both in the East (Jakobson, Lotman, Uspensky, Esaulov), and the West (Picchio, Wellek, Obolensky, Bloom, etc). Starting from Bakhtin’s idea that the history and development of a literary form and expression determine its presence, the paper discusses whether it is possible to talk about Slavia Orthodoxa outside the context of the Middle Ages.

Keywords: Slavia Orthodoxa, historism, model of culture, literary canon, cultural archetype

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The article examines the orthodox tradition of paying homage to Venerable Mary of Egypt. The perception of the image of Mary of Egypt is compared with that one of Mary Magdalene in the West-European World, particularly in literature and art. The different forms of interaction between the hagiography of Mary of Egypt and Russian literature are traced: adaptation of the plot, allusions, insertion of the motif of a repented whore. The plot of Cleopatra, as of an impenitent whore, is opposite to a hagiographic plot (by its semantic pole of attraction). Two female images symbolize two divergent paths — to spiritual rebirth and to the ruin. As a result of the analysis of the works of A. Pushkin, I. Aksakov, N. Leskov, V. Bryusov, A. Remizov it is deduced that both plots turned out to be productive for Russian literature of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, namely because of their paired relationship.

Keywords: hagiography, Mary of Egypt, Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, orthodox and catholic tradition, spiritual choice, motif of transfiguration, Easter archetype

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The article for the first time raises a question about one of the profiles of Gogol’s activity as a “satirist”, a denouncer of morals. In his writings the author inevitably follows the laws of the Russian Empire, more than a hundred of volumes of which were published during his lifetime. It is emphasized that Gogol's desire to devote himself to justice, dated back to his school days, he carried through all his whole life. He considered his writings, as well as the legacy of Homer, Derzhavin, Fonvizin and Griboedov, as educational, “legislative” for contemporaries. The writer created every his writing, by his own admission, as a support for the “truthful laws” of the State and Church, the unity of which was determined by the peculiarities of the legislation of the Orthodox State. The work consistently traces reminiscences of The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire contained in the first Gogol’s series Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, the collection Mirgorod, St. Petersburg novels, The Government Inspector, Dead Souls, the comedy The Gamblers, etc. The government decrees were also mentioned in Gogol’s works, for example, Anti-Superstition laws, alcohol laws, wine tax and beverage production laws, tax arrears laws, “souls inspection” decrees and “documents audit”, prohibitive decrees on bribes, moneylending, harlotry, gambling and so forth. The connection of the “legislative” problems with the laws of Gogol’s poetics, their unity in the works of all genres and all periods of Gogol’s creative activity is emphasized.

Keywords: Gogol, biography, creativity, social ideology, law, legislation, legality, spiritual heritage, poetics

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In the present article the nocturnal landscapes of some of the short stories from the Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka and Viy from the Mirgorod cycle, are reconsidered, thus analysis is focused on the depiction of the Evil and the author’s attitude to the metaphysical background of this problem. The scrutiny is prompted by a few groups of questions: 1. what sort of poetic principles regulate the depictions of Ukrainian landscapes and the relationship between man and the ’scenery including him’ in N. V. Gogol’s early works? 2. how do a great variety of elements taken from different traditions cross each other at one point, such as the Bucolic (pastoral) poetry, clichés of Romanticism, folkloric archetypes and the author’s own, independent artistic means? 3. what is hidden behind the apparent Dualism of the Good and the Evil in Gogol’s early works? how do elements of Romanticist Weltanschauung and the traits of Evangelic (paskhal’naya) Aesthetics co-exist? With these questions traced down, the function of the multifoldness of the Gogolian prose can get verified alongside with identifying a close relationship between text and subtext. According to the approach of the author of the present article, the research into the ‘literary appearance’ of Gogol’s early works may reveal the various stages in the development of the writer’s artistic idea.

Keywords: Gogol, Tiutchev, Dikanka, paysage, landscape, abyss, Bucolic poetry, clichés of Romanticism, folkloric archetypes

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The article analyzes the problem of the intermedial reading of Gogol's novel The Old World Landowners, presented by the animated film He and She by M. Muat. The novelty of the work is determined by the application of the method of a comprehensive analysis to the texts dialogically connected with each other. The extent of adequacy of the creative reading of Gogol's novel by a contemporary film director is determined by the semantic reconstruction of an idyllic chronotope of the novel. It is noticed that in the film limiting the history of main characters only by mutual relations within a circle of a manor house, Gogol's idea about the confrontation between family and home space and forces of chaos and destruction, is kept. The director's technique of a circular composition is an artistic factor that can be compared to the key “moment” in painting that condenses all previous and subsequent events. A figurative ring formed by the images of an old oak can be seen as a semantic analogue of the idyllic circle of the manor. However, if in the novel this circle is destroyed from the inside, in the film it is preserved and affirmed thanks to the creative efforts of the film director. The idyllic world of M. Muat is conscious of the “evil spirit” of destruction, but its mission is to keep the moment of peace, love and quiet happiness. The director, thus, asserts love as the supreme and permanent value of human existence. Not following literally the text of Gogol's novel, M. Muat offers his own reading of those laws that form the core of Gogol's artistic world.

Keywords: idyll, animation, adequacy spectrum, Gogol, Muat, intermediality, “The Old World Landowners”

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The article analyzes the changes in the poetics of the poem by M. Yu. Lermontov The Cliff (1841) in the creative history of text. Based on the comparison of the draft and the faire copy of the poem, the poet’s path to creating an artistic image of value is reconstructed. A special place in the analysis of the dynamic poetics of The Cliff is given to the capture of changes in the details of space through which the poet joins the feelings of the natural world with human ones, thereby creating a projection of his own spiritual world. The motives for meetings, breakups, loneliness, anxiety and game occupy an important place in the evolution of the text from the draft to the fair copy. The article reveals the epistemological meaning of their manifestation in the text at different stages of its creation. The meaning of the personification in the poem The Cliff is to reveal the existential paradox associated with the fact that the ideal of a perfect person is a combination of a sensitive soul, understanding of the truth of heavenly dispassion and longing for the unity of earth and sky. “The Poetics of the Visible” is one of the signs of the Lermontian style and represents the spiritual world in natural images.

Keywords: Lermontov, “The notebook presented by Odoevsky”, fair copy, rough copy, diplomatic transcription, dynamic poetics, nature, loneliness

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The article makes the first ever attempt to carry out a systematic examination, based on the historical, publicistic, poetic and epistolary body of work of Tyutchev, of the interrelation of different levels and aspects of the concept of “Russophobia”, introduced by the poet. His fundamental concern with the hierarchic relation of Christian ontology and anthropology, with historical processes, with different results of dynamics of the theocentric and anthropocentric perception of existence and history in Russia and in the West is emphasized. It is shown in the article how the analysis of the religious, historical, cultural, anthropological mainstays leads Tyutchev, in his own way, to Pushkin’s conclusion that the history of Russia, as compared to the history of Europe, needs a “different thought, different formula”. It’s demonstrated how different interpretations of those mainstays cause issues, discords.

Keywords: Tyutchev, Russia, the West, Slavic World, Eastern and Western Christianity, empire, autocracy of human Ego, proselytism, Russophobia

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The article considers the influence of the patristic doctrine about prilog (the beginning of a thought) on formation of the psychological image of Rodion Raskolnikov in the novel of F. M. Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment. According to the teachings of Christian theologians, any sin begins with an intention (thought), a person establishes the conversation with, a union with the thought, which gradually becomes an irresistible desire. Being captivated by this thought, the person falls from grace (passion). Rodion Raskolnikov went through all these five stages in the development of sin. Initially, he had the idea to kill an old moneylender, that strengthened after he had overheard the conversation between a student and an officer in a tavern. Thereby, Raskolnikov constantly recured to his sinful thought. Having mentally prepared himself for the murder, he was preparing for its implementation: he searches for an ax, sews on a loop, studies the route to the old woman’s house, and commits the murder. An unrepentant sin entails even greater sins — a double murder. And only through suffering the main character can endure the transformation and return to people.

Keywords: teaching of prilog (the beginning of a thought), thought, passion, development of sin, artistic image, spiritual basis of an image, Dostoevsky, Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment

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The article deals with the history of studying Christian images and motifs in the novel of Fedor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment. The novel’s conflict and the image of the main character for a long time have had different, often directly opposite, interpretations — first of all, in the matter of Raskolnikov’s repentance and his spiritual rebirth. The subject of the research is the resurrection as the central theme of the novel Crime and Punishment. Special attention is paid to the analysis of lexical variants “voskresenie” and “voskreshenie”, the first of which belongs to Dostoevsky, and the second, one applicable to Raskolnikov, is traced in scientific literature on the novel. The overview of various research points of view is accompanied by an analysis of the novel’s draft and printed texts. This review allows carrying out a detailed textual comparison with the biblical sources of the theme of the resurrection and identifying the author’s position in this work. The text of the novel indicates that its author is focused on the key ideas of Russian Orthodox culture and the “Easter” plot of the gospel narrative.

Keywords: Russian literature, Fedor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, poetics of text, interpretation, theme of resurrection

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The article regards the evocation of sobornost’ (conciliarism) as a phenomenon of Orthodoxy in Leskov’s chronicle The Cathedral Clergy (Soboryane). The author emphasizes Leskov’s manner to poeticize Orthodox dogmatic teachings and the ways of their artistic presentation. By depicting clergy and its religious characters as part of the ideal modes of Russian life Leskov aims at refocusing readers’ attention on God-centered mind inherent in Russian literature of the 11th — 16th centuries. A five-part structure of the chronicle is aligned with Stargorod’s five-domed Cathedral. Leskov prefers patericon as an inner form associated with its temple and liturgical plots, motives and images. The structure of Leskov’s patericon is notable for its iconographic patterns and symbols — the trend which makes The Cathedral Clergy (Soboryane) a chronicle poem. By poetizing “an old Russian fairy tale” Leskov seems to restore Slavonic ornamental script as the main principle of his writing which is symbolized in “knitting pins” depicted in The Cathedral Clergy (Soboryane). Along with the focus on verbality and Orthodox fables Leskov poetizes the Holy Scripture. New Testament (the Gospel according to St. John in particular) seems to be central “hagiographic writing” related to Stargorod Trinity. The moment of truth for Leskov’s character (who is regarded as a christian) has to do with internal eventivity when a person finds himself in front of God’s face rather than with external one regardless of pressing social challenges of the latter. Storylines related to the communion with God reflect Leskov’s intention to convey mystical nature of Orthodox Christianity.

Keywords: sobornost’ (conciliarism), dogma, poetics, architectural style, canon, narration

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The article reveals the Christian meaning of the story Christ Visits a Peasant by Nikolay Leskov. Intended for children’s reading, the story is unique in its ability to open new semantic horizons, which makes the work interesting for readers of any age. The plot-forming motif “to descend in order to ascend” can be interpreted as a motif of spiritual rebirth (or healing). The hero-narrator reproduces the story of the main character’s spiritual struggle, the meaning of which is revealed in the context of the Christian teaching about the spiritual dispensation. The story forms a system of Christian motives (sin, forgiveness, the return of the prodigal son, meeting with God, the heart, etc.), indicated by precise instructions and allusions to biblical stories, images and symbols. In the motif complex of Leskov’s story, the traditional Christmas and Yuletide prose motifs of miracle, teaching, threshold, meeting, guest, path, and home are organic. Creating the image of Christ, the writer reveals his divine properties with the help of numerous symbols: “white hand”, “the divine fate”, light, Cup, candle, Christmas cribs, monastery, etc. In the context of Christian content, everyday motives of family, friendship, reading, generations, etc., everyday events (building a house, celebrating the Nativity of Christ, reading books, traveling, etc.) acquire symbolic meaning. In the everyday life of the characters, spiritual reality manifests itself. Leskov teaches his reader to see the spiritual world behind habitual everyday phenomena, events, and relationships.

Keywords: Leskov, text, Christianity, reader, inner world, symbolism, motif, plot, image

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In modern literary studies the discussion continues about the revision of the traditional concept of Chekhov’s story Vanka by I. A. Esaulov. The researcher rejects the naive and empirical interpretation that is inherent in most interpretations, and reveals the genre features of a Christmas story. A common place in the works of his followers was the analysis of the poetics of genre, the attributes of a holiday chronotope, the invisible presence of Christ, the role of the story’s hero in the artistic world of the work. In school interpretations of the story, the Christmas miracle is denied on the grounds that it occurs in a child’s dream, but the artistic dream is as real as any other “real” event in the work. In the poetics of the Christmas story, the impossible is possible, the miracle is genuine: grandfather Konstantin Makarych reads a letter from his grandson. Vanka carefully prepared himself for the implementation of his plan. He had found out how to send the letter, prepared the paper, wrote it, and found the nearest mailbox. It worked out well. By sending a letter “to my grandfather’s village”, Vanka did an act that determined his future fate. He was never the same. The miracle, whether it happened in a dream or in reality, transformed the hero.

Keywords: A. P. Chekhov, Vanka, genre, Christmas story, plot, interpretation, miracle, dream

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The paper attempts to substantiate the opinion of Professor I. A. Esaulov about the special “spirit” of Russia present in the urban space of the ancient provincial Yelets. The analysis uses the song lyrics of local poets of the early twentieth century, published in 1996 in the almanac “Yeletskaya byl”. The author comes to the conclusion that the Yelets poets in their works conveyed the unique flavor of their native land by means of contamination of the main cultural codes of the Yelets text — Yelets Orthodox, Yelets merchant, Yelets-a city of military glory. Local mythology played a major role in the formation of the Yelets text of culture. The appearance of the mother of God at Yelets to Khan Tamerlane, after which there was a miraculous escape from the ruin of Moscow and all Russia, became a “starting” event for the perception of Yelets as a sacred city under the patronage of the mother of God. The widespread use of Orthodox symbols in the song lyrics about Yelets emphasizes the predominance of the religious and spiritual component over the visual and secular landscape of the city.

Keywords: Esaulov, Orthodox motives, Yelets, local poetry, cultural code, local mythology

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Proceeding from the assertion that a man is “the whole of a human being”, i. e., the ontological symbiosis of man proper and the subject of living (animal) existence, the author claims that the poet is actually a man in the highest — particularly verbal —form of his being. The poet is the subject of being, verbal by its n type and indirect by the manner of its realization. Verbal existence, being out of body, cannot be the subject of scientific knowledge. The type of knowledge that is correct in relation to the person himself, is Philology. The most distinctive feature of Philology is its indirect character. Just as the poet realizes himself and his being as an internal form of the subjects of bodily existence, so philological knowledge of the poet is manifested as an internal form of scientific knowledge about the plot characters and the life event they are living.

Keywords: the whole of a human being, event of a literary work, external work, aesthetic object, literary studies, Philology

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