Volume 18, 2020 year

In recent decades, ethnopoetics has become one of the new philological disciplines. Its idea first appeared in the treatise of Nicolas Boileau “The Art of Poetry” (1674), in which the classicist theorist formulated the requirement of local and historical color in art. His rule was followed by many poets, playwrights and novelists of Modern history. In Anglo-American criticism, the term ethnopoetics was introduced in 1968. Jerome Rotenberg, who, along with Dennis Tedlock and Dell Himes, founded the principles and methods of studying American Indian poetry. In the 2000s. this concept has entered encyclopedic dictionaries in English and other European languages, but this word is still not in Russian terminological dictionaries. So far, the concept of poetics, which restricts the semantics of words forming a term, has received recognition. Already in the process of formation of ethnopoetics, its subject was expanded at the expense of middle Eastern and Jewish folklore, and later the oral creativity of other peoples. The word formation model (ἔθνος/ ethnos + ποιητική/poetics) cancels limited interpretations of the term. In modern usage, the term ethnopoetics is used in a wide range of meanings that have not yet been marked by lexicographers, but convey the full semantics of the words forming the term. The idea of ethnopoetics gave rise to not one, but several of its concepts. The author of the article develops his earlier understanding of ethnopoetics as a discipline that should study the national identity of the oral and written text, describe in the categories of poetics the specific things that make national literature national. It is characterized by concepts and conceptospheres, they form the mentality, reveal the cultural code of national literatures. The analysis of ethnopoetics opens up great opportunities in the comparative analysis of thesauri of different authors and their works.

Keywords: poetics, ethnopoetics, term, concept, concepts, thesaurus, thesaurus analysis, cultural code, comparative studies

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Based on an axiological analysis of the bylinas about Dunay Ivanovich and Mikhailo Potyk, the article reveals a number of epic motifs which are interpreted as a semantic unity of the hero’s motivation, his deed, and its consequences. The article brings to light how the epic singer renders the spiritual laws connecting the motivation for a certain act with its consequences (i.e., the hero’s punishment and his subsequent penance or perdition); and formulates cognitive ethical meanings belonging to each of the bylina’s motifs. For each motif, the author identifies the following components: the hero’s particular moral weakness or passion which captures him, evoking thus, sympathy — or the so-called «compassion» — in the listeners; the moment when the hero is overcome by his sin; the moment of the crime; and the punishment as a natural consequence of the hero’s deeds. Also, the difference between axiological coordinates of every act — before and after its commission, in the evaluation of either the hero or the listener — is determined in the present paper. The motifs of the mentioned bylinas are classified here on the basis of their type and their involvement into parallel structures with similar motifs, or by the presence — or absence — of their antithetical counterparts. The result of the present study is a denial of the widespread theory according to which Russian bylinas should be described as «meaningless», as having controversial diachronous semantics, as damaged — in terms of the content — during their existence in this or that social milieu (peasant, skomorokh, minstrel or Cossack one), as presupposing allegedly «extraneous» and «recent» Christian concepts and ideologemes.

Keywords: folklore, axiology, heroic epics, bylinas, epic motif, Dunay, Potyk

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This article presents a historical poetics viewpoint on the artistic implementation of the heroic confrontation storyline. The purpose of this article is to identify patterns of its development, principles and methods of variability in such key works of Russian literature as The Legend of the slaughter of Mamai (ХV c.), the poem of M. Yu. Lermontov A Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the Young Oprichnik, and the Valorous Merchant Kalashnikov (1837), N. V. Gogol’s short story Taras Bulba (1842), N. S. Leskov’s story The Enchanted Wanderer (1873), the essay of F. M. Dostoevsky Foma Danilov, the tormented Russian hero (1877), the story of M. A. Sholokhov Fate of a Man (1956). This story tradition has preserved its national and Orthodox “code”, and the important opposition of the main characters-antipodes has acquired the significance of an archetypal, pivotal situation mainly defining the features of the ethno-confessional originality of Russian classical literature.

Keywords: Russian classical literature, key works, heroic confrontation story line, plot variations

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The article studies the phenomenon of “foolishness-for-Christ” depicted in the works of Russian writers of the 19 century, e. g. A. Pushkin’s Boris Godunov, O. Somov’s A Fool-for-Christ, A. Ostrovsky’s Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk, L. Tolstoy’s Childhood. The novelty of the research is presented primarily in the use of an axiological method for analysis of works of fiction as well as in interpretation of characters in terms of theology which proves that a “God’s fool” is shown as a person of an inverse perspective. The characters cannot be considered as part of the joking culture and the game, their life is never divided into night and day time, inner or outerdomains. They exist in the realm of “foolishness-in-Christ” that proves that while living in this world they belong to a different one and obey another law. In the studied literary works all the “holy fool” characters are marked by deep spiritual involvement and apparent conciliarism. They treat people with childlike sincerity and unselfishness personifying, thus, the Christian ideal of the writers. In these literary works “foolishness-for-Christ” displaying traits of national mentality is presented as the avatar of Christian faith manifested in a complete denial of worldly life and values, the first of which is “the wisdom of the world” (1 Kor. 3:18—19).

Keywords: Pushkin, Somov, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, foolishness-for-Christ, holy fool, sanctity, Orthodoxy, Christian ideal

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My Confession (1829) of P. A. Vyazemsky, one of the most important historical, literary and autobiographical documents of the 19th century, has never been the subject of independent study. Its focus of attention is the period of the Prince’s civil service in Warsaw, which predetermined not only the formation of his ideas of liberalism and constitutionalism, but also the collapse of his career as a civil servant in 1821. The article makes an attempt to identify the main formal-meaningful constants of My Confession. As a result of the study, the immediate motif and reasons for the prince's resort to confession, his addressee, the main goal and discursive practices are identified. The author of the article states that My Confession does not contain religious connotations; its main content is the consistent presentation of events, facts, thoughts, feelings (in the form in which they appear in the mind of the Prince almost a decade later), as well as the exposure of the libels of ill-wishers and the restoration of a good name. It is noted that the general autobiographical confessional strategy of Vyazemsky determines both the author’s repentance of the political “errors” of liberal youth and the exposition / propaganda of liberal views due to active auto-citation; at the same time, the fundamental attitude towards veracity is combined with the so-called “Political correctness” (allowing conscious silence about certain events, facts, persons in order to avoid knowingly lying).

Keywords: Vyazemsky, “My Confession”, personality, politics, power, truthfulness, political correctness, confession, genre

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The repeated usage of the aphorism “Win yourself and you will conquer the world” in the works of F. M. Dostoevsky emphasized his words. Using different linguistic means the Russian writer compiled the message of a moral character striving for conveying it to his contemporaries, now with irony by putting it into mouth of Foma Fomich and Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky (the characters of the novels The Village of Stepanchikovo and its inhabitants and Demons respectively), now as an admonition by including it directly and indirectly into “The Life of a Great Sinner” and the novels Demons, The Brothers Karamazov and The Raw Youth. The dictum “Win yourself and you will conquer the world” echoes also on some pages of A Writer’s Diary, where an ethical and philosophical feature of Dostoevsky’s journalistic style manifests itself to the maximum. Modern researcher B. N. Tikhomirov has put forward a hypothesis that the saying “Win yourself and you will conquer the world” is based on quotations from the New Testament. The writer distilled this sententia from the writings of Saint Tikhon. The author of this article wondering who this aphorism belongs to and where it derives from, supposed and proved that it comes from the 57th sermon of St. Augustine or from the treatise “On the imitation of Christ” (“Imitatio Christi”) attributed to the Augustinian monk Thomas of Kemp. A copy of this treatise was kept in the library of Dostoevsky. After analyzing the hypothesis of B. N. Tikhomirov and her own assumption, the researcher has made both a philological analysis and the content one. As a result, she came to the conclusion that both these assumptions are possible and do not contradict each other. Given the fact that Saint Tikhon was well familiar with the writings of Saint Augustine, both these sources complement each other in the study of the aphorism? Win yourself and you will conquer the world”.

Keywords: Saint Augustine, aphorism, quote, Thomas of Kemp, Dostoevsky, gospel, humility, peace, passion, feat, Prosperus of Aquitaine

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The article analyzes the interpretation of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel Humiliated and Insulted, proposed by N. A. Dobrolyubov in his essay Downtrodden people (1861). The interpretation of the images of Ivan Petrovich, Prince Valkovsky (an unknown source of his philosophy of egoism, La Rochefoucauld’s Maxims, is introduced into scientific circulation), Nelly is of particular importance, as well as the question posed by the critic about the main character of the novel. The mutual understanding  between the author and the critic comes to an end when their axiologically opposed contexts of understanding come into force. The novel of forgiveness / unforgiveness is interpreted by the critic as the novel of downtroddenness / protest. Having discovered the energy of moral and social nonconformism in Dostoevsky’s novel, Dobrolyubov redirected it from the “native” moral and social channel to his own, social and moral, one. The essay of the critic who created his own version of the novel and writer’s previous works, thereby contributed to the aesthetic and ideological self-determination of Dostoevsky.

Keywords: criticism, interpretation, contexts of understanding, axiology, forgiveness, hero, type, character, protest, conflict, Dostoevsky, Dobrolyubov

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Dostoevsky’s novel The Raw Youth repeatedly refers a reader to mathematics. This fact favors analysis and interpretations of the “mathematical” problem in the novel. Mathematics as an exact science is for Arkady Dolgoruky the main guarantor that his idea of becoming a “Rothschild” is achievable and true. This idea is based on “mathematics”, as it involves the calculation of income. “Mathematical validity” is authoritative for Kraft and other members of Dergachev’s circle,as well as Stebelkov, Lambert, Olya. The plot of the novel is based on “mathematical validity”. It is Katerina Nikolaevna’s fateful letter. The idiom “as simple as twice two makes four” appears six times in The Raw Youth. The debunking of this formula is a characteristic motif for Dostoevsky’s work. The motif of vulnerability of “mathematics” increases with the development of the plot. The Raw Youth’s “mathematical” idea collides with his feelings and impulsive actions. The “mathematical validity” turns out to be irrational. It basis is not logic, but conviction. The opposition to “mathematics” and rationality is “living life” in Dostoevsky’s work. It contributes to the rebirth of Arkady Dolgoruky. He evolves from Rothschild to Christ, from accumulation to self-sacrifice, from Law to Grace.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, “The Raw Youth”, mathematics, as simple as twice two makes four, rational, irrational, Law, Grace, interpretation, understanding, spectrum of adequacy

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The article raised the question of the role of the Pushkinian principle in the philosophical and aesthetic system of Yu. I. Aykhenvald, one of the leading critics of the Silver Age. The given review of Aykhenvald’s publications on Pushkin and Pushkin studies of the first quarter of the twentieth century and analysis of Aykhenvald’s attitude to V. G. Belinsky’s and D. S. Merezhkovsky’s statements about Pushkin allowed defining more clearly the position of the literator, his approaches and methods. Aykhenvald’s articles about Anna Akhmatova, V. Bryusov, I. Bunin demonstrate that the involvement in the Pushkin tradition was for Aykhenvald the most important aesthetic criterion in assessing the modern literary process. Besides, the article regards the question of perception of Pushkin’s studies of Aykhenvald by his contemporaries — writers (B. Zaitsev, B. Sadovskoy, V. Khodasevich), literary scholars (S. A. Vengerov, B. M. Eichenbaum, A. P. Skaftymov), cultural historians (P. M. Bicilli) and representatives of Russian religious philosophy (S. L. Frank, A. F. Losev). It is concluded that, in contrast to literary historians, the phenomenon of Aykhenvald was for philosophically minded admirers of his critical talent a confirmation of the unity of national culture, the irreducibility of the nation to nationality and Pushkin as its main symbol.

Keywords: Aykhenvald, literary criticism, philosophical and aesthetic system, tradition, Pushkin, national culture

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The article approaches the problem of the correlation between the lyrical persons “I”, “You”, “She” in the poem Silentium by Mandelstam. Special attention is paid to the difference between the lyrical “She/It” (the original muteness, the first principle of life) and the lyrical “You” (the word, the heart, Aphrodite). The composition of the poem is remarkable for its mirror symmetry, both in terms of sound organization and semantics. The main idea of the poem is a return to the “first principle of life” through the acquisition of “initial muteness” by the lyrical “I”. In this situation, poetry turns out to be both paradoxical and transparadoxical reality, since the demand for “silence!” is implemented by means of the language (word).

Keywords: Mandelstam, Silentium, lyric “You”, lyric “She/It”

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The article analyzes the previously unexplored story of Sergey Durylin Khivinka (the story of a Cossack woman) (1924), written by the author in Chelyabinsk exile. The story is written in a narrative manner inherent in literature of the 1920s. Durylin, who is least oriented towards the Soviet everyday life, who is invisibly and silently arguing with the literary majority, creates an artistic image of a woman of the 19th century descending from common people, a Cossack woman, who was captured by the Khivins, based on historical facts recorded by N. K. Bukharin. The article takes into account the literary sources the author built his work on: A Journey Beyond the Three Seas by Afanasiy Nikitin and The Enchanted Wanderer by N. S. Leskov. The clearly expressed Easter archetype of “A Journey” of the story of Durylin outlines the vector of an axiological path of the heroes — the pilgrimage toward Easter, marked with their return to home. Using the poetics of a tale, the writer draws focus primarily toward a narrative manner of N. S. Leskov with its usual confessional character. On the basis of memoirs, it is stated in the article that the writer’s wife, Irina Alekseevna Komisarova-Durylina, to whom this story is dedicated, became the prototype of Khivinka.

Keywords: tale, righteous hero, Durylin, Easter archetype, national image of the world

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The article studies and compares various possibilities of Russian classical realism, it reveals and describes the features of constructing images of the world in the works of O. N. Olnem (V. N. Tsekhovskaya) and S. N. Durylin. The pictures of the world by Olnem and Durylin are limited mainly by the manor topos. Localization of the events within the manor space is the key for the presence of the same objective and spiritual realities in the analyzed works, nevertheless, distributed and correlated differently. While the “narrative levels” in Durylin’s memoirs (subject, functional, socio-historical, subjective-personal, cultural-historical, Christian ones) are value-coordinative and the Orthodox determines theoanthropic “verticality” of the estate world, in Olnem’s description all the “estate elements” are coordinate and exist in the horizon of a personal or social event, they are factographic, only psychologically and / or socially colored, and the “Christian event lasting in eternity” loses its world-organizing function and is present as a formal rhetorical tradition. The difference in the actualization by Olnem and Durylin of the value of narrative levels is expressed in the implied meanings of the name — A Quiet Corner, In the Home Corner. The writers relate the “Manor Corner” to silence. However, if for Durylin the “quiet”, “silence” is a spiritual complex that expresses the Christ-like essence of a person, for Olnem, silence is a socio-historical category, designed to mark semantically the process of disappearance of the “noble nest,” silence as a synonym for death. Thus, no matter how close the work of the writers came together in substantive content, no matter how similar and related they were, the “watershed” separating them, in the words of V. V. Rozanov, turns out to be the “attitude to faith, God”. This difference determines the existence of different "realisms" in Russian literature and, consequently, of different reading and research strategies.

Keywords: Olnem, Durylin, empirical and сhristian realism, world view, event horizon, hierarchy of values

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The purpose of this article is to analyze the storytline of the traject in the works of Russian writers of Russian emigration of the first wave, such as: B. Zaitsev, L. Zurov and E. Chirikov. On the examples of the novels Silence from the autobiographical tetralogy The Journey of Gleb by B. K. Zaitsev and The Ancient Way by L. F. Zurov, the problem of the storyline of the traject in the individually-authorial world views is explored. Analysis of the story by E. Chirikov Between Heaven and Earth allows us to see clearly this situation, embodiedin the genre form of the story. The conducted research helps to make certain of new possibilities of Russian prose of the twentieth century, which is typologically gravitating to the neorealistic type of artistic consciousness, with attention to the ontological spheres of being, to convincing confirmation by the examples presented from ancient times inherent in Russian literature of the paskhal'nost' (Easter character) dominant.

Keywords: B. Zaitsev, L. Zurov, E. Chirikov, storyline, traject, paskhal'nost', Easter character

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The idiom “twice two is four” along with its variations is seen in the article as a marker of the situation of an “underground man”. In literature of the twentieth century the “underground” in its ethical and philosophical aspects has expanded its meaning, becoming the context of a utopian and antiutopian thought, absorbing the tragic experience of Russian culture after Dostoevsky. Of course, the widespread locution “as sure as twice two is four” does not always point at this variety of meanings, but it can be reached only in combination with the psychological type of the “underground man”. Thus, the image of Stalin in the novel “the First Circle” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is considered as a variation of the “underground” consciousness. The problems of philosophical, history related to the evolution of this type of consciousness and actualized in this novel, remain important for modern literature. Another version of this philosophical collision is given in Victor Pelevin’s anti-utopian novel “S.N.U.F.F.”. In both of these cases, the situation of the underground person becomes a picture of a psychological and historical catastrophe. The negative development of the analyzed arithmetic formula in Russian literature of the 20th century encourages to look for another pole of tradition outside the “main” cultural domains. One of the variants of a moral escape from the trap of the “underground consciousness” can be found in the poetry of Alexander Bashlachev. The mythopoetical plot of the song “Verka, Nadka, Lyubka” is an exceptional variant of the development of the “underground man” topic. A starting point of the plot is just the formula “twice two is four”. The genre shift from lyricism to allegorical epic gives the poet an opportunity to reconstruct the Easter ideal of Russian culture, even if in a tragic and provocative form, close to the tradition of Russian foolishness for Christ.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Pelevin, Bashlachev, “underground man”, “twice two is four”, paskhalnost, Easter ideal, foolishness for Christ

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This article analyzes the excellence, uniqueness and specific elements of Russian literature that make it valuable in the eyes of a Western reader, helping him or her to better understand Russia and enrich his or her spiritual dimension. There are many such elements, and while I cannot touch on all of them, I would like to remind the reader of the fact that Russian literature has always been that particular point where social, humanitarian, political and philosophical thought comes together. Russian literature also sheds light on the mindset of the Russian people (narod), offering a different perspective to a Western reader. In addition, Russian literature, with its cultural ‘explosions’ (vzryvy) and the writers who embodied these explosions, greatly influenced European literature, inspiring entire generations of readers and writers. What turned out to be most unique in Russian literature was a perpetual attention to the great questions of human existence, the so-called “damned questions” (proklyatye voprosy). But Russian literature has an additional quality, starting from that moment when its hero became the human soul. It is precisely the soul, the protagonist of Russian literature, which unites Russian writers in a unique and inimitable community, and their readers and admirers — in a community moved and grateful. Ultimately, Dostoevsky — probably the most beloved Russian writer in the West — was right when he asserted in his well-known Pushkin speech, “the capacity for universal compassion (otzyvchivost’) is the most important quality of our national character”.

Keywords: ‘Pan-humanism’, Russian literature, praise, utility of reading, Western reader, reasons for loving Russian literature

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