Volume 22, 2024 year

Questions about the similarity of the plots of Oirat written monuments with ancient Indian ones still remain insufficiently studied. Most of the Oirat works have not yet been introduced into scientific circulation or translated into Russian and other European languages. The article examines the origin of the plots of 17th and 18th century Oirat religious and didactic collection. “Aršān nomiyin tuuǰi” (“The Tale of the Nectar Teaching”), dating back to the literary monuments of Ancient India. The collection consists of sixty-four short Buddhist stories. It is framed by a diagram of the Tibetan Buddhist treatise “Lamrim,” presented in thesis form. The main provisions of the treatise are revealed in the collection with the help of artistic examples from various Indian and Tibetian sources. The collection is distinguished by a strict functional purpose; it introduces the laity to the course of Buddhist teachings and instructs them on the path of virtue. It was used by Buddhist monks as a guide in his preaching practice until the beginning of the 20th century. The article examines the structure and content of Oirat and ancient Indian stories in their narrative presentation, identifying similarities and local differences. As a result of the study, it was established that genetically similar plots help to better understand the content of short stories in the Oirat collection, which have lost their essential structural components due to various reasons. The stories of “The Tale of the Nectar Teaching” differ from the source texts by the extreme conciseness of their plots: they lack any descriptions or comparisons, the main focus is exclusively on heroes’ actions, the action unfolds abruptly and dynamically. We noted a significant similarity between the plots of “The Tale of the Nectar Teaching” and ancient Indian works both at the plot-compositional and at content levels. This fact indicates their genetic relationship. The identification of the local differences in the Oirat collection demonstrates the genesis of the plots of ancient Indian monuments and their fate outside India.

Keywords: Buddhist didactic literature, Oirat collection, The Tale of the Nectar Teaching, ancient Indian source, Tibetan translation, plots, comparative analysis, origin of plots, genesis

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The article examines the history and poetics of Mikhail Lermontov’s poem “To the Portrait” (1840). The research material comprised three manu- scripts of the poem: a draft manuscript from the collection of S. A. Rachinsky containing numerous edits, a finalized manuscript with notes by V. F. Odoevsky and P. A. Vyazemsky, as well as another final draft of the poem, which was added to the collection of Karl August Farnhagen von Enze in 1844. The reconstruction of textual history allows to trace, the features of Lermontov’s poetics. While working on the poem, the author consistently rejected the ekphrastic nature of the image created by the reference to a specific artifact — an engraving by Pierre Louis Henri Grevedon “Full-Length Portrait of a Sitting Woman in an Open Dress” (1840). Using a series of associations, comparisons, and oppositions, the poet creates an image of a young woman. Attention to the dynamic poetics of the verbal portrait of Countess A. K. Vorontsova-Dashkova allowed us to show how Lermontov complicated her image. The analysis of the draft versions of numerous antinomies, name change in the final draft allowed to overcome the clichés of perception of the poem and interpret it in the context of the Russian cultural tradition.

Keywords: Mikhail Lermontov, textual criticism, draft manuscript, clean manuscript, portrait, artistic image, ontology, text history

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The main problem solved in the article was the issue of dating Gogol’s rough sketches with the author’s “working” title “To the 1st part.” For almost a hundred years, it was generally accepted that these sketches, related to the first volume of Dead Souls, were written after the publication of this volume in 1842. The arbitrary dating of the notes “To the 1st part” to 1845–1846 is refuted by numerous facts indicating that the images and motifs of the notes were “interspersed” by Gogol into the overall fabric of the poem. These references were first pointed out in 1987 by V. A. Voropaev, who dated the sketches to 1839–1840. New observations were added to the textual observations made by the researcher, allowing one to trace the evolution of the text. The author's intention, as it appears in the sketches, is also analyzed along with the means by which it is realized in the poem. The combined data of textual criticism and poetics make it possible to clarify the dating of the notes, attributing them to the first months of 1841. The notes contain the author’s plan to express a broad educational meaning in the “gossip” and “idleness” of the city of N. in the first volume of the poem, endowing this the representation with an expression of a general “idleness” of the world. To realize this plan, Gogol planned to bring up several analogies to the “idle” life of “dead souls” in the poem, i.e., “to include all the similarities and introduce a gradual progression.” In the final text of the poem, such “similarities” were typologically “related” to gossip: fortune-telling “scientific reasoning”, predictions of false prophets and pseudo-spiritual literature. According to Gogol, all of them, taken in their totality, explain the numerous misconceptions of mankind in world history — following the “swamp lights”, “roads that lead far to the side.” Rumors about the Antichrist arising in the “emptiness” of the city suggest that in the final chapters of the first volume the writer depicts, as earlier in “The Government Inspector,” the pre-apocalyptic state of society, the approach of the last times — which for some, in fact, become the “last hour” (the death of the prosecutor).

Keywords: Nikolai Gogol, biography, creativity, author's intention, parable, symbolism, interpretation, teaching, artistic preaching, spiritual heritage

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In the article, the letter of I. S. Turgenev to P. V. Annenkov dated October 14, 1853, which structurally comprises a “physiological essay” about a “little man” and an Easter poem allegedly written by this “little man,” and in fact — by a “mysterious author,” is analyzed. The letter is considered as a letter-work that has already overcome the narrow framework of the epistolary genre during the writer’s life and has become a discussed text. In Turgenev studies, however, the question of the biographical author of the Easter poem remains the main issue in examining the letter: today, in the reader’s space, the poem de facto functions as a work of both Turgenev and Lermontov. The “prosaic” part of the letter about the painter-poet is considered by researchers to be preparatory material for a subsequent work. Meanwhile, the letter is a “cryptographic text,” and as a whole conceals a hidden “Pushkin code,” which is “read” thanks to numerous hints contained both in the letter itself, in its “prosaic” and poetic parts, and in the friendly correspondence between Turgenev and Annenkov. A comparative analysis of the two texts of the Easter poem prepared by the Turgenev academic group, one of which is in a letter dated October 14, 1853, and the other, in the Dubia section, revealed numerous discrepancies in these texts, as well as their significant deviation from the original text published in the Literary Gazette in 1840. In academic texts, all sacred words — the Glory of God, the Son of God — are graphically eliminated. Such eradication of religious and aesthetic feeling, “concealed” in the graphic “decapitation” of the names of Christ, again actualizes the issue of the need to publish the creative heritage of Russian classics in an authentic form.

Keywords: I. S. Turgenev, P. V. Annenkov, A. S. Pushkin, writing, attribution, mysterious author, crypto poetics, context, subtext, traditional Russian spelling, sacralization, desacralization, textual poetics

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The article presents an interpretation of the motif of the father’s blessing in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Humiliated and Insulted,” which is the key to the plot of this work. By depicting Natasha’s and Nelly’s mother’s departure from home and return to their fathers, the writer presented a female version of the biblical motif of the “prodigal son.” However, the two stories have different plots due to the absence or presence of a father’s blessing. Nellie’s mother died without receiving blessing and forgiveness. Natasha Ihmeneva, after ultimately receiving her father’s repentance, forgiveness and blessing, returned to her former life. The article notes that a parent’s blessing is an important motif in Russian folklore. In the fairy tale “Sivko-Burko,” recorded by A. N. Afanasyev, it is given as a reward for passing a test, and the fool Ivan manages to conquer the heart of the princess. Ihmenev’s condition at the time of his daughter’s escape is similar to that of the hero of Pushkin’s “Stationmaster” Samson Vyrin: the torments of the fathers are caused not so much by human shame as by the implied punishment of God. In ‘Humiliated and Insulted,” it was Ihmenev who took the first step towards reconciliation with his daughter, forgiveness and paternal blessing. While preserving significant folklore and biblical connotations, in Dostoevsky’s work the motif of the prodigal son is complemented by the motifs of Christian forgiveness and compassion.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, Humiliated and Insulted, plot, motif, prodigal daughter, father’s blessing

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The article examines the ambivalence of the beauty of Nastasia Filippovna Barashkova, the heroine of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot” in the aesthetic and ethical dimensions. Compared with the previous interpretations of the image, there is great ambiguity in the writer’s ideas about the beauty of the heroine. Nastasia Filippovna possesses not only physical, but also inner beauty, which causes different reactions in the characters of the novel. When solving the question of what kind of beauty can “turn the world around,” it is proposed to take into account that this transformation can be either for the better or for the worse. The power of Nastasia Filippovna’s beauty, polarized between good and evil, can “overturn”/turn the world and man both towards the fatal darkness or towards the light of resurrection. Her beauty cannot be defined only in morally conflicting categories of statuesque physical or spiritual beauty. In its manifestations, it symbolizes incompleteness, which refuses to “materialize.” This is an indefinable beauty that remains a mystery.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, the novel The Idiot, Nastasia Filippovna, beauty, kalokagathia, incompleteness, image

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The purpose of the article is to reveal the artistic and philosophical significance of the image of Pyotr Verkhovensky, who is the main character in the novel “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky. This implies an expansion and deepening of ideas about his personal development. In Verkhovensky’s spiritual experience, concepts about the primordial Christian landmarks are misperceived and the hierarchy of Law and Grace is violated. Pyotr Verkhovensky is endowed with the ability to influence others for the sake of his own selfish motives in the name of self-affirmation, building an imaginary reality, and commanding his trusted associates with threats and blackmail. Legalism imperceptibly turns into lawlessness, on the one hand, endowing Verkhovensky with the power to influence others, clearly by nature or by perverted human nature. On the other hand, it condemns the hero, who succumbs to the temptations of self-affirmation, to loneliness and spiritual impoverishment. The article also shows the influence of Pyotr Verkhovensky on the creative explorations of Russian writers, revealing the tragic consequences of violating the value hierarchy of Law and Grace, which allows us to consider this artistic image in the moral paradigms of modernity.

Keywords: F. M. Dostoevsky, Demons, Verkhovensky, cultural unconscious, Law and Grace, great time, spiritual experience

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The article is devoted to the researching of the theme of the brotherhood of people man and its evolution in the works by I. A. Bunin. In the artistic world of the writer, the idea of new — evangelical, fraternal relations between people, based on Christian love, is affirmed. The key images and motives for understanding the evolution of the theme of brotherhood of people appear in the early poems, such as “In Kostyol,” “The Gravestone Scripture:” the image of Christ, the motive of faithfulness to the “covenant of love” and to a new, evangelical relationship between people. In the works of 1914–1916 I. A. Bunin creates the image of humanity, which that has forgotten about God, about Christ, about its original initial brotherhood. There is a tragic motive of destruction of the brotherhood of people man poems “Silence,” “Desperation” and in his stories “Brothers,” “The Spring Evening.” The article pays special attention to the study of the Christian text in the short story “Brothers,” the results of which allow to speak about the Gospel meaning of the word “brothers” in the epigraph and in the title of the story, which are playing the most important role in the expression of the key author’s idea, phrased in the words of Christ. I. A. Bunin’s works of the period of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and of the Civil War, namely his diary “Cursed Days” and his speech “The Mission of Russian Emigration,” are imbued with the tragic motive of fratricide and with images of Russian Cain and Russian Abel. The ideas of brotherhood of people and of the deepest interconnection of all humanity people is heardresounds again in through the works by I. A. Bunin inof the emigration period, in and in his lyrical and philosophical prose of the 1920s. The theme of the brotherhood of people in the works by I. A. Bunin, which undoubtedly has an undoubted evangelical basis, develops throughout the writer’s work, which testifies to its significance for the writer’s worldview and his concept of peace and man.

Keywords: I. A. Bunin, lyrics, stories, journalism, poetics, Gospel, idea, brothers, brotherhood, biblical quotes, reminiscences, motive, fratricide

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The purpose of the article is to consider the specifics of depicting the theme of childhood in the novel “Dawn” by B. K. Zaitsev. In modern literary studies, the theme of childhood in the works of Russian writers who found themselves in exile after the revolutionary events is actively being developed and studied. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that it explores one of the important topics in the literature of the Russian diaspora. The novelty of the research consists in comparing the novel by B. K. Zaitsev with 19th century Russian classical prose about childhood, in clarifying the question of traditions and innovation in solving the theme of childhood by the writer of the Russian diaspora. The paper considers theoretical issues related to the spatial and temporal structure of the novel “Dawn,” the disclosure of the figurative and motivational series, artistic means and techniques. All this is necessary not only to understand the peculiarities of the embodiment of the childhood image in B. K. Zaitsev’s prose, but also to determine the national identity of Russian literature about childhood. In the center of Zaitsev’s novelis the image of a child living in a manor, which is depicted according to Russian literary traditions of the 18th — 19th centuries. Describing the ancestral “nest” with its material content, special semantics, autobiographical basis, recreating the world of a child, B. K. Zaitsev relies on the novel “Childhood” by L. N. Tolstoy. Idyllic time dominates the structure of the novel “Dawn.” Its important components include the motifs of light, aromas, smells, sounds of nature, the synesthesia characteristic of a child’s worldview. The child experiences the fullness of the joy of being akin to being in Eden. The world of childhood, permeated with Divine grace, apart from biographical and historical time, is addressed to the category of Eternity. Childhood is spiritualized and sacralized. Mother and father are organically included in the world of the novel, associated with the idea of the orderliness and stability of being. Family meals together and rituals become events that create an atmosphere of happiness. Children’s worldview is presented through a system of oppositions of “their own”/“someone else’s”space. Childhood is associated with thanatological events. The description of the reading circle becomes mandatory in revealing the inner world of the child hero. The writer’s novel is an example of an image of childhood conditioned by a new era, modernist innovations consisting in changing the relationship between the author and the child.

Keywords: the world of childhood, the image of the child, the literature of the Russian abroad, B. K. Zaitsev, the novel, Dawn, realism, modernism, literary tradition

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The sensory poetics of O. F. Bergholz’s artistic texts has not yet been specifically studied. Since childhood, the poetess was immersed in the folk song element and had a keen perception of the auditory sphere; for her, the “memory of sound” was the most important associative link in building an artistic picture of the world. When creating the image of the Valdai arc in the autobiographical novel “Day Stars,” it is the sound substance that has a function of meaning generation. The author’s distinct sound image of the Orthodox prayer read by nannie Avdotya in the “Day Stars,” is considered in the article in comparison with the icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov, described by Bergholz. The sound metamorphosis of the prayer functions as a conductor of the sacred meaning of the iconographic ecphrasis in the text of the story. Leningrad is the most representative image in Bergholz’s work; the city’s acoustic space is modeled by the author based on the historical context. The heightened perception of the sonosphere of the post-revolutionary city contributes to the creation of unusual sound metaphors in the “Day Stars” (talking, screaming walls; crying stone). In the Leningrad Symphony screenplay, the sound of a metronome, which arose on the eve of the blockade ordeal, is associated with Shostakovich’s Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony. In blockade-related lyrics, the visual (color) characteristics of images are replaced by auditory ones; the sounds of war — whistling, screeching, clanking, grinding, crunching — carry a negative connotation of destruction and death, and the creaking of the runners of blockade sleds is a sign-marker of death. The semantics of silence are ambivalent; at the same time, silence and soundlessness are semanticized in different ways: soundlessness in an existential sense is juxtaposed to sound as the death of life; the beginning of “universal death” occurs when sound “died” in space; the sound/ringing/noise returned to the world is isomorphic to life.

Keywords: O. F. Bergholz, iconic ekphrasis, Leningrad, sound image, ringing, sounds of war, blockade sensorics, silence, soundlessness

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The article introduces the classical ghazals in the poetry of Nimá Yushíj (1897–1960) that were previously unexamined in Russian and Western Iranian Studies, and that provided an impetus for the development of this traditional genre in the contemporary Persian literature. Analysis of the canonic language signs of medieval lyrics by the “father of Iranian new poetry’s” sheds light upon the transformation of the author’s self-awareness in line with the original artistic manner. Conventional images and stable motifs of love lyrics, which have absorbed traditional mystical and allegorical connotations, are uniquely refracted in Nima Yushij’s ghazals. The semiotic and structural aspect of research along with the methods of historical poetics reveals the polysemanticism of classical motifs. The multi-stratified text structure turns out to be a tool for the poet to allegorically present his artistic view. In accordance with his intentions, Nima applies both the normative components of the formal plan (e. g., husn at-taxallus) and the execution methods that are not typical for the classical canon (frame text). To sum up, semantic and formal wholeness of Nima’s ghazals is observed.

Keywords: Nima Yushij, new poetry in Iran, genre, classic Persian ghazal, polysemantic text structure

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The research is carried out within the framework of a narratological analysis, the material for which was T. Keskisarja’s military historical monograph “The War of the Hats.” Keskisarja’s work is a historical narrative with literary features. The narrative strategies implemented in the text are considered.The starting point of the research was the juxtaposition of historical and literary narratives, scientific and artistic styles. Keskisarja’s book is dedicated to the Russian-Swedish war of 1741–1743 (known as the War of the Hats), which Sweden began in the hope of regaining the territories lost during the Northern War (1700–1721).The scenes of the past are presented mainly through the decisions of military and civil courts, clergy records, various documents (letters, orders, petitions), historical maps. Keskisarja uses interpretation as the main tool for analyzing archival materials, which makes it possible to reason about human experience.The method used by Keskisarja to present archival data to the 21st-century reader through the prism of a novel with the features of a psychological analysis fully meets the needs of the present time. The fascinating manner of narration, combined with the historian’s professionalism gives the reader a completely adequate idea of the political situation in Europe and the tragic events of the 18th century.Keskisarja uses the expressive means of fiction, inserts a fictional, independent, third-party observer into the historical narrative — a “sentient being” who evaluates events and conducts a dialogue with the reader. Such features of the text under study as dialogicality, anthropocentricity, emotionality, and hybridity are noted. The details of the fates of real people give the narrative volume and expressiveness. The author of the monograph does not “invent” certain events of the described reality — he conjectures and interprets them, trying to discover their meaning, their connection with the past and the future.

Keywords: Teemu Keskisarja, The War of the Hats, non-fiction text, narrative, narrative strategy, interpretation, war, expressiveness

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