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Russian literary history for advanced readers, with plenty of textual illustrations: Lukyanova, I.: Once upon a time there was Russian literature: From Ancient Rus' to the XX century. Publishing House AST.2023. Moscow. Pp. 348. ISBN 978-5-17-154945-9
Views:282Lukyanova's book was published in 2023. The author is a journalist who studies Russian literature and its history, and reviews it in a rather unique way. The purpose of the review is to determine what genre Lukyanova's book can be classified as, and to find out what its uniqueness is manifested in.
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Scientists in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s Novels
Views:261This study focuses on a characteristic type of hero in Ulitskaya’s works and analyses the image of the scientist heroes and their poetic functions in three of the author’s novels (The Kukotsky Enigma, The Big Green Tent and Jacob’s Ladder). These heroes represent a special kind of syncretic thinking. Firstly, in their conversations and debatesthe genre code of the Socratic dialogue is activated, as Mikhail Bakhtin described it in connection with the development of the polyphonic novel. Secondly, these heroes, who always appear in pairs, invoke the duo of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, as well as certain characteristics of “Quixotism”, which has a central role in the critique of the role that intellectuals have played in Russian culture. It is against the above background that the role of 20th-century intellectuals gains a new interpretation in Ulitskaya’s three novels.
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Historical Data and the Modern Linguistic Landscape of the City of Berehove (Transcarpathian region, Ukraine)
Views:156The first mention of Berehove dates back to 1063 when the Hungarian prince Lampert (the youngest son of the Hungarian king Béla I) built his palace here. Until the beginning of the 16th century, the village (since 1247 the town) bore the name of its founder (first “Lampertháza” and then “Lampertszász”). In 1504 (according to other sources, in 1499), the name “Beregszász” appeared for the first time. The modern Ukrainian name for the city is “Berehove” (in Russian “Beregovo”), but the old Hungarian version “Beregszász”is also sometimes used. Now it is a city of regional importance with a population of about 26 thousand people (according to the latest official data from 2001), located in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, a few kilometers from the Hungarian border.
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The transformation of the camp theme in Sergei Lebedev’s novel “Oblivion”
Views:197Sergei Lebedev’s novel Oblivion offers an original reworking of the tradition of Russian camp prose. Its central themes are the legacy of Stalinist terror, the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the necessity of a conscious resistance to their consequences. This paper explores how Lebedev, drawing on the concept of post-memory, intertwines personal family history with questions of collective memory, highlighting the destructive effects of silencing the past and the absence of accountability for historical crimes. At the core of this interpretation is an analysis of the narrator’s journey through space, time, and self-discovery, structured around the mythological motif of descent (katabasis). The funeral ritual plays a key role in the novel’s initiation structure: the symbolic burial and mourning of victims who vanished without a trace becomes an act of memory restoration, offering the possibility of reconciliation and a new beginning. Lebedev critically engages with contemporary Russian memory politics, stressing the moral imperative to uncover and give voice to the traumatic past.
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Lecturer, Researcher and Translator in One Person. In Honour of József Goretity's 60th Birthday
Views:294József Goretity has been working at the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the University of Debrecen since 1985 and has been the head of the institute since 2012. During this time he has been teaching courses on 19th and 20th century West-European and Russian literature focusing on the tradition of the novel and mythopoetics at the Department of Comparative Literature as well. In 1996 he was appointed head of the department. Between 1992 and 1999 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Miskolc. Besides his teaching activity, József Goretity’s work in the field of literary translation is also outstanding. He has brought such prominent Russian writers to Hungarian-speaking audiences as Narine Abgaryan, Sergey Dovlatov, Viktor Yerofeyev, Viktor Pelevin, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Yuri Polyakov, Grigoriy Ryazhskiy, Marina Stepanova, Alexandr Terekhov or Lyudmila Ulickaya. Besides literary texts he also translated literary and cultural studies into Hungarian, such as P. P. Apryshko’s influential monograph The History of Russian Philosophy. József Goretity’s most influential academic works are Idézet paródia és mítosz Fjodor Szologub két regényében and Töredékesség és teljességigény. Huszadik századi orosz prózai művek értelmezése. In 2014 he was awarded the Medal of Pushkin by the President of the Russian Federation. In 2019 he received the prestigous state award, the Golden Cross, for his achievement.
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Types and Functions of Comparative Tropes in Contemporary Prose Texts (as represented in L. Ulitskaya’s Short Story ”The Queen of Spades”)
5 p.Views:505This article studies the types and functions of comparative tropes in Lyudmila Ulickaya’s short story ”The Queen of Spades”, a reference to Alexander Pushkin’s famous masterpiece. This question is connected with the main heroine’s figure constructed on the basis of the system of tropes. In the analysis suggested by the authors, special attention is paid to the animalistic, vegetative and theatrical metaphors, parallels and similes. In the conclusion the difference between traditional and individual tropes in the woman writer’s literary work is discussed.
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The artistic interpretation of biographical facts in L. Petrusevskaya's Ninth Volume
Views:302The paper deals with the interpenetrability of the boundaries between artistic prose and autobiography and documentary. By analyzing Petrushevskaya's Ninth Volume, the paper examines how the rhetorical tropes of fiction operate in a text that is essentially autobiographical in nature, mixing different genres, and how archetypal, psychological and literary patterns are projected onto the biographical material. The cyclical arrangement of texts belonging to different periods and the blending of different discourses create the figure of a special autobiographical hero reflecting on the work.
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The Features of Theatrical Life in Hungary: The Legal and Financial Basis
18 p.Views:228The present study is concerned with the Hungarian theatre system. In the first part general
questions connected with the existing model of theatrical activity are treated. This is
followed by an analytical review of modern Hungarian cultural legislation, in which special
attention is paid to the structure and content of Law XCIX / 2008 “On the support and rules
of employment in organizations of performing arts”. Then all the existing present-day models
of direct and indirect financial support of theatrical organizations are considered. Since the
Hungarian and Russian theatre systems have some similar characteristics, the final part is
devoted to possible partial adoption of Hungarian experience with a view to developing the
institutions for the additional funding of Russian theatres. -
An insight into Russian history from the Middle Ages to the present: Tamás Krausz,Klára Radnóti and Endre Sashalmi (eds.): Apologia Historiographiae: Az orosz történelem évszázadai[Apologia Historiographiae: Centuries of Russian history]. Budapest, Martin Opitz Kiadó, 2023. Pp. 557. ISBN: 978-615-6388-37-7
Views:212The collection of studies presented in the volume is a scholarly and informative compilation celebrating the birthday of Professor Gyula Szvák. It publishes new research results by Hungarian scholars into the historical past of the Central and Eastern European Slavic peoples and Russians. The volume is thematically rich, with short studies on the medieval Mongol rule, the political ambitions of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and many other topics. The value of the book lies in the fact that the editors have made it possible – with a view to completeness – to present analyses by outstanding Hungarian representatives of the discipline of Russian Studies.
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“Step by Step” in Camp Prose: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s ”One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and Imre Kertesz’s “Fatelessness”
Views:274The paper is devoted to the disclosure of the concrete and abstract images of "step(ping) " and the reinvention of related other meanings (concepts like ’path’, ’fate’and ’happiness’)in the novel by A.I. Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and in the novel by Imre Kertesz "Fatelessness". In order to identify the similarities and differences concerning these fundamental text-forming components in these outstanding works of camp prose, it is necessary to turn to the study of trophes, i.e. creating new meanings on the basis of the combination of incompatible things and images. This allows us to approach the author's picture of the world in both cases.
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Grammatical Rules and Analogy in Natural Morphology
Views:189Analogy plays a significant role in problem solving, as well as in decision making, argumentation, perception, generalization, memory, creativity, invention, prediction, emotion, explanation, conceptualization, and communication. Analogy is important not only in ordinary language and common sense (where proverbs and idioms give many examples of its application) but also in science, philosophy, law, and the humanities. Still, in linguistics it causes many uncertainties. The main purpose of this work is to study and examine the principles of Natural Morphology on the historical change of Bulgarian verbs. This study is a summary of how grammatical rules and analogy, and their antithesis dissolve in the theory of Natural Morphology. The focus of the paperis the historical variation of the Bulgarian Aorist.
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Teffi as a Person and Woman Writer: A View from Overseas
6 p.Views:349This review describes the conceptual and content side of the book by an American specialist Edith Haber on the life and work of Teffi (1872-1952). This is the only monograph on Teffi in the world. In the review a subtle combination of historical method and literary criticism is noted. The biography of an outstanding person and a talented woman writer is reconstructed against a well-known historical background – three Russian revolutions, two world wars and the first wave of Russian emigration. Special attention is paid to the E. Haber`s analysis of evolution in Teffi`s writing. The characters and plots were changed, the author’s tone and part were altered. The book is praised for its uniqueness and the author – for her high professionalism.
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Fragmentation in Byron’s “The Giaour” as a model for Lermontov’s “A Hero Of Our Time”
Views:177Lermontov never hid his enthusiasm for Western literature and especially for Byron’s poetry. The similarity between the two poets’ personalities and certain character types and motifs in their works has already been established in the literature in the 19th century. This paper aspires to prove that there can also be a connection between the narrative poem The Giaour and the novel A Hero of Our Time from the perspective of literary fragmentation, especially omissions and gaps found in narration, structure and chronology in the two texts.
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Slavica 2021: 60 Years, 50 Issues
Views:256The article gives an overview of the process, by which Slavica, the periodical of the University of Debrecen and its institutional predeccesors has developed from a local publication into a periodical of national and even international significance. The historical overview of the past 60 years highlights those changes that have occured in the profile of the periodical compared to the initial objectives, commemorates the outstanding perspective-minded heads of previous editorial committees, points out situations, when serious decisions had to be taken, in which a special balance of compulsion and neccessity brought the solution, which looking back from the future, moved the periodical forward. The article is concluded by enumerating the benefits offered by the online format and by formulating new objectives
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The Theory of Metaphors in Contemporary Literary Studies
17 p.Views:318This article is designed as a brief overview of the methods of how metaphor is defined in contemporary scholarship. In the discussion of the similarities and differences of the basic Russian and Western poetic, philosophical and logical approaches to metaphors are compared to each other. Besides, Hungarian comprehensive syntheses and reconsiderations of metaphors are also touched upon. Finally, suggestions are made as to which aspects of literary studies and linguistics can be used in the analysis of the system of tropes in literature.
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Female archetypes of Bunin’s images
Views:314The system of ideas, Sophiology and philosophy of love of Vladimir Solovyov had a significant influence on the religious philosophy and formation of aesthetic views of the Russian Silver Age. Although the Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer in exile, Ivan Bunin, consciously distanced himself from the ideological and poetic tendencies of Russian Symbolism, the philosophical roots of Bunin’s prose after 1910 can be traced in Russian religious philosophy and Eastern religious teachings (Buddhism and Taoism). Bunin’s philosophy of love is also imbued with the dualistic vision that is fundamental to his philosophy of being, and the dichotomy of ‘heavenly’ and ‘earthly’ love is reflected in the ‘angelic’ and ‘demonic’ opposites of his female figures. Yet the former is the embodiment of the unattainable ideal of the Eternal Feminine, the latter, the Femme Fatale, the bearer of the earthly promise of carnal pleasures, of sexuality. The author’s female heroines also include the avatar of the Wise Woman (the embodiment of some ancient, archaic wisdom) or the Emanation of Isis (as the embodiment of cosmic energy, standing above the earthly laws of life and death). And like the symbols of yin and yang in Chinese philosophy, in the depths of each of Bunin’s female figures lurks something of its opposite.
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With them or without them? Jangfeldt, B.: Mi és ők: Az orosz eszme története [Us and them: History of the “Russian idea”]. Swedish to Hungarian translation by Imre Bartók. Budapest, Helikon Kiadó, 2024, pp. 224. ISBN: 978-963-620-057-2
Views:162Jangfeldt's book Us and Them: History of the "Russian idea" was published in Hungarian translation in 2024. The author is a Swedish writer and translator from Russian, associate professor of Slavic languages at Stockholm University. The aim of the review is to show what ideological and philosophical currents Jangfeldt's book discusses, and how all of these have influenced Russian history and culture in the past 300 years.
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Mysterious Artist with a Movie Camera - Александр Риганов:«Тиссэ. Оператор Эйзенштейна», Санкт-Петербург: Издательство «Сеанс»,2020. ISBN 978-5-6042795-1-9, 384 pp.
Views:262This review is a content and critical review of Alexander Riganov’s book on Soviet cinematographer Eduard Tisse (1897-1961), Tisse: Eisenstein’s cameraman, which was the first monograph of its kind published in Russian. The book follows the life of the first Soviet cameraman in chronological order from birth until his last days, with the author overviewingrelevant historic and cinematographic events throughout. Thus, there are three major stories in Riganov’s book: the life and artistic path of an artist, the history of a country, and the golden age of cinematography. Several unique archival documents, e.g. letters, diary segments, photographs etc., were first published in this book. The book’s author paid special attention to Tisse’s and Eisenstein’s joint works. The uniqueness and high professional standard of Riganov’s book makes it a piece of art worthy of attention.
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Bugs, Burrow, Inquisitor: Dostoevskian Intertexts in Eyeless in Gaza
Views:261The present article is devoted to the discussion of intertextual connections between Aldous Huxley’s Eyeless in Gaza (1936) and three works by Dostoevsky: Notes from the Underground(1864), Crime and Punishment (1869) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880, Grand Inquisitor scene). As is well-known, the Dostoevskian novel of ideas was a major inspiring force for Aldous Huxley’s art: Huxley’s rewriting of the Grand Inquisitor episode in Brave New World (1932) is probably the best-known case in point. Nonetheless, insufficient critical attention has been devoted to the actual intertextual connections between the two novelists’ output. As I have demonstrated earlier, on closer inspectionPoint Counter Point (1928) turns out to be a rewriting of Devils (1872), which, however, alsoproves to be a low point in Huxley’s assessment of Dostoevsky – a companion piece to his incidental vicious critique included in his 1929 essay on Baudelaire, in which Huxley also targets spiritual quest. Let me argue that Eyeless in Gaza can be read as a sequel to that polemic, in which a change of Huxley’s attitude to Dostoevsky is clearly notable: the novel provides a much more subtle and even respectful critique of Dostoevsky by implying the universal relevance of the Dostoevskian underground to the understanding of the modern human condition and by re-embracing spiritual quest.
