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• The Features of Theatre Activity in Hungary: The Legal and Financial Basis (II)

  12 p.

  Olga Romanova

  Ekaterina Khaunina

  Views:

  361

  Hungarian theatre system is the main object of the following article. The first part of article contains the general questions connected with the existing model of theatrical activity. Then there is the analytical review of the modern Hungarian legislation of area of culture and special attention is paid to the structure and content of Law XCIX / 2008 “On support and rules of employment in organizations of performing arts”. In the following part of the article all models which exist and develop in the country nowadays of direct and indirect financial support of theatrical organizations are considered. Since 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 develop the institutions for the additional funding of Russian theatres.

• The transformation of the camp theme in Sergei Lebedev’s novel “Oblivion”

  Zsuzsanna Kalafatics

  Views:

  289

  Sergei 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.

• Intimacy or exposure: Ukrainian artists and the camp wound in relations with Russia

  Kinga Anna Gajda

  Michał Kuryłowicz

  Views:

  399

  The aim of the paper is to provide an interdisciplinary analysis of cultural testimonies of the unique wound left by the camps in Ukrainian–Russian relations. Gulag literature, explored for decades in philology, is perceived mainly through the prism of the heritage of totalitarian systems and creative attitudes in the face of suffering, as extreme physical and mental experience. The aim of the paper is to analyze the works of Ukrainian artists of recent decades created as a result of imprisonment. Their literary and film creations make up the image of a wound inflicted in the name of achieving imperial goals while imprisoned in a camp. The juxtaposition of their diverse artistic reactions to the suffering of testimonies help to highlight the power with which the unsettled, forgotten, silenced, and now and unexpectedly updated wound of the camp past is reflected in today's attitudes of Ukrainians towards Russians.

• Camp prose: On the semantics and conceptual framework of the term

  Francesco Varlaro

  Aleksej Kozlov

  Views:

  405

  The paper analyzes camp prose as a unique literary phenomenon in 20th century Russian literature, shaped under the extreme conditions of Stalinists labor camps and repressions. The study looks into the effects of imprisonment on the linguistic personalities of both professional writers, such as V. Shalamov and A. Solzhenitsyn, and non-writers like E. Ginzburg and E. Kersnovskaya. The writings of these authors provide key points for analyzing the psychological, social, and individual transformations the authors experienced during incarceration. The use of metaphorical language in shaping their works is a major area of study. The authors succeed in delineating the unspeakable horrors of camp life by using metaphors as both stylistic elements and tools for reinterpretation. The study analyzes how these metaphors reflect the broader themes of dehumanization, endurance, and moral resilience. In addition, the analysis illustrates that camp prose goes beyond documentary testimony, becoming a means of linguistic resistance and creative survival. By exploring the lexical choices and narrative structures of these texts, the present study discusses methods in which authors build a new literary language and process in and of expressing trauma and memory. In doing this, it contributes to a deeper understanding of the interaction between personal experience, linguistic expression, and historical representation in Russian literature.

• Ivan Goncharov’s Novel “A Common Story” and the Problem of “Petersburg Text”

  Irina Belyaeva

  Alexandra Senilova

  Views:

  525

  The article raises the question about the nature of the “Petersburg text” in the novel “A Common Story”, about its correlation with the general body of the “Petersburg text” of Russian literature and about its individual meanings in Goncharov’s prose. Various levels of the “Petersburg text” are considered: the expression of the category of the “inner state” of the hero, as well as culture and nature. It is concluded that Goncharov’s novel does not fully fit into the mainstream of the “Petersburg text” of Russian literature, but adopts the basic principles of its construction, and also has great potential for the semantic increments of the individual local Petersburg dictionary, which is determined by Goncharov’s irony and symbolization.

• Scientists in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s Novels

  Tünde Szabó

  Views:

  302

  This 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.

• Between Mystery and Riddle: From Narrative Strategy to Literary Genre

  9 p.

  Olga Fedunina

  Views:

  373

  In the paper a difference is made between the mysterious and the enigmatic as fundamentally
  different narrative and genre strategies. The first is typical of the so-called novelmystery
  or the novel-myth, charcterized by the concept of impossible rational comprehension
  of the mystery explained by the plot. The second represents a vast field of criminal literature,
  where the plot is dependent on a riddle that has a pre-given answer. The differences between
  these two types of novels are manifested at all the main levels of poetics, especially in the
  specific traits of the subject-oriented organization. However, the paper shows that the general
  strategy of the mysterious is also implemented through different moods in different criminal
  genres such as classic detective stories, the police novel, the “adventurous investigation”, and
  the “victim-centered investigation”. Thus, we can conclude that the mystery and the riddle
  can reassemble genre constructive strategies not minus then narrative.

• Ecological terminology: The term "use of natural resources " in Russian texts of various registers

  Krisztina K. Kovács

  Views:

  285

  The relevance of this paper stems from the rapid development of ecological knowledge, accompanied by the active formation and integration of new specialized terminology. Due to a growing interest in issues of applied ecology, sustainable development, and rational use of natural resources, ecological vocabulary is steadily expanding and becoming established in texts of various genres and functional styles. This dynamism necessitates a linguistic analysis of word formation of new terminology and the use of specialized vocabulary in the context of the environment. The paper examines the specifics of how the term prirodopol'zovanie “use of natural resources” functions in Russian-language texts representing different functional styles such as scientific, official-administrative, and journalistic texts.

• “Hungarian Subject Matter” in Chekhov (The Short Story The Unnecessary Victory)

  Tatyana Ilyuhina

  Views:

  311

  The paper considers “The unnecessary victory” as one of the notable works of the earliest stage of Chekhov’s creativity. The Hungarian theme of the story, inspired by the novels of Mór Jókai translated into Russian, and its plot, related to the traditions of the European career novel, address a wide audience. The young writer plays along with this reader with exotic narrative elements and delineates the difference between serious and marginal literature. This hoax, together with other skits of those years, reveals the young writer’s view of literary pursuits as an exciting game in which the main expectation is to be truthful and graceful. The same goals, according to Chekhov, characterize literature in general, regardless of the field of its competence and of the readership coverage.

• Ekphrasis - Chameleon of Literary studies “Theory and History of Ekphrasis: Results and Prospects of Study” Siedlce, 2018

  9 p.

  Nóra Troitsky

  Views:

  504

  This article aims to highlight the various methods in which ekphrasis can be analysed and new interpretations of the phenomenon in the monograph “The Theory and History of Ekphrasis: Results and Prospects of the Study” published for the 15th year anniversary of the previous work “Ekphrasis in Russian Literature” (2002). The articles touch upon the history of the study of ekphrasis, its typology, the dynamics of its functions as well as the poetics of description in the history of literature, theory and classification, including the theme of narratology, and works containing analysis from autobiographical points of view. The novelty of the monograph is that it also includes contemporary fiction which provides an excellent opportunity to redefine and reinterpret the phenomenon.

• Chekhov in New York: the Functions of Frame in Louis Malle's "Vanya on 42nd Street" (1994)

  10 p.

  Olga Dzhumailo

  Views:

  331

  This paper focuses on Luis Malle’s creative adaptation of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”. The frame location of "Vanya on 42nd street" is not only documentary evidence and a sign of admiration for the actors' ensemble, creating the spirit of live improvisation in the unfinished theatrical production by Andre Gregory. It is argued that the film is far from being another spectacular 're-citing' of Chekhov's ‘transcultural capital’. A set of framing elements foregrounds Chekhov's art in general and the way he represents Vanya’s stoic endurance in particular as resonating with the living experience of a person of any culture in whatever language (Russian, English, Bengali, theatrical, cinematic, etc.) holds general validity. Among leitmotifs which interconnect the frame and the drama performance within the film there are also those of kinship, unselfish  friendship and true involvement in life as an ongoing rehearsal and improvisation on an inescapable life project that is never successful.

• Cognitive Models of the Concept of “Normality”

  Nava Vanda Sahverdova

  Views:

  56

  This study examines the concept of “normality” in contemporary Russian public discourse of recent decades in the context of uncertainty in normative frameworks. In contrast to the previously analysed construction “new normality,” which exhibits a marked and metalinguistic function, “normality” functions primarily as a background cognitive-discursive category, serving as a tool for evaluation and categorization. The data for the study is drawn from the RuTenTen corpus. The methodological framework is based on cognitive-discursive analysis aimed at identifying typical patterns of usage and reconstructing the conceptual structure. The analysis reveals the main cognitive models of the concept of “normality,” including spatial, scalar, processual, and institutional metaphors, as well as models of masking, simulation, and axiological inversion.

• Singularity of Novel Discourse in Dostoevsky's The Idiot

  Géza Horváth

  Views:

  234

  The article examines Dostoevsky's novel discourse as a singular unity in the novel The Idiot. This discourse is dominated by the principle of indeterminacy, and the category of subjectivity is closely connected with the novel model of singularity. The aim of the article is to understand the principles of discursive unity organization in the novel on the level of its basic metaphors. These basic metaphors are "point" and "line".

• From Gregory of Nyssa to Boris Akunin and Eugene Vodolazkin – and beyond : “the language, which I spake and fram’d”: Linguistic Presence: Collection of Academic Papers in Honour of Arpad Kovacs’s 80th Jubilee. Edited by A. Molnár and M. Hoványi. Budapest, ELTE Eötvös József Collegium, 2024, pp. 416. ISBN: 978-615-5897-67-2

  Márk Murányi

  Views:

  267

  This review discusses the Festschrift published in honour of Professor Árpád Kovács’s 80th birthday. Professor Kovács is an eminent Hungarian scholar whose research on Russian Literature (mainly on Dostoevsky’s oeuvre) and innovations in literary theory are well-known, respected and followed by the Slavic studies specialists throughout the world. The volume consists of 30 papers written by Professor Kovács’s friends, colleagues and admirers. In the high standard and innovative approach of each paper, the volume is undoubtedly worthy of Professor Kovács’s legacy and represents the unique approach to literary texts which he established during his career.

• Gender and Space in Literature and Cinema (Bogomil Rainov’s Roads to Nowhere and Metodi Andonov’s A White Room)

  Natalya Nyagolova

  Views:

  324

  The article discusses the structural link between the gender model and the fictional space in Bogomil Rainov’s short story Roads to Nowhere (1966) and its film adaptation—Metodi Andovov’s A White Room (1968). The transformations of the original text are traced via several semantic oppositions (masculine-feminine, rational-emotional, order-chaos) and the influence of two aesthetic paradigms—noir and the existentialist “new wave”. These transformations are interpreted in the socio-cultural context of the Bulgarian “thaw” with its quest for the marginal, regional, personal alternatives within the socialist system.

• Georgy Adamovich ‘The Beginning of the Story’, ‘From a Clogged Notebook’ - about the Turgenev’s Subtext

  11 p.

  Ludmila Sproge

  Views:

  338

  The discourse of ‘Ich-Erzählung’ creates visibility, or an autobiographical narrative,
  where the author narrates the more famous classical texts on the theme of ‘love as strong as
  death’. The narration of stories is based on the principle of the repeatability of individual
  thematic units built on similarities and contrasts. The text that is being created does not translate into an autonomous story about Maria Leopoldovna, but it exposes the technique of reminiscence poetics. Quotes and auto-quotes form or create a peculiar language of the major art,
  where the names of Turgenev and Tolstoy are markers of the story. Turgenev’s subtext is
  connected with the way meaning is constructed in the story, which is told about love that has
  never come true but is remembered all one’s my life.

• Slovak Verbs of Aquamotion (in Contrast with Other Slavic Languages)

  17 p.

  Kaname Okano

  Views:

  387

  This paper studies the semantics and distribution of Slovak verbs with the meaning of aquamotion in contrast with other contemporary Slavic languages. As pointed out in previous studies in lexical typology, the lexicalization pattern of the semantic field of aquamotion differs in many languages of the world and there are subtle but significant differences even between closely-related languages such as Slavic. As far as the Slovak language is concerned, there still does not exist a detailed study of aquamotion verbs and their lexicalization patterns. This paper applies the theoretical framework of lexical typology and analyses the lexicalization patterns of the following three semantic zones: the semantic zone of swimming and flowing (plávať, plaviťsa), the semantic zone of liquid motion (tiecť, prúdiť, liaťsa), and the semantic zone of diving and immersing (ponáraťsa, potápaťsa, topiťsa). This paper aims to reveal which semantic parameters are relevant for the lexicalization of the semantic field in question, and to demonstrate the distribution of the Slovak verbs describing aquamotion. In addition to that, our analysis deals with some contrastive aspects to point out similarities and differences between Slovak and other Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Serbian and Vojvodina Ruthenian.

• Object – Body – Flashback in “The Seagull” by Michael Mayer

  6 p.

  Natalia Niagolova

  Views:

  375

  The article features the transformation mechanisms of Chekhov’s play “The Seagull” in its film adaptation of 2018 by Michael Mayer. The director’s concept activates the opposition “memory – forgetfulness” and this is based on composition-visual reminiscences, i.e. flashbacks. The world of objects and the body discourse in the film complies with that specific film story of nostalgia in which the past is not simply going back to the things the characters were through, but also as a new reading of Chekhov’s intertextuality in the context of Anglo-Saxon cinema culture as well as a stylized memory of the Russian classic writer and his times.

• On the Functions of the Figure of Narrative Metalepsis in the Narratives of “Old Writing”

  Alexander Efimenko

  Views:

  24

  This article, based on the works of Russian writers of the “old school,” analyses the functions of the narrative figure of metalepsis. The article points out the differences between the types of metalepsis: rhetorical and ontological. It then provides an overview of the typology of metalepsis functions, which are divided into diegetic and exegetical. The former includes the functions of introducing the figure of analepsis and the figure of prolepsis into the narrative, as well as the function of transitioning from one diegetic line to another. A separate function of metalepsis is the exegetical function, which is common to both types of metalepsis.

• How E. Vodolazkin’s Laurus Was Made

  Valery Kupka

  Views:

  295

  In the paperan attempt has been made to define the basic principles of the composition of E. Vodolazkin's novel Laurus and their role in creating an atmosphere of timelessness and ahistoricism in the novel. The possible influence of the ancient Russian hagiographic icon on the nature of the composition is also investigated.

• From literature to ecocriticism: Siberian dams and their impact on the natural and human environment

  Ilaria Remonato

  Views:

  310

  Written with an ecocritical perspective, the present paper is devoted to the analysis of affinities and differences between two major works of Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century, Proshchanie s Materoy [Farewell to Matyora, 1976] by Rasputin (1937–2015) and Zona zatopleniya [The Flood Zone, 2015] by Senchin (b. 1971). Forty years later, these novels enter a dialogue, starting from some key themes and the common subject: the real flooding of several Siberian rural villages due to the construction of dams and hydroelectric power plants. The first part of the paper introduces and contextualizes the construction of what has been called “great dams”, outlining their main aims and characteristics, as well as the environmental consequences for neighbouring territories and populations. The second section focuses on the parallelisms between the two literary texts, examining, in particular, the image of nature and the peculiar “Siberian chronotope” which emerges from them. In both novels, in fact, the conflict between humans and nature plays a central role. The last part of the study provides a comparison between the contents and the main thematic issues of the narratives, taking into account the traumatic psychological impact of evacuation and resettlement on the characters. The rather marked stylistic differences between the works of the two authors make it possible to propose some final reflections on the profound relationships entertained by their literary works which go beyond a mere ‘remake’ or actualization. 

• Culture and Normative Sociable Systems in a Period of Crisis: Issues of Theory and Practice

  Evgeniya Yuzhina

  Elizaveta Zatsepa

  Views:

  212

  This article is devoted to the analysis of topical questions of the development of culture and normative sociable systems in a period of crisis. People faced new concept of reality in the third decade of 21st century. In the era of a brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible world the question of responsibility for the state of culture and normative sociable systems is most acute. As representatives of culture, education and science, researchers can create the space of clean, healthy, favorable opportunities for  the development in the post crisis period.

• On the Reception of the Poem The Twelve by Aleksandr Blok in German Criticism and Literature Studies of the Past 50 Years

  Mária Gyöngyösi

  Views:

  321

  The article examines the German reception of Alexander Blok’s poem “The Twelve” based on selected criticism and works of literary history published by Slavists, poets and translators during the last fifty years. Analyses and interpretations of the poem are presented in detail, while other post-1917 writings and statements by Blok are also mentioned in order to provide context.

• Rácz, Ildikó Mária: A lét és a szerelem szentsége. Ivan Bunyin művészi világképe. L’Harmattan, Budapest 2020, 373 pp. ISBN 978-963-414-681-0

  Ágnes Dukkon

  Views:

  311

  This review presents a critical analysis of the monograph on Bunin by the Hungarian researcher Ildikó Mária Rácz. The author describes the main thematic blocs of the volume, for example, the influence of classic Russian literature on Bunin (Turgeniev, Tolstoi, Chekhov, and Tiutchev), the role of Eastern philosophy in the evolution of Bunin’s art, the connection between the modern psychological concepts (Freud, Jung) and the short stories as Mitya’s love or The grammar of love.

• The Function of the „Author’s Mask” in “The Soul of a Patriot or Various Epistles to Ferfichkin” by Yevgeni Popov

  Annamária Vass

  Views:

  342

  Playing with the author’s figure is not a new device in Postmodernism. One may refer to “Either/Or” by Søren Kierkegaard or “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by Alexander Pushkin, or “The Fiery Angel” by Valery Bryusov. At the same time the foreword of “The soul of a patriot or Various epistles to Ferfichkin” proves that in Postmodernism this game is taken to the next level. The author who abandoned their fictional space and renounced theirauthorial role during Modernism returns and re-takes their formal place. However, he does not do it seriously but hiding behind the mask of the author – says Malmgren, introducing the term of the author’s maskinto literary discourse. In this analysis I state that Popov, using the author’s mask, turns the traditional interpretationof the author’s role inside out.  I conclude that, on the one hand, the author’s mask ridicules the concept by which the author’s biography is the key to his work. On the other hand, it makes fun of Vinogradov’s view, according to which there is always an abstract author hiding in the text who carries its real meaning. I come to the conclusion, that Popov uses this narrative technique to emphasise that it is impossible to look at a literary work as an arsenal of ultimate truths and statements.