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

  10 p.

  Olga Dzhumailo

  Views:

  294

  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.

• Comedy against a tearful background: The interference of catharsis in L.S. Petrushevskaya’s play Colombina’s Apartment

  Aleksandr Kubasov

  Views:

  286

  The paperraises the question of catharsis in modern dramaturgy as a complex and ambiguous aesthetic reaction of the reader. The concept of “interference of catharsis” is introduced, meaning the combination of two of its types, laughter and tears, due to which a synergistic effect occurs that enhances both reactions. The introduced definition is tested based on the analysis of Petrushevskaya’s one-act play Colombina’s Apartment, which is recognized as an example of a philosophical farce. It is noted that in modern drama, the place of pure tearful and laughter catharsis has been taken by their reduced derivatives. Irony replaces open laughter, and feelings of bitterness or regret replace tears. The analyzed play is recognized as an example of modern metadrama. Petrushevskayauses not only the traditional characters of the commedia dell'arte (Harlequin, Pierrot, and Columbine) ata new time and in a new setting, but also the poetics of puppet theater, as well as the realities of Soviet children's theater. Laughter, which operates throughout the entire play, is removed at the end by the bitterly ironic aesthetic reaction of the readers, which is caused by compassion for the funny characters. Superimposed on one another, they create what is called the interference of catharsis.

• Harms – Gogol – Dostoevsky (“Old Women” – “Vij” – “Crime and Punishment”)

  14 p.

  Sergey Shults

  Views:

  399

  In terms of historical poetics and intertextuality, parallels are drawn between "Old Woman"
  by D. Harms, "Vij" by N. Gogol and "Crime and Punishment" by F. Dostoevsky. As far as the
  three authors are concerned, their common features are revealed, together with the transformation
  of the motives of the ugly infernal old woman, which are depicted in the context of
  mythopoetics, historiosophy and social history by the three authors. Concerning the texts produced
  by their followers the term “post-text” is introduced, which is meant to include the dialogical
  connotations of literary evolution. The role of “vertex composition” (a term coined by
  V.M. Zhirmunsky) in works of Modernism/ Avant-garde is also touched upon.

• 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

  András Bozorády

  Views:

  162

  Jangfeldt'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.

• Folklore and Literature: Once Again about the Research Methodology

  Marina Larionova

  Views:

  281

  When using the methods of analysis applied in folkloristics in literary works, narrative models and character types formed in myths, fairy tales and rituals are distinguished. Different literary characters enter into one archetypal paradigm and display the same invariant functions, properties and attributes. In this regard, the research of common traditional elements of the structure and poetics of literary works and that of the interpretation of individual literary texts in terms of the interaction of "ready-made" and individual values and rules of construction is made possible.

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

  Tatyana Ilyuhina

  Views:

  272

  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.

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

  Natalya Nyagolova

  Views:

  259

  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.

• Non-blame and/or Forgiveness: Observations about L.N. Tolstoy’s Theology on the Background of the Philosophy of I. Kant and M.M. Bakhtin

  10 p.

  Sergey Shults

  Views:

  358

  The problem of correlation of non-blame and forgiveness in L. Tolstoy’s world is put in the context of Kant’s and Bakhtin’s philosophy. The author comes to the conclusion that for L. Tolstoy non-blame is above forgiveness.

• The chronotope of O. E. Mandelshtam’s Poems about the Unknown Soldier

  Sergei Shul’ts

  Views:

  323

  The chronotope of O.E. Mandelstam’s Poems about the Unknown Soldier has at least three levels: (1)  the level  of internal time-space as immanent to the subject, the author-hero; this is the level of subjective refraction of events in individual consciousness/thinking; (2) the  level of external time-space: the historical and natural beginning of world life (historical and physical cosmos) in their correlation; here worldly life is presented as if outside any of its perception from the outside, “by itself”; and (3) the mythical-symbolic dimension shining through the other two; the events here are interpreted in their parabolical content, including in the aspect of the philosophy of culture and intertextuality as a kind of “new mythology”.