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A work of fiction as a path to a biography: The problem of reconstruction of the personality psychology of the young L. N. Tolstoy
Views:21A new museum of Leo Tolstoy is being created in Kazan, dedicated to the author’s adolescence and youth. Despite the fact that the basic facts of the Tolstoy’s life in Kazan have been restored by biographers, the inner life of the young Tolstoy and the features of his psychology are difficult to reconstruct due to the almost complete lack of sources. Since Tolstoy’s work is autobiographical, and he especially often relied on his own psychological experience in the draft versions of his works, the paper makes an attempt to reconstruct some features of the personality psychology of the young Tolstoy on the basis of the first complete draft edition of the novel War and Peace. The heroes of the novel, especially at the beginning, are at the age of youth, and Tolstoy, showing mental processes, recalls his youth. We can claim that Tolstoy, in his youth and adolescence, experienced the joy of life, suffered from ambition and awkwardness, found salvation in philosophical hobbies and daydreaming, in acting out certain situations, etc.
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One can only Understand a Journey by Embarking on it
Views:101The present article is devoted to a new field of research in humanities–the „hygiene of culture” and its leader – Olga Szűcs. The formation of an international researh community is a long and difficult procedure. In the course of the development of the theoretical and the empirical basis of the „hygiene of culture” owing to Olga Szűcs’s personal qualities,the scientific and ethnic norms of a collective of researchers working in different fields of humanities have been set. The results of the research have been published in collective monographs. The paper considers Olga Szűcs’s main scientific contributions to this field and the role she played in this scientific project.
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Between Cyborg and Larva: A Vicious Circle That Human Beings Experience in the Post-humanist Era
8 p.Views:185The article reveals the reasons for and specific features of the transition to the posthumanist
era. The author of the study reviews the criticism of classical humanism and analyzes
the relationship between the concepts of "trans-humanism" and "post-humanism." In a
situation in which a permanent identity is impossible and people move to a “current” “unstable”
identity, the Imaginary becomes the main guideline for the self-identification process.
Human beings are unable to cope with the challenges of our time and are aware of their own
inferiority. That is why they are trying to improve themselves through the available body
modifications. However, this process gives them a new panic attack over the potential loss
of control over the body. Analyzing these processes, the author turns to the most controversial
and specific phenomenon of popular culture – "body horror". This genre reveals the deep
layers of consciousness, fears and insecurity of human beings in the post-humanist era. -
Zoomorphic Metaphors and Similes in the Modern Russian Prose
17 p.Views:275The article represents the main circle of zoonymous images common in the modern Russian prose, they are classified into thematic groups of the “Animals” class, the most frequent vehicles of metaphors and similes are identified, the circle of tenors is outlined, distributed according to the relative frequency of use in literary texts. By means of comparison with the traditional images of the class in question, presented in the dictionary of metaphors and similes of the previous period of the Russian literature, and with the figurative uses of zoonyms in the Russian linguistic world image based on materials of linguocultural dictionaries, the main directions of evolution of zoomorphic tropes in modern Russian prose are determined. Some aspects of textual functioning of zoomorphic tropes are studied: individual preferences in choosing their groups, their conceptualizing role in the text. The results of the study make it possible to get an idea of one fairly significant fragment of the figurative world image of the modern Russian prose.
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«Doktor Zhivago» and Leonid Pasternak
Views:102In this article, we analyze the transformation of values in the literature and art of the first half of the 20th century through the creative strategies of two closely linked people: the poet Boris Pasternak and his father, the painter Leonid Pasternak. An academician of painting, Leonid Pasternak renewed the traditions of realism, being in close contact with Leo Tolstoy while working on the illustrations for Tolstoy’s novel “The Resurrection”. Having made a creative journey from the movement of “peredvizhniki” (“the Itinerants”) toward Impressionism, he did not accept the newest trends, as opposed to his son who had undergone a long period of fascination with Futurism, as well as the influence of Modernism. This conflict of aesthetics lost its poignancy with the passing of the years and with the geographical distance (Pasternak the father having emigrated in the beginning of the 20s). Thus, Boris Pasternak returned to the poetics of the classical Russian prose in his novel “Doctor Zhivago.” But the Christian values on which the conceptual basis of the novel rests, remained unknown to the father, who had passed away just before his son began working on the novel. The result was the novel itself with its covert subtextual influence and the polemics of the son and the father, the poet and the artist.
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The story Сhildhood as the beginning of Leo Tolstoy’s linguopoetic search
Views:23The paper discusses the most prominent linguistic and poetic techniques in Leo Tolstoy’s story Childhood. Linguistic poetics is understood in a broad sense: with the inclusion of not only linguistic units themselves, but also compositional characteristics, stable plot moves, details of subject expressiveness, and effects on the reader. The evolution of the studied techniques in Tolstoy’s further work is traced.
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Turgenev Today: On the Problem of Perception
17 p.Views:186The article deals with the question of how Turgenev’s work is perceived by the modern
reader. There are identified aspects related to the complexity of understanding the writer’s
texts, which are largely due to stereotypes that have developed in the culture of perception,
and are also features of his poetics. There are different ways of new interpretations of Turgenev’s
famous texts – those of the novels “Fathers and Sons” and “The Noble Nest”. In “Fathers
and Sons” the idea of reconciliation with contradictions is emphasized, and ‘The Noble’s
Nest” is considered a successful social project in literature. The article briefly highlights
the main stages of Turgenev’s popularizing Russian culture in the West. -
The Current Status of Corpus Linguistics in Russian Linguistics (Shuneyko, A. A. : Корпусная лингвистика. Учебник для вузов. 2020. Moscow, Yurayt ISBN 978-5-534-13603-6)
Views:204Corpus linguistics is a relatively new, however rapidly developing area of linguistics. Nevertheless, the methodology of corpus research and its results are scarcely applied in current linguistic research. In the present article a short overview of the history of corpus linguistics is given. The difficulties of the development and spreading of this discipline in Russia is also described. A brief outline of Russian textbooks on corpus linguistics is also provided with special focus on Shuneyko’s latest work.
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Trans-Disciplinary Methodology: Procreation Capital as a Basic Factor in the Viability of a Civilizational-Cultural Unit
12 p.Views:142The main problem raised in the paper is in line with a new trend of research, conceptual programs and practical activity that can be termed “hygiene of culture”. The study is transcritical in its character and proposes to consider the category of capital generated by the economy in relation to the reproduction of the population in its structural units of civilization and as a cultural community. Trans-discipline methodology is currently being developed, which makes the work is up-to-date. It develops basic aspects of the procreation capital category, which claims to be a generalization of the human capital category. The problem is the restoration of European culture, which has been eroded by the distortion of the ideas of market economy. The reason why it is particularly urgent to find a solution to the problem is the threat posed by the demographic situation of the developed countries of European culture and the adjacent countries of the Slavic-Orthodox cultural cluster by the actual organization of housing.
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Specificity of the Organization of Text Space in the Novel of E. Vodolazkin «Soloviev and Larionov»
9 p.Views:152The article analyzes the specificity of the organization of the text space in the novel, the relationship of its title and main characters is clarified. The main motives of the story that unite the heroes and motivate the interweaving of their destinies are highlighted: the railway, the sea, the horse and the rider, childhood, life and death. It is proved that the text of the novel is built as a search for an answer to the question about the secrets of the life of General Larionov.
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The Motive of Passage as a Cultural Universal In I.S. Shmelev’s Novel “The Story of a Love”: Semantic and Functional Aspect
Views:142The article considers the motive of passage from the point of view of its role in the plot inI.S. Shmelev’s novel and from the point of view of mythopoetic meanings. It has been established that in the work “The Story of a Love” the symbolism of the passage motive is associated not only with the situation of the transition, but also with the Fall, which is interpreted by the writer as a stage of the movement towards insight. The passage motive organizes two spaces of storytelling: real and mental. Real space is divided into a space of purity and sin, the transition from one spatial locus to another also signifies the transition taking place in the soul of the protagonist from purity to sin and vice versa. The motives of the passage and temporary death are combined with the Christian motive of the transformation, allowing I.S. Shmelev to show the spiritual toss of the main character more clearly – as a transfer from life to death and its subsequent revival, as well as to assert the main motivein his work – the merger of the “mundane” and the “heavenly”, the world of objects, the material world and the “invisible" world of divine light.
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Curator of Culture
Views:24In 2024 we celebrate the 80th birthday of Professor Zoltán Hajnády. The articles in this issue of Slavica have been written by his colleagues to express their respect for him and his work. In addition to the international significance of Zoltán Hajnády’s research on Tolstoy, which is the main focus of his articles, the laudation introducing the series of articles also mentions a broader aspect of his work on Russian–European relations and reveals his deep personality. A representative of humanistic values, a great educator and scientist, he works for the mediation and mutual enrichment of Russian–Russian and Hungarian cultures. For this endeavour, Hajnády was honoured with the Pushkin Medal in 2006.
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Intimacy or exposure: Ukrainian artists and the camp wound in relations with Russia
Views:71The 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.
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World Model in the Novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn
7 p.Views:328The paper deals with the world model and ways of its creation in a novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In the process of world-modeling following basic categories are of a great importance: native-strange, light-darkness, principle of 3 levels. The space of camp is characterized by features of a strange world. Native world is narrowed to the boundaries of hut, bed and even to a hole in a mattress. World organization is also realized with the help of a system of prototypical images, e.g. a table, bread, sun, a stove, etc. Due to this concepts, which have hierarchic values, are formed. Solzhenitsyn achieves generalization following a peculiar way of depicting of a group of characters which can be conditionally called “convicts”. There we can see different social layers, nationalities, ages. It has metonymical nature: according to the principle “a part of the whole” the fate of the entire country is shown. In terms of sense complex “human-being – environment – their interaction” the world model in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s novel has “human”, natural and social levels in its structure. The writer compresses time and space, satiates it with details, which are different in semiotic power of generalization, and as a result he receives solid world model.
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Gogol’s Vij and L.N. Tolstoy’s War and Peace in V.V. Mayakovsky’s Poem War and Peace
Views:277Representing himself in his poem War and Peace in the form of a fictional "absolute unit" - the new Vij - Mayakovsky demonstrates the infernality of a new type, in comparison with Gogol's one. Mayakovsky's ideacontrasts with Tolstoy's pacifism and the idea of "eternal peace" (the novel War and Peace). Unlike Tolstoy, refusing to notice and recognize the real diversity in the manifestations of man and the human principle, Mayakovsky reduces all people, their thoughts and concerns to their personal ideas.
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From the Classic Novel to the Crime Novel: A Genre Paradigm Shift in Artistic Reception
Views:68The article deals with the cases of classical works completion, in which their genre nature undergoes a change. The texts are transferred from the sphere of high literature to the low one, as the continuing of the plot with the criminal line becomes the main method. The material for the analysis is “The very same Tatiana” by A. and S. Litvinovs, as well as the novel “Death Comes to Pemberley” by P.D. James. I show that one of the most relevant genres in this change of genre paradigm is “by victim investigation”, which allows to retain some recognizable items of the classic primary source.
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European Cultures in Leo Tolstoy’s Interpretation: Ambiguous and Unambiguous (on the Basis of the Sketch “Sevastopol in May” and the Novel “War and Peace”)
Views:115The article examines the embodiment of the interactions of Russian culture with French and German cultures in the course of global historical eventsin Tolstoy’s works. The review includes the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and the Patriotic War of 1812. The author analyzes the use of foreign language inclusions by the heroes of Tolstoyʼs works and the authorʼs assessment of them. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the ideas and images of European cultures, which help to express the worldview of the writer.
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The features of the use of color and light in the best works of the festival of video poetry “Videostikhiya”
Views:23This paper deals with video poetry as a phenomenon of contemporary art. A brief excursion into the history of video poetry is presented. The popularity of video poetry in the early 21st century is explained in this paper throughmany factors, one of which is the systematic, since 2002, holding of various festivals and contests of poetic video clips. The main attention is focused on the analysis of video clips presented at the international festival of video poetry ‘Videostichia’. The peculiarity of the use of such a technique as color in the best video clips is revealed. It is noted that video poetry revises the idea of color, making it more symbolic and memorable. Each clip transforms the ordinary perception of color, turning it into a symbol of art and life.
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The Outlines of Meaning’s Analysis of Social Phenomena in the Concept of S. L. Frank
14 p.Views:358The present paper deals with the problem of how cultural meanings are perceived in S. L.
Frank’s social theory. His conception lies between two main paths of sociological thought:
Durkheim’s cognition of social facts as objective phenomena on the one hand, and Weber’s
cognition of subjective meanings of personal actions, on the other. In his theory Frank concentrates
on the concept of objective forming idea-force, which resembles the concept of
social fact in its quality of exerting pressure on individual consciousness and volition, but it
should be brought into harmony with interpretive methodology. In Frank’s view social ideas
are regarded as a force forming social relations and therefore lie in the foundation of social
institutions. These are, for example, ideas of state, of family, of friendship and so on. Social
ideas are connected with the consciousness of the individual by their moral force. That is
why such ideas are accepted by the individual at the emotional level of his spiritual life,
because they believe that these ideas are true and organize their meanings and activities according
to them. Thus social meanings of moral good or evil in human relations and in the
social structure arise. At the same time they signify the emergence of sacred phenomena in
society. Human beings, according the Frank’s theory, have an internal need to be possessed
by the sacred senses that give them the feeling of the participation in the implementation of
the transcendent goals. Society is an objective living idea which provides sacred meanings
for the individual. On the whole, a society’s life is formed by the historically specific complex
of ideas that are freely accepted or rejected by individuals and determine their feelings and
behavior. There is no contradiction between personal freedom, creativity and social structure
in S. Frank’s theory. The author of the present paperfinds similarities between S.Frank’s ideas
and the fundamentals of cultural sociology. -
Culture and Normative Sociable Systems in a Period of Crisis: Issues of Theory and Practice
Views:100This 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.
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The Importance of Animacy-Inanimacy Category of the Noun and the Context
11 p.Views:193The article considers the semantic aspect of the of animacy-inanimacy category in nouns in Russian language, in particular, peculiarities of collocability of some nouns with verbs in terms of animacy-inanimacy category.The study of the semantic interaction of nouns and animate-inanimate marked verbs, which are collocating with these nouns, allows to detect combination of signs of “animate” or “inanimate” in meanings of some nouns with fluctuant grammatical indicator of animacy-inanimacy category. Thus, this study can raise the issues about the cognitive factor in meaning formation process and also about specific character of the process how peculiarities of cognitive experience, received from human exploration of the environment, are expressed.
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The Linguistic Means of Representation of the Category of Generality in the Text of A.P Chekhov’s Three Years
Views:86The multi-level means of representation of the category of generality inherent in the language as a whole are reflected in the story of A. P. Chekhov "Three Years" in all their diversity. The characters of the work reflect on generally significant topics in the context of their own lives, thatimplementthe category of generality in the work. When language units function in the text of the story, their particular-specific and generalizing meanings interact, which causes a two-dimensional semantic perception both within a single utterance and the text as a whole. The use of the means of generalizing in the speech of the characters is pragmatically driven and is determined by the purpose of the speaker to depersonalize the statement or to influence the interlocutor, giving personal reflections a universal meaning.
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Angelika Molnar: Text, Genre, Word: Studies in Russian literature of the 19th–21st centuries. Moscow, Azbukovnik 2022, 424 pp. ISBN 978-5-91172-221-0
Views:181This review contains a critical analysis of Angelika Molnar's new book, her monograph entitled Text, genre, word: Studies in the Russian literature of the 19th-21st centuries is devoted to various texts of different eras from Pushkin’s to Sorokin’s, however, the focus of the study is Molnár's favorite Russian writer, Goncharov, whose work, unfortunately, rarely attracts the attention of Western researchers. In Molnár's book, the main, clearly indicated methodological principle is discursive poetics, which works well when studying intertexts within the framework of both large and small literary and historical series. Therefore, Russian literature is considered by the researcher as a single text in which the "old" is updated by the "new". The review emphasizes the significance of the monograph, which first of all offers an up-to-date interpretationof Russian classics in the context of modernity. The book will be of interest both to a professional researcher of Russian literature and to everyone who is interested in Russian culture and the Russian worldview.
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B. Spinoza, N.V. Gogol, J. Baudrillard: On the Debate about Theocentrism and Anthropocentrism
13 p.Views:193Interest in the problem of man, in the structure of the world and in its foundations is brought together, with all the difference, Spinoza, Gogol, Baudrillard. In the lineup of authors, three main attitudes are revealed. Spinoza: all that exists is theocentric; one must strive to comprehend God and His "extensions" (not creatures!) in the form of the world and man. Gogol: comic-romantic criticism regarding intramural irrationality with the author's aspiration for an eschatological perspective. Baudrillard: immersion in the pan-social as the only being, although it has (starting from the Renaissance) an empty foundation. According to Spinoza, man, nature, the world, in general, everything in reality is an extension of God. Not "creation"! - it is a continuation, practically an integral part of God, some "doubles", although those with less "good." It turns out that God is not able to separate himself from what is around him, what is in the outside world and everything that is not He considers himself to be. Gogol, on the other hand, strove to portray man as really different in relation to God and at the same time capable of changing (the concept of “Dead Souls”). Isn’t the “apocalypse of our time” outlined by Baudrillard? Its unchanging Marxist-Freudian jargon is intended only to serve the immediate intention of reforming social reality. The Baudrillard concept is marked by post- and neo-romantic skepticism regarding the nature of man and society. The extra-Marxist (and non-Freudian) in Baudrillard - his bet on "reversibility", on the "gift" (in the terminology of Moos and his followers) of the "gift", ie installation on a "symbolic exchange" between communicants in all spheres of existence. Thus, Baudrillard comes to recognize the linkage "modern / postmodern" and to recognize the benefits of modernity. The transformation of “dead souls” is a path that Gogol also thought about realizing on different grounds and which opposes the complacency of Spinozist machines.
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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:317This 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.