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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

  Irina Belyaeva

  Views:

  181

  This review contains a critical analysis of Angelika Molnar's new book, her monograph entitled Text, genre, word: Studies in the Russian literature of the 19^th-21^st 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.

• Theoretical Foundations of the Study of Cultural Industries in the Light of Modern Humanitarianism

  Tamara Dyakova

  Views:

  109

  The paper defines new perspectives of the study of cultural industries by the humanities. Cultural, philosophical and socioeconomic theories of the last century, which have entered our active academic life, are considered as the basic points of departure. The author considers the problem of humans and those cultural changes which contribute to the harmonization of ontological, axiological and aesthetic bases of  their existence in modern society.

• Bugs, Burrow, Inquisitor: Dostoevskian Intertexts in Eyeless in Gaza

  Angelika Reichmann

  Views:

  93

  The 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.

• Turgenev Today: On the Problem of Perception

  17 p.

  Irina Belyaeva

  Views:

  179

  The 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.

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

  10 p.

  Olga Dzhumailo

  Views:

  161

  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.

• A work of fiction as a path to a biography: The problem of reconstruction of the personality psychology of the young L. N. Tolstoy

  Lia Bushkanets

  Views:

  13

  A 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.

• Curator of Culture

  Liya Bushkanets

  Views:

  17

  In 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.