Search

Search Results

• On the Existence of Expletive Subjects in Russian

  11 p.

  Beáta Györfi

  Views:

  154

  According to traditional grammars, Russian does not contain expletive subjects. However,
  investigations in the generative framework suggest, that the pronoun это with certain
  predicates can be perceived as an expletive subject. The present article gives a short overview
  of previous investigations and aims at providing a unified analysis of constructions with -o
  final adverbial predicates or with the verbs бывать and нравиться.

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

  Sergei Shul’ts

  Views:

  104

  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”.

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

  Annamária Vass

  Views:

  151

  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. 

• Nowe dwudziestolecie (1989–2009). Rozpoznania, hierarchie, perspektywy [The New Twenties (1989-2009): Recognitions, Hierarchies, Perspectives]. Ed. by Hanna Gosk. Warsaw: Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa, p. 530, ISBN 978-83-7151-873-7

  Orsolya Németh

  Views:

  57

  The volume Nowe dwudziestolecie (1989-2009): Rozpoznania, hierarchie, perspektywy [The new twenties (1989-2009): Recognitions, hierarchies, perspectives] reflects on the twenty years of Polish literature and literary change between 1989 and 2009, and compares and contrasts this period with the twenty years between the two world wars. The two twenty-year periods are linked by the fact that their starting point is associated with a date of immense importance for Polish history: 1918 is the year when Poland was returned on the map of Europe, and 1989 is also the year of the change of regime in Poland. The period between the two world wars is also regarded as a separate period in Polish literary history, while the second twenty years covered in this volume are questionable as a literary unit, a question which the essays in this book seek to answer. The volume is divided into three large sections, the first focusing primarily on theory, the second on Polish characteristics and themes that characterised Polish literature after 1989, and the third large section on the genre characteristics that have characterised Polish literature since the fall of communism to this day but were also important between the two world wars.

• Censor Nikolay Ratynsky’s Role in Russian Journalism of the Second Half of the 19th Century

  12 p.

  Dmitriy Mazalevskiy

  Views:

  200

  Recently, the political climate in Russia has caused the question of censorship to become
  an increasingly relevant issue, the history of which is necessary to explore and understand.
  The prevailing view regarding censorship is that it is a tool used to suppress the freedom of
  speech by stifling the writer’s thoughts. However, there were some eminent censors such as
  the poet Fyodor Tyutchev and the writer Ivan Goncharov. In this regard, it has become commont
  to consider censorship isolated from any moral categories and interpret g it only as a
  professional activity. In this context, the work of the censor Nikolai Ratynsky is of particular
  interest to us. Until now, little has been published on his influence as a censor on the writers
  of his time on the high professional level of his work in this capacity. Most of the corrections
  Ratynsky made were valid and justified by the political situation in the Russian Empire. He
  himself is further proof that, along with Tyutchev and Goncharov, there were honorable and
  qualified men among the censors of the time. All this allows us to claim that it is necessary
  to objectively consider and study the work of censors and ignor preconceptions and stereotypes
  that are usually associated with the word censor.

• Word Skepticism and Word-magic in Afanasy Fet’s Poetry

  Zoltán Hajnády

  Views:

  133

  This paper is devoted to Afanasy Fet’s philosophy of art. In Fet’s poetry, the virtuosic use of words is combined with linguistic skepticism, involving a feeling of verbal inexpressibility and the apotheosis of silence. The topic of his poetry is the inexpressible and unspeakable, which, paradoxically, becomes expressible and describable through impressionistic imagery, metaphoric nomination, musical effects, and metalinguistic means. Fet’s poems are highly polysemic, and the semantic implications of his texts are inexhaustible.

• About the Translation of Poetry

  Yury Gusev

  Views:

  124

  It is basically impossible to translate poetry into other languages – this follows from the very essence of poetry. But it is impossible not to translate poetry into other languages --this is required by the need to exchange cultural values between different national communities. The translator has to find a compromise between these two mutually exclusive provisions. One of the ways (if not the only one) to achieve this goal is to abandon the requirement of literal accuracy, in order to create an aesthetic effect in a specific cultural and national environment.

• Teffi as a Person and Woman Writer: A View from Overseas

  6 p.

  Natalia Prusakova

  Views:

  232

  This 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.

• Slavica 2021: 60 Years, 50 Issues

  Klára Agyagási

  Views:

  149

  The 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

• Historical Data and the Modern Linguistic Landscape of the City of Berehove (Transcarpathian region, Ukraine)

  Volodymyr Shylov

  Views:

  88

  The 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 16^th 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.

• The Transformation of Spiritual Culture in the Context of the Formation of the "New Ethics" (Problem Statement)

  Andrey Chukurov

  Views:

  187

  The article is devoted to the analysis of the spiritual values that are being formed today and the reasons for the actualization of the New Ethics. Catastrophic dynamism leads to the elimination of the stable social groups as well as to the maximum diffuseness of personal boundaries. At the same time, the transformation of the communication system brings an extremely vulnerable virtual body to the forefront of cultural life. The new communication system, social atomization, the lack of understandable guidelines in the process of socialization and self-identification - all this turns the concept of “border” into a basic one for the New Ethics. However, the design of boundaries and self-defense mechanisms does not always lead to the expected positive results. We come to the conclusion, that an initially inadequate assessment of the aggressiveness of the environment forces a person to build the most aggressive defense mechanisms: the man himself is transformed into a source of toxicity, which in turn makes the environment even more toxic than it was originally.

• Grammatical Rules and Analogy in Natural Morphology

  Rita Bálint

  Views:

  97

  Analogy 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.

• “Step by Step” in Camp Prose: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s ”One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and Imre Kertesz’s “Fatelessness”

  Angelika Molnár

  Views:

  138

  The 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.

• 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:

  212

  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.