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  • The chronotope of O. E. Mandelshtam’s Poems about the Unknown Soldier
    Views:
    35

    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”.

  • Lecturer, Researcher and Translator in One Person. In Honour of József Goretity's 60th Birthday
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    131

    József Goretity has been working at the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the University of Debrecen since 1985 and has been the head of the institute since 2012. During this time he has been teaching courses on 19th and 20th century West-European and Russian literature focusing on the tradition of the novel and mythopoetics at the Department of Comparative Literature as well. In 1996 he was appointed head of the department. Between 1992 and 1999 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Miskolc. Besides his teaching activity, József Goretity’s work in the field of literary translation is also outstanding. He has brought such prominent Russian writers to Hungarian-speaking audiences as Narine Abgaryan, Sergey Dovlatov, Viktor Yerofeyev, Viktor Pelevin, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Yuri Polyakov, Grigoriy Ryazhskiy, Marina Stepanova, Alexandr Terekhov or Lyudmila Ulickaya. Besides literary texts he also translated literary and cultural studies into Hungarian, such as P. P. Apryshko’s influential monograph The History of Russian Philosophy. József Goretity’s most influential academic works are Idézet paródia és mítosz Fjodor Szologub két regényében and Töredékesség és teljességigény. Huszadik századi orosz prózai művek értelmezése. In 2014 he was awarded the Medal of Pushkin by the President of the Russian Federation. In 2019 he received the prestigous state award, the Golden Cross, for his achievement.

  • Boldino as a carnival topos in the film “Guard Me, My Talisman” (1986) (Preliminary Notes)
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    36

    The paper attempts to interpret the Boldino topos in the film directed by Roman Balayan “Guard Me, My Talisman” (1986). It discusses the main tendencies in the reception of the Pushkin myth in Soviet culture in the period from the 1960s to the 1980s – the neoromantic attitude to Pushkin’s personality and works in the texts of the “sixtiers”, the transformations of the myth in documentary cinema, and dissident literature over the next two decades. It examines the elements of cinema poetics of the time of “stagnation” and the cinema of Perestroika in the artistic structure of the film. The carnival character of the Boldino topos in the film is traced on several levels: the resemanticization of the “Paradise” topos, the discreditation of the social hierarchy and eclecticism of poetic texts, functions of the carnival dress-up, and deviance as an ostensible feature of the characters.

  • «Chekhov’s Stage Set»: «The Cherry Orchard» in the Russian Poetry of the 20th – Early 21st Century
    8 p.
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    215

    Chekhov’s text is one of the most significant constituents of the Russian poetry of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The one most frequently alluded to is the play by Chekhov – «The Cherry Orchard». The play written at the break of historical epochs turns out to be in tunes with the times of another turning-point. This fact conditions the allusion to the Chekhov’s text in a poem «The Young Poetry» by V. Kornilov. The main feature of the crucial time period in the poem is the category of freedom, unexpectedly granted during the historical turn and change. The key theme, which determines the historiosophical sense of the text, is a quotation from «The Cherry Orchard», a dialogue between Gaev and Fiers. I. Kabysh perceives the Chekhov’s play both mythopoetically and symbolically in such poems as «How Niveous-White Everything Is in Russia Today! » and «The Snow Started to Fall Without Delays». She introduces a different time into the text, models the reality after the events described in «The Cherry Orchard» and interpreted by the author of the poem in the lower clef (as in «crumbled estate»). The loss of the Garden, its disintegration, the loss of entity, is a gradual, step by step, process – into dachas, then into dust; that is the way the motif of vanishing space and culture appears.

  • How E. Vodolazkin’s Laurus Was Made
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    97

    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.

  • A Big Change Starts Small – Pronominal Clitics in 12-15th Century Old Russian Chronicles
    14 p.
    Views:
    296

    East Slavic languages, in contrast with South and West Slavonic ones did not retain enclitic pronominals. In Old Russian (ОR) however, these forms were widely used. As manuscripts suggest, they dissapeared from the language by the end of the OR period, i. e. by the 15th-16th centuries. The paper gives an overview of the use of enclitic pronominals in the text of five OR chronicles relying on the diachronic corpus of Russian National Corpus. The analysis focuses on the  distribution of clitic pronominals, their placement, clusterizing properties and deviating constructions. The last section is devoted to the placement of the investigated phenomenon in the complex of parametric variation envoked by the disintegration of the tense-aspect system.

  • Censor Nikolay Ratynsky’s Role in Russian Journalism of the Second Half of the 19th Century
    12 p.
    Views:
    180

    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.

  • A Story by A. P. Chekhov “The Wolf”: Historical-medical and Archetypal Aspects
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    354

    The plot of A. P. Chekhov's story "The Wolf" (in the first edition the story was called "Hydrophobia (A true story)") is associated with the frequent facts of wolves attacking people in the 1880s in the central part of the country (called an epidemic at the time).The time of writing the story between March and December 1886 is a year after the discovery of the rabies vaccine in the laboratory of Louis Pasteur and its successful testing in 1885; and in the year the story was created, the first Pasteur stations in Russia were opened. The paramount aspect of a plot of the work by A. P. Chekhov is connected with the field of psychology. Fear, which takes possession over the character, the landowner Nilov, is a psychological phenomenon in the medical sense and leads to an understanding of the fact why Chekhov needs an emphasis on the wolf in the title of the second edition of the story. The image of a wolf with its archetypal component plays a fundamental role in recreating a clinically accurate picture of fear. The real clash with a real wolf becomes a reflection of the fight with the "mental wolf," with its own fears. The writer is interested not so much in the existential side of the phenomenon of fear, as in the psychological one. And the image of a wolf with its archetypal component plays a fundamental role in recreating a clinically accurate picture of fear.

  • The System of Comparative Tropes in «Aviator», a Novel by E. Vodolazkin
    11 p.
    Views:
    288

    The article discusses the functioning of metaphors and similes in the text of E. Vodolazkin’s novel «Aviator». The tropes are divided into two groups: conceptualizing tropes and non-plot-forming ones. The main semantic types of comparative tropes are noted as proceeding from «tenors» and «vehicles» of metaphors and similes. It is shown that the tropes interact with each other and form a system in the text.
    Emphasis is put on the dynamism of metaphors and similes in the novel: they regularly reflect the hero’s changing perceptions. Comparative tropes play an important role in the unfolding of the key motifs of the novel and are associated with its various temporal and narrative plans.

  • B. Spinoza, N.V. Gogol, J. Baudrillard: On the Debate about Theocentrism and Anthropocentrism
    13 p.
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    206

    Interest 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.

  • The Psychology of Literary Creativity in the Works of Mihail Arnaudov
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    97

    Mihail Petrov Arnaudov (1878-1978), a Bulgarian scientist, was a famous European researcher with significant contributions to several fields of scholarship, i.e., folklore, the history of Bulgarian literature of the Renaissance, comparative literary history, the literature and culture of ancient India, the theory of literary science, the history of German and French literature of Romanticism, etc. This paper is devoted to his contribution to the study of the psychology of literary creativity. It analyses the prerequisites for Arnaudov’s formation as a psychologist of creativity, and provisionally identifies several main stages in his scientific and professional path, during which he conducted research and produced works in this interdisciplinary field. With the help of historical and psychological analysis, the general and specific features in the development of his views on the essence of the psychology of creativity and the meaning of its use in literary criticism and literary history are presented.

  • World Model in the Novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn
    7 p.
    Views:
    339

    The 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.

  • Novel-Commentary as a Method of Rethinking the Past and a Form of Authorial Reflection (on the Basis of E. Popov’s „The Real Story of the 'Green Musicians’”)
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    262

    The article shows how the genre of the novel-commentary by E. Popov «The Real Story of the Green Musicians” allows the author to evaluate his short story, “The Green Musicians”, written 20 years earlier, on the one hand,and to characterize the entire Soviet epoch, on the other. The pretext commented on, serves as a typical text of the Soviet era, written under the influence of that period: the short story is an excellent example of the review of the Soviet times, while the commentary functions as an independent artistic element of the novel. Also, the article offers a classification of a complex and interconnected system of post-textual notes, which are conditionally divided into several levels. Each level of the commentaries serves Popov’s goal of expressing his attitude towards the Soviet nomenclature, which is the underlying theme of his work.

  • 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
    Views:
    54

    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.

  • Between Cyborg and Larva: A Vicious Circle That Human Beings Experience in the Post-humanist Era
    8 p.
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    196

    The 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.

  • Interferences in the Field of Literature and Philosophy: Contact Points in the Poetry of Russian and Hungarian Authors: Dukkon Ágnes: A veszélyes szépség útjain. Eszmék, témák, kapcsolatok a klasszikus orosz irodalom világában, L'Harmattan Könyvkiadó – Uránia Ismeretterjesztő Társulat, Budapest, 2021, 340. p. ISBN: 978-963-414-702-2
    Views:
    49

    The Hungarian literary scholar Ágnes Dukkon set herself a great task to complete in her new monograph by undertaking to offer a broad overview of the entire 19th century epoch of Russian literature through monitoring the transformation and evolution of the literary motive of dangerous beauty [ужасная красота]. While focusing on the concrete correspondences between a variety of literary worlds, the study presents interpretations of works by A.S. Pushkin, M.Y. Lermontov, F.I. Tyutchev, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoyevsky, M.Y. Saltikov-Shchedrin, N.S. Leskov, and L.N. Tolstoy. At the same time, however, the author of this monograph never fails to keep in mind the conceptual context of the artistic texts by analyzing their relationship with the topical contemporary philosophical ideas of the age. For the Hungarian readers, the chapters incorporating the conclusions of research aimed at Russian–Hungarian connections, conducted with the methodology of historical poetics, comparative literary studies, intertextuality, and biographism, are of special interest. The scholarly findings of this renowned researcher would definitely deserve to be translated in the future into an international language.

  • Adverbialization and Prepositionalisation of Prepositional Phrases in Old Slavonic. Adverbial and Semi-Adverbial Phrases with по Preposition
    22 p.
    Views:
    206

    The present paper is concerned with the adverbial and semi-adverbial phrases (with incomplete lexicalization), which are formed by prefixing a preposition to an autosemantic word in the Old Slavonic language. The empirical material is systematized on the basis of the prepositions involved in the word formation process, with regard to the adjuncts determined by the newly-formed adverbs and on the basis of the lexico-grammatical affiliation of the motivating word. The path of adverbialization is analyzed in each case and the systematic relations of the newly-formed adverbial units are also described.

  • Cultural Policy of Russia and Hungary: Modern Discourse and New Actors
    11 p.
    Views:
    217

    The authors of the article argue that contemporary cultural policy discourse is in the focus
    of attention of scientific communities, social and political organizations and government institutions.
    It represents a sort of symbolic struggle and nominations and has necessitated a
    new approach to cultural policy structuring. The article shows that this necessity is demonstrated
    by the development of cooperation between Russia and Hungary in terms of cultural
    sectors and cultural heritage. Expert communities and non-governmental organizations are
    becoming significant elements in the structure of cultural policy subjects. The association
    “For Hungarian-Russian cooperation named after Leo Tolstoy” has become such a key issue.
    The authors of this article attempt to highlight the most essential contemporary issues in
    the sphere of cultural policy in general and in relation of two separate countries – Russia and
    Hungary – through the scientific project “Hygiene of culture”.

  • Artefact Metaphors and Similes in Modern Russian Prose
    Views:
    196

    The article deals with comparative constructions (metaphors and similes) that include images of artefacts. The analysis involves the works of modern Russian prose writers such as A. Ilichevsky, E. Vodolazkin, O. Slavnikova, M. Shishkin, A. Volos, D. Bykov, D. Rubina, D. Glukhovsky, A. Makushinsky, S. Sokolov, V. Pelevin and others. It is concluded that modern Russian prose is characterized by the intensive use of artefact images as part of comparative constructions. The most common are metaphors and similes including the names of household items, fabrics, as well as machines, mechanisms, and their parts. These figurative means characterize, first of all, a person, parts of the human body, appearance, and people’s actions. Artefact comparative tropes giving a figurative description of various objects of nature are also widespread. Both traditional and new tropes including the names of artefacts in modern prose are discussed, in particular, the use of computer terms and names of new realities that have appeared relatively recently. A feature of modern prose texts is the regular use by writers of concretization and detailed transformation of images of comparison involving definitions of different types. Artefact metaphors and similes often act as key signs of the text and play a conceptualizing role in it.

  • The Audience of Art: Myth and Reality
    13 p.
    Views:
    158

    Interest in the audience arose while art became public and since then it has not weaken, rather it has become more and more special. For more than a century the audience of art has been the subject of systematic scientific research. Why then is the problem of the relationship between art and its audience becoming once again a topical issue? The consequences of the civilizational shifts in the last decade have clearly shown: the things that have for a long time been considered true suddenly turn out to be illusive or banal in the changing world. In the modern market paradigm of the artistic culture development, the problem of the relationship between art and its audience acquires a new sound. A theater, a museum or a concert organization needs not the social and cultural portrait of the spectator, but an understanding of the causes and characteristics of its consumer behavior in the wider context of cultural life. And the first step to overcome the communication barriers between art and its potential consumers should be the abandonment of stereotypes and outdated research approaches.

  • Comedy against a tearful background: The interference of catharsis in L.S. Petrushevskaya’s play Colombina’s Apartment
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    31

    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.