Izvestiya of Saratov University.
ISSN 1817-7115 (Print)
ISSN 2541-898X (Online)


Literary criticism

Translation of Solzhenitsyn’s work in the mode of “internal distribution” in China (1960–1980)

In China, the interest to the work of A. I. Solzhenitsyn arose soon after the publication of his story One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in the journal New World with the permission of N. S. Khrushchev in 1962, which immediately attracted the attention of Chinese literary circles. However, the initial interest in Solzhenitsyn was connected with the political situation in China at that time. The period from the 1960s to the 1980s can be considered the initial stage of the translation of the writer’s work.

The confrontation of savageness and civilization in Joe Abercrombie’s fantasy Western Red Country

In the novel Red Country the famous British author Joe Abercrombie carries out a genre experiment combining in one book the features of such distant and incongruous genres as fantasy and Western. He constructs in his imaginary world a territory with all specific characteristics of a Western chronotopos and actively uses typical plot devices of the Western. But on the level of ideas the plot of Red Country comes into a conflict with the basic values of the Western, instilling the clichés borrowed from this genre with a unique author’s meaning.

David Lindsay’s fictive flyting

The article examines the specifics of The Answer to the Kingis Flyting written by the Scottish poet David Lindsay (c. 1490 – c. 1555). This work is the only extant part of the poetic dialogue between the Scottish king James V and his mentor and courtier. It follows the tradition of Scottish court flyting, which traces back to the end of the 15th century and is analyzed in the article on the example of The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy which is supposedly the first work written in this genre.

“I was destroyed by this systematic persecution…”: The problem of re-educating a wife in P. Letnev’s story Unbearable

The article is dedicated to the work of the forgotten writers of the second half of the 19th century Praskovya Alexandrovna (1829-1892) and Anna Alexandrovna (1833–1914) Lachinovs, who published under the collective pseudonym of P. Letnev. Many works of the Lachinovs, including the story Unbearable (1891), address the problems of marriage and family.

Visual portrait of the main character in “Landscape and genre” by N. S. Leskov A Winter’s Day

The problem of the interaction of words and images in the works of N.S. Leskov is currently the least studied. The genre subtitle of the late story A Winter’s Day (1894) – “Landscape and genre” encourages us to consider the work in the aspect of the designated problem. O. V. Evdokimova (1980), B. S. Dykhanova (2013), O. V. Chervinskaya (2018), D. S. Rivanenkova (2021) analyze the features of the genre, taking into account the meanings of the subtitle.

V. P. Kataev’s comedy Time, forward!: The artistic image of the main character in the context of the variants of the work

The article studies the variants of Valentin Kataev’s comedy Time, forward! in order to identify edits that influenced the author’s expression and the reader’s perception of the image of the main character. While researching comedy variants, it was found that the authors interested in Kataev’s work avoided the comedy Time, forward!. In our opinion, knowing about the corrections of the text of the play, Soviet critics, guided by political correctness, did not dare to engage in public polemics and literary-critical discussion around the famous writer.

The image of the “living earth” in the chapter “The Trinity Day” of the novel by I. S. Shmelev The Summer of the Lord

This article reveals the features of the artistic embodiment of the image of the “living earth” in the chapter “The Trinity Day” of the novel The Summer of the Lord by the writer of the Russian émigré of the first half of the 20th century Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev. The Summer of the Lord is the pinnacle work in the author’s oeuvre. The book is based on the autobiographical material. In the chapter “The Trinity Day” the author depicted his own childhood memories of celebrating the Orthodox holiday of the Trinity.

Nikolai Zabolotsky and Maria Yudina: On the history of creative communication

The article discusses the history of the creative dialogue between the great pianist Maria Veniaminovna Yudina and the outstanding poet Nikolay Alekseevich Zabolotsky. The material was not only Yudina’s memories of her joint work with the poet on equirhythmic translations of the collection Schubert’s Songs conceived by the pianist, but also Yudina’s thoughts expressed in various sources about the specific features of Zabolotsky’s work, whose poetry Yudina “ardently” loved.

Serapion brothers on the pagers of K. A. Fedin’s diaries of 1946–1968

K. A. Fedin’s diaries related to the time of the intense activity of the literary community “Serapion brothers” (1921–1924) have not been preserved. Therefore, the material for the studies of the life of the group as well as of its separate members is obtained by the researchers in the epistolary legacy of the writer. The researchers hardly ever refer to the diaries of the later period, apparently believing that Serapion brothers entirely disappeared from the literary life after 1929.

Philosophical constants in the creative self-determination of song poets

The article compares the views of foreign philosophers on the nature of creativity, their reception in the Russian literary criticism and the creative implementation of some points in the Russian songwriting. The works of W. Benjamin (1892–1940) The Task of the Translator (1923), M. Blanchot (1907–2003) The Space of Literature (1955), P. Valery (1871–1945) Poetry and Abstract Thought (19390, S. Mallarme (1842–1898) The Crisis of Verse (1896), M. Heidegger (1889–1976) Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry (1936), K. G.

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