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

Literary criticism

Yevgeny Zamyatin’s Perception of Anton Chekhov’s Poetics: From ‘Dramatic Narrative Form’ to ‘Molecular Drama’

The Neorealist writer Yevgeny Zamyatin held the literary heritage of Anton Chekhov in high esteem, considering him an innovator of Realism in the Russian literature. In this paper we will analyze Zamyatin’s critical articles and notes of his lectures, interpret Chekhov’s poetics through the perception of a writer of the next generation, and thus, elucidate the relations between Chekhov as a prose writer and Chekhov as a dramatist.

Theatricality in the Story by A. P. Chekhov Ionych

The article discusses the features of how the artistic space of Chekhov’s story is organized. Two key chronotopes are identified: Home and Garden. The structural features of the chronotope of the House are analyzed. It is shown how the chronotope of the House exercises the determining influence on the characters, for whom theatricality as an imitation of life becomes their main feature.

Fact, Pathos, Reader in their Interrelation

The article analyzes the triad fact – pathos – reader from the point of view of how the emotional connotation of the factual foundation of the text impacts the reader. Two texts by M. Gorky are considered; both of them recreate the same event – A. P. Chekhov’s funeral. One of them is imbued with the pathos of invective, the other – with the pathos of irony. Form and content elements of the text affecting the readers’ perception of this text are described.

N. G. Chernyshevsky in the Criticism of the 1930s. L. B. Kamenev and others

The article discusses the fate and some characteristic traits of the personality, as well as controversial issues of N. G. Chernyshevsky’s biography, uncovered in the forgotten book by L. B. Kamenev Chernyshevsky (1933), an insightful phenomenon of the Soviet humanities of the 1930s, which allows us to relate the moral experience and the tragedy of the revolutionary Democrat, the deep sense of his aesthetics and ethics to the problems of the Soviet reality the 1920–1930s.

Poetics of the Representation of the Intimate in the French Novel of the 18th Century: Some Observations

The article examines the features of representing the ‘intimate’ in the French novel of the 18th century. The intimate is considered as a historical category characterized by ‘semantic ambiguity’, expanding and deepening its semantics in the course of the novel’s evolution. By means of analyzing representational texts it is proved that the representation of the intimate is predetermined by the distinctive nature of the genre and literary trends.

Lexical and Stylistic Peculiarities of the ‘Portrait – Interior – Landscape’ Trinity in Contemporary Russian Journalistic Narrative

The article deals with the lexical and stylistic peculiarities of expressing the ‘portrait-interior-landscape’ trinity as exemplified in the three journalistic narratives. The description of the interior and household items is complemented by portrait characteristics. Particular attention is paid to the role of the characters’ portraits in the structure of whole narrative, as well as to its connection with the physical setting and landscape descriptions.

Time Code in the Poems by Elena Shvarts

The article analyses the units of time code, shows the ways of their representation in the poems by Elena Shvarts. Special aspects of how this code functions in the author’s artistic world are considered. A correlation is established between the choice of a particular option of the time code and the poet’s artistic task.

The Peculiarities of the Historiographic Metafiction (Based on Julian Barnes’s Novel Arthur & George)

The paper analyses characteristic features of Julian Barnes’s historiographic metafiction Arthur & George. The author’s use of the ‘binary coding’ method is studied. The postmodern play that is expressed in deliberate blurring of the distinction between fiction and reality is noted. The article studies the narrative structure of the novel which reflects the postmodern postulate of the plurality of viewpoints.

Paul Auster’s 4321 as a Bildungsroman: The Genre Memory

The paper explores the genre and compositional features of Paul Auster’s 4321 being the fusion of Bildungsroman, family сhronicle, social and psychological novel, love story, as well as Kunstlerroman and non-fiction. The analysis of the central aspects of poetics and the problems raised in the book reveals the ways of actualization and parodying the traditional genres in a postmodern novel.

Oppositions of Spatial Code in the Poems of Elena Shvartz

The article describes oppositions of spatial code and shows the ways of its representation in the poems of Elena Shvartz. Special features of how the spatial code functions in the author’s artistic world are also considered. The correlation between the poet’s choice of a particular spatial opposition and the artistic message is identified.

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