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

Literary criticism

Transformation of the biblical myth in the play Judith by Elena Isaeva

The paper examines the features of the image of Judith in the play of the same name by the modern playwright Elena Isaeva, in which the author relies on the story described in the Book of Judith, which was a part of the Old Testament. Comparison with the original biblical myth allows us to conclude that it has been significantly transformed in the play. Isaeva does not limit herself to describing the clash of Assyrians and Jews, she muffles the bloody conflict.

Poetic texts in the perception of journals and the Internet literary criticism

Nowadays literary criticism on the Internet is actively developing, becoming an area of influence on the worldview of the modern reader. The article provides a comparative analysis of literary and critical publications on the Internet and in literary and art journals on poetic texts in the period from 2020 to 2023.

Representation of reality in the aesthetic-philosophical system of Denis Diderot

The article deals with the comprehension of the concept of reality in the cultural and scientifi c heritage of the French enlightener Denis Diderot. The interest to this topic is dictated by the timeless relevance of the innovative dramaturgical theory of the thinker, in which the issue of depicting the real is central. In the course of the analysis the works of domestic and foreign philosophers and literary critics, who touched upon the problem of the representation of reality in the 18th century and especially in the works of Denis Diderot, were involved.

The representation of childhood in the autobiographical narrative structure (F.-R. de Chateaubriand and George Sand)

The article considers the theme of childhood and the specific features of its representation in the Mémoires d’outre-tombe by F. R. de Chateaubriand and Histoire de ma vie by Georges Sand. Childhood is seen as an integral structural element of the self-narrative, the artistic concept of which is formed in the context of the era and the existing literary tradition.

The image of the Russian people in Notes from a Dead House by F. M. Dostoevsky

In modern cultural processes, the problems of the essence of the mentality of the Russian people in Dostoevsky’s artistic works are acquiring critical importance. The article provides a detailed analysis of the images of the Russian people and pictures of their life created by F. M. Dostoevsky in Notes from a Dead House, and reveals the origin of the ideas of Pochvennichestvo in Dostoevsky’s work of the early 1860s.

Semantic range of the concept “reader” in contemporary Russian culture

Negative transformations associated with the culture of reading in the 21st century are generally recognized. First of all, and not without reason, the reader of fi ction comes into the fi eld of vision of philologists and teachers. The goal of the article is to analyze the modern range of meanings of the concept “reader” against the backdrop of the established reader’s image in the collective (proverbial) folk memory. The author is interested in the problem of institutionalization of the Russian reader.

The English photoekphrastic detective novel of the second half of the 20th century (A. Christie, T. Findlеy): Tradition and innovation

The article examines the development of such a genre variety as the photoeкphrastic detective, embracing the period of the 1950s to the 1980s of the 20th century. The paper reveals the genre-forming potential of photographic eкphrasis, presented in the texts in the form of photograph descriptions found in classical detective literature (analyzed on the bases of A. Christie’s novel Mrs McGinty’s Dead, 1952) and its postmodernist version – in T. Findlay’s novel The Telling of Lies: A Mystery, 1986. Photography in the novels by A. Christie and T.

A North-American small town as a topos of Robertson Davis’s and Stephen King’s novels (Fifth Business and Revival)

Stephen King’s novel Revival (2014) takes after Robertson Davies’s novel Fifth Business (1975), the first book of the Deptford trilogy, although the name of the Canadian writer is significantly missing from the list of King’s acknowledgements. The paper is focused on the comparative analysis of the two novels, the starting point being the category of “fi fth business” borrowed by S. King from R. Davis.

About the historical and cultural significance of Sibylle Lewitscharoff ’s work

The presented article determines the place of the works of Sibylle Lewitscharoff , the winner of the 2013 Büchner Prize, in the modern German literature. Her literary fame is associated with important and controversial theses on the ways of European social and cultural development. Thus, in the book 36 Righteous People (1994), S. Lewitscharoff transformed the Hebrew legend about special people to whom humanity owes its existence, and gave her own interpretation of it in relation to the history of Europe in the second half of the twentieth century.

Mythopoetics in the novels of Sasha Sokolov: From the ontological myth of A School for Fools to the deconstruction of the myth of Palisandria

The article examines mythopoetics in Sasha Sokolov’s novels A School for Fools and Palisandria. In the 20th century authors widely turn to neo-mythologism in its various manifestations – from the myth-making of prose writers and poets of the beginning of the century to the nationalfolklore type of mythologism in the prose of the era of stagnation. In Sokolov’s novels, the fi rst branch of the development of mythopoetics continues in the form of modernist myth in A School for Fools and postmodern deconstruction of myth in Palisandria.

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