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

Literary criticism

M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Among Contemporaries: on the Encyclopedia Project

The paper presents materials of the project on publishing the encyclopedia M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and his contemporaries. Among the project goals is the representation of the writer’s various connections with his contemporaries, particularly not only with those whom he knew personally, but with those who existed in his creative consciousness irrespective of any personal acquaintance and who responded to his works. This approach allows a more objective understanding of the writer’s texts.

V. V. Tuzov’s Journal Podenshchina (Day Labour): Poetics and Ideology

The article shows that the journal Podenshchina (Day Labour) published in 1769 is of interest from both formal and information point of view. The peculiarity of its structure lies in the plot unity where the central character is an imaginary journal publisher. The content of Podenshchina magazine is characterized by its educational policy.

P. G. Bogatyrev – a fairy-tale Collector (Expeditions of 1914–1915)

The article considers three of four expedition periods of collecting fairy-tales by P. G. Bogatyrev (in Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Saratov regions); the history of the first one is traced on the basis of the archive materials (expedition records, minutes of the Society of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography at the Imperial Moscow University, folklore specialists’ reviews) and the publications of P. G. Bogatyrev and other scientists.

Moral Conflicts of the Modern Prose in the Young Readers’ Perception

The article analyzes criteria and results of text perception, tender points of the moral dialogue of the young with the modern prose. The analysis is held on the material of reader reviews of modern school pupils and students of humanities of the contemporary works of the Russian literature.

Zahar Prilepin’s «Boundary Lyricism»: the Author and the Reader in Prose Works of the turn of XX–XXIst centuries

Interaction between the author and «one’s own» reader inside the literary text (in broader meaning – the problem of the reader) is the main object of the following article. Philological analysis is based upon the prose works of Zakhar Prilepin. The main goal of the research is to determine the parameters of the author’s strategy which is personified in the fiction of the most popular Russian writers at the turn of the XX–XXIst centuries.

Picturesque Ekphrasis as a Means of the Protagonist Characterization in D. Rubina’s Novel The White Dove of Cordoba

The article discusses the oeuvre interpretation of Zahar Kordovin, the protagonist of D. Rubina’s novel The White Dove of Cordoba. The pictures of the artist are analyzed from the point of view of ekphrasis which is defined as a verbal description of visual art images in literary text.

What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe as a Postmodern Detective Story

What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe is analyzed as an example of application of traditional detective conventions in postmodern narrative; their ideological and compositional functions in the novel are revealed.

А. F. Pisemskiy’s Novel A Thousand Souls in Contemporaneous Critical Reviews

The article contains an overall systematic and comparative analysis of the critical reviews on A. F. Pisemsky’s novel A Thousand Souls in the contemporaneous printed media. The analysis is done from the following points: journal discussion of the type of Pisemsky’s talent, innovations in the image of the main character, and the novel problem range and its relation to the «accusatory literature» of the 1850s.

Karamzin’s Code in B. Okudzhava’s Novel A Date with Bonaparte. Article 1. Arina from the Maidservants’ Room

In two articles we propose to consider Karamzin’s reminiscences (predominantly from the novel Poor Liza) in the novel by B. Sh. Okudzhava A Date with Bonaparte. The first article is dedicated to the plot lines of the novel related to the image of the serf Arina. One of the most important historic problems of the novel is actualized in them (serfdom); they also contain links to the up-to-date issues of the relationships between the intelligentsia and the people, inner and outer freedom.

The Fantastic in The Tale of Igor’s Campaign Content

The article regards how the fantastic constituent is revealed on the plot, composition, and image levels of the text of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.

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