Literary criticism

The experience of a dictionary entry ‘Author’ offered here provides essential help in mastering the course of “Introduction into Literary Studies” and deals with the meanings of one of the key notions of philology. Some general ideas are presented: of the author as a biographic individual, of the author as the creator of a literary text, of the implicit author, and of the two approaches outlined in the XX century to the issue of the reader and author relationship.

Stylistic function of the motives of hearsay and fame are studied in the plots of «Old-World Landowners», «Viy», and «The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich» by N. V. Gogol. Their role in the plot and the chronotopos of the works is considered, as well as their meaning in the space of the stories, their linkages with the motives of emergency and disclosed mystery are regarded.

The article dwells on Solzhenitsyn’s lexical preferences, on what words he considered «unbearable» and why. In Solzhenitsyn’s attitude to the word aesthetic aspects (meaning, sound, color, smell) and ethic ones (belonging to the rogue or slaughterer world, being Russian, a possibility of coming from Christ’s lips) can be singled out.

The article analyzes the connection between A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin’s comedy Tarelkin’s Death and the aesthetics of street theater. The author draws parallels between Sukhovo-Kobylin’s play and the Russian traditional puppet show and gives his evaluation of the playwright’s pastiche techniques and the functions of these pastiches.