myth

Vectors of culture

This is a review of a collected volume of articles prepared by Professor M. Stroganov for his 70th Anniversary. The book intertwines two main academic interests of the author, mixed up in a special, unique to the researcher, methodological paradigm. These are the attention to the literary or folklore text as well as the focus on the diversity of Russian culture in its broadest spectrum: song and singing, music and painting, and the various facets of the theatrical arts.

The myth of the earth in the late lyric poetry of O. E. Mandelstam (Based on the material of the “First Voronezh Notebook”)

Mandelstam’s creative thinking is similar to the mythological one. This is refl ected in his lyric poetry as an artistic whole and in individual author’s myths. The article presents the analysis of some features of the author’s myth about the earth, which was formed in the “First Voronezh Notebook” by O. Mandelstam.

Pestel vs. Pestel: L. Zorin’s tragedy The Decembrists and B. Okudzhava’s novel Poor Avrosimov

This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of two interpretations of Pavel Pestel’s personality and fate in the literature of the late Khrushchev thaw. The contribution of the peer writers to the liberation of cultural and historical memory from offi cial dictatorship is discussed, the basis of their ideological similarity is shown: this is the awareness of the fatal problem of morality and revolution (Zorin).

The peculiarities of the oppositional political discourse of Ugandan politician Bobi Wine

The article analyzes the political discourse of one of the most infl uential Ugandan opposition politicians, Bobi Wine, who is famous for his scathing criticism of Ioweri Museveni’s regime, existing since 1986. Bobi Wine, who offi cially started his political career in 2017, the year when he was elected in the Ugandan parliament, actually does not recognize the legitimacy of the rule of his ideological enemy. In the country the political myth is created according to which the opposition, and not Yoweri Musevini, won the presidential elections of 2021.

Decembrists in the cultural and historical mythology of the Soviet era. Literature experience of the 1920s–1960s

The relevance of the topic is determined by the interest of modern humanities to the myth-making aspects of the Soviet culture, including the interpretation of Decembrism. The purpose of the article is to review the main stages and patterns of the literary realization of Decembrism from the beginning of the Soviet era to the moment of the final separation of the two versions of the Decembrism myth (official and oppositional).

Lafcadio Hearn and Russia

The article studies the reception of the Anglo-American writer Lafcadio Hearn in Russia. The author analyzes the literary influence of L. Hearn on K. Balmont and his individual mythology, reveals the connection with such Russian cultural figures as S. Eisenstein and P. Florensky. The essay “Living God” by L. Hearn is compared with its translation by K. Balmont. The use of color in works by L. Hearn is considered from the standpoint of Eisenstein’s sound and visual correspondences.

The image of Lermontov in the Soviet poetry and Meeting by Bulat Okudzhava

The article examines the literary context of one of the most important poems of Bulat Okudzhava. Special emphasis is placed on the pattern of making a classic poet a myth in the belles-lettres of the Soviet era. The connections of the poem Meeting with Lermontov’s poetry are noted, the functions of reminiscences are examined. The place of Lermontov’s image in the ‘poetic mythology’ of Okudzhava’s poetry is defined.

The Image of the Garden in the Novel La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret by Emile Zola

The article focuses on the garden as a literary image based on the archetype and some mythological allusions. The structure of the garden is analyzed in detail as the novel space at variance and in connection with the naturalistic aesthetic approach.

The ‘Golden Age’ in the Russian Literary Context: Origin and Modern Content of the Mythical Image

The image of the Russian ‘golden age’ (the Pushkin era) is considered in the context of the general patterns of nostalgic mythmaking. It is shown that the idealization of the national past at different historical stages remains isomorphic to the generalized image of Antiquity, which is a contamination of the ‘golden age’ and the ‘century of heroes’. The literary criticism of the late Soviet nostalgia for the Pushkin era is an example of the combination of the ‘golden’ and ‘heroic’ centuries under the name of ‘golden’.

The Intertextual and Mythological Codes of O. Paz’s Poem Piedra de Sol

The article is dedicated to one of the major poems of Octavio Paz – Piedra de Sol (1957). By interpreting the intertextual and mythological codes of the text, the author shows how elements of the Aztec culture enter in correlation with images and themes common to French poets from G. de Nerval to the Surrealists.

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