Literary criticism

The article touches upon the socio-political views of K. N. Leontiev in their interrelation; it is shown how the viewpoint of the researcher is reflected in the modern literary criticism. It is pointed out that modern research literature does not have a consistent theory of the text interpretation method.

Ever inclined to teach and preach in literature as well as in life, this famous Russian writer of the 1860-1890s A. K. Sheller-Mikhailov in his fiction and scientific journalism works increasingly focused on the issues of labor and moral education, on the personality formation; he was invariably concerned about crucial problems of pedagogic ethics, about the relationships between school-masters and their charges.

It is generally known that the novel of Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina is connected with the unfinished work of Mikhail Saltykov Blagonamerennaya povest’ (The loyal story), which was dedicated to the criticism of ‘natural’ motivation of human’s social life. However, already in 1863 Saltykov published a text which looked like a parody of a typical Leo Tolstoy hero portrait and like a precedent text with regard to the portrait of Anna Karenina.

The article highlights the ways of more detailed comparison of the dual reality motif in the creative systems of Nikolay Gogol and Vladimir Dal. The key conclusions are made on the basis of the plot line and composition peculiarities of the texts, folklore symbolism and parallel review of the characters.

The article is dedicated to the analysis of T. M. Akimova’s works on the study of the songs of literary origin. The author acknowledges the methodological line in them, which can be traced to the founder of Saratov philological school A. P. Skaftymov.

The article considers Number 11 by Jonathan Coe as an example of the postmodern language play with textual and extratextual reality and determines the role and functions of game practices employed.

At the turn of the century in their journalistic works Ch. Aitmatov and V. Rasputin reflect on historiosophic issues, identify challenges the humanity faces on the eve of the millennium, look for ways out of the anthropological crisis. In the article the viewpoints of the two writers with the ‘universal points of view’ are compared, and the main motives of their journalistic heritage are singled out.

For the first time K. A. Fedin’s autograph is published. It concludes the half-a-century history of K. Fedin and K. Chukovsky’s correspondence. Fedin’s notes on one of the last meetings with Chukovsky and his reaction to the news of Chukovsky’s death are considered within the context of the writers’ long-standing relationship.

The article considers the 1956 trial of the publisher Jean-Jacques Pauvert on the charge of an outrage against public morals. Pauvert decided to openly publish Marquis de Sade’s papers. The prosecution arguments, the responses of the publisher and of the witnesses for the defense – J. Paulhan, G. B ataille, J. Cocteau and A. B reton – are analyzed on the ground of the documents.

The article deals with different aspects of morbidity problem range in M. A. Aldanov’s historic novels. The author analyzes both traditional literary functions of the illness motives (their important role in unfolding the characters’ portraits, in plot development) and those peculiar for Aldanov’s oeuvre, where the medical discourse becomes one of the languages to describe the catastrophic epoch of the end XIXth – beginning XXth centuries.