Literary criticism

A. P. Skaftymov’s Letters to P. N. Sakulin

In this article five letters (dated1924-1929) of A. P. Skaftymov to the literary critic and academicianP.N.Sakulin are published for the first time.

А. P. Skaftymov and Yu. G. Oksman: the Antinomy of Characters

The article offers the contrastive comparison of two figures of humanitarian culture unique in their scientific methods and especially in their personalities and characters. The author relies on the correspondence materials of the two scientists and on a wide circle of sources published in recent years.

Novelistic Prose by Zakhar Prilepin as a ‘Self-Guide of Psychological Situations’

The article considers the problem of auto-psychologism in the oeuvre of Zakhar Prilepin, some psychological features that the writer shares with his characters are identified. The research uses the material of the early novels by Prilepin The Pathologies, Sankya, Sin, which introduce the first stage of the author’s creative development.

“…in France I Felt as Though at a Second, Quite Unexpected Home”: To the Question of the Worldview Geography of A. I. Solzhenitsyn

The article is written on the occasion of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s 100th anniversary. It presents the writer’s view on France of the 1970s, on the French, their mass media, French history. It is noted that Solzhenitsyn’s special attitude to France had been determined by reasons of his worldview.

Specific Nature of the Fact of a Literary Work in the View of A. T. Tvardovsky as an Editor

The author analyzes the letters of A. T. Tvardovsky-editor from the point of view of his review of the factual basis of a work of fiction. The peculiarity of a literary fact, its image-bearing nature, requirements to it, factual mistakes pointed out by the editor, are regarded in the article.

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.

Letters in the Plot and Composition of the Novel by B. L. Pasternak Doctor Zhivago

The article substantiates the conclusion that the correspondence of the characters in Pasternak’s novel is a plot-motivated complex multilayered system of written communication based on the family idea, expanded by a system of inter-textual links.

Short-sightedness as a Gift of Creative Vision in the Novel by A. Remizov With Trimmed Eyes

The article analyzes different functions of the short-sightedness motive in the autobiographical book by A. Remizov. The role of this motive in the writer’s philosophy is specially focused on.

K. D. Balmont’s Sonnets of Sun, Honey and Moon: the Title Poetics and the Book Structure

The article analyzes the title poetics and the structure of the poetry book by K. D. Balmont Sonnets of Sun, Honey and Moon (1917) as a book of sonnets, a book of symbols, a ‘chamber’ book.

Cardinal de Retz and Niccolo Machiavelli’s Ideas (Based on Memoir)

The author considers how Nicollo Machiavelli’s ideas influenced Cardinal de Retz as the hero and the creator of the Memoirs (published in 1717). The author reveals the discrepancy between the memoir-writer’s proclaimed anti-Machiavellianism and his adoption of the ideas of the treatise Sovereign (1532). This discrepancy manifests itself on the level of the judgments and evaluations of the narrator, figures of speech, concept of the autobiographic hero.

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