Literary criticism

The article considers the issue of «futurism and war» in philosophical, cultural, aesthetic aspects. The analysis of the futuristic poetics confirms the fact that this phenomenon was historically determined in national and world culture.

The article presents the point of view of V. F. Savodnik – a leading literary reviewer of Russkiy vestnik (Russian Bulletin) in 1900-1901s – on the issue of the development of contemporary national poetry; it is explained why the reviewer’s opinions were unconventional for the members of the journal writers.

A viewpoint is presented that Chekhov’s comedy may be considered as a polyphonic (in the musicological understanding of the term) reunion of melodic voices of different characters with whom the voice (self-awareness, behavior, squeamish and sneering attitude to other people) of the young footman Yasha is conspicuously and ominously discordant.

In «The Idiot» by F. M. Dostoevsky we encounter a special genre of an ordeal novel: the hero enters the portrayed world with the mission of salvation. In this article the theme of fate appears of interest for the interpretation, which, being an intermediate concept, has connotations associated with death, chance, freedom, with the theme of the road.

The artistic functions of the rumor motives in the plot of the St Petersburg
novels by N. V. Gogol and their link to the chronotopos of the
Russian capital are studied. Analogies are drawn with the texts of the
journal Biblioteka dlya chteniya (Library for reading).

The article considers texts accompanying the comedy «The Inspector General». The researcher traces the changes of the author’s assessment of his own texts, the author’s doubts and self-reflection.

The article deals with various aspects of interrelation between plot and space structure of Klaus Mann’s émigré novel «The Volcano». The author of the article analyzes the heroine of the novel crossing the symbolic border between the world of the dead and the living, which presupposes crossing the border between different zones of the exile space. In the article it is shown that sacrifice is a necessary condition of the border crossing.

The article is devoted to Olga Forsh’s thoughts about the nature of art, its purpose, about the role of cultural heritage in the life of society. Theoretical discourse of the writer enables us to understand different stages of her creative career, to come closer to comprehending her aesthetic concept.

The article discusses the literary fate of M. A. Tarlovsky, his place in the Russian poetry, as well as some peculiarities of his perception of the characters of the comedy «Auditor».

A lot of research addresses A. N. Pypin’s life and oeuvre but the aspect of his biography is not given sufficient attention to. The sketch by B. B. Glinsky is one of such papers that has not yet excited any interest. Addressing the forgotten publication in the journal Istorichesky Vestnik (History Journal) allows not only to reconsider some facts and episodes of Pypin’s activity from a new perspective, but also to identify the peculiarities of his creative style, and highlight intrinsic genre criteria of a critical and biographical article.