Literary criticism

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the category of spiritual and physical «risk» in the works of the Russian writers of different epochs – from the medieval «life» to the XIXth century novel. They are united by the analysis of the inner state and outward dangers awaiting the missionaries of the Christian faith among pagans.

In this article the approaches to the research of the poetic and song heritage of S. Surganova are outlined; the author’s ideas of time and space are analyzed.

Jonathan Coe’s satirical novel «What a Carve-Up!» is analyzed through the prism of traditional Gothic elements; their contribution to the ideological, philosophical and compositional structure of the novel is revealed.

The article is devoted to the identification of originality of I. I. Kozlov’s battle lyrics in the context of poems on Napoleonic wars. Particular attention is paid to the image of warrior.

The article deals with the semantic range of the «rumours» concept based on the Russian proverbs and sayings, collected by V. I. Dal and I. M. Snegiryov: the features, structure and content of rumours are analyzed. The subjects and objects of rumours are investigated. Also the connection between the «rumours» and «fame» is revealed.

The figure of Thomas Cromwell in the first two parts of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy is seen as the embodiment of the idea of efficient risk control. Cromwell’s evolution from the value system of the rising bourgeoisie towards old feudal ways is traced; Mantel’s mastery in psychological characterization analyzed.

The article considers the conditions of the journalists’ work which form the situations of ambiguity and risk in their professional activity: the interference of censorship, relationships with censors and other authority representatives. The attention is given to the journalists’ attempts to influence the process of preparation of Censorial Regulations of 1862.

The analysis of the semantic limits of the popular notion of ‘risk’ demonstrates that in the Russian national and cultural tradition risk is the sign of meaningless and hopeless recklessness, and at the same time, the sign of unbridled energy and power. To feel risk means to outwardly carelessly anticipate imminent danger and to ultimately concentrate the efforts of will related to overcoming the sweeping disaster.

The article reveals the problem of creating the image of the author in the stories by T. Tolstaya by means of comparing it to the images of the intellectuals of the Stagnation Era, the main characters of the book of stories «Okkervil River». With the help of such techniques as fabulousness, citation and internal spiritual belonging to the intelligentsia author creates a mythology of the Soviet intelligentsia. The main feature of this mythology is decadent humility and desacralization.

The article is dedicated to eliciting genre characteristics of E. Ludwig’s biography «Napoleon» through considering the features of its narrative structure.