Literary criticism

In the article different implementations of thoughts about Gogol in the novel The Raven written by O. Forsch are considered. The part of the chapter from The Raven excluded from the canonical text is analyzed as well. The issue is raised why this part did not appear in the final version of the novel.

The article presents an attempt to define the role of Z. I. Grzhebin in a pre-revolutionary publishing company – the Literary-Artistic Almanacs of Shipovnik Publishing House (1907-1917) in order to determine his contribution as the company’s founder and co-owner, and to find out certain relationships with Shipovnik’s staff.

The article is dedicated to the first personal workshop «Pushkin’s Studio» by N. K. Piksanov. A short review is provided on the history of the workshop genre.

In the article for the first time Pisemskiy’s attitude to the issue of feminine emancipation is viewed in close connection with his artistic images and critical statements; the issue was considered one of the key themes of his works by his contemporaries.

The article raises the question of the impact of Pushkin’s works on the Russian women writers of the XIXth century. It shows the way of development of Pushkin’s artistic experience in the creativity of Eugeniya Tour. The woman-writer developed Pushkin’s images of a «dreamer» and a «superfluous man» in her own way. Her interpretation was determined by the new historic conditions and gender factors as well.

The article analyzes the connection between A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin’s comedy Tarelkin’s Death and the aesthetics of street theater. The author draws parallels between Sukhovo-Kobylin’s play and the Russian traditional puppet show and gives his evaluation of the playwright’s pastiche techniques and the functions of these pastiches.

The article dwells on the artistic functions of hearsay and fame in the plot of N. V. Gogol’s novel Taras Bulba, on their internal link with the folklore tradition. The cultural and historic essence of Zaporozhye Rada is considered; the analogies with the text of the novel are drawn.

In the article Gogol’s image of the blacksmith Vakula is studied as one of the so-called «liminal beings», typical for the writer’s works. In the nature of such creatures there is a transition from the supernatural world into the real one, which allows them to act as mediators.

The article is dedicated to the identification of the specific character of variation of I. I. Kozlov’s romance Insane in its folklore form. The analysis was made mainly on the basis of archival materials.

The article studies the autobiographical book by Julian Barnes, the contemporary English postmodernist writer, where his personal memories illustrate the illusive nature of memory and its limits, revealing such mechanisms of memory as subjective interpretation, forgetting and imagining.