 |
 |
 |
 |
|
SUMMARIES(*) ARTICLES AND NOTES On the origins of Symbolism D. S. Merezhkovskii, one of the founders of Russian literary symbolism, wrote long poems “Vera” and “The family idyll” in the 1889–1890s. They seem to be the link between the first manifesto of symbolists “On the reasons of decline and some trends in contemporary Russian literature” having been written soon after the manifesto and the pre-symbolist manifesto by N. Minskii “Starinnyi spor”, published in the newspaper “Zaria” in Kiev in the middle of the 1880s in the process of literary polemics. Transparent Motives The comparison of two disparate works divided by time, space and style is based on the impressions the author of the present paper gained from reading. The perception of an inner affinity between V. Komarovsky’s “Sabinula” and I. S. Turgenev’s “Spring waters” led us to the discovery of a whole series of similarities in their plot schemes, motives and rhetorical devices; one could even speak with due caution of textual coincidences. This is yet another argument in favor of Turgenev’s importance for Russian prose of the Silver Age. Ieronim Yasinsky’s position and reputation in literature Ieronim Yasinsky was a well-known author in the Russian mass- literature of the end of the 19th–the beginning of the 20th century. The article studies Ieronim Yasinsky’s everyday behaviour which was a manifestation of his self-image as a writer. To achieve the success as a writer, Yasinsky followed L. Tolstoy’s and F. Nietzsche’s behaviour already in the 1880s. Tolstoy attracted him with the ability of exploring different aesthetic principles, and Nietzsche with the ambivalent treatment of common ethics. The permanent changes of aesthetic orientation, as well as moral relativism, became the predominant strategy of Yasinsky’s behaviour in the literary circles. On the Prototypical Structure of the Novel In the article the author of the present paper has observed the novel by I. Yasinsky “Hypocrites” (1893), one of his “libellous” novels which brought him the reputation of “lampoonist” in the literary environment. The novel is I. Yasinsky’s detailed response of to invectives in his address from the democratic criticism. The analysis of the main characters of the novel makes it possible to recover their prototypes (Zasyatkin — V. Bibikov and I. Yasinsky, Apokritov — N. Leskov, count Kiselev — A. Urusov, Ivanovsky — I. Yasinsky and A. Chekhov). The reconstruction of the prototypical structure of the novel gives the author an opportunity to describe I. Yasinsky’s complicated position in the literature of the time. On the one hand, I. Yasinsky countervails the decadent and naturalist literature of the 1880s – early 1890s, to which critics find him close. On the other hand, he looks for literary advocates in the person of the “objective” writer A. P. Chekhov. Defining himself and Chekhov the objective writers, Yasinsky strives to decline the accusation for amorality by literary critics. “Slavic” context of the Blok’s poem (“On the Kulikovo battlefield”) The article is dedicated to the problem of the influence of the European politics upon Blok’s poems about the Kulikovo battle. This poetic cycle was written during the dangerous world crisis provoced by the Austrian annexion of the Balkan provinces. That is why the poetics of “Kulikovo” poems is connected with the panslavistic ideology. The Russian public opinion considered the Austrian success in Balkan politics as national shame and the panslavistic context of Blok’s poems was ignored (or eliminated) by the late critics and scholars. “How sweet it is to be with you…” The paper analyzes the autobiographical background of Andrey Bely’s novel “Moskva”. It is shown that the plot of the novel reflects tragic emotional experience of Bely’s wife leaving him. The analysis of Bely’s diaries leads to a conclusion that it is nobody else than Bely’s first wife Asya Turgeneva, the protagonist of the Lizasha character from the novel “Moskva”. The antagonism between Korobkin and Mandro is interpreted as the antagonism of the high and the low, the spiritual and the carnal, in the author’s soul. Wagnerian References in “Stikhi k Bloku” by Marina Tsvetaeva In this article, the Wagnerian references in Tsvetaeva’s works are described. Marina Tsvetaeva seems to know well both the biography and the works by Wagner. The traces of “Parsifal”, “Lohengrin”, “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, “Tannhauser”, “Tristan und Isolde” are found her prose, dramas, correspondence and poetry. The most unexpected fact is the reference to “Lohengrin”, which has been found in Tsvetaeva’s “Stikhi k Bloku”, in the second poem “Nezhnyi prizrak…”. Tsvetaeva and Akhmatova (About Marina Tsvetaeva’s last Poem) The article includes an analysis of Tsvetaeva’s last poem “Vse povtorjaju pervyj stikh…”. By researchers the epigraph to this poem was traditionally considered as quotation from A. Tarkovsky’s poem. In the author’s opinion, this epigraph relates at the same time to two texts: A. Tarkovsky’s “Stol nakryt na shesteryh…” (1940) and A. Akhmatova’s “Novogodnaja ballada…” (1922). Such a point of view allows the author of this paper to consider this poem as a part of her “akhmatova cycle” (in general). Considering this poem as a part of the wider literary context of the beginning of the 20th century (Blok’s, Kuzmin’s and Tsvetaeva’s herself prosaic works) shows that Tsvetaeva’s last poem has close relations with texts, which served as a source to Akhmatova’s “Poema bez geroja”. About the Genesis of the Name “Studenets”: From the Comment The genesis of the name of the town “Studenets” from Remizov’s story “The Fifth Pestilence” (1911) is investigated in the article. The main source of this toponymy is The Revelation of St. John (IX, 1–2) (exactly its Church-Slavonic version). The word “studenets” means there “a bottomless pit”, i. e. “a key to hell” (in the Russian translation of The Revelation of St. John the word “studenets” is translated as “kladez’”). The apocaliptical subtext of Remizov’s story proves to be true and it was already described by K. Seke and A. Gracheva. Khodasevich and Meyrink In this note the poetry of V. Khodasevich is conforonted with an expressionist novel of Gustav Meyrink “Holem”. The staggering similarity of motives allows us to speak about the similarity of the world outlook of both artists. PUBLICATIONS Letters of Alexander Blok to Ieronim Yasinsky Nearly all the letters of Alexander Blok have already been published. Among those, not numerous ones, which have not yet been printed are his official letters to Ieronim Yasinsky — a well-known prose-writer and journalist of the turn of the 20th century. These documents allow us to reconstruct some episodes concerning the relationships between Blok and Yasinsky and assist us to communicate some facts pertinent to the publications of Blok’s works in Russian periodicals. “…Who will forget Blok’s blood?”: The author publishes an unknown obituary by Boris Pilnyak to Alexander Blok, which he has found in an issue of the newspaper “Izvestiya Ryazanskogo gubernskogo Ispolnitelnogo Komiteta Soveta rabochikh, krestianskikh i krasnoarmeiskikh deputatov…” (1921) and not registered in the most complete bibliographies of A. Blok. Aleksei Remizoff. The Diaries, 1941 The Diaries include Remizoff’s comments on the current events and a record of his dreams, providing material for the reconstruction of the author’s views and artistic orientation. (*) Блоковский сборник XVI: Александр Блок и русская литература первой половины ХХ века. Тарту, 2003. С. 201–205. Назад
Дата публикации на Ruthenia 26.09.2003. |
