卷 18, 编号 1 (2020)

The article is focused on one of the key categories of historical and theoretical poetics — the category of genre. Until now, many issues related to genre and the genre analysis of a writing remain unsettled. The article considers the main problems of studying the category of genre, as well as different approaches: genetic, functional, systemic, typological ones. The emphasis is laid on the history of the study of the category “genre” by formal and sociological schools. A particular attention is paid to the contribution of P. N. Medvedev to the development of the genre as a category of poetics, as well as to the concepts of the genre by D. S. Likhachev, M. M. Bakhtin, G. N. Pospelov, V. V. Kozhinov, V. N. Zakharov, L. V. Chernets, N. L. Leiderman and others, some aspects of studying the category of genre in foreign literary criticism are considered. It is proved that, despite the idea of “atrophy”, the genre still remains significant both for the writer’s artistic thinking and for certain “expectations” of the reader from the text.

The motif of “the escape from paradise” has recently become one more time the subject of historical poetics. This motif is opposed to “the expulsion from paradise” accepted in Western literature. In the perception of scholars the motif of “the escape from paradise” in 19th century literature took a paradoxical form of “loneliness” (Dmitriev, Pushkin, Ostrovsky and Batyushkov) and then was designated as a “moving” model of a Russian man’s life who escapes from Paradise — a “homeostatic” society (L. N. Gumilev). The transformation of the motif from a “stable” model to a “moving” one led to formation of a new Russian character — a “homeless wanderer” mentioned by F. M. Dostoevsky in his “Pushkin Speech”. The article puts forward a thesis that under the influence of wandering a part of Russian society feel inclined for Old Russian forms of world outlook that incites person’s searches for life paradise in his own soul. This trend appears in the pilgrimage and theological literature of the 19th century. The transformation of the ratio between the “stable” and the “moving” towards the Old Russian ideal of wandering brings man to the saving paths of evangelical commandments. The theme of “the escape in the desert” is closely related to the theme of “Mental Paradise”. In this regard, the key plot of the popular collection “Mental Paradise” popular in the 17th century and released in Wallay Iversky Monastery in 1658–1659 is considered. Based on the manuscripts the article shows how the motives of “Paradise” and “escape in the desert” having preceded the trends and having been developed in the 19th century leading to the prosperity of pilgrimage literature, are presented in literature of pre­Peter Russia.

The article analyzes the peculiarities of biblical motifs and images in E. I. Kostrov’s works. In his odes the poet often refers to the Old Testament scenes and images through the prism of a Christian aspect. Kostrov considers ancient and the Old Testament subjects in the light of the Christian and Orthodox tradition. The poet attributes a Christian sound to the secular genre of the ode, saturating his works with the motifs of the Holy Scriptures. Kostrov often uses the concept of “meekness” emphasizing the sanctity of the Orthodox power, which gets commandments of mercy and humility from God leading to spiritual salvation. The motif of two paths — the unholy and righteous ones — becomes cross-cutting in Kostrov’s poetry. The path of Russia corresponds to the latter one. The motif of divine light descending into the world and eradicating the darkness is the motif of the people “chosen by God”. According to Kostrov, not the Jews but the Russians are such a people. Working with the texts of the Psalms, Kostrov introduces his own motifs, shows his individuality, reveals his own experiences and doubts, and disagrees with some ideas of his era. Christian ideals of meekness and non-violence are the main values in E. I. Kostrov’s poetry. 

The article touches upon the analysis of the historical and literary circumstances of the appearance of one of the numerous author’s comments by Gogol on the comedian “The Government Inspector”, such as the article “An Prenotification for those who would like to stage “The Government Inspector” as it should be”. A whole number of facts indicate that the origin of the “Prenotification…” is related to the history of the creation by Gogol of the second edition of “The Government Inspector” in late December 1840 — February 1841. Together with the new edition, Gogol, unsatisfied with the staging of his comedy in St. Petersburg and Moscow theatres, first of all with the impersonation of Khlestakov, conceived a new presentation of “The Government Inspector”, believing that the revised edition would contribute to the theatrical updating of the play — performed “as it should be”. The text of the “Prenotice…” precedes the creation of those fragments of “The Government Inspector” that Gogol sent for the new edition of the play in spring 1841 from Rome to Moscow for M. P. Pogodin and S. T. Aksakov and is a kind of a test experiment, a “rough draft” for “An excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of “The Government Inspector” to one writer”, sent at that time to Aksakov, and simultaneously it is a preliminary description for subsequent explanations of the “silent scene” of “The Government Inspector” in the text of the very comedy. In addition, there is a connection between the “Prenotification…” with drawings made by the artist A. A. Ivanov for the same final scene of “The Government Inspector”, which were created during the author’s reading of the comedy in Rome in February 1841. Thus, it is established that the “Prenotification for those who would like to play “The Government Inspector” properly was written not in the autumn 1846, as it is common to think, but five and a half years earlier, in early 1841. It is an opening article in the manuscript for the second edition of “The Government Inspector” in 1841, instead of which Gogol published here an accompanying article “An excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of “The Government Inspector” to one writer”. The study allows us to conclude that Gogol’s interpretations are deeply organic to the original religious concept of comedy. The plot stem of the “The Government Inspector” is the “thunderstorm” of a distant government law, and of the even more inevitable Last Judgment. The “Prenotification…” addressed to the actors, and containing an appeal to take seriously and conscientiously the performance of the roles they were cast in, to pay special attention to the final scene, is an important component of Gogol’s strategy to bring back to his play the meanings lost due to inept staging. The presence of a number of motives in the “Prenotification…”, traditionally attributed only to the “late” Gogol, in the light of a new dating allows asserting the idea of the indissoluble unity and integrity of the artist’s creative path.

The subject of scientific reflection is the contemplation and action as ways of the human attitude to the world, existence, substantiated and accomplished in the ontology of human life by I. S. Turgenev, thinker and artist. The presence of a “thought” and “will”, consciousness and action, knowledge and transformation is considered by the writer as a fundamental characteristic of the human way of existence, which becomes the semantic core of the philosophical and anthropological concept of the article-speech “Hamlet and Don Quixote” (1860), fundamental for the research on Turgenev’s creative work at the level of historical poetics. The activity approach to the person, strengthened at the turn of the classical and non-classical stages of development of philosophical thought, — the time of formation of Turgenev’s world outlook, explains converging of the points of opposite “native types”, their transition from the ideal existence into the real one, their equally weighted opposition to the “evil and lies”. As a result, according to Turgenev’s view the images of Hamlet and Don Quixote come together on the ground of “worship to the Truth” and the “idea of high merits” of the individual, in which the human “nature” and “quintessence” are objectified. Therefore, the analysis of the hamletian and don-quijotian types could be carried out by Turgenev just within the universal socio-cosmic lay of the interrelation of the opposites inherent in centripetal and centrifugal natural forces and their tendency to synthesis. The “tragic aspect of human life” engendered by the inaccessibility of such synthesis may be overcome by means of comprehension of the Truth, the “true meaning of nature”. Moreover, Turgenev’s ontological idea of the “Conciliation and absorbtion of everything existing in the other”, argued at the attitudinal and aesthetic levels, is the basis for the definition of the meaning of human life. This meaning is found in the balance between the content of all human life and the world, society, other people in the name of the “ideal”, establishment of the truth and justice. Hence, contemplation and action as forms of a morally responsible attitude to life in Turgenev’s artistic ontology are directly related to the problem of “high levels” and quality of human existence.

The article deals with the poetics of completion in the novel “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky, and reveals the features of the “Conclusion” that reveals and generalizes the main idea of the work. The author analyzes the meaning of Stavrogin’s letter to Daria Pavlovna Shatov, which sums up the hero’s storyline, and clarifies the plot-composition function of the image of Marya Timofeevna. The novel symbolism of “lameness” excludes the possibility of considering the heroine as an “object of medicine” (L. I. Saraskina). The value of anachronism, which creates the originality of the novel’s completion, is analyzed. The significance of semantic comparison of the story lines of Stepan Trofimovich and Nikolai Vsevolodovich is considered. The relationship between Stepan Trofimovich’s Epiphany episode and the epigraph for expressing the idea of the novel is analyzed. When studying this problem, the preparatory materials of the work were involved. It is proved that in the novel “Demons” F. M. Dostoevsky showed the futility of criminal delusions and a difficult but necessary way to overcome them, and also expressed hope for the healing of Russia from these dangerous delusions.

The article studies the space-semiotic organization of one of the central symbolist novels of the Silver age, associated with the “estate topos” in Russian literature. Most of the action in the “Roman-Prince” by Z. N. Gippius takes place in the 1910s on the territory of country estates in different parts of Russia, as well as in the Western European castle near the Pyrenees, where Russian revolutionaries live. The duality of the Russian revolution manifested as late as in Decembrist movement (the “autocratic” dictatorship of P. I. Pestel and the Christian democratism of S. I. Muravyov-Apostol) echoed in Gippius’s novel in the form of the opposition between Roman Smentsev and Mikhail Rzhevsky, along with his supporters Florenty and Litta. Gippius’s discovery consists in the fact that she found in the field of “estate topos” a meaning that goes back to the activities of the Decembrists-noble revolutionaries of the first quarter of the 19th century, often large landowners. The “Estate topos” appears in the “Roman-Prince” as the topos of the Russian religious revolution in a number of local variations. The ideological and artistic circulation between its three loci unites the Western European castle, reminiscent of the educationist roots of the Russian “estate culture” with its ideal of a free personality, a noble estate of the Golden age, which brings Russia’s first apostles of religious revolution, and eclectic intelligent-landowner estate of the Silver age, the inhabitants of shich are under the evil power of the Antichrist of the revolution, genetically ascending to Stavrogin of the novel “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky. At the same time, they maintain the ability to break the fatal circle outlined by Smentsev thanks to the heterotopic connection with the other two estate projections presented in the novel. So, the scientific novelty of the article is that: here, in the material of the Gippius’s novel is identified and discussed an important modification of the “estate topos” in the literature of Russian symbolism — a landowner’s rural estate as a topos of the religious revolution, and for understanding of its structure a new category — “heterotopia of the estate” — is used.

The article contributes to the study of implementation of the genre traditions of the Russian Medieval literature in the prose of the second half of the twentieth century, specifies categorical coordinates and challenges research approaches, artificially separating a single movement of Russian literature from the time of Ilarion and Avvakum to the present day. On the example of V. P. Astafyev’s book “Zatesi” which united the writer's small prose on the principle of cyclization of works based on the common stylistic and thematic features, the author comes to the conclusion about the artistic relevance of this technique, which originates in the medieval collections, in the aspiration of their compilers to work “outside of genre traditions” (D. S. Likhachev). But if in the Middle Ages this aspiration is more due to the subject-thematic tasks, in the New and Modern times the super-genre unity of the collection, of the book is a result of strengthening the compositional role of the author in their structural organization and the individualization of his image.