Summer School on the Russian Literature. 2020.
Vol. 16. № 1-2

The article examines the textual history of the Eusebius’s homily „On the Descent of John the Baptist into Hell“. Observations on the transformations of this compiled translated work in handwritten and early printed collections allow us to trace how the ancient Russian scribes assimilated and comprehended the plot, which took deep roots in the world literary tradition.

Keywords: Old Russian collections, apocrypha, Descent into hell, homilies, Sobornik.

Alena Isakhanyan

Eusebius’s homily „On the Descent of John the Baptist into Hell“
А short and a long version

The article is devoted to comparative analysis of the Historie of Prince Adolph and the Historie of Antiochus King of Tyre and their French and Polish originals — a fairy tale L’kle de la Felicite by M.-K. d’Onois and the History of Apollonius King of Tyre (as a chapter of the Gesta Romanorum). The most representative cases of the textual metamorphoses are identified and explained.

Keywords: The Russian novel of the XVII–XVIII Cent., L’kle de la Felicite by M.-K. d’Onois, Gesta Romanorum.

Mikhail Ljustrov

Lapland-Maltese war and the royal game with a spear
Textual transformations in Russian translated novels of the XVII–XVIII Сenturies

On the basis of archival sources the paper supplies important biographical information about Theodor Corbea (ca. 1680 — after 1725), who is primarily known for his poetic translation of the psalms into Romanian and as the author of the first Romanian-Latin dictionary. The article includes three syllabic poems by Theodor Corbea in Church Slavonic (with an admixture of elements from South-Russian
colloquial speech), which are found on the first pages of the manuscript of his Romanian Psalter-translation. The author uses historical and literary evidence to demonstrate that this Psalter translation was written in the early 1720s and not between 1700 and 1705 (as A. M. Gherman has claimed). From the poems in Church Slavonic can be concluded, that Theodor Corbea planned to ask the Emperor for financial support and to publish his Romanian Psalter-translation as a book.

Keywords: Theodor Corbea, David Corbea, Russian-Romanian cultural relations, Russian and Ukrainian syllabic poetry of the early 18th century.

Konstantin Lappo-Danilevskii

Theodor Corbea — Poet, Spy, Philologist, Diplomat

We suggest analysis of Nikolay Gogol’s „Bewitched place“ as a whole literary work. The bewitched place possesses features incompatible with the manifestations of life. Also, it contains in a concentrated form properties inherent to the whole world of „Bewitched place“. This includes motifs of de-identification of objects and of uncertainty as well as emptiness and absence. „Bewitched place“ contains such peculiarities of Gogol’s poetics that will unfold in his further creation: elements of implicit fiction, motifs of emptiness and weak word, helpless against evil spirits.

Keywords: Nikolay Gogol, „Bewitched place“, de-identification of objects, artistic space, implicit fiction, semantic-sound leitmotifs in prose

Oleg Zaslavskii

Bewitched Place As A Space Of Death

This essay focuses on the origins and mythologization of one of the most famous quotes which has been attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky in the United States starting from the late 1960s. It has been cited very often as an epigraph or a closing remark by numerous American activists, lawyers, senators, judges, writers, journalists, and scholars (but tellingly, not by Dostoevsky experts). Borrowed, as it is believed, from Dostoevsky's semi-autobiographical prison novel Notes from the Dead House (1860-62), the quotation exemplifies the American vision of Dostoevsky as a kind of human rights activist. The article shows that Dostoevsky did not author the dictum and traces its cultural and political origins to Western debates on the prison reform in the late 1960s.

Keywords: fake quotation, American human rights and prison reform movement, reception of Dostoevsky in the USA.

Ilya Vinitsky

Imaginary Dostoevsky
„The House of the Dead“ and American Prison Literature

The article examines two works, similar in subject matter and published almost simultaneously — the essays by I. A. Goncharov Servants of an Old Age and the note by N. S. Leskov Domestic Servant. The dates of creation of works are established, which makes it possible to prove the absence of a direct connection between them. At the same time, the reception of Servants of an Old Age by Leskov makes it possible to conclude that some of the fundamental principles of depicting the hero-„antic“ are inherent in the work of I. A. Goncharov.

Keywords: the image of the servant, the „antique“ hero, I. A. Goncharov, Servants of an Old Age, N. S. Leskov, Household servants.

Olga Makarevich

„Servants of an Old Age“ in the works of I. A. Goncharov and N. S. Leskov

The article investigates the books of poems and literary mystification „The Nelli’s poems“ by V. Bryusov. There are revealed the new sources of Bryusov’s stylizations and made a conclusion about „The Nelli’s poems“ as an experimental laboratory for testing the most famous techniques of contemporary poets.

Keywords: V. Bryusov, „The Nelli’s poems“, symbolism.

Alexandra Chaban

The results of the reception of russian poetry 1900 — early 1910s in „Nelly’s poems“

The article examines the autobiographical myth about the melancholic poet created in letters and poems by Ellis (Lev Kobylinskii) in 1911–1912. The analysis of letters to Nikolay Kiselev and Emilii Medtner and comparing them with the first part of Ellis’ poetry collection „Argo“ (written at the same time) showed that this myth was based on the image of V. A. Zhukovskii and Ellis’ idea of symbolism as the continuation of the European romanticism traditions which rediscovered the sacral Christian art of the past centuries.

Keywords: Ellis (Lev Kobylinskii), Emilii Medtner, melancholy, Russian Symbolism, romanticism, V. A. Zhukovskii.

Elena Glukhovskaya

Melancholy romantic of Russian symbolism
Ellis’s autobiographical myth in epistolary and poetic texts of 1912

The article observes the dialogue of K. A. Shimkevich and Y. N. Tynianov who worked together in Institute of Art history. Central statement of this dialogue is unpublished work of Shimkevich „Genre and its terms“, which criticize the „Literary fact“ of Tynianov. The article analyzes this work and describes its theoretical background.

Keywords: K. A. Shimkevich, Y. N. Tynianov, „Genre and its terms“, „Literary fact“, the formal method, Institute of Art history.

Valerii Otiakovskii

From discussions around Russian formalism
Konstantin Shimkevich about „Literary fact“ of Yuri Tynianov

The article is an attempt to decipher one of Osip Mandel’shtam’s most enigmatic poems. As a point of departure, it hypothetically states that the poem „Inside the Mountain Idles an Idol“ deals with the sacredness of an autocrat inherent in Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, as well as Russian/Soviet history. The poem’s imagery, its diction, wording, plot and, last but not least, whimsical intertextual matryoshka-like nesting pattern are all means of undermining this kind of idolatry. The generalized idol is portrayed as a ghastly old creature who has outlived his age and is decaying. To name a few of the most powerful subtexts, the Old Man of Crete from The Divine Comedy, King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold idol from The Book of Daniel, Alexander Pushkin’s Bronze Horseman, not to mention Ramses the Great’s rock „Abu Simbel“ temple, highlight the idol’s nature, which is that of a ruler worshipped as god. Buddhist associations, so far the main point in the critical discussion of „Inside the Mountain Idles an Idol“, relevant as they are, should be seen as helping embody the ruler-god theme.

Key words: Osip Mandel’shtam, close reading of a text, polically oriented poem, Old Testament. Dante, Alexander Pushkin, Ramses II and his Abu Simbel temple.

Lada Panova

Inside the Mountain Idles... the Subtext?
Figuring out Mandel’shtam’s Idol

The article discusses the date and circumstances of the meeting of Daniil Kharms with Vladimir Mayakovsky, as well as the OBERIU group performance in Leningrad, after Mayakovsky had read his poems in the Capella. It is proved that the joint performance took place on September 29, 1928 In addition, the author gives comments on some of the names Kharms mentioned in his notebooks, but about which nothing was previously known.

Keywords: Kharms, Mayakovsky, Capella, notebooks, diaries, commentary.

Aleksander Kobrinsky

Mayakovsky and others
Daniil Kharms’s circle of contacts in the late 1920s

The article contains a study of a character of a boy named Mikhail Kvakin, the leader of the gang hooligans, described in the novel by A. P. Gaidar „Timur and his Squad“. Neither during the Soviet epoch, nor in the post-Soviet era, the novel itself had been considered as a self-sufficient piece of literature possessing an outstanding artistic quality. The novel was a success and became popular only in the context of the Timur movement which radically influenced the focus of research dedicated to this book. This article attempts to analyse the iconic image of the story „based solely on the text“ without opposing his character to Timur. Mikhail Kvakin’s character is analysed from the point of view of subcultural communications, dacha behavioural models, specific vocabulary, various actions and personality features.

Keywords: Mikhail Kvakin, Gaidar, Timur and his Squad, subculture, country village, bully.

Valentin Golovin

„Kvakin“ question in the story of A. Gaidar „Timur and his Squad“