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“I remember, and now, unfurled, the tale I’ll tell to all the world…” Contemporary Russian retelling in K. Te’s novel What Marvels There [Tam chudesa]
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2026-2-118-138
Abstract
The study tackles an exciting and timely topic: retelling of classical literary texts as a genre particularly popular among writers of young adult fiction. In her analysis of K. Te’s novel What Marvels There [Tam chudesa] (2024), M. Markova considers devices used by contemporary writers of a retold story, inspired in this case by A. Pushkin’s Ruslan and Lyudmila. The article traces the influence of Pushkin’s poetics on the novelist and analyzes its transformation (‘retelling’ and ‘telling anew,’ including through plot twists typical of young adult literature) in Te’s novel. The study also explores the relevance of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, one of the sources of Pushkin’s original poem, for understanding the nature of retelling as a genre. The author seeks to establish how Pushkin’s reimagining of the Italian poem and successful ‘localization’ of its chronotope influenced subsequent emergence of a new genre of Slavic fantasy.
About the Author
M. V. Markova
Russian State University for the Humanities; Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Maria V. Markova, Candidate of Philology
6 Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
2 Krasnopresnenskaya Emb., Moscow, 103247
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Review
For citations:
Markova M.V. “I remember, and now, unfurled, the tale I’ll tell to all the world…” Contemporary Russian retelling in K. Te’s novel What Marvels There [Tam chudesa]. Voprosy literatury. 2026;(2):118-138. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2026-2-118-138
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