The article, based on the analysis of Chekhov’s The Duel [Duеl], offers a new interpretation of Chekhov’s oeuvre. Modern Chekhov studies often imply that the writer lived in the era of the end of ideologies and therefore refrained from offering any ideological recipes. In fact, nearly each of Chekhov’s longer novellas debunked the nascent ideologies of the time. He warned of the perils of submission to an ideology, even though he could not predict which one would eventually dominate. Therefore, he critiqued each and every one of them. This is how ideology is tackled in his story The Black Monk [Chyorniy monakh] (an anticipation of detrimental Modernist ideas); in A Dreary Story [Skuchnaya istoria], these days often compared to the story of Faust; and in Ward No. 6 [Palata nomer shest], showing descent of normal people into insanity. Similarly, in The Duel, he depicted a proto-Nazi and Bolshevik, no less, in the character of Von Koren, who embraces Nietzsche’s worldview and will not hesitate to destroy an intellectual who crossed his path.

The article discusses the details of A. Chekhov’s visit to the Kaluga governorate, which influenced some of his later short stories. There is a wooden house in Kaluga. Built on a stone basement, it overlooked the boulevard and once belonged to the parents of Mikhail Mikhaylovich Chekhov (who resided in Moscow at the time), a cousin of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and his active correspondent. The latter even had plans to visit his Kaluga relatives. Sadly, this never happened. But the writer’s brother, Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, worked as a tax inspector in the town on Aleksin, an administrative hub in the Tula governorate, resulting in Chekhov’s family visiting the town’s environs in 1891 and staying on the state Bogimovo in the Tarusa district of the Kaluga governorate, which belonged to a landowner E. Bylim-Kolosovsky. It was there that Chekhov was working on his novella The Duel [Duеl] and the book Sakhalin Island [Ostrov Sakhalin]. A spectacular view of the nearby Dankovo, whose purchase Chekhov contemplated for a while, was recreated in his short story The House with the Mezzanine [Dom s mezoninom].

The article analyzes the biblical motifs and mythopoetic elements in the second part of S. Aksakov’s autobiographical trilogy Years of Childhood [Detskie gody Bagrova-vnuka]. The first experiences of a child in understanding the world are interpreted as ‘living knowledge’ (a term coined by A. Khomyakov). The image of the boy’s wet-nurse represents characteristics of the divine nature, the source of the vital force. The poetic image of ‘the torch of life’ is an allusion to the inextinguishable lamps with which the New Testament’s wise virgins greeted the bridegroom in anticipation of the symbolic wedding feast and life eternal. The chapter ‘First spring in the village’ is written to strongly resemble the biblical account of the Creation of the world, both in style and the manner of artistic associations. The book’s mythopoetic element, enduring imagery, and real-life situations create a unity of the cultural space. The Old and New Testaments’ motifs are depicted to be in natural coexistence. The world is shown through the eyes of a child, with childhood portrayed as a cultural phenomenon.

The article examines books by S. Shargunov, written at different periods (Hurray! [Ura!] and One’s Own People [Svoi], etc.), tracing the author’s personality and his creative evolution: from a protagonist who rejects the world to a search for ‘one’s own’ and ‘one’s own people’. Shargunov’s ‘own people,’ believes M. Kulgavchuk, are first and foremost his family; memories of childhood provide the foundation for his stylistics, prompting comparison with I. Bunin’s lyrical prose. Indeed, Shargunov works within the realm of lyrical prose, occasionally spicing lyricism with a pinch of satire. His main topic, however, is the relationship between the person and the epoch. Kulgavchik points out how this topic, first appearing in Shargunov’s autobiographical prose, fully develops in his research: a biography of V. Kataev entitled In Pursuit of Eternal Spring [V pogone za vechnoy vesnoy] (The Lives of Remarkable People Series). In his biography of Kataev, Shargunov is consistent and thorough, interested in both large-scale historical milestones related to the writer and individual episodes that demonstrate the writer’s strongly non-conformist nature.

The work attempts a literary ‘portrait’ of the contemporary writer and scenarist A. Kozlova. The author charts the evolution of Kozlova’s work, from the early ‘ultra-shock’ stories and the novel Whazzup, Winner [Preved pobeditelyu] (2006), a transparent satire of the fat years of the 2000s, to Ryurik (2019), a novel structured as a multilevel psychological quest. In addition, the critic describes the writer’s language as sharp, full of irony and in sync with contemporary culture and the modern Russian language. The critic notes that Kozlova’s works are highly context-dependent: one book picks up where the previous one left off, and together they form a confession and a journal of personal growth and development. According to Zhuchkova, the writer’s biggest achievement is that Kozlova managed to rise above the constrictions of the 1990s’ ‘ultra-shock literature’ and harness the format of  autopsychological prose, which in Russian literature originates in E. Limonov’s works, to portray a transcendent image of a positive character and a history of personal development, both of the heroine and the author herself.

The article is devoted to E. Nekrasova, a contemporary writer, whose school novel Kalechina-malechina was short-listed for The Big Book Prize and The National Bestseller Award in 2019. Kalechina-malechina is analyzed as a specimen of the contemporary Russian crossover novel (which targets both adult and young audiences), highly popular in the West, but having trouble taking root in Russia – perhaps, because the genre suggests a polyphony not only in terms of the plot, but also psychology, whereas Russian literature of the 2000s – 2010s is predominantly monologic. Nekrasova, on the other hand, in her Kalechina-malechina and Sestromam, a collection of short stories, embraces the principle of the diversity of voices. Comparing Nekrasova’s work with another example of contemporary school prose, provided by B. Khanov’s Inconstants [Nepostoyannye velichiny], the author decides that the integrity of a text today is defined by its polyphonic quality, by the ability to hear a different opinion: the ability that some modern authors and even critics are badly lacking.

In her interview with S. Shargunov, editor-in-chief of the Yunost magazine, a writer and a public figure, the critic T. Solovyova raises various problems and questions. Among these are questions of contemporary literature, which, Shargunov believes, relies too much on the principles of stability and elegance, and needs some kind of a shock; the fate of thick literary magazines, which no longer can survive in a Soviet reservation and have started to actively explore the world around them; and the principles of biographical research, which is largely based on the invention of the protagonist, etc. The interview is concerned with Shargunov’s own prose, including his biographical novel about Valentin Kataev, his first experience in serious research, as well as works by Shargunov’s contemporaries, including authors of the same age. At the same time, the interview deliberately avoids politics and ideology; it does not discuss Shargunov’s activities as a people’s representative in the State Duma.

The paper is concerned with G. Obolduev, one of Russia’s most prominent poets of the first half of the 20th c., whose works are only now returning to readers. The poet’s first collected poems were published in 1991 thanks to L. Ozerov, who compiled the collection. Since then, Obolduev has inspired numerous works, but the research would normally focus on his mature and later lyrical works. By contrast, this article looks at the poet’s earlier work, typified by examples of language play, metaphorical convergence of opposing concepts, omission of links in chains of free associations, and so on. Especially interesting are quotes from the reminiscences of the children’s writer E. Blaginina, the poet’s wife, which offer an insight into Obolduev’s creative process and characteristic way of thinking, as quite a few of his earlier poems plainly require a detailed, almost line-by-line, commentary, such as the one provided by the authors of this article.

The article examines various versions of M. Gorky’s character sketch V. I. Lenin, written in 1924. The sketch is of interest for many reasons. First, it appeared right after the death of the revolutionary leader and laid the foundation of the Lenin myth, actively propagated throughout Soviet history. Second, Gorky portrays Lenin as a larger-than-life personality. The writer thoroughly reworked his sketch following its first publication. Its second edition happened to be twice the original volume, with additional episodes and characters introduced for the first time. The principal methods applied by Gorky include stylistic corrections, expunging of certain fragments, repositioning of paragraphs, and transposition. The article provides numerous examples of alterations and additions in the text. However, considerable modifications driven by the publishers’ demand notwithstanding, the sketch remains essentially unchanged. Gorky’s self-editing was aimed at preserving the concept of Russian history with Lenin as its central figure.

The article uses little known letters of M. Gorky, many of which were published for the first time in 1997, as well as findings of Samara-based experts in local history to shed light on the writer’s work as editor-in-chief of the Samarskaya Gazeta newspaper in 1895. The researcher introduces hitherto unstudied reminiscences of the journalist D. Linyov (Dalin) about this period, which reference a letter by Gorky, now lost. The paper details a newly discovered episode of Gorky’s professional biography as a journalist: it concerns his campaign against a Samara ‘she-wolf,’ the madam of a local brothel A. Neucheva. Linyov’s reminiscences turn out to be an important and interesting source, offering an insight into the daily grind of the young editor Gorky, providing new evidence of his excellent organizational skills, and describing his moral and social stance. The author presents his work in the context of a recently initiated broader discussion about the need to map out all Russian periodicals for the period until 1917, as well as all research devoted to individual publications.

The paper deals with Sir Thomas Browne, a doctor of medicine, philosopher, and writer of the English Baroque. His legacy holds an enduring appeal for scholars and, more importantly, survives in English language and its literature. It is demonstrated that Browne’s prose played an important role in the shaping of English literature and language, and that his philosophical and scientific views were eclectic. As a separate topic, the article considers problems of translating his prose into other languages. Translations can be spot-on, as shown in the article, when a coincidence of the ‘time of culture’ (Popovich, Borges) between the original and the culture of the translation occurs. For translations into Russian, a problem arises due to the inconsistency (polyglossia) of the 17th-c. Russian language. The author provides a comparative analysis of Browne’s original essays and their Russian translation. She finds that V. Grigoriev’s translations of Browne’s diptych discourses rely on a complex historical stylization, use 18th-c. Russian language, and have proved themselves as a factor of cross-literary communication.

The article considers the practicality and prospects of using obsolete spelling and punctuation contemporaneous with the period when the literary work was created in scholarly editions of Russian classics, for maximum conformity of the published text to the author’s intentions. In this regard, Barsht analyzes compatibility of such experimentations with the norms of contemporary Russian grammar with 19th-c. orthographic standards. The author examines the cultural role of scholarly editions, which supply authoritative versions of texts for reprints, translations, and textbooks for secondary schools and institutions of higher education. Another topic is the pragmatic function of punctuation marks, whose purpose changed dramatically in the early 20th c. From the viewpoint of textual criticism, the article also discusses the need for such a translation of a literary classic into the modern Russian language that is accurate and precise, and avoids violation of the author’s intentions. The questions are raised in response to the publication of vol. 8 of the Complete works by F. M. Dostoevsky in 35 vols. (The Idiot [Idiot]).

The article discusses the scholarly work of the renowned essayist and literary and cultural critic M. Epstein. Analyzing his Projective Dictionary of Humanistic Disciplines [Proektivniy slovar gumanitarnykh nauk] (2017), and parts of Encyclopaedia of Youth [Entsiklopediya yunosti] (co-authored by S. Iourienen, 2018), the author examines Epstein’s strategy for coining terms as well as the methodological assumptions at its core. The latter include, in particular, the assumption about a direct connection between scholarly knowledge and language, and the idea of language as a passive and ahistorical element. Epstein’s approach appears to be a peculiar fusion of scholarship and mythologism, and risky innovation and archaic methodological elements — an approach that is predetermined by Epstein’s adherence to the intellectual tradition that he himself defined as essayism, borrowing the term from R. Musil. The article is also concerned with the evolution of this intellectual trend, characterized by the absence of distinct genre boundaries, mythologism, and the claim to ‘superdisciplinarity.’

The article gives an account of life and work of Zhu Shenghao (1912–1944), primarily known for his translation of the complete works of Shakespeare, the first and one of the most influential Shakespeare editions in the Chinese language. Between 1938 and 1944, he managed to translate 31 and a half plays out of the 37 plays in the First Folio. His translation, still widely acclaimed today, grants elegance to its language and musical cadence to its prosaic style and contains poetic processing in typical scenes according to Chinese lyrical traditions. Besides, Zhu Shenghao is celebrated as a cultural hero for his effort in presenting Shakespeare’s dramatic works in a brilliant translation at a critical time when China was in urgent need of learning about the Western world. According to poly-system theory, it is fully illustrated in Zhu’s case that translation does play a significant part in shaping China’s modern cultural consciousness.

The article contains a comparative analysis of early European interpretations of Goethe’s poem Erlkönig and hypothesizes that it was under their influence that Zhukovsky introduced significant innovations in his translation. Already in the first English translations by M. G. Lewis and W. Scott, translators dispense with the naturphilosophical implication of Goethe’s original and enhance its folkloric dimension; the plot is structured according to the pre-romantic and romantic folk legends of evil and many-voiced forest ‘kings.’ The early French versions embark on a new tradition of ‘translating’ the title into the native language, revealing the semiotics of the image and making it more recognizable by a foreign culture. Zhukovsky’s idea of the Forest King is shaped by his contemporary culture; he integrates the German original not only into Russian demonology as described by Russian lexicons of the early 19th c., but also into the set of translation practices already established at the time when he was writing his ballad.

The article sets out to acquaint readers with early works by Truman Capote that have never been published in collections of his early prose. It concerns his school exercises, some of which appeared in The Trinity Times newspaper, as well as short stories penned before 1942 during his time at Greenwich High School. A brief abstract of these works gives an idea of the talent of the writer, who became aware of his vocation very early in life. The article discusses Capote’s other manuscripts discovered in American archives, including a draft ‘Article about a group of young people in Moscow’, referred to by Capote as ‘A Daughter of the Russian Revolution.’ This documentary piece describes the children of the Soviet elite whom Capote met during his visits to Moscow in 1956, 1958 and 1959. Among his other important finds, D. Zakharov mentions the manuscript of the short story Another Day in Paradise, dedicated to the writer Malcolm Lowry (Under the Volcano), whom Capote met in Sicily. The article raises the question of including the aforementioned works in the writer’s general bibliography, offering arguments in favour of their subsequent publication.

The first publication of the complete Foreword [Preduvedomlenie] authored by the renowned Russian economist and writer A. Chayanov in the Russian language (1999 saw the publication of the French version). The piece is considered to be an inseparable part of his ‘Moscow Hoffmanniada.’ To illustrate the book, Chayanov invited the master of smallscale graphics A. Kravchenko, who later became a classic of the romantic tradition in Russian 20th-c. graphic art. The publication never happened, banned by Glavlit (the official Soviet censorship organ) in 1926, and the Foreword was archived. This Foreword was missing from all subsequent publications of Chayanov’s romantic novellas, although the commentators kept referring to the piece. The article seeks to correct the situation and draw the readers’ attention to the text, printed in full after the typewritten manuscript stored in GARF (the State Archive of the Russian Federation), upon elimination of typos and obvious inaccuracies, assuming that the Foreword is part and parcel of Chayanov’s ‘botanical Hoffmanniada.’

Kochetkova, N., Veselova, A. and Baudin, R., eds. (2018). The writer Karamzin: A multi-authored monograph. St. Petersburg: Pushkinskiy Dom. (In Russ.)

The multi-authored monograph dedicated to N. Karamzin’s 250th birth anniversary is based on the materials of the international scholarly conference organized by the Institute of Russian Literature of the RAS in 2016. The book was prepared with painstaking accuracy and belongs to the most significant and noteworthy of recently published philological works. The remarkable cyclic composition is structured both logically and symmetrically, as well as with grace, taste, and wittiness so typical of the historical period in question. Profoundly interesting are all six parts of the monograph: the first three are concerned with Karamzin’s fiction writing, whereas the other three discuss his literary connections. The authors succeeded in finding an unexpected approach to the material and brilliantly demonstrate the relevance of issues that had long-provoked disputes. The book will delight and inform experienced philologists, students, and laymen alike.

Kasatkina, T. (2019). Dostoevsky as a philosopher and theologian: An artistic method of expression: A monograph. Moscow: Vodoley. (In Russ.)

T. Kasatkina’s new monograph consists of three parts: the theoretical and methodological first part presents arguments for the subject-subject method of reading and understanding of a work of fiction; the second and third parts are devoted to Notes from the Underground [Zapiski iz podpolia] and fiction fragments from A Writer’s Diary [Dnevnik pisatelya]. In this respect, the innovative approach of the book seems obvious: Kasatkina writes not so much about the content of the writer’s religious and philosophical ideas, but about the ways to understand them in accordance with the author’s intention. In addition, she offers an explanation of the implicit presence of these ideas in a work of fiction, which prompts the need for a philological analysis of the composition and imagery of such a work. This, in turn, gives rise to the ‘inevitability of philology’ asserted by Kasatkina.

Kozhukharov, R., ed. (2018). The collected works of V. Narbut: Poems. Translations. Prose. Moscow: OGI. (In Russ.)

Vladimir Narbut, a celebrity in the early 20th c., became known to the 1970s reader from V. Kataev’s book My Diamond Crown [Almazniy moy venets], where the poet, along with many other 1920s literary figures, is portrayed in a cartoonish manner. The first reprint of a wide selection of Narbut’s collected poems appeared as late as 1990. It took another 18 years to publish Narbut’s critical works. It was in 2018 that a new edition printed the fullest collection of his poetry to date, as well as selected prose and drafts/fragments. The Аcmeist Narbut conformed very little to the formal teachings of this poetic school. Similarly, he found his unique voice as a Soviet poet. The detailed introduction, comprehensive commentary, section with sketches, and abundant illustrations instill a more in-depth idea of the writer, with the book acting as a guide to his oeuvre.

Shruba, M. (2018). A dictionary of the pen-names of Russian émigrés in Europe (1917- 1945). Ed. by O. Kotostelyov, with contributions from P. Lavrinets, A. Meimre, B. Ravdin, R. Timenchik, L. Fleishman et al. Moscow: NLO. (In Russ.)

M. Shruba’s dictionary contains entries on about 3,600 authors, 9,800 revealed and 8,500 unattributed pseudonyms. The research relies on more than 400 Russian émigré periodicals as well as various archived materials. The geographical framework of the research can be explained by availability of resources, as well as the significant literary, cultural and scholarly achievements of Russian emigrants in Europe during the period in question. The book may help launch a global project to create a dictionary of 20th-c. Russian pseudonyms

Pinsky, L. (2019). Why God is asleep. Ed. by A. Kozintsev. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya. (In Russ.)

The book is titled after the opening Menippean satire, sent by its author L. Pinsky to G. Kozintzev in order to entertain. Their correspondence (1968– 1973) follows to represent their current work. At that moment Pinsky was making desperate attempts to bring to completion his book Shakespeare. The Essential Elements of Drama [Shekspir. Osnovnye nachala dramaturgii]. Kozintsev in his turn was filming King Lear and enjoyed the worldwide success in 1971. Pinsky was among those who were disappointed with the work done by his friend. According to him both the sense of the heroic and a comic attitude towards heroism were lost in the film. The book is remarkable for the dignity of conversation on both sides and exchange of comprehension that does not rule our disagreement but, on the contrary, invites to the polemics as a form of ‘thinking together’ (Kozintsev).