Academic literature on the topic 'Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) – History – 20th century'

This article is devoted to contacts and connections between Catalan and Russian intellectuals, artists in the period from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. These interactions were largely fragmentary, the connections were personal and few, but they significantly influenced the literary and artistic life of Russia and Catalonia. Questions of culture, science and art were the main subjects of conversation between Russians and Catalans. The article highlights such episodes as the correspondence between I. Pavlovsky and N. Ollier, the influence of the Catalan artist M. Fortuny on domestic painters, joint projects of S. Diaghilev and H. Sert, etc.

One of the notable trends in contemporary T. S. Eliot studies is the comparative study of Eliot’s works from various perspectives (influence, interaction, typology, contexts, etc.). The methodological principles of this research are determined by the orientation of comparative studies toward the typological study of literary phenomena. The paper deals with the parallels between two most important poetic texts of the 20th century: The Twelve by A. A. Blok (1918) and The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (1922). The texts under study belong to the same cultural period and are united by similar artistic principles and vision of the world. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the points of intersection of two poetic universes in one research space. Both poets were the witnesses of colossal civilization collapses: the Great War and the Russian Revolution. Both poets had a ‘sense of history’, which made it possible for them to foresee and depict the Decline of Europe in poetic form, to convey the ‘noise of time’ in all its polyphony of meanings and rhythms. The authors of both poems went similar aesthetic trajectories, which can be designated as the way ‘from symbolism to modernism’. Both Blok and Eliot were poets-playwrights, creators of their own theories of poetic drama, hence the dramatic plot and many colorful characters in The Twelve and The Waste Land. In their post-war poems, both poets created the language of the modern city, using its rhythms, experimented with poetic form. The paper reveals and analyzes a number of similar motifs in The Twelve and The Waste Land: an apocalyptic vision of modernity, West and East, Eros and Thanatos.

The Lithuanian folktale “The Sister as Duck” (AT 452C*), most commonly known under the name of “Sigutė”, is generally regarded as a popular narrative. It is appreciated for the rich mythical imagery: after the female protagonist is burned and the cow licks the ashes, the duck appears; the snow is allegedly sparkling because of the witch’s brains (bones) scattered there, etc. Moreover, the tale abounds in expressive song insertions.This tale has been published both in academic and popular editions. Its images are widespread in popular culture, even becoming stereotypical. However, in the card file catalogue of the Lithuanian folk narratives, only 17 variants of this tale and 5 fragments recorded from oral tradition can be found.By using contextual analysis, the author of the article attempts establishing when, how, and due to what circumstances this tale has turned into a phenomenon of popular culture.Its first recording from oral tradition in the 19th century purported to serve as illustration of the peculiarities of a particular Lithuanian dialect. After the ban of the Lithuanian press in Latin alphabet was lifted in the beginning of the 20th century, this variant of the tale was included into a published collection of folktales for children, subsequently spreading to various schoolbooks, which commonly used it for didactic purposes, such as educating empathy in children.During Soviet times, the tale found its way into several academic editions, afterwards crossing into popular folktales’ collections for children published in thousands of copies. The tale also became popular in audial shape: its sound recordings were published both in Lithuania and abroad.The analysis of the tale’s variants recorded from the oral tradition highlighted certain characteristics indicating that its popularity must have depended on the written culture. In the five variants of the tale recorded in 1936–1959, the female protagonist is not once called Sigutė or turns into the duck. However, the eleven variants recorded in 1962–1980 include most of the structural components or certain peculiar details from the first published variant of the tale, e.g. the song insertions, the girl’s name, the duck motive. In most cases, the girl turns into duck here, and only once into a cuckoo. This testifies to the obvious influence of the published variant.The folktale “Sigutė” earned phenomenal popularity also due to its artistic interpretations. In the beginning of the 20th century, it inspired works by such Lithuanian neo-romanticists as Vydūnas, Salomėja Nėris and others. During Soviet times, this story served as basis for plays and theater performances for children, thus further paving its way into popular culture.The fate of the folktale “Sigutė” may be regarded as a certain case of folktale canon formation: the folk text originating in oral tradition is affected by instruments of the written culture, turning into a narrative of national renown and importance. Possibly such cannon formation was also determined by the decline of the traditional folk culture, as result of which the educated people selecting the folk texts to inspire their creativity particularly favored the ones characterized by a dramatic story line and impressive tragic developments, which therefore could be easily adapted into individual literary compositions.Thus, the literary and musical interpretations of the folktale “Sigutė” have significantly added to its popularity, turning it into a canonic childhood text. Lacking popularity in the oral tradition and recorded as just a few fragmented variants, most likely retold from the published folktale collections, the folktale “Sigutė” became a special phenomenon of the written Lithuanian culture.

The article analyzes Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s comparative model as an important integral concept element of Ukrainian emigre scholars comparative literary studies in the 1930s-1980s period (Y. Boyko-Blokhyn, M. Hnatyshak, S. Hordynsky, V. Derzhavyn, I. Kaczurowskyj, D. Chyzhevsky, Y. Sherekh and others). Approaches of the emigre scholar to literature comparative exploration are interpreted in the context of global comparative studies main trends, and placed against the views of the mainland comparative literary studies representatives. We clarified the distinguishing features of Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s model, proved its multidimensional and multivector character, and ascertained comparatist attitudes relevance towards modern comparative literary studies, taking into account their development potential. This goes according to the purpose of the work and its tasks. This research applies advances in comparative historical analysis, methodology of both historic cultural and receptive aesthetic schools. Conceptual idea of the scholar shows his attention to contact-genetic relationship as well as typological similarities and differences. The author interprets functionality problem of inter-literary/ intercultural communication preeminently as a national literature stylistic development factor. The study reveals the interdisciplinary nature of Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s works (with access to the realm of philosophy, psychology and cultural studies), and demonstrates his integration of contextual, intermedial and other approaches, which fundamentally enriched methodological tools of comparative literary studies. Reflections of Y. Boyko-Blokhyn on the problem of Slavic literatures comparative study, while witnessing the author’s inherent interest in national identity problem, emphasized and deepened research of Slavic, specifically East Slavic, literatures as a fundamental component of the European cultural space. They also substantiated the demand for changes in approach to study the East Slavic region, particularly historical and literary processes in Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian literatures. Scientist’s observations and conclusions, aimed at understanding Ukrainian literature in the European context, broaden drastically the idea of its peculiarity, with an emphasis on the features conditioned by its development (T. Shevchenko – G. Byron, R. Burns, J.W. Goethe, A. Dante, G. Leopardi, A. Mickiewicz, T. Moore, Novalis, S. Petőfi, W. Shakespeare, F. Schiller; I. Franko – G. Byron, E.T.A. Hoffmann, A. Chamisso; Lesya Ukrainka – G. Hauptmann, M. Maeterlinck, O. Wilde and others). The researcher traces occurrences of literary reception by the national literature of other nations artistic and aesthetic experiences at various levels of comparative poetics (themes, motives, style, etc.) Conclusion. We proved an important role of Y.Boyko-Blokhyn’s comparative model, who developed impactful traditions of national comparative literary studies of the second half of the 19th century – first third of the 20th century, and at the same time rethought (including through denial) western methodologies, in development not only of Ukrainian, but also of the global literature science as a whole. Insights and ideas of the emigre scholar, many of which were often ahead of his foreign colleagues ideas (A. Balakian, H. Bloom, U. Weisstein, D. Durishin, A. Popovich, H.R. Jauss and others), remain relevant even nowadays. Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s approaches to comparative study of literatures in the world context with a special emphasis on the problem of national identity apparently acquired the utmost importance during the era of globalization. Similar logic of thinking is affine to those modern authors who insist to study first differences between national creative writings, which according to their deep conviction enrich and diversify the global cultural universe (A. Balakian, C.Bernheimer, E. Kaspersky, F. Toudoire-Surlapierre and others). In contrast to “cultural unification scenarios”, Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s reflections which draw attention to different literatures/cultures polylogue phenomenon, their mutual understanding and enrichment, are based on the following fundamental thesis: “originality is a runner to commonality” (it is also of fundamental importance for formation of comparative literary history concept). It’s emblematic that the Ukrainian scientist back then strongly denied the position of R. Wellek and R.Warren, who absolutized the tendency to universalization of the global literary process. Instead, Y. Boyko-Blokhyn argued for study of national version of pan-European style (romanticism, realism, modernism), traditional plots and characters, and he also scaled out radically the influence range idea as a manifestation of literary reception, with an emphasis on its creative character (from influence as a repulsion to influence as an “activity stimulus”, “impulse for self-movement”). In fact, these reflections of Y. Boyko-Blokhyn anticipated approaches of those scholars who justified later the concept of active perception as opposed to passive influence, actualizing the role of recipient in the process of inter-literary communication (H.R. Jauss), thesis about the decisive role of the recipient literature (D. Durishin), interpretive theory – “fear of influence” (H.Bloom). Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s conceptual thoughts about understanding the “reverse influences” problem, as well as related matter of contribution of each Slavic, in particular East Slavic, literature to the global cultural heritage, are extremely consonant with arguments that have been in the researchers’ focus even in these recent times (M. Boehmig, O. Pachlovska). In conclusion we can say that Y. Boyko-Blokhyn’s comparative model which is characterized by nation-centric orientation emphasizes fundamentally the prospects for further scientific research in historical, literary and comparative dimensions, first of all in projection of such methodologies inherent to modern comparative literary studies as imagology, theory of intertextuality and cultural transfer

Введение. Становление исторической прозы для детей и юношества в русской литературе началось в первой трети XIX в. и было вызвано стремительным развитием отечественной историографии. Детской писательнице А. О. Ишимовой принадлежит заслуга создания первого адаптированного для детей исторического труда. Принцип художественного осмысления прошлого, фактический материал, концепция истории отечества были заимствованы Ишимовой из «Истории государства Российского» Карамзина. В своей «Истории России в рассказах для детей» писательница заложила жанровые доминанты нового документально-художественного рода сочинений в детско-юношеской литературе, среди которых можно выделить познавательную и нравственно-назидательную цели исторического труда; выбор политической идеологии, которой подчиняется концепция отечественной истории; опору на разные исторические источники, в числе которых важное место занимает современная историография; художественное осмысление прошлого, психологизацию исторического материала; включение фольклорных и авторских литературных текстов; диалогизацию монологического текста в форме обращений и вопросов к адресату и др. Цель – анализ поэтики исторического повествования, а также представленной концепции русской истории в исторических произведениях для детей А. О. Ишимовой и Е. Поселянина. Исследование продолжает необходимую работу в области изучения произведений второго ряда литературы и позволяет определить принципы формирования детско-юношеской исторической прозы XIX – начала XX в. Материал и методы. Дается анализ исторической книги для детей и юношества Е. Поселянина «Сказание о святых вождях Земли Русской». Исследование написано в русле сравнительно-исторической поэтики. Результаты и обсуждение. Созданное Л. Тихомировым государственно-правовое учение о монархическом принципе власти повлияло на идеологическую составляющую исторической книги для детей и юношества Е. Поселянина «Сказание о святых вождях Земли Русской». Поселянин описывает историю Древней Руси и затрагивает современную ему Российскую империю, основываясь на концепции о присущей природе российской государственности модели православной самодержавной монархии. В период обострившегося социально-политического кризиса в конце XIX – начале XX в., когда актуализировалась проблема переоценки российской государственности и общества, а также определялись перспективы развития России в контексте общеевропейских тенденций, Поселянин утверждает ценность и самодостаточность российской государственности, декларирует идею особого пути России. Заключение. Большинство сказаний о русских князьях Е. Поселянина представляют собой переложение их жизнеописаний, взятых из летописей, Четьих-Миней святителя Димитрия Ростовского, Пролога, древнерусских поучений, сказаний, воинских повестей, а также научных трудов историков XIX в. Разнообразие источников, ориентация как на древнерусский жанр исторического сказания, так и на современные писателю мемуарно-биографические жанры обусловили жанровое своеобразие «Сказания...», в котором житийные повести перемежаются с историко-биографическими очерками о русских князьях и святых, объединенных общим повествованием о трагических и героических событиях древнерусской истории. В «Сказании...» Поселянина сочетаются эпическое начало, лиризм и очерковость. Introduction. The development of historical prose for children and youth in Russian literature began in the first third of the 19th century and was caused by the rapid development of Russian historiography, which began with the publication of N. M. Karamzin. The children’s writer A. O. Ishimova is credited with creating the first historical work adapted for children. The principle of artistic comprehension of the past, factual material, the concept of the history of the fatherland was borrowed by Ishimova from Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State”. In her History of Russia in Stories for Children, the writer laid down the genre dominants of a new documentary-artistic kind of works in children’s and youth literature, among which one can single out the cognitive and moral-edifying goals of historical work; the choice of political ideology to which the concept of national history is subject; reliance on various historical sources, among which modern historiography occupies an important place; artistic comprehension of the past, psychologization of historical material; inclusion of folklore and author’s literary texts; dialogization of a monologue text in the form of addresses and questions to the addressee, etc. Aim and objectives. Analysis of the poetics of historical narration, as well as the presented concept of Russian history in historical works for children by A. O. Ishimova and E. Poselyanin. This study continues the necessary work in the field of studying the works of the second series of literature and allows us to determine the principles of the formation of children’s and youth’s historical prose of the XIX – early XX centuries. Material and methods. The article analyzes the historical book for children and youth by E. Poselyanin “On the holy leaders of the Russian Land”. The study is written in the mainstream of comparative historical poetics. Results and discussion. The state-legal doctrine of the monarchical principle of power created by L. Tikhomirov influenced the ideological component of the historical book for children and youth by E. Poselyanin “The Legend of the Holy Leaders of the Russian Land”. The villager describes the history of Ancient Rus and touches on the contemporary Russian Empire, based on the concept of the inherent nature of Russian statehood, the model of an Orthodox autocratic monarchy. During the aggravated socio-political crisis at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when the problem of reassessing Russian statehood and society was actualized, and the prospects for the development of Russia in the context of general European trends were determined, Poselyanin affirms the value and self-sufficiency of Russian statehood, declares the idea of a special path for Russia. Conclusion. Most of the legends about the Russian princes E. Poselyanin are transcriptions of their biographies taken from the chronicles, the Chetykh-Minei of St. Demetrius of Rostov, the Prologue, Old Russian teachings, legends, military tales, as well as scientific works of historians of the 19th century. A variety of sources, an orientation both to the ancient Russian genre of historical legends and to the contemporary memoir and biographical genres of the writer determined the genre originality of the Legend, in which hagiographic stories are interspersed with historical and biographical sketches about Russian princes and saints, united by a common narrative about the tragic and heroic events of ancient Russian history. The Peasant’s Tale combines an epic beginning, lyricism and essayism.

The article deals with folk couplets (Lith. pl. talalinės) – an underresearched peripheral genre of the Lithuanian folklore. This genre includes short, mostly one stanza-long comic songs that frequently deal with obscene topics and use unquotable vocabulary. This unadvertised folk poetry provisionally dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when its first publications appeared. This genre of folksong attributed to the popular culture of laughter has been always marginalized in relation to the traditional culture. Therefore, the article presents an analysis of this ill-repute frivolous folksong genre, touching upon various aspects of its functioning. The main problem under investigation is, why couplets with no recognized positive value have been so popular among certain groups of the village community (especially young people), and on what grounds this essentially merry and playful folkloric communication has been carried on, bearing in mind that this process is actually not over even today. The development of the Russian частушка as a special instrument of communication and its meaning in the scholarly discourse is also taken into consideration, as well as possible influence of these Russian couplets upon their Lithuanian counterparts. The analysis of talalinės is based upon materials from the Lithuanian Folklore Archives and various publications. Firstly, the article gives an outline of the meager publication and research history of this genre, noting that for a long time these couplets have been made into a certain kind of the sociocultural taboo even in the sphere of scholarly investigation. Right from the beginning of its publication in the second half of the 19th century and throughout the Soviet times, this genre was ignored as having no artistic (or esthetic) value, which was the only criterion applied to the folklore appreciation during that period. However, the first half of the 20th century could be considered the “golden age” in terms of the public spread of these couplets: when the Lithuanian radio started broadcasting, these comic folklore pieces found their way into its program, immediately gaining huge public approval. However, performance only of couplets with appropriate contents was allowed; particularly those dealing with political or obscene topics had to be avoided. The reader is reminded about a historical case from the interwar period, when public distribution of proverb collection edited and published in 1934 by the famous writer Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius was prohibited, since it contained 300 of obscene texts, which caused significant restrictions to the availability of this publication. A similar misfortune had somewhat earlier befallen the Latvian colleagues publishing a volume of “dirty” Latvian folksongs and other folklore. Such censorship was related to the rigorous program of fostering the national morality of the time that was introduced by the government. However, the authorities did not interfere with collecting of the obscene folklore for the archiving purposes. Therefore, big amounts of folklore material attributed to the culture of laughter were collected especially in the interwar period. Further reviewing of the history of talalinės elucidates the connections between these songs thriving in the 19th – the first half of the 20th century and the humorous poetry created by the contemporary poets, as well as the newly formed folksong genres related to it. The author presents a wide field of miscellaneous relations evolving around this form of folklore. She pays attention to the sarcastic way of caricaturing used in these couplets, when for the purposes of fun-making the outdated popular customs and beliefs are critically targeted, made fun of and vulgarized using obscene vocabulary. Discussion of the essential peculiarities of the talalinės pattern, among other things, elucidates two main tendencies in the thematic canon of this genre. One part of these couplets simply treats the members of the native community and their relationships in a humorous way, as if observing them through a sarcastically distorting comical lens. These cutting couplets mock people from the immediate surroundings, making fun of them as if having previously sorted them into groups according to various characteristics. These include: 1) age groups (making fun of the things that are well-suited to the young but ill-suited to the old, and vice versa), 2) social status (gibing at relations between people from different social classes, like landlords and farmhands, as well as those not engaged in agriculture, like craftsmen, particularly tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, but also musicians, priests, nuns, etc.), 3) the alleged or true foreigners, distinguished on the grounds of belonging to a different religious or ethnic group, or characterized by different behavior (however, certain “foreign” character may be attributed to nearly everyone that comes from another community, including a neighboring village or some further locality in Lithuania). According to the second provisionally distinguished type of the talalinės pattern, their thematic scope narrows considerably: these couplets focus on man as a physical creature, an on the human body, or rather, on its lower part. Such couplets are especially fond of the nonstandard – obscene or scatological – vocabulary. Obscene couplets create scenes of essentially similar kind, namely, describing sexual intercourse and the private parts, and using exclusively ribald vocabulary that is usually banned from the public discourse. These quatrains present a wide range of erotic improvisations – from foul suggestions to the harshest obscenities. However, the author concludes that this kind of comic, even obscene speech employed in the couplets is of carnival nature (to use the term by the Russian culture researcher Mikhail Bakhtin): that is, when the temporarily assembled social group aims at entertainment and by common consent decides to ignore the social norms, each participant experiences a special kind of communal unity and belonging. Having crossed the established line, the creator-performer-listener of these couplets feels free both from the public reaction and from the entrenched ideology, and experiences an overwhelming sense of freedom. Such transgression is supplemented by compromise (a certain concession in terms of individual moral principles that are temporarily abandoned for the sake of participating in the game, usually obscene, proposed by the talalinė), and it allows the addressee and the addresser to become equal members of the same group. This is a special mode of folklore communication. Having compared the Lithuanian talalinė with the outwardly related Russian частушка, the author concludes that in spite of certain coincidences, the Lithuanian couplets were composed and structurally arranged independently from their Russian counterparts. However, the most important thing is that the Lithuanian talalinė, recorded for the first time in the second half of the 19th century, presented an alternative for the old folksong, and continued to exist / keeps existing alongside the folksong, abstaining from dismantling its traditional canon, although occasionally making fun of it.

The article is devoted to the history of translation thought in Yakutia. Much attention is paid to the literary influence of Decabrists and Russian writers on the work of Yakut poets the first half of the 20th century. The main focus of the author is the controversy about the specificity of the artistic translation from Russian into Yakut, his function in the Russian literary process, and the peculiarities of the creative individuality of the translator.

Purpose. The article covers the studies on “Siberia and the Far East of the first half of the 20th century as a space of literary transfer”, which have been conducted in the sector of literary studies at the Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 2019 and are underway until now. Results. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the main lines of this work, so we shall list them. First, the study of Siberian and Far-Eastern futurism and Siberian and Far-Eastern periodicals of the 1920s with the selective publication of archival materials (N. Aseev, S. Tretyakov, V. Ryabinin, V. Mart, etc.). Secondly, the reconstruction of forgotten, but valuable for the history of Russian literature creative biographies of poets and novelists of the Eastern branch of the Russian emigration (V. Loginov, N. Peterets, B. Beta, B. Volkov, etc.). Thirdly, a description of the poetics of Far Eastern, Harbin and Shanghai authors, identification in their prose and poetic texts of artistic techniques discussed and developed in literary circles of Harbin and Shanghai (original rhymes, rare strophic and compositional forms, imitations of Eastern genres); identification of primary styles and subtexts for Harbin and Shanghai authors. Fourth, the study of documentary sources, up to the most contemporary, of Russian Harbin and Shanghai and the search for documentary evidence of the literary culture of the Russian China in artistic texts, such as V. Pereleshin's “Poem without Subject”.

The paper discusses to what extent major currents and representatives of Russian modernism and the Avant-garde had influenced the works of prominent representatives of 20th-century Bulgarian literature such as L. Stoyanov, Liliev, Debelyanov, Trayanov, Sirak Skitnik, and many others. In addition to addressing the influence of Russian symbolism on Bulgarian writers, the article examines the impact of Acmeism on the work of El. Bagryanа and At. Dalchev; the one of Imaginism on the work of Bulgarian modernists from the 1920s such as Slavcho Krasinski, Geo Milev and others. The intertwining of features of the poetics from different avant-garde currents, both in the works of individual authors and in the works of a single writer appeared as a typical phenomenon in the life of the Bulgarian avant-garde. Such poets as N. Furnadzhiev, A. Raztsvetnikov, N. Marangozov and others, and fiction writers as Ch. Mutafov, A. Karaliychev, A. Strashimirov, J. Yovkov, repeatedly experienced the influence of contradictory modernist and avant-garde currents, however, in their works they managed to add the “European form” to the “Bulgarian content”. The study also involves Bulgarian avant-garde journals such as Crescendo, Libra/Vezni, etc. This paper argues that by going against the rules, the avant-garde writers created a productive artistic method, a kind of alternative classic.

In this article, the authors make an attempt based on an analysis from the point of view of neo-historicism to look again at the history of the development of Buryat novels, to analyze the features of constructing the identity of the main characters in works written by famous Buryat writers at different historical stages. The relevance is due to the absence of scientific works devoted to identifying the transformation of the identity of literary characters under the influence of historical eras. The purpose of this article is also to study the influence of various historical contexts on the work of writers in order to find out the pattern of manifestation of the ethnic identity of the Buryats in the historically determined dynamics of social development and their artistic embodiment. The most famous novels by Buryat writers of the 20th century served as the material for the study. Being a significant genre of Buryat literature, the novel has a natural connection with history since its inception, which makes it another channel for understanding the influence of the historical process on the identity of the Buryats. The authors analyze Buryat novels, which are an artistic medium for Buryat writers, with which they can write about national identity. Buryat novels are influenced by the social and historical environment and have features at different stages of history. Historical events and characters depicted in Buryat novels reflected the process of identity transformation in artistic form. The authors come to the conclusion that the identity of the heroes goes through stages from the desire for unification under the influence of Soviet ideology to the formation of a new identity of a USSR citizen, and to the conclusion about the revival of ethnic identity at a new stage. The research perspectives include the study of the transformation of identity in other genres of Buryat literature.