Authors:
E.V. Haltrin-Khalturina
( 17 downloads)
Abstract
The article looks at the semiotics of the sonnet form used by Shakespeare in his tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Particular attention is paid to two sonnets, of Paris and of Romeo,
in which different manners of courting are played out. The poetic “gift” from Romeo to
Juliet, their shared sonnets, one complete and one interrupted (Act 1, Sc. 5, ls. 92–109),
is a notorious and much discussed piece of Shakespeare’s dramatic poetry. However, the
other wooing sonnet representing desires of Paris and mouthed by Lady Capulet (Act 1,
Sc. 3, ls. 80–95), seems to lack that kind of attention. Our essay juxtaposes the two
sonnets in question, which are built around extended metaphors (conceits). Romeo’s
sonneteering is endowed with dramatic power that quickens the debate and inspires accord between the title’s heroes. The semantic charge of this shared sonnet resonates
in the heroes’ scenic gestures, prompting the play’s outcome. By contrast, the rather
inert sonnet of Paris is like a dead letter of bookish instruction, which neither inspires
amorous response, nor moves Juliet. The article also places Romeo’s and Paris’s pieces
against Shakespeare’s sonnets 128 and 126 of the 1609 edition.
Keywords: inset sonnets, shared sonnet, truncated sonnet, sonnet written in couplets, Shakespeare’s experiments with the sonnet form
Authors:
V.M. Tolmatchoff
( 17 downloads)
Abstract
The essay discusses Thomas Mann’s symbolism and its parameters as well as
Mann’s interpretation of the crisis of European spiritual values. Тhe author examines the role of
Nietzsche in Mann’s heritage as well as interconnections between Mann and Wilde, Mann and
Gide. Buddenbrooks is interpreted as a novel about the end of the German Renaissance; duality of
the modern artist is shown on the example of “Tonio Kröger” while the paradoxes of his eroticism
are analyzed on the example of “Der Tod in Venedig.”
Keywords: Thomas Mann, German symbolism, conflict between bürger and artist, health and sickness in Buddenbrooks, the limits of art in “Tonio Kröger,” eroticism in “Der Tod in Venedig.”
Authors:
M.Yu. Ignatieva (Oganisyan)
( 15 downloads)
Abstract
This article is a fragment of the PhD thesis Philosophical and Aesthetic Principles
of Tragedy in Calderon and Racine (Department of the History of Foreign Literature, Moscow State University, 1988). In her dissertation, the author examined Racine’s presence in Mandelstam’s poetry against the theory of the tragic. Written in
the essayistic form, the article examines the following basic images and key concepts
of this general theme: (1) cascading shawls as emblematizing heaviness / lightness;
(2) a word-confession as expression of pure and redemptive suffering; (3) death by word
followed up by redemption. It pays particular attention to the image of the “black sun”
and the “tainted day” in Racine’s Phaedra. According to Mandelstam, this image has different connotations and “does not evoke a ready-made meaning” (“Conversation about
Dante”). In Racine, Sun is a sacred symbol, it is “the Hidden God”, or Deus absconditus of
Jansenism. Phaedra’s sin stains the Sun and darkens it. Phaedra’s last words confirm the
redemptive effect of her death. In the article “Pushkin and Scriabin,” Mandelstam writes
about the tragic meaning of the artist’s death and compares it with Phaedra’s deed. The
study of Racine’s presence in Mandelstam, taking into account the studies of such scholars as Barthes, Goldmann, Poulet and others, allows us to point out explicit and implicit
allusions to Racine in Mandelstam’s poetry. It also helps to understand Mandelstam’s
idea of the tragedy and the tragic as it developed from 1914 through 1920 when the poet
was translating the great French tragedian and at the same time was trying to comprehend the tragic events he witnessed.
Keywords: Mandelstam, Racine, tragic, tragedy, black sun, Scriabin
Authors:
D.S. Moskovskaya
( 13 downloads)
Abstract
In his play Announcement of Death (the initial title of the play High Voltage), Platonov used documentary facts he observed in 1929–1930s while staying at the Leningrad metal factory. The play was intended to fulfil the political order of RAPP to represent “a live example of a specific enterprise and specific individuals.” Platonov coped with this task. The play tells the story of heroic struggle of engineers and workers endeavoring to implement the factory’s work plan. It shows a sharp conflict of characters and worldviews. In the replicas of the main characters, engineers of the “old school,” one can recognize vocabulary and style of the harsh reviews of Platonov’s work by literary critics and Stalin. In the characters themselves, one can recognize their alter egos — representatives of the
so called creative intelligentsia of the reconstruction era, Mayakovsky and Zelinsky. The motif of love plays a special role in the play in that it introduces a new level of meaning. The “manufacture play” reveals a tragedy that stages the “borderline” situation and places a free-willed person at the center of the represented events as the only true value of the world. The essay argues that Platonov was aware of the discussions around Shakespeare unfolding in 1931. RAPP critics encouraged authors “to catch up with and overtake not only some Pilnyak — this it is not a great honor, the proletarian literature has already caught up with him and overtaken him. The challenge is to catch up with and overtake Shakespeare.” Platonov succeeded in combining the high tone of Shakespearean tragedy with the plot of the “manufacture play” despite the general sneer at RAPP’s attempts to shakespearize plays about Soviet factory leaders — the so called “udarniki.”
Keywords: manufacture art, Andrey Platonov, Stalin, drama, Shakespeare, documentary, prototype, discussion, RAPP, criticism, existential situation, dramaturgical knot, allegory
Authors:
M.V. Skorokhodov
( 17 downloads)
Abstract
The article discusses the function of illustrations in biographical studies. In particular, it examines a section “Appendix” in the 5-volume Chronicle of Life and Work of Sergey Esenin that includes documentary and visual materials. The use of illustrations not only makes a biographical study attractive to readers, but also serves as a welcome supplement to the information contained in the main part of the chronicle.
Keywords: biographical study, the chronicle of life and work, biography of Sergey Esenin, documentary sources, illustrations
Authors:
Z.S. Zakruzhnaya
( 14 downloads)
Abstract
No Abstract
Keywords: ROUND TABLE, ISTORIOGRAPHY, RUSSIAN, CIVIL WAR
