LITERARY TRENDS: FOR THE PROJECT DICTIONARY OF LITERARY TRENDS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE AND AMERICA
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
The article is the outcome of the theoretical research prepared for the encyclopedia in progress entitled Dictionary of Literary Trends in the Twentieth Century Europe and America. This is the frst such encyclopedia known to exist, with no predecessors in Russia or abroad. The encyclopedia material is organized around the term “literary trend” that defnes its specifcity. The author examines the history of this concept in Russian and Soviet literary criticism introducing a number of contraversial interpretations. A different situation is observed in Western European and American literary studies where this theoretical problem does not seem to exist and such terms as “trend,” “movement,” and the like are seen as contingent on specifc contexts of their applicability. This pragmatic approach shall be used in the Dictionary as well. The author introduces the term “artistic community” that goes beyond the scope of individual poetics and should be used as a selective criterion for the encyclopedia material. As the work with the glossary has shown, this criterion is a verbal designation of a certain artistic community that is either coined by artists themselves or by critics. However, this criterion is not as primitive as it may seem. It implies — already in the given name or in the self-name — a number of critical operations: statement or declaration of aesthetic similarities and common aesthetic principles shared by a number of authors; their union on these grounds; a brief description of these aesthetic similarities coined in the name of the trend that is intended not only to identify a certain artistic community but also to differentiate it from others. In the case of self-naming, the recognition of the phenomenon’s value is added. However differently the names of communities are verbarly articulated, each name is informative, semantically rich, and reflects different types of artistic communities discussed in the article.
Authors and Affiliations
Andrey F. Kofman
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26077
- DOI 10.22455/ 2500-4247-2016-1-1-2-26-46
- Views 642
- Downloads 74
Mark Twain in the Russian Pre-Revolutionary Periodical. Part 2
This article deals with the analysis of interpretation of the works by Mark Twain, famous American author, in the Russian pre-revolutionary periodical press (1872–1916). The objects of research are critical articles, es...
The Face of the Other in Emmanuel Levinas and Alexey Uhktomsky
The author compares ethical concepts of a Russian physiologist and philosopher Alexey A. Ukhtomsky and a French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Both use the word “face” as a philosophical term. The paper examines the “fa...
CHEKHOV’S ETHICAL HERITAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN MEDICAL HUMANITIES
The paper discusses Chekhovian ethical discourse in American fiction and non-fiction that forms part of an emerging literary canon of medical humanities in the USA. Besides Chekhov’s “medical” stories, special attentio...
“THE LIFE OF MUḤAMMAD” BY IBN ISḤĀQ — IBN HISHĀM: BETWEEN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND LITERATURE
The article examines correlations of historiographical and literary aspects within the seminal text of Arabic classics “The Life of the Prophet” (Al-sīra al-Nabawiyya ) by Ibn Isḥāq – Ibn Hishām. We build our analysis...
BREAD FOR THE SOUL: ANDREY PLATONOV
The aspiration to create a better, fairer world is a central theme in Platonov’s work. In 1927 Maksim Gorky had praised Platonov’s first collection of stories. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Platonov had asked Gorky...