Research Interests:
Abstract: Haney, Jack V.(ed., trans.). The Complete Russian Folktale, vols 3 and 4. ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY, and London, 2001. li+ 443; li+ 436 pp. Notes. Glossary. Commentaries. Bibliographies.£ 56.95;£ 57.50.
Research Interests:
This feature "Chronicle" reports on recent events in the field of Early Slavic, e.g., celebrations, conferences, symposia, etc. On March 21-24, 1981, in Birmingham, England, the Fifteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies... more
This feature "Chronicle" reports on recent events in the field of Early Slavic, e.g., celebrations, conferences, symposia, etc. On March 21-24, 1981, in Birmingham, England, the Fifteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies was held on the topic of Byzantium and the Slavs. This announcement lists the presentations and their authors. See Polata Knigopisnaia v. 6 (December 1982): 55-63, for more information on this symposium.The 15th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies included presentations by J. Allen, Gordana Babić, Ion Barnea, Yvonne Burns, Slobodan Ćurčić, Simon Franklin, Zaga Gavrilović, Vasil Gjuzelev, Muriel Heppell, Š. Holčik, Peregrine Horden, J. Howard-Johnston, Jana Howlett, F. Kitch, George Majeska, D. Markov, M. Martin, John Meyendorff, Robin Milner-Gulland, J. Opie, Danica Petrović, Günther Prinzing, Jonathan Shepard, Dimitrije Stefanović, G. Stričević, Francis J. Thomson, Vasilka Tŭpkova-Zaimova, William R. Veder, Miloš Velimirović, F. von Lilienfeld, Sara M. Wages, M. Whitby, S. White, E. Tonkin, and Dimitri Obolensky
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Abstract Based on field work in St Petersburg and supplemented by a range of other sources and material, the article examines the vibrant and visible market for commercial fortune-telling and magic in postsoviet Russia and its... more
Abstract Based on field work in St Petersburg and supplemented by a range of other sources and material, the article examines the vibrant and visible market for commercial fortune-telling and magic in postsoviet Russia and its relationship with the Moscow Patriarchate. It ...
Research Interests:
Writers on writers - introductory essay, R. Aizlewood and F. Wigzell familiar solidarity and squabbling - Russia's 18th-century writers, G. Jones Fet on Tiutchev, R. Aizlewood Chekhov and Merezhkovskii, S. le Fleming Shestov on... more
Writers on writers - introductory essay, R. Aizlewood and F. Wigzell familiar solidarity and squabbling - Russia's 18th-century writers, G. Jones Fet on Tiutchev, R. Aizlewood Chekhov and Merezhkovskii, S. le Fleming Shestov on Chekhov, M. Jones Gumilev's reviews of Viacheslav Ivanov's "Cor Ardens" as a tool in the polemics of literary succession, P. Davidson missing links - Russian women writers as critics of women writers, C. Kelly Marina Tsvetaeva as literary critic and critic of literary critics, S. Forrester air, suffocation, muteness - Akhmatova, Mandel'shtam, Pasternak and Tsvetaeva, A. Naiman Joseph Brodsky on Marina Tsvetaeva, H. Gifford Nabokov and Dostoevskii - aesthetic demystification, N. Buhks the myth of the poet and the poet of the myth - poets on Brodsky, V. Polukhina Trifonov on Dostoevskii, D. Gillespie Zinov'ev on Chekhov, M. Kirkwood.
Research Interests:
Both the production of The Government Inspector and its reception by the illustrious first-night audience at the Aleksandrinsky Theatre in April 1836 appalled Gogol. His friend Annenkov decribed the occasion in his literary reminiscences:... more
Both the production of The Government Inspector and its reception by the illustrious first-night audience at the Aleksandrinsky Theatre in April 1836 appalled Gogol. His friend Annenkov decribed the occasion in his literary reminiscences: By the end of the first act perplexity was writ on every face … as though no one knew what he should make of the picture that had just been presented. This perplexity increased with every act.1
Research Interests:
Discussing the processes of literary creation, Goncharov placed his own writing firmly in the category of ‘unconscious creativity’, as opposed to art that stemmed from an idea or concept.1 By this he meant that when his creative... more
Discussing the processes of literary creation, Goncharov placed his own writing firmly in the category of ‘unconscious creativity’, as opposed to art that stemmed from an idea or concept.1 By this he meant that when his creative imagination was stirred, he saw images and scenes which flowed fluently from his pen. A consequence of Goncharov’s artistic method was that he tended not to write his novels from beginning to end, but to tackle a work piecemeal as his imagination dictated (VIII, 70–71). This spontaneous method, which drew on the unconscious via the imagination, had the effect in his most famous novel, Oblomov (1859), of transforming the character of Il’ia Il’ich Oblomov from a specific social type, a landowner of a particular time and place, into an archetype, something that Goncharov himself realised fully only after the book had appeared (VIII, 71). At the same time he stressed that the roots of his unconscious creativity lay not in fancy but in life: ‘I wrote only what I had experienced, what I thought and loved, and what I saw close at hand and knew, — in a word, I described both my own life and what had become part of it’ (VIII, 113). While the insistence on life as the source of his creativity is typical of contemporary demands that literature reflect life, there is here at the same time an implied disapproval of imagination unfettered by reality.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Gogol and vaudeville, F.Wigsell the mirror-world of Gogol's early stories, R.Peace passion versus habit in "Old World Landowners", "Diary of a Madman - the hidden absurd, L.Trott Gogol's "The Nose" or the... more
Gogol and vaudeville, F.Wigsell the mirror-world of Gogol's early stories, R.Peace passion versus habit in "Old World Landowners", "Diary of a Madman - the hidden absurd, L.Trott Gogol's "The Nose" or the devil in the works, A.Shukman "Dead Souls" - without naming names, B.Heldt the unwelcome tradition - Bely, Gogol and metafictional narration, R.Keys Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov, L.Milne.
Research Interests:
Focussing on a commercial magic specialist (mag) well-known in Petersburg today, the article examines the strategies adopted by her and others to gain the confidence of their clientele. It opens by examining the levels of social trust in... more
Focussing on a commercial magic specialist (mag) well-known in Petersburg today, the article examines the strategies adopted by her and others to gain the confidence of their clientele. It opens by examining the levels of social trust in Russia, arguing that distrust and feelings of defenselessness encourage a sizeable proportion of Russians with the traditional view that problems are externally generated, to think of turning for help to magic practitioners. With magic services derided in the media and condemned by the Church, the magic specialist NPP must counter this negative image as well as promote her services above those of her competitors. Whereas in 2006 she relied on press advertising and recommendation by satisfied customers, in 2012 her main promotional tool is her website. The article examines the specific ways in which she tackles the creation of a trustworthy image. Since magic services offer a kind of therapy, another aspect examined in detail is the relationship with...
Research Interests:
List of illustrations Acknowledgements A note on transliteration and abbreviations Introduction 1. Petrushka and the fairground 2. The physiognomy of Petrushka 3. Petrushka, Punch and Pulcinella 4. Petrushka and Petrushka: fairground and... more
List of illustrations Acknowledgements A note on transliteration and abbreviations Introduction 1. Petrushka and the fairground 2. The physiognomy of Petrushka 3. Petrushka, Punch and Pulcinella 4. Petrushka and Petrushka: fairground and carnival in high literature 5. Sanitary Petrushka and sanitised Petrushka: the agit-prop puppet theatre Conclusion Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.
Research Interests:
... suggestive of the Ishmaelites who will attack the Christians, while Akhilla calls the silly, pretentious Dar'ya Bizyukina 'Danka Nefalimka', implying ... and mock-epic stature, subsequently blown away with the early... more
... suggestive of the Ishmaelites who will attack the Christians, while Akhilla calls the silly, pretentious Dar'ya Bizyukina 'Danka Nefalimka', implying ... and mock-epic stature, subsequently blown away with the early morning mist to reveal the playful if somewhat grotesque antics of a ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This collection of thirteen essays written by two leading Soviet semioticians is an ambitious attempt at reinterpreting Russian cultural hlstory as an aggregate of several enduring themes whose pervasiveness in politics, literature,... more
This collection of thirteen essays written by two leading Soviet semioticians is an ambitious attempt at reinterpreting Russian cultural hlstory as an aggregate of several enduring themes whose pervasiveness in politics, literature, religion and other fields elevates them ...