Gorky Institute of World Literature

Purpose. The article examines the change in the elegiac genre in V. Ya. Bryusov’s cycles “Autumn Day” and “Snows” with particular attention to the transformation of the lyrical addressee. The study also examines the chronotope of both cycles, emphasizing how spatial-temporal structures and symbolic landscape imagery participate in reshaping the genre. Special focus is placed on the two female figures of the lost beloved, interpreted through the semantic aura of their anthroponyms, Nina and Maria, which serve as markers of distinct emotional and cultural codes. Results. The analysis demonstrates that these female images are embedded in the broader Russian literary tradition that opposes two recurrent heroine types – the idyllic and the demonic – yet Bryusov complicates this binary through nuanced psychological and symbolic layering. In addition, the article examines how Bryusov’s possible use of allusions broadens the interpretive field of the elegiac narrative. In Snows, particular attention is given to typological parallels between the heroine and motives traceable to classical Chinese literature. The article also proposes a potential connection between the heroines and the Gnostic myth of Sophia, which enriches the metaphysical dimension within the elegiac plot. Conclusion. It is noted that Bryusov ultimately rejects a simple antithetical understanding of these types, instead developing their dynamic, antinomic interrelations as a means of renewing addressee in the elegiac genre.

The article describes the relationship between the writer S.S. Kondurushkin and the literary critic N.K. Mikhailovskii. Their acquaintance took place in the summer of 1900, at the same time Kondurushkin made his debut in print on the pages of (“Russkoe bogatstvo”). Two letters from N.K. Mikhailovskii to S.S. Kondurushkin (1902) and an article by S.S. Kondurushkin “On the grave of N.K. Mikhailovskii” (1906) are published.

This article analyzes the changes introduced into Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Demons following its republication under the new orthography. The study is based on a comparison between the original editions of the 1870s and the Complete Works (1972–1990). As a result of the spelling reform and editorial efforts to correct what were perceived as typographical errors in the original text, Dostoevsky’s novel reached modern readers in a modified form. Previous scholars have noted that even minor alterations—such as the addition of a comma or the replacement of capital letters with lowercase ones—can significantly affect the overall tone of a literary work. This issue therefore remains open for further investigation. The article addresses two specific questions. First, it examines footnotes providing translations of French passages. Contemporary readers no longer possess the same level of proficiency in French as members of the nineteenth-century Russian high society. Consequently, modern editions of Demons, in which French expressions occur frequently, tend to include translational footnotes. However, this practice may disrupt the reader’s concentration and immersion in the text. The second issue concerns the use of stress marks in the novel. In the original editions, stress marks were employed to prevent potential misinterpretation. Yet their function extends beyond purely grammatical clarification. Moreover, the text contains both left- and right-aligned stress marks. This article explores whether these instances should be regarded as typographical errors or as deliberate authorial strategies intended to emphasize particular words or phrases.

This article deals with the interpretation of the Orient as The Other in Victor Hugo’s poetry, namely in his collection of poetry “Les Orientales”. The issue of alienation of the East is dissected through the lenses of orientalism’s influence on contemporary culture, as well as contemporary political climate. It shows how the Orient becomes not only “The Other” from the reader’s point of view, but also “Alien”. The article analyses figures of lyrical heroes, with some of them having to choose between the East and the West, and others being shown as oppressors. To support the analysis, the article relies on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of cultural dialogue and E. Said’s criticism of European orientalism. The article analyses the image of Oriental woman, which is used to show Oriental customs. The article concludes that the Orient’s otherness in Hugo’s poetry collection is due to the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, cultural differences between the East and the West, and stereotyped, under the influence of orientalism, image of the Orient.

The author of the article considers a part of poetical heritage of a great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa which for much time was standing apart from philological investigation because of his heteronimical poetry. From his youth he had been interested in such occult sciences as alchimie, astrology, Tarot interpretation, the study of old prophecies. Besides the fact that these sciences greatly determined Fernando Pessoa’s worldview, they represent the ornamental motive of his lyrics, “The Message” in particular, giving it the spiritual depth. The article analyses such poems a “Ïnitiation” poetic cycles “Near Christian Rosencreutz’ Tomb” and “Steps of the Cross”, “Near the Mountain of Abiegno”. The author proves that occult lyrics is an integral part of Fernando Pessoa’s artistic heritage.

The review concerns the Russian publication of the final three collections of poetry and prose by the French poet, art critic, and translator Yves Bonnefoy (1923–2016): The Present Hour, The Digamma, and Together Still. Bonnefoy’s regular translator Mark Grinberg (1953–2023), whose first renderings of the French poet’s works date back to the mid-1990s, remains true to himself and modestly describes his input as ‘elements of interpretation that facilitates or adds nuances to the understanding of the text.’ Meanwhile, the translator’s commentary to the reviewed edition of Bonnefoy’s last works, which coincidentally happens to be Grinberg’s last book as well, is uncharacteristically extensive. It offers more specific and often entirely new wording that clarifies the translator’s earlier interpretations of Bonnefoy’s personal myth, his poetics and vocabulary, the polemic with Heidegger, and, ultimately, the place of a 20 th -c. poet in the history of French poetry. This extensive and meaningful commentary reveals a special affinity between the author and his translator.

The aim of the research is to provide a detailed characterization of the Khmer traditional literature genre, sastra lbaeng. The article examines the main historical milestones in the development of Cambodian literature in general, and specifically the sastra lbaeng genre, features of its existence, the origins of plots, and specific features of the compositional organization of poetic works in the Khmer language that are traditionally attributed to this genre. The scientific novelty of the research lies in a comprehensive approach to the study of the sastra lbaeng genre, which has not previously been the subject of comprehensive and in-depth consideration in Cambodian, Russian, or Western literary studies. For the first time, both the content and formal features of works of this genre are demonstrated with concrete examples. As a result of the research, it was established that sastra lbaeng is a major poetic genre that existed in Cambodia in the period from presumably the 17th to the 20th centuries, in which works are written primarily using five classical Khmer poetic meters. The plot basis was usually adventure stories, dating back to Jatakas, folklore narratives, and other traditional sources. The sastra lbaeng genre performed primarily an entertainment function, while maintaining a pronounced didactic focus.

The article traces the development of the theme “estate and forest” in the literature of the 18th–20th centuries. If earlier the forest was perceived as wildness and a threat to humans, then in the 20th century – as a topos of salvation and spiritual renewal. Accordingly, the estate no longer opposes the forest as a cosmos to chaos, but becomes its organic part. In Soviet literature, this is also associated with a return to the ancient Russian understanding of the forest as paradise, so untouched by man nature, which correlates with the traditional paradisiacal connotations of the estate. In the “Tale of the Forests” (1948) by K.G. Paustovsky, the forest estate of P.I. Tchaikovsky is both the locus of high creativity and the focus of the spirit of the people and native nature. Purged of lordship in the Soviet era, it becomes the apotheosis of all that is beautiful on Russian land. The forest cordon also serves as a substitute for the traditional estate, where activity for the benefit of the Fatherland is combined with creativity and love. L.M. Leonov in the novel “Russian Forest” (1953), by contrast, denies the classic estate house as a foreign phenomenon hostile to the Russian forest and the Russian people. The Soviet estate – labor, national, scientific – is becoming the Pashutinsky forestry, which combines the ancient Russian connotations of the forest as paradise and the intentions of communism being built in the country as paradise on earth. The third type of estate topos in the novel is the collective image of the Forestry Institute in Moscow in the 1920s and 1930s, partly dating back to the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, located in the estate of the 17th–19th centuries Petrovsko-Razumovskoye. So, in the literature of post-war socialist realism, the archetypal status of the Russian estate as an ideal lifestyle and national phenomenon remains.

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