2021 Issue №4

The article continues a series of author’s works devoted to the study of various types of landscape in the works of French writers of the 19th century. A understudied novel by H. de Balzac “Seraphita” reveals the specific ways of creating the northern landscape. It is determined that Balzac’s landscape does not only create an additional emotional background, affect the perception of the characters of the characters, but also becomes a plot-forming factor. Natural space is depicted in the novel using various means of verbal expression, which are carefully analyzed. The author notes that a holistic picture of northern nature is formed in the novel, paving the way for future generations of writers in describing the Nordic landscape.

The article analyzes H. Ch. Andersen’s works, published in Russian in 2016 under the title “The Forgotten Stories of Hans Christian Andersen”. Their content and poetics are considered at the background of the writer’s creative evolution. The authors studies the reasons that determined the incompleteness of a number of works, and the circumstances that prompted the author to refuse to publish completed texts. “The Forgotten Stories” become the source for analyzing the writer’s creative manner and his work on expressing historical, moral, political, philosophical and religious meanings in such genres as fairy tale, parable, allegory.

The article is dedicated to the spatial organization of the novel by M. R. James “Number 13”, published in his first book of collected stories. A shift in the poetical paradigm is noted: the transition from traditional Gothic topoi to modern urban space. According to the Gothic view on the distant past and antiquity, certain architectural features are ascribed to the reinterpreted Gothic topoi. In he novel, space does not only function as an arrangement of the hero’s inner state, but also as a plot-forming component. There is a contraction of space, proportional to the presence of the supernatural in the canvas of the narrative. A particular attention is paid to oneirosphere space functioning (J. Faryno) as a place of unreal events localization. James’ story showcases the multi-sensory imaging experience through the additional possibilities of dance, voice, correlation of light and shadow, light and dark. The heterogeneity of the temporal organization contributes to the functioning of the space of the novel as oneiric. Special attention is paid to the border of the real and the unreal, its permeability and the means of artistic depiction of these processes. The duality of the chronotope corresponds to the principle of the liminality of space (room 13 in the hotel appears at night and disappears during the day). Thus, the diversity of spatiopoetics, the variability of oneiric spaces, the liminality of the Gothic toposes, the permeability and impenetrability of the borders of the surreal space stand out as the main means for modeling the text.

The relevance of the topic is determined by the request of modern literary study to revise the Soviet ideological interpretations of Decembrism, as well as by the task of thorough analysis of Bulat Okudzhava’s novel “Journey of Dilettantes” (1971–1977), an iconic book of the late Soviet era. The most important artistic statement of the writer is considered in the context of the “Decembrism myth” of the Soviet intelligentsia, which achieved the peak of its popularity in the 1970s. The purpose of the study is to clarify the originality of the author’s concept of Decembrism at the background of two versions of the idealizing myth about the heroes of the past (official and oppositional). The hypothesis of the research is based on the ideas of Galina Belaya: it is challenging “indisputable” historical values in the work of Okudzhava and the close connection of historical issues with the present. The article addresses the continuity of the Decembrism theme in three Okudzhava’s novels (“Poor Avrosimov”, “Journey of Dilettantes”, “A Date with Bonaparte”), analyses the metaphor that characterizes the tragedy of idealists in the harsh historical reality.

The article deals with the issue of reception the German literature in Syria in the general context of German-Arab literary relations. It has been established that now the problem of German literature perception among the Arabic language speakers is relevant. Syria is not considered to be a center for translation of works into Arabic, though the number of translators and publishers popularizing German literature in Syria is growing. The activities of translators (for example, Abdo Abbud, Fuad Ayub, Mohammed Jadid, Ahmed Al-Hammo), who played an important role in promoting the works of German-speaking authors, are examined in detail. The novel by German writer Patrick Süskind «Perfumer» («Das Parfum») was chosen as an example for a more detailed analysis.