Papers by Dr. Natalia Borisova
Welt der Slaven, 2020
About nail care and the ethics of "comme il faut" (Lev Tolstoj's polemic with Puškin) is article ... more About nail care and the ethics of "comme il faut" (Lev Tolstoj's polemic with Puškin) is article focuses on the polemics between Lev Tolstoj and Aleksandr Puškin on questions relating to self-conduct and self-fashioning as expressed in the example of nail care. In the Russian discourse on del'nost', the issue of nail care marks two approaches-which should be differentiated from one another stylistically and ethically-to shaping one's "self": One approach is the code of aesthetic self-representation; the other is the code of resource optimization. Concretely, it concerns the choice between self-representation as a dandy (Puškin) and self-representation as a "del'nyj čelovek" (Tolstoj), i.e., as a fit, suitable, practical person. While Puškin is strongly oriented towards the English Romantic tradition and such figures as Lord Byron or Beau Brummell, Tolstoj in his self-interpretation goes back to the theses of Benjamin Franklin. e paper addresses the question under what circumstances-or rather, with what argumentation and justification-the choice is made for one of the many possible codes and how one distances oneself from the alternatives.
Zwischen Apokalypse und Alltag, 2009
The article examines how Benjamin Franklin's ideas of self-improvement were adopted in Russia. Th... more The article examines how Benjamin Franklin's ideas of self-improvement were adopted in Russia. The concept of the new creation of the self is one of Benjamin Franklin's the most popular ideas. Since the first publication of Franklin's Autobiography the idea of self-improvement became a genuine part of the very American ideology of the self-made man. After Andrej Turgenev published his translation of Franklin's Autobiography in Moscow in 1799, Franklin's method went on to enjoy a widespread triumph in imperial Russia. Andrey Turgenev's and Vasilij Zhukovskij's diaries, Alexander Griboedov's comedy Gore ot uma (1825) and Dmitrij Begichev's novel Semeystvo Kholmskikh (1832) can help us to trace this Russian history of Franklin's method and show how Russian followers of Franklin modified and adapted his concept.
Kultur- und Medientheorie, 2009
Wie vom Krieg erzählen? Die Frage nach den Möglichkeiten und Notwendigkeiten, aber auch nach der ... more Wie vom Krieg erzählen? Die Frage nach den Möglichkeiten und Notwendigkeiten, aber auch nach der schuldhaften Verstrickung von Erzählungen in kriegerische Handlungen ist in den letzten 100 Jahren immer wieder gestellt worden. Sie hat nicht nur eine narratologische, sondern auch eine politische und moralische Dimension. Was ist Krieg eigentlich? Die Beiträger_innen dieses Bandes gehen von der Beobachtung aus, dass man in den europäischen bzw. okzidentalen Kulturen von gemeinsamen Entwicklungen in der narrativen Darstellung von Krieg in der Literatur und den modernen Bildmedien sprechen kann, die einerseits die Notwendigkeit des bezeugenden Dokumentierens hervorheben und andererseits die Erzählbarkeit von Krieg problematisieren. Zugleich kann man die Persistenz narrativer Muster wie »Apokalypse«, »Neuanfang« oder »Ausnahme« in den Kriegserzählungen des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts sowie deutliche Unterschiede zwischen einzelnen national geprägten Erzähltraditionen feststellen. Diese Aspek...
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Papers by Dr. Natalia Borisova