Review on "International Journal of Russian Studies"

Studia litterarum, 2022

Статья посвящена влиянию на русскую литературу ключевых исторических факторов XX в. Прежде всего речь идет о художественных контекстах русской революции 1917 г. и дальнейшем формировании советского искусства. Автор показывает, что для многих деятелей русского модернизма ориентация на полный социальный и культурный коллапс была частью эстетической программы. Революция безжалостно откликнулась на этот глубокий внутренний зов русской культуры акцентированной апокалиптикой. Новая советская литература, отрешившись от «буржуазного наследия» «серебряного века», оставалась, однако, глубоко связанной с ее антиутопиями и фобиями, катастрофическими интуициями и чаяниями преображения Человека и Мира. Труд, наука и техника должны были здесь зачастую функционировать как божественные инструменты в эпической песне о рождении Новой Вселенной. Важнейшим этапом в процессе освобождения русской литературы от мифологических построений советской авангардной эстетики стала Вторая мировая война. Она реабилитировала центральный метаобраз русской классики-тему «маленького человека», развенчанного модернизмом. Ключевые слова: русский модернизм, революция, советская культура, мифопоэтика, литература и история.

Biblical Writings and Rewritings in the South Slavic Repertoire from the 14th and 15th Centuries: Rethinking the Sacred History in Anticipation of the End of the World. – Старобългарска литература 69–70, 2024, 149–182. , 2024

This article discusses the dissemination of biblical content in the South Slavic repertoire from about the mid-fourteenth to the mid-fifteenth century, during a period when the End of the World was expected (by the end of the year 7000 or AD 1492). The specific subject of research is the dissemination of biblical writings and rewritings through historiographical works based on translations from Greek, along with a case study. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the historiographical part of manuscript No. 105 from the Zographou Monastery on Mount Athos (Zogr. 105), which contains a reworked version of the Chronicle of John Zonaras in its Slavonic translation, two accompanying texts related to the Legend of Constantine the Great, and an original Slavonic composition of predominantly historical content – the Life of the Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarević. This manuscript, dating from 1433, is an autograph of the famous South Slavic man of letters Konstantin of Kostenets, a translator, diplomat, and philosopher at the court of the despot Stefan Lazarević (1389–1427), and the author of his Life. As an introduction, the article provides a brief overview of the South Slavic repertoire from the mid-fourteenth century to the 1430s that is related to the topic, including Old Testament biblical books, Byzantine chronicles, and a specific repertoire of parabiblical and apocalyptic texts, all influenced by the advance of the Ottoman invasion and the spiritual atmosphere of the Last Times. After presenting MS Zogr. 105, special attention is paid to the main text of its historiographical part – the so-called “abridged Zonaras”. The study reveals that this text is a unique version prepared by Konstantin of Kostenets based on his summary of the Slavonic translation of John Zonaras’ Ἐπιτομὴ Ἱστοριῶν, interpolated with fragments of other sources. The analysis focuses on the composition of the Old Testament section of this new text, where interpolations, predominantly deriving from the Prophetologion, transformed World History into Sacred History. The article then examines the Life of Despot Stefan Lazarević, tracing its modeling as an end-of-times narrative through quotations of the Old Testament and imitations of significant stories from it and from apocalyptic narratives. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the historiographical part of Zogr. 105 followed a coherent concept, aiming to present the Sacred History from its very beginning to its end and to “register” the Serbs and their “last righteous ruler” within it, while Konstantin’s version of the Slavonic Zonaras was designed to support the integration of the Life of Despot Stefan into the overall narrative and to ensure its correct understanding. In conclusion, attention is also drawn to the fact that Konstantin’s concept of Sacred History is similar to that of Archivski Chronograph, which was also composed in anticipation of the End of the World but about the midseventh millennium, i.e. by the end of the tenth century. The analogy between them suggests that living in the Last Times actualizes the topic of God’s plan and activates a reinterpretation of Sacred History. In both cases, the substitution or expansion of biblical retellings with original texts from the Bible, combined with the inclusion of the “own people” in Sacred History, appears to be decisive in the process.

2012

Събитие и безсмъртие (литература, език, философия, наука) | Event and Immortality (Literature, Language, Philosophy, Science), сборник доклади от международна научна конференция, Факултет по славянски филологии, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски” (13-14 май 2011 г.), 2014

The collection of essays Event and Immortality gathers texts from the eponymous conference, organized by the Faculty of Slavic Studies at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski». The conference took place on the 13th and 14th of May 2011 at the University of Sofia. From all the submissions the organizing comitee after a careful selection has approved 60 papers for consideration and has admitted for publication 56 of the considered papers by representatives of various academic institutions from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Japan, Poland, Romania, and USA. The conference focused on two key concepts of contemporary thought and aimed at elucidating their productive interaction within literary, linguistic and philosophical discourses. The problem of the event has often emerged within the humanities lately; it was of interest to Foucault and Deleuze, Lyotard and Derrida, Nancy and Badiou. For some thinkers (Blanchot, Lyotard, Derrida, Badiou) it has been constantly connected with the questions of death and immortality. It is this bond that has determined the decision to revisit and redefine these interrelated concepts in a manner both provocative and productive.

2022

This article focuses on two novels by Vladimir Sharov, Staraia devochka (The Old Girl) and Voskreshenie Lazaria (The Resurrection of Lazarus), that address the Stalinist repressions of the 1930s. Through analysis of these novels, the article examines two interrelated aspects of Sharov's works: their representation of traumatic history and their postmodernist style. The paper then examines the way these features of Sharov's prose relate to broader, current cultural trends. Sharov's novels contain a synthetic view of history that unites such incompatible elements as Orthodox Christianity, a variety of charismatic sects, Bolshevik ideology, and Stalinism. Despite Sharov's unconventional view of the Soviet past, the article argues that there are parallels between the official, contemporary view of Soviet history and that represented in Sharov's fiction. Both depict Russian history as unique, separated from global historical processes. RÉSUMÉ Cet article porte sur deux romans de Vladimir Šarov qui abordent les répressions staliniennes des années 1930 : Staraja devočka (La vieille petite fille) et Voskrešenie Lazarja (La résurrection de Lazare). L'analyse de ces romans met en lumière la représentation du traumatisme historique et l'usage du style postmoderne, deux aspects étroitement liés de l'oeuvre de Šarov qui s'inscrivent dans des courants culturels plus vastes. Les romans de Šarov présentent une vision synthétique de l'histoire qui combine des éléments aussi incompatibles que le christianisme orthodoxe, une variété de sectes charismatiques, l'idéologie bolchévique et le stalinisme. Cette vision peu conventionnelle du passé soviétique, néanmoins, rejoint à certains égards la vision officielle de l'histoire soviétique prônée par l'État russe, en ce qu'elle conçoit l'histoire russe comme proprement exceptionnelle, distincte des processus historiques mondiaux.

Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 50, No. 1 (2006). Pp. 204-212, 2006

Of course, I am no soothsayer, and the answer to my outrageous title is probably dependent more on what happens outside the university than anything that could take place inside its hallowed walls. For all I know, the ongoing transformation in the function of education in American society may render humanistic education utterly obsolete in the coming decades, which would certainly have a "chilling effect" on the study of Russian Literature (Scholes; Drucker). But I do not intend to rehearse the familiar territory of The University in Ruins here (Readings; also see Guillory). What I am concerned with is our very own little comer of the university, the Slavic Department, and my own sub-discipline within it, the study of Russian Literature. What is its outlook for the coming hundred or so years, given favorable, or at least not saltstrewn, institutional soil to grow in? 2 I offer to you that the future does not look so bright.

Slavia Meridionalis, 2014