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THE PASSING AND THE EVENT (TOWARDS 'PHILOSOPHY' OF THE RUSSIAN NOVEL)

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Pospisil I.

Slovak Review. A Review of World Literature Research

2005

vol. 14

issue 1

14-23

The author of the study deals with some specific features of Russian literature in general and the Russian novel in particular. One of them consists of the contradiction between the record of the passing and of the event, between calmness and motion, dramatic and descriptive structures, causality and juxtaposition. The contemporary narrative accentuates the contrast between the event and description The traditional narrative is the structure based on the event i. e. on something unexpected and extraordinary (Wolf Schmied). On the contrary, the typical feature of Russian literature is 'drowning in the stream of history', the effort to let history flow, not to intervene with demonic gestures in cosmic processes. This, of course, does not mean at all that Russian literature in general and the Russian novel in particular would not want to realize their demonic functions - Russian messianism and utopianism are quite famous. The origin of this feature goes back - as it is generally believed - to a cluster of oriental teachings, most probably to gnosticism and the traditions of Byzantine culture. The author presents several examples of these phenomenon in the works of several Russian and non-Russian authors frequently associated with eccentricity, strangeness and madness, e. g. I. Goncharov, N. Gogol, N. Chernyshevsky, F. Bulgarin, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, K. Capek, V. Nabokov and others.

IGOR'S TALE IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH: KEENAN'S HYPOTHESIS AND ITS LINKS (ON THE ATTEMPT AT THE 'NEW SOLUTION' OF AN OLD PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OF THE IGOR'S TALE) TO THE MEMORY OF PROFESSOR ROMAN MRAZEK

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Pospisil I.

Slavica Slovaca

2007

vol. 42

issue 1

37-48

The author deals with Edward Keenan's attempt at the new solution of the problem of the authorship of the Igor's Tale and with his hypothesis about Josef Dobrovsky's key role. The author comments upon Keenan's hypothesis critically but with understanding evaluating his close reading of the text and his brilliant attempts at the new interpretation of several crucial words and word groups. Keenan's book, though polemic and disputable, presents a profound picture from a multidisciplinary point of view: it gives an apt psychological portrait of Josef Dobrovsky set in a wider context of Czech national revival, his underevaluated poetic abilities, the deep generational controversies between Dobrovsky and his Czech disciples; Keenan also demonstrates his insight into the linguistic context of the Igor's Tale, but the most important passage is linked with the depiction of the genesis of the rise of the Igor's Tale, about both the original manuscript and the copy in which he cast doubt upon the real existence of the original. The Czech vestiges in the language of the Igor's Tale are interpreted in an interesting way though the problem of Turkish words remained unsolved. Although Keenan - as he himself puts it - does not pretend he really and undoubtedly solved the old problem, he created a fundamental monograph of the Igor's Tale which may serve as a good basis for future research; the main contribution, however, consists in evoking new doubts at the time when nearly all the Western and Russian textbooks of Russian literature came conventionally to the conclusion that there were none, and even the past polemics about the character of the Igor's Tale were tabooed.

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1 Slavica Slovaca

1 Slovak Review. A Review of World Literature Research

2 Pospisil I.

1 2007

1 2005

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THE PASSING AND THE EVENT (TOWARDS 'PHILOSOPHY' OF THE RUSSIAN NOVEL)

IGOR'S TALE IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH: KEENAN'S HYPOTHESIS AND ITS LINKS (ON THE ATTEMPT AT THE 'NEW SOLUTION' OF AN OLD PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OF THE IGOR'S TALE) TO THE MEMORY OF PROFESSOR ROMAN MRAZEK