ACADEMIC RECEPTION OF THE NOVEL «HERO OF OUR TIME» BY M. Y. LERMONTOV IN THE USA: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2021-3-146-154
Introduction. The article is devoted to the completely unexplored subject in Russian Lermontov studies – the academic reception of the novel “Hero of our time” by the scholars from the USA. In the article the most reputable and representative works published in the USA about this novel are outlined and analyzed in accordance with the following periodization: publications of 1900-1960s, publications of 1970-80s and the modern publications of 1900s until now. The goal. Research of the academic reception of the novel of M. Lermontov «Hero of our time” in the USA. Materials and methods. Search and analysis of the publications, devoted to the novel “Hero of our time” by M. Lermontov issued in the USA in accordance with the periodization proposed by the author. Results and discussion. The focus of publications 1900–1960s is primarily the understanding of how M.Yu. Lermontov portrayed the Russian society of the 1830s and the main character of his work, an emphasis on the psychological nature of the novel, as well as a comparison with A.S. Pushkin. Among the researchers there is no agreement on the genre of the novel - for example, Mercereau classifies it as a genre of psychological realism, and in the preface to the first Russian-language edition in the United States, the Byronic character of Pechorin is noted. In publications from the 1970s to 1980s, there is a completely different emphasis. First of all, the internal structure of the novel is in the focus. Despite the fact that there is still no full agreement on the genre of the novel, most researchers believe that the novel «A Hero of Our Time» that he put an end to romanticism in Russian prose, which is the main innovation of Lermontov. The view on the main character of the novel has also changed - in Pechorin they see not Byronic, but demonic features. At the present stage, American researchers have new topics in the study of the novel «Hero of our time”. For example, the topic of the relationship between the Russian and Caucasian peoples attracts a lot of attention. In addition, if earlier only Pechorin was in the center of attention of researchers, now other heroes and heroines of the novel are also being studied. It is also interesting that Pechorin is now considered a post-romantic hero, and most researchers classify the novel as post-romantic. Conclusion. The conducted analysis and the proposed periodization demonstrably illustrates the evolution of approaches and interest to the various aspects of the novel and its heroes. The bibliography of the article is impressive itself and makes a significant contribution to the Lermontov studies. The authors of the publications included in the review are philologists, publicists, political scientists, anthropologists.
Keywords: Lermontov, Hero of our time, novel, publication, Caucasus, prose, genre, Pechorin
References:
1. Kalfus K. Russkaya literatura v Amerike (perevod publikatsii s sayta proekta Russia Beyond The Headlines) [Russian literature in America (translation of a publication from the website of the Russia Beyond The Headlines project)]. Russian newspaper. 19.01.2011 (in Russian). URL: https://rg.ru/2011/01/19/rbth-knigi.html (accessed 1 March 2021).
2. Winer L. Anthology of Russian Literature from the earliest Period to the Present Time. Vol. 2. New York, G. P. Putman’s Sons Publ., 1903.
3. M. Y. Lermontov. A hero of our time. Translated from the Russian by J. H. Wisdom & Marr Murray. New York, A. A. Knopf Publ., 1916. 335 p.
4. Spector I. The Golden age of Russian Literature. Los Angeles, Scholastic Press, 1939. 246 p.
5. Mersereau J. Mikhail Lermontov. Southern Illinois University Press, 1962.
6. Debreczeny P. The Elements of Lyrical verse tale in Lermontov’s A Hero of our Time. American contributions to the Seventh International Congress of Slavists. The Hague, 1973.
7. Ripp V. A Hero of Our Time and the Historism of the 1830th. The problem of the Whole and the Parts. Modern Language Notes, 1977, vol. 92, no. 5, pp. 969–986. DOI: 10.2307/2906886
8. Faletti H. E. The Elements of the Demonic in the character of Pechorin in Lermontov’s Hero of Our Time. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 1978, vol. 14, pp. 365–377. DOI: 10.1093/fmls/XIV.4.365
9. Bagby L. Narrative double voicing in Lermontov’s A Hero of Our time. The Slavic and East European Journal, 1978, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 265–286.
10. Friedrich P. Language, Context and the Imagination: Essays. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979.
11. Gerrard J. The old wine in the new bottles: the Legacy of Lermontov. In: Poetica Slavica. Clayton J. D., Schaarschmidt G. (Ed.). University of Ottawa Press, 1981. 266 p.
12. Gerrard J. Mikhail Lermontov. Boston, 1982.
13. Cox G. D. Dramatic Genre as a Tool of Characterization in Lermontov’s Hero of our Time. Russian Literature, 1982, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 163–172.
14. Gregg R. The cooling of Pechorin: The Scull beneath the Skin. Slavic Review, 1984, vol.43, no. 3, pp. 387–398.
15. Abbott H. P. The expressive text and textual self-concealment: Lermontov’s Hero of our Time. Cornell University Press, 1986.
16. Todd W. M. Fiction and Society in the Age of Pushkin: Ideology, Institutions, Narrative. Harvard University Press, 1986.
17. Brown W. E. A History of Russian Literature of the Romantic Period. Ardis, 1986.
18. Rosenshield G. Fatalism in A Hero of our Time. Cause or Commonplace? In: The Supernatural in Slavic and Baltic Literature: Essays in Honor of Victor Terras. V. Terras, A. Mandelker, R. Reeder (Eds.). Columbus, Slavica Publ., 1988.
19. Engelberg E. Rebels without cause: Lermontov, Turgenev, Bronte. Pennsylvania University press, 1989.
20. Kesler R. L. Fate and Narrative Structure in Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 1990, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 485–505.
21. Meyer P. Lermontov’s Reading of Pushkin: The Tales of Belkin and A Hero of Our Time. In D. Offord (Ed.), The Golden Age of Russian Literature and Thought. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. pp. 58–75.
22. Scotto P. Prisoners of the Caucasus: Ideologies of Imperialism in Lermontov’s «Bela». Modern Language Association, 1992, vol. 107, no. 2, pp. 246–260. DOI: 10.2307/462638
23. Tompson E. M. Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 2000. 239 p.
24. Golshtein V. Lermontov’s Narrative of Heroism. Evanston. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1998. 244 p. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv47wcbs
25. Bagby L. (Ed). Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time. A Critical Companion. Evanston. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2002.
26. Meyer P. An Author of His Time: Lermontov Rewrites George Sand. New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 2002, vol. 36, pp. 173–182.
27. Meyer P. How Russians read French: Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. University of Wisconsin Press, 2008.
28. Powelstock D. Becoming Mikhail Lermontov. The ironies of Romantic Individualism in Nicholas I’s Russia. Northwestern University Press, 2005. P. 331.
29. Kutik I. Writing as Exorcism: The Personal Codes of Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol. Northwestern University Press, 2005. 152 p.
30. Allen E. C. A Fallen Idol is Still a God. Lermontov and the quandaries of Cultural Transition. Stanford University Press, 2007. 304 p.
31. King C. The ghost of freedom: A History of the Caucasus. Oxford University Press, 2008. 291 p.
32. Gatrall J. Lermontov’s Bela and the Circassian Expulsion. In: Teaching Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature: Essays in Honor of Robert L. Belknap. D. Martinsen, C. Popkin, I. Reyfman (Eds.) . Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2014. P. 218-233.
33. Millionshchikova T. M. Russkiy romantizm i tvorchestvo Lermontova v angliyskom i amerikanskom literaturovedenii kontsa XX – nachala XXI veka [Russian romanticism and Lermontov’s creativity in English and American literary criticism of the late 20th – early 21st centuries]. Literaturovedcheskiy zhurnal, 2014, no. 35, pp. 153–186 (in Russian).
34. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition. New York: The Columbia University Press, 2016.
( 411.72 kB ) 
( 401.63 kB )
Issue: 3, 2021
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: LITERARY STUDIES
Pages: 146 — 154
Downloads: 573