The Fantastic as a Russian Literary Phenomenon

Gyula Rigó

IN: Partitúra Irodalomtudományi folyóirat, Volume VIII. , Issue 1, 2013, p. 33-60, ISSN 1336-7307

DOI: 10.17846/PA.2013.8.1.33-60

Abstract:

The evolution of the literary fantastic in the history of Russian literature may well be tracked from the end of the 18th century until these days, in Hoffmann’s influence in the “golden age” starting with Pushkin, in the Russian afterlife of the fantastic genres recreated by Poe, in Petersburg’s literary mythology, in the early 20th century “silver” era or in the utopias of the stalinian times as well as in the grotesque fantasy genres of today’s Russian literature. The article examines the theoretical tradition in Russian literary criticism, Hoffmann’s and Poe’s influence, the narrative modality of the fantastic as well as the analysis of the role of dreams, primarily illustrating the content with the writings of Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Andrey Bely, Bulgakov, Grin, Platonov and Pelevin.

Keywords: fantastic, fictive, Russian literature, narrative modality, poetics, dream, discoursee, Igor Smirnov, Vladimir Solovjov, Tzvetan Todorov

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Partitúra is a Hungarian literary journal published in Slovakia twice a year. The first edition was issued in 2006. From 2007 to 2014 its publishers were the Faculty of Central European Studies at The Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra in cooperation with Sambucus Literary Society. Since 2014 the Faculty of Central European Studies at the CPU in Nitra became the sole publisher.

The journal releases peer-reviewed scientific articles, literary studies and art reviews of both Hungarian as well as world literature. It is also a forum for essays on several other arts and intercultural relations. Furthermore, special attention is devoted to the Central European literature and literary studies; the magazine not only publishes the reviews of such studies, but also provides the arena for reflections about them. The journal aims to give an account of the contemporary Hungarian literature of the Hungarian minorities as well as to serve as a cluster for discourses.

As for the structure of the paper, it is usually divided into three main sections. The first part generally deals with the translation of an important foreign abstract literary study. It is followed by the heading of Scientific Studies and the Columns of Critical Analysis. Partitúra regularly publishes thematic abstracts by authors, genres, as well as a literary and artistic phenomenon in focus.