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Poetry competitions are significant activities within the literary and cultural realms. These competitions reflect people's interest in poetry and poets. The book "Al-ʿAqīdah al-Adabīyah fī Sabʿah al-Funūn al-Maʿnawīyah" by Aḥmad al-Rabbāt al-Halabī, a folk poet who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, provides valuable information about competitions held among folk poets who specialized in seven types of poetry: Şi›r al-Karīd, Muwashshah, Dū-beyt, Kān-wa-kān, Zajal, Qûma and Mawāliyyā. These competitions, which took place during the Ottoman period, were organized objectively and institutionally, following specific rules in public venues accessible to poets, writers, and the general public. Despite being overlooked in Arab literary history books, these competitions were held in coffee houses in the Levant and Egypt during the 18th century, and the winning poet would receive a prize consisting of a caftan and a monetary reward. This article aims to shed light on this cultural and literary activity based on the aforementioned book, providing insights into the cultural and literary life in the Levant and Egypt towards the end of the 18th century. The article is divided into two main sections: the first provides an overview of Aḥmad al-Rabbāt al-Halabī and his book "Al-ʻAqīdah al-Adabīyah fī Sabʻah al-Funūn al-Maʻnawīyah" while the second offers detailed information about the venues, organization, and awards of these poetry contests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the critical reception and readers' reactions to the Polish edition of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist (1995). The focus is mainly on the years 1998-2003, when the Brazilian writer and his novel were most popular. The scale of the novel's sales success is presented. The main controversies that it aroused are discussed: the genesis of the work and the degree of originality, the meaning and message of the work, along with the reasons for the emergence of the fashion for Coelho's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article uses and develops the ideas of the famous literary historian M. Zerov, which relate to Ukrainian sentimentalism. His experience in the scientific interpretation of G. Kvitka's work made it possible to determine ways of optimally engaging the possibilities of literary life to reveal the influence of such social factors as charity, women's education and upbringing, on the writer's creative practice. The relevance of the outlined approach is due to the need to overcome simplification in the understanding of our classical cultural heritage, the need to clarify knowledge about Ukrainian sentimentalism by expanding the scope of researched facts and their objective study. On the basis of the analysis of biographical and cultural-aesthetic material, the motives that guided the Ukrainian sentimentalist were identified and described, as well as his worldview and aesthetic priorities were clarified. Biographical facts were analyzed separately, testifying to G. Kvitka's special interest in the organization of the women's institute in Kharkiv and his awareness of the need for literary texts that would meet the aesthetic demands of the institute's female students. Some attention is paid to clarifying the dependence of the writer on the notions of sentimentalism concerning the criteria of "truthfulness" of an artistic work. It is pointed out the groundlessness of involving Kvitka's prose in realism, as some Soviet researchers and their followers once tried to do. The hypothesis is proposed, according to which H. Kvitka's sentimental prose appeared precisely as an organic continuation and development of his charitable and educational work, the kinship of these types of activities is separately substantiated, and their common ideological basis is emphasized. The role of H. Kvitka in the formation of the Ukrainian female readership was noted, features of his works that contributed to this are highlighted. As a perspective for further studies, it is proposed to find out exactly how the literary and spiritual heritage of sentimentalism is presented in the modern cultural life of Ukrainians.

The article aims to delineate the most important meanings and referents of the concept of literary life, from a sociological, functional-historical and systematic perspective, in the context of the evolution of the idea of literature from the anhistorical formalism of New Criticism to the pragmatics of sociosemiotics, whose contributions have been used to support the thesis that the system of literature and literary life function as a dynamic succession of mediations.

The paper deals with the post-war period of I.A. Bunin’s life. These were years of difficult financial situation and serious health problems for the writer, which also involved additional expenses. The author examines how the Nobel Laureate tried to publish translations of his book “The Liberation of Tolstoy.” The translations significantly expanded the market and brought writers more income than publications in publishing houses of the Russian abroad. With the help of his former secretary Andrey Sedykh, Bunin wanted to undertake an English edition of the book, but he didn’t succeed. The paper reveals some previously unknown details of the complicated relationship between Bunin and Sedykh (along with the Nobel Prize period), including mutual sympathies periods (at least on the part of the author of “The Life of Arsenyev”) as well as periods of disappointment. The article introduces archival materials, including previously unpublished sources, in particular a postcard sent by Bunin to Sedykh.

The essay reconstructs the Moscow period of the literary biography of the poet and playwright Evgenii L’vovich Kumming (1899‒1980), starting with the establishment of the All-Russian Union of Poets in December 1918 until his immigration to Estonia in the Spring of 1921. The author reconstructs his participation in Moscow literary associations “The Green Atelier” (“Zelenaia masterskaia”), “The Literary Mansion” (“Literaturnyi osobniak”), “The Link” (“Zveno”) as well as the historical context of his creative activities. Literary life of those years was largely concentrated in writers’ clubs, and cafes, where numerous events were held with poetry readings, polemical discussions, etc. The essay traces in detail Kumming’s participation in such literary meetings. Kumming’s “dramatic trilogy” The Legendary Life and Worthy Death of Petrushka (1920), which appears as a vivid example of the poetic avant-garde of the post-revolutionary years, is republished in the Appendix.

The article deals with the relationship between V.G. Korolenko and M.A. Protopopov and their controversy over the heritage of N.K. Mikhailovsky. This controversy unfolded at a transitional moment in the history of “Russian Wealth,” when Korolenko became the main face of the magazine and had to establish himself as a leader. The article examines an early attempt to publish a revealing article by Protopopov about Mikhailovsky, proposed to A.S. Suvorin in 1898, in this context. The critic was refused, but later used it in an obituary about Mikhailovsky, in which, with all the objectivity, there was indifference to the memory of the deceased. Korolenko remembered how much Mikhailovsky did for the writer and objected to Protopopov from the point of view of everyday ethics. In his response, Protopopov claimed that he first criticized Mikhailovsky in 1878: this was the first critical article about Mikhailovsky from a friendly camp. He refuted accusations that for a quarter of a century he accumulated resentment against Mikhailovsky. After that, Korolenko did not continue the polemic. The article introduces into scientific circulation previously unpublished diary entries by Protopopov on the margins of his book “Literary Critical Characteristics” (1896), as well as his letter to Suvorin, revealing Protopopov’s identity.

From the sixteenth century onwards, those education institutions that were humanistic by rhetoric turned to a basic education in poetry, teaching the use of verse in everyday life. Initially, this was related to ancient verse and its meaning, then was transferred to Neo-Latin poetry and to German (vernacular) verse, thereby transforming literary culture. On this basis, the role of poetry in literary culture in the Baltics is shown using three examples: the late humanistic literary culture of Riga in the 1580s, mainly in Latin; the literary culture in Reval (Tallinn) around fifty years later, much more influenced by German-language poetry; and finally, German poems in love letters of that time, showing the application and function of verse in the private space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to describe the literary space of Yekaterinburg in the late 2010s - early 2020s within the framework of the paradigm of Russian-language literature existing over the borders but structured around the center referred to as “conditional Moscow”. The research methodology combines the analysis of literary life, the socio-literary approach and the theory of place marketing. We are talking not just about agents of literary fields and actors within a literary situation but also about literary brands that help attract symbolic capital to a particular territory. The phenomena of genius loci of A.B. Salnikov, E.V. Simonova, the functioning of cultural institutions that form the literary space of the city, the work of a number of independent projects and initiatives are considered. Particular attention is paid to the levels of interaction between the literature of the city and the center “conditional Moscow”.

Russian literature of the present day has lost its statehood and no longer pretends to build its own laws of development in the historical movement. The “dictatorship of art” predicted by the formalists, intended for the total textuality of Russian culture, turned out to be a predominantly optimistic slogan that has lost its stimulating function in the context of living literary reality. The research is devoted to the problem of interaction of Russian literature and formalism. Russian literature in the works of Russian formalists was considered as an autonomously existing system structure that simulates a “different” reality, independent of social and political conditions. The movement of literature in a functional perspective determined the activities and tasks of the so-called “formal school” mainly represented by Viktor Shklovsky, Boris Eikhenbaum and Yury Tynyanov.

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Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper studies the trajectory of the writer Virgílio Várzea (1863-1941) and his relationship with the naturalist aesthetics. It proposes that Várzea and his work represent a "Southern naturalism", a naturalist strand with more description than narration, linked to the Goncourt brothers and to a conception of naturalist fiction as "painting of pictures". In Santa Catarina, Várzea led an anti-romantic crusade supported by a broad spectrum of modern and scientific ideas that he called "naturalism". There he published with Cruz e Souza the short story volume Tropos e fantasias (1885), marked by naturalist and evolutionist themes and ideas. When he migrated to Rio de Janeiro in 1890, he brought "Southern naturalism" to the cultural capital of the country, in the context of the post-imperial euphoria and the Old/New x North/South polemic, which he co-starred in with Oscar Rosas (1864-1921) and other Southern writers. The "Southern naturalism" was an alternative to the canonical "Northern naturalism" represented by Aluísio Azevedo (1857-1913) and Adolfo Caminha (1867-1897). Virgílio Várzea's trajectory reveals that there were other conceptions of naturalism in circulation and competition in 19th century Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hungarian literature in Transylvania is a forced consequence of Trianon, the local expansion of post-Ady modernism. It is the expression of the literary, cultural, and political aspirations that successfully counteracted the intellectual suction of Budapest from the last third of the 19th century onwards. With Trianon, centralisation ceased in Transylvania as well, and the task of literature became to ensure autonomy and spiritual unity (the Erdélyi Szépmíves Céh was established in 1924, the Korunk in 1926, the same year in which the Marosvécs writers’ meeting was held, and the Erdélyi Helikon dates to 1928). After the Second Vienna Award, Hungarian literature in Transylvania split into two countries. In Northern Transylvania, the Hungarians became the majority again, while the Hungarian literary life and press in Southern Transylvania, which had remained under Romanian rule, were in a hopeless situa- tion. The study is a summary of the Hungarian literary societies, press, journals, institutions, newspaper and book publishing, competitions, prizes, scholarships, awards, debates, anecdotes, and critical life in Transylvania between 1918-44. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors of the publication introduce a fragment of the chapter from Remizov’s manuscript “At the Evening Dawn” into scientific circulation. It was based on the original writer ‘s letters to S.P. Remisova-Dovgello and was created by Remizov during second half of the 1940s. The manuscript is a draft of the biographical prose, reflecting Remizov’s reception of to the events that occured 20 years ago from the perspective of his refugee experience. This is why many of the subjects and characteristics of contemporaries mentioned in the letters of 1927 are supplemented and modified by the writer. This type of redaction can be seen in comparison with the original text of the letters given by publishers in the Appendix. Both corpora of letters provide rich material for reconstruction of the history of Russian emigration and creative biography of Remizov. Comments to the text of the manuscript are based on rare, previously unpublished archival materials and are supplemented by new biographical data of a number of persons connected with Remizov and his wife.

The article presents a transcription of N.V. Kotrelev’s report read in 2016 and dedicated to archival materials revealing the fate of Vyach. Ivanov's first wife, Darya Mikhailovna, and their daughter Alexandra, years after the church dissolution of their marriage in 1896. Over the years, their daughter developed a mental illness. Ivanov was very distressed by descriptions of the course of the disease and accused himself of “murder” of his daughter. In an attempt to help his first wife, who lost her income, Vyach. Ivanov applied for a subsidy and organizational support to the “Literary Fund” and in a letter addressed to the chairman of the fund (F.D. Batyushkov) described in detail the tragic situation. The materials from the archives of the Literary Fund (Manuscript Department of IWL RAS), presented in the appendixes, demonstrate the history of assistance to the Vyach. Ivanov’s daughter.

The article is devoted to the history of creation of the poem “Unknown Lady,” written in by A. Blok April 1906 during the preparation for state exams at St. Petersburg University. Some parts of Vl. Piast’s memoirs and the correspondence of contemporaries reveal the first impressions of the poem in a narrow circle of friends. The article examines in detail Blok's reading of “Unknown Lady” in January 1907 at Blok's apartment with the presence of Vyach. Ivanov and his wife L.D. Zinovieva-Annibal, and the echo that the poem received in their work. The author of the article questions the version of Korney Chukovsky that this reading took place at the Ivanov’s Tower and that Chukovsky was personally present.

A novel detailed analysis of a page from Chukokkala , Korney Chukovsky's handwritten miscellany with drawings by Yuri Annenkov, dated March 1923, is given. Involvement of archival sources makes up the history of the drawing creation. It turns out that Annenkov worked at the page of the miscellany and the portrait of Leo Trotsky at the same time. The analysis of the stylistic features of the drawing reconstructs the elements of the literary life of the 1920s. The study of the depicted persons clarifies the circle of friends and associates of prominent cultural figures of the first post-revolutionary decade. The article provides little-known biographical information about the characters depicted in the drawing. It specifies how Annenkov met Gorky's closest associate, the prominent public figure Albert Pinkevich. The author highlights little-known facts of friendship of A. Pinkevich, Boris Pilnyak, a Soviet writer, and the avant-garde artist Boris Shaposhnikov. The history of the creation of graphic portraits of Soviet writers made by Annenkov is considered. In conclusion, the page of the handwritten miscellany, and Chukokkala as a whole, are presented as a unique monument that captures the living passage of time.

Copyright of Jerash Journal for Research & Studies is the property of Jerash University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The history of literary associations, including the history of any journal, is primarily the history of people's relationships with each other. In such a history, personal likes and dislikes play the most essential role. This law of personal sympathies and antipathies manifests itself very expressively in a rather short history of the journal “Severny Vestnik”, published by L.Ya. Gurevich (1891–1898). The article offers significant additions to comments to published texts on the history of the journal. A.L. Volynsky and N.K. Mikhailovsky showed equal harshness and indelicacy in their polemics, but their contemporaries almost unanimously sided with Mikhailovsky as an older and deserved writer. Volynsky acquired a reputation as an unscrupulous person and gossip begins to gather around his name. Volynsky demonstrated unacceptable immodesty towards D.S. Merezhkovsky and Z.N. Gippius and allowed himself to use of someone else's material, bordering on plagiarism. But most importantly, in the plot of the book about Leonardo da Vinci, he depicted his personal relationship with Merezhkovsky and Gippius and his interpretation of the relationship between them. In addition, he expelled Merezhkovsky from the journal “Severny Vestnik”, which closed for him the opportunity to publish his novel about Leonardo da Vinci.

For the first time, ten letters of the writer Elena Mikhailovna Tager (1895–1964), referring to the early, least studied years of her life, are published. Among her correspondents are S.P. Milyukov, N.A. Rubakin, Viach. Ivanov and A.A. Blok. The meaning of the letters goes beyond the limits of the biography itself: for example, the letter to Ivanov contains an unknown evidence of the famous meeting of the Religious-Philosophical Society, dedicated to the exclusion of V.V. Rozanov. Letters to Rubakin contain details of the pre-war life of the Russian student-revolutionary diaspora in Switzerland. The publication is accompanied by a detailed commentary.

Benjamin Moser in the monumental biography Sontag. Her Life and Work has shown how one of the most outstanding American writers transformed from a private person into an icon of her times. Referring to this publication, the author of the essay poses a question about the role that the act of writing plays in a writer's life. He also reflects on the essence of the relationship between a writer and a biographer. The asymmetry of this relationship is motivated by the position forced upon the writer who often feels defenseless towards the person describing his or her hidden secrets. If Sontag had read Moser's book, it is possible that she would have blamed him for both meticulous and at times shameless glances into the most intimate corners of her life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication introduces 33 letters of the 1890s from Z.N. Gippius to the writer, poet and playwright, St. Petersburg lawyer F.A. Chervinsky. Gippius’s short romance with Chervinsky, as happened with her other heartfelt passions, provoked an intense epistolary dialogue, avoiding, however, direct expression and self-reflection of feelings. Gippius's letters are dominated by playing and light coquetry, full of hints and provocations, and the life romance itself is built by her as a tense psychological experiment. Their relationship in 1892 –1893 found reflection in the works of both participants — in Gippius's fairy tale “Time” and Chervinsky's story “Sylphide”, typical examples of modernist interrelation of literature and life. At the same time, the letters are interesting for the details of literary events reported in them, for the characteristics of a number of contemporary writers — N. Minsky, D. Merezhkovsky, A.P. Chekhov and other common acquaintances.

The paper presents selected records from Mikhail Kuzmin’s diary that deal with – directly or indirectly – Daniil Kharms and his literary associates since the first mentioning of “mystic-futurist Vvedensky” on March 16, 1924, and up to the arrest of Kharms and Vvedensky in “Gosizdat Juvenile Sector case” in December 1931. The records reveal lots of new biographical facts and aspects of literary life of the time. The publication is provided with the necessary commentary and the introductory article that recreates the background of Kuzmin’s relations with “Chinary” and later with OBERIU in the context of Leningrad culture of the late 1920s-early 1930s. A special attention is paid to the writers of “Kuzmin circle” that had personal relationships with Vvedensky and Kharms.

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This study deals with the grey zone phenomenon in the context of literary life under late Communist rule during the 1970s and 1980s in Czechoslovakia. The aim of this text is to attempt to trace, using the method of historical reconstruction, how the concept of the grey zone was understood in Czech and Slovak society before 1989, especially in texts and discussions on dissent and exile that reflected the reality of normalization. These texts show that awarenesss of the grey zone played an essential role in the thinking of dissident and émigré authors, as it challenged bipolar schemes and black-and-white images of social reality in the Czechoslovakia of the time. However, this conception of the grey zone often contradicts today's journalistic and specialist approaches, which tend to classify the grey zone as a silent or passive majority. This study shows that the definition of what we now call the grey zone was much broader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memoirs of the writer Viktor Ivanovich Mozalevsky (1889–1970) are for the first time published in full and with detailed commentary. Being an unobtrusive, but active participant of literary life since the mid-1900s, Mozalevsky left vivid literary portraits of V. Bryusov, B. Sadovskoy, Yu. Slezkin, S. Auslender, E. Nagrodskaya, M. Bulgakov and many others.

Memoirs of the writer Viktor Ivanovich Mozalevsky (1889– 1970) are for the first time published in full and with detailed commentary. Being an unobtrusive, but active participant of literary life since the mid-1900s, Mozalevsky left vivid literary portraits of V. Bryusov, B. Sadovskoy, Yu. Slezkin, S. Auslender, E. Nagrodskaya, M. Bulgakov and many others.

In the interview, Professor Lajos Pálfalvi, an outstanding translator of Polish literature into Hungarian and the head of the Department of Polish Studies at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, presents the story of his contacts with Olga Tokarczuk, starting from the 1990s when he met her personally as a promising novice. He gladly shares his vivid recollections and anecdotes related not only to the Polish Nobel Prize winner, but also to Hungarian and Polish literary life in the recent decades. He also talks about translation methodology and shares observations on the interpretation of Tokarczuk’s work.

The article introduces data from the history of the trade unions movement in Saratov that demonstrates the remains of democracy in Soviet Russia during the New economic policy period. The exact numbers of attendees of literary events held by the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers — 3000 in 3 months in the town with 200 000 population — shows that the number of literature lovers exceeded that of today. Provincial literary life was self-sponsored. The article touches upon the issue of collective agreements signed by both trade unions and workers, which gave way to the development of the literary market. It reconstructs the biographical data of the earliest Saratov censor Efim B. Schulman based on the research at the Russian State Social and Political History Archive, Saratov State Archive, and Saratov State Modern History Archive. The paper demonstrates that control over literary life in Saratov was decentralized for a number of reasons; among them lack of professional competence of the censors, human resources potential, and remoteness from Moscow. One can thus testify a cultural lag between the capital and the regions. It was not until the mid-1920s that censorship was established in some districts of Saratov region. For example, a book published in Saratov in 1927 gives an uncensored judgment of Leo Trotsky, which was highly unusual for that time.

This paper draws on a research focused on Brazilian literary life in the first half of the 20th century. Taking up the idea that Brazilian culture and Brazilian literature must be approached as a language in itself, it aims to contribute to throw light upon the crucial decades in which Europe’s influence as trendsetter begins to fade. A survey of letters sent from abroad by Brazilian writers to their colleagues in that period will show how displacement influenced their views on literature and life and the depth of their dependence on keeping up dialogue with home-staying literary friends. Most of Brazilian authors living in foreign countries in the 40s and 50s of last century displayed in their letters the need to remain in touch with their national literature, whereas searching to establish contact with writers from the countries they were residing in was seldom a priority.

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This article explores some senses in which Isabelle de Charrière (1740–1805) may be understood as a skeptic in her personal life and in her literary life, although the two cannot really be separated since she lived the literary life. She called herself a skeptic a number of times, and also showed some knowledge of the Academic or Socratic and especially of the Pyrrhonian traditions of skepticism in her novels and extensive correspondence. This Dutch-Swiss writer provides an example of what it might be to live as a skeptic, serving as a case study for the debates about the feasibility and moral status of living with skepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the interview, Professor Lajos Palfalvi, an outstanding translator of Polish literature into Hungarian and the head of the Department of Polish Studies at the Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest, presents the story of his contacts with Olga Tokarczuk, starting from the 1990s when he met her personally as a promising novice. He gladly shares his vivid recollections and anecdotes related not only to the Polish Nobel Prize winner, but also to Hungarian and Polish literary life in the recent decades. He also talks about translation methodology and shares observations on the interpretation of Tokarczuk's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Literary historian and critic Štefan Drug (1931 – 2011) began his science career in the year 1955 at the Institute of Slovak literature, Slovak Academy of Science. Between the years 1969 and 1974 he was a lecturer of Slovak literature and culture at the Jagellonian University in Krakow. At the time of normalization he could not work in the academic enviroment for political reasons, so he found a job as an editor of the publishing house Tatran (1974 – 1989). He did not return to his scientific work until the social and political changes in 1989: he dealt with Slovak literature of the 20th century, especially the issues of literary life, at the Institute of Slovak literature, Slovak Academy of Science, between the years 1990 and 2006. At that time he helped remove the distortions in the history of Slovak literature and rehabilitate then-proscribed authors (e.g. Valentín Beniak). Despite the forced break due to the political circumstances, Štefan Drug´s lifelong literary and historical work features a continuous interest in interwar leftist avantgarde, left-wing literature of the 1920s and the 1930s, in the DAV group and the life stories and works of its most significant representatives, namely Laco Novomeský and Vladimír Clementis. The paper built on archive materials shows how Štefan Drug was confronted with the period ideological apparatus.