Из материалов для комментария к «Капитанской дочке» (26–42) [Notes and Queries on _The Captain’s Daughter_ (26–42)]

The following notes highlight some of the structural patterns and textual fragments of Alexander Pushkin’s Captain’s Daughter overlooked by previous scholarship. Thus, I address the narrative strategy of shifting a character’s attributes so that the character’s initial connotations are seamlessly transformed into their opposites. This corresponds to the novel’s overall narrative principle of relativizing the seemingly obvious and stable. Additionally, I explore some of the narrative formulas specific to the historical novel, and comment on some of the historical information on the everyday life and social realities of 18th-century Russia contained in The Captain’s Daughter (the various forms of currency used by the different classes; Pugachev’s military equipment, etc.).KEYWORDS: Gabriel Superfin at 80, 19th-Century Russian Literature, Alexander Pushkin (1799—1837), The Captain’s Daughter, The Minor (Nedorosl’) and his education, Yemelyan Pugachev’s rebellion (1772—1774), Monetary System in 18th-Century Russia, Narrative Formulas, History of Literature

Из материалов для комментария к «Капитанской дочке»: 9–11 [Notes and Queries on _The Captain’s Daughter_ (9–11)]

There are three sections in this article, all concerning The Captains Daughter (Kapitanskaia dochka, 1836) by Alexander Pushkin. The first section reconstructs the hidden yet crucial train of thought launched by the elder Grinev’s reading of The Court Almanach for 1772, which comes to drive the novel’s plot in a surprising direction. The second section investigates the protagonist’s failed military career. The third section discusses Pushkin’s linguistic lapse (na son griadushchii instead of na son griadushchim), a distortion of a liturgical phrase well known to Orthodox Christians.Keywords: 19th-Century Russian Literature, Alexander Pushkin (1799—1837), Kapitanskaia dochka (1836), Russo-Turkish Wars (1736—1739, 1768—1774), Military Careers, The Orthodox Prayer Book, In memoriam:  Larisa Georgievna Stepanova (1941—2009)

От составителей [Gabriel Superfin at 80: Section Editors’ Note]

This brief note preceds the section, which contains 10 articles written on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Gabriel Superfin—a scholar, a human rights activist, and one of the brightest minds of his generation. The section’s contributors are Alexander Ospovat (Moscow / Los Angeles), Alexander Sobolev (Moscow / Jerusalem), Roman Timenchik (Jerusalem), Alexander Lavrov (St. Petersburg), Alexander Dolinin (Madison / St. Petersburg), Irina Belobrovtseva (Tallinn), Fedor Poljakov (Vienna), Georgii Levinton (St. Petersburg), Galina Lapina (Madison / St. Petersburg), and Boris Ravdin (Riga).KEYWORDS: Gabriel Superfin at 80, Gabriel Superfin (b. 1943)