THE PSEUDONYMOUS CODE OF G. CHKHARTISHVILI

This paper sets out to systematize the multiple pseudonyms used by the contemporary writer G. Chkhartishvili. These are B. Akunin (The Adventures of Erast Fandorin, The Adventures of Sister Pelagia, a series of novels The Adventures of the Master, the project Genres, the plays The Seagull, Yin and Yang, the project The History of the Russian State), Boris Akunin and Grigory Chkhartishvili (Cemetery Stories), Akunin-Chkhartishvili (Aristonomy, Another Way), Grigory Chkhartishvili (The Writer and Suicide), Anatoly Brusnikin (Devyatny Spas, Hero of Another Time, Bellona) and Anna Borisova (Kreativschik, There, The Seasons). We investigate reasons for the multiplicity of Akuninian pseudonyms, a strategically honed system of which contributes to his authorial image. It is shown that, while the commercial pseudonyms are aimed at promoting his new literary projects and are implemented through a conspiracy game played with the reader, the creative ones serve to manifest the author ' s breadth of interests and philological knowledge such that every new pen name triggers a new writing strategy and a new creative tactic. The analysis of various literary masks' influence on the author ' s creative outcome shows that each pseudonym is 'placed' in the literary, genre or artistic time of the text. B. Akunin is primarily the author of historical retro-detective stories, whereas adventure novels are signed by the pen name of A. Brusnikin. A. Borisova 'writes' prose set in the present day. From the very beginning, the author's real name has been always assigned to his serious literature. The authorial system of names is being constantly refined, distinguishing B. Akunin, the fiction writer, from G. Chkhartishvili, the elite literature writer, in the novels Aristonomy and Another Way the twinned name Akunin-Chartishvili deliver another conceptual image. In conclusion it is stated that the abundance of Chartishvili's pen names evinces the author's intellectual and personal intrigue, which points to multiconceptual character of their pseudonymous code, being auto-and self-marketing, creative auto- and self-identification.The article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFFI) - the Department of Humanitarian and Social Sciences, project No. 17-21-07002, and the type of grant - a (m): "A Soviet person in the ambivalent reception of Hungarian and Russian humanitaristics of the 20th and 21st centuries.

“But There Is No East and Also No West”: Overcoming National Barriers in Akunin’s Way

Поступила в редакцию: 21.09.2022. Принята к печати: 02.02.2023.Submitted: 21.09.2022. Accepted: 02.02.2023.В статье на материале разножанровых текстов Б. Акунина (проект «Приключения Эраста Фандорина», «Сказки народов мира», самоучитель по беллетристике «Русский в Англии») предпринят анализ писательской концепции национальной идентичности и возможности / невозможности преодоления межнационального взаимонепонимания. Отмечено, что «решение национального вопроса» за тридцать лет работы писателя в литературе претерпело определенные изменения. Показано, что в Фандоринском проекте Б. Акунин сосредоточен на моделировании и описании трех барьеров, существующих при восприятии и оценке инонационального (барьер чужого языка; барьер чужого быта; барьер иной ментальности). В «Сказках народов мира» писатель берет иной ракурс осмысления национального комплекса: его интересует характер соотнесенности национального и общечеловеческого. Эта книга о том, что национальная особость — не что иное, как вариант инварианта, в ней осмыслены общечеловеческие ценности в национальной аранжировке. Самоучитель по беллетристике «Русский в Англии» может быть прочитан как итоговые размышления Б. Акунина о вопросе возможности / невозможности межнационального взаимопонимания. Анализ произведения показал, что одновременно это книга профессиональной и национальной самоидентификации. Б. Акунин не упрощает возможности межнационального диалога. Согласно концепции писателя, необходимо не приспособиться к иному национальному образу жизни, но понять его, только тогда начинает «работать» формула «он как я», реализующая себя чрезвычайно редко и всегда неполно. Попытка понять другую ментальность предполагает целый комплекс личностных качеств, в основе которого — способность к диалогу, аналитизм, интеллектуальность, культурологический багаж и — главное — человечность.This article analyses Boris Akunin’s writing concept of national identity and the possibility or impossibility of overcoming cross-national non-communication. The analysis is based on Akunin’s texts of different genres (the Erast Fandorin’s Adventures project, Tales from All Over the World, and Russian Man in England, a self-study book on fiction). It is noted that the “solution of the national question” during the thirty years of the writer’s work in literature has undergone certain changes. The authors demonstrate that in the Fandorin project, Boris Akunin focuses on modelling and describing three barriers that exist in the perception and evaluation of the unfamiliar (the barrier of a foreign language, the barrier of a foreign way of life, and the barrier of foreign mentality). In Tales from All Over the World, the writer takes a different perspective of understanding the national complex. He is interested in the correlation between the national and the universal. This book is about the fact that national identity is nothing but a variant of an invariant, it comprehends universal values in a national arrangement. The self-study book on fiction Russian Man in England can be read as Akunin’s final reflections on the possibility or impossibility of crossnational understanding. The analysis of this work demonstrates that it is a book of professional and national self-identification at the same time. Akunin does not simplify the possibilities of interethnic dialogue. According to the writer’s concept, it is necessary not to adapt to a different national way of life, but to understand it. Only then does the formula “they are like me” begin to “work” realising itself extremely rarely and always incompletely. An attempt to understand a different mentality presupposes a whole complex of personal qualities, which is based on the ability for dialogue, analytics, intellectuality, cultural baggage and, most importantly, humanity

All-Russian University Book Competition

8 и 9 октября в Зональной научной библиотеке УрФУ прошли первые мероприятия, приуроченные к 100-летнему юбилею Уральского университета: церемония награждения победителей IX Общероссийского конкурса «Университетская книга — 2020» и круглый стол «Стандарты в издательском деле: практика применения в вузах»

Author's intent and editor's licence: On the publication of Vasily Aksyonov's Mysterious Passion

The focuses on the history of the publication of Vasily Aksyonov's last work - Mysterious Passion, which he referred to as a “novel about the sixties”. While fitting into the general tone of Khrushchev's “thaw” literature, Aksyonov's autobiographical prose has distinct features, which are defined as the writer's focus on emotional and psychological, rather than actual and chronological authenticity. It is demonstrated that the writer's key approach consists in strengthening the novel and weakening the biographical components of the narration, with the truth of art dominating the truth of life. In the novel, the forms of personal memory are not based on the principle of the first person autobiographical narration that presupposes the predominance of linear time. Memory “returns” beyond the text, while within the text, it is felt as “here and now”. This is the module of the writer's personal memory: Aksyonov writes about others, and through others he writes about himself. This explains the mosaic of the writer's memory, where one description complements another, thus creating a complete picture. The author analyses the differences between the first edition of the novel (2009), defined as a journal version, and the writer's version published in 2015. The former edition is about 80 pages shorter than the latter, with six chapters entirely cut out (“1963. Further March. Garsonniere”, “1963. April - May. Depression”, “1963. May. Six-armed”, “1963. June. National”, “1968. Early August, Ralissa”, “1968. August 15. Sardius”) and some chapters shortened by two or three pages. As a result, a plot line that depicts a love affair of Robert Er has been lost. It creates inconsistencies and empty spots, which are difficult for the reader to understand, and significantly distorts the writer's concept as a whole. The triad of love - friendship - poetry, which has been important for the writer since the sixties, is seriously reduced in the first edition, in particular due to the absence of the poem “If I could return to that line...” from the chapter “The Hangover”, which contains a tragic contemplation on the necessity and impossibility of remaining yourself in life, love, and art. However, the second edition (2015), though reconstructing the writer's original version, fails to adequately represent his artistic strategy. The author emphasises that excessive editorial explanatory and clarifying footnotes, aimed at elucidating the nuances of the time, in fact, convert the work from a “novel about the 1960s” to the chronicle of the 1960s. © 2018 Tomsk State University - Faculty of Philology. All Rights Reserved

Workshops of the 1960s: the Generation Through Artists’ Eyes

Статья поступила в редакцию 08.06.2020 г.Книги мемуарного характера художников, вошедших в отечественную культуру в годы «оттепели», «Промельк Беллы» Б. Мессерера и «Мастерская» В. Воловича, рассмотрены в контексте воспоминаний знаменитых шестидесятников, чья деятельность осуществлялась в разных сферах искусства (литература, музыка, театр, кинематограф и т. д.). Обнаружено несомненное сходство их целеполагания: традиционный рассказ «о времени и о себе», хронологически последовательное повествование о своей судьбе в соотнесенности с судьбой своего поколения. Определены индивидуальные черты воспоминаний, идущие от своеобразия творческой личности автора и его профессиональных приоритетов. Б. Мессерер, человек театра, предлагает драматургически преобразованную реальность шестидесятых, В. Волович, человек книги, склонен к саморефлексии и анализу. Сравнительное исследование двух мемуарных и во многом итоговых книг привело к определению особой значимости места (вне зависимости от его столичной или провинциальной локации), в котором осуществлялись личные и общие для поколения свободные творческие поиски. В случае Б. Мессерера и В. Воловича — это мастерские, мастерские художников и мастерские поколенческого сообщества, в которых происходила «свободы черная работа» (В. Леонович).This study considers memoir books created by the artists who entered the national culture during the years of the Khrushchev Thaw, including “Promelk Bella (Glimpse of Bella)” by B. Messerer and “Masterskaya (Workshop)” by V. Volovich. These literary works are examined in the context of memories shared by the famous artists of the 1960s in various artistic genres (literature, music, theatre, cinema, etc.). The analyzed works revealed similarity in the artists’ goal setting, i.e. a traditional story “about the time and oneself”, a chronologically consistent narration of one’s fate in relation to the fate of one’s generation. The individual traits of the analyzed memories were determined, resulting from the authors’ creativity, originality and professional priorities. B. Messerer — a man of theatre — offered a dramatically transformed reality of the 1960s, while V. Volovich — a man of books — was prone to self-reflection and analysis. The conducted comparative study of the two memoirs, which were largely the authors’ final books, revealed the significance of the factor of place (regardless of whether it was a metropolitan or provincial location) for the personal or generational creative search. Such places for B. Messerer and V. Volovich were artistic workshops typical of that generation, which allowed “the black work of freedom” (V. Leonovich).Работа выполнена при поддержке гранта РФФИ № 19-512–23003 «Самосознание и диалог поколений в русской и венгерской литературной практике XX–XXI веков»

Aftertext or after-text?

Седьмого ноября в Объединенном музее писателей Урала прошел очередной, четвертый по счету, научный семинар, продолжающий серию феноменологических семинаров («Феномен творческой неудачи», 2010; «Феномен незавершенного», 2012; «Феномен творческого кризиса», 2014), инициированных Т. А. Снигиревой и А. В. Подчиненовым, преподавателями кафедры русской и зарубежной литературы Уральского гуманитарного института УрФУ. Семинар в данном случае был посвящен феномену затекста