Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi (The Idiot) as a dialogue with Dostoevsky on existence, moral beauty and trauma

Akira Kurosawa's Hakuchi ("The Idiot", 1951), based on F. Dostoevsky's eponymous novel, is one of the most complex and ambitious films of the Japanese master. Deeply impressed by Russian literature, and namely by the work of Dostoevsky, Kurosawa demonstrates a will to adapt not only the plot and themes from the novel but also some particular features of its narrative construction. At the same time, the film is conceived as a free rewriting of the Russian source based on the Japanese cultural and historical framework of the traumatic post-war era. In doing that, Kurosawa made possible to develop Dostoevsky's reflections on the nature of Love and Evil according to philosophical categories of the Japanese culture \u2013 in particular by approaching the questions posed by the Russian writer under a non-Christian, but rather Zen-Buddhist point of view

Complicated and Necessary: Reading Dostoevsky in a Time of Trouble

Prefazione al fascicolo della rivista "Dostoevsky Studies

Michel Niqueux, Dictionnaire Dostoïevski (Paris: Institut d’Études Slaves, 2021)

Recensione del recente volume di Michel Niqueux che delinea le basi del testo dostoevskiano e della sua ricezione, principalmente in Franci

L’artefatta spontaneità: alcune considerazioni sullo skaz e sul suo ruolo nel rapporto autore-narratore-lettore

Intento dell’articolo è tracciare un percorso di interpretazione di alcuni meccanismi dell’artificio letterario chiamato dai formalisti skaz, sulla base di opere ed autori fra loro molto differenti: Kys’ di Tat’jana Tolstaja, i racconti di Isaak Babel’, Capitani della spiaggia di Jorge Amado e Grande Sertão: Veredas di João Guimarães Rosa. L’elemento unificante fra queste opere è rintracciabile nella comune attitudine degli autori di concedere ad alcuni personaggi ed al narratore principale la possibilità di comunicare in maniera non filtrata il proprio punto di vista, mentre il punto di vista indiretto dell’autore tende ad eclissarsi in una posizione del tutto nascosta.Este artigo procura traçar um percurso de interpretação de alguns mecanismos do artifício literário que os formalistas chamaram de skaz, tendo como base obras e autores muito diferentes entre si: Kys, de Tatiana Tolstaia, os contos de Isaak Babel, Capitães de areia, de Jorge Amado, e Grande Sertão: Veredas, de João Guimarães Rosa. O elemento unificador dessas obras está na atitude comum dos autores de permitir a alguns personagens e ao narrador principal a possibilidade de comunicar de maneira não filtrada seu próprio ponto de vista, enquanto o ponto de vista indireto do autor tende a desaparecer em uma posição completamente oculta.This article seeks a path of interpretation of some of the mechanisms of the literary device that the formalists called “skaz.” It examines it in very different works, including Tat’jana Tolstaja’s Kys’, Isaak Babel’s Tales, Jorge Amado’s Captains of the Sand and João Guimarães Rosa’s Grande Sertão: Veredas. The element that unites these works is to be sought in the authors’ common attitude: they let some of the characters and the main narrator directly convey their own point of view, while the authors’ indirect point of view tends to disappear in a completely hidden position

Il viaggio in Molise di Marin Drinov e Vikentij Makušev nelle lettere di Giovanni De Rubertis

I testi scientifici e privati dei primi slavisti che hanno visitato le colonie slavo-meridionali del Molise sono di interesse per la storia della slavistica italiana. L’attività divulgativa dello storico slavomolisano Giovanni De Rubertis e il viaggio ad Acquaviva Collecroce di due storici slavi, il russo Vikentij Makušev e il bulgaro Marin Drinov nel 1870 diedero avvio a questi studi. La corrispondenza epistolare fra i due eminenti studiosi slavi e l’entusiasta storico dilettante di Acquaviva Collecroce, insieme ad una pagina del Diario di Makušev ed altri materiali inediti permettono di trarre delle considerazioni sulla coscienza etno-linguistica degli slavi molisani nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento; sui loro orientamenti culturali; sulle principali influenze slave giunte fino a loro prima dell’instaurarsi di relazioni strette con l’altra sponda dell’Adriatico

Ономастика и Парадокс: Достоевский и крушение онтологической целостности персонажа

Onomastics and Paradox: Dostoevsky and the Collapse of the Ontological Integrity of Character. Onomastics plays a key role in Dostoevsky’s poetics: the names of most of his characters are essential to their portraits, even though these names rarely signify unambiguously. Moreover, a number of his characters are nameless and a semantic tension arises from this absence: the impossibility of “branding” the hero with a name prevents us from identifying his or her features through verbal onomastic symbolism. The portrait of such characters necessarily remains somewhat murky. It is no coincidence that the “nameless heroes” are the most paradoxical and enigmatic characters of Dostoevsky’s creative world. By denying them names, Dostoevsky seeks to destroy the inner integrity of these heroes, their identity, in order that a living, independent, and contradictory personality emerges in them

Some Notes on the Reception of Dostoevsky in Italy at the Time of Mussolini

The article is a preliminary attempt to outline the contours of the complex reception of the creativity and ideological world of F. M. Dostoevsky in Italy during the twenty-year period of the fascist regime (1922-1943). The attempt is justified by the ackof such studies so far, in the presence of a number of interesting articles and monographs devoted to certain aspects of the perception of the Russian writer in Italy during this period. The question of whether Dostoevsky's name was used for the purposes of fascist propaganda, in other words, whether the Russian ruler of the doom was perceived as a precursor of the fascist right-wing conservative revolution, remains unresolved. The first, as yet pro-visionary observations lead to the opinion that Dostoevsky's "fascization" took place, but had an occasional character and had little influence on the reception of the writer in general in Italy, while the strongest and most lasting influence on the reception of the writer was exerted by non-fascist or even anti-fascist writers, who, consequently, interpreted his figure and creative heritage according to categories incompatible with the ideological space of fascism

Глушь, глубинка и ссылка: к пониманию пространства в русской культуре

L'art. analizza alcune parole della lingua russa e i loro significati con esempi tratti dalla letteratura classica russa, nell'ottica di mettere in luce alcune caratteristiche precipue della cultura russa nell'identificazione dello spazio, e in particolare dei concetti di Provincia, Centro, Esilio, Confino

Cosa intendeva Dostoevskij per ateismo?

What had Dostoyevsky in mind when he spoke about \u201catheism\u201d? Atheism is one of the main topics of Dostoyevsky\u2019s work, particularly during the period that goes from The Idiot till The Brothers Karamazov, his last novel. All heroes of his main novels have direct or indirect connections with matters of faith and atheism. Some of them are described by the author himself as otrits\ue1teli (deniers/refutators). That\u2019s the case, in the first place, of Kir\uedllov (Demons) and Ivan Karamazov. There are also a significant number of atheist supporting characters, whose frivolous behaviour and superficial opinions greatly differentiates them from the exquisite ideas conveyed by Ivan and other \u2018deeper\u2019 atheists. The objective of the present article is to show that the word \u2018atheism\u2019 in Dostoyevsky points to two different and even contradictory positions. Ivan Karamazov\u2019s position, in particular, reflects Dostoyevsky\u2019s acknowledgment of the positive role of doubt in leading one to faith and truth. It also points to the possibility that the writer has gone beyond, in his religious beliefs, the traditional antinomy between theism and atheism

Incise sul corpo del socialismo reale: dalla bardovskaja pesnja al rock sovietico

Between the bardovskaya pesnya – the best manifestation of the alternative Soviet culture in the ’60s and ’70s – and the so-called “Soviet Rock” of the ’80s, there are lots of similarities. The article maintains that this peculiar variation of rock music represents the last step in the development of the strand starting from the bardovskaya pesnya. “Soviet Rock” has two basic premises in common with this form of song: the central role of the word (lyrics are more important than music), and the identity between author-performer and the song itself, seen as a subjective experience which is able to convey shared values that are an alternative to official conformism. In order to prove this hypothesis, the article analyses a typological survey concerning the salient features of “Soviet Rock” and its affinities and differences with Western rock