A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree. of Master of Arts in Russian Studies. Joharmesburq, 1995 / This thesis undertakes to examine the interdependence of ideology and literary scholarship, in particular regarding the legacy of F.M. Dostoevsky, in the Soviet Union; and to investigate the reflection of political and ideological agenda in Soviet literary criticism's interpretations of Dostoevsky's novel, The Devils during the era of glasnost, 1985-1991. I shall isolate, identify and describe the principal, ideological trends reflected in literary critiques and analyses of this novel, published in the Soviet Union during this specific period of time. My thesis will build on and develop previous research conducted around the analysis of Ideological trends in the Soviet Union through a study of literature and official literary criticism. Western commentators, such as B J.Simmons,V. Seduro, and H. Mondry have demonstrated the correlation between. general shifts in Party domestic and international policy and the ideological viewpoints expressed in literature and literary criticism. They have found it to be a valid practice to analyse certain political, social and ideological factors in the Soviet Union through a close study of literature and literary criticism. In continuing this research, I shall demonstrate that Soviet literary criticism during glasnost could still be regarded as a mirror of political and ideological changes in society, and that Soviet criticism's interpretations of Dostoevsky's The Devils could once again be used to help distinguish, delineate and clarify the ideological trends that existed in Soviet Society during this era. I shall begin my analysis with a consideration of the effects of Gorbachev's glasnost reforms on Soviet culture in general, and on literary cd]~'cal practice in particular; and of the role that literary criticism played in Soviet society during this area. I shall then proceed to a brief historical overview of interpretations of The Devils by Russian and Soviet literary critics, from its publication until the eve of the glasnost reforms, This will demonstrate both the manner in which literary criticism has mirrored Ideological trends in the USSR, and the validity of centring my research on this novel. From there, I shall turn to an examination of how interpretations Offered by Soviet literary critics of The Devils, as well as attitudes expressed by them regarding the writer's world outlook, reflected the ideological trends that existed In Soviet society during glasnost. The interpretations to be analysed will be taken from a broad range of Soviet literary periodicals, mono graphs, and discussions, published in the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1992

The present work deals with the literary-theoretical work of the Petrograd Formalists - those who participated in the OPOiaZ in the 1910s and early 1920s - with a focus on that oflurii Tynianov. It attempts to unpack the representation of their literary-theoretical work as 'science' [nauka] by exploring how that category was constructed in dialogue with their evolving conception of literature. It is argued in the first chapter that, for the duration of their project, they conceptualized the 'language of nauka' - and their own prose by association - in accordance with the laws of their theory of language. It is argued in the second chapter that, as the Formalists developed a theory of literary history as an endless succession of 'revolutions' in the period 1919- 24, they tried to make their theorization of that process take a correspondingly revolutionary form, one in which the sciences of nature and those of history would become one. It is argued in the third chapter that, as the Formalists came to theorize the connection between literature and life in the period 1924-30, they practised a new 'type' of nauka in the form of the authorial collection of articles, one in which their own work was historicized in a 'literary' manner. It is concluded that, for the OPOiaZ, nauka came into being as a function of its object: as the Formalists transformed their conception of literature, their realization of nauka was correspondingly transformed. The conclusion then problematizes the categorization of Formalism as a purely 'scientific', extra-'literary' movement, since emphasis is placed on their authorship of that categorization, and raises broader questions about the origin of modem 'literary theory'.