This thesis is concerned with the lives and works of three translators who made Russian literature available for the British public. It is an attempt to account for the role these translators played in arousing interest in the classics of Russia. The translations of Constance Garnett, Aylmer Maude and S. S. Koteliansky were responsible for making Russian literature feature in the intellectual life of the British culture during the first decades of this century. The relation of my work to these initiatives is described in the Introduction. Chapter One deals with England's discovery of the Russian novel through translations and its consequences that led to the spread of the "Russian cult. " This took place during the first two decades of the twentieth century which witnessed great interest in Russian literature. The British public was introduced to the major treasures of the Russian classics, and what is more, to a handful of the new generation of Russian authors. In registering the response of the literary figures of the day on reading these translations and a survey of serious periodicals, evidence is established for the cult status of Russian writing. Chapter Two throws light on the life and work of one of the most eminent of translators, Constance Garnett. The chapter surveys the wide range of Russian authors she presented, with particular emphasis on her translation of Chekhov, and the impact of her translations in the establishment of the writer's reputation in England. Chapter Three focuses on Maude's career as a translator and accounts for his greatest achievement, the accomplishment of the Centenary Edition of Tolstoy's works. Other aspects of Maude's activities are drawn upon, particularly, the fact that he was a disciple of Tolstoy. Attention is also paid to his status as an authority on Tolstoy. Chapter Four is devoted to S. S. Koteliansky and his achievements. Koteliansky's prestigious position in the English literary life, in addition to his being a supplier of new material in the field of Russian translations are stressed. The collaboration of a handful of the literary figures in the production of his translations is looked upon as further proof to the presence of the Russian cult. The thesis concludes with an account of archive materials relevant to its field.

The thesis is an attempt to relate aspects of Rozanov's writing to the Russian tradition of the word, as exemplified in the work of writers and thinkers, contemporary and near-contemporary to Rozanov. The first part establishes key features of this tradition through the work of writers such as Ern, Losev, Mandel'shtam and Averintsev. The relevance of Bakhtin for a reading of Rozanov, and of Rozanov for reading Bakhtin, is argued through an extended comparison of the two writers in the context of the Russian tradition of the word. Aspects of Rozanov's thought and formal expression, such as silence, intonation and the resisting of definition are discussed in relation to this tradition. The role of intimate genres and the reader is discussed with reference to Dostoevskii, Rozanov and Bakhtin. Rozanov's use of letters, footnotes and the idea of manuscripts is examined as a part of his battle with received literary forms. The second part looks at these various aspects of Rozanov's work in relation to his contemporary context; to the writing of the obscure 'literary exiles' and that of Solov'ev and Merezhkovskii. Rozanov's particular sense of the word is argued to be crucial in his attitude towards these writers. Rozanov's involvement with the decadents is discussed, and his exemplification of themes of sectarianism and apocalypse in his writing. The thesis ends with a look at the paradoxes of Rozanov's own role as a writer supposedly in battle with literature, and the relation between his need for words and his need for belief.

This study analyses the poetry which Sutzkever wrote between 1935 and 1954, emphasising the themes of the poetic word and the poet's role. During this formative period Sutzkever established his complex of images, and laid the foundation for the often hermetic later poetry. The earlier work is characterised by tension between the aesthetic and the ethical, the ikh and the world. The earliest manifests both strands, combining Romantic individualism with awareness of the social nature of poetry. In 'Valdiks' (1940), nature imagery develops into an inner language expressing an aesthetic vision, giving way in the war years to doubts, but also to a conviction of the poet's ethical task ('Di festung', 1945). In Israel Sutzkever achieved new confidence in his poetic identity, which he expressed through Jewish and biblical imagery ('In fayer-vogn', 1952). The African environment gave him a sense of freedom and renewed nature inspiration, and he explored new imagery of paganism, sensuality and myth ('Helfandn bay nakht', 1950-1954). The poeme 'Ode tsu der toyb' (1954) is the climax of the first period, resolving the conflict between aesthetic and ethical, past and present, and pointing the way towards the mature aestheticism of the later work. The study focusses on significant aspects of this process. Sutzkever's constant underlying theme is the nature of poetry itself. He investigates this through permanent images which develop specific symbolic connotations and become a metapoetic language. The resolution of the conflict between the aesthetic and the ethical lies in Sutzkever's belief in the equivalence of the spiritual and the corporeal, in the power of the word, and in the unbreakable goldene keyt of birth, death and renewal. The later aestheticism is foreshadowed in this period by the idea of the essence of poetry as the ineffable silence which the poet struggles to reach through the word.

No description available.

Soviet literature of the twenties and thirties is examined in the present study in its relationship to other verbal genres, primarily, the speeches of Party leaders, newspaper rhetoric and political posters. The first four chapters of the dissertation focus on such topics as the reception of Marxist-Leninist discourse by peasants and workers as well as its representation in fiction; the refraction of official discursive formulas in characters' speech and the dialogization of Party rhetoric; the integration of political documents into fiction and their structural function. Particular attention is paid to the way the contamination of Party rhetoric by substandard language and its contextual defamiliarization lead, depending on the overall authorial intention, either to a parodic subversion of official cliches or to the internalization of didactic discourse and the enhancement of its communicative effectiveness. / The theme of industrialization is examined in the last two chapters of the thesis in its dialectic interaction with various Neo-Rousseauist conceptions, which either reflect the authors' own ambivalence about socialist construction, or constitute a rhetorical device used in order to reinforce dialogically industrialist ideology.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Dept. of Russian and Slavic Studies. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2007/08/29). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.). / Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/01/30). Written for the Dept. of Anthropology. Includes bibliographical references.