This study seeks to show how the literary legacy of Mikhail Zoshchenko (1894-1958) can productively be understood as a sustained textual engagement with the writer's own melancholia. Drawing equally on present-day critical approaches which increasingly emphasize the unity of life and art in the works of Zoshchenko, and on a psychoanalytically-influenced model of textual melancholia, this study posits and analyzes a melancholy component of the broader comic aesthetic that typified Zoshchenko's early work and on which, to a large degree, Zoshchenko's reputation still rests today. The study then proceeds to trace the development of this textual melancholia beyond its aesthetic representation in earlier works to show an increasingly direct discursive elaboration of the condition in works written after 1927. This evolution in the textual refraction of the writer's melancholia is shown to extend into the writer's later 'medical' works where they acquire a more or less explicit therapeutic function and become a kind of culturally nuanced Soviet language of melancholia. This development is contextualised by reference to Soviet conceptions of mental illness and a Soviet medical establislunent characterized by an unusually dominant physiological understanding of the mind. Throughout, the study aims to demonstrate how a reading of the Zoshchenko oeuvre in terms of melancholia can deepen and broaden critical understandings of this enigmatic writer, opening up a hitherto neglected ideational component of Zoshchenko's art.

The thesis examines the role played by the characters in the structuring of Dostoevskii's novel Idiot. Taking into account the author's lack of a fixed plan for the novel, it assumes a future as yet uncreated and susceptible to being influenced and shaped by the characters. It identifies the concept of ‘scripting', incorporating the strategies used by the protagonists to orchestrate their own lives and those of others, and thus to take control of the text, and the impulses behind these strategies. Both aspects are used to explore two connected issues; self-other interactions, connected primarily to the strategies employed, and the questions of faith and doubt faced by the characters, which are grounded in the same impulses as scripting. The concept of presentness links both areas. By looking in detail at the hero's and heroine's ideas and actions, how they affect each other and the other protagonists, the thesis examines how they steer the direction of the narrative and their primary motivation in doing so. Widening the focus to explore the implications of this analysis on the ethical and narrational planes, the thesis draws together the strands of scripting, presentness, self-other interactivity and problems of faith and doubt in order to discuss the nature of the ethical and narrational ideals posited by the novel, and the role these themes play in creating a sense of unity in the text, despite its unusual structuring.

The aim of this thesis is twofold: to deepen existing understanding of Turgenev's impact upon late nineteenth- century English literature by a concentrated study of his meaning for George Gissing and Henry James, and to study selected examples of English language translations of Turgenev's work in both their linguistic and their cultural aspects. The first of these two lines of inquiry is undertaken in the belief that existing studies of Turgenev's influence upon English writers have, on the whole, left untouched the question of the respective cultural contexts, within which Turgenev and his devotees wrote. It is this question, and in particular the awareness of historical determinism and its relation to culture on the part of Turgenev and his English admirers, that I have tried to explore. The second of my aims has been to perform the task, hitherto neglected, of assessing the stylistic qualities and linguistic accuracy of the most significant translations of Turgenev's work into English undertaken during the nineteenth century. Additionally, I have tried to establish the importance for those translations of the English cultural context in which they were undertaken. In doing so, I hope to have shown how the nature and reception of translations from so unfamiliar a tongue as Russian in the second half of the nineteenth century may be taken as indices of shifts in English cultural and historical perspectives during that period. To these ends, I have devoted the first and fourth chapters of this thesis to a study of English traBlations from Turgenev in the eighteen-fifties and eighteen-nineties respectively, while the second and third chapters assess the significance of Turgenev for two contrasting writers of the period, Gissing and James.

This thesis is a critical study and translation into English of Mikhail Zoshchenko's long story "Michel Siniagin", including a critical analysis of the text of "Michel Siniagin" in relation to other work by the same writer, and a discussion of the specific problems raised by Zoshchenko's work for the English language translator. The first chapter of the thesis is devoted to language and style in Zoshchenko's work. "Michel Siniagin" and the related cycle of "Sentimental Tales" are viewed in the context of the author's broader stylistic project. The chapter opens with a discussion of skaz in Zoshchenko's short stories as a reflection of early Soviet socio-linguistic reality and as an attempt to expand literary narrative beyond the discourse of the educated classes. It goes on to describe the emergence of a parodic semi-educated writer figure in the "Sentimental Tales", whose literary style parodies the democratisation of culture in post-revolutionary Russia and the attempts of those in authority to create a proletarian classical literature or "Red Lev Tolstoi". Some of the specific stylistic features of "Michel Siniagin" are then examined in greater detail. The second chapter explores some of the more important thematic elements of "Michel Siniagin" and the "Sentimental Tales". It aims to show the thematic continuity of Zoshchenko's work and to emphasise intertextual connections with contemporary literary developments and topical social and philosophical questions. This chapter also explores the autobiographical element in "Michel Siniagin" and looks at the significance for Zoshchenko of the real life beggar-poet Aleksandr Tiniakov, who served as the inspiration for the anti-hero Siniagin. The third chapter is devoted to the problems of literary translation. It begins with a defence of practical, critically engaged models of translation theory, arguing that when theory becomes divorced from practice, it tends to stray into abstract and perfectionist discourse and to distort the reality of translation as it actually happens. The chapter summarises recent arguments in favour of free/dynamic versus literal/formal translation strategies. It then examines how the specific nature of Zoshchenko' s work affects the translator's choice of strategy, comparing the effectivity of some previous translations of Zoshchenko' s short stories. The final part of this chapter looks at the problems posed by the deliberately clumsy prose style of Zoshchenko' s fictional "author" in "Michel Siniagin" and the "Sentimental Tales", compares my own translation with existing translations. It is argued that interference from foreign cultural associations is more detrimental to the humour and spirit of Zoshchenko' s work than interference from so-called "translationese".The penultimate chapter of the thesis explores the impact of self-censorship and censorship on Zoshchenko's work in general and on "Michel Siniagin" in particular, comparing different versions of the text of "Michel Siniagin" and describing amendments made to the text by Zoshchenko at manuscript stage and by editors at later stages in its history.

This thesis is the first long work which focuses on the issue of time in Crnjanski's four major novels. It aims to demonstrate the complexity of time in his novels, in relation both to the organisation of narrative events, and to the characters' experience and perception of self. It shows ways in which Crnjanski's views on time are reflected in the language and construction of his novels. Part One, Chapter One, outlines the life and literary career of Milo. Crnjanski. It views his workagainst the background of modernism, and locates him in Serbian literary history. Part Two begins the discussion of time in Crnjanski's work in relation to his personal style known as sumatraism. Chapter Two focuses on two of his early essays, what they reveal about his approach to time, and identifies the principles of simultaneity and rhythm which characterise his thinking about time. The analysis emphasises time as a part of wider issues concerning language, the individual, values, and history in his novels. Chapter Three takes up the issue of time in relation to language and narrative structure in his early novels. Chapter Four continues the analysis of time in relation to narrative structure, and particularly in relation to the orchestration of voice in his later work. Part Three opens with discussion of major motifs in Crnjanski's novels which demonstrate the issue of identity as a constant theme. Chapter Five focuses on time in relation to identity and the problem of being-in-time as expressed in his first and last novels. Chapter Six continues the analysis of time and identity in his other two novels, viewing identity in the context of social institutions and history. Chapter Seven summarises the major conclusions arising from this analysis of time in Crnjanski's novels. The arguments presented are used to qualify statements concerning time in his novels which have been made by some commentators.

This study undertakes an examination of the life and works of the satirist Vladimir Voinovich, set in the context of satire in general, and in particular against the changing political, ideological and artistic background of the Soviet Union and the new Russia. It is demonstrated that in certain respects he is typical of his generation and in others an exception. The analysis shows how Voinovich's work gradually diverged from the accepted norms of Socialist Realism, leading him into conflict with the state and into increasingly satirical modes of expression. It is suggested that every satirist is to some extent an exile, since detachment is required from the society which is the object of the satirical impulse. The notion is studied that Voinovich became firstly an ideological exile, and compounded this with a form of chronological exile by expressing himself satirically at the `wrong' time, before consequently becoming also a geographical exile. Detailed attention is paid to his novel “Zhizn' i neobychainye prikliucheniia soldata Ivana Chonkina”, which proved to be a turning point in both his life and work. The hero of this novel has his pedigree in the Russian tradition of the plainspeaking fool Ivanushka-durachok who wins out in spite of circumstances, and it is suggested that he shares certain characteristics with his creator. The writing of Chonkin sealed Voinovich's fate as an emerging `dissident', and after its unauthorised publication abroad, he was persuaded to leave the Soviet Union. In emigration the question arose of how to engage relevantly with his readership in the rapidly changing Soviet Union. Despite the trauma of dislocation, Voinovich continued to write creatively in emigration and then in partial return to post-glasnost' Russia. The new Russia provides fertile ground for satire, but the returning satirist faces the question, now and in the future, of what type of expression is appropriate in a nascent democracy which he instinctively wishes to protect and support, rather than censure. Voinovich's solutions are diverse, and sometimes unexpected

Vladimir Nabokov, throughout a literary career spanning six decades, five countries, three languages, two continents and two calendars, was an inveterate reviser, constantly changing, translating and altering his own works. Indeed, Nabokov himself acknowledged that ‘even the dream I describe to my wife across the breakfast table is only a first draft’ (SO, xv). The very process of writing was, for Nabokov, inextricably linked with the act of revision. In his memoirs, for example, Nabokov compares his father’s handwritten texts, which were produced in ‘slanted, beautifully sleek, unbelievably regular hand, almost free of corrections’, against his ‘own mousy hand and messy drafts […] the massacrous revisions and rewritings, and new revisions, of the very lines in which I am taking two hours to describe a two-minute run of his flawless handwriting’ (SM, 139). This thesis will examine the deliberate, visible revisions, which Nabokov leaves purposefully within his fiction. The first category of revision, developmental revision, represents the evolutionary arc of central thematic matter within the author’s work. Secondly, fictional revisions are those implemented within the individual narratives of Nabokov’s texts, which are assigned as the work of Nabokov’s author-characters. Transtextual revision is carried out across texts and languages, creating links between individual works. Finally, extratextual revision, which is implemented to the individual text from an external vantage point, leads to the destabilisation of these texts as a result of Nabokov’s authorial intrusions. Taken together, these deliberately visible revisions destabilise the autonomy of texts, causing them to become incomplete. This results in a cohesive, self-reflexive oeuvre, within which all component parts can be seen together. This results in a dynamic model of oeuvre construction, which leads to the formation of what will be termed a ‘supertext’, that is a fully connected oeuvre, which has only its own self as reference.

This comparative study of the theatre of Helene Cixous and Marina Tsvetaeva proposes a reading of their plays as a coherent corpus engaged specifically with the representation of poetic identity. Tsvetaeva's and Cixous' plays present a diverse range of characters who can be identified as poet-selves and who struggle to assert their identity in hostile environments. An inherent link is established between the thematic and the generic. Cixous' and Tsvetaeva's adoption of the theatre as genre in which to develop their conceptualisations of poetic identity is shown to be important to the thematic contexts in which the poet-selves are constructed. This study defines four elements: language, exile, sexual difference and Greek mythology, which are shown to be common to the representation of poetic identity in Tsvetaeva's and Cixous' plays. Each element is addressed in turn in Chapters Two to Five and its role in both writers' constructions of poetic identity in their individual plays is explored and problematised. The conclusion evaluates the radical nature of Cixous' and Tsvetaeva's dramatisations of poetic identity in the context of the representation of the female poet and discusses the evolution of this theme in a chronological approach to their theatre.

This thesis addresses the contribution of Francesc Payarols and Andreu Nin to the Catalan literary system between 1928 and 1937 via the introduction of unmediated translations from Russian into Catalan. This contribution has been studied by comparing it to previous translation activity from Russian into Catalan, to translations in literary systems that due to prestige and geographical proximity can be considered neighbouring systems to the Catalan system (the French, the British and the Spanish), and by reviewing some of the critical reception that these publications gathered in the Catalan press of the time. Selected terminology and theoretical concepts of Polysystem Theory (PST) have been used critically in the methodological framing. This study occupies the gap of knowledge in current scholarship around the work of Payarols, whilst also building on previous and contemporaneous research on Nin. The evolution of translation from Russian into Catalan is contextualised from its introduction in 1879 until the establishment of Edicions Proa in 1928, the platform from which Payarols and Nin published the majority of the texts studied. The role of the translators as agents of the system is particularly highlighted, given both the influence of their translations in creating examples of models of prose that autochthonous novelists could use, and the power of their textual choices outside of the primary authors (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov). Joan Puig i Ferreter’s agency is also explored, as the figure behind Proa’s success and one of the main promoters of the reintroduction of novels into the literary repertoire in Catalan from the late 1920s. This research studies the unmediated Catalan translations of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and a selection of nineteenth and twentieth century authors carried out by Payarols and Nin, and reviews some of the impact that these had upon Catalan writers such as Mercè Rodoreda, Sebastià Juan Arbó and Joan Sales. Overall, these translations largely exceeded the previous available items of Russian literature in Catalan, and in cases such as Dostoevsky and Chekhov, they established a textual presence to go with their already existing literary fame. This process establishes that power dynamics were in operation between these translators, and that Nin had higher esteem from the literary milieu, which in turn affected the prestige of the texts he was commissioned to translate. I then contribute to the debate on the mythologisation of Nin’s work by suggesting a revision of his texts, supported by a comparison with the recently revised versions of some of Payarols translations.

This study focuses on P.I. Tchaikovsky's last completed work, the richly symbolic Six Songs, Opus 73. It demonstrates for the first time how Tchaikovsky's significant literary talents impacted on his song output in general, and on this cycle of songs in particular, providing us also with new insights into his personality. The composer selected and sequenced the poems used for the Opus 73 set to form the cycle of texts himself. The resulting songs are underpinned by a network of internal connections, which parallel the techniques used in the original poems in remarkable ways and link subtly with coded fate messages found elsewhere in the composer's output. The study presents evidence which enhances Pyotr Il'ich's reputation as a skilled manipulator of words, ideas and music.