RUDN Journal of Studies in Literature and Journalism

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The question of the essence of national consciousness, of the methods of communication between an intellectual city dweller and a villager does not lose its relevance today. The purpose of the research is to consider the writing attitudes of L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, P.S. Romanov, V.M. Shukshin on the possibility/impossibility of mutual understanding between representatives of urban and rural cultures. The author analyzes the lifetime criticism of Chekhov’s story “Peasants”, which invariably referred to the comparison of writers’ approaches to the problem of the village and the techniques of Tolstoy and Chekhov’s poetics. The distinctiveness of the conflict in Chekhov’s short story “New Dacha”, as well as in “Peasants” and “In the Ravine”, is highlighted, emphasizing the breakdown of communication. This disconnection is not primarily characterized by social differences between different classes or even between urban and rural dwellers. Instead, it is portrayed as interpersonal disconnect, a kind of “arithmetic,” as coined by P.B. Struve. In addition, a search is being carried out for elements of Chekhov’s approach to the problem in Russian literature of the 20th century. The observation is made that the drama of mutual misunderstanding artistically reproduced by Chekhov occurred in Tolstoy’s life, that Tolstoy, a philosopher, ideologist and thinker, ends up losing the battle to himself, the artist. The continuation of the Chekhovian tradition is observed in the works of Panteleimon Romanov, a writer of the 20s and 30s in the 20th century. In the latter half of the century Vasily Shukshin, a writer, screenwriter, and a film director, also addressed the issue of the breakdown in communication between the intelligentsia and the common people. However, Shukshin approached the eternal problem from a different angle, looking at it through the “looking glass” - the reverse side - from the perspective of a peasant.

The study presents an analysis of the specifics of the edits of I.A. Bunin's work “New Year” (1901) based on a comparison of eight versions of this story. The author provides information about the first publication of the story, emphasizing the role of abbreviations of individual fragments of the text in the preparation of later versions, as well as the connection of these abbreviations with the chronology of the writer's life. The emphasis is placed on specific changes in the Bunin text - from the first publication in “Russkaya Mysl” (1902) to the last lifetime publication in the Complete Works (Izd. T-va A.F. Marks Publ., 1915). Edits in various publications concerned both stylistics and content elements. The researcher focuses on the change in the relationship between the characters of the “New Year” Kostya and Olya, in the later versions the characters are clearly at odds, show less empathy, openness and trust. This separation of the spouses is connected with the final breakup of Bunin with his first wife A.N. Tsakni (similar in character to the heroine of the story) and the beginning of his relationship with V.N. Muromtseva in 1906. The very consideration of the story from such positions seems relevant, given the important role autobiographies played in Bunin's writings.

As part of comparative studies of the works of F.M. Dostoevsky and W. Faulkner, the implementation of the archetypal pattern of “underground” thinking and behaving (most completely embodied in the narrator of Dostoevsky’s novella “Notes from Underground”) in the character of Thomas Sutpen, the main character of Faulkner’s novel “Absalom, Absalom!”, is considered. The mere appearance of a stable association of Faulkner’s works with Dostoevsky’s novels by the early 1940s which subsequently gave impetus to a number of comparative studies not only in Western literary criticism but also (later on) in national literary studies is noted. The traits of the Underground Man (non-acceptance of God-created world, Man-god consciousness, awareness of inconsistency with Man-god ideal, cruel self-punishment and aesthetization of it, moral alienation, and spiritual decay) are realized in many characters of Dostoevsky and Faulkner (Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, Ippolit Terentyev, Stavrogin, Arkady Dolgoruky, Ivan Karamazov; young Bayard Sartoris, Quentin Compson, Joe Christmas). As for Thomas Sutpen, the opinion has long been established in criticism that considering such characters of Dostoevsky as Raskolnikov and Arkady Dolgoruky, one can discover a portrait, which prefigures his character in almost every detail. In this study, given that Thomas Sutpen is the bearer of the “underground” of the “Stavrogin” type (without self-punishment for inconsistency with the ideal), a comparison between Stavrogin and Sutpen is made. Nikolai Stavrogin committed monstrous crimes for the sake of anesthetization of his immoral existence. Thomas Sutpen who sought to establish his dynasty at any cost went to any crime to achieve his goal. But both of them, trampling on the feelings of people, fell out of the human race and suffered a crushing defeat.

The research delves into Guy de Maupassant's narrative technique of character portrayal through the lens of Roland Barthes' concept of “indexes”, focusing particularly on the significance of material details, especially clothing, in his novellas. The primary objective is to elucidate how clothing items serve as communicative tools in shaping characters in Maupassant's works, thereby highlighting their cultural-historical, characterological, and symbolic functions. By analyzing the interplay between characters' physical appearances, gestures, and attire, Maupassant effectively conveys their inner emotions and traits to the reader. Barthes' notion of “indexes”, grounded in concrete elements like outward appearance and clothing, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the thematic distribution of these details, which range from physical attributes to sartorial choices, all of which contribute to character development. Ultimately, it is through such meticulous attention to detail that Maupassant's characters become vivid and relatable to readers, enriching the narrative experience.

The research work attempts to study the contemporary African American women’s struggle to discharge their interpersonal conflict with reference to Terry McMillan’s “It’s Not All Downhill From Here”. Conflict is an expression of struggle between two or more interdependent persons who have incompatible goals. Through her works, Terry McMillan voices the life of urban African American middle class women. The Black women of this class are suppressed under various roles and responsibilities especially related to their families that have lots of challenges like addiction, crime, lack of trust and emotional bonding. Lack of any support builds up antagonistic mindsets and develops interpersonal conflicts. They are trying hard to resolve these conflicts and attempting to restart with more focus on exploration of self. The research work analyses the conflict resolution strategies employed by African American women in the novel.

Political journalism, as a practice aimed at covering the political scene for the benefit of citizens, is a major tool in shaping the public's opinion of political issues and actors. Taken on a global scale, this practice becomes more crucial as it positions political journalism at the intersection formed by national (own) and foreign political and ideological spots. The author has chosen one of the most polarizing topics on the international scene for the last two decades: China-Africa. This strong polarization will enable us to highlight the main trends of analysis of media discourse on China and Africa in Canada, France and French-speaking West Africa. The research confirms this trend: political perception and dominant ideology in Canada and France build a common reading lense for describing and interpreting China-Africa relations in the media. The limits of interpreting African dynamics from the “outside” Africa, in the ideological and political meaning of the term, are considered. The major bias in press coverage is to mainly focus on China-Africa, whereas African countries are nurturing and initiating important partnerships with other countries such as Russia, of course, but also India, Japan, Turkey, etc. Europe needs Africa, which it will have to support in its economic transformation, whatever the cost, to build the long-promised New Deal, that was only envisaged in the emergency thanks to the multipolar situation created by the rise of Asia, among others. Reporting on it from both a European-American and an Asian-African perspective remains a major challenge for political journalism on both sides, for a better understanding of Africa’s new dynamic in a new world order.

A few images on journalism and its actors in the Sahel, and specifically Mali, that are shaped by the media itself, are presented. These images, identified in articles that capitalize on the challenges of political, social, and cultural crisis, as well as the risks that a journalist takes when reporting and writing on the realities and events he observes in Sahel, are supposed to shape the power of the media to bring change at an epistemological level in the society it unpacks and depicts. This epistemological metamorphosis is seen as a turning of a page in the history of crises and the proposal herein is to see what type of change this turning refers to, re-launching critical perspectives on the new powers or non-powers of journalists and journalism to inform, create and maintain a critical resistance meant to leave a relevant sign in the history, through deconstruction and management of crises communication, that would finally assure the durable control of crises, exercised by an informed and empowered society with the scope to overcome crises at a pragmatic and epistemic level. The analysis is qualitative and intends to invite the reader to more reflection on the interdependencies between the reality, the journalistic reality, and the journalist’s power or non-power to coin the two. Crises whose management from the point of view of public awareness and truth knowledge is compromised by a second-level crisis affecting the journalists, the leaders of the civil society, and broadly the media, who have concomitant powers and non-powers to change the perception of the public on the first level crises to such a point that, in the holistic interpretation of the term, this management of crisis through deflection should be considered a new page turned in the history of crises.

Opinion polls play an important and often controversial role in electoral contests. It is one of the main tools of political communication in democratic societies, where citizens receive much of their information during election campaigns. In Francophone Africa, pre-election polls are increasingly visible in the public arena. However, the release of their results during the election period has been the subject of criticism and controversy questioning their credibility: opinion polls published in the media can influence voters. The polls conducted by the Apidon Research and Survey Institute commissioned by the newspaper “Bendre” ahead of the November 2015 presidential and legislative elections in Burkina Faso drew sharp criticism from the public. Many citizens denounced them for being unreliable. Given the interest shown in this political communication tool in Burkina Faso, the authors sought to investigate the extent to which the publication of the polls influenced voting behavior. By interviewing respondents in the capital Ouagadougou and the rural province of Loumbila, the authors were able to study the reactions of different social categories of the electorate. Analysis of the results showed that the impact of published pre-election polling data on voters was insignificant. At the same time, voters had a deliberately negative perception of the role in political life of the publication of pre-election public opinion monitoring figures. The results of the research revealed the problem and showed the necessity of its further study. On the one hand, future research could focus on the impact of opinion poll results on political actors to determine how they are used. On the other hand, it is useful to see whether journalists follow professional rules when dealing with such information.

Violent conflicts precipitated by allegations of blasphemy have resulted in loss of many lives and property in Nigeria. Worse still is the effects on peaceful coexistence among the different ethno-religious groups in the country. In all this, the media is a stakeholder, whether as a promoter of peace or exacerbater of tension and division. 306 editions of Daily Trust and The Punch newspapers were explored to ascertain how these national dailies are responding to the tenets of peace journalism enunciated by Johan Galtung, especially in their choice of words, to what extent do they specifically avoid war language in the coverage of sensitive incidents as blasphemy. Using quantitative content-analysis and framing as methodological and theoretical frameworks respectively, this study found that 71 of such (war) lexical indicators were used in covering the incidents of blasphemy investigated, with The Punch having the highest frequency (63). Out of the three war language categories coded (demonizing, victimizing, and emotive), first one is the most prevalent (90%) with individual words like ‘barbaric’ (25.3%), ‘fanatic’ (23.9%) and ‘extremist’ (18.3%) preponderating. All these are arguably a corollary of political, professional and economic factors. The research finally recommends that for blasphemy conflict with its attendant violence to be pre-empted, Nigerian journalists covering ethno-religious crises need to be conscientized on the tenets of peace journalism, whilst national cohesion and peaceful coexistence need to be prioritized by media industry over and above profiteering.

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Such features of M.Yu. Levidov's verbal creativity as versatile productivity and syncretism of writing are considered. These qualities, as a kind of creative constant, were inherent in his printed products throughout his life. To substantiate this thesis, the authors conducted a periodization of the writer's work and identified three periods in it: 1) the pre-October period (1914-1917); 2) the years of greatest activity (1918-1931) and 3) the last decade (1932-1942). Having tested each of the periods for combining such types of M.Yu. Levidov's activities as journalism, literature, criticism, science, pedagogy, the authors came to the conclusion that already at an early stage Levidov showed authorial activity in the field of literature, criticism and newspaper journalism; in maturity, science and pedagogy were added to these areas, and critical activity has reached the level of “blooming complexity”. But in the last decade, due to unfavorable socio-political conditions, the scope of application of Levidov's creative energy was forced to be narrowed: theoretical work was discontinued, and practical activity was focused on literary creativity, with biographical prose becoming the most acceptable format. In this genre the text's syncretism has reached its apogee.

The author attempts to systematize and summarize the review works of Chinese philologists devoted to Pushkin’s fairy tales. The history of the translation of Pushkin's fairy tales into Chinese is considered. The works of studying Pushkin's fairy tales, which regard Pushkin's fairy tales as entirety, are presented. The studies of Chinese philologists on a separate Pushkin's fairy tale are shown, especially on “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”. It is concluded that the study of Pushkin's fairy tales in China is huge, and it has its own character. Nowadays, the study of Pushkin's fairy tales is experiencing a new upsurge. Because of the generational change in literary theory, philologists in China have expanded the fields of research and created new interpretations of Pushkin's fairy tales and are following wider and more research on Pushkin's fairy tales.