Vol 26, No 1 (2021)

The article deals with the I.S. Turgenev’s last cycle Poems in prose which title has been changed several times throughout his work on it. The cycle put together the main aspects of writer’s previous creative works which led to the continuous search for the most suitable title to fully express author’s intentions: from the original Posthuma which is focused on the life after death experience to the last Poems in prose which additionally underlines the uniqueness of the form used for Turgenev’s last creative work. The study reveals the main theories on the cycle’s titles and the reasons behind their changes as well as suggests the own vision of the evolution of concepts “after death” and “senile” which are seemed to be bound in writer’s world view. The sequential analysis of the existing cycle’s titles undertaken in the current research finds the logic of Turgenev’s title transformations where the fear of death is gradually replaced by the thoughts of future new life which will be continued beyond the Earth life. The significance of the research lies in the absence of the unified approach to the naming and understanding of the Turgenev’s last cycle while the title of the book was considered to change the work’s perception even by Turgenev’s contemporaries. The scientific novelty of the work is added by using the author’s French edition of Poems in prose which up until now hasn’t been studied properly. It allows to expand the material of the research and look thoroughly into Turgenev’s strategy of naming his final cycle which was preserved for the foreign publication as well.

A novel detailed analysis of a page from Chukokkala , Korney Chukovsky's handwritten miscellany with drawings by Yuri Annenkov, dated March 1923, is given. Involvement of archival sources makes up the history of the drawing creation. It turns out that Annenkov worked at the page of the miscellany and the portrait of Leo Trotsky at the same time. The analysis of the stylistic features of the drawing reconstructs the elements of the literary life of the 1920s. The study of the depicted persons clarifies the circle of friends and associates of prominent cultural figures of the first post-revolutionary decade. The article provides little-known biographical information about the characters depicted in the drawing. It specifies how Annenkov met Gorky's closest associate, the prominent public figure Albert Pinkevich. The author highlights little-known facts of friendship of A. Pinkevich, Boris Pilnyak, a Soviet writer, and the avant-garde artist Boris Shaposhnikov. The history of the creation of graphic portraits of Soviet writers made by Annenkov is considered. In conclusion, the page of the handwritten miscellany, and Chukokkala as a whole, are presented as a unique monument that captures the living passage of time.

The article deals with the autobiography of Paul Claudel in his essay Ma Conversion written in 1913 at the request of readers. The readers believe that his biography no longer belongs to him, so the experience of his conversion should be of common property. It reveals his confessional retrospective traits and self-awareness in “biographical” literary works. Different types of confession, features of preaching, self-expression and autobiography are interwoven in the essay. The language of the essay is poetic and polysemantic. Distance is manifested in many ways in Claudel’s works, from the explicit biographical author - “moi, Paul” to the literary author - “le poète”. The writer begins in a confessional, indecisive manner, but as he becomes more professional, he resorts to the “biographical author” less willingly, more often remaining on the sidelines as a literary author. There is less open reflection in the collection of works Conversations (1926-1937), so the poet discusses reality, but he does not describe his feelings and actions as he did when he was younger. Claudel's autobiography combines the sacred and the secular, while the intimate and the public act as a “preparatory” stage to a multi-volume exegetic “novel”.

The works of three writers from northeast India, Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home , Mamang Dai’s Stupid Cupid and Anjum Hasan’s Lunatic in my Head that cover the problem of identity in relation to the insider - outsider politics in the region are examined. The northeast India is in many ways a miniature India because it houses people from various ethnicity and linguistic groups. However, much of the immigration took place after the East India Company annexed the northeast region starting from 1826. The extraction of the resources and subjugation of the people in this region by the colonisers and later by successive Indian governments has left an indelible mark of cultural imperialism triggering social haemorrhage. This changing position of the insider - outsider is not only a part of the political discourse but also the literature that is produced in this region. The analysis of the writings of Temsula Ao, Mamang Dai, and Anjum Hasan allows to look at the problem from two perspectives: the indigenous population experiencing anxiety and leading various violent campaigns to expel so-called outsiders, and the northeasterners facing similar racial prejudices when visiting mainland India and being subjected to derogatory racial slurs.

The novel I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan, which deals with the problem of finding your own identity by studying the components of personality and the context in the formation of identity, is examined. African American feminist literature consists of common themes like sense of being different, managing multiple selves and quest for identity. Terry McMillan’s works represent African American female characters’ struggle for self-realization that help them in better understanding of the present and planning for the future by reestablishing their identity. The predicament of Georgia, protagonist of the novel, is that she has lost selfhood after subsequent divorces. In due course of time, her role in the family becomes diminished; also she loses interest in the professional life. Her aimlessness and strong desire to restore self leads her to search for male companion among her old boyfriends. She believes that self-satisfaction is possible with exploration of self for that she decides to go on a train trip and tries to focus on nurturing the hobby of woodwork. It helps her in regaining her internal and external self. Thus, the leitmotif of the novel is the search for your own identity as an attempt of inquiry for the destined future.

This article examines the specifics and perspectives of the information and communication universe theory for the analysis of the mass media. The aim is to explain the application of the concept of “affordance” in the context of media theory. The term was introduced by psychologist James J. Gibson to describe the specific “inviting” nature of objects and events, which, through affordances, suggest an algorithm for subsequent actions. From this point of view, the information and communication universe makes it possible to use it for some important purposes for the subjects of communication. However, the quality and options for implementing the possibilities of affordance depend on the goals, interests and skills of the subject who is trying to work with this affordance. To use an analogy, the same axe could “invite” some people to chop wood for an old lady, and others to use it as a weapon against her in order to seize her pension benefits. The thesis on the functional usefulness of the category “information and communication universe” for the analysis of processes in the media system is put forward. Traditional ideas about the specifics of the production and consumption of texts are corrected. The author analyzes the affordances of the Internet as a subsystem of the information and communication universe. It helps to explain the radical differences in the assessment of network digital technologies by representatives of different research schools. The article outlines further prospects for the identification and use of hidden affordances.

The current issue of information access for different nations within one state is examined. The media of Quebec, the only francophone province of Canada, give us a clear example. However, Russian scholars almost disregard this domain. Therefore, the research is based on the Canadian works (M. Brunet, A. Beaulieu and J. Hamelin, W.H. Kesterton) in French and in English. The Royal Commission on Newspapers Report (1981), which described two separate media systems (French media and English media), was used as well. The focus is on the Franco-Canadian national problem and its influence on Quebec media historic evolution. This process moves from bilingual editions (two first newspapers were published in French and in English simultaneously) to modern monolingual media system. Through comparative analysis, the relationship between media bilingualism and media monolingualism in Quebec of 18-21st centuries is examined. Quebec’s modern information politics can be defined as media regionalism (French language and specific Quebec content). Media regionalism’s object is to resist federal doctrine “one country - one nation with two languages”, the base of Official Language Act (1969). As a result, the absence of traditional “federal” official media bilingualism in Quebec, which tries to save its national heritage by media regionalism, was discovered.

The article provides an analysis of the Russian citizens’ patriotic education taking into consideration the generation characteristics. The state patriotic education programs have been aimed at these audiences for the past twenty years and included special patriotic mass media activities. The authors apply to the theory of generations and identify the features of the Russian various age citizens' patriotic ideology and its correlation with state instruments and measures for patriotic education through the media for four periods (2001-2005, 2006-2010, 2011-2015, 2016-2020). The study addresses the mass media role and functions in public opinion forming; the research also comprises the exploring interaction between general state patriotic education and media as a patriotic idea guide for different generations groups. Generalizing their scientific results, authors conclude that it is necessary to revise the mass media role in patriotic education and formation of young patriots in future state programs, based on the peculiarities of the new generations’ vision of the world. The article includes the proposals and recommendations for the special mass media events promoting patriotic idea in new media to secure the most effective results of such programs implementation in the future.

China and India interactions are dominated by strategic and business concerns. Despite the massive growth of bilateral trade between China and India, tensions over territorial and political issues have also grown, particularly in the last years. These effects are mediated and often inflamed by media depictions and perceptions of these tensions. India and China are both aware that peace and cooperation are essential. But it seems some media are more intent on fanning the flames than focusing on the ties that bind the two ancient civilizations. The media can play a constructive role in promoting mutual understanding. This paper deals with different areas of bilateral competition and convergence covered by the media as well as discusses the key differences between the Indian media’s coverage of China and the Chinese media’s reporting on India of the last years and especially in 2020. The article proposes to discover the problems and perspectives of the Indian media in India-China relations today.

The analysis of A.S. Zhuleva’s monograph is carried out. The author investigates Nenets mythopoetic world model on the basis of pieces of fiction and attracts various sources to fulfill this task: myths, folklore, the epos, data from linguistics, ethnography and ethnology, history of people and also materials about traditional representations in consciousness of the modern person. In the course of the research the author considered works of the different periods, including such writers as Tyko Vylka, I. Nogo and also their followers: V. Ledkov, L. Laptsuy, L. Nenyang, Yu. Vella, A. Nerkagi, etc.