in the Soviet and post-Soviet literary criticism
The article is an attempt to analyze the key concepts of «epic»,
«epopee» and «epic class». The presented analysis reveals the ambiguity of perception
of these concepts in the Soviet and post-Soviet literary works. Description
of this this problem is given in the «central» texts (encyclopedia, literary
encyclopedia, literary dictionaries, textbooks, and so on) of Soviet literary criticism.
In the course of the analysis of the theoretical and educational literature,
the «sources» (German idealist philosophy, «Russian imitators») of conceptual
«noise» (in the semiotic sense) are identified that have influenced and still partly
govern as stereotypes the understanding of these concepts in the post-Soviet
Russian-language literary thought.
The confusion was that (mostly) «epopee» and «epic» were perceived
as completely different concepts. Polysemy was also connected with the concepts
of «epic» and the drama as a genre and class signifier.
There was no clear line of demarcation between the concepts of «literary
class» and «genre», as it was not perceived and accentuated in the Soviet literary
criticism. «Sources» of the confusion in the Soviet literary criticism were the
German philosophers of the XIX century (Schelling, Hegel, etc.) as well as their
«Russian epigones» (Belinsky).
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