  Paderina-EG-vestnik-2025-2-ru.pdf |
- 10
- “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”: about the author’s title and its direct and figurative meaning
- Paderina E.G. “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”: about the author’s title and its direct and figurative meaning. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2025, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 75–81 (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-2-75-81
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-2-75-81
- УДК: 821.161.1.09”19”
- EDN: URIOQW
- Publish date: 2025-04-18
- Annotation: The title of Nikolai Gogol’s latest book, simple and understandable in appearance, was revealed from an unexpected side during the preparation of the text for the academic edition. The article continues the commentary on Nikolai Gogol’s title, that was previously focused on the idea of “the Correspondence”. The article presents the results of the analysis of the title in projection on the real history of the creation of the text. The article is focused on Nikolai Gogol’s definition of the components, selected from empiric correspondence, – “passages”. It turned out that the term “selected passages” does not mean letters or their fragments, since the majority of chapters are written without epistolary text sources. The meaning of a polysemantic word in a language and a frequent word in a book is concretised in different speech contexts of chapters; it takes part in the formation of significant motifs of the book (fields, for example). In the title the meaning of the word simultaneously points to the structure and composition, to the architectonics of the work and to “everything that is more related to the issues that currently occupy the society,” as Nikolai Gogol wrote in the preface to “Selected Passages..”
- Keywords: Nikolai Gogol, title, “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”, text history, text epistolary sources, academic commentary.
- Literature list: Annenkova E.I. “O sosloviiakh v gosudarstve”: nezavershennyi traktat ili nabrosok “Vybrannykh mest iz perepiski s druz'iami” Gogolia? [“On Estates in the State”: an Unfinished Treatise or a Sketch of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” by Gogol]. N.V. Gogol': Materialy i issledovaniia [N.V. Gogol. Research and Materials]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2009, vol. 2, pp. 148-259. (In Russ.) Annenkova E.I. Ot pisem k “Vybrannym mestam...” [From Letters to “Selected Passages…”]. N.V. Gogol': Materialy i issledovaniia [N.V. Gogol: Research and Materials]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2019, vol. 4, pp. 21-37. (In Russ.) Annenkova E.I. “Pis'mo v strukture ʽVybrannykh mest iz perepiski s druz'iami’ i epistoliarnoe nasledie Gogolia” [“A Letter in the Structure of ʽSelected Passages from Correspondence with Friends’ and Gogol's Epistolary Legacy”]. N.V. Gogol' i ego tvorcheskoe nasledie. Desiatye Iubileinye Gogolevskie chteniia [N.V. Gogol and his Creative Legacy. 10th Anniversary Gogol Readings]. Moscow, Festpartner Publ., 2010, pp. 45-52. (In Russ.) Balakshina Iu.V. Epistoliarnoe nasledie Gogolia kak istochnik “Vybrannykh mest iz perepiski s druz'iami” [Gogol's Epistolary Legacy as a Source of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”]. N.V. Gogol': Materialy i issledovaniia [N.V. Gogol: Research and Materials]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2019, vol. 4, pp. 38-48. (In Russ.) Georgievskii G. Gogol' i Zhukovskii v 1846 godu [Gogol and Zhukovsky in 1846]. Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia [Journal of the Ministry of Public Education: New Series], 1910 (April), vol. 16, pp. 253-290. (In Russ.) Gogol' N.V. Materialy i issledovaniia [Gogol N.V. Research and Materials], ed. by V.V. Gippius, ex. ed. Iu.G. Oksman. Moscow, Leningrad, AN SSSR Publ., 1936, vol. 1, 629 p. (In Russ.) Kudelin A.B. K kharakteristike istoricheskikh vzgliadov Gogolia: ot “Arabesok” k “Vybrannym mestam iz perepiski s druz'iami” [To Characterize Gogol's Historical Views: from “Arabesques” to “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”]. Kontekst, 1993, pp. 296-313. (In Russ.) Literaturnoe nasledstvo [Literary Heritage], vol. 58: Pushkin. Lermontov. Gogol. Moscow, AN SSSR Publ., 1952, 1059 p. (In Russ.) Paderina E.G. “Ne shumnoe po nazvaniiu” proizvedenie Gogolia: “Vybrannye mesta iz perepiski s druz'iamiˮ [Nikolay Gogol’s Work with “A Modest Title”: “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friendsˮ]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Vestnik of Kostroma State University], vol. 28, no. 2, 2022, pp. 93-98. (In Russ.) Paderina E. G. O dialogichnosti zhanrovoi prirody zamysla “Vybrannykh mest iz perepiski s druz'iami”: zametki na poliakh knigi Iu.V. Manna “V poiskakh zhivoi dushi…ˮ [On the Dialogism of Genre Nature of the Concept of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”: Notes on the Margins of the Book by Iu. V. Mann “In Search of a Living Soul...ˮ]. Izvestia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seria literatury i azyka [News of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Literature and Language Series], 2024, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. 5-21. (In Russ.) Tikhonravov N.S. Primechaniia redaktora i varianty. “Vybrannye mesta iz perepiski s druziamiˮ [Editor's Notes and Options. “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friendsˮ]. Sochineniia N.V. Gogolia. Т. 4 [Works by N.V. Gogol, vol. 4], 10nd ed. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo knizhnogo magazina V. Dumnova, pod firmoiu “Nasledniki brat'ev Salaevykhˮ Publ., 1889, pp. 465-547. (In Russ.) Voropaev V.A. Gogol' kak myslitel' [Gogol as a Philosopher]. N.V. Gogol' i ego tvorcheskoe nasledie. Desiatye Iubileinye Gogolevskie chteniia [N.V. Gogol and his Creative Legacy. 10th Anniversary Gogol Readings]. Moscow, Festpartner Publ., 2010, pp. 38-44. (In Russ.) Voropaev V.A. Nikolai Gogol': Opyt dukhovnoi biografii [Nikolai Gogol: The Experience of Spiritual Biography], 2nd ed. Moscow, Palomnik Publ., 2014, 336 p. (In Russ.)