Émigré writers such as Kahlil Gibran and Mikhail Naimy proved that it is possible to transcend their historical limitations to become leading literary figures. An examination of the historical ...context of these writers is important for a rich understanding of their works. The themes addressed in such literary works are better appreciated within their cultural environment, and not as objects detached from their times, author and readers1. It can be rightfully argued that such works cannot be fully appreciated without delving into the intricacies of the political ideologies and economic crises of previous centuries. This article does not aim to perform such an undertaking, regardless of its literary merit; however, it presents an overview of the historical context surrounding the Émigré literary movement as a product of two cultures bridged by immigration at the turn of the 20th century. This is based on the belief that a profound critical engagement with Émigré works is better achieved with an examination of their historical and literary background. Thus, this article serves as a foundation for profound literary analyses of Émigré works. 1 Payne, 2005 : 3-4, on the importance of a historical context.
The philosopher Lev Shestov aimed to establish a new
free
way of thinking, which manifested itself as a struggle against the delusion that we have a rational grasp of the necessary truths on matters ...that are of the greatest importance to us, such as the questions of life and death. Philosophy, as the Russian philosopher understood it, is not pure thinking, but ‘some kind of inner doing, inner regeneration, or second birth’ (Shestov in
Lektsii po Istorii Grecheskoi Filosofii
Lectures on the history of Greek philosophy, YMCA-PRESS, Moscow, 2001, p. 53). Having adopted the notion of the ‘regeneration of one’s convictions’ from Dostoevsky’s vocabulary in his earlier works, Shestov developed the idea of ‘awakening’ further in his mature thought, in which the motif of ‘awakening’ comprised one of the main ideas of his philosophy: the fight for the individual’s right to freedom and to creative transformation at a time when she is in despair or on the brink of death. In this article, I analyse Shestov’s idea of ‘awakening’ as one of the key tropes and developmental characteristics of his philosophical vision. In particular, I argue that, having stemmed from Shestov’s earlier interpretations of Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and Plotinus, in his later writings, the notion of ‘awakening’—the possibility of a fundamental, inner transformation of one’s worldview (
probuzhdenie, pererozhdenie
)—marked the beginning of a new salvific mode in his writing.
The focus of this research is the concept of Laughter in Russian émigré literature. The particular aim of this article is to analyse this concept in the memoirs of Nadezhda Teffi, one of the writers ...from the first wave of Russian emigration. The subject of this analysis is the lexis taken from the volumes Memoirs (1933) and My Chronicle (2015). The analysis focuses on distinguishing the semantic structure of the concept of Laughter, and the ways of its linguistic expression in the literary text. During the process of analysis, we refer to the methodology proposed by Josif Sternin which made it possible to distinguish, in the structure of concepts, various mental units of the author’s image of the world as verbalised in literary texts (objective and individual-author meanings and images). Moreover, this study uses a descriptive method and a functional and stylistic analysis. Based on the linguistic analysis carried out, we conclude that the concept of Laughter is widely represented in Teffi’s memoirs. The individual-author’s meanings representing the periphery of the concept analysed have a different connotation. The feelings and emotions expressed through laughter in the depicted world are positive, negative and neutral. The frequency of use of the lexical units, and the variety of their updating, prove that the concept of Laughter has an important place in Teffi’s linguistic worldview.
This article discusses in detail the content of the collection The Zygmunt Haupt Papers, 1907-1976, held in Special Collections at Stanford University Libraries. In particular, it describes the Voice ...of America broadcasts prepared by the writer, as well as his life and writings, and provides a summary of the research conducted on Haupt. It briefly discusses The Zdzisław Ruszkowski Papers, the supplemental collection linked recently to Haupt's archives.
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