The article contains a comparative study of the visual poetics observed in the literary texts of American writer Ambrose Bierce and Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov. In particular, the study focuses on Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Nabokov’s three short stories “Details of a Sunset”, “Aurelian”, and “Perfection”, in all three of which a number of narrative tools, images, and motifs borrowed from Bierce’s text can be found. The representation of the bridge and the narrativization of mystical insight are regarded as the principal features of the correlative imagery systems. These features are analyzed in order to discover Bierce’s and Nabokov’s understandings of the artist, visual imagination, and the freedom of will.

The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way—is a Russian hesychast text that was first published in 1881 and translated into English in 1931. It has gained popularity in the English-speaking world thanks to J.D. Salinger who mentions and re-narrates it in his stories “Franny” and “Zooey”. This reference has often been noted in both critical works on Salinger and studies dedicated to the book The Way of a Pilgrim. However, scholars have never actually attempted to fundamentally analyze the textual interconnections between Salinger’s stories and the hesychast work. In this article, the text of The Way of a Pilgrim is read within the framework of Salinger’s stories and is interpreted as being significant for his later texts. From the hesychast book Salinger borrows a number of images and presents its philosophy as a spiritual ideal. At the same time, he approaches it with a certain irony and exposes several pitfalls of incorrectly interpreting the Jesus prayer, as illustrated by Franny, one of Salinger’s characters. Having brought to light the nature of Franny’s mistakes and her peccant intention, Salinger reestablishes the hesychast ideal and connects it with Søren Kierkegaard’s principle of theistic existentialism.

No abstract

No abstract

В статье проводится сравнительный анализ текстов русского писателя Андрея Иванова (р. 1971) и американского культового автора Генри Миллера (1891-1980). В своей «скандинавской трилогии», которая принадлежит к серьезным явлениям современной русской прозы, Андрей Иванов развивает специфическую традицию американской литературы, связанную с текстами Генри Миллера и восходящую к Г. Д. Торо и Уолту Уитмену. В статье делается попытка проследить трансформацию этой традиции в прозе Андрея Иванова. Отмечается некоторое сходство в биографиях обоих писателей, их статус иностранцев, «чужаков» в культуре, которой они принадлежат. Авторы связаны общим религиозным поиском, представлением о бессмысленности мира и наличии во всех его проявлениях скрытой энергии. Но в то время как Генри Миллер видит в ней источник удовольствия и пытается заставить своего персонажа с ней воссоединиться, Андрей Иванов, ощущая ее присутствие в мире, ужасается. Библиогр. 25 назв.