Semiotization of the past in the Lermontov studies of B.M. Eikhenbaum in the 1930s – early 1940s

Abstract

The research is based on the concept of the historical process as a semiotic system, formulated by B.A. Uspenskii. The article aims to analyse within the framework of this concept the historical and literary works of B.M. Eikhenbaum of the 1930s 1940s, dedicated to the meeting of Lermontov and Belinsky in the prison. Some of the papers discussed here have not been previously studied. The fact that Eikhenbaum frequently referred to that episode and mentioned it in different papers let us assume that it was significant not only from the literary and historical point of view, but it also contained unique significance for the researcher. The article extends the observations made by E.A. Toddes regarding the implicit projection of contemporary events into the historical past that helped Eikhenbaum to overcome prescriptions of the Soviet ideology and literary criticism. The evolution of the history concept in papers of Eikhenbaum was analyzed and the elements of the language, resembling the contemporary epoch, were demonstrated. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the historic past of the Lermontov studies, carried out by Eikheinbaum, is the double coded semiotic system simultaneously, expressing the literary and historical facts, as well as following the official discourse and containing the unofficial or individual discourse regarding the contemporaneity.Key words: Eikheinbaum, Lermontov, Belinsky, formalism, Soviet literary criticism, history of literature, history, modernity, semiotic system.