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Abstract: The Soviet epoch was the period of academician Viktor M. Zhirmunskii''s (1891–1971) most prolific creative activity. European literature (mostly German and English literature) became the main subject of his scholarly interests. The most prominent works by Zhirmunskii dealt with two great figures of those literatures: J.W. Goethe and Lord Byron. In 1922 a collection of Byron''s dramatic works was edited and prepared by the publishing house “Vsemirnaia Literatura” (“World Literature”) with an introductory article written by Zhirmunskii. (V.M. Zhirmunskii, Zhizn'' i tvorchestvo Bairona [Life and Works of G.G. Byron]). The same year Goethe''s Faust was also published, translated by N.A. Kholodkovskii, with an introductory article by Zhirmunskii. A distinctive peculiarity of these papers was a deep philosophical understanding of the works by Goethe and Byron. The main problem of Faust, as stressed in the article by Zhirmunskii, was an idea of “the perpetual urge of the human soul which reveals the divine nature of a human being”. In his article about Byron, Zhirmunskii deals with the problem of so-called “Byronism”, as well as the rebelliousness and individualism of Byron''s passionate characters. Zhirmunskii deals with the same problems in his later works on Goethe and Byron written in 1940 for two volumes: History of German Literature and History of English Literature. However, in the full swing of Stalin''s epoch a scholar had to censor his writings, to change definitions, and to somewhat soften certain descriptive statements remaining, altogether, faithful to his overall uncompromising scholarly credo. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Maksim Shapir was preparing this paper for the present issue of Russian Literature at the time of his death. The text was fully conceived, but he did not finish writing it. Only his working materials were preserved, and are published here. Shapir''s approach is as follows. Bakhtin/Voloshinov''s book expresses totalitarian, anti-philological, postmodernist ideology. For them, the sign is social: there is no ideology without the sign, nor any sign without social ideology. Language is considered as superstructure and an arena of class struggle; thus, they are close to Marr. They envisage every word as ideologically charged and evaluative: just as, for Lenin, any literature expresses party affiliation. Consciousness is realized in semiotic, socially oriented form: personal space is suppressed by social space. For Bakhtin/Voloshinov, understanding is a dialogue, while philology is a monologue: dialogism (as adaptation of the text to new needs) is preferred to philologism (as understanding of the work in the context of its creation). Such anti-philologism makes this book the earliest expression of postmodernist ideology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author sketches the representation of concepts of time and number as constituents of calendars in ancient texts (the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, the Bible, Hesiod''s Works and Days). In the second part the author explores the role of (calendar) units of time (dates, weeks, months, years) in the poetry of Khlebnikov, Pasternak, Kharms and Zabolotskii. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The article explores the representation of St. Petersburg in 18th-century Russian panegyric literature from the point of view of rhetorical topoi. The ancient and humanistic tradition of laus urbis provided established categories for the conceptualisation of the new capital that were first adapted by Gavriil Buzhinskii and Feofan Prokopovich. Following the development of specific St. Petersburg topoi in the 18th century the paper focuses on the perception of urban space both in panegyric literature and visual art. It shows how the point of view in the description of the city changes from Lomonosov''s encomiastic prose and Makhaev''s lithographies to Derzhavin''s odes and Quarenghi''s aquarelles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper an analysis is presented of the 1920 poem “The Woollen Needles of Death...” by Riurik Ivnev, a poet who combines elements from the Symbolist tradition with Imagism, with which he was affiliated. The author demonstrates the tension between the literal and metaphorical significance of the poem''s imagery, in particular with respect to bodily and physical motifs. Special attention is given to the multifaceted roles of the addressee(s) within and without the poem, the blurring of which is characteristic of avant-garde poetics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the author examines the meaning of (celebrating) holidays in the story ‘Gulia’ and other works by Liudmila Ulitskaia. The semantics of Russian prazdn- are discussed, along with the general social-cultural function of holidays. As these can be regarded as “empty time” (cf. É. Durkheim and M. Epshtein), the way it is “filled in” becomes highly relevant for the heroine of Ulitskaia''s story and her characterization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper explores the organic as opposed to the artificial in Bitov''s works. The latter is often subjected to irony – in the case of the hero-narrator, to self-irony. Bitov''s skepticism often leads to the unmasking of seemingly attractive places and characters. Nevertheless in Bitov''s work we can detect a distinctly positive strain, a sincere striving towards organicity and authenticity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper discusses Bitov''s lyrics, mainly with respect to versification and the connection between his prose and poetry. The unusual metrical-strophical and rhythmical organization of his poetry allows us to surmise that it is oriented neither towards contemporary nor towards obvious traditional models, which can be explained by viewing it in the cultural context of the second half of the twentieth century. The link between Bitov''s prose and poetry can be called “conceptual continuity”, since many of his poems have a counterpart in his prose. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper the connectedness of (non-)eating and (non-)being is explored by an analysis of the occurrence of food in Kharms''s works. Attention is paid to the symbolism of various kinds of food and edible matter, along with a discussion of liquids, especially water, a highly significant theme in Kharms''s works. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper analyses the concept of “thing” (“veshch''”) as it is used in the poetics of Kharms and Oberiu, but also in the discourse on aesthetics in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Also discussed is Kharms''s use of “object” (“predmet”), which is connected with the phenomenological tradition (mediated by Ia.S. Druskin). In the final analysis the “thing” belongs to the plane of a “first reality”, whereas the “object” belongs to a “real reality”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The article examines Kharms''s views on literary evolution and historical changes as expressed in The Comedy of the City of Petersburg. Kharms''s play presents a large number of different fragments: pre- and post-1917 historical events and personages, but also spiritual values, literary and mythological heroes. The city''s name represents a determining factor of its destiny. The paper demonstrates how Kharms turns his play into a “text about texts”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the present paper an attempt is made to arrive at a systematic description of Kharms''s life-creating model of behaviour, which runs through the sense-generating aspects of his activity. A central place is taken by the topics of “play” (Johan Huizinga''s “Homo ludens”), “aesthetics of life”, and “masks”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper deals with the role of nineteenth- and twentieth-century anarchism, and in the wider sense, anarchy in the Russian Avantgarde. Anarchist ideas were a strong factor in Malevich''s ideas and work, culminating in the “Black Square”. The work of Kharms is closely connected with both anarchy and Malevich, as the element of the absurd favours principles such as non-selectiveness, de-hierarchization. Moreover, for Kharms basic “closed forms” such as square, point, circle and (straight) line are of great importance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The author analyses Kharms''s 1937 “Self-portrait at the Window”. It is demonstrated by adducing the writer''s notes on Flemish painters that Jan van Eyck''s, and other fifteenth-century masters'', innovative work served as point of orientation for Kharms''s drawing. In the second part of the paper Kharms''s pseudonyms are discussed and linked with the Kabbala, the Jewish mystical and Biblical tradition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper discusses the theme of male and female corporeality in Kharms''s work. Physical motifs are of great signficance, especially the (top of the) head and the heels as extremes, the “boundaries of the body”. These are symbolically linked with life and death, with rebirth and resurrection, in particular in connection with the motifs of physical deformation and dismemberment in Kharms''s work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]