Sergey Durylin on Shakespeare in the Russian Theatre: On the Question of the  Modalities of Theater Critical Writing in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s

Zhatkin, Dmitry N.; Serdechnaya, Vera

doi:10.31857/S160578800028327-5

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Sergey Durylin on Shakespeare in the Russian Theatre: On the Question of the Modalities of Theater Critical Writing in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s

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Sergey Durylin on Shakespeare in the Russian Theatre: On the Question of the Modalities of Theater Critical Writing in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s

PII

S160578800028327-5-1

DOI

10.31857/S160578800028327-5

Publication type

Article

Status

Published

Authors

Dmitry N. Zhatkin

Occupation: Professor
Affiliation: Penza State Technological University
Address: Penza, Russian Federation

Vera Serdechnaya

Occupation: Assistant Professor
Affiliation: Kuban State University
Address: Russian Federation, Krasnodar

Journal name

Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka

Edition

Volume 82 Issue 5

Pages

58-67

Abstract

The article examines Sergei Durylin’s writings in the 1930s–1950s as a theater critic (in particular, writing about Shakespeare in the Russian theater), interpreted as a marginal hypostasis of this author’s work. The methodological basis for the study is the method of context-hermeneutic approach applied by E.A. Korshunova to the work of Durylin the writer. Theater criticism became one of the main areas of Sergei Durylin’s work after his two exiles. Durylin’s historical research on Shakespeare on the Russian stage was never published (with the exception of actor’s biographies, where Shakespeare’s roles were touched upon), but his newspaper texts were published quite actively. In radical early Soviet rhetoric, he develops the most important provisions of the contemporary interpretation of Shakespeare: the opposition of the ‘active’ Soviet and decadent, ‘passive’ pre-revolutionary interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays; democratism of the ‘best’ examples of pre-revolutionary Shakespeare and Soviet interpretations of roles; correct understanding of Shakespeare exclusively in the Soviet theater. The rhetorical mask of a theater critic of a vulgar sociological nature developed by Durylin became his personal way of putting into print important ideas and topics: covering the history of Shakespeare on the Russian and Soviet stage.

Keywords

Sergey Durylin, theater studies, Russian Shakespeare, Shakespeareanism, Soviet press, 1930s

Acknowledgment

This study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation, project № 22-18-00027.

Received

22.01.2024

Publication date

29.01.2024

Number of characters

23719

Cite

GOST	Zhatkin D., Serdechnaya V. Sergey Durylin on Shakespeare in the Russian Theatre: On the Question of the Modalities of Theater Critical Writing in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s // Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka – 2024. – V. 82. – Issue 5 C. 58-67 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://izv-oifn.ru/S160578800028327-5-1 (circulation date: 20.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S160578800028327-5
MLA	Zhatkin, Dmitry N, Serdechnaya, Vera "Sergey Durylin on Shakespeare in the Russian Theatre: On the Question of the Modalities of Theater Critical Writing in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s." Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 82.5 (2024):58-67. DOI: 10.31857/S160578800028327-5
APA	Zhatkin D., Serdechnaya V. (2024). Sergey Durylin on Shakespeare in the Russian Theatre: On the Question of the Modalities of Theater Critical Writing in the USSR in the 1930s–1950s. Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 82(5), pp.58-67 DOI: 10.31857/S160578800028327-5

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