Works of Academician A. N. Veselovsky on the epic: conceptual and methodological aspect

Abstract

DOI 10.25587/a1682-8086-4671-y

In the legacy of the outstanding Russian scholar and teacher A. N. Veselovsky (1838-1906), a decent place occupies a circle of work on the history of the epic. We are talking both about fundamental comparative historical studies, and about his small notes, critical articles and reviews, lectures on the history of the epic, prints of work with the author’s additions, unpublished essays both in Russian and in foreign languages (which are in volume no less than what has been published) stored in the personal archive of the scholar in the handwritten manuscripts department of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This article analyzes the conceptual and methodological views of Academician Veselovsky; reveals what signs of the epic he attributed to the genre ones; establishes why and how he took into account procedural, functional, structural, semiological, ideological, aesthetic, socio-political, economic, national and other criteria in the analysis of texts; attempts to explain what helped him to conduct an objective and multifaceted study of epic plots, restore lost, forgotten, missing, existing implicitly motives and other plot elements, restore the internal connections and functions of epic heroes in the same type and fragmentary texts, etc. Despite the fact that in the 20th century, Veselovsky has been often reproached in schematism, positivism, evolutionism, in the incompleteness of his theories, etc., with attentive consideration it becomes apparent that there are productive ideas and the theoretical foundations in his writings, which later served as an incentive of development in the epoch of such directions as textology, semiotics, morphology, scenery, pragmatics, ethnology, etc. Researchers widely use the received comparative historical, structural-functional, semantico-stylistic, historical contextual and other methods of studying traditional culture, developed by the scholar. We want to restore historical justice and re-evaluate the merits of Veselovsky in the field of epic.

References

1. Azbelev S. N. Manuscripts by A. N. Veselovsky on the National Epos. In: Yearbook of the manuscript department of Pushkin House for 1990. Saint-Petersburg, 1993, pp. 3-16. (In Russ.)
2. Veselovsky A. N. Selected article. Edition by Alekseeva M. P., Desnaitsky V. A., Zhirmunsky V. M., Smirnova A. A. Leningrad, Artistic literature Publ., 1939, 572 p. (In Russ.)
3. Veselovsky A. N. Historical poetics. Edition, introductory article and V. M. Zhirmunsky’s notes. Leningrad, Artistic literature Publ., 1940. 648 p. (In Russ.)
4. Dementiev A. G. For the Bolshevik Party of Science of Literature. Literature v shkole. 1948, no. 4, pp. 21-27. (In Russ.)
5. Azbelev S. N. A.N. Veselovsky’s legacy in epic studies in modern times. Russkiy folklor, 1995, Vol. XVIII, pp. 32-44. (In Russ.)
6. Veselovsky A. N. New research on French epics. Magazine of the Ministry of Folk Enlightenment. 1885, part CCXXXVIII, April, pp. 239-285. (In Russ.)
7. Zhirmunsky V. M. Historical poetics of A. N. Veselovsky. In: Veselovsky A. N. Historical poetics. Edition, introductory article and V. M. Zhirmunsky’s notes. Leningrad, Artistic literature Publ., 1940, pp. 3-37. (In Russ.)
8. Veselovsky A. N. From lectures on the history of the epic. In: A. N. Veselovsky. Historical poetics. Edition, introductory article and notes of V. M. Zhirmunsky’s. Leningrad, Artistic literature Publ., 1940, pp. 446-492. (In Russ.)
9. Veselovsky A. N. From lectures on the history of the epic. In: Typology of the National epic. Mosсow, Nauka Publ., 1975, pp. 287-319. (In Russ.)
10. Shishmarov V. F. Alexander Nikolaevich Veselovsky. Izvestia Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Department of Public Sciences. 1938, no. 4, pp. 3-42. (In Russ.)
11. Azbelev S. N. History of the epic in unpublished manuscripts A.N. Veselovsky. Russkaya literatura. 1988, no. 1, pp. 129–139. (In Russ.)
12. Veselovsky A. N. Epos. Edition S. N. Azbelheva. In: A. N. Veselovsky. Selected works and letters. Edition P. R. Zaborov. Saint-Petersburg, Nauka Publ, 1999, pp. 99-109. (In Russ.)
13. Veselovsky A. N. Epos (from the author’s abstract lecture courses 1881-1882 and 1884-1885). In: A. N. Veselovsky. Selected: The path to historical poetics. Compiled by, and afterword and comments written by I. O. Shaitanov. Moscow, Avtokniga Publ., 2010, pp. 507-520. (In Russ.)
14. Gusev V. E. Problems of the theory and history of folklore in the works of A. N. Veselovsky at end of the 19th – early 20th century. Russkiy folklor. 1962, vol. 7, рp. 217-240. (In Russ.)
15. Veselovsky A. N. [Critique]: Two Warsaw dissertations. Vestnik Yevropy. 1872, August, pp. 902-918. (In Russ.)
16. Veselovsky A. N. New studies in the field of Russian folk poetry. Second article. German work on Russian epics. Russische Revue. 1882, vol. XI, part. 5, pp. 403–446. (In German)
17. Veselovsky A. N. [Critique]: “Proceedings of the ethnographic-statistical expedition to the West-Russian region, equipped by the imperial Russian geographic society, the south-western department. Materials and research collected by P. P. Chubinsky, 7 volumes» (1880). In: Veselovsky A.N. Selected: epic and ritual traditions. Compilation of volume, notes, archaeographic work, afterword by T. V. Govenko. Moscow, Political Encyclopedia Publ., 2013, pp. 527-594. (In Russ.)
18. Veselovsky A. N. [Critique]: «I. Zhdanov. To the literary history of Russian historical poetry. Kiev, 1881». Magazine of the Ministry of Folk Enlightenment. 1884, part. CCXXXI, рp. 359-396. (In Russ.)
19. Azbelev S. N. Work of A. N. Veselovsky South Russian epics: Problems of publication. In: Alexander Veselovsky. Relevant aspects of heritage. Research and materials. Saint-Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2011, pp. 72-79. (In Russ.)
20. Veselovsky A. N. The Bylina of Volchv Vseslavievich and the poem about Ortnit. Edition by S. N. Azbelev. Russkiy folklor. 1993, vol. 27, pp. 273-312. (In Russ.)
21. Veselovsky A.N. Selected: epic and ritual traditions. Compilation of volume, notes, archaeographic work, afterword by T. V. Govenko. Moscow, Political Encyclopedia Publ., 2013, 639 p. (In Russ.)
22. Bagno V. E., Plukhanova M. B. A. N. Veselovsky: Relevant aspects of heritage. In: Alexander Veselovsky. Actual aspects of heritage. Research and materials. Saint-Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2011, pp 3-16. (In Russ.)
23. Engelgardt B. M. Alexander Nikolaevich Veselovsky. Petrograd, Kolos Publ., 1924, 214 p. (In Russ.)
24. Eremina V. I. Knowledge of truth: from the history of Russian folklore of the 19th-20th centuries. Saint-Petersburg, Svoe izdatelstvo Publ., 2019, 604 p. (In Russ.)
25. Veselovsky A. N. South Russian epics. In: Veselovsky A.N. Selected: epic and ritual traditions. Compilation, notes, archaeographic work, afterword by T. V. Govenko. Moscow, Political Encyclopedia Publ., 2013, pp. 10-432. (In Russ.)
26. Khalizev V. E. Historical poetics: developmental prospects. In: Problems of historical poetics. Petrozavodsk, 1980, iss. 1, pp. 3-10. (In Russ.)
27. Veselovsky A. N. On the method and objectives of the history of literature as a science. In: A. N. Veselovsky. Selected: The path to historical poetics. Compilation, afterword, and comments by I. O. Shaitanov. Moscow, Avtokniga Publ., 2010, pp. 9-28. (In Russ.)
28. Khalansky M. G. Russian epics Kiev cycle. Moscow, 1885, 235 p. (In Russ.)
29. Bakhtin M. M. The Epic and the Novel. Saint-Petersburg, Azbuka Publ., 2000, 300 p. (In Russ.)
30. Manuscript department Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House): F. 45. Reg. 1. No. 329. (In Russ.)
31. Zymtor P. Experience in creating medieval poetics. Saint-Petersburg, Alteya Publ., 2003, 544 p. (In Russ.)
32. Veselovskiy (Wesselofsky) A. N. [Critique]: “Song of the girl-warrior and epics about the Star of Godinovich. Study on the history of the development of the Slavic-Russian epic. I. Mostrovich. Warsaw, 1886”. Archiv für Slavische Philologie. 1887, Vol. X, pp. 27-42 (In Russ.)
33. Veselovsky A. N. The poetics of plot. In: Veselovsky A.N. Selected: Historical poetics. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2006, pp. 535-652. (In Russ.)
34. Veselovsky A. N. The definition of poetry. In: A. N. Veselovsky. Selected: Historical poetics. Introductory article, comments, and compilation by I. O. Shaitanov. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2006, pp. 81-170. (In Russ.)
35. Veselovsky A.N. Notes and doubts about the comparative study of the medieval epic (about Italian fairy tales). In: Collected works of Alexander Nikolaevich Veselovsky. Vol. XVI. Moscow, Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR Publ., 1938, pp. 1-82. (In Russ.)
36. Veselovsky A.N. From the introduction to historical poetics. Questions and Answers (1894). In: A. N. Veselovsky. Selected: The path to historical poetics. Compilation, afterword, and comments by I. O. Shaitanov. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2010, pp. 55–80. (In Russ.)
37. Neklyudov S. Yu. The Folkloric landscape of Mongolia : the literary and oral epic. Moscow, Indrik Pubi., 2019, 592 p. (In Russ.)
38. Veselovsky A. N. History or theory of the novel? In: A. N. Veselovsky. Selected: On the way to historical poetics. Compilation, afterword, and comments by I. O. Shaitanov. Moscow, Avtokniga Publ., 2010, pp. 577-602. (In Russ.)
39. Veselovsky A. N. Critical and bibliographic notes (1879). In: Veselovsky A. N. Selected: Critical articles and notes. Compiled by T. V. Govenko. Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Center for Humanitarian Initiatives Publ., 2016, pp. 96-109. (In Russ.)
40. Novikov Yu. A. Fazier and the epic tradition. Saint-Petersburg, Dmitry Bulanin Publ., 2000, 373 p. (In Russ.)
41. Azbelev S. N. Veselovsky and the historical study of the epic. In: Legacy of Alexander Veselovsky. Research and materials. Saint-Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 1992, pp. 6-31. (In Russ.)