On the Specifics of the Methodology of Georgii Adamovich’s Literary Criticism

Abstract: The article analyzes the creative manner of G. Adamovich in his reception of new literary works. But it is that very point which is of the main interest nowadays due to it’s specifics. Adamovich’s literary criticism can be defined as a specific genre of “literary conversation”. It has syncretic character, including elements of criticism-related genres — essays, memoirs, philosophical reflection and actual conversations with the reader. When analyzing individual authors, works or topics, Adamovich avoids methodical reasoning and does not adhere to a certain theoretical doctrine. His ‘method’ is something like an existential ‘meeting’ with the author he is studying, deliberately formulated not in direct and rigid characteristics, but in a ‘roundabout’ way through a personal impression and some detail of the artistic world. This sets the reader up for his own meeting with a poet or a writer. The task of the critic in Adamovich’s ‘performance’ is to set the reader up for it by his own example. Adamovich does not set the task of building a strict literary ‘canon’ (although in fact this ‘canon’ is secretly built by him), but first of all he strives to bring literature to the reader’s life as close as possible. This can explain his special ‘charm’, which especially affected young people, and his special long-term creative efficiency, which made him some kind of literary ‘chronicler’ of the entire epoch. The volume and quality of the critical heritage of Georgii Adamovich objectively allows us to consider him as the most ‘iconic’ 20^th century Russia literary critic, similar to the ‘iconic’ status of Vissarion Belinskii in the 19^th century.

Кeywords: Georgii Adamovich, literary criticism, method, “Paris school”.

Information about the author: Vitalii Iu. Darenskii, DSc in Philosophy, Professor, Moscow K.G. Razumovsky State University of Technology and Management, Zemlianoy Val St. 73, 109004 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid. org/0000-0003-2042-5527

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation: Darenskii, V.Iu. “On the Specifics of the Methodology of Georgii Adamovich’s Literary Criticism.” Emigrantica. Issue 1: In memory of Oleg Korostelev, ed.-comp. E.R. Ponomarev, sci. ed. E.R. Ponomarev, M. Schruba, ed. M.S. Shchavlinskii, D.V. Zaitsev. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 209–222. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-1-209-222

REFERENCES

Korostelev, O.A. “Georgii Adamovich i russkoe Zarubezh’e” [Georgii Ad-amovich and the Russian Abroad]. Novyi filologicheskii vestnik, no. 1 (52), 2020, pp. 313–319. DOI: 10.24411/2072-9316-2020-00025 (In Russian)
Korostelev, O.A. “Kommentarii k ‛Kommentariiam’” [“Comments on ‛Com-ments’”]. Adamovich, G.V. Sobranie sochinenii: v18 t. [Collected Works: in 18 vols.], vol. 14: Kommentarii (1967). Esseistika 1923–1971 [Comments (1967). Essays 1923–1971]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Dmitriia Sechina Publ., 2016, pp. 423–435. (In Russian)
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Received: October 02, 2021
Approved: March 06, 2022
Date of publication: October 07, 2024

On the Specifics of the Methodology of Georgii Adamovich’s Literary Criticism

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