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Department of Literary Studies

Head of the department – Elizaveta V. Sokolova

 

Historical overview and research focus areas of the department:

During its formative years in the 1970s and 1980s, the primary objective of the Department of Literary Studies was to provide scientific information on international and domestic literary studies and criticism. The goal was to encourage the flow of ideas and stimulate lively polemics, thereby fostering the flourishing of professional life and wider cultural engagement, while addressing cultural isolation. Reviving the genre of summary, which is traditional in Russian humanities, the Department was focusing on the objective presentation of ideas and the content of refereed books. Throughout that period, the Department has been publishing abstracting journals on literary studies within Russia and abroad, as well as collections of summaries and analytical reviews. These publications covered trends in foreign literary studies (1974, 1981, 1983, managing editors – Elena A. Tsurganova, Ilya P. Ilyin), modern foreign analyses of medieval and Renaissance literature (1979, editor and compiler – Tatiana N. Krasavchenko), research on the 17th and 18th centuries, presented in two volumes (1981, editor and compiler – Tatiana N. Krasavchenko), romanticism (1976, managing editors – Albert V. Karelsky, Elena M. Dyakonova), the works of Pushkin (1986, executive editors – Alexander N. Nikolyukin, Elena M. Dyakonova; 1999, executive editors – Renata A. Galtseva, Tatiana G. Yurchenko) and Gogol (1984, executive editor – Albert V. Karelsky), contemporary foreign literature (1989, executive editor – Alexander N. Nikolyukin), literary interrelations between East and West (1989, executive editors – Elena M. Dyakonova), analyses of Mikhail Bulgakov’s works (1991, editor and compiler – Tatiana N. Krasavchenko), and studies on the academic contributions of Mikhail М. Bakhtin (1996, executive editor – Tatiana G. Yurchenko), etc. During its early years, the Department nurtured the scientific careers of prominent Russian scholars such as Albert V. Karelsky, Ilya P. Ilyin, Alexander E. Makhov, and Elena M. Dyakonova. The Department’s publications included works from both amateur scholars of the 1970s-80s generation and experts who became central to Russian literary criticism. Noteworthy among these were Marietta O. Chudakova, Alexey M. Zverev, Georgy K. Kosikov, Mikhail L. Andreev, Olga A. Sedakova, Lyudmila V. Evdokimova, Vera A. Milchina, Hasan Ch. Huseynov, Svetlana I. Piskunova, Sergey N. Zenkin, Sergey L. Kozlov, Yuri N. Girin, and Andrey F. Kofman.

By the late 1970s, the research focus of the Department’s staff was well-established. In 1977, the works of Elena A. Tsurganova, Tatiana N. Krasavchenko, Ilya P. Ilyin, and Elena M. Dyakonova were featured in the book “Theories, Schools, Concepts: The Artistic Text and the Context of Reality” (Science Publ.). Later, in 1990, the publishing house Science released a collective monograph, “A Modern Novel: Research Experience”, with significant contributions from the Department’s research staff.

During the 1990s, Alexander N. Nikolyukin, one of the pioneering scholars in the study of the literary heritage of the first wave of Russian emigration, organized an influential project involving the majority of the Department’s staff and external authors. This collaborative effort led to the publication of “The Literary Encyclopedia of the Russian Abroad (1918-1940)”, spanning four volumes from 1997 to 2006. By 2001, under Nikolyukin’s leadership and with joint efforts from the Department, the “Literary Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts” was created. This work featured numerous terms and concepts related to literary genres, schools, groups, and circles that were previously missing from domestic encyclopedias and reference books.

The Department continued its work on encyclopedic publications, achieving significant scientific milestones with the releases of “Western Literary Studies of the Twentieth Century: Encyclopedia” (2004) and “European Poetics from Antiquity to the Age of Enlightenment: An Encyclopedic Guide” (2010), both edited by Alexander E. Makhov and Elena A. Tsurganova.

The “Literary Journal” (“Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal”) published by INION RAN since 1993, was founded and edited by A.N. Nikolyukin until his passing in 2023. The journal has established itself as a highly professional periodical publication which is listed by the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (Q2).

The Department continued its work on encyclopedic publications, achieving significant scientific milestones with the releases of “Western Literary Studies of the Twentieth Century: Encyclopedia” (2004) and “European Poetics from Antiquity to the Age of Enlightenment: An Encyclopedic Guide” (2010), both edited by Alexander E. Makhov and Elena A. Tsurganova.

 

Key researchers:

 

Main works of the Department of Literary Studies:

 

Latest major publications in prestigious scientific journals and collections: