Введение в литературоведение = An Introduction to Critical Reading

S.A. Vasilyev

AN INTRODUCTION
TO CRITICAL READING

A Study Guide

Translated from Russian by A.I. Parfenov
Translation editor N.D. Belonozhko

С.А. Васильев

ВВЕДЕНИЕ
В ЛИТЕРАТУРОВЕДЕНИЕ

Учебное пособие

Москва
Издательство «ФЛИНТА»
2023

УДК 82.09(075.8)
ББК 83.3(0)я73
В19

Р е ц е н з е н т
Г.Ю. Минералов
П е р е в о д
А.И. Парфенов
Редактор п е р е в о д а 
Н.Д. Белоножко

В19 

Васильев С.А.
Введение в литературоведение = An Introduction to Critical 
Reading : учебное пособие / С.А. Васильев ; пер. А.И. Парфенов ; 
ред. Н.Д. Белоножко. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 2023. — 308 с. — 
ISBN 978-5-9765-5105-3. — Текст : электронный.

   Учебное пособие представляет собой сопровожденный методическими материалами полный курс лекций по дисциплине «Введение в 
литературоведение». Теоретическая основа дисциплины разработана 
на основе трудов П.Н. Сакулина, А.Ф. Лосева, Ю.И. Минералова, 
других ученых русской академической традиции.
  Пособие будет полезно студентам-филологам классических и педагогических университетов, слушателям Высших литературных 
курсов, а также всем интересующимся литературой и проблемами ее 
понимания, анализа и интерпретации.

The textbook is a complete Study Guide on Introduction to Critical 
Reading, accompanied by methodological materials. The theoretical 
foundations of the discipline were developed on the basis of the works 
by P.N. Sakulin, A.F. Losev, Yu.I. Mineralov, scholars of the Russian 
academic tradition.
The Study Guide will be useful for students-philologists of classical 
and teacher training universities, everyone interested in literature and the 
problems of its understanding, analysis and interpretation.

УДК 82.09(075.8)
ББК 83.3(0)я73

ISBN 978-5-9765-5105-3 
© Васильев С.А., 2023
© Парфенов А.И., перевод, 2023
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2023

CONTENT

Inrtoduction  .......................................................................................................4

Chapter 1. 
Place of philology among the humanities.
Critical reading as a scientifi c discipline  ....................................8

Chapter 2. 
Why do we study literature? On the nature of the artistic
principle. Types of connection between the image
and the idea ...............................................................................20

Chapter 3. 
Kinds of art. Verbal artistic form  ..............................................37

Chapter 4. 
Epic genres: “extrapersonal givenness”  ...................................54

Chapter 5. 
Dramatic genres: “extrapersonal givenness
turning personal”  ......................................................................79

Chapter 6. 
Lyric genres: “extrapersonal givenness turned personal”  ........95

Chapter 7. 
Plot and composition  ..............................................................115

Chapter 8. 
Tropes and semantics of poetic speech: poetics and style  ......131

Chapter 9. 
Figures and composition of poetical speech: theoretical
and functional aspects  ............................................................148

Chapter 10. Versifi cation. Poetic phonics. Rhyme  .....................................163

Chapter 11. Versifi cation. Metrics, stanzas, intonation  ..............................181

Chapter 12. The change of cultural epochs and literary process  ...............199

Chapter 13. Creativity kinds and literary movements  ...............................222

Chapter 14. The problem of artistic style  ...................................................241

Chapter 15. The style of an artistic work  ...................................................259

Afterword  ......................................................................................................273

Index of names and works  ............................................................................275

Index of terms and concepts  .........................................................................294

INTRODUCTION

An Introduction to Critical Reading course is given in different 
ways around the world. I would like to acquaint you with the 
approaches which are adopted in the studying of this discipline 
in Russia, to show how theoretical and practical questions of 
understanding literature as an artistic and also questions of the 
analysis of a work of art were solved and are being solved now 
according to the Russian Academic (that is the one, connected with 
the Academy of Sciences and the university education in Russia) 
philological tradition. Examples for illustrating one or another 
theoretical principle will be provided chiefl y from the history 
of Russian literature. So, it will be possible not only to bring into 
correlation the theory and the practice of the study of literary 
analysis more closely, but also to acquaint the participants — though 
only through some characteristic examples — with the creative 
works of Russian outstanding writers, solving one more important 
educational and cultural communication task1.
Formulating and considering the basic theses of the discipline we 
will turn to the works of Russian world-famous philologists created 
from the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century, 
including the ones by F.I. Buslaev, A.A. Potebnya, A.N. Veselovsky, 
P.N. Sakulin, A.F. Losev, Yu.M. Lotman, Yu.I. Mineralov. The 
book by academician V.M. Zhirmunsky An Introduction to Literary 
Studies, of which numerous editions were published (1996, 2005, 
2009, 2016 and others), and a manual by Yu.I. Mineralov Principles 
of Literary Theory (2nd ed., Moscow, 2019) can serve as guides to 
this approach.
Let us pay attantion to the term ‘style’, which in keeping with 
the Russian academic philological tradition is compared with the 
notion ‘poetics’. If poetics implies elucidation of the most general 
and abstract characteristics of the verbal artistic form, style (in 

1 Therefore, the terms used in this Study Guide may slightly alter in their 
meaning from their English analogues due to the differences in languages they 
exist in. We will try to explain the meaning of each throughout the course.

the general meaning of the term) presupposes examination of any 
peculiar, distinctive and individual features. Indeed, turning to the 
literary work as a reader or researcher, one usually deals with exactly 
these individual and concrete features of the author’s creativity2. 
Style (the word is derived from the Greek στύλος, which means 
a ‘stake’, a pointed instrument used for writing upon wax tablets) 
is one of the most ancient philological terms, the one implying 
exclusive polysemy. A.F. Losev devoted a whole book, entitled 
The Problem of Artistic Style (Kyiv, 1994), to this notion connected 
both with aesthetics and literary studies. At the same time, the basic 
contours of this term are quite determinate and presuppose a clearly 
identifi ed range of meanings.
P.N. Sakulin, the author of the book Theory of Literary Styles 
(1927), was a prominent theorist of this subject. He wrote that it 
is not a literary form itself which is of interest to a philologist and 
not all its characteristics either, but the style of the form. Sakulin 
provided the following defi nition of style: “Style is the peculiarity, 
the difference between the given form and the other ones, similar 
to it. Peculiarity or specifi c nature of the form is as a rule of most 
interest to a researcher. So, he believes that he studies form itself 
quite suffi ciently by studying only the style of the form”3.
The specifi c nature of the individual is manifested in this 
defi nition with special distinctness. The defi nition provided by 
Sakulin presupposes that literary concrete facts should be examined 
closely; it also prompts to compare not the remote phenomena 
(distinctions in the case of which are self-evident), but the allied 
ones. Such accentuation provides the conditions necessary for solid 
scientifi c analyses of literature and art as a whole. A.F. Losev wrote 
that a philologist may be wondering, for example, what distinctions 
a metaphor has in works by different authors (by Pushkin and 
Mayakovsky or others). Such comparison may be realized in various 

2 For more details see: Mineralov Yu.I. Fundamentals of Literary Theory: 
Poetics and Individuality. Moscow: Vlados, 1999. 357 p.

3 Sakulin P.N. Theory of Literary Styles // Sakulin P.N. Phililogy and 
Culturology. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 1990. P. 80.

directions contributing to our comprehension of literature and 
enriching our knowledge about artistic mastery of classic writers in 
particular.
Yu.I. Mineralov emphasized that the teaching of literary 
expressive means is within the scope of poetics, while the teaching 
of an author’s individual features in the application of those means 
is within the scope of style. Thus, poetics and style are inextricably 
linked. On the other hand, Mineralov noted that the term ‘poetics’ 
cannot be applied to the author’s individuality, since it is individual 
poetics that shapes the author’s style. One of the most important 
books on Pushkin written by V.V. Vinogradov (1894—1969) has 
exactly this title The Style of Pushkin (and not, for example, “The 
Poetics of Pushkin”, though similar titles may be also found, as in 
the case of the book by Yu.V. Mann entitled The Poetics of Gogol).
So, plunging into the depths of theoretical poetics, let us 
remember that this knowledge is important for us not in itself, but 
as an instrument for the comprehension of an author’s individual 
creativity, their style and, ultimately, their worldview artistically 
expressed in this style.
All the above mentioned defi nes the objectives of the 
Introduction to Critical Reading course4 which is of a propaedeutical 
nature by defi nition (‘introduction’). The most important of these 
objectives are:

4 Considerable academic and educational material has been accumulated in 
this discipline. See: An Introduction to Literary Studies / edited by G.N. Pospelov. 
3rd ed., revised and enlarged. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 1988. 528 p.; 
Zhirmunsky V.M. An Introduction to Literary Studies: A Course of Lectures / edited 
by Z.I. Plavskin, V.V. Zhirmunskaya. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University, 
1996. 440 p.; Farino Ye. An Introduction to Literary Studies. St. Petersburg: 
The Herzen State Pedagogical University of St. Petersburg, 2004. 639 p.; An 
Introduction to Literary Studies: A Study Guide / edited by L.V. Chernets. 5th ed., 
stereotyped. Moscow: Academia, 2012. 720 p.; An Introduction to Literary Studies: 
A Study Guide for Bachelor Students / endorsed by L.M. Krupchanov. 3rd ed., 
revised and enlarged. Moscow: Yurait, 2015. 479 p.; Prozorov V.V., Yelina Ye.G. 
An Introduction to Literary Studies: A Study Guide. Moscow: Flinta: Nauka, 2012. 
225 p. and some others including works published in postsoviet states. 

— to educate the students about how the study of literature may 
be described as an academic discipline with its own study topic and 
research object and profoundly elaborated philological methodology;
— to reveal the specifi city of literature as the art of word; to 
describe the peculiarities of its fi gurative language, expressive and 
descriptive means;
— to determine the content of the terms ‘poetics’ and ‘style’ and 
to defi ne a group of related concepts which are fundamental for the 
study of literature;
— to characterize the most signifi cant literary genres in 
correspondence with literary types;
— to equip the students with the notion of literary stylistics 
(tropes and fi gures, how they may be used by an author in a work of 
literature — semantics and composition of poetic language);
— to characterize the peculiarities of the language of poetry, 
metrics and poetical phonics;
— to educate the students about the notion of literary process and 
theoretical basis of its study; to equip the students with the notion of 
practices for analyses of literary process development;
— to determine the content of the concept ‘style’ and its typology 
in the context of the Russian academic philological tradition;
— to identify the ways to determine the most characteristic 
features of a writer’s originality because it is a writer who is the 
protagonist of literary process;
— to characterize a literary work in its entirety as a fundamental 
manifestation of literature as the art of word.
These objectives essentially serve as a brief syllabus for our 
further lectures. Good luck in the collaborative work upon them!

C h a p t er  1

PLACE OF PHILOLOGY
AMONG THE HUMANITIES.
CRITICAL READING AS A SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE
Study of literature, along with linguistics, is a constituent part 
of one of the most ancient scientifi c disciplines — philology (the 
term is derived from the Greek φιλολογία, which means a love of 
word). So, philology is a science of culture given in its verbal textual 
manifestation as defi ned by Yu.I. Mineralov. The object of study 
of linguistics (or science of language — yazykoznanie in Russian, 
literally “the knowledge of language”; it is important to note that 
in modern Russian science these terms are not always regarded 
as identical ones) is word, language, and speech in their historical 
development, current state, their structural features and functions. 
Study of literature deals with fi gurative meaning5 of words, the 
so called “supplementary” senses, which the words assume in the 
context of a literary work. Or, to put this in another way, study of 
literature deals with language (in a broad sense) in its artistic 
function.
Philology originated in Ancient Greece and was understood at 
that time as the study of thinking and eloquence (rhetoric) as well 
as the rules of creative writing (poetics). The most authoritative and 
still infl uential fi gure in the fi eld of science and education is ancient 
Greek philosopher Aristotle (about 384—322 BC), the creator of 

5 I.e. transferred meaning; the word combination “fi gurative meaning” does 
not imply fi gures of speech and, accordingly, the adjective ‘fi gurative’ has the 
following meaning here: expressing one thing in terms normally denoting another 
with which it may be regarded as analogous (URL: https://www.merriam-webster.
com/dictionary/fi gurative).

such books as Rhetoric and Poetics. In the Middle Ages in Western 
Europe philology was widely spread as a scientifi c discipline 
contributing to understanding and interpretation of ancient texts. The 
role of linguistics, knowledge of the ancient languages — Greek and 
Latin — was of high importance for the epoch.
However, the ability to understand and interpret Holy 
Scripture — the Bible, the central book of Christians (from Greek 
βιβλία — plural form of βιβλίον meaning ‘a book’) played even a 
larger role in medieval Christian culture. For this purpose not only 
knowledge of Greek and Latin was required, but also of Hebrew 
and a detailed acquaintance with the large corpus of patristic works. 
Interpretation of the Bible and of church fathers’ doctrine, provided 
through knowledge of the ancient languages, was called exegesis 
(from Greek ἐξηγητικά, form of ἐξήγησις meaning ‘interpretation’, 
‘explanation’). In a broader sense the theory of text interpretation and 
understanding, including the ancient ones, was called hermeneutics 
(from Greek ἑρμηνευτική that means the ‘art of interpretation’), 
which developed into an independent trend of philosophical and 
philological thought in the twentieth century. In Russia only priests 
and well-trained theologians were entitled and according to Orthodox 
tradition are entitled to interpret Holy Scripture in such a way. At the 
same time from the seventeenth century and right up to the present 
day there has been a very rich tradition in Russian poetry connected 
with poetic versifi cation of the Books of the Bible. Revealing 
theological truths isn’t the object of these literary works (since this is 
a prerogative of the Orthodox Church), but their purpose is to convey 
the depth of human experience of Holy Scripture and religious truths 
with especially expressive artistic means.
Philology is included in the wide range of the humanities (from 
Latin humanus, which means human and from Latin homo meaning 
a human being), devoted to man in the wide sense, to his features 
and activity, to the culture that was created by humankind. This way 
the humanities are opposed to the natural sciences concerned with 
the investigation of natural phenomena and material world. There 
are some disciplines amid the humanities which are closely related 

to philology. Among them are the following: philosophy, history (as 
a scientifi c discipline), culturology, sociology, psychology, religious 
studies and others. Many of them are closely related to philology 
and — just like philology in its turn — concerned with the scientifi c 
research into language and imaginative literature. As F.I. Buslayev 
noted, using the essentially philological approach to the research 
into language and literature it is important not to leave “the fi eld of 
one’s subject”. A specialist in study of literature must always bear in 
mind that their main concern is the artistic word, realized mostly in 
the work of art, and also artistic devices of the author, who may be 
known or supposed or impersonal, as in the case of folklore.
The author of a number of textbooks for university students 
on the history of Russian literature from the eighteenth to the 
beginning of the twentieth century as well as of the late twentieth 
century, the author of the training manual Fundamentals of Literary 
Theory: Poetics and Individuality, Yu.I. Mineralov justly wrote that 
researchers of various scientifi c specialties frequently used literature 
as illustrative material to discuss the history of Russia, condition 
of its society and culture at some historical period, serious social 
problems and confl icts that arose, ideology of Russian citizenry, 
ignoring at the same time the essential thing, that distinctive feature 
which affords literature to exist as the art of word. However, with a 
correctly formulated research problem and the knowledge of related 
scientifi c disciplines may contribute a lot to a really profound, 
complete philological comprehension of literature and folklore, to 
the comprehension of language and literature as a whole.
Yu.I. Mineralov traced a number of general guidelines of 
literature research taking into consideration the interdisciplinary 
relations of this scientifi c discipline. The fi rst one is connected 
with the study of literature in the context of language phenomena 
(that is the intra-philological context). In the Russian academic 
tradition relations between language and literature were elaborated 
by Potebnya in his books Language and Thought, From the Notes 
on the Theory of Literature and others. Potebnya supposed that 
language was originally “poetry” and art and that human thought,