DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2020-17-366-386

УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.0
Issue:

2020 №17

Author: Vadim G. Besprozvanny
About the author:

Vadim G. Besprozvanny, PhD, Lecturer IV in Information, School of Information, University of Michigan, 500 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5788-6557.

E-mail: vbesproz@ umich.edu.

Abstract:

This review of the newly published book “Vladimir Narbut. Poetry. Translations. Prose” (Roman Kozhukharov, ed., Moscow, 2018) evaluates the textual criticism methods applied to this collection, reflects on the quality of the commentaries and the preface essay, and reveals a remarkable number of flaws the new edition has: the altered structure of the poetic cycles, chronological and bibliographical errors, and issues with text variants. The editor demonstrates little regard for the textual accuracy, and employs a self-contradictory strategy for the versions and drafts of the poetic texts. The commentaries that supply the book lack merely a professional approach: some are too detailed (or too telegraphic), others disconnect from the context, and some are irrelevant or misguided. The latter is particularly true for the Russian-Ukrainian interlingual homographs and homonyms, and ethnographic realia. The long-winded preface essay provides a detailed overview of the poet’s life, and is full of debatable esoteric assumptions and preposterous conclusions.

Keywords: Vladimir Narbut, textual criticism, editions of the poet’s literary heritage, commentaries, reviews.
For citation:

Besprozvanny, V.G. “ʽThe Big Book of Errors’ (New Collected Works of Vladimir Narbut).” Literaturnyi fakt, no. 3 (17), 2020, pp. 366–386. (In Russ.)

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2020-17-366-386

References:

Besprozvannyi, V. “ʽGod tvorchestva pervyi’: literaturnyi debiut Vladimira Narbuta. ʽStikhi’ (1910) v otsenke literaturnoi kritiki. Stat'ia 1” [“ʽThe First Year of Creative Work’: Vladimir Narbut’s Literary Debut. Literary Critics on ʽPoems’ (1910). Article 1”]. Zbornik Matitse Srpske za Slavistiku, no. 85. Novi Sad, 2014, pp. 69 –83. (In Russ.)

Vizel', M. “V izdatel'stve ʽOGI’ vyshlo samoe polnoe na dannyi moment sobranie sochinenii poeta Vladimira Narbuta” [“The Publishing House ʽOGI’ Published the Most Complete Collection of Works of the Poet Vladimir Narbut”]. God Literatury, March 12, 2019. Available at: https://godliteratury.ru/public-post/vozvrashhennyy-narbut (Accessed 15 August 2020). (In Russ.)

Zenkevich, S. “Sluga slozhnogo slova. Retsenziia na sobranie sochinenii V.I. Narbuta (OGI, 2018)” [“The Servant of a Complicated Word. Review of the Collected Works by

V.I. Narbut (OGI, 2018)”]. Iuzhnoe siianie, no. 2, 2019. Available at: http://ursp.org/index. php/yuzhnoe-siyanie/9-zhurnal-yuzhnoe-siyanie/72-us-2-2019 (Accessed 15 August 2020). (In Russ.)

Kikhnei, L., Maer, A. “Eskhatologicheskii mif v tvorchestve pozdnego V. Narbuta” [“Eschatological Myth in V. Narbut’s Late Works”]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosuniversiteta, no. 2, 2009, pp. 61 –64. (In Russ.)

Mironov, A.  “Vladimir  Narbut:  vkhozhdenie  v  literaturnuiu  zhizn'  (materialy  k tvorcheskoi biografii poeta)” [“Vladimir Narbut: Entering Literary Life (Materials for the Poet’s Biography)”]. Ural'skii filologicheskii vestnik, issue 1. Ekaterinburg, 2012, pp. 36 –47. (In Russ.)

Mironov, A. “Neudachi Narbuta-poeta i Narbuta-redaktora” [“Failures of Narbut as a Poet and Editor”]. Fenomen tvorcheskoi neudachi [Artistic Failure as a Phenomenon], ed. by A.V. Podchinenyi, T.A. Snigireva, 2nd ed. Ekaterinburg, Izdatel'stvo Ural'skogo universi- teta Publ., 2011, pp. 24 –47. (In Russ.)

Narbut, V. Izbrannye stikhi [Selected Poems], ed., introd., comm. by L. Chertkov. Paris, La Presse Libre Publ., 1983. 254 p. (In Russ.)

Narbut, V. Sobranie sochinenii: Stikhi. Perevody. Proza [Collected Works: Poems, Translations, Prose], comp, ed., introd., comm. by R.R. Kozhukharov. Moscow, OGI Publ., 2018. 832 p. (In Russ.)

Narbut, V. Stikhotvoreniia [Poems], introd, comp., comm. by. N. Bialosinskaya and N. Panchenko. Moscow, Sovremennik Publ., 1990. 450 p. (In Russ.)

Narbut, T., Ustinovskii, V. “Vladimir Narbut” [“Vladimir Narbut”]. Novo-Basman- naia, 19 [Novo-Basmannaia, 19], comp. by N.A. Bogomolov. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaia literatura Publ., 1990, pp. 313 –329. (In Russ.)

Poeziia serebrianogo veka: Antologiia [Poetry of the Silver Age: Anthology], comp., introd., comm. by M.M. Kralin. St. Petersburg, Lenizdat Publ., 1996. 271 p. (In Russ.)

Russkie sovetskie pisateli. Poety. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel' [Russian Soviet Writ- ers. Poets. Bibliographic Index], vol. 15. Moscow, Knizhnaia palata Publ., 1992. 559 p. (In Russ.)

Timenchik, R. “Iz imennogo ukazatelia k ʽZapisnym Knizhkam’ Akhmatovoi: Levyi flang akmeizma” [“From the Index to Akhmatova’s ʽNotebooks’: Left Wing of Acmeism”]. Acta Slavica Estonica VII. Blokovskii sbornik XIX. Aleksandr Blok i russkaia literatura Serebrianogo veka [Acta Slavica Estonica VII. Blok Collection XIX. Alexander Blok and Russian Literature of the Silver Age].Tartu, 2015, pp. 152 –174. (In Russ.)

Timenchik, R. “Narbut” [“Narbut”]. Russkie pisateli. 1800 –1917. Biograficheskii slovar' [Russian Writers, 1800 –1917. Biographical Dictionary], vol. 4. Moscow, Bol'shaia rossiiskaia entsiklopediia Publ., 1995, pp. 227 –229. (In Russ.)

Strakhovsky, L. “Three Sojourners in the Acmeist Camp: Sergei Gorodetsky, Vladimir Narbut, Mikhail Zenkevich.” The Russian Review, vol. 9, no. 2, 1950, pp. 131 –145. (In English)

Thomson, R.D.B. “The Vision of the Bog: The Poetry of Vladimir Narbut.” Russian Literature, vol. 10, no. 4, 1981, pp. 319 –333. (In English)