Рецепция творчества В. П. Катаева в современном литературоведческом пространстве

Abstract

The creative work of Valentin Kataev, considered by many to be one of the best stylists of Soviet literature, has garnered broad scientific interpretation. In recent years, it has aroused increased interest from professional readers (critics, literary scholars, and writers) who are trying to identify the „phenomenon”, „case”, and „mystery” of Kataev, and thus form a reader’s „horizon of understanding” for the wider reading public. By the turn of the 20th-21st century, there were serious works in which the creative work of Kataev became an object of academic study: monographs by domestic authors and representatives of European literary schools, doctoral and master’s theses, biographies, articles, and commentaries. Evolution of the analysis and assessment of Kataev’s works are suggested by the fundamental works of Russian Scientist M. Litovksaya, the work of N. Leiderman, A. Pavlovskiy, M. Kotovaya, O. Lekmanov, P. Markinaya, and others; and the writer’s biography, written by S. Mnatsakanyan, V. Ogryzko, and S. Shargunov. A special place in modern research is held by Western Slavists (V. Supa), as well as the findings of researchers in Odessa (S. Luschik, E. Golubovskiy, A. Drozdovskiy, A. Yavorskaya, E. Krasnova, and others). One can identify the main research areas of Kataevist creativity: exploration of the writer's biography and its impact on the creative process; analysis of the how the writer is perceived by his contemporaries; defining regularities in the development of the artistic world and the writer’s artistic behaviour; interpretation of both the writer’s early and later prose; linguistic analysis of his texts (particularly the mechanics of his narratives; originality of the spatio-temporal system, the author’s image, the system of his dramatis personae, etc.). At the present stage, the perspective is to establish diverse creative links between Kataev and his predecessors and contemporaries, expose the issues of how Kataev’s creative works are received in Western literary study, and analyse how the works of an author in a foreign language are perceived.