Zubareva, V. (2024). ‘In the countercurrent:’ Pushkin through Veselovsky’s prism

The author of the book began her exploration of the theoretical oeuvre left by the pre-eminent Russian philologist Veselovsky with her article, Re-reading A. Veselovsky in the 21st Century [ Perechityvaya A. Veselovskogo v XXI veke ], where she successfully applied the fundamentals of a general theory of systems to Veselovsky’s output. In her new book, V. Zubareva sets out to demonstrate the scope of the practical application of Veselovsky’s ideas by analyzing Pushkin’s texts. The book’s innovative method seeks to “combine the interpretative approaches to Pushkin and Veselovsky and thus identify the single extent of a metatext, corroborated by artistic logic” (quoted from the blurb). The book’s four sections adopt various angles to detect and observe, across the interpretational field of specific Pushkin works, the functioning of the concepts of ‘countercurrent,’ the poetics of the plot, borrowing and imitation, a separate ‘vital ideology’ of art, the artist’s apperception, and the syncretism and differentiation of poetic forms.