Article

Name: Writer as Object of Reader’s Perception: Public Literary Readings of 1860s

Authors: T. I. Pecherskaya

Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Abstract: The paper considers the new event of social-literary life of 1860s – the public literary evenings, where reader had the opportunity to communicate with the ‘living’ writer, without mediation of magazines and criticism. On basis of magazine comments, memoirs, the author reveals forms of this communication, influence of non-literary reputation of writers, features of their perception, causes of certain preferences and principles of formation of the program (using memoirs by P. D. Boborykin, P. I. Weinberg, A. G. Dostoevskaya, N. Ya. Nikoladze, E. A. Stackenschneider, E. F. Junge). The paper considers the phenomenon of actualization of work ,which is far from the time of writing, and which didn’t concern relevant questions of time (in particular, by the example of literary evening at Perm; heroine of this evening was E. Tolmacheva). The - phenomenon of «re-encoding» of senses can explain atmosphere of high spirits and emotional excitement of the public. The author says about ascription of senses, which were not conceived by the writer, about «re-encoding» of ideas and themes. Ultimately it all results in arbitrary interpretation, actual transcription of text, of which the writer lost control. In conclusion the author develops thought of initial model of immediate communication ‘living’ writer – reader realized only at initial phase of the first evenings 1860s. Then quite quickly the reader became a spectator presenting at performance, the writer became a theatre or «pop» artist which – conditionally as he meets expectations of listeners – can extol or hiss, call for repeated reading or drive from scene. In fact the writer becomes a relative figure who transmits the text pleasing public. First of all the text is estimated in respect to civil topicality, at that artistic merits of work (as in interpretation of magazine criticism) leave to second plan and lose anything significance. The literary evenings, where their public meet, more and more resemble meetings, the grounds of revolutionary information for underground circles. The active members of these circles not infrequently were collaborators of radical editions. The reader occupies the writer’s place finally. The reader is free in interpretation of texts, and forms a program of performance himself, and the works interesting to him are performed by himself.

Keywords: literary evenings, reader and writer, critic, social life of 1860s, literary process, semiotics of culture

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