Information about the author:
Sergey N. Morozov, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4986-3291
E-mail:
Abstract:
I.A. Bunin’s cycle “Short Stories” has repeatedly become the subject of consideration by philologists and linguists as a whole, and his individual stories have also been studied. However, the authors of the works primarily studied the poetics of the stories in this cycle. This article examines for the first time the textual structure of I.A. Bunin’s “Short stories” and the creative history of the cycle. On the basis of archival materials (manuscripts, typescript with author’s corrections, newspaper clippings with corrections by the author) and printed texts (all stories were published during his lifetime) discusses the history of the “Short Stories”, a gradual unification of their author in a big cycle. Critical reviews of these stories are also presented, and quotes from articles and reviews clearly show how enthusiastically these innovative works of the writer were perceived by the critics. The article consistently examines autographs, typewriting, and all publications of 45 stories included in this cycle. Examples of changes made by the author to the texts of stories in different publications are presented selectively. These examples of discrepancies show the careful and constant work of I.A. Bunin on the texts of these stories. In conclusion, we consider the choice of the main text and composition of the publication of the cycle “Short stories” in the future scientific Complete works of I.A. Bunin.