Information about the author:

Abstract:

This paper examines the key aspects of the theory and practice of commenting on the literary works of M.A. Sholokhov, highlighting the object and source of commentary as fundamental methodological categories. Defining these categories facilitates the selection of means and methods for data collection and analysis, ensures the achievement of specific research goals, and allows for the presentation of the results as a comprehensive academic commentary. The methodological principles of commenting on the literary text, implemented in the academic editions of the novels “And Quiet Flows the Don” and “The Soil Upturned”, are described within the context of enhancing the informational­communicative function of knowledge and the critical study of the history of developing research approaches to resolving the issues of choosing the object and source of commentary. The paper explores the possibilities and limitations of authorial, commentarial, and reader discourses, the properties of objects and sources of commentary, classification, functional features, and typological characteristics of their varieties, and the principles and criteria for selecting the subject and method of research. New trends in the development of the theory and practice of commentary are determined based on the analysis of the structure of the commentary in the academic editions of Sholokhov’s works, formed in the process of solving research tasks, including text criticism, description of its historical stages and genesis, determination of creative intent and authenticity of changes, restoration of authorial meaning, and explanation of the realities of the artistic world portrayed by the writer.

Keywords: M.A. Sholokhov, academic commentary, “And Quiet Flows the Don”, “The Soil Upturned”, methodology, scholarly edition, textology, source of the text, information, knowledge, authorial text.