THE TACTICS OF THE EDITION AND LITERATURE REPUTATION OF THE BELLETRISTS (JOURNAL «WORLD LABOR» (1867-1872) CASE)

Abstract

The article analyzes the editorial and publishing strategies and tactics of the magazine ‘Vsemirnyj Trud’ (‘The World Labor’), examines the history of the publication and the dynamics of the literary and aesthetic views of the critical department of the journal. On the example of critical articles of Nikolai Ivanovich Solovyov, Petr Dmitrievich Boborykin, Vasily Ivanovich. Kelsiev, Nikolay Dmitrievich. Akhsharumov are considered the basic concepts of the publication, the techniques selected by the critical department for the interpretation of artistic texts and aesthetic phenomenon. Particular attention is paid to the reputation of writers who formed the literary circle of the journal - Alexei Feofilaktovich Pisemsky, Petr Dmitrievich Boborykin, Vasily Petrovich Avenarius, Nikolai Dmitrievich Akhsharumov and others. The hypothesis was put forward that the novelists of the «second» and «third» layers aren’t developed their «social prestige», but on the contrary experienced certain reputation losses caused by the choice of the magazine. The last remark determines the possible prospect of research - consideration of publication tactics as a factor that influences the lifelong and posthumous literary reputation of the mass-writer. Summing up the above observations, we states that this episode of the history of Russian journalism is quite indicative in terms of pragmatics and the strategy of a magazine that determines the social demand and the reputational significance of the publication. Independent tactics, hesitating in the choice between utilitarianism and aestheticism, practicality and rationalism, ‘World Labor’ could not attract the reader in any coherent and consistent program. The fiction department, often compensating for this discrepancy, also had to cause an ambiguous impression. The magazine, simultaneously criticizing the negative trend in art and the romanticism of new prose, on the one hand, claiming to approve a new aesthetic program, correcting the views of Vissarion Belinsky (and the fundamental articles of Nikolay Akhsharumov and Petr Boborykin) and responding to inappropriate satirical attacks on insignificant criticism of democratic publications, undoubtedly in the fight against the public opinion, paradoxically was an example of chaos, disorder, something unsettled and from this unattractive. Particular attention should be paid to the circumstance that the reputation of this publication had a direct impact on the «social and literary prestige» (by P. Bourdieu) of the writers participating in it. The last remark opens the prospect of this research, allowing to consider the literary section and the literary environment as a factor directly influencing the lifetime and posthumous literary reputation of the mass writer.