Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions

The paper investigates the fate of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Adolescent in cinema and theatre, comparing it with the stories of several film and stage adaptations of other works by the same author. The problem here discussed concerns the acceptable limits of interpretation, in cinema and theatre...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Liudmila I. Saraskina
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN RU
Publicado:	Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 2021
Materias:	dostoevsky the adolescent film adaptation theatre performance language of cinema fate in cinema and theatre arakady dolgoruky versilov debuts Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/659702ec2d084041b622a4bba594e2a8
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:659702ec2d084041b622a4bba594e2a8
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:659702ec2d084041b622a4bba594e2a82021-12-02T18:43:12ZArkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions10.22455/2619-0311-2021-2-192-2232619-03112712-8512https://doaj.org/article/659702ec2d084041b622a4bba594e2a82021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttp://dostmirkult.ru/images/2021-2/10_Saraskina_192_223.pdfhttps://doaj.org/toc/2619-0311https://doaj.org/toc/2712-8512The paper investigates the fate of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Adolescent in cinema and theatre, comparing it with the stories of several film and stage adaptations of other works by the same author. The problem here discussed concerns the acceptable limits of interpretation, in cinema and theatre, of a literary work. The paper considers the following controversial aspects: - to what extent film and stage adaptations of a literary work may prove the success of the work as a piece of literature? - do film and stage adaptations expand (amplify) the contents of their literary source? - do they treat honestly the ideas and images of their source? The paper analyses the reasons why both cinema and theatre for many decades did not pay attention to The Adolescent and perhaps even deliberately bypassed it. The only film adaptation of The Adolescent so far was made in USSR in 1983 by the director Yevgeny I. Tashkov (1926-2012), with Andrei Tashkov (b. 1957) as Arkady Dolgoruky and Oleg Borisov (1929-1994) as Andrei Versilov. Of particular interest is the process of transforming the novel first-person narrative (Ich-Erzählung) into the language of cinema. However, the cinema debut of the novel and its characters cannot be described as a success. The film freed itself from the meaningfulness of the literary original, did not treat adequately its main ideas, and chose easy ways in all respects: in the script, in the work of the director, and the actors’ performances. Still more simplified has been the stage adaptation of The Adolescent at the Maly Drama Theatre in Saint Petersburg (the premiere took place on May 12, 2013). The director Oleg Dmitriyev, a disciple of Lev Dodon, abridged considerably the plot of the novel. The character of Versilov was deleted, shifting accents, and disfiguring the whole composition of the plot. In the novel, Arkady had dreamed all through his youth to come to know “the whole truth” about Versilov. In the stage adaptation, Arkady is presented not as a young and maturing person, but as a grown-up man who goes through a “middle-age crisis”: he turns into Versilov himself. He appropriates Versilov’s right to be extravagant and scandalous, thus playing the role, not of a witness but the central figure in the culmination of the story.Liudmila I. SaraskinaRussian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literaturearticledostoevskythe adolescentfilm adaptationtheatre performancelanguage of cinemafate in cinema and theatrearakady dolgorukyversilovdebutsSlavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languagesPG1-9665ENRUДостоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал, Iss 2, Pp 192-223 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN RU
topic	dostoevsky the adolescent film adaptation theatre performance language of cinema fate in cinema and theatre arakady dolgoruky versilov debuts Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665
spellingShingle	dostoevsky the adolescent film adaptation theatre performance language of cinema fate in cinema and theatre arakady dolgoruky versilov debuts Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 Liudmila I. Saraskina Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions
description	The paper investigates the fate of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Adolescent in cinema and theatre, comparing it with the stories of several film and stage adaptations of other works by the same author. The problem here discussed concerns the acceptable limits of interpretation, in cinema and theatre, of a literary work. The paper considers the following controversial aspects: - to what extent film and stage adaptations of a literary work may prove the success of the work as a piece of literature? - do film and stage adaptations expand (amplify) the contents of their literary source? - do they treat honestly the ideas and images of their source? The paper analyses the reasons why both cinema and theatre for many decades did not pay attention to The Adolescent and perhaps even deliberately bypassed it. The only film adaptation of The Adolescent so far was made in USSR in 1983 by the director Yevgeny I. Tashkov (1926-2012), with Andrei Tashkov (b. 1957) as Arkady Dolgoruky and Oleg Borisov (1929-1994) as Andrei Versilov. Of particular interest is the process of transforming the novel first-person narrative (Ich-Erzählung) into the language of cinema. However, the cinema debut of the novel and its characters cannot be described as a success. The film freed itself from the meaningfulness of the literary original, did not treat adequately its main ideas, and chose easy ways in all respects: in the script, in the work of the director, and the actors’ performances. Still more simplified has been the stage adaptation of The Adolescent at the Maly Drama Theatre in Saint Petersburg (the premiere took place on May 12, 2013). The director Oleg Dmitriyev, a disciple of Lev Dodon, abridged considerably the plot of the novel. The character of Versilov was deleted, shifting accents, and disfiguring the whole composition of the plot. In the novel, Arkady had dreamed all through his youth to come to know “the whole truth” about Versilov. In the stage adaptation, Arkady is presented not as a young and maturing person, but as a grown-up man who goes through a “middle-age crisis”: he turns into Versilov himself. He appropriates Versilov’s right to be extravagant and scandalous, thus playing the role, not of a witness but the central figure in the culmination of the story.
format	article
author	Liudmila I. Saraskina
author_facet	Liudmila I. Saraskina
author_sort	Liudmila I. Saraskina
title	Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions
title_short	Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions
title_full	Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions
title_fullStr	Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions
title_full_unstemmed	Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions
title_sort	arkady dolgoruky in cinema and theatre: debut decisions
publisher	Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/659702ec2d084041b622a4bba594e2a8
work_keys_str_mv	AT liudmilaisaraskina arkadydolgorukyincinemaandtheatredebutdecisions
_version_	1718377742309785600

Arkady Dolgoruky in Cinema and Theatre: Debut Decisions

Ejemplares similares