Dubakov L., Zhang Y. —
Werewolfism as a way to gain transcendent reality (on the material of Yuri Mamleyev's short stories «The Teacher», Martha Ketro's «The Fox Wife» and Dmitry Vodennikov's «Confession of a Chinese Fox-Werewolf»)
// Philology: scientific researches. – 2025. – ¹ 3.
– P. 161 - 170.
DOI: 10.7256/2454-0749.2025.3.70604
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/fmag/article_70604.html
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Abstract: The article analyzes the image of a werewolf fox, formed in the Far Eastern mythological tradition and Russified in the stories of Russian authors Yuri Mamleev, Marta Ketro and Dmitry Vodennikov. The motive of werewolf among these writers has an indefinite character: on the one hand, werewolf can be understood literally by them, on the other ‒ as a metaphor (for example, feminine nature or poetic otherness). The werewolf foxes in the stories "The Teacher", "The Fox Wife", "The Confession of the Chinese Werewolf Fox" are placed by the authors in the Russian cultural and everyday context of the 1980s and the 1990s of the XXI century and are embedded in the space of a changing but unrelenting Russian spiritual search. In these works, they act as spiritual seekers and mentors in contact with two worlds, striving for a transcendent reality and revealing it to people.
The presented article was written as part of a large study on the "Chinese text" of modern Russian literature. In addition to these works, it mentions some domestic novels, which also feature a werewolf fox.
The relevance of the article is determined by the active interest of Russian literary criticism in borderline, intercultural phenomena that give rise to new artistic meanings. One of these phenomena is the Far Eastern werewolf fox, whose image variants have appeared in recent years among a large number of Russian writers. The relevance of the article also lies in the constantly expanding links between Russian and Chinese cultures. The novelty of the article is determined by the comparison made for the first time between the mentioned texts in the aspect of different and at the same time similar development and understanding by writers of different generations and different aesthetic attitudes of the image of the werewolf fox.
Dubakov L., Zhang Y. —
The principles of werewolfism and zoomorphization of reality in the novel by A. A. Starobinets «Fox Fords»
// Litera. – 2025. – ¹ 2.
– P. 343 - 350.
DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2025.2.70111
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/fil/article_70111.html
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Abstract: The article analyses the image of the Chinese fox-werewolf, huli-jing, and other werewolves in the context of the Russian-Chinese cultural space created in Anna Starobinets' novel "Fox Fords". It also compares the images of the heroes of this work with other variants of the images of Chinese werewolves in Russian literature in terms of the depth and nature of their Russification. In addition, the study notes that the artistic reality of Anna Starobinets' novel is based on the principles of werewolfism and zoomorphisation. These principles are projected onto various components of the text primarily through animal comparisons and metaphors. They refer to people, natural objects, objects and abstract phenomena. Animalistic and plant motifs are manifested in the portraits and names of characters, in toponymic nomination, in landscapes, and in the language of the work. The principles of werewolfism and zoomorphisation influence the artistic time and space in "Fox Fords", which in turn, along with other elements of the text, make it possible to reveal the multilayered nature of the characters and their moral essence. The relevance of the article is determined by the high interest of domestic literary studies in the research involving images created under the influence of different cultures. In addition, modern literary studies show an increased interest in borderline phenomena in the field of literary genres ("Fox Fords" is a novel belonging to "big" literature and at the same time to fiction). The novelty of the article is due to its understanding of werewolfism and zoomorphisation not only in the mystical and physical, biological sense, but also as metaphysical and philosophical phenomena capable of characterising various aspects of reality and revealing their true nature.
Dubakov L., Li Y. —
The poem «Terkin in the Next World» by A. Tvardovsky and the story «Notes from the Spirit World» by Zhang Tian-yi: a dystopian mortal mirror of the political regime
// Philology: scientific researches. – 2023. – ¹ 9.
– P. 1 - 9.
DOI: 10.7256/2454-0749.2023.9.40914
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/fmag/article_40914.html
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Abstract: Russian and Chinese dystopias have similarities and differences in their genesis. The proximity of the dystopian texts of the two cultures is due to parallel historical and social processes, which are reflected in the plots of the corresponding works. The difference is manifested in the accents that both literature puts. In particular, we can say that there is no Chinese dystopia in the Western and Russian understanding: China sees dystopia more as fiction and satire. Despite this, Russian and Chinese dystopias have similar features. The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideological, plot, and motivational calls between A. Tvardovsky's poem "Terkin in the Next World" and Zhang Tian-yi's novel "Notes from the Spirit World". The scientific novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the author for the first time compares these works, designates genre signs of dystopia in both texts, formulates the specifics of the writer's assessment of the corresponding dystopian regime. The inhabitants of the afterlife, in which Terkin found himself, and the world of spirits are the image of contemporaries of Tvardovsky and Zhang Tian–yi, citizens of the state, which is metaphorically portrayed by writers as the reality of death. This infernal world turns out to be a mortal mirror for the political regime. In the case of "Terkin in the next world" it is an authoritarian regime, in the case of "Notes from the spirit world" it is a pseudo–liberal regime, and but in fact - oligarchic and nationalistic.
Dubakov L., Guo W. —
Modernization of the image of the Huli Jing and the transformational nature of Reality in V. O. Pelevin's novel «The Sacred Book of the Werewolf»
// Philology: scientific researches. – 2023. – ¹ 8.
– P. 1 - 11.
DOI: 10.7256/2454-0749.2023.8.40661
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/fmag/article_40661.html
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Abstract: The article analyzes the image of the Chinese werewolf fox, or Huli jing (Chinese: 狐狸精), in Victor Pelevin's novel «The Sacred Book of the Werewolf». The comparison of the main character of Pelevin's work with the images of Huli jing in classical Chinese texts is made. In the center of consideration is the nomination of the heroine, her appearance, habitat, the ability to turn around and impose a hassle, the nature of sexuality, lifestyle. It is established that the image of the werewolf fox in Pelevin is a synthetic image created on the basis of mainly two cultures – Chinese and Russian. At the same time, she was influenced by mystical, religious, cultural and literary Chinese traditions. The writer relies on the components of the image of the Huli jing, borrowed from Chinese books, but offers an expanded and reinterpreted version of them. Pelevin is primarily interested in the desire of the werewolf fox not for bodily, but for spiritual transformation, on the way to which his heroine, relying on eastern philosophy, studies the principles of her mind. The Huli jing of the «Sacred Book of the Werewolf» and the confusion that it induces act as a metaphor for reality as a whole (man, time, space, language, the outside world, etc.). The nature of reality, according to Pelevin's novel, is transformational at its core, and this feature of it is due to its illusory nature. The relevance of the article is determined by the high interest of domestic and foreign literary criticism in the work of Viktor Pelevin and comparative studies (in this case, affecting Russian and Chinese cultures). The novelty of the work is due to the expansion of the concept of werewolf in Pelevin's novel – from the bodily inversivity of the main character to the characteristics of various aspects of reality.