Towards the Understanding of the Concepts “Modernity,” “Modernism” and “Avant-Gardism” in (Post)-Soviet and German Literary Theory (An Attempt of Terminological Unification)

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the analysis of the key concepts “Modernity”, “Modernism” and “Avant-gardism”. This analysis reveals the ambiguity in the perception of these concepts in (Post)-Soviet and German literary theory. The mentioned problem is discussed on the example of the “central” texts (encyclopedia, literary encyclopedia, literary dictionaries, textbooks etc.) of the Soviet, post-Soviet and German literary criticism. The problem is relevant owing to the existence in the Soviet times of the so-called “Iron Curtain” and ideological differences. Western and Soviet literary theories were on different sides of the barricades, which resulted in the terminological “noise” in the scientific literature of the USSR. Besides, the post-Soviet Russian literary criticism has not yet revised the Soviet-era training manuals, dictionaries, encyclopedia, and consequently, the semantic “noise” about those terms penetrates into the post-Soviet scientific literature written in Russian as well. During the analysis of the understanding of the selected terms, those sources of the conceptual “noise” in the Soviet times, which have affected and are still partly affecting as stereotypes the understanding of the above-mentioned concepts, were identified.