“Poems in prose” by I. Turgenev and the cycle-forming problem

Abstract

The article deals with the history of studying the cycle-forming principles of “Poems in prose” written by I. Turgenev. The possible problematic points are analyzed. These problems might be explained by the fact that researchers have paid their attention only to the Russian edition first published in magazine “Herald of Europe” without taking into account other publications finalized and edited by the author himself, which was the case with French lifetime edition, for example. The study sums up the results of cycle-forming problem study in the Russian edition of “Poems in prose”. As a new approach to this problem, a new version of cycle-forming principle is suggested. It says about relative freedom of readers’ perception with the firm tendency to teleologic. On one hand, it is explained by the author’s appeal published in the first edition in the Russian magazine and, on the other, by the orientation to the special type of readers, titles’ tradition and even the so-called fake chronological principle that distinguishes the Russian edition.