Discipline and Comment: Reception and Pragmatics of M. Kuzmin′s Diary

The article analyses ways of perception, study and commentary of Mikhail Kuzmin′s diary (1905–1934). Extension of the text and its reception by both contemporaries and researchers shows that there was a strong reputation of this diary as a documentary text. For many years, the diary was perceived as a source of information clarifying the details of everyday life in 1910–1930s. At the same time, a commented edition of this text has become an insoluble problem that has lasted for decades. The analysis of the diary, especially its unpublished part, shows the breadth of the author′s idea. Obviously, Kuzmin created a literary bun non-fictional text that experienced the same transformations as the author′s prose. Therefore, it is possible to consider and publish the diary text not as a documentary, but as an artwork.

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2024.1.06