Preview

Nauchnyi dialog

Advanced search

Chinese Cycle of Sergei Tretyakov

https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-10-325-348

Abstract

This study analyzes the works by futurist writer Sergei Tretyakov (1892–1937) devoted to China, including his poems “Novy. Peking,” “Li Yang Upram” and “Roar, China!” as well as plays such as “Roar, China!”, travelogues like “Zhongguo,” and biographical interviews titled “Deng Shi-hua.” It investigates how each work contributes to a unified thematic structure within this cycle. It is argued that the poem “Novy. Peking” serves as an epigraph introducing key motifs and spatio-temporal coordinates for subsequent texts in the series. Furthermore, it demonstrates that both the epic poems “Roar, China!” and “Li Yang Upram,” along with the play “Roar, China!,” depict the struggle of the Chinese people against imperialists. These works also envision future developments as a process of unifying fragmented parts of the Chinese nation. Additionally, attention is given to the spatial and temporal organization found in the narrative essays “Zhongguo” and the interview-based piece “Deng Shi-hua.” Despite their varied generic forms, these texts are shown to form a coherent literary cycle united by common themes and ideological frameworks. Shared stylistic principles include factual representation, recurring symbols and leitmotifs, methods of structuring artistic space and time, and a focus on projecting possible futures for China. Ultimately, it is concluded that Tretyakov’s works engage readers through sustained dialogue based on authentic representations of the Chinese cultural landscape.

About the Authors

A. A. Krasnoiarova
Anhui University
China

Anna A. Krasnoiarova, PhD in Philology, teacher of foreign languages

Hefei



B. V. Kondakov
Anhui University
China

Boris V. Kondakov, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Director of the Center for East Asian Studies, Professor of the Department of Russian Literature

Hefei



T. D. Popkova
Perm State University
Russian Federation

Tatiana D. Popkova, Doctor of Cultural, Associate Professor, Professor, Department of Pedagogy

Perm



References

1. Azimuko, L. A. (1970). S. M. Tretyakov’s foreign essay: (on the question of the formation of Soviet documentary prose). Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. Irkutsk. 15 p. (In Russ.).

2. Belousov, R. (1961). “Roar, China!” Sergei Tretyakov. Questions of literature, 5: 192—200. (In Russ.).

3. Darwin, M. N., Tyupa, V. I. (2001). Cyclization in Pushkin’s work: The experience of studying the poetics of convergent consciousness. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ. 292 p. ISBN 5-02-030632-0. (In Russ.).

4. Davitadze, N. V. (2009). Futurism in the Far East. Humanitarian Studies in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, 4: 82—87. (In Russ.).

5. Eisenstein, S. M. (1964). Montage. In: Selected works: in 6 volumes, 2. Moscow: Iskusstvo. 567 p. (In Russ.).

6. Golovchiner, V. E. (2007). Epic drama in Russian literature of the twentieth century. Tomsk: Publishing House of Tomsk State Pedagogical University. University. 318 p. ISBN 978-5-89428-279-4. (In Russ.).

7. Golovchiner, V. E. (2009). Russian roots of epic drama. In: Russian literature in the XX century: names, problems, cultural dialogue, 10. Tomsk: National Research Tomsk State University. 5—21. (In Russ.).

8. Golovchiner, V. E. (2010). The functions of the proto-plot in the Russian drama of the XX century. Siberian Philological Journal The journal, 2: 12—18. (In Russ.).

9. Golovchiner, V. E. (2024). Sergey Tretyakov — Bertold Brecht’s teacher. Siberian Philological Journal, 2: 118—125. (In Russ.).

10. Homolitskaya-Tretyakova, T. S. About my father. Available at: http://www.agitclub.ru/museum/agitart/tret/bio4.htm (accessed 20.12.2024). (In Russ.).

11. Kapinos, E. V. (2019). S. Tretyakov’s verbal constructivism: “The Iron Pause”. Plotology and plotography, 2: 56—83. DOI: 10.25205/2410-7883-2019-2-56-83. (In Russ.).

12. Kapterev, S. On the way to Zhongguo. Soviet films about China, made or conceived in the 1920s. Available at: https://kinoart.ru/texts/na-puti-k-chzhungo-sovetskie-filmy-o-kitae-sdelannye-ili-zadumannye-v-1920-e-gody (accessed: 01.07.2025). (In Russ.).

13. Kosykh, A., Arsenyev, P. (2010). Tretyakov’s Chinese Journey: Poetic capture of reality on the way to the literature of fact. Translit, 11: 14—30. (In Russ.).

14. Krasnoiarova, A. A. (2019). “Chinese text” in Soviet literature of the 1920s (on the example of S. M. Tretyakov’s work). Litera, 4: 143—152. (In Russ.).

15. Kryukova, M. M. (1968). S. M. Tretyakov (Essay on creativity). Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. Moscow: [b. i.]. 17 p. (In Russ.).

16. Li Yingnan. (2012). China in the works of Sergei Tretyakov: the novel “Deng shi-hua”. In: Russian Harbin, captured in the word: collection of scientific articles: on the 70th anniversary of Professor V. V. Agenosov, 6. Blagoveshchensk: Amur State University. 237—250. ISBN 978-5-93493-171-2. (In Russ.).

17. Malyavin, V. V. (2000). Chinese civilization. Moscow: April Publishing House; AST Publishing House LLC; Design Publishing and Production Center. Information. Cartography. 632 p. (In Russ.).

18. Porol, P. V. (2020). China in the reception of poets of the Silver Age (poetics and aesthetics). PhD Diss. Moscow. 20 p. (In Russ.).

19. Sharypina, T. A. (2016). The concept of the “documentary epic” of the Russian avant-garde and the formation of Bertolt Brecht’s theatrical practice. Scientific Notes of Petrozavodsk State University. Philological sciences, 3 (156): 67—73. (In Russ.).

20. Tropkina, N. E., Wang Tianjiao. (2022). The image of China in the lyrics of S. M. Tretyakov. Proceedings of the Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University. Philological sciences, 8 (171): 183—186. (In Russ.).

21. Tropkina, N. E., Wang Tianjiao. (2023). Spatial images of the Far Eastern region in S. M. Tretyakov’s poem “Roar, China!”. Proceedings of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University. Philological sciences, 1 (1): 118—123. (In Russ.).

22. Verchenko, A. L. (2018). Fiction and journalism as a source of Chinese history research (on the example of S. M. Tretyakov’s literary work). In: Problems of China’s Modern and Contemporary History: Collection of Articles. Moscow: Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 32—54. ISBN 978-5-8381-0344-4. (In Russ.).

23. Zaslavsky, D. I. (1933). The childhood of a Chinese intellectual. Children’s and youth literature, 8: 1—3. (In Russ.).


Review

For citations:


Krasnoiarova A.A., Kondakov B.V., Popkova T.D. Chinese Cycle of Sergei Tretyakov. Nauchnyi dialog. 2025;14(10):325-348. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-10-325-348

Views: 3


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2225-756X (Print)
ISSN 2227-1295 (Online)