I.A. Bunin’s Prose of 1917–1920. On the Copy Texts Issue

Abstract

This is the second article in a series of works devoted to the definition of copy texts of I. A. Bunin's prose. Research conducted after the publication of the article “Ivan Bunin’s Prose Works. An Approach to the Choice of Copy Texts for a Critical Edition”, allowed us to clarify the chronological boundaries within which the writer's works should be printed according to their own and for each group strictly defined principles of text submission. If, at the first consideration, one of these boundaries was proposed to be considered 1920 — the year of Bunin's departure from Russia, later the analysis of specific textual stories of Bunin's stories of the 1917–1920's made it necessary to shift this border to 1917. All the stories written in these years, both in their figurative and thematic structure, and in their printed history, belong to the next, émigré period of the writer's work. Therefore, like other works of this time, they should be presented in Bunin’s Complete Works with the texts of their last lifetime publications, and not the last Russian publications before 1920, as should be the case for works written in previous years.

Keywords

• i.a. bunin
• archival materials
• textual criticism
• the choice of base text
• a collection of essays