"Manuscriptness" and "draftiness". A critical analysis of concepts in Rozanov studies

The subject of the article is two adjacent concepts in Rozenov studies: "handwriting" or "manuscriptness" and "draftness," which are used to denote the peculiarities of the most stylistically distinctive texts of V.V. Rozanov, such as "Solitaria," "Fallen Leaves," "Sakharna," "Fleeting," "The Last Leaves," and "The Apocalypse of Our Time," but to a greater extent the first two. "Handwriting," as stated by V.V. Rozanov himself and developed by A.D. Sinyavsky, was meant to denote not the direct fact of "writing by hand," but the inclination towards medial immediacy in representing the author's creative act, imitating the incompleteness of a rough draft. Hence, in the 1990s, S.R. Fedyakin derived "draftness" as a specification of "handwriting," developing a whole theory of drafts as a medium through which inner speech externalizes. Draftness genetically follows from handwriting but is practically unused outside Rozenov studies. Thus, these concepts are used to explore the specificity of this literary criticism direction. The article employs methodological analysis, which allows for an analysis of the literary-critical approach, including the theoretical object constructed within it. The key premises of the approach are analyzed, and the consistency of theoretical propositions is tested. Elements of the methodology of the history of concepts are also used to conceptualize the genetic following of draftness from handwriting. The novelty of this research lies in the comprehensive description of how the concepts of manuscriptness and draftness function in Russian literary criticism, including their definition, heuristic, and theoretical value. The theoretical prerequisites that necessitate these concepts are elucidated. A sequential comparison of the theoretical meanings of these concepts in Rozenov studies, on the one hand, and in diary studies, poetry studies, and related fields, on the other hand, is conducted. Almost all texts in which these concepts are used are analyzed. It is revealed that handwriting outside of Rozenov studies tends to be literalized, denoting handwritten text that is not a manuscript, while in Rozanov studies it becomes a metaphor and is incorporated into new metalanguages, such as post-structuralism and receptive aesthetics. Draftness, on the other hand, is used in Rozenov studies to denote the author's presence, the paradoxical immediacy of the author's self in the text, but assumes a necessary axiom of the artistic-aesthetic nature of the mentioned works. Outside of Rozenov studies, for example in diary studies, draftness becomes a metaphor.

V.V. Rozanov, draftiness, draft, manuscriptness, genre, Rozanov studies, methodological analysis, methodology of literary studies, history of concepts, artistic quality