The article is mainly devoted to the recent publications of translated Russian literature in Slovakia. In the first part of the article the situation of the 1990s which followed the decline of state management in editorial policy lasted from 1948 till 1989 is discussed. The influence of economic factors on book market turned most of the publishing houses to Western European and American literature. Thus in the last decade of the twentieth century mainly russian classics (Alexander Pushkin, Anton Chekhov, etc.) and the texts that could not be issuied until 1989 (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Iosif Brodsky, “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak) were published. The situation changed only in the new millennium, which was inspired by the phenomenon of the new generation of readers whom the available translations of russian literature were no longer suffucient, especially since they did not encounter the old ideologized approach to the selection of texts. Thanks to this, in recent years, Russian literature, including the most modern – Eugene Vodolaskin, Guzel Yakhina, etc., – again has managed to occupy the place in the Slovak cultural space that rightfully belongs to it.

The paper comprises versatile intertextual connections between Lewis Carroll’s fairy tales (“Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass”) and Nabokov’s novels as regards their system of images, leitmotivs and key-words, similar poetic principles and elements of structure, artistically implemented by Vladimir Nabokov in the text with the purpose of demonstrating the infinite resources of the language as the instrument of creation.

The article regards the image of the «merry soldier» through its significance for understanding the features of V. P. Astafiev’s artistic worldview. The story «The Merry soldier» is examined in the context of the evolution of the military theme in the writer’s work, shows how Astafiev creates on the autobiographical material the national scale image, containing self asking questions primarily related to the theme of the great Patriotic war.

The paper deals with key issues related to the study of the Russian translation of the Quran, printed in St. Petersburg in 1716. The article provides information about the French and Dutch editions of the Du Ryer translation of 1647. Their structure is compared with the structure of the Russian translation. The possibility of obtaining a French edition from both France and the Netherlands is considered. The question is raised about the possibility of the Russian translator acquaintance with the Dutch version made by J.H. Glazenmaker. However the presence of chapter numbering and correct transmission of the description of the mythical animal Burak in the Dutch translation show that the Dutch translation was not used by the Russian translator. Three stages of working on the Russian translation are differentiated. This raises the problem of identifying the nature of the original Russian translation and the method of work of an anonymous translator on the French text.

The article compares the lexis of the Kostel dialect of the Slovenian language and the dialect of the villages Pitve and Zavala, which belongs to the South Chakavian vernacular of the Croatian language. The study is based on lexicographic data. The analyzed dialects of the Slovenian and Croatian languages contain 17.08 % of common lexis. 19.58 % (217 in each dialect) of the common lexis are loan words. Both among common and differential words, Germanisms are prevalent in the Slovenian dialect as well as Romanisms in the Croatian dialect. Many internationalisms came into the Slovenian dialect through the German language, and into Croatian through Italian and its dialects. Two dialects also share several Turkisms; in addition, the lexis of the Kostel dialect of the Slovenian language contains Romanisms that could find different ways into it, through other Slovenian dialects or the Croatian language.

The article is devoted to the last days of Mikhael Dubeltʼs life. Factual evidence presented in the text let us imagine how the participants themselves and their loved ones perceived the dramatic story of the Pushkin’s daughter Natalia devorce from Mikhael Dubelt.

Unlike Spanish aljamiado (texts in Spanish in Arabic script), which is represented by a great number of texts, both theological and fictional, Portuguese Aljamia (texts in Portuguese in Arabic script) is represented only by eight documents. All of them belong to the period of Portuguese rule in the city of Safi, Morocco (1508–1542). In the article, we analyze the use of the Arabic letters tāʾ и ẓāʾ for conveying sounds denoted by the Latin letter t in the mentioned documents. D. Lopes included these two Arabic letters in the table of transliteration standards for Aljamia texts when publishing these manuscripts, even though the published texts contain other Arabic letters that D. Lopes transliterates as t.
In this function, the letter tāʾ is most commonly used not only in Portuguese documents, but also in Spanish aljamiado. The letter tāʾ in Arabic texts denotes the occlusive obstruent voiceless consonant [t]. For conveying the sounds denoted by the Latin t, the letter ẓāʾ is also used. In Arabic, it denotes the obstruent voiced fricative consonant [ẓ]. In addition to tāʾ и ẓāʾ, D. Lopes transliterates the letter ṭāʾ as t. In Arabic, this letter denotes the occlusive obstruent voiceless consonant [ṭ]. The letters з̣а̄’(ظ) and т̣а̄’(ط) are not typical for Spanish aljamiado. In rare cases, we can find Arabic letters tha:’, ṣād, sīn, or dāl designated by the Latin t.
There are a number of words where ṭāʾ and ẓāʾ alternate. In some cases, this alternation can be explained by a mistake made by the author or the copyist, who may have forgotten to put a full stop over the letter ẓāʾ. However, in addition to this alternation, we can find an alternation of ṭāʾ and tāʾ, which cannot be explained by the copyist’s lack of concentration. There are a number of words where all the indicated letters alternate: ṭāʾ, ẓāʾ, and tāʾ. In some examples, the letters tāʾ and ẓāʾ are used to convey the sounds denoted by the Latin letter d.

The article analyses the influence of Ancient Greek philosophy and mythology, noticeable in the poetry of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. The results of the analysis show that Sophia de Mello’s poetry, seemingly non-philosophic, is based on the ideas close to the theories proposed by ancient philosophers from Pre-Socratics philosophers to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The ideas of the unity between the human being and the Universe, as well as Plato’s theory of the Truth, the Good and the Beauty gain the special importance for the Portuguese writer. The ancient myths are reinterpreted by Sophia de Mello. The Ancient Greece is represented as the symbol of harmony between the human being and the Nature.

The article analyzes the ways of expressing into Russian Macedonian phrasal units and culturological lacunas existing due to the absence of certain realities along with words describing them in Russian culture. Semantic and pragmatic aspects are to be taken into consideration to translate the words and phrases reproducing the essential background, cultural information. Different cultural-language competence of interlocutors demands variable adaptations so that readers/viewers understand a translated text well.

The paper analyses stylistics of two famous novels by Sasha Sokolov published in the USA: “School for Fools” (1976, 1977) and “Astrophobia” (1985). The first one was highly appreciated by Vladimir Nabokov who saw a close affinity of its poetics with his own style of writing though before emigration Sokolov couldn’t gain access to his books. However the insane marginal hero fully immersed in his own fantasy and hallucinations, numerous double-characters, repeated key-words and symbolic details creating metaphoric style of writing, the multi-layered intertextuality, literary allusions, etc. – all these artistic means happened to be just similar typical features of their novels. But as the author of the article states, such poetic similarity manifests only their multiform typological convergence. A grotesque parody on “Lolita” and “Ada” – “Palisand­ria”, written in exile, on the contrary carries the peculiarities of Nabokov’s poetics to the point of absurdity by means of the same creative approach – postmodernism.

The author points out the large role of the plot conflict, which is successfully resolved in the final in the play “Comradeship, or the Ladder of Glory” (1837) of Eugène Scribe. A different trend can be traced in the plays of Alexander Ostrovsky, remarkable for their characterology: the playwright introduces a lot of “extra” characters, his plays introduce dialogues on topics that are not directly related to the main plot.

The published materials constitute an experience of the bibliographical review in Russian-language scientific researches on interaction domestic literature and journalism in pre-revolutionary epoch (predominantly – 1900–1917 years). The list is by no means closed and exhaustive, but basic. A necessary prerequisite for its preparation became the identification and the recording of works which reflect the most significant aspects of the stated theme in the implementation large-scale project “Russian Literature and Journalism in Pre-revolutionary Epoch: Form of Interaction and Analysis Methodology”. At the same time the list may have an independent heuristic value for specialists, involved in indicated period who need to apeal to magazine and newspaper periodicals, which role in the socio-political and cultural life at the turn of the century is great. For ease of reference proposed list consist of five sections: monographs and digests; articles; reference publications; the thesis; educational literature. Meanwhile for digests which are collective monographs on our topic, a complete list of contents is given. In other cases thematically related publications are included in common section with articles from scientific periodicals. Inside of the every section positions are in alphabetical order. Outside the scope of this list are ego-documents (reminiscences, memoirs, diaries, memoirs, letters) and archival sources, on which, due to their large quantity, individual publications are being prepared.