The musicality of I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Smoke”: The intermedia aspect

About the author:

Tatiana A. Labanova, Postgraduate Student, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; tatianalabanova@gmail.com

Abstract:

This article explores the intermedia aspect of I. S. Turgenev’s prose, specifically the role of music within it. The article aims to examine and analyze the intermedia musical inserts in the novel. While scholars have previously attempted to examine musical motifs in Turgenev’s work, the novel “Smoke” has remained largely unexplored in this vein. An intermedia analysis of the novel allows us to uncover the character and their relationships and explore its compositional structure in greater depth. The author uses musical inserts as a means of characterizing the characters and expressing their feelings, as well as a reference to the popular culture of the time and as a precursor to the events of the novel. Musical inserts serve as a means of organizing the system of characters and their relationships.

References:

Alekseev, M. P. (1918). I. S. Turgenev and Music: Report, read at the ceremonial meeting of the united societies at the University of St. Vladimir, Nestor the Chronicler, Historical-Literary and Art Research Society on October 28, 1918, on the centenary of the birth of I. S. Turgenev. Retrieved February 2, 2026, from http://www.e-heritage.ru/Book/10084626 [In Russian]

Gozenpud, A. A. (1994). I. S. Turgenev: Research. Kompozitor. [In Russian]

Dzhumailo, O. A. (2018). The concept of intermediality and its evolution in modern scientific knowledge. Verhnevolzhski Philological Bulletin, 4(15), 58–62. [In Russian]

Domansky, V. A. (2002). Literature and Culture. A Cultural Approach to the Study of Literature in School. Publishing House of Tomsk State University. [In Russian]

Domansky, V. A. (2021). Russian Classics in Cultural Contexts and Dialogues. Flinta. [In Russian]

Domansky, V. A. (2022). Intermediality of Russian classical works (based on the works of I. S. Turgenev). Scientific and Methodological Illustrated Journal “The World of the Russian Word”, 20, 82–89. [In Russian]

Domansky, V. A., & Kafanova, O. V. (2020). The Artistic Worlds of Ivan Turgenev. Flinta. [In Russian]

Dotsenko, V. N. (2011). Music in the creative world of I. S. Turgenev. Scientific Notes of the Kharkov State Pedagogical University named after G. S. Skovoroda. Literary Criticism, 4, 57–63. [In Russian]

Kiyko, E. I. (1981). Commentary on the novel “Smoke”. In I. S. Turgenev, Complete Works and Letters in 30 Vols. Vol. 7 (pp. 508–558). Nauka. [In Russian]

Kryukov, A. N. (1963). Turgenev and Music: Musical Pages of the Writer’s Life and Work. Muzgiz. [In Russian]

Markovich, V. M. (1975). Man in the Novels of I. S. Turgenev. Leningrad University Publishing House. [In Russian]

Grove’s Dictionary of Music. (2007). Praktika. [In Russian]

Petrov, S. M. (1979). I. S. Turgenev: Creative Path. Khudozhestvennaya literarutra. [In Russian]

Rostopchina, E. P. (1991). The Happy Woman. Literary Works (Comp., commentary by A. M. Ranchin). Pravda. Retrieved February 2, 2026, from http://az.lib.ru/r/rostopchina_e_p/text_1850_dnevnik_devushki.shtml [In Russian]

Timashkov, A. Yu. (2008а). “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by J. Vermeer, T. Chevalier, and P. Webber: The intermedial aspect. In Contemporary Art in the Context of Globalization: Science, Education, and the Art Market (pp. 100–105). St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences. [In Russian]

Timashkov, A. Yu. (2008b). On the history of the concept of intermediality in foreign science. In Fundamental Problems of Contemporary Cultural Studies. Vol. 3 (pp. 112–119). Aleteia. [In Russian]

Timashkov, A. Yu. (2009). On the relation between the phenomena of intermediality and intertextuality: A philosophical aspect. In Contemporary Art in the Context of Globalization: Science, Education, and the Art Market (pp. 42–43). St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences. [In Russian]

Tishunina, N. V. (2001). Methodology of intermedial analysis in light of interdisciplinary research. In Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference on the 80th Anniversary of Professor M. S. Kagan “Methodology of Humanitarian Knowledge in the Perspective of the 21st Century” (May 18, St. Petersburg) (pp. 149–154). Symposium Series. Issue No. 12. St. Petersburg Philosophical Society. [In Russian]

Turgenev, I. S. (1981а). Complete Works and Letters in 30 Vols. Vol. 7 (pp. 247–408). Nauka. [In Russian]

Turgenev, I. S. (1981b). Librettos of comic operas, scripts and vaudeville. In Turgenev, I. S. Complete Works and Letters in 30 Vols. Vol. 12 (pp. 7–292). Nauka. [In Russian]

Rajewsky, I. O. (2005). Intermediality, intertextuality, and remediation: A literary perspective on intermediality. Intermédialités [=Intermediality], 6, 43–64. https://doi.org/10.7202/1005505ar

Wolf, W. (1999). The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality. Rodopi.

Wolf, W. (2017). Selected Essays on Intermediality by Werner Wolf: Theory and Typology, Literature-Music Relations, Transmedial Narratology, Miscellaneous Transmedial Phenomena. Brill Rodopi.