Article

Name: Intermediality of silence: from Alexander Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies” to Mikhail Schweitzer’s cinematic images

Authors: Alexander V. Markov, Tatiana V. Zvereva

Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russian Federation; Udmurt State University, Izhevsk, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The article offers a comprehensive investigation of the phenomenon of silence in its intermedial aspect — during the transition from the literary system to the cinematic one, based on the material of Alexander Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies” and their film adaptation by Mikhail Schweitzer. Silence is examined as a fundamental cultural code that provides access to the microhistory of human passions and existential experiences. In Pushkin’s text, silence functions as a complex poetic system realized through pauses, omissions, graphic peculiarities of punctuation, and the absence of stage directions. The analysis demonstrates how different types of silence — from ontological to social — become the key to understanding the tragic conflict. Particular attention is paid to how Schweitzer carries out the intermedial translation of this system, transforming silence from an element of rhetorical structure into an independent material environment. The director visualizes and gives voice to silence using specific cinematic means: camera work, editing, chronotope organization, and actors’ plasticity. It is proven that intermediality in this case acts not merely as a technical device, but as a form of philosophical research that reveals new semantic layers of the classical work. Cinema becomes a medium capable of making implicit meanings and preverbal states visible and tangible for the viewer, and silence turns into an active actor of the tragedy, determining its outcome.

Keywords: intermediality, silence, “Little Tragedies”, Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Schweitzer, film adaptation, microhistory, film language, pause, cultural code, philosophy of cinema, visual anthropology

Bibliography:

Belyak N. V., Virolainen M. N. «Malen’kie tragedii» kak kul’turnyy epos novoevropeyskoy istorii (sud’ba lichnosti — sud’ba kul’tury) [“Little Tragedies” as a cultural epic of modern European history (the fate of the individual — the fate of culture)]. In: Virolainen M. N. Rech’ i molchanie: syuzhety i mify russkoy slovesnosti [Speech and Silence: plots and myths of Russian literature]. Saint Petersburg, Amfora, 2003. 503 p. Pp. 190–236. (in Russ.)

Belyak N. V., Virolainen M. N. «Motsart i Sal’eri»: struktura i syuzhet [“Mozart and Salieri”: structure and plot]. In: Pushkin: issledovaniya i materialy. Vol. 15. Saint Petersburg, Nauka, 1995. Pp. 109–121. (in Russ.)

Chumakov Yu. N. Dva fragmenta o syuzhetnoy polifonii «Motsarta i Sal’eri» [Two fragments on the plot polyphony of “Mozart and Salieri”]. In: Boldinskie chteniya [Boldino Readings]. Gorky, Volgo-Vyatskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1981. Pp. 54–68. (in Russ.)

Chumakov Yu. N. Remarka i syuzhet (k istolkovaniyu «Motsarta i Sal’eri») [Stage direction and plot (towards an interpretation of “Mozart and Salieri”)]. In: Boldinskie chteniya [Boldino Readings]. Gorky, Volgo-Vyatskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1979. Pp. 48–69. (in Russ.)

Dilaktorskaya O. G. «Malen’kie tragedii» A. S. Pushkina: zhanrovyy aspekt [A. S. Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies”: the genre aspect]. Russkaya rech’, 1999, no. 3, pp. 31–39. (in Russ.)

Domanskiy Yu. V. «Stsena iz Fausta»: spetsifika sobytiynosti v pushkinskom tekste i v teleinterpretatsii M. Shveytsera [“A scene from Faust”: the specifics of eventfulness in Pushkin’s text and in M. Schweitzer’s TV interpretation]. Novyy filologicheskiy vestnik, 2011, no. 4 (19), pp. 141–150. (in Russ.)

Garkavi A. M. «Malen’kie tragedii» Pushkina kak dramaturgicheskiy tsikl: kompozitsiya v svyazi s zhanrom i khudozhestvennym metodom [Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies” as a dramatic cycle: Composition in connection with genre and artistic method]. Baltiyskiy filologicheskiy kur’er, 2003, no. 3, pp. 189–199. (in Russ.)

Ishchuk-Fadeeva N. I. «Stseny» kak osobyy dramaticheskiy zhanr. Malen’kie tragedii A. S. Pushkina [“Scenes” as a special dramatic genre. A. S. Pushkin’s Little Tragedies]. In: Pushkin: voprosy poetiki [Pushkin: questions of poetics]. Tver, TGU, 1992. Pp. 84–97. (in Russ.)

Ishchuk-Fadeeva N. I. «Yazyk molchaniya» v dramaturgii Pushkina i Gogolya [The “language of silence” in the dramas of Pushkin and Gogol]. In: Chetvertye Gogolevskie chteniya. Gogol’ i Pushkin [The Fourth Gogol Readings. Gogol and Pushkin]. Moscow, KDU, 2005. Pp. 165–174. (in Russ.)

Kashurnikov N. A. «Malen’kie tragedii» Pushkina: problemy tsiklovogo i simvolicheskogo smysloobrazovaniya [Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies”: problems of cyclical and symbolic meaning formation]. Saint Petersburg, Petropolis, 2012. 62 p. (in Russ.)

Markovich V. M. Tsikl «Malen’kie tragedii» kak issledovatel’skaya problema [The “Little Tragedies” cycle as a research problem]. In: Poetika russkoy literatury: sbornik statey k 75-letiyu prof. Yu. V. Manna [Poetics of Russian literature: a collection of articles for the 75th anniversary of Professor Yu. V. Mann]. Moscow, RGGU, 2006. Pp. 315–340. (in Russ.)

Pankratova I. L., Khalizev V. E. Opyt prochteniya «Pira vo vremya chumy» A. S. Pushkina [An experience of reading Pushkin’s “Feast during the Plague”]. In: Tipologicheskiy analiz literaturnogo proizvedeniya [Typological analysis of a literary work]. Kemerovo, 1982. Pp. 53–66. (in Russ.)

Sedakova O. A. Nol’, edinitsa, million [Zero, one, million]. Chelovek, 2005, no. 2, pp. 140–148. (in Russ.)

Shtayn O. A. Maska molchaniya kak neobkhodimaya chast’ avtokommunikatsii [The mask of silence as a necessary part of autocommunication]. Logos et Praxis, 2025, no. 2, p. 40–52. (in Russ.)

Taborisskaya E. M. «Malen’kie tragedii» Pushkina kak tsikl (nekotorye aspekty poetiki) [Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies” as a cycle (some aspects of poetics)]. In: Pushkinskiy sbornik [Pushkin Collection]. Leningrad, LGPI, 1977. Pp. 139–144. (in Russ.)

Vilk E. A. «Malen’kie tragedii» — odna bol’shaya tragediya? [Are the “Little Tragedies” one big tragedy?]. In: Materialy Chetvertoy mezhdunarodnoy Pushkinskoy konferentsii [Proceedings of the Fourth International Pushkin Conference]. Saint Petersburg, 1997. Pp. 240–249. (in Russ.)

Zakharov K. M. K probleme tsiklizatsii «Malen’kikh tragediy» A. S. Pushkina [On the problem of cyclization of A. S. Pushkin’s “Little Tragedies”]. Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya seriya. Seriya: Filologiya. Zhurnalistika, 2022, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 301–305. (in Russ.)