Fashion as a Key to Understanding N. Teffi’s Work (Review of I.A. Ndiaye’s Book “Fashion in the Life and Work of Nadezhda Teffi”)

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2025-3-576-585
  • УДК / UDC: 821.054.7.0
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/HHQSTY
  • Publication Type: Book Review
  • For Citation:

    Pavelieva, Yu.Е. “Fashion as a Key to Understanding N. Teffi’s Work (Review of I.A. Ndiaye’s Book ‘Fashion in the Life and Work of Nadezhda Teffi’).” Emigrantica. Issue 3, ed.-comp. E.R. Ponomarev, acad. ed. E.R. Ponomarev, ed. A.V. Protopopova, M.S. Shchavlinskii, D.V. Zaitsev. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 576–585. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2025-3-576-585
  • Author 1: Yulia Е. Pavelieva
  • Information about the Author 1:

    Yulia Е. Pavelieva, PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher, Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russian Abroad, Nizhnyaya Radishchevskaya St., 2, 109240, Moscow, Russia.
    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5231-2706

     
  • Abstract: The article analyses the monograph by I.A. Ndiaye, which is devoted to a little-studied aspect of N.A. Teffi’s life and work in the emigrant period. The author analyses Teffi’s works of fiction published in 1921–1952, as well as her autobiographical prose and epistolary; illustrative material is widely presented in the monograph. Serious attention is paid to the cultural life of Russian emi- grants of the ‘first wave’. I.A. Ndiaye has compiled a professional ‘fashion lexicon’. This vocabulary includes concepts that can be seen on the pages of Teffi’s works. The thematic principle of material selection is fundamental for the author of the monograph. The central place in the study is given to the concepts of ‘fashion and beauty’. The main issue is their role in the author’s concept of Teffi’s world. The author focuses on the problem of studying the various functions of ‘fashion- able things’, recreating Teffi’s image against the background of the fashion world. The problem of the functioning of fashion in Teffi’s work is considered within the framework of the concept of the ‘thing world of literature’, which correlates with the real world, but is not its twin. I.A. Ndiaye’s monograph testifies to the signifi- cance of fashion in Teffi’s personal sphere and artistic world.
  • Keywords: I.A. Ndiaye, Nadezhda Teffi, culture of the Russian аbroad, émigré prose, fashion, world of things
  • Страницы / Pages: 576–585

References

  1. Vasil'ev, A.A. Krasota v izgnanii: v 2 t. [Beauty in Exile: In 2 vols.], sci. ed. E. Bespalova. Moscow, Slovo / Slovo Publ., 2008. 350 p. + 360 p. (In Russian)
  2. Ndiaye, I.A. Moda v zhizni i tvorchestve Nadezhdy Teffi [Fashion in the Life and Work of Nadezhda Teffi]. Olsztyn, Wydawnictwo UWM Publ., 2024. 346 p. (In Russian)
  3. Teoriia mody. Odezhda, telo, kul'tura [Fashion Theory. Clothing, Body, Culture]. 2006. No. 1. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Review]. Availableat: https://www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/teoriya_mody/01_tm_1_2006/ (accessed 21.01.2025) (In Russian) 
  4. Ndiaye, I.A. “Chemodannaia zhizn' russkikh emigrantov v ‘Vospominaniiakh’ Nadezhdy Teffi” [“Suitcase Life of Russian Emigrants in Nadezhda Teffi's ‘Memoirs’”]. Twórczość rosyjskiej zagranicy — satyra i memuarystyka [Works of Russian Abroad — Satire and Memoirs], eds. by T. Marczenko, I.A. Ndiaye, D. Nikołajew. Series: Luminarze Rosyjskiej Emigracji [Luminaries of Russian Emigration]. Olsztyn: Instytut Słowiańszczyzny Wschodniej Publ., 2018, pp. 109–117. (In Russian)
  5. Ndiaye, I.A. Pod maską Talii…: o tożsamości poetyckiej Nadieżdy Teffi [Under Thalia's Mask...: On the Poetic Identity of Nadezhda Teffi]. Olsztyn: Wydaw. Uniw. warmińsko-mazurskiego w Olsztynie Publ., cop. 2019. 423 p. (In Polish)
  • Received: January 28, 2025
  • Approved after Reviewing: March 15, 2025
  • Publication Date: December 29, 2025

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