How to Write the Histories of National Literatures?

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to accentuate the problem of theoretical-and-metidological basis for writing the histories of national literatures of peoples of Russia. The main objectives imply the generalization of the experience on national literatires’ histories writing, mainly on the material of the Volga Region literatures) and to represent the concept of “The History of Tatar Literature” in Russian. Because of the lack of attention to national literatures in Russia various types of histories of national literatures such as academic, popular, educational, are in demand. The D.S. Likhachyov’ idea of theoretical history of literature is chosen as a concept for academic five-volume “History of Tatar Literature” (the project is being realized by the G. Ibraghimov’s Institute of Language, Literature and Arts of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan). At the same time the concept is to be corrected according to the so-called “expectation horizon” of a Russian reader, not being aware of Tatar literature well enough.