J. Gaarder’s «Sofie`s World»: Peculiarities of the Novel Reception in Russia

Abstract

The paper discusses the reception of Jostein Gaarder’s «Sophie’s world» by the Russian reader. The author gives a brief overview of the main principles of reception aesthetics, which provides the theoretical framework for the analysis of the novel reviews created by the literary critics as well as common readers. Critical works and readers’ opinions published in the Internet provide the material for the analysis of major trends in the Russian reception of the Norwegian text, which are compared with the text perception aspects highlighted by Western reviewers. The analysis provides evidence for the conclusion that the reception of the novel in Russia is framed by a different cultural background compared with that of the Western reader. While Western reviews tend to consider the novel in the postmodern paradigm and, consequently, emphasize the complexity of the narrative structure and the ambiguity of the text, their Russian counterparts position the novel within the familiar frame of the traditional Bildungsroman and highlight the simplicity, intelligibility, as well as the educational and enlightening effect of the book.