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Semantics of the Title of the ‘Russian Novel’ by Meir Shalev

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2026‑79‑200‑211
  • УДК / UDC: 821.411.0
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • For Citation:

    Shafranskaya, E.F. “Semantics of the Title of the ‘Russian Novel’ by Meir Shalev.” Vestnik slavianskikh kul’tur, vol. 79, 2026, pp. 200–211. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.37816/2073‑9567‑2026‑79‑200‑211 
  • Author 1: Eleonora F. Shafranskaya
  • Information about the Author 1:

    Eleonora F. Shafranskaya — DSc in Philology, Profes‑ sor, Professor of the Institute of Russian Language, Рeoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Miklukho‑Maklaya St., 6, 117198 Moscow, Russia.

    ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000‑0002‑4462‑5710

    E‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
  • Abstract: The study of the “Russian Novel” written by the Israeli author Meir Shalev leads to the idea that a special novel genre is emerging in world literature — the Rus‑ sian novel, regardless of the language in which it is written and in what location. The presented analysis is in the relationship between the event and detailed part of the novel and its title. The authors identify mythological images of Russian culture (Ivan Mich‑ urin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bulgakov, Stalin), tropes and figures of speech that permeate the discourse of the novel and that are used in everyday life by the Hebrew‑speaking characters of the novel, figurative “Russian” associations and behavioral models; the paper also characterizes the image of the narrator reflecting on the “Russianness” of his grandfather, brought to Israel. The phrase “Russian novel” is interpreted by the writer as a passion – he borrowed this semantics from the mythology of Israeli everyday life. He endowed his characters, immigrants from Russia, with “Russian passion”. In this work of art, unconscious or deliberate appeal to the Russian culture (the country of origin) of the repatriates of the first waves of emigration coincides with the theoretical conclu‑ sions of folklorist researchers M. Elenevskaya and L. Fialkova, which they made based on the folklore of Israeli immigrants from the former USSR in the 1990s. Thus, Meir Shalev's “Russian Novel” itself acts as a kind of folklore informant. The writer trans‑ ferred into the flesh of the novel his observations of the grandmothers and grandfathers, who came from Russia.
  • Keywords: title, Israel, Meir Shalev, “Russian Novel”, Israeli literature, Russian details, Russian language.
  • Funding Sources: This publication has been supported by project No. 050119‑0‑000, carried out at the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature of the Philological Faculty of RUDN University.
  • Страницы / Pages: 200–211
  • Received: March 25, 2025
  • Approved after Reviewing: January 18, 2026
  • Publication Date: March 25, 2026

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