Stein, Abram Lvovich

Abram Lvovich Stein was born in Moscow in 1915 in the family of a lawyer. In 1937 he graduated from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. IN AND. Lenin , then graduate school there and defended his thesis on Shakespeare's comedies. At the very beginning of World War II he was called to the front, but was soon demobilized due to very poor vision. He worked on the radio, was an employee of VOKS. In 1949, during the anti-Jewish campaign, which took place under the name of “the fight against cosmopolitanism,” he was defamed in the press, subjected to various kinds of studies, which for years blocked the possibility of any scientific publications and any appearance in the press. Fortunately, he was not arrested, and he managed to save his place of work at the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​(in the future, named after Maurice Thorez), although the studies were there too; as a result, he worked at this institute until the end of his life — first as an assistant professor, and then, after defending his doctoral dissertation, as a professor in the department of literature.

The scientific interests of A. L. Stein were very diverse. Starting with the study of Western literature, in the postwar years he turned to Russian literature, by his own admission, thanks to the impression of everything experienced in the Great Patriotic War. (It is remarkable that it was precisely because of the article written by him in this patriotic mood on the world significance of “Woe from Wit” by Griboedov that he was declared a cosmopolitan). These diverse interests resulted in very different topics of books and publications by A. L. Stein, which began to appear from the end of the 50s. He owns textbooks on the history of literature in France, England, Spain, Germany, the USA, studies on the aesthetics of Spanish Baroque, a small book about Shakespeare, a book about Don Quixote. In the 60s, he was the organizer and editor of the Shakespeare Yearbook, and at the same time he wrote books about individual Russian writers and some problems of Russian literature. But with this breadth and diversity of interests, the researcher had the main favorite topic - dramaturgy, referring to which he achieved the most striking results. Broad ideas about European dramaturgy and the subsequent appeal to the study of Russian dramaturgy helped him do a lot to clarify its artistic identity, its place in world literature, the result of which was the monograph “Critical Realism and Russian Drama”. But among Russian playwrights, A. L. Shtein's favorite playwright was A. N. Ostrovsky, and the researcher’s unconditional merit was to find out the place of this deeply original national writer in the world dramaturgy in the books dedicated to him, “The Master of Russian Drama,” “Lessons of Ostrovsky,” “ Good genius of the Russian theater. ” The strength of these books is certainly also the analysis of theatrical embodiments of the plays of the great Russian playwright by both masters of the past and the contemporary theater author. The researcher was helped not only by the fact that among his scientific interests was interest in the theater, its history and theory. In addition, A. L. Stein had a deep connection with the Maly Theater, a kind of love for Ostrovsky’s House. He did not just write reviews of his performances and articles about his actors, he was friends with many of them, including Tsarev, Sashin-Nikolsky, with the “great old women” Turchaninova, Pashennaya, Ryzhova, often edited actor’s memories, helped the authors in their creation.

A. L. Stein combined a general interest in drama and theater with a special interest in one of the theater genres - the comedy genre. Knowledge of both world and Russian comedy allowed him to create a book containing an original concept of the development of this genre in world literature - “The Fun Art of Comedy”.

In his general theoretical ideas, A. L. Stein considered himself a follower of the philosopher M. A. Lifshitz, firmly defended the need for realism in art. Democratic, enlightening pathos was inherent in his work, which determines a clear, accessible form of all of his works that are quite complex in content.

Criticism

• D.I. Fonvizin : 1745-1792: Essay on life and work. M., 1945
• A.N. Ostrovsky . M., 1946
• Pablo Neruda: A critical and biographical essay. M., 1952. Co-authored with V. N. Kuteyshchikova
• Essays on the history of French literature. M., 1958. In collaboration with M. A. Yakhontova, M. N. Chernevich
• Critical realism and Russian drama of the 19th century. M., 1962
• History of French literature. M., 1965. In collaboration with M. N. Chernevich, M. A. Yakhontova
• Three masterpieces of Ostrovsky. M., 1967
• Master of Russian drama: Studies on the work of Ostrovsky. M., 1973
• Lectures on Spanish literature of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. M., 1975
• History of Spanish Literature: Middle Ages and Renaissance. M., 1976 ^[3]
• At the top of world literature. M., 1977
• Literature of the Spanish Baroque. M., 1983
• Lecture on Spanish Literature: Second Half of the 19th Century M., 1984
• Lessons from Ostrovsky: From the experience of Russian and Soviet theater. M., 1984

• A. L. Stein in the Encyclopedia “Great Russia. Names
• Lukov Vl. A. Shtein Abram Lvovich // Electronic Encyclopedia “The World of Shakespeare” [2010].
• A. L. Stein talks about K. S. Stanislavsky (audio)