Citationality in Lev Rubinštejn's ‘Šestikrylyj Serafim’

In this article Lev Rubinshtein's text ‘Shestikrylyi Serafim’ (‘The Six-winged Seraph’) is analysed, especially with regard to its pervasive citationality. Citationality is first discussed from a theoretical perspective, in an attempt to distinguish between different terms and concepts within this field. In Rubinshtein's text citationality takes the form of direct references to biblical texts, to Pushkin, especially his poem ‘The Prophet’, to other classical writers such as Gogol' and Chekhov. On the other hand, a large part of ‘The Six-winged Seraph’ consists of quasi-quotations, phrases that sound like quotations but cannot be identified as such. They appear as ‘citations of styles’, as the interest in language stereotypes is a general feature of the Moscow Conceptualists, including Rubinshtein.