The history of world literature, knowing about the falsification of many of its monuments, tries to forget about it. There is hardly a single researcher who would argue that the classics of Greece and Rome that have come down to us were not mutilated by copyists.
Erasmus complained bitterly back in the 16th century that there was not a single text from the “Church Fathers” (i.e., the first four centuries of Christianity) that could be unconditionally accepted as authentic. The fate of literary monuments is perhaps equally unenviable. At the very end of the 17th century, the learned Jesuit Arduin argued that the ancient world belong only to Homer, Herodotus, Cicero, Pliny, Horace’s “Satires” and Virgil’s “Georgics”. As for the rest of the works of antiquity... they were all created in the 13th century AD.
It is enough to raise this question about the authenticity of the manuscripts of the classics in order to recognize the complete impossibility of establishing where in the past the “genuine” classic ends and the falsified one begins. In essence, the true Sophocles and Titus Livius are unknown... The most subtle and strict criticism of the texts is powerless to detect the later distortions of the classics. The traces that would lead to the original texts are cut off.
It is also worth adding that historians are extremely reluctant to part with even works whose apocryphal nature has been proven by themselves. They classify them in the category of so-called pseudepigraphic literature (pseudo-Clement, pseudo-Justus, etc.) and do not hesitate to use them. This position is absolutely understandable and is only a logical development of the general attitude towards “ancient” monuments: there are so few of them that it is a pity to exclude even the dubious ones from circulation.
Before the first printing press was operational in Italy in 1465, a few years later the history of literature registered the forgery of Latin authors.
In 1519, the French scientist de Boulogne forged two books by V. Flaccus, and one of the remarkable humanist scientists, Sigonius, published in 1583 previously unknown passages from Cicero. This simulation was made with such skill that it was discovered only two centuries later, and even then by accident: a letter from Sigonius was found in which he confessed to the falsification.
In the same century, one of the first German humanists to introduce Germany to the Roman classics, Prolucius wrote the seventh book of Ovid's Calendar Mythology. This hoax was partly caused by a scientific dispute about how many books this work of Ovid was divided into; Despite indications on behalf of the author that he had six books, some Renaissance scholars, based on compositional features, insisted that there should be twelve books.
At the end of the 16th century, the issue of the spread of Christianity in Spain was poorly addressed. To fill the annoying gap, the Spanish monk Higuera after the big and difficult work wrote the chronicle on behalf of the never-existent Roman historian Flavius Dexter.
In the 18th century, the Dutch scientist Hirkens published under the name of Lucius Varus, allegedly tragic poet Augustan era, tragedy. Quite by accident, it was possible to establish that the Venetian Corrario published it in the 16th century on his own behalf, without trying to mislead anyone.
In 1800, the Spaniard Marchena amused himself by composing pornographic arguments in Latin. From them he fabricated a whole story and connected it with the text of Chapter XXII of Petroniev’s Satyricon. It is impossible to distinguish where Petronius ends and Marchena begins. He published his excerpt with Petronian text, indicating in the preface the imaginary location of the find.
This is not the only forgery of Petronius' satires. A century before Marchen, the French officer Nodo published the “complete” Satyricon, supposedly “based on a thousand-year-old manuscript he bought from a Greek during the siege of Belgrade,” but no one had seen either this or the more ancient manuscripts of Petronius.
Also republished was Catullus, forged in the 18th century by the Venetian poet Corradino, who allegedly found Catullus's list in Rome.
A 19th-century German student, Wagenfeld, allegedly translated from Greek into German a history of Phenicia written by the Phoenician historian Sanchoniaton and translated into Greek by Philo of Byblos. The find made a huge impression, one of the professors gave a preface to the book, after which it was published, and when Wagenfeld was asked for the Greek manuscript, he refused to submit it.
In 1498, Eusebius Zilber published in Rome on behalf of Berosus, “a Babylonian priest who lived 250 years before Christ,” but “who wrote in Greek,” an essay in Latin, “Five Books of Antiquities with Commentaries by John Anni.” The book went through several editions, and then turned out to be a forgery of the Dominican monk Giovanni Nanni from Viterboro. However, despite this, the legend of the existence of Berosus did not disappear, and in 1825 Richter in Leipzig published the book “The Extant Chaldean Stories of Berosus,” allegedly compiled from “mentions” about Berosus in the works of other authors. It is surprising that, for example, academician. Turaev has no doubts about the existence of Beroz and believes that his work “is for us in high degree valuable."
In the twenties of our century, the German Sheinis sold several fragments from classical texts to the Leipzig Library. Among others was a leaf from the works of Plautus, written in purple ink; the curators of the manuscript cabinet of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, completely confident in the authenticity of their purchase, praised it: “The beautiful handwriting bears all the features characteristic of a very long period. It is clear that this is a fragment of a luxurious book; the use of purple ink suggests that the book was in the library of a wealthy Roman, perhaps in the imperial library. We are confident that our fragment is part of a book created in Rome itself.” However, two years later there followed a scandalous revelation of all the manuscripts presented by Sheinis.
Scientists of the Renaissance (and later times) were not content with the “finds” of manuscripts of writers already known to them; they informed each other about their “discoveries” of new, hitherto unknown authors, as Murea did in the 16th century when he sent Scaliger his own poems under the name of the forgotten Latin poets Attius and Trobeus. Even the historian J. Balzac created a fictional Latin poet. He included in an edition of Latin poems published in 1665 one in praise of Nero, allegedly found by him on half-decayed parchment and attributed to an unknown contemporary of Nero. This poem was even included in anthologies of Latin poets until the forgery was discovered.
In 1729, Montesquieu published a French translation of a Greek poem in the spirit of Sappho, saying in the preface that these seven songs were written by an unknown poet who lived after Sappho, and he found them in the library of a Greek bishop. Montesquieu later admitted to the hoax.
In 1826, the Italian poet Leopardi forged two Greek odes in the style of Anacreon, allegedly written by hitherto unknown poets. He also published his second forgery - a translation of a Latin retelling of a Greek chronicle dedicated to the history of the church fathers and the description of Mount Sinai.
A famous forgery of ancient classics is the hoax of Pierre Louis, who invented the poetess Bilitis. He published her songs in Mercure de France, and in 1894 he published them as a separate edition. In the preface, Louis outlined the circumstances of his “discovery” of songs by an unknown Greek poetess of the 6th century BC. and reported that a certain Dr. Heim even found her grave. Two German scientists - Ernst and Willamowitz-Müllendorff - immediately dedicated articles to the newly discovered poetess, and her name was included in the “Dictionary of Writers” by Laulier and Gidel. In the next edition of the Songs, Louis placed her portrait, for which the sculptor Laurent copied one of the terracottas of the Louvre. The success was enormous. Back in 1908, not everyone knew about the hoax, since that year he received a letter from an Athenian professor asking him to indicate where the originals of Bilitis' songs were kept.
Let us note that almost all exposed hoaxes of this kind belong to modern times. This is understandable, because it is almost impossible to catch the hand of a Renaissance humanist who invented a new author. By all accounts, we should therefore expect that at least some of the “ancient” authors were invented by humanists.
Fakes of the new era
Closer to modern times, not only ancient authors were invented. One of the most famous falsifications of this kind are the poems of Ossian, composed by Macpherson (1736-1796), and the poems of Rowley Chatterton, although these forgeries were quickly exposed, but their artistic merits provide them with a prominent place in the history of literature.
There are known forgeries of La Fontaine, letters of Byron, Shelley, Keats, novels by W. Scott, F. Cooper and plays by Shakespeare.
A special group among modern forgeries consists of writings (mainly letters and memoirs) attributed to some celebrity. There are several dozen of them known (only the most famous).
In the 19th century, “antique” forgeries continued, but, as a rule, they were no longer associated with antiquity. So, in late XIX century, a sensation was caused by the “found” by the Jerusalem merchant Shapiro of a manuscript supposedly from the 1st millennium, telling about the wandering of the Jews in the desert after the exodus from Egypt.
In 1817, philologist Vaclav Hanka (1791 -1861) allegedly found parchment in the church of the small town of Kraljevo Dvor on the Elbe on which epic poems and lyrical songs of the 13th-14th centuries were written in ancient letters. Subsequently, he “discovered” many other texts, for example, an ancient translation of the Gospel. In 1819 he became curator of literary collections, and from 1823 - librarian of the National Czech Museum in Prague. There is not a single manuscript left in the library to which Ganka did not have a hand. He changed the text, inserted words, pasted in sheets of paper, crossed out paragraphs. He came up with a whole “school” of ancient artists, whose names he wrote down in the original ancient manuscripts that fell into his hands. The exposure of this incredible scale of falsification was accompanied by a deafening scandal.
The famous Winckelmann, the founder of modern archaeology, became a victim of a hoax by the artist Casanova (brother of the famous adventurer), who illustrated his book “ Ancient monuments"(But Winckelmann was an archaeologist - a professional!).
Casanova provided Winckelmann with three “ancient” paintings, which, according to him, were taken directly from the walls in Pompeii. Two paintings (with dancers) were made by Casanova himself, and the painting depicting Jupiter and Ganymede was by the painter Raphael Menges. To be convincing, Kazakova composed an absolutely incredible romantic story about a certain officer who allegedly secretly stole these paintings from excavations at night. Winckelmann believed not only in the authenticity of the “relics”, but also in all of Casanova’s fables and described these paintings in his book, noting that “Jupiter’s favorite is undoubtedly one of the most striking figures inherited from the art of antiquity...”.
Kazakova's falsification has the character of mischief, caused by the desire to play a trick on Winckelmann.
Has a similar character famous hoax Merimee, who, fascinated by the Slavs, decided to go to the East to describe them. But this required money. “And I decided,” he himself admits, “to first describe our journey, sell the book, and then spend the fee on checking how right I am in my description.” And so in 1827 he released a collection of songs called “Gusli” under the guise of translations from Balkan languages. The book was a great success, in particular, Pushkin in 1835 made a pseudo-back translation of the book into Russian, proving to be more gullible than Goethe, who immediately sensed the hoax. Mérimée introduced the second edition with an ironic preface, mentioning those whom he managed to deceive. Pushkin later wrote: “The poet Mickiewicz, a keen-sighted critic and a subtle connoisseur of Slavic poetry, did not doubt the authenticity of these songs, and some German wrote a lengthy dissertation about them.” In the latter, Pushkin was absolutely right: these ballads had the greatest success among specialists who had no doubt about their authenticity.
Other falsifications
Examples of forgeries, hoaxes, apocrypha, etc. etc. can be multiplied indefinitely. We talked only about the most famous ones. Let's give a few more scattered examples.
In the history of the development of Kabbalah, the book “Zohar” (“Radiance”) is well known, attributed to Tanai Simon ben Yochai, whose life is shrouded in thick fog legends. M.S. Belenky writes: “However, it has been established that its author was the mystic Moses de Leon (1250-1305). The historian Gren said about him: “One can only doubt whether he was selfish or a pious deceiver...” Moses de Leon wrote several works of a Kabbalistic nature, but they brought neither fame nor money. Then the unlucky writer came up with the right means to open hearts and wallets wide. He began writing under a false name, but one that enjoyed authority. A clever forger passed off his Zohar as the work of Simon ben Jochai... The forgery of Moses de Leon was a success and made a strong impression on the believers. The Zohar has been deified for centuries by advocates of mysticism as a heavenly revelation.”
One of the most famous Hebraists of modern times is L. Goldschmidt, who spent more than twenty years on the critical edition of the first full translation on German Babylonian Talmud. In 1896 (when he was 25 years old), Goldschmidt published a supposedly newly discovered Talmudic work in Aramaic, “The Book of Peacemaking.” However, it was almost immediately proven that this book was Goldschmidt’s own translation of the Ethiopian work Hexameron, pseudo-Epiphanius.
Voltaire found a manuscript commenting on the Vedas in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. He had no doubt that the manuscript was written by Brahmins before Alexander the Great went to India. Voltaire's authority helped publish a French translation of this work in 1778. However, it soon became clear that Voltaire had fallen victim to a hoax.
In India, in the library of missionaries, forged commentaries of the same religious and political nature on other parts of the Vedas, also attributed to the Brahmins, were found. The English Sanskritologist Joyce was misled by a similar forgery, when he translated the verses he discovered from the Purana, outlining the story of Noah and written by some Hindu in the form of an ancient Sanskrit manuscript.
The discovery of the Italian antiquarian Curzio caused a great sensation at the time. In 1637, he published Fragments of Etruscan Antiquity, allegedly based on manuscripts he found buried in the ground. The forgery was quickly exposed: Curzio himself buried the parchment he had written to give it an antique look.
In 1762, the chaplain of the Order of Malta, Vella, accompanying the Arab ambassador to Palermo, decided to “help” historians of Sicily find materials to cover its Arab period. After the ambassador's departure, Vella spread a rumor that the diplomat had given him an ancient Arabic manuscript containing correspondence between the authorities of Arabia and the Arab governors of Sicily. In 1789, an Italian “translation” of this manuscript was published.
Three Indias. In 1165, a Letter from Prester John to Emperor Emmanuel Komnenos appeared in Europe (according to Gumilyov, this happened in 1145). The letter was allegedly written in Arabic and then translated into Latin. The letter made such an impression that dad Alexander III in 1177 he sent his envoy to the presbyter, who was lost somewhere in the vastness of the east. The letter described the kingdom of Nestorian Christians somewhere in India, its miracles and untold riches. During the Second Crusade, serious hopes were placed on the military assistance of this kingdom of Christians; no one thought to doubt the existence of such a powerful ally.
Soon the letter was forgotten, and they returned to the search for the magical kingdom several times (In the 15th century they searched for it in Ethiopia, then in China). So it was only in the 19th century that scientists came up with the idea to deal with this fake.
However, to understand that this is a fake, you don’t have to be an expert. The letter is full of details typical of European medieval fantasy. Here is a list of animals living in the Three Indies: “
“Elephants, dromedaries, camels, Meta collinarum (?), Cametennus (?), Tinserete (?), panthers, forest donkeys, white and red lions, polar bears, white whiting (?), cicadas, eagle griffins, ... horned people , one-eyed, people with eyes in front and behind, centaurs, fauns, satyrs, pygmies, giants, cyclops, the phoenix bird and almost all breeds of animals living on earth ... "
(quoted from Gumilyov, “In Search of an Imaginary Kingdom)
Modern content analysis has shown that the letter was composed in the second quarter of the 12th century in Languedoc or Northern Italy.
Protocols of the Elders of Zion. “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is a collection of texts that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia and became widespread throughout the world, which was presented by its publishers as documents of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Some of them claimed that these were minutes of reports of participants in the Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. The texts set out plans for the Jews to gain world domination, penetrate the government structures of states, take non-Jews under control, and eradicate other religions. Although the Protocols have long been proven to be an anti-Semitic hoax, there are still many supporters of their authenticity. This point of view is especially widespread in the Islamic world. In some countries, the study of the Protocols is even included in the school curriculum.
The document that split the church.
For 600 years, the heads of the Roman Church used the Deed of Constantine (Constitutum Constantini) to maintain their authority as stewards of Christendom.
Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor (306-337) to convert to Christianity. It was claimed that he donated half of his empire in 315 AD. e. in gratitude for gaining new faith and miraculous healing from leprosy. The deed of gift, a document in which the fact of the donation was attested, gave the Roman diocese spiritual authority over all churches and temporary authority over Rome, all of Italy and the West. Those who try to prevent this, it is written in the Deed of Dedication, “will burn in hell and perish with the devil and all the wicked.”
The 3,000-word deed of gift first appeared in the 9th century and became a powerful weapon in the dispute between the Eastern and Western churches. The dispute culminated in the split of the church in 1054 into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Church.
Ten popes quoted the document, and its authenticity was not in doubt until the 15th century, when Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), the greatest theologian of his time, pointed out that the Bishop of Eusebius, a contemporary and biographer of Constantine, did not even mention this gift .
The document is now almost universally accepted as a forgery, most likely fabricated by Rome around 760. Moreover, the falsification was not well thought out. For example, the document transfers power over Constantinople to the Roman diocese - a city that did not yet exist as such!
No wonder that French philosopher Voltaire called it “the most shameless and astonishing falsification that has dominated the world for many centuries.”
Hoaxer and joker Leo Taxil
In 1895, Taxil’s essay “The Secrets of Gehenna, or Miss Diana Vaughan *, her exposure of Freemasonry, the cult and the appearances of the devil” caused a lot of noise. Taxil, under the fictitious name of Hermanus, reported that Diana Vaughan, the daughter of the supreme devil Bitru, was engaged for ten years to the commander of 14 demonic regiments, the voluptuous Asmodeus, and made a honeymoon trip to Mars with him. Soon Dr. Hux demonstrated Diana Vaughan to a large clerical audience.
Having repented of her “error” and returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church, the “devil’s wife” Vaughan corresponded with major church leaders and received letters from Cardinal Parochi, who gave her the blessing of the pope.
On September 25, 1896, in the Italian city of Triente, on the initiative of Taxil, an international congress of the Anti-Masonic Union created by Leo XIII was held. There were 36 bishops and 61 journalists at the congress. Taxil's portrait hung on the podium among the images of saints. Diana Vaughan spoke at the convention as living proof of Masonic Lucifernism.
However, articles ridiculing the “devil’s wife” have already appeared in the press. In July 1896, Margiotti broke relations with his comrades, threatening exposure.
A few months later, an article by Hacks, who turned out to be the author of the anti-religious essay “Gesture,” appeared in German and French newspapers, which reported that “all revelations of Freemasonry were pure blackmail.” “When the papal letter appeared, directed against the Freemasons as allies of the devil,” Hux wrote, “I decided that it would help extort money from the gullible. I consulted with Leo Taxil and several friends and together we conceived “The Devil of the 19th Century.”
"When I was inventing incredible stories For example, about the devil, who in the morning turned into a young lady who dreamed of marrying a freemason, and in the evening turned into a crocodile playing the piano, my colleagues, laughing until they cried, said: “You are going too far!” You'll ruin the whole joke! I answered them: “This will do!” And it really did." Hux ended the article with the statement that he was now stopping all myth-making about Satan and the Freemasons, and with the money raised from the spread of anti-Masonic fables, he was opening a restaurant in Paris where he would feed sausages and sausages as plentifully as he fed the gullible public with his fairy tales.”
A few days later, Margiotti appeared in print and announced that his entire book, “The Cult of Satan,” was part of a hoax conceived by Taxil. April 14, 1897 in the huge hall of the Parisian Geographical Society“Taxil said that his anti-Masonic writings are the greatest hoax of modern times, aimed at ridiculing the gullible clergy. "The Devil's Wife" Diana Vaughan turned out to be Taxil's secretary.
The scandal turned out to be huge. Pope Leo XIII anathematized Taxil. In the same 1897, Taxil published a satire on the Old Testament - “The Funny Bible” (Russian translation: M., 1962), and soon its continuation - “The Funny Gospel” (Russian translation: M., 1963).
Reasons for falsification
The reasons for falsification are as diverse as life itself.
Little is documented about the incentives to falsify in the Middle Ages. Therefore, we are forced to analyze this issue using materials from modern times. However, there is no reason why the general conclusions obtained from this material cannot be applied to more distant times.
1. An extensive class of forgeries consists of purely literary mystifications and stylizations. As a rule, if a hoax was successful, its authors quickly and proudly revealed their deception ( a shining example is Merimee's hoax, as well as Louis's hoax).
The passages from Cicero that Sigonius falsified apparently belong to the same class.
If such a hoax is done skillfully, but the author for some reason did not admit to it, it is very difficult to reveal it.
It’s scary to think how many such hoaxes were made during the Renaissance (as a bet, as a joke, to test one’s abilities, etc.), which were later taken seriously. However, one might think that this kind of “ancient” writings belonged only to “small-format” genres (poems, excerpts, letters, etc.).
2. Close to them lie falsifications, in which a young author tries to assert his “I” or test his strength in a genre that guaranteed him protection in case of failure. This class clearly includes, say, the forgeries of MacPherson and Chatterton (in the latter case a rare pathology of complete identification of oneself with adored ancient authors manifested itself). In response to the theater's lack of attention to his plays, Colonne responded with a fake of Molière, etc.
Let us note that, as a rule, the most well-known falsifiers of this type did not stand out for anything special in the future. Ireland, who forged Shakespeare, became a mediocre writer.
3. Even more malicious are the falsifications made by a young philologist in order to quickly become famous (example - Wagenfeld). More mature men of science falsified in order to prove this or that position (Prolucius) or fill gaps in our knowledge (Higuera).
4. “Filling in” falsifications also include biographies of fantastic personalities like “Saint Veronica”, etc.
5. Many falsifiers were driven (in combination with other motives) by political or ideological considerations (Ganka).
6. A special case of the latest falsifications should be considered the monastic falsifications of the “church fathers”, decrees of popes, etc.
7. Very often a book was apocryphal in antiquity because of its accusatory, anti-clerical or freethinking nature, when it was published under own name was fraught with dire consequences.
8. Finally, last but not least important is the factor of basic profit. There are so many examples that they need not be cited.
Exposing falsifications
If the falsification is done skillfully, then its exposure presents enormous difficulties and, as a rule (if the falsifier himself does not confess), occurs purely by chance (for example, Sigonius). Since history tends to forget about its falsifications, as time passes, exposing the falsification becomes increasingly difficult (for example, Tacitus). Therefore, there is no doubt that many falsifications (especially humanistic ones) still remain unexposed.
In this regard, information about the circumstances of the finds of certain manuscripts is of particular interest. As we saw with the example of Tacitus and will see later with the example of many other works “discovered” during the Renaissance, this information is very scarce and contradictory. It contains almost no names, and only tells about “nameless monks” who brought priceless manuscripts “from somewhere in the north” that had lain “in oblivion” for many centuries. Therefore, it is impossible to judge the authenticity of the manuscripts on its basis. On the contrary, the very inconsistency of this information leads (as in the case of Tacitus) to serious doubts.
It is very strange that, as a rule, there is no information about the circumstances of the finds of manuscripts even in the 19th century! Either they report unverifiable information: “bought at an oriental bazaar,” “found in the basement of a monastery secretly (!) from the monks,” or they are completely silent. We will return to this more than once, but for now we will just quote the famous scientist prof. Zelinsky:
“The year 1891 will long remain memorable in the history of classical philology; He brought us, not to mention small novelties, two large and precious gifts - Aristotle’s book on the Athenian state and Herodes’ everyday scenes. To what happy accident we owe these two discoveries - a stubborn and significant silence is observed about this by those who should know: only the very fact of the accident remains undoubted, and with the establishment of this fact, any need to ask oneself the question is eliminated ... "
And, really, it wouldn’t hurt to ask “those who should know” where they got these manuscripts from. After all, as examples show, neither high academic titles nor generally accepted honesty in everyday life guarantee against counterfeiting. However, as Engels noted, there are no more gullible people than scientists.
It is worth noting that the above is only very brief an excursion into the history of forgeries (and only literary ones, but there are also epigraphic, archaeological, anthropological and many, many others - several of them will be devoted to further posts), in which only a few of them are presented. In reality, they much more, and these are just the famous ones. And no one knows how many fakes have still not been revealed. One thing is certain - many, very many.
Thirty years ago, experts and archival workers determined that Adolf Hitler's sensational personal diaries turned out to be a fake. However, this is far from the only hoax that has affected literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Here are the most famous deceptions that have denigrated the history of world literature since the Middle Ages.
The Fuhrer's personal diaries
In 1983, the Stern newspaper published an article about a unique find - 60 small notebooks, which are the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler from the formation of his party in the 30s until the end of World War II. The newspaper paid journalist Gerd Heidemann, who discovered the diaries (in the supposedly crashed plane), a fortune. As soon as fragments of the diaries were published and presented to the German archive workers for consideration, it turned out that the entries were not only forged, but also extremely crudely forged - the Fuhrer’s handwriting was not similar, pieces of text were stolen from previously published materials, and the paper and ink turned out to be too modern. The fate of the fortune received for the diaries is unknown, but Heidemann and his accomplice were convicted and sent to prison.
The story of Little Tree, a Cherokee orphan boy
The story of a Cherokee orphan who survived a poor childhood under the care of his grandparents was first published in 1976. Presented as a memoir, the story received praise from critics and readers and began to be studied in schools. The first edition sold 9 million copies. In 1991, it turned out that the author of the book was not Forest Carter, but Asa Carter, a famous member of the Ku Klux Klan and ally of George Wallace. Wallace's famous racist line, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation always," was written by Carter. Not only the name of the author turned out to be a fiction, but also the language and culture of the Cherokee tribe, the descriptions of which were criticized by its true representatives.
The Last Adventures of the King of the Wild Lands
The legendary officer, traveler and politician Davy Crockett became the hero of myths and co-author of his own biography. However, pride of place in this list is occupied by a short description of his last adventures before his death during the defense of the Alamo fortress. The prologue to the book states that the events were copied directly from personal diary Colonel Crockett, which only contributed to the establishment of his status folk hero and legendary Texas quarterback. Published immediately after Crockett's death, the book became very popular. In 1884, it turned out that the adventure's author, Richard Penn Smith, wrote it in just 24 hours, consulting historical documents, oral legends and his own imagination.
In 1794, William Henry Ireland, the son of publisher and Shakespeare fan Samuel Ireland, presented his father with a unique paper - a mortgage letter signed by the hand of William Shakespeare himself. The shocked father was full of delight, because to this day few documents written by the master’s hand have survived. The younger Ireland announced that he had discovered the document in a friend’s collection and subsequently provided many more documents authored by Shakespeare. Among them were correspondence with Queen Elizabeth I, with the author’s wife, manuscripts of tragedies and even new, unpublished plays: “Henry II” and “Vortigern and Rowena”.
Father and son became popular among London's elite, but not for long. In 1796, Edmond Mellon revealed evidence that the documents were not originals and forced Airend Jr. to admit to forging documents that he created to attract the attention of his strict and cold father.
Autobiography of an eccentric billionaire
In 1971, a little-known writer named Clifford Irving told McGraw-Hill that the famously reclusive billionaire businessman, filmmaker, and aviator Howard Hughes, who had become a recluse more than a decade earlier, had asked him to co-author his autobiography. The publisher could not refuse this opportunity and signed a contract with Irving. Irving almost managed to deceive everyone if Howard Hughes himself had not decided to break his many years of silence. In a telephone interview with a journalist, he said that he had nothing to do with his “autobiography” and did not know Clifford Irving. After exposure, Irving went to jail for 2.5 years.
Deadly fake
Consisting of 24 chapters revealing a secret plan to take over the world's governments by the Jewish elite, The Protocols Elders of Zion” occupy the place of perhaps the most dangerous and influential literary forgery in the history of mankind. It turned out that the forged document was drawn up by someone working for the secret police. Russian Empire journalist Matvey Golovin. Scholars trace the influence of several unrelated sources in the Protocols, from a pamphlet by Wilhelm Marr and the work of Jewish author Theodor Herzl to an anti-Semitic pamphlet by Hermann Goedsche and a satirical work by a French author ridiculing Napoleon III. Written as the actual minutes of a secret meeting of Zionist leaders in the Swiss city of Basel in 1897, the Protocols reveal a non-existent secret plan to seize power over Jewish-led financial, cultural and governmental organizations.
The impact of the Protocols on history
The publication of these "Protocols" led to brutal repression of the Jewish population in Tsarist Russia and continued during the formation of the Communist Party. The connection between Zion's leaders and the threat of communism led to the fact that the Protocols gained popularity overseas. Automotive magnate Henry Ford, who had previously published anti-Semitic articles more than once, ordered the publication of half a million copies of the Protocols in America. Despite the fact that evidence of the forgery of this collection of documents appeared almost immediately after publication, the popularity of the Protocols only increased. The Protocols were an integral part of Nazi propaganda, and Hitler even quoted them in his book. To this day, many still mistake this literary hoax for a genuine work.
Testament of the Emperor of Byzantium
During the Middle Ages, the conflict between the church and European rulers over power on the continent began to heat up. The Church managed to gain the upper hand thanks to an ancient, but extremely fortunate document that was at hand at the right time. The Veno of Constantinovo turned out to be a deed of gift from Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester, which tells of the emperor’s miraculous cure of leprosy and his conversion to the Christian faith. In connection with the acquisition of faith, the emperor bequeathed lands, wealth and control over the empire to Sylvester and the church. Constantine was ready to give up the crown, but the pope graciously renounced worldly power, however, accepting the highest ecclesiastical rank and control over most of the western empire.
Despite the fact that nothing was known about the Donation of Constantine until the 8th century, the church managed to maintain control over power in Western Europe. In the end, the clergy themselves made public the status of this document as fake, although not earlier than the 16th century.
"The Prince's Joke"
About the book "Ommer de Gell, letters and notes", which was published by the Academy publishing house in 1933. These are unknown documentary materials of a French traveler, in which she describes her voyage across Russia at the end of the 19th century. The sensational content of the book lies in a number of “new” facts from the biography of the classics of Russian literature. For example, a secret romance and French poems by Mikhail Lermontov. The most prominent researchers and literary scholars accepted this hoax, which was created back in the 19th century by Prince Pavel Petrovich Vyazemsky, at face value.
"Beloved son"
According to the position of the most prestigious Goncourt literary prize, it cannot be obtained twice. But there is a case in history when a writer circumvented this law, however, thanks to a scandalous hoax. This is the son of a Russian emigrant, who became a classic of French literature - Romain Gary. But the main hoaxer in the writer’s family was not he, but his mother.
"The Evil Sonnets of Guillaume du Ventre"
Sonnets French poet XVI century Guillaume du Ventre were published in the original language with translation in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in 1946. The real authors of this book were two prisoners who spent almost their entire lives in Stalin's camps. About amazing life and the creativity of these people who resisted the vicissitudes of fate - a story in the program.
"Botanical Hoaxes"
At a literary evening in Paris, Vladislav Khodasevich gave a report in which he spoke about the unknown poet of Derzhavin’s circle, Vasily Travnikov. Story about difficult fate Travnikov and the analysis of his poems, discovered by a happy accident by Khodasevich, evoked an enthusiastic reaction from critics, especially from Georgy Adamovich. A few years later, Vladimir Nabokov published poems and a story about meeting his contemporary, Vasily Shishkov. And again Adamovich was in the forefront of those deceived by the hoax. This brilliant critic, who constantly made claims to the work of Khodasevich and Nabokov, was conducted by them both times, under botanical pseudonyms.
Municipal General education State-financed organization
« high school No. 54"
Orenburg
Research topic:
« Art literary hoaxes »
Ibragimova Olga
Place of study: student of class 8A
MOBU "Secondary School No. 54"
Orenburg
Supervisor:
Kalinina Irina Borisovna
teacher of Russian language
and literature
2015-2016 academic year year
1. Introduction.
1.1. Hoax - what is it?................................................. 3
1.2. Goal and tasks. ……………………………………. 4
1.3. Hypothesis…………………………………………...4
1.4. Object of study. ……………………………....4
1.5. Subject of study. ……………………………..4
1.6. Research methods. ……………………………...4
2. Main part.
2.1.1. Why literary hoaxhas not yet been describedas an independent form of art?......5
2.1.2.Literary hoax is a synthetic art form. .......6
General principles of the art of literary mystification.
2.2.1. Reasons for hoaxes. ………………………7
2.2.2. Special Moves literary hoax...8
2.2.3. Exposing hoaxes…………………....9
Literary Hoaxes Revealed……….9
3. Conclusion.
4. List of used literature.
Introduction.
Hoax - what is it?
Once in a literature lesson, when we were studying life and creative path A.S. Pushkina, literature teacher Irina Borisovna, mentioning the poet’s uncle, Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who at one time was a famous poet himself, said that he was the owner of the manuscript of the monument ancient Russian literature“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, which burned down during the fire of Moscow in 1812 and that there is a version that the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was Vasily Lvovich himself. During this period in Russian and European literature there were many literary forgeries or literary hoaxes. And since hoaxes are interesting to me, I decided to continue working on this topic.
It is necessary to clarify what literary hoax is. This is usually the name given to literary works whose authorship is deliberately attributed to some person, real or fictitious, or is presented as folk art. At the same time, literary hoax seeks to preserve the author’s stylistic style, to recreate - or create from scratch - his creative image. Hoaxes can be carried out for completely different purposes: for the sake of profit, to shame critics or in the interests of literary struggle, from the author’s lack of confidence in his abilities or for certain ethical reasons. The main difference between a hoax and, for example, a pseudonym is the fundamental self-delimitation of the real author from his own work.
Mystification has always been, to one degree or another, characteristic of literature. Strictly speaking, what is a literary work if not an attempt to convince someone - a reader, a critic, oneself - of the existence of a reality invented by the writer? Therefore, it is not surprising that not only worlds invented by someone have appeared, but also fake works and invented writers. Everyone who was guided by the desire to attribute to the author a work that he had not written, settled on creating the work and putting on it not their own names, but the name of the mentioned author. Others did not attempt to publish poems under their own name, but always signed the names of fictitious characters. Still others called their poems “translations” from foreign authors. Some authors went further, becoming “foreigners” writing in Russian. I wanted to learn more about the art of literary hoaxes. I turned to the Internet and found little-known and even unique publications, on the basis of which I wrote my scientific work.
Purpose my work is: to identify the general patterns of the art of literary hoax
Tasks:
Find out as much information as possible about literary hoaxes.
Reveal the features of the art of literary hoaxes.
Describe the features of the art of literary hoaxes.
Prove that literary hoax is a synthetic art form.
Identify as many reasons as possible for the emergence of literary hoaxes.
Determine how a hoax is exposed.
Find as many literary hoaxes as possible.
Systematize the collected material.
Research hypothesis: The art of literary hoaxes is a synthetic art that has existed for a very long time and has its own laws and canons.
Object of study: Literary hoaxes.
Subject of study: Literary hoaxes as art.
Research methods:
Complex analysis - consideration of an object with different points vision.
The imperial method is the collection of data and information about the subject of research.
Data processing method.
The induction method is a method in which a general conclusion is built on the basis of partial premises
The generalization method is a method in which the general properties of an object are established.
Main part.
Literary hoax as art.
Why is literary hoax still not described as an independent art form?
“Literary hoaxes have been around as long as literature itself.” Almost every article about literary hoaxes begins with this phrase, and it is impossible to disagree with it. As soon as books began to be published, writers appeared who wanted to play pranks on their contemporaries, and more often, on their descendants. There seems to be some kind of attractive force in “fooling” as many people as possible at the same time. "Reader, … laugh: the height of earthly pleasures, laughing at everyone from around the corner"- Pushkin wrote frankly. Of course, the reasons that pushed writers to commit hoaxes were, as a rule, more serious and deeper, but the love of humor cannot be discounted.
And here the question involuntarily comes to mind: why is literary mystification, having existed for thousands of years, still not described as an independent form of art (after all, for example, the art of war has been described - and quite thoroughly - which, like the art of mystification, is largely relies on intuition)? Most articles only tell the stories of one or another long-solved literary hoax, in best case scenario their classification is proposed based on who the literary work is attributed to: a writer, a historical person or a fictional author. Meanwhile, literary hoaxes have their own general limitations and special possibilities, their own rules and their own techniques - their own laws of the genre. Suffice it to say that in a literary hoax the work of art itself becomes an enlarged sign with which the hoaxer operates in life - in the game, and the general opinion about this work of art is the same subject of the game as the work itself. In other words, in the “table of ranks” of this game, literary hoax is higher than work of art. And this game has its own masters and losers, its own masters and even geniuses. Of course, literature is not the only art form that has misled many people; There have been hoaxers in painting and music, in archeology and cinema, and even in science. But my interests are primarily related to literature.
Literary hoax is a synthetic art form.
Is literary hoax a synthetic art form? First you need to find out what a synthetic art form is. Synthetic arts are those types of artistic creativity that represent an organic fusion or relatively free combination different types arts that form a qualitatively new and unified aesthetic whole. In fact, if in order to write a significant literary work, talent and a pen (quill pen, pencil, typewriter, computer keyboard) are enough, then the hoaxer must also have the ability to mislead a large number of people outside the creation process itself literary work. If a writer masters the art of playing in the Word, then the hoaxer must also possess the art of playing in Life, since literary hoax is a collective game played both in life and in literature. Moreover, not only those who take the hoax offered by him at face value, but also those who are “on the side” of the hoaxer, initiated into the hoax, involuntarily take part in the game. There may be few of them, one or two people, or, as in Shakespeare’s hoax, dozens, but, with rare exceptions, they always take place.
Lann E. L. "Literary mystification."
Dmitriev V.G. Those who hid their name: From the history of pseudonyms and anonyms / Dmitriev, Valentin Grigorievich, Dmitriev, V.G. - M.: Nauka, 1970. - 255s
"Alexander Pushkin. The Little Humpbacked Horse”, 3rd edition; M., ID KAZAROV, 2011
Yu. Danilin Clara Gazul \ Joseph L "Estrange \ Giakinf Maglanovich \ © 2004 FEB.
Gililov I.M. The Game of William Shakespeare, or the Mystery of the Great Phoenix (2nd edition). M.: Intl. Relationships, 2000.
Encyclopedia of pseudonyms of Russian poets.
Kozlov V.P. Secrets of falsification: A manual for university teachers and students. 2nd ed. M.: Aspect Press, 1996.
REVIEW
For the research work of Ekaterina Yurievna Parilova, a 10th grade student at the Rudnogorsk Secondary School.
Topic: “The art of literary hoaxes.”
Ekaterina Parilova's work is dedicated to the art of literary hoaxes.
There is no comprehensive survey of literary forgeries in any language. The reason is not difficult to establish: the science of literature is powerless to verify its entire archive. It is powerless because this verification presupposes the presence of primary sources, that is, manuscripts that do not raise doubts about authenticity. But what an immeasurable number of such manuscripts have been lost forever! And, as a result, the history of world literature, knowing about the falsification of many monuments, tries to forget about it.
Purpose of the study: to identify general patterns of the art of literary mystification.
Research objectives: find out as much data as possible about literary hoaxes; reveal the features of the art of literary hoaxes; describe the features of the art of literary hoaxes; prove that literary hoax is a synthetic art form; identify as many reasons as possible for the appearance of literary hoaxes; establish how a hoax is exposed; find as many literary hoaxes as possible; systematize the collected material.
When writing a research paper, the student used the following methods: 1) Complex analysis; 2) Imperial method; 3) Data processing method; 4) Method of induction; 5) Generalization method.
The work provides a justification for the relevance of the topic under study, put forward goals, set tasks, and formulate a hypothesis; the methods, object and subject of the research are determined; a review of the literature on the topic is given. The material in the work is presented in compliance with internal logic; there is a logical relationship between sections. The author's erudition in the area under consideration is traced. In my opinion, the work has no shortcomings. I have not found any errors or inaccuracies in it. I recommend that teachers of Russian language and literature use the material from this research work.
Reviewer: Ziatdinova Tatyana Aleksandrovna, teacher of Russian language and Literature MOU"Rudnogorskaya Sosh"
textual criticism of a text is a branch of philological sciences that studies works of writing and literature in order to restore history, critically verify and establish their texts, which are then used for further research, interpretation, publication and other purposes.
04.08.2017 Under Another Name: Pseudonyms and Literary Hoaxes - Exhibition in the New BuildingAugust 3 in the New building of the Russian national library(Moskovsky Ave., 165) the exhibition “Under a False Name: Pseudonyms and Literary Hoaxes” has opened.
The exhibition presents the creativity of famous domestic and foreign writers who worked under pseudonyms or deliberately attributed authorship to a real person or passed off their works as folk art.
During the Renaissance, interest in ancient authors and their texts was so high that, along with previously unknown genuine works of ancient authors, numerous fakes, so-called imaginary translations, began to appear. Many researchers call Homer's poems the first literary hoax. The personality of Homer, in their opinion, was invented, and the works attributed to him were the fruit of collective labor. Today it is difficult to find out which of the ancient works are real and which are Renaissance hoaxes.
The most famous master The English writer and publicist Daniel Defoe passed off his texts as someone else's. Of the 500 books he wrote, only 4 were published under his real name, and the rest were attributed to historical and fictitious personalities. Defoe himself acted only as a publisher. So, for example, three volumes of “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” were written by a “sailor from York”, “The History of the Wars of Charles XII, King of Sweden” - by a “Scottish officer in Swedish service”, “Notes of a Cavalier” were given to him as the memoirs of a nobleman, who lived in the 17th century, during the Great Rebellion, and “The Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes and Other Affairs of John Sheppard” - for the suicide notes written in prison by the real-life famous robber John Sheppard. The exhibition features Daniel Defoe's richly illustrated two-volume book Robinson Crusoe and His interesting adventures described by himself" (with 200 drawings engraved on stone, 1870).
The literary hoax “The Song of Ossian”, created by the most talented English poet and literary critic George Macpherson, who wrote in 1760-1763 on behalf of the Scottish bard Ossian, who supposedly lived in the 3rd century, also entered history.
Among the popular hoaxers, it is worth mentioning Prosper Merimee, who secretly published a collection of plays “Gusli” (“Guzla”) with notes and a portrait of the “author”, a collector of folklore, a fictional guslar named Iakinf Maglanovich. The hoax was successful: for real Slavic folklore“Gusli” was accepted by both Adam Mickiewicz and Alexander Pushkin, who translated 11 ballads into Russian for his collection “Songs of the Western Slavs.” Pushkin, by the way, was no stranger to hoaxes, publishing the famous “Belkin's Tales”, the poet himself acted only as a publisher.
In Russia over the past two hundred years, literary hoaxes and hoaxers have been encountered in abundance. The fictional Kozma Prutkov, created by Alexei Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, was endowed with his own biography, personal qualities and literary reference points and was a parody of the literary official.
The book “Leaving the World Unsolved...” (2009) will introduce exhibition guests to the biography of the Russian poetess Elizaveta Vasilyeva (Dmitrieva) and the image of the mysterious beauty Cherubina de Gabriac, created by her and Maximilian Voloshin and which became the loudest hoax of the Silver Age.
Visitors will also learn about other literary hoaxers, including the American Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), the Frenchman Emil Azhar (Roman Leibovich Katsev), compatriots Andrei Bely (Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev), Sasha Cherny (Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg) and Boris Akunin (Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili) ... What forced these and many other writers, undoubtedly talented and brilliant, to hide their faces behind someone else's mask, giving up the rights to their own works? Visitors to the exhibition will learn about the causes and consequences of such phenomena in world literature from such publications as “The History of Literary Hoaxes: “From Homer to the Internet” by Vitaly Vulf and Serafima Chebotar (2003), as well as from the book “Disguised Literature” by Valentin Dmitriev (1973 d.). Among the publications that also deserve special attention, it should be noted, the book “The illustrated Mark Twain” (2000). The literary mask, which often completely replaces the writer’s personality, is a necessary element of mystification, the authors explain. According to researchers, play, as an unconditional condition for any creativity, takes on exaggerated proportions among hoaxers. The creator of a hoax can often create only in a mask he has invented, creating his own world and the only inhabitant in it. The mask helps to move away from imposed restrictions - class, stylistic, historical... and the author, as it were, is born again.
Today, virtual reality, which has settled on the Internet, provides unlimited opportunities for various kinds of hoaxes, putting existing people and fictional characters on equal terms. Both of them have only an email address and the ability to generate text...
Materials for the exhibition were provided by the Russian Book and Russian Magazine Funds, the Foreign Book and Foreign Magazine Funds, as well as the Central Reference Library, the Printmaking Department and the Microform Fund.
Admission with a library card.