Основные черты имажинально-географической Германии в русских травелогах конца XVIII – первой половины XIX вв.

Sergey S Zhdanov

doi:10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-2-16-39

Abstract

The paper deals with the spatial images of Germany represented in Russian travelogues of the late 18th – first half of the 19th centuries. The text corpus studied from a semiotic perspective consists of works by A. T. Bolotov, D. P. Gorikhvostov, D. I. Fonvizin, N. M. Karamzin, S. A. Korsakov, W. K. Küchelbecker, F. P. Lubyanovsky, I. P. Myatlev, M. P. Pogodin, A. Ya. Klimov, V. N. Zinovyev. A set of principal features representing the imaginal-geographic Germany is determined. The center of this set is the motif of orderliness actualizing in two images — a rationally organized space in the spirit of the Enlightenment and an idyll based on the Arcadian myth. The other spatial characteristics of the patched-up Germany are cleanness, accuracy, closeness, narrowness, miniatureness connected with the concept of order. The ambivalence of Russian travelers’ perceiving the German loci is emphasized. The idyllic Germany is not only admired but also ironically travestied in Russian literature. The rationally organized, civilized German landscape is both praised for its comfortableness and criticized in the frames of its extreme forms for dehumanization.

Highlights

The space of Germany in the Russian literature of the late 18th — 19th centuries represents one of the spatial variations of Other in the Russian culture and can be analyzed as such from the perspective of imagology in literary studies
The paper deals with the spatial images of Germany represented in Russian travelogues of the late 18th — first half of the 19th centuries
A set of principal features representing the imaginal-geographic Germany is determined. The center of this set is the motif of orderliness actualizing in two images — a rationally organized space in the spirit of the Enlightenment and an idyll based on the Arcadian myth

Summary

Introduction

The space of Germany in the Russian literature of the late 18th — 19th centuries represents one of the spatial variations of Other in the Russian culture and can be analyzed as such from the perspective of imagology in literary studies. Abstract: The paper deals with the spatial images of Germany represented in Russian travelogues of the late 18th — first half of the 19th centuries. In terms of German spatial images in the Russian literature of the 19th century, it should be emphasized that certain features of this imaginal-geographic Germany have been analyzed in the works by F.

Results

Conclusion