КОНСТРУИРОВАНИЕ ОБРАЗА «ЧУЖОГО» В СИБИРСКИХ ЛЕТОПИСЯХ

Abstract

The study reconstructs the archetypal image of the “alien” in “Siberian Chronicles” based on a continuous quantitative corpus analysis of texts made by digital methods using special software. For a detailed analysis, the archetype of the “alien”, since the early stage of the annexation of Siberia to the Russian state by all indications (a different territory, a different faith, the Siberian Khanate as a military enemy) should be interpreted in the Siberian Chronicles as a paradigm conflict of “us/them” to resolve current socio-political tasks. To test this hypothesis, the classical text of the Siberian Chronicles was digitized, formally reorganized, and then analyzed using the Antconc software package, which determined the frequency of word forms and concordances. Based on such an analysis of the texts, the author concludes that the Siberian Chronicles form a neutral and even respectful image of the enemy. For example, the word form “king” is used in relation to Kuchum on average much more often than to the Moscow sovereign. In addition, the authors of the texts scrupulously approach the description of the Siberian Khanate, dwelling on its institutional characteristics. For the authors of the Siberian Chronicles, the enemy is not personified (first of all, in the image of the Siberian Khan Kuchum), but is embodied in the categories of a “different” political system as a whole. In general, according to the quantitative analysis, it is shown that the Siberian Chronicles construct the image of an “alien” (enemy, other) without a pronounced negative connotation and are not an ideological text that legitimizes the annexation of Siberia to the Russian state through derogatory characterizations of the enemy as a weak and unworthy rival.