An intellectual plein air: a walk through the Rozanov places of Yelets

Abstract

This paper is an original reconstruction of the Yelets text of the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov. The author draws up a map of Rozanov’s addresses in Yelets and conducts an intellectual plein air over them, inviting students to it. During an intellectual walk along provincial Yelets, an attempt is made to reconstruct Rozanov’s Yelets routes. Each place, marked during the plein air could be described by Rozanov in his texts. This form of academic dialogue is held for the first time and can serve as an alternative to traditional classroom forms of communication. The author sees the intellectual plein air as an attempt to capture and describe the images of the departing Yelets in the way the Russian philosopher might have seen it. Any timely fixation of the memory of Rozanov today turns out to be the correct tactical decision. The current Yelets is gradually giving in to the impulses of modernization. In addition to the intellectual temptations of new readings of Rozanov’s texts in the framework of this plein air, this form of academic dialogue, taken outside the framework of the university audience, solves another problem. The author considers new aesthetic horizons of the familiar ethnic landscape. Yelets expands anew, containing the memory of an outstanding representative of Russian culture, and becomes a part of world culture.