“Bulgarin's Manor” by F.V.B.: on the Question of the Properties of Network Paraliterature

Abstract

The article analyzes the anonymous poetic text “Bulgarin's Manor”, which is a small anonymous poem published on the Internet systems Ridero and Amazon on February 2, 2022 under the laconic cryptonym F.V.B., referring to the initials of one of the main anti-heroes of Russian literature - Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin. This context, connected with Russian-Estonian relations, on the one hand, and the history of Russian literature, on the other, seems to us the most significant for commentary. Based on historical and literary observations and reconstructing the historical and cultural contexts reflected in the textual structures of the work, we show how the anecdotes that accompany the personality of Thaddeus Bulgarin (1789-1859) and the myths that describe the history of Karlovo are transformed in a naive, amateur mind. Special attention is paid to the explicit intertext, represented primarily by the works of Nicolay Gogol and Prosper Merimee and implicit intertextual connections leading to the work of Alexander Pushkin. The study of the work allows us to be convinced of the total mastery of the idea of a palimpsest by modern actors of network literature.