Forms of the author's presence and the history of mentalities: problems of study (based on the material of the Slavic historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries)

Abstract

The subject of the research is the application of the methodology of the history of mentalities to study the author's explications in the texts of the Slavic historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries. The social and psychological directions of the history of mentalities presented in the works of M. Blok, L. Fevre, J. Le Goff, J. Duby, A. Buro, R. Chartier are consistently considered, and then the main approaches of historical anthropology are analyzed. The texts of the "Tale of Bygone Years", "Czech Chronicle" by Kozma of Prague, "Chronicles and Deeds of Princes or Rulers of Poland" by Gallus Anonymous are selected as sources. Attention is focused on such forms of the author's presence as references of scribes about themselves or about the events of their lives, subjective and emotional statements, value judgments, stable expressions. The problems and prospects of applying the methods of the history of mentalities and historical anthropology in identifying and interpreting the statements of medieval scribes, as well as in the case of their use of various expressive means and stable formulas are discussed. The attractiveness of the history of mentalities, which makes it possible to explain the manifestations of medieval consciousness through the linguistic means of the era under study, as well as the complexity of solving the problem of the ratio of an individual and an "average individual", are noted. The conclusion is made about the prospects of the microhistoric approach to the study of the forms of the author's presence in the Slavic monuments of the historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries. and about the expediency of comparative studies in the study of individual statements of scribes.