Means of forming the imperial colonial narrative in the M. Karamzin’s story “Marfa-posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novogorod”

Abstract

The relevance of the study is determined by the need for post-colonial studies of Russian literature, in particular the historical prose by Mykola Karamzin, who was one of the first creators of the imperial colonial narrative in fiction. His story “Marfa-Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novogorod” has not yet been the object of such a study, the problem of the founding of Russian colonial policy on the pages of this literary work has not been covered in literary studies. Consideration of this issue is the goal of this research. In the comparative aspect, the text of Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State” in its part devoted to the Novogorod events of the 15th century is included to the analysis. The methodology of postcolonial studies and narratological analysis was used to implement the research objectives. As a result of the study, the following means of forming the imperial colonial narrative in the story were determined: the evaluative author’s words, speeches of historical characters-politicians, rhetorical techniques, and the method of depicting events and their participants. The position of the author-narrator is aimed at supporting the conquering policy of the Moscow principality, the annexation of Novogorod is justified by the “higher” goals of creating a powerful empire and is presented as an objective historical necessity. The imperial colonial discourse is vividly illustrated by the speech of the Moscow prince’s ambassador, which is a model of political demagogy, the use of manipulative technologies, and the intimidation of citizens. The two-valued connotation of Marfa’s image contributes to establishing the author’s necessary accents. On the one hand there is heroization, a comparison with Cato, and on the other is a conscious simplification of the motives of Marfa’s struggle as a leader of the people’s resistance. Obviously, the writer creates a certain field of mistrust towards the heroine by emphasizing her manipulation of the feelings of the crowd as a good orator. Thanks to the motives of the useless sacrifice of Marfa and the people of Novgorod, prophecy, “the will of Providence”, Karamzin forces the reader to think about the inevitability of the fall of the Novgorod Republic. The prospects of the research are the re-reading of Russian imperial literature in the context of post-colonial studies, further debunking the means of myth-making and colonial narrative in the corpus of its texts of different periods.