Pitirim Sorokin’s Motley Lace: Biographical Context, the Content of the Travelogue, and the Author’s Value Priorities

Abstract

This article analyses the work of the famous Russian-American sociologist, philosopher, and cultural researcher Pitirim Sorokin, written in his young years and published in the newspaper Vologodsky Listok in 1911. Motley Lace is of interest as a text that is indicative in several respects; in particular, from the point of view of possible reasons for choosing the place of publication, the influence of the nature of the publication on the artistic features of the travelogue, and the realisation of the author’s value reflected in the content of the text. The study of Vologda as a place of publication of the travelogue demonstrates the diversity of the cultural life of the provincial city, the breadth of interests of the readers of Vologodsky Listok which published Sorokin’s travel notes. The article suggests that the author of the travelogue created it counting on mass but educated audience. He sought to win its favour and used imaginative means and stylistic resources accordingly, employing emotive and evaluative vocabulary, an informal tone of conversation, and simple and distinct first-person reasoning appealing to everyday experience. At the same time, the narrator of Motley Lace who appears to be a progressively-minded and honest intellectual uses the newspaper as a platform for the purposes of education and propaganda. Being a convinced social revolutionary, Sorokin denounces social injustice, reveals the shortcomings of the surrounding reality, and expresses sympathy for the destitute. He admires nature and people’s talents. The work is constructed as an essay and documentary description of a real journey, during which the author observes life, meets and talks to fellow travellers and locals, and collects folklore and ethnographic material. What he sees and hears is not only recorded and displayed but is subjected to analysis and critical consideration from the standpoint of priorities and value preferences of the author. On the one hand, Motley Lace fits in several early publications that testify to the keen interest of the young scholar in the national, historical, and ethnographic life of the Komi-Zyryans; on the other hand, it speaks of his involvement in the political life of his time and of his growing interest in the sociocultural problems.