Subjective Structure of “Mass Sentimentalism” Travels (P. I. Shalikov “Journey to Malorossia”)

Abstract

The results of the study on the subjective structure of diology “Journey to Malorossia” by P. I. Shalikov are presented. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the multilevel model of the subject of consciousness and the subject of speech in conjunction with spatial and temporal components of the text. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the specificity of the subject is characterized in the prose of “mass sentimentalism” as “I” of an individual, “I” of a citizen and “I” of a litterateur — a “sentimental traveller”. The relevance of the study is due to the permanent interest in understanding the category of the author in a broad theoretical context, inter alia, by means of system-subjective approach. It is argued that in “Journey to Malorossia” the subject of consciousness and the subject of speech are actualized primarily as an individual, despite the author’s desire to follow the tradition of the sentimental prose. It is shown that the spatio-temporal organization of the text is simplified, landscape descriptions are schematic and the absence of temporal markers indicates a contradiction between the intention of being “in the flow of feeling” versus everyday narrative. The article concludes that the attempt of P. I. Shalikov to embed an individual artistic system into the paradigm of sentimentalism (from the individual author to the system author) is unsuccessful.