The Cultural Landscape of Siberia in the Spiritual Literature of the Second Half of the 19th Century: Imaginary and Social Geography

Abstract

The relevance of the problem of the article is connected not only with the interest of modern literary studies in its historical-literary, socio-literary, imagological aspects. It is also actualized by the global “friend-or-foe” conflict that has escalated in the 21st century. Of particular interest in this regard is the Siberian socio-cultural space, which has been formed and continues to be formed as a transboundary area as a result of constant migrations and interactions of different cultures, and Siberian literature, which reflects this complex reality in texts of different genres, types, and genera, and simultaneously forming it. A special place in the verbal culture of the region belongs to spiritual literature, initially the most important factor in the formation of the cultural landscape of Siberia, which authoritative philological works prove. However, the consideration of the heritage of the Siberian Orthodox clergy, taking into account the reflection in it of the transboundary nature of the cultural landscape of Siberia and its influence on the formation of the latter, has never become an object of scientific consideration. Defining Siberian spiritual literature as the object of research, the author means works in line with the Christian worldview created by the Siberian Orthodox clergy: representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, most often transferred to Siberia from the central regions of Russia, as well as Orthodox missionaries traveling to Siberia and living there with the aim of spreading Christianity. The corpus of Siberian spiritual literature of the second half of the 19th century, which certainly expands our ideas about the composition and boundaries of Siberian literature of the pre-revolutionary period, reflects the construction of the Siberian socio-cultural space in a very peculiar way – within the framework of imaginary and social geography. In these texts, Siberia appears as a space personally perceived by the author, as a landscape generated by the perception of the text, and as an institutionally structured space in which literature is considered as one of the interacting socio-cultural fields, and therefore as an instrument for the formation of the cultural landscape of the territory (including its literary process), regional identity, and as an organizer of social interactions. According to the results of the analysis, the author argues that the presented model of reflection of the cultural landscape of Siberia in the spiritual Siberian literature allows expanding the concept “transboundary area”. The concept helps describe the most important characteristics of the landscape – multilayeredness and discreteness, as well as options for interactions within it, which are the most important factor in building this landscape, achieving its stability, preserving identity in conditions of constant transformations. It is also important to emphasize the material on which the proposed model was built – spiritual Siberian literature, which opens new pages in the history of the Siberian transboundary area.