“Incommensurable Airspace”: Image of Russia in Travelogue of Maxim Nezvorov
https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2024-13-7-293-310
Abstract
This article analyzes the image of Russia in Maxim Nezvorov’s travelogue “Journey to Kazan, Vyatka, and Orenburg in 1800.” Based on theoretical frameworks, we identify three aspects of analysis: genre, spatiality, and subjectivity. The study employs structuraldescriptive and cultural-historical methods, alongside the foundational principles of N. L. Leiderman’s genre theory, V. L. Kagansky’s concept of cultural landscape, and B. O. Korman’s ideas on the subject of artistic text. Our findings indicate that the choice of a quasi-documentary epistolary form allowed the author to establish a commitment to authenticity, combined with a characteristically sentimental intention of the “sensitive traveler.” It is demonstrated that Nezvorov delineates a system-forming dichotomy of “centerperiphery,” within which the cultural landscape is (re)constructed. We conclude that the author evaluates a key component of this landscape — urban planning and architecture — while the landscape itself serves a supportive role. Nezvorov pays particular attention to the extraordinarily diverse ethnic composition of the empire’s population. Although he rarely grants his “interlocutors” a voice, their comments and judgments enable a partial reconstruction of the worldview of a person in the early 19th century, one of the key elements of which is the image of Russia.
About the Author
O. V. Kublitskaya
Pushkin Leningrad State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Olga V. Kublitskaya - PhD of Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Literary Education
St. Petersburg
References
1. Alekseev, P. V. (2016). The East and the Oriental text of Russian literature of the first half of the XIX century: the conceptual sphere of Russian orientalism. Author’s abstract of Doct. Diss. Tomsk. 40 p. (In Russ.).
2. Banach, I. V. (2005). The structure of the narrative in the genre of travel: (based on the material of the Russian lit. of the end of the XVIII — first third of the XIX centuries): monograph. Grodno: Educational institution “Grodno State University named after Yanki Kupala”. 131 p. ISBN 985-417-678-9. (In Russ.).
3. Belova, A. V. (2005). Linguopragmatic characteristics of reversible epistolary communication: Based on the correspondence of Al. P. Chekhov and A. P. Chekhov. Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. St. Petersburg. 23 p. (In Russ.).
4. Cherepanova, N. V. (2006). Travel as a cultural phenomenon. Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. Tomsk. 19 p. (In Russ.).
5. Cherepanova, N. V. (2006). Travel as a way of measuring cultural space. Bulletin of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University, 7: 65—71. (In Russ.).
6. Etkind, A. (2013). Internal colonization. The Imperial experience of Russia. Moscow: New Literary Review. 448 p. ISBN 978-5-4448-0530-5. (In Russ.).
7. Etkind, A. (2022). Interpretation of travel: Russia and America in travelogues and intertexts. Moscow: New Literary Review. 608 p. ISBN 5-86793-141-2. (In Russ.).
8. Farafonova, O. A. (2017). Oriental Travelogue by Pavel Sumarokov (“Leisure of Crimean judge or Second journey to Tavrida”). Nauchnyi dialog, 7: 70—82. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2017-7-70-82 (In Russ.).
9. Gachev, G. D. (1988). National images of the world: General issues. Russian. Bulgarian. Kyrgyz. Georgian. Armenian. Moscow: Soviet Writer. 445 p. ISBN 5-265-00506-4. (In Russ.).
10. Kagansky, V. L. (2001). Cultural landscape and Soviet habitable space: collection of articles. Moscow: New Literary Review. 576 p. ISBN 5-86793-142-0. (In Russ.).
11. Kiryanov, I. A. (1981). Travel notes by Maxim Nevzorov about the Nizhny Novgorod Region in 1800. In: Notes of local historians: Essays, articles, documents, chronicle. Gorky: Volga-Vyatka Book Publishing House. 150—153. (In Russ.).
12. Kiselyov, V. S., Vasilyeva, T. A. (2015). “I travel with a peaceful soul under the domestic sky”: the image of Ukraine in Russian travelogues of the early XIX century (V. V. Izmailov, P. I. Shalikov, A. I. Levshin). Imagology and comparative studies, 2 (4): 20—42. DOI: 10.17223/24099554/4/2. (In Russ.).
13. Kochetkova, N. D. (1994). Literature of Russian sentimentalism: (Aesthetic and artistic searches). St. Petersburg: Nauka. 279 p. ISBN 5-02-028096-8. (In Russ.).
14. Kochetkova, N. D. (1999). Nevzorov Maxim Ivanovich. In: Dictionary of Russian writers of the XVIII century, 2. K—P. St. Petersburg: Nauka. 336—340. (In Russ.).
15. Kofman, A. F. (1997). Latin American artistic image of the world. Moscow: Heritage. 318 p. ISBN 5-201-13298-7. (In Russ.).
16. Korman, B. O. (1972). Studying the text of a work of art. Moscow: Prosveshchenie. 110 p. (In Russ.).
17. Kublitskaya, O. V. (2022). Subjective Structure of “Mass Sentimentalism” Travels (P. I. Shalikov “Journey to Malorossia”). Nauchnyi dialog, 11 (7): 284—303. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2022-11-7-284-303 (In Russ.).
18. Leiderman, N. L. (2010). Theory of genre: research and analysis. Yekaterinburg: USPU. 904 p. ISBN 978-5-904205-64-1. (In Russ.).
19. Mamurkina, O. V. (2013). Travelogue in the Russian literary tradition: the strategy of text generation. Philological sciences. Questions of theory and practice, 9 (27): in 2 hours II: 110—113. (In Russ.).
20. Nemtsev, M. Yu. (2021). Seven fragments about humanitarian geography, travel and local history. Labyrinth. Theories and practices of culture, 1: 89—97. (In Russ.).
21. Petrunina, N. N. (1981). Prose of the 1800s—1810s. In: The history of Russian literature. In 4 volumes. From sentimentalism to romanticism and realism, 2. Leningrad: Nauka: Leningrad Branch. 51—80. (In Russ.).
22. Polyakov, O. Yu., Polyakova, O. A. (2013). Imagology: theoretical and methodological foundations. In: Imagology: theoretical and methodological foundations. Kirov: Raduga-PRESS LLC. 162 p. ISBN 978-5-906544-27-8. (In Russ.).
23. Polyakov, O. Yu. (2014). The formation and development of the categorical apparatus of imagology. Bulletin of Vyatka State University, 9: 125—134. (In Russ.).
24. Ponomarev, E. R. (2011). Typology of Soviet travel: The Soviet travel essay of the 1920s— 1930s: a monograph. St. Petersburg: SPGUTD. 275 p. ISBN 978-5-7937-0572-1. (In Russ.).
25. Roboli, T. (1926). Literature of “travels”. In: Russian prose. Leningrad: Academia. 42—73. (In Russ.).
26. Rokina, G. V. (2016). Travelogue as a historical source. West — East, 9: 5—8. (In Russ.).
27. Rusakova, O. F., Rusakov, V. M. (2021). Travelogue: theoretical and methodological analysis: monograph. Yekaterinburg: Discourse-Pi: Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 265 p. ISBN 978-5-98728- 049-2. (In Russ.).
28. Russian travelogue of the XVIII—XX centuries: a collective monograph. (2015). Novosibirsk: NSPU Publishing House. 652 p. ISBN 978-5-00023-767-0. (In Russ.).
29. Russian travelogue of the XVIII—XX centuries: routes, toposes, genres and narratives: a collective monograph. (2016). Novosibirsk: NGPU. 461 p. ISBN 978-5-00023-878-0. (In Russ.).
30. Sarbash, L. N. (2013). Reception of the “Foreign” in the work of M. I. Nevzorov: the Muslim world in the “Journey to Kazan, Vyatka and Orenburg in 1800”. Rhema. Rema, 1: 63—67. (In Russ.).
31. Shenle, A. (2004). Authenticity and fiction in the author’s self-consciousness of Russian travel literature, 1790—1840. St. Petersburg: Academic Project. 271 p. ISBN 5-7331- 0287—X. (In Russ.).
32. Sheshunova, S. V. (2008). The national image of the world as a category of ethnopoetics of Russian literature. Problems of historical poetics, 8. Available at: http://poetica.pro/journal/article.php?id=2589 (accessed 19.06.2024). (In Russ.).
33. Shpak, G. V. (2016). Travelogue: the search for a universal definition. Four strategies of space representation. Teacher of the XXI century, 3 (2): 261—277. (In Russ.).
34. Sokolovskaya, T. O. (1999). Russian Freemasonry and its significance in the history of the social movement (XVIII and the first quarter of the XIX century). Moscow: State Publ. ist. b-ka of Russia. 172 p. ISBN 5-85209-052-2. (In Russ.).
35. Solovyov, A. Yu. (2011). “Journey to midday Russia” by V. V. Izmailov in the context of Russian travel literature of the late XVIII — early XIX centuries. Author’s abstract of PhD Diss. St. Petersburg. 24 p. (In Russ.).
36. Tolstikov, A. V., Kosheleva, O. E. (2010). HOMO VIATOR. In: Travel as a historical and cultural phenomenon. Moscow: IVI RAS. 5—10. ISBN 978-5-94067-317-0. (In Russ.).
37. Tukalevsky, V. N. (1911). The search for Russian Freemasons: [From the history of Philos. directions in the Russian language of the XVIII century]. St. Petersburg: Senate. type. 73 p. (In Russ.).
38. Zemskov, B. V. (2006). The image of Russia “at the turning point” of times (Theoretical aspect: reception and representation of the “other” culture). New Russian humanitarian studies, 1. Available at: http://nrgumis.ru/articles/81/ (accessed 19.06.2024). (In Russ.).
Review
For citations:
Kublitskaya O.V. “Incommensurable Airspace”: Image of Russia in Travelogue of Maxim Nezvorov. Nauchnyi dialog. 2024;13(7):293-310. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2024-13-7-293-310
Views:
163
Email this article 