Mythopoetics of the Siberian estate in the Russian prose of the end of the XIX — the first third of the XX centuries

About the author

Elena N. Ertner (Tyumen, Russia), DSc in Philology, Professor, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, Tyumen State University.

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1523-6561.

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Abstract

For the first time in the history and criticism of literature the article regards the features of the Siberian “estate topos” as a new modification of the Russian culture “estate text”, typical for the literature of the late XIX — the first third of the XX centuries. In the prose of N.A. Lukhmanova, M.M. Prishvin, N.M. Yadrintsev Tyumen merchant estate transforms into a new “cultural space”. The shift from the philosophy of the rural life to the “business” philosophy and the idea of the commercial Siberian estate bring forward the new topos-related notions: “estate is a factory” and “tannery Lyon”. We introduce the comparative mythopoetics of the Siberian city and country estates through the processes of demythologization of classical country “estate myth” and local remythologization of the concepts: “estate is a fortress”, “estate is a garden / a greenhouse”, and “estate is a nest”. The merchant “estate topos” forms at the intersection of the Russian land Paradise lost and the Siberian Eden, newly created by settlers. The Tyumen schismatic estate be comes “the promised land” or the city of Kitezh: the sacred space of secret chapels, “the underground Kingdom of our Fathers’ faith”. The emphasis is also given to the “theatri cality” of the merchant “estate” play behavior.