Information about the author:
Elena A. Samodelova
Elena A. Samodelova, DSc in Philology, Senior Researcher, А. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3856-0578
E-mail:
Abstract:
Knowledge about China entered the Esenin’s life from school textbooks, stories of friends who visited this state. The image of China and references to it (about the Great Wall of China) and its inhabitants are found in the poems “Pugachev” and “The Country of Scoundrels,” in the autobiography and the statement of the poet. The author of the article puts forward a hypothesis about the Mountainous Country, whose high mountains on the borderlands of Russia and China were considered sacred and leading to a paradise country, and they could become the prototype of the mountains in Esenin’s “Inonia.” The article deals with main “Chinese metaphors” in Esenin’s writings, except for the principal image — Litza-Khun (Chinese) — the “Soviet detective,” to whom a separate work will be devoted.