About the author:
Georgy A. Veligorsky , PhD in Philology, Research Fellow, Scientific Laboratory “Rossica: Russian Literature in the World Cultural Context”, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4316-4630
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Abstract:
In the second half of the 19th century, under the influence of romanticism, the dichotomy “town — village” (and its variant “town — estate”), one of the oldest dichotomies of adult literature, penetrates into the children’s literature of Great Britain. Opposed to each other, the village and the town are displayed in it as closed spaces that have their own boundaries and allow for the possibility of moving from one to another, not infrequently taking the form of an escape. This dichotomy entails a rich metaphor, a gallery of images that embody the border between two worlds, as well as beckon to overstep the limit. It also gives rise to a new type of character known as “a naughty child” and developing in the works of the authors of this period we are analyzing (R.L. Stevenson, R. Jefferies, K. Grahame, B. Potter). Within the framework of the article, we will systematize these images, as well as trace their analogues in the children’s and the autobiographical literature in Russia.