Byzantine ideas about the heavenly Kingdomand semiotics of the estate in modern Greekand Russian literature of the XVIII–XX centuries

About the author

Ludmila I. Shchegoleva, DSc in Philology, Researcher, Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospekt, 32 a, 119334 Moscow, Russia.

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ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6613-2474

Abstract

The article analyzes works of Byzantine, New Greek and Russian literature of the late XVIIIth — first half of the XXth century, belonging to the common cultural space of the Eastern Christian world: “The Life of St. Basil the Younger”, “Philotheou parerga” by Nikolaos Maurokordatos, “Pure Liza” by N.M. Karamzin, “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin, “The Cherry Orchard” by Anton Chekhov, “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is revealed that in all works the story space is divided into two archetypal loci: “city” (Constantinople / Moscow / Petersburg / Paris) and “garden” (paradise garden / town estate / country estate). It is shown that the locus of “city” correlates with such concepts as “evil”, “lawlessness”, “danger”, “nonfreedom”, “aggression / mutilation / murder”, “sin”, “deception / betrayal / treachery”, and locus “garden” — with concepts of “good”, “legitimacy”, “security”, “freedom”, “love / friendship / benevolence”, “virtue”. It is proved that in each of the works it is possible to distinguish a common set of extremely generalized immutable features, going back to a single archetypal source. It is concluded that a certain number of key characteristics of the Russian estate of the XVIII — early XX century as regards their origin can be correlated with Greek-Byzantine sources.