Title of the article:

ON CERTAIN FACTORS OF EXPRESSIVE NARRATION IN OLD RUSSIAN LITERARY WORKS

Author(s):

Anatoly S. Demin

Information about the author/authors

Anatoly S. Demin — DSc in Philology, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: anatolydemin@gmail.com

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2017

Volume

Vol. 47

Pages

Pp. 135-158

Received

August 15, 2017

Date of publication

March 15, 2018

Index UDK

821.161.1

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)4

Abstract

What is there so interesting about the Old Russian literature for us? Certainly not the formal textology, but the authors creativity. This paper gives at least a partial answer to this eternal question on the meaning of literature — about the degree of expressiveness and figurativeness of the narration in a number of literary monuments of the ХII–ХVII cc.: “The first Novgorod chronicle”, “Chronicle of Vladimir-Suzdal”, “Kiev chronicle”, “Galician chronicle”, “Life of Digenis”, “Life of Mercurius of Smolensk”, “Tale of Aristotle”, “Tales of the seizure of Tsargrad by turks”, “Tale of Ryazan`s devastation by Batu-khan”, “Chronograph of 1512”, “Tale of Woe and Misfortune”. Different works — different expressiveness to reveal. There were various sources of inspiration for the old Russian bookmen: anxiety following the unparalleled social troubles and woes, innovations in arts and way of life, as well as new trends in editing and combining of themes; however ultimately the most important yet rare element that counted was natural literary gift of the old Russian writer, mainly tragedians.

Keywords

chronicles, tales, narration style, expressivenes, figurativenes, hidden meaning, associations.

References

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2 Demin A. S. “Hronograf 1512 goda” [Chronograph of 1512]. Istorija drevnerusskoj literatury: Analiticheskoe posobie [History of the Old Russian literature: Analitical manual]. Moscow, Jazyki slavjanskih kul'tur Publ., 2008, pp. 119–125. (In Russian) 

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