Title of the article:

ON THE RIDDLE OF PSKOV CHRONICLES “TALE OF WOES AND MISFORTUNES…”: FOREWORD AND TEXT

Author(s):

Olga A. Tufanova

Information about the author/authors

Olga A. Tufanova — PhD in Philology, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: tufoa@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2017

Volume

Vol. 47

Pages

Pp. 159-168

Received

September 15, 2017

Date of publication

March 15, 2018

Index UDK

821.161.1

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)4

Abstract

Pskov chronicles “Tale of woes and miseries” (1625) delivers quite a number of artistic riddles. Correlation of the foreword and the body of the text, concisely covering the main events of Time of troubles — is one of them. At first sight it is exactly the foreword that sets main biblical literary “coordinates”: Jerusalem captivity, body of Bible books, motif of sinfulness, — open to identifying as a “narrative key” to the authors` interpretation of the described events by analogy with other monuments of Time of troubles. However the comparison of the Tale`s text with the “History of the Jewish war” and “Jewish antiquities” by Josephus Flavius, I and II Maccabees — detected no similar stylistic devices and compositional scheme. One similarity identified — is a consonant emotional formula of the grief expression. With the exception of the last episode — the seizure of the heart of Moscow by Poles likened to Jerusalem captivity. That said the author compiles and varies motives, referring different historical periods of Jerusalem. Thus, foreword and text, technically united in one monument and extrinsically dedicated to the same subject, in reality have no inner connections and, it may well be, are issued from the different authors` pens. “Coordinates” set up in the foreword do not get any further in the tale`s text. They are, most likely, the reasons for manifestation of traditional medieval historiographical principle of framing of any Russian history event into the world historical context. At the same time realization of this tradition is of technical, superficially archaic nature, whereas in others monuments of the Times of troubles themes, plots and images are elaborated basing on a new historical material.

Keywords

Pskov chronicles, Time of troubles, seizure of Moscow, Jerusalem captivity, narrative key.

References

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