|
Title of the article: |
ON THE PROPHETIC POETICS OF PERESVETOV’S WORKS (1540s) |
|
Author(s): |
Andrei V. Karavashkin |
|
Information about the author/authors |
Andrei V. Karavashkin — DSc in Philology, Рrofessor, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St. 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia; Russian State University for the Humanities, Miusskaya Sq., bld. 6, 125993 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: karavash2008@yandex.ru |
|
Section |
Philological sciences |
|
Year |
2019 |
|
Volume |
Vol. 52 |
|
Pages |
pp. 117–131 |
|
Received |
December 04, 2018 |
|
Date of publication |
June 28, 2019 |
|
Index UDK |
821.161.1 |
|
Index BBK |
83.3(2Рос=Рус)6 |
|
Abstract |
The paper examines the literary works of Ivan Peresvetov, one of the most distinguished social commentators of the 16th century. He has long been the subject of contention. While some scholars consider him to be a fictional character, others insist on his having actually existed. A scarcity of historical information has not impeded attempts at reconstructing his biography whilst incorporating his literary output. During the 19th century, one of the most common views was that “Peresvetov” was the pen name of one or multiple authors putting forward prophecies, who (to varying degrees) served as apologists for Ivan the Terrible. Not only were author and biography declared fictional, then, but the prophecies themselves were alleged to be forgeries. Even after the release of what was considered to be a fundamental edition of Peresvetov’s collected works (“The Complex of Peresvetov”), compiled and edited by A. A. Zimin to incorporate Peresvetov’s personality and philosophies within a broader socio-cultural context, fresh doubts nevertheless surfaced as to the writer ever having existed. D. N. Alshitz would become a leading skeptic to argue with both pre-Revolutionary and Soviet scholars of Peresvetov. He put forward that Peresvetov’s collected works were in fact a compilation of different texts written by various people and for a multitude of reasons (Pyotr Gubastiy, Aleksei Adashev, Ivan the Terrible). Apart from direct mention of the historical figure, which would undoubtedly shed light on Peresvetov`s personality, there is also an issue of the integrity of his ideas and poetics. In this article, we consider whether or not the works were written by different people. Our argument is based on secondary sources. Nevertheless, they are crucial to proving the integrity of his literary texts as inevitably belonging to a single personage with a single set of views. We believe that Peresvetov’s collected works are united by a running theme of prophecies and divinations. This theme becomes Peresvetov’s essential means of formulating an ethic founded in the complicated relationship between “faith” and “truth” — two of the most significant concepts of ancient Russian philosophy and history. |
|
Keywords |
social commentary, anthology, poetics, prophecies, writer’s identity, philosophy of history, attribution, pseudonym. |
|
References |
1 Al'shits D. N. Ot legend k faktam. Razyskaniia i issledovaniia novykh istochnikov po istorii dopetrovskoi Rusi [From legends to facts. Search and research of new sources on the history of pre-Petrine Russia]. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2009. 498 p. (In Russian) 2 Dmitrieva R. P. Chet'i sborniki XV v. [Collections of the Lives the collections of the 15th century]. Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury. Leningrad, Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR, 1972, vol. 27, pp. 150–180. (In Russian) 3 Zimin A. A. I. S. Peresvetov i ego sovremenniki [I. S. Peresvetov and his contemporaries]. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR Publ., 1958. 498 p. (In Russian) 4 Kamchatnov A. M. Lingvisticheskaia germenevtika (na materiale drevnerusskikh rukopisnykh istochnikov) [Linguistic hermeneutics (on Old Russian manuscript sources) ]. Moscow, Prometei Publ., 1995. 166 p. (In Russian) 5 Karavashkin A. V. Russkaia srednevekovaia publitsistika: Ivan Peresvetov, Ivan Groznyi, Andrei Kurbskii [Russian medieval journalism: Ivan Peresvetov, Ivan the terrible, Andrew Kurbsky]. Moscow, Prometei Publ., 2000. 418 p. (In Russian) 6 Opisi Tsarskogo arkhiva XVI veka i arkhiva Posol'skogo prikaza 1614 g. [Inventory of the Royal archive of the 16th century and the archive of the Embassy order of 1614], edited by S. O. Shmidt. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo Vostochnoi literatury Publ., 1960. 196 p. (In Russian) 7 Polnoe sobranie russkikh letopisei (PSRL) [Complete set of Russian Chronicles (PSRL) ]. St. Petersbrg, Tipografiia M. A. Aleksandrova Publ., 1911. Vol. 22. Part 1, prepared by S. P. Rozanov. 567 p. (In Russian) 8 Sinitsyna N. V. Tretii Rim. Istoki i evoliutsiia russkoi srednevekovoi kontseptsii (XV–XVI vv.) [Third Rome. Origins and evolution of the Russian medieval concept 9 Sochineniia I. Peresvetova [The works of I. Peresvetov], prepared by A. A. Zimin. Moscow, Leningrad, Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR Publ., 1956. 386 p. (In Russian) 10 Iavorskii Iu. A. K voprosu ob Ivashke Peresvetove, publitsiste XVI veka [On Ivashka Peresvetov, the writer of the 16th century]. Chteniia v istoricheskom obshchestve Nestora letopistsa [Readings in the historical society of Nestor the chronicler]. Kiev, Tipo-litografiia T. G. Meinandera Publ., 1907, book 20, vol. 3, pp. 59–86. (In Russian) |
|
PDF-file |
|
|
Illustrations |
|
