Title of the article:

HOUSE BY THE ROAD: ESTATE, DACHA, RAILWAY IN HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ASPECTS (19 – EARLY 20 CENTURY)

Author(s):

Maria S. Akimova

Information about the author/authors

Maria S. Akimova — PhD in Philology, A. M. Gorky Institute of World literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25a, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6051-3949. E-mail: makanja@list.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2021

Volume

Vol. 60

Pages

pp. 174–187

Received

June 16, 2020

Date of publication

June 28, 2021

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2021-60-174-187

Index UDK

821.161.1.0

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)

Abstract

The study highlights relationship between changes in material culture (development of railroad network), social infrastructure (spread of dacha villages) and poetics of literary works in Russia of the second half of the 19th – early 20th c., addressing “dacha topos”. The paper draws on the texts, which introduce railroad as a symbol of destruction of traditional values under the pressure of bourgeois “industrialism” and pernicious “infernalityˮ (А. М. Zhemchuzhnikov, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. S. Serafimovich, А. А. Blok and others). The author shows that dacha, wrought by railroad civilization, is conceptualized as part of packed, petty-bourgeois, low-minded and soulless city as opposed to country estate as a lone “paradise on earth” and hermitage of high culture (А. P. Tchekhov, N. А. Leykin, А. P. Kamensky and others). The paper draws attention to metamorphoses of artistic time in passing from “estate topos” with inherent temporal static and cycliсity to “dacha topos” with precipitous and irreversible unfolding in time. The author concludes that the changes in artistic topics and temporality when addressing successive phenomena of estate and dacha are largely due to such new details of subjective figurativeness as the railroad and its attributes (locomotive, rails, wagons, anonymous passengers, travel speed etc.). 

Keywords

progress, civilization, polemics, Russia and the West, estate culture, dacha culture, railway.

References

1 Aksakov I. S. Russkii progress i russkaia deistvitel'nost' [Russian progress and Russian reality]. Den', 1862, no 16, January 27, pp. 1–2. (In Russian)

2 Annenskii I. F. Izbrannye proizvedeniia [Selected works]. Leningrad, Khudozhestvennaia literature Publ., 1988. 736 p. (In Russian)

3 Belinskii V. G. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 13 t. [Complete works: in 13 vols.]. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo Akademii nauk SSSR Publ., 1955. Vol. 6. 799 p. (In Russian)

4 Belov A. V. Zagorodnaia dacha i kul'tura letnego dachnogo otdykha na rubezhe XIX–XX vekov (Moskovskaia guberniia) [Suburban dacha and culture of summer vacation at the turn of the 20th century (Moscow province) ]. In: Istoriia i kul'tura Podmoskov'ia: problemy izucheniia i prepodavaniia: Sbornik statei. Tret'ia Oblastnaia nauchno-prakticheskaia konferentsiia (Kolomna, 27 sentiabria 2007 g.) [Collection of articles of the Third Regional scientific and practical conference (Kolomna, September 27, 2007) ]. Kolomna, Drevlekhranilishche Publ., 2007, pp. 182–193. (In Russian)

5 Benediktov V. G. Stikhotvoreniia [Poems]. Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel' Publ., 1983. 814 p. (In Russian)

6 Berdiaev N. A. Aleksei Stepanovich Khomiakov. Moscow, Vysshaia shkola Publ., 2005. 237 p. (In Russian)

7 Berdiaev N. A. Smysl istorii [The Meaning of history]. Moscow, Mysl' Publ., 1990. 175 p. (In Russian)

8 Bogdanova O. A. Usad'ba i dacha v russkoi literature XIX–XXI vv.: topika, dinamika, mifologiia [Estate and dacha in Russian literature of the 19th–21st centuries: topography, dynamics, mythology], executive edited E. E. Dmitrieva. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2019. 288 p. (In Russian)

9 Bunin I. A. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 13 t. [Complete works: in 13 vols.]. Moscow, Voskresen'e Publ., 2006. Vol. 3. 513 p. (In Russian)

10 Volkov M. S. Otryvki iz zagranichnykh pisem (1844–1848) [Excerpts from foreign letters (1844–1848) ]. St. Petersburg, Tipografiia Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk Publ., 1857. 552 p. (In Russian)

11 Gor'kii A. M. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii. Khudozhestvennye proizvedeniia: v 25 t. [Complete works. Fiction: in 25 vols.]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1970. Vol. 7. 687 p. (In Russian)

12 Davydov E. E., Davydova E. A. “Poslednii poet” Boratynskogo [“The Last poet” by Boratynsky]. In: K 200-letiiu Boratynskogo. Sbornik materialov mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, sostoiavsheisia 21–23 fevralia 2000 g. (g. Moskva, Muranovo) [To the 200th anniversary of Boratynsky. Collection of proceedings of the international scientific conference held on February 21–23, 2000 (Moscow, Muranovo) ]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2002, pp. 118–126. (In Russian)

13 Dmitrieva E. E., Kuptsova O. N. Zhizn' usadebnogo mifa: utrachennyi i obretennyi rai [The life of the manor myth: Paradise lost and found]. Moscow, OGI Publ., 2008. 528 p. (In Russian)

14 Zheleznaia doroga v russkoi literature: Antologiia [Railway in Russian literature: Anthology], executive edited S. F. Dmitrenko. Moscow, ID “Zheleznodorozhnoe delo” Publ., 2012. 256 p. (In Russian)

15 Zheleznodorozhnyi transport v khudozhestvennoi literature. Sbornik [Railway transport in fiction. Collection], collected by A. M. Leites, P. G. Sdobnev, M. Kh. Danilov. Moscow, Transzheldorizdat Publ., 1939. 540 p. (In Russian)

16 Ionov I. N., Khachaturian V. M. Teoriia tsivilizatsii ot antichnosti do kontsa XIX veka [Theory of civilizations from antiquity to the late 19 century]. St. Petersburg, Aleteiia Publ., 2002. 384 p. (In Russian)

17 Kireevskii I. V. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 2 t. [Complete works: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, A. I. Koshelev Publ., 1861. Vol. 2. 345 p. (In Russian)

18 Komagina S. Obraz zheleznoi dorogi v russkoi literature: mifologicheskie istoki [The Image of the railway in Russian literature: mythological origins]. Rocznik Instytutu Polsko-Rosyjskiego, 2011, no 1 (1). Available at: http://ip-r.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Komagina-Rocznik-IPR-1-1-2011.pdf (accessed 14 June 2020). (In Russian)

19 Korablev A. A. Dom i bezdomnost' v russkoi literature (Pushkin — Gogol' — Bulgakov) [Home and homelessness in Russian literature (Pushkin-Gogol-Bulgakov) ]. In: Dom-muzei pisatelia: istoriia i sovremennost': Odinnadtsatye Gogolevskie chteniia. Sbornik nauchnykh statei po materialam Mezhdunarodnoi nauch. konferentsii. Moskva. 1–3 aprelia 2011 g. [House-Museum of the writer: history and modernity: the Eleventh Gogol readings. Collection of scientific articles based on Proceedings of the International scientific conference. Moscow. April 1–3, 2011], under the general editorship V. P. Vikulovoi. Novosibirsk, Novosibirskii izdatel'skii dom Publ., 2011, pp. 183–189. Available at: http://www.domgogolya.ru/science/researches/1399/ (accessed 14 June 2020). (In Russian)

20 Koshelev V. A. “Komu na Rusi zhit' khorosho”: O velikoi poeme i o vechnoi probleme [“Who is happy in Russia”: About the great poem and eternal problem]. Velikii Novgorod, Izdatel'stvo NovGU im. Iaroslava Mudrogo Publ., 1999. 167 p. (In Russian)

21 Listvan F. Semantika “zheleznosti” v tvorchestve Leonida Leonova [Semantics of “iron” in the work of Leonid Leonov]. In: Voprosy filologii i knizhnogo dela [Issues of Philology and book industry]. Ul'ianovsk, Izdatel'stvo UlGTU Publ., 2007, pp. 24–29. (In Russian)

22 Martynova O. Poezda v russkoi literature XIX veka [Trains in Russian literature of the 19th century]. In: Culture.ru. Available at: https://www.culture.ru/materials/194702/poezda-v-russkoi-literature-xix-veka (accessed 14 June 2020). (In Russian)

23 Mordovtsev D. L. Pechat' v provintsii [Press in the province]. Delo, 1875, no 10, pp. 1–32. (In Russian)

24 Nekrasov N. A. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem: v 15 t. [Complete works and letters: in 15 vols.]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1982. Vol. 5. 687 p. (In Russian)

25 Nepomniashchikh N. A. Zheleznaia doroga kak kompleks motivov v russkoi lirike i epike (obzor) [The Railway as a complex of motifs in Russian lyrics and epics (review) ]. In: Siuzhetno-motivnye kompleksy russkoi literatury [Plot-motif complexes of the Russian literature]. Novosibirsk, Akademicheskoe izdatel'stvo “Geo” Publ., 2012, pp. 92–105. Available at: http://philology.ru/literature2/nepomnyashikh-12.htm (accessed 14 June 2020). (In Russian)

26 Odoevskii V. F. Russkie nochi [Russian nights]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1975. 320 p. (In Russian)

27 Pavlov V. E. O pervoi zheleznoi doroge massovogo pol'zovaniia (k 170-letiiu magistral'nogo zheleznodorozhnogo transporta) [On the first mass-use railway (to the 170th anniversary of the mainline railway transport) ]. Istoriia Peterburga, 2008, no 3 (43), pp. 39–47. (In Russian)

28 Pavlovich N. V. Slovar' poeticheskikh obrazov [Dictionary of poetic images]. Moscow, Editorial URSS Publ., 1999. Vol. 1. 795 p. (In Russian)

29 Polonskii Ia. P. Lirika. Proza [Lyrics. Prose]. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1984. 680 p. (In Russian)

30 Sakulin P. N. Iz istorii russkogo idealizma. Kniaz' V. F. Odoevskii [From the history of Russian idealism. Prince V. F. Odoevsky]. Moscow, Izdanie M. i S. Sabashnikovykh Publ., 1913. Vol. 1. Part 1. 622 p. (In Russian)

31 Sollogub V. A. Vospominaniia [Memoirs]. Moscow, RGB Publ., 2012. 316 p. (In Russian)

32 Khomiakov A. S. Vsemirnaia zadacha Rossii [The global task of Russia], сompilation and comments by M. M. Panfilova; edited by O. A. Platonov. Moscow, Institut russkoi tsivilizatsii, Blagoslovenie Publ., 2011. 784 p. (In Russian)

33 Chekhov A. P. Sobranie sochinenii: v 8 t. [Collected works in 8 vols.]. Moscow, Biblioteka “Ogonek” Publ., “Pravda” Publ., 1970. Vol. 7. 448 p. (In Russian)

34 Shchukin V. G. Mif dvorianskogo gnezda. Geokul'turologicheskoe issledovanie po russkoi klassicheskoi literature [The myth of the nest of gentlefolk. Geocultural research on Russian classical literature]. Kraków, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego Publ., 1997. 315 p. (In Russian)

PDF-file

Download