Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”)
The article discusses the poetics of the comic in the artistic depiction of the nearchurch environment by Nikolai Leskov. The author of the article focuses on travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga” (1873). Associated with the genre of pious walking, notes concentrate various types of comic,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Russian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Два века русской классики |
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| Online Access: | http://rusklassika.ru/images/2020-2/8__.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818312682580738048 |
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| author | Tatyana B. Ilyinskaya |
| author_facet | Tatyana B. Ilyinskaya |
| author_sort | Tatyana B. Ilyinskaya |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The article discusses the poetics of the comic in the artistic depiction of the nearchurch environment by Nikolai Leskov. The author of the article focuses on travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga” (1873). Associated with the genre of pious walking, notes concentrate various types of comic, which makes the work contrast with respect to the existing literary tradition. The comparison of the original newspaper version of “The Monastic Islands” with the final text allows one to conclude that Nikolai Leskov deliberately enhanced the comic tone of the essay when processing it for book publication. An examination of “The Monastic Islands” in the context of the apologetic literature on Isle of Valaam mentioned in them provides material for a real commentary on travel notes, revealing hints of the author who is polemicising with liberal journalism. An analysis of “The Monastic Islands” from a chosen perspective allows us to build a typology of humour and comic: a mocking laugh of an atheist, “vulgar laughter” of the crowd, comic decline of religious hypocrisy, superstitious myth-making, cutesy feminine piety, as well as linguistic comic arising from the use of colloquialism, church-slavicism and biblicism. On the basis of the complementarity of the voices of the main and secondary narrators, comic characters of the near-church environment are created including a “terrorising hypocrite”; an exalted lady of society, arbitrarily combining spiritualism with Christianity; “unwilling pilgrim”; a superstitional simple involved in the process of “religious” legend-making. The plot-chronotopic connections of the “Monastic Islands” and “The Enchanted Wanderer” printed after them explain the reasons for the decrease in the comic severity of the essay as the narrative moves to the ending. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T08:21:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b616a6df8bfc4da6a59b34d1f1658f3a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2686-7494 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T08:21:44Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | Russian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Два века русской классики |
| spelling | doaj.art-b616a6df8bfc4da6a59b34d1f1658f3a2022-12-21T23:54:00ZengRussian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World LiteratureДва века русской классики2686-74942020-06-012222824310.22455/2686-7494-2020-2-2-228-243Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”)Tatyana B. Ilyinskaya0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2690-7930General of the Army A. V. Khrulev Military Logistics AcademyThe article discusses the poetics of the comic in the artistic depiction of the nearchurch environment by Nikolai Leskov. The author of the article focuses on travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga” (1873). Associated with the genre of pious walking, notes concentrate various types of comic, which makes the work contrast with respect to the existing literary tradition. The comparison of the original newspaper version of “The Monastic Islands” with the final text allows one to conclude that Nikolai Leskov deliberately enhanced the comic tone of the essay when processing it for book publication. An examination of “The Monastic Islands” in the context of the apologetic literature on Isle of Valaam mentioned in them provides material for a real commentary on travel notes, revealing hints of the author who is polemicising with liberal journalism. An analysis of “The Monastic Islands” from a chosen perspective allows us to build a typology of humour and comic: a mocking laugh of an atheist, “vulgar laughter” of the crowd, comic decline of religious hypocrisy, superstitious myth-making, cutesy feminine piety, as well as linguistic comic arising from the use of colloquialism, church-slavicism and biblicism. On the basis of the complementarity of the voices of the main and secondary narrators, comic characters of the near-church environment are created including a “terrorising hypocrite”; an exalted lady of society, arbitrarily combining spiritualism with Christianity; “unwilling pilgrim”; a superstitional simple involved in the process of “religious” legend-making. The plot-chronotopic connections of the “Monastic Islands” and “The Enchanted Wanderer” printed after them explain the reasons for the decrease in the comic severity of the essay as the narrative moves to the ending.http://rusklassika.ru/images/2020-2/8__.pdfnikolai leskovcomiclaughterironyhumourcaricature“monastic islands on lake ladoga” |
| spellingShingle | Tatyana B. Ilyinskaya Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”) Два века русской классики nikolai leskov comic laughter irony humour caricature “monastic islands on lake ladoga” |
| title | Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”) |
| title_full | Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”) |
| title_fullStr | Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”) |
| title_short | Religious and comic in Nikolai Leskov (Travel notes “Monastic Islands on Lake Ladoga”) |
| title_sort | religious and comic in nikolai leskov travel notes monastic islands on lake ladoga |
| topic | nikolai leskov comic laughter irony humour caricature “monastic islands on lake ladoga” |
| url | http://rusklassika.ru/images/2020-2/8__.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tatyanabilyinskaya religiousandcomicinnikolaileskovtravelnotesmonasticislandsonlakeladoga |