Abduraufova K.T. kizi, Fedoseeva T.V.

The genre and stylistic originality of travel essays by I. A. Goncharov and A. P. Chekhov about Siberia. Pp. 139–151.

UDC 821.161.1-43.09″18″

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2025.88.3.013

 

Abstract. The article examines a number of issues related to the artistic originality of travel essays about Siberia written by Ivan Goncharov and Anton Chekhov. It highlights a number of common ideological and cultural assumptions that influenced the “Siberian” chapters of the travelogue book Frigate “Pallada” and Chekhov’s essays From Siberia. We show that the artistic exploration of Siberian topos by the two writers was largely determined by the peculiarities of the turning point in Russia’s historical development associated with the abolition of serfdom. The analysis reveals the specificity of the object-subject organization of the works, which consists in the fact that the narrator’s imagination transforms the Siberian space. The topos acquires certain agency and tests the hero, putting obstacles in his way. By overcoming them, he moves to a new level of perception of the world. The genre and stylistic originality of Goncharov’s and Chekhov’s “Siberian texts” can be seen in the use of mythologizing the described geographical space. The study showed that in creating the author’s myth about Siberia, the writers rely on representation of the liminal chronotope in two variants. In the analyzed chapters of Goncharov’s book, this function is represented by the hero’s journey through the spacious areas of Siberia on his return from a trip around the world. In Chekhov’s essays, this function is performed by the crossing of the Yenisei River. The conclusion is made that the journey through Siberia is equated with the act of spiritual initiation of the hero-narrator.

 

Keywords: spiritual initiation of the hero, essay genre, liminal chronotope, motif of mortal trial, myth, mythologization of space, ritual, image-archetype, image of a traveler, “Siberian” text, travelogue, topos of Siberia.

 

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