Ethnonym “a Tatar” in Leo Tolstoy’s poetics
https://doi.org/10.26907/2074-0239-2021-64-2-225-233
Abstract
The images of the Tatars are not represented in the early works of Leo Tolstoy, although the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” is largely based on the impressions of the writer’s life in Kazan. In “War and Peace”, there is an episodic figure of a wounded Tatar-Cossack, which is not ethnically clearly identified. It is in the process of working on “Anna Karenina” that Leo Tolstoy’s “turning point” ripens and the images of the Tatars, significant for the writer’s poetics, appear. In Leo Tolstoy’s late work, the ethnonym “a Tatar” turns out to be one of its key elements. This is exactly what this article focuses on.
The relevance of the research is determined by the modern problems of the dialogue among cultures, Russian-Tatar imagology and literary ways of comprehending the “foe”.
The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the ethnonym “a Tatar” usage in Leo Tolstoy’s poetics.
The methodological basis of the research is the synthesis of traditional approaches that have withstood the test of time (historical-literary, system-typological, comparative-historical) and the involvement of relatively new research practices (the opposition of “friend – foe” within the framework of mythopoetics, imagology and postcolonial theories). The methodological principles of these areas are used depending on the specific material and the set tasks. Given, that many of Leo Tolstoy’s late works have a complicated chronology of writing and publication, the structure of this article is determined by the logic of the analysis. The study reveals a deep connection of the ethnonym “a Tatar” with Leo Tolstoy’s poetics and searches.
About the Author
I. Yunusov
Birsk branch of Bashkir State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ildar Shaikhenurovich Yunusov, Doctor of Philology, Professor
452450
10 Internatsionalnaya Str.
Birsk
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Review
For citations:
Yunusov I. Ethnonym “a Tatar” in Leo Tolstoy’s poetics. Philology and Culture. 2021;(2):225-233. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26907/2074-0239-2021-64-2-225-233
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