National cultural and religious mythologems in the ethnic image creation in Russian literature of the 19th century

Abstract

The article examines the functional purpose of foreign cultural and religious mythologems in conveying an ethnic image in the Russian literary process of the 19th century. We analyze the reception of the confessional Muslim text in the artistic system of “Travels to Kazan, Vyatka and Orenburg in 1800” by M. Nevzorov who contributes to the description of the Tatar layer of life. Religious archetypal ideas are conveyed by means of religious-mythological codifiers, appearing in such a triad as the muezzin’s call to worship, the mullah’s sermon, the epigraphic inscriptions of tombstones representing the “Word of the Lord” and the prayerful appeal of believers as a confessional text. In the system of literary text, the apperception of a different religious consciousness creates a bright, unique image of Russian “foreign culture” in its dominant manifestations. In the works of P. Kudryashev and T. Belyaev, the ethnic Bashkir realities of life are identified by religious and historical mythologems: the constants of the Koranic paradise, “Sataniel” Dadzhal, “Bashkir people of seven generations” are involved in the interpretation of the events of the Patriotic War of 1812 as an eschatological event in history. In conveying the ethnic aspects of life, A. Herzen and N. Leskov resort to pre-Christian mythologems of the pagan worldview: the national deities of the Mari and Udmurts are found in the creation of the Russian “past” in the article “Votyaki and Cheremis” and the essay “The Past and Thoughts.” In “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N. Leskov, the explication of pagan views on the world conveys the syncretism of the character’s worldview: the mythologems of the old Chuvash faith function in creating the image of the Chuvash on a par with Christian saints.