The image of Italy in the aspect of “frontier perception” in the “Italian” essays by S. P. Shevyrev

The research aims to characterize the features of building the image of Italy in S. P. Shevyrev’s travel essays in the aspect of “frontier perception”. The scientific novelty of the paper is determined by the insufficient study of the topic of Italy in Shevyrev’s works and by the attention to the “frontier aspect” of Italy’s image in Shevyrev’s artistic consciousness. The paper traces the influence of the concepts of J. G. Herder (on the interconnectedness of cultures of different peoples in the synchronic and diachronic contexts of history) and J. J. Winckelmann (on the influence of climate on the appearance of the people) on the ethnopoetics of Shevyrev’s travel prose. The research identifies and describes a number of positions in which Shevyrev brings together the culture of Italy and Russia (characteristics of the natural and urban landscape; architectural features of buildings; details of material culture; folk traditions). The idea is justified that the traveler, comparing “his own” and “foreign”, is in the cultural “frontier zone”, which is reflected in his travel notes. The research contributes to the study of S. P. Shevyrev’s creative work, to the exploration of the travel prose of the first half of the 19th century. In addition, using the “frontier” approach expands the range of methodological directions for the study of travel literature.