Images of Ethnocultural Characters in the Second Half of the 19th Century

This article analyses the distinctive characteristics of literary portrayals of ethnocultural individuals residing in the eastern frontier regions during the period of Russian exploration in the Far East during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Referring to the travel prose of S. V. Maksimov, N. M. Przhevalsky, A. V. Eliseev, and D. I. Schreider, the author provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the artistic representation of “foreigners” from the generalised description of ethnocultural communities coexisting on the territory of the cross-cultural space of the eastern frontier to the appearance of personalised images of ethnocultural characters in the frontier narrative. The objective of the study is to examine the specifics of the representation of “foreigners” in literature about the Far East from the perspective of frontier poetics. The author employs the comparative-historical method, which provides a comparison of similar elements in literature, folklore, and mythology, as well as the structural-semiotic method, which makes it possible to identify the constant elements of the artistic whole. The author suggests that the narratives of the eastern frontier are represented by two types of ethnocultural characters, which became constant for the subsequent literary tradition: 1) those acting in natural locations; 2) those appearing in a multiethnic urban space. The article highlights the differential features of each type of characters in terms of genre and stylistic dominants and analyses the methods of their artistic personalisation. As a result, the author concludes that the appearance in the literature of the eastern frontier of the image of ethnocultural characters in the space of “taiga” is associated with the ecosophical concept. This resulted in a shift in perspective within Russian literature, where the frontier opposition between “wildness” and “civilization” was reinterpreted as a contrast between “nature” and “civilization.” The generalised symbolic mythologisation of the characters of the “taiga space” as the embodiment of the ideal of harmony between man and nature determined the constancy of this type in 20th-century literature (V. K. Arseniev, N. A. Baikov, M. M. Prishvin, O. M. Kuvaev, V. P. Sysoev), while the type of ethnocultural characters in the “urban” space is characterised by a high degree of social and historical conditioning. The shift in the vector of depicting “foreigners” towards artistic personalisation is due to the development of ethnic tolerance in the conditions of the multicultural eastern frontier.