The first censored edition of the «russian tale» by Petr P. Ershov — «The little humpbacked horse»: sources as a factor of the author's intentions

About the author:

Sergey A. Komarov, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; vitmark14@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4506-4027

Abstract:

In the present article for the first time Biblical axiological and artistic bases of the first censored edition of the literary fairy tale by Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” come to light in detail, as the most significant layer of these signs is described. The author offers the concept of the historico-philosophical nature of creation made by the young Siberian writer. Ershov’s dialogical polemics with Pushkin texts is considered to be a design feature of the genre and substantial solution of an aesthetic aim. The age and educational and professional choice of the nineteen-year-old student of the Imperial University are defined in the article as essential reference points of reconstruction in the plan of the fairy tale. The priority of Ershov’s knowledge of the Biblical text is considered to be the natural standard of culture of the Russian gymnasium, university and spiritual and civil education together with the well-known religious and personal tendencies of the artist. The author considers popularity of the Ershov’s fairy tale in Russia to be conditioned by it being a natural retranslator of a valuable and figurative system of Biblical worldview in democratically wide layers of the reading orthodox country, as one of sources of maintenance of its religious and spiritual system throughout nearly two centuries. In correspondence of the artistic message of the Ershov’s fairy tale with the matrix bases of mass readers’ religious consciousness of Russia it is seen, along with other factors, as a secret of steady popularity of this text which has become really the national one.

References:

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