The article considers the 17th century work «The tale of the Grief-Mischief» in the context of the time of creation — one of the turning points in the history of Russia. Two directions of protreptic are revealed, their features and historical conditions of occurrence are considered. The involvement of the story in one of these directions is determined. The analysis of the work is carried out in terms of the evolution of teaching.
Keywords: ancient Middle Russian literature, «The tale of the Grief-Mischief», protreptic, «the rebellious age».
From the very beginning of Christianity in Russia there was a need to instruct a person to help him choose the right way from the point of view of Christianity — the way of purity, goodness, salvation. This phenomenon had to be reflected in the literature of various periods of existence of the Russian state. And thanks to the development of both theological thought and literature itself, the ways of influencing the mind and soul of man changed over time, became more complex, acquiring more effective forms. Here we will try to consider how instructing literature in the seventeenth century (including a vivid example — «The tale of the Grief-Mischief») has changed compared with the samples of the early middle ages, at the same time establish a connection with the process of history — compare the phenomenon of reality, its reflection in the minds of people and in written culture.
Protreptic literature began to be introduced in Russia thanks to the Byzantine models. The adoption of Christianity by Russia in 998 gave rise to the need for instructive literature, which would indicate to the convert the appropriate behavior, way of thinking, would displace the old, pagan worldview. The instruction of the person here was carried out by illustrating the text with quotations from the Holy Scripture — an unsurpassed authority for the reader. The narration was supported by examples of righteous actions: a certain pattern of behavior of the true Christian was given. Rigor, hierarchy — all this refers to the works of this period and preserved throughout the existence of medieval Russian literature. It was only in the seventeenth century that drastic changes took place.
«The rebellious age» was a time when there was a change in the consciousness of people, and therefore to influence the «new» consciousness, to instruct the people should be in a different way. Begins «The tale…» introduction containing the biblical story of the fall. S. A. Okhten [4, p. 15] after A. M. Panchenko [5, p. 22] notes the connection of the introduction with the apocryphal literature: a variant of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is the vine (the theme of «green wine» will arise more than once in the work) — such a deviation from the Holy Scripture speaks of the shaken authority not only of the religious сanon, but also of the authorities as such.
Interrupts the happy coincidence of the hero's praise. If before this episode good was acting inexperience, the learning of others, exaggeration of own achievements was probably is well aware of them and therefore caused the introduction of the image of Grief. Mischief begins the pursuit of the hero at the moment when he literally calls him: his bragging steps on the road of sin, although he may not understand it at this stage. The vitality of Grief, his attachment to the human race are indicated by him almost at the beginning of his monologue, before the intentions to master the life of a young man are explained, which are then carried out. And the third time shame drives the young man off the right path, and with nothing he comes to a kind of boundary — a crossing on the river. This «nothing» can be considered in two ways: the absence of both the accumulated material state and the moral lessons learned from life. Tips parents and good people were not accepted by the fellow, and his own life experiences, their mistakes have not yet formed a complete system of moral principles.
It can be suggested that just in this episode shows the formation of such views of the young man: he submitted to Grief, began to comprehend his life, in the song the hero analyzes the period of his own adulthood, recalls the care of his mother in childhood — and says the current situation. This analysis allowed him to cross the river, move on to another stage of life. Ahead of him is a fight with Grief, a duel on the «clean field», where no one will be able to help either by advice or action, the young man himself must defeat the enemy to get to the «saved path».
D. S. Likhachev speaks about the new attitude reflected in the «The tale of the Grief-Mischief». New for medieval literature, including the image of a nameless man, and even more the author's attitude to such a hero, it would seem, has reached an extreme degree of decline. Nevertheless, as D. S. Likhachev writes, «автор как бы смотрит сверху философским взглядом на обездоленного человека, на его судьбу — с иронией и жалостью, с осуждением и сочувствием, считает его виновным в своей гибели и вместе с тем как бы обречённым и ни в чём не виноватым» [3, p. 322]. In «The tale of the Grief-Mischief» there is a new type of hero — an ordinary man, not outstanding, close to the reader, and therefore encourages empathy. It was in the crucial XVII century that sympathy for such a sinful person became possible. This period was marked by the appeal of literature to the inner world — the elements of a complex, contradictory, restless. The fate of the hero of the XVII century begins to reflect the fate of all mankind, it is no coincidence that in «The tale of the Grief-Mischief» the story of the young man is placed after the story of the fall and the beginning of the human race. He, nameless, absorbs all sins and carries this heavy burden with him.
We see that one type of human impact was used in the protreptic literature of the early middle ages: it was direct, motivational, built on the scheme of «look, be inspired and do the same». In «The tale of the Grief-Mischief» is a completely different situation, the impact is already mediated, demotivation («look, horrified and do not do the same»). In the episode with the instruction of the parents of the young man, built according to the laws of the first type, all the negative moments do not unfold as an example, they are referred to only as a fact, what should be avoided. But the impact of using a negative sample, using the parallel not with a model, and living close to the reader as a hero, and contains the whole «Story»..., does itself, not just the product is viable and «alive».
All of the above allows us to call «The tale of the Grief-Mischief» a work of postprotreptic literature, of course, closely related to the previous stages of the development of written art, growing out of this material, but based on other goals and principles of construction of the work. The main thing that is worth noting — is instructive as one of the main features of ancient literature in General, the purpose of protreptic which was to help the soul. The first seven hundred years of Russian literature, despite all the genre, historical and cultural differences and features can be considered as a kind of unity. Man, initially small the world, inseparable in the consciousness of people from view of the universe, and in literature first was only part of hierarchically arranged life. But compassion and sympathy distinguish him from the general system of the world, make him those who will later be called in Russian literature «low ranker».
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