Article

Name: From the Comments on the Typology of the Visions in Old Russian Hagiography (The Plot of the Beating a Demon by a Saint)

Authors: Tatyana I. Kovaleva

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section The Plot in Literature and Folklore

Abstract: This article examines the plot of visions on the beating a demon by a saint is not typical for the original Old Russian writings. This plot is included in the typology proposed earlier. It represents one of the possible ways of organizing a vast, thematically diverse material of vi-sions. Most of the examples of our typology are plots in the composition of hagiographic nar-ratives of various types. The considered plot is one these cases. We have analyzed two examples of visions containing scenes of beating demons from literary compositions of different times. From the Byzantine Life of Andrew the Fool that one of the first in the 12th century in-troduced the Russian reader to this plot. Also from the Life of the Monk Epiphanius written at the end of the Old Russian tradition. Typologically similar features of visions are noted: the presence of a common structural scheme, participation in the formation of the event of two characters of the sacred and infernal worlds at once. The revealed specificity of the scene of beating demons is explained by tradition, the time of writings and their pragmatic orientation. Thus, an interesting, visual story on the beating the demon full of artistic details in the Byzan-tine Life characterizes the height of the spiritual feat of the saint. In the Life of Epiphany, a similar story reflects the worldview of an ascetic, also demonstrates the phenomenon of “lit-erary materialization of visions”. Examples of visions from the Lives of Andrew the Fool and the Monk Epiphanius demonstrate the evolution in the depiction of the scene of the beating demons in the literary process of medieval Russia, reflecting significant changes in the genre of visions in the transitional period of Russian literature.

Keywords: Old Russian hagiography, genre of visions, the plot of the beating a demon by a saint, The Life of Andrew the Fool, The Life of the Monk Epiphanius

Bibliography:

Antonov D. I. “Besa poymav, muchashe...”. Izbiyeniye besa svyatym: demonologycheskiy syuzhet v knizhnosti i ikonografii srednevekovoy Rusi [The Beating a Demon by a Saint: Demonological Plot in Literacy and the Iconography of Medieval Russia]. In: Drevnyaya Rus' [Old Russia. The Questions of Middle Ages], 2010, vol. 1 (39), pp. 61–75. (in Russ.)

Istoki russkoy belletristiki: vozniknoveniye zhanrov syuzhetnogo povestvovaniya v drevnerusskoy literature [The Origins of Russian Fiction: The Emergence of Genres of Plot Narration in Old Russian Literature]. Leningrad, 1970, 597 p. (in Russ.)

Kovaleva T. I. Opyt tipologii videniy v drevnerusskoy agiografii XIII–XVII vv. [Experience in the Typology of the Visions in Old Russian Hagiography of the 13th – 17th Centuries]. Syuzhetologiya i syuzhetografiya [Studies in Theory of Literary Plot and Narratology], 2019, no. 1, pp. 87–103. (in Russ.)

Kovaleva T. I. Videniya v agiograficheskikh pamyatnikakh drevnerusskoy literatury XIII–XVII vv.: zhanrovaya evolutsiya i syuzhetoslozhenie [Visions in Old Russian Hagiographic Monuments of the 13th – 17th Centuries: Genre Evolution and Plot Structure]. Abstract of Philol. Cand. Diss. Tomsk, 2017, 21 p. (in Russ.)

Likhachev D. S. Chelovek v literature Drevney Rusi [The Man in Old Russian literature]. Moscow; Leningrad, 1958, 186 p. (in Russ.)

Pigin A. V. Videniya potustoronnego mira v russkoy rukopisnoy knizhnosti [The Visions of the Otherworld in Russian Manuscript Booklore]. St. Petersburg, 2006, 430 p. (in Russ.)

Prokofiev N. I. Videniye kak zhanr v drevnerusskoy literature [The Vision as a Genre of Old Russian Literature]. In: Scientific notes of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. Moscow, 1964, pp. 35–56. (in Russ.)

Pustozerskaya proza [Pustozersk prose]. Comp., preface, comm., translation of certain fragments by M. B. Plyukhanova. Moscow, 1989, 364 p. (in Russ.)

Robinson A. N. Zhitiye Yepifaniya kak pamyatnik didakticheskoy avtobiografii [The Life of Epiphanius as a Monument of Didactic Autobiography]. In: Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoy literatury [Transactions of the Department of Old Russian Literature]. Moscow; St. Petersburg, 1958, vol. 15, pp. 203–224. (in Russ.)

Romodanovskaya E. K. Sibir’ i literatura: XVII vek [Siberia and Literature: The 17th century]. Novosibirsk, 2002, 391 p. (in Russ.)

Vinogradov A. V. Solovetskiy inok Epifaniy: opyt rekonstruktsii biografii [Solovetsky Monk Epiphanius: Biography Reconstruction Experience]. In: Pravoslavie v Karelii [Orthodox in Karelia]. Materials of the 4th Scientific Conference to the 25th

Anniversary of the Revival of Petrozavodsk and Karelian Dioceses (Petrozavodsk, November 25–26, 2015). Petrozavodsk, 2016, pp. 81–101. (in Russ.)

Yurganov A. L. Ubit' besa. Put' ot Srednevekov'ya k Novomu vremeni [Kill the Devil. The Path from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Times]. Moscow, 2006, 433 p. (in Russ.)