The imaginal-geographic space of East Prussia (based on Andrey Bolotov’s memoirs)

Abstract

The article deals with various types of the imaginal-geographic space of East Prussia, represented in Andrey Bolotov’s memoirs Andrey Bolotov ’s Life and Adventures, Written by Himself for His Descendants. These space types are structured according to their relations with the elements of the oppositions “center - periphery” and “adventurous-mortal - idyllic.” The center of the “Prussian” space in the text is Koenigsberg with its surrounding grounds, and the periphery is the rest of the East Prussian loci - natural, demi-natural-rural and urbanistic. In this logic, both peripherical and central local images can be connected with the adventurous-mortal and the idyllic space, though to a different extent, which makes the “Prussian” space images of the memoirs ambivalent. The adventurous-mortal space consists of the loci of war (enemy border, battle field, ravaged villages and towns, etc.) as well as territories connected with the narrator’s leaving the center (sailing far, going to a secret mission, traveling home through the Curonian Lagoon), which actualizes motifs of danger, doom, mischief, death. The adventurous and mortal features are essentially “softer” in the frames of Koenigsberg. Firstly, the unrest of Bolotnov’s life in the Prussian capital is connected with the danger of coming back against his will to the space of war, which can result in death, mutilation, etc. Secondly, there are some spaces in the city that can cause his spiritual death. On the one hand, these are “tavern” loci connected with motifs of venal love, excessive drinking, gambling games. On the other hand, the potential danger can come from the University of Koenigsberg and some books in local bookstalls. This danger is connected with the motif of a “wrong” philosophy that leads to libertinism and atheism. Finally, the “softest” danger can come from the inconvenient space (uninhabited, almost scary storage blocks as well as medieval buildings negatively marked with motifs of narrowness, darkness, crookedness of streets and bad smells from the dropped litter). The idyllic spaces are some loci of Prussian villages and towns untouched by the war and characterized with motifs of peaceful life, abundance, order, cosiness, petiteness, and a high density of population. The point of the concentrated idyll in Bolotov’s text is Koeningsberg as the center of the “Prussian” chronotope. The descriptions of Koenigsberg actualize the motifs of visual beauty, order, cosiness, abundance and splendor, but at the same time of some harmonic avoidance of extremes. In addition, the image of the Prussian capital contains features of a city of gaieties, the historical locus and the “initiating” place of knowledge. The author declares no conflicts of interests