Oriental sketches by Mikhail Lermontov from the Notebook Presented by Vladimir Odoyevsky: The history of the text and semantic architectonics

Abstract

The aim and objectives of the study are determined by the need to reconstruct an authentic text, whose reception allows clarifying the specifics of Lermontov’s ethnographism and psychologism when creating an artistic image in the “Oriental” sketches “Correcting with a Lily Hand ...” and “On a Cloak Under the Shade of a Plane Tree ...”. The specific toolkit for analysis is the use of the primary source: its description and the compilation of a diplomatic transcription. The theoretical and methodological basis is textual, structural-semantic and cultural-historical approaches to the study of a literary text. All publications of texts are sequentially considered: from the first edition by A.A. Kraevsky in Otechestvennye zapista to the academic edition of 2014. As a result of the study, the authors have found that in all editions of the sketches there are discrepancies with autographs. In a number of cases, editorial corrections were justified, since they were associated with bringing the text to the linguistic standard, deviations from which Lermontov allowed due to the draft nature of the texts. The authors explain the swap of verses, the reasons for correcting proper names in Lermontov’s autographs; reveal incorrect publishing corrections that weaken the artistic impact of the text and belittle the skill of Lermontov as a psychologist and his ethnographic awareness; outline the role of exotic Oriental vocabulary and its changes: to recreate the Oriental color as conditioned by socio-cultural and psychological aspects. The authors propose a reasoned reconstruction of the authentic text of the sketches, which are presented as a single concept. The authors prove that the sketches are characterized by stylistic unity and are in line with Lermontov’s “Oriental” text as a whole. Their structural and conceptual study confirms that Lermontov’s works of 1841 are characterized by a synthesis of romantic and realistic principles of depiction with the priority of the realistic method. The authors draw conclusions about the aesthetic principles of Lermontov’s depiction of an “Oriental” person - about the peculiarities of characters’ individualization and typology, and determine ways of explicating the Oriental flavor. The authors show that Lermontov’s ethnographic observations concentrate on the “Oriental” topos and are characterized by accuracy, deep immersion in Caucasian ethnopsychology. The systematic analysis and the results of the reconstruction of the sketches “Correcting with a Lily Hand ...” and “On a Cloak Under the Shade of a Plane Tree ...” give grounds to speak about their importance for drawing up an integral idea of Lermontov’s creative process, including due to the small number of his draft autographs. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.