Dynamics of the Image of the Steppe in E. P. Rostopchina’s Creative Work

The dynamics of the steppe chronotope in the work of E. P. Rostopchina has not been the subject of analysis previously. Meanwhile, the study of this space-time continuum makes it possible to clarify the idea of the creative evolution of the writer which is a controversial issue in literary studies. Based on the ideas about the chronotope and, more particularly, the steppe chronotope set forth in the works of Russian literary critics (M. M. Bakhtin, Yu. M. Lotman, V. N. Toporov), the authors of the article prove that the image of the steppe in E. P. Rostopchina’s works is dynamic. During the Anna period of her creative work, the steppe is “lifeless”, “sad”, “silent”, an alien and boundless desert, in which a person full of physical and spiritual strength is uncomfortable and lonely. During the St Petersburg period, the image of the steppe appears as a habitable space that has become a saving “cell” for sensitive and exalted souls tired of the meaningless whirlwind of secular life. Finally, in the late Moscow period, a symbolic national image of the steppe emerges, which is associated with the eternal Russian world: Russia’s heroic past, its difficult present, and the future stretching infinitely. Relying on the traditional interpretations of the steppe existing in Russian literature (A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, P. A. Vyazemsky, etc.), E. P. Rostopchina brings her own semantic nuances to this image. The consideration of the chronotope of the steppe in its dynamics makes it possible to conclude what contribution E. P. Rostopchina made to the formation of the “steppe text” as a specifically national one for Russian literature.