Parable and anecdote as genre components in Aleksey Khomyakov’s letters
The article considers the generic structure of A.S. Khomyakov's letters. It comes to light that the theorist of a Slavophile movement opposes friendly confessional correspondence, popular in Russia in the first third of the 19th century, to sermon in a letter form. In his letters, Khomyakov prefers genres targeting public audience (e.g. journal articles, reviews, auto-commentaries, exegetical studies, etc.) to intimate ones; among his preferences are parables, an integral part of any sermon or homily. Khomyakov refers his readers to evangelical parables, thereby making his instructive (uchitelny) word gain in authority; he also speaks in various parables, often using their abridged versions, highlighting their proverbial and aphoristic maxims. In his epistles, not a less important role there plays another, an antinomic to a parable genre of an anecdote, samples of which also appear in complete or condensed forms (punch lines). Anecdotes and jokes seem to weaken the authority of the uchitelny word; however, it gains in effectiveness, since the addressee finds himself free to discourse with the sender of the letter as with an equal.