City of dreams": the image of Nizhny Novgorod in the interpretation of A. de Custine and T. Gauthier
The article examines the image of Nizhny Novgorod by French travelers - A. de Custine and T. Gauthier, who visited the Nizhny Novgorod fair in August 1839 and August 1861, respectively. Despite the difference in views, both travelers represent the same culture and show a sincere interest in the image of the Other - a foreign country, another people, a foreign culture. The relevance of the research is due to the growing interest in the problem of regional national identity. It is shown that the image of Nizhny Novgorod in the travel books by A. de Custine "Russia in 1839" (1843) and T. Gauthier "Journey to Russia" (1858-1861; 1867) has clear topographical landmarks (Nizhny Novgorod fair, street names, squares, etc.), specific signs of the urban space of Nizhny Novgorod (coffee shop, fountain on the square, governor, clothing features, etc.). Travelers pay special attention to the description of the city location, the Volga as a kind of emblem of the Russian world and the fair as the main symbol of Nizhny Novgorod. The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the works of French travelers who created their own interpretation of the Nizhny Novgorod space, which has become a kind of personification of Russia with the opposition boundlessness/longing, boundless expanses/sadness. The novelty of the research is connected with the fact that Nizhny Novgorod is shown as a space that clearly reveals the inviolable and special things that exist in the nation; this kind of "complex" of identity is analyzed using the modern scientific apparatus of imagology. This approach allowed us to show in historical perspective the features of the formation of the Nizhny Novgorod text, which was created in the travel literature for centuries by both domestic and foreign authors.