Travelogues by I.S. Sokolov-Mikitov (imagological aspect) (2018)
This article is presented in the Anniversary Section of the journal - “To the 90th anniversary of the philologist: the republication of selected research articles by Professor Lyudmila P. Egorova (1932 - 2019)" , which provides a holistic view of the formation and creative path of the outstanding humanist, philologist and methodologist, and the founder of the research school “Functional Studies of Literature” and the laboratory “Literatures of the Peoples of the North Caucasus” at the North Caucasus Federal University. First published on: Egorova L. P. Travelogi I. S. Sokolova-Mikitova (imagologicheskij aspekt) (Travelogues by I. S. Sokolov-Mikitov (imagological aspect)) // Aktual'nye problemy filologii i pedagogicheskoj lingvistiki. - 2018. - № 4 (32). - S. 134-141. Against the general background of modern imagology, the author explores the prose of the Russian writer I.S. Sokolov-Mikitov (1892-1975). Based on literary criticism, the author interprets the geographical and ethnic areas recreated by the famous Russian traveller, primarily the Caucasus and Central Asia, associated with the writer’s unique perception of the unfamiliar nature, the foreign character and everyday way of life, due to this nature, which involves identifying the imagological nature of the problem posed in the article. The article reveals the originality of the travelogues “By the Blue Sea” and “Across the Mountains and Forests” written by Sokolov-Mikitov, which recreate the image of the Motherland in its multicultural unity, not associated with one locus only; the features of the style, due to the romantic perception of what he saw and learnt. The originality of the travelogue as a genre is highlighted by a comparison (as far as the volume of the article allows) of these travelogues and Sokolov-Mikitov’s story “Hunting in the Caucasus”, in which the main feature of Sokolov-Mikitov’s creative individuality as an artistic depicter of everyday life was manifested to a greater extent. The travelogues, on the contrary, contain bursts of romantic perception by the traveller of what he saw, which can be felt much more often, as, for example, in the travelogue “By the Blue Sea”, in the chapter “Green Land” - in the image of the Azerbaijani hunter Ali, and are combined with the writer’s attention to the changes in the social life of the peoples of the USSR. The author of the article argues with E. K. Chkhaidze (Bochum, Germany), who, in her publication based on literary material, claims that during the collapse of the USSR, allegedly “double ideological standards surfaced, previously covered with a mask of friendship between peoples.” Such a statement of hers contradicts the assessments of Western researchers she had previously published - M. Terry and D. Moore, who spoke of Soviet Russia as an empire of “positive activity”, and about its policy of decolonization. The presented analysis of Sokolov-Mikitov’s travelogues “By the Blue Sea”, his chapter of the same name, and the chapter “The City of Winds”, as well as the travelogue “Through Mountains and Forests” (a chapter “In the Tien Shan Mountains”) reveals the achievements of the national republics - Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan - in the 1930s and confirms the polemical provisions.