“Geographical Surprises” and More: the Poetics of S.N. Durylin’s Vodlozero Diary

Abstract

The article analyses the poetics of S.N. Durylin’s unpublished North (Vodlozero) diary. The researcher of this diary has the following tasks: to study the text from a functional point of view, to consider the features of genre form and genre content, to try to recreate the image of the author based on the text of the diary. Functionally, Durylin’s Northern diary is interesting because it is a travel essay about the North, in which the author describes not only historically significant landscapes, but also customs of the northerners. The author reveals the intimate experience of what he saw in the North, while the text is distinguished by the objectification of the described, since the notes were supposed to be handed over to the Archaeological Institute. In this case, for understanding the content of the diary genre, it is very important that this is Durylin’s first diary, created on the basis of daily records in July — August 1917, the diary of the so-called formation period, which caused another of its functions — “spiritual chronograph”. Thus, Durylin’s Vodlozero diary recreates the process of spiritual formation of the writer’s personality, and is also a valuable artistic evidence of the Russian national picture of the world.

Keywords

• s.n. durylin
• travel diary
• “northern text
• ” national image of the world
• ethnopoetics.