“Bogatyr” in the epoch of postmodernism. Post-modern elements of Ilya Muromets’ iconography

Abstract

This article considers the image of Ilya Muromets in modern Russian culture. The authors show that only in the end of the 19th century there was a contamination of two different characters: the epic hero Ilya Muromets and the reverend Ilya Pechersky from the Kiev Monastery of the Caves. As a result of this overlay, as well as influence of Victor Vasnetsov’s painting, Soviet monumental sculpture and animated films at the turn of the 20th and 21th centuries reveals a typical iconography of St. Ilya as a warrior monk. The article proves that all main postmodernism features are expressed in the modern iconography of Ilya Muromets: epistemological uncertainty, deconstruction and decanonization, intertextuality.

Keywords

• ilya muromets
• ilya pechersky
• epic
• hero
• iconography
• postmodernism