Литературный факт (Jun 2018)
An episode from the history of Russian folklore studies: G.I. Parikhin’s letters to I.P. Sakharov
Abstract
In the archive of I.P. Sakharov (1807–1863) there is a set of letters and folklore materials, which were sent to him in 1839 by Grigorii Ivanovich Parikhin, a merchant from Tikhvin. This Tikhvin collector sent Sakharov 22 songs, 70 riddles, 16 magic spells, 1 fairytale and other texts, which were partly published later in Sakharov’s compilations, such as The Russian People’s Tales of Their Ancestors’ Family Life and Russian People’s Songs. A comparative textual analysis has shown that Sakharov edited and abridged texts sent to him by Parikhin. The letters from Tikhvin clarify facts from one of the first Russian folklore collectors’ biography, his literary taste, and his relationships with those who surrounded him. The materials published are also important in respect of the history of reading and library science. The second letter to Sakharov contains a peculiar autobiography in which Parikhin describes his life as a history of searching out new books and reading them. Parikhin’s acquaintance with literature started with reading the captions of Lubki (classic Russian prints made for the general public, used for entertainment and home decor) and developed as he read Russian and foreign fairytales and novels. Parikhin not only ordered books from St. Petersburg, but also lent them to those who were interested in reading and created a small private library. In his letters, Parikhin revealed his literary tastes, in particular, his attitude to A.S. Pushkin’s poetry and A.A. Marlinsky’s prose. In terms of stylistics these letters could be interpreted as an example of mixture of styles, both business correspondence and that of Marlinsky’s romantic prose. In Parikhin’s letters there are many dialect words and colloquialisms written phonetically, which makes it possible to reconstruct everyday merchant speech of the 1830s.
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