Studia Litterarum (Dec 2022)
Plots about an Elephant in the Notes on Muscovy by Heinrich von Staden and in Old Russian Literature of the 12th–16th Centuries
Abstract
The article examines the literary originality of story about an unusual gift of Iranian Shah to the Russian Tsar in the Notes on Muscovy by Heinrich von Staden, analyzes the features of using the estrangement technique when assessing the actions of Russian people in relation to an elephant and Arab caring for him, specifics of perception and image of guardsmen. By refusing to use figurative and expressive means and presenting only facts, Staden involuntarily creates in the reader a special perception of Russian guardsmen as cynical people, for whom the violation of moral norms and the cult of ruthless arbitrariness is a way of life. The story of an elephant, inscribed in the general story of oprichnina, demonstrates Staden’s dismissive attitude towards Ivan the Terrible and his subjects as cruel, immoral barbarians, unable to value diplomatic gifts of status, to take care of a living being properly, or to be guided by elementary logic in assessing events. Overview of the Old Russian sources that mention elephants showed that the development of plots goes along four lines: the first is the description of an animal and symbolic interpretation, the second is the mention of elephants as an exotic of Eastern countries, the third is the use of elephants to demonstrate the wealth of a particular person and/or as an intimidation of the enemy in battle, the fourth — the features of capturing elephants. Against this background, the Notes on Muscovy by Heinrich von Staden with a detailed plot about an elephant presented to Ivan the Terrible, look very exotic for Old Russian literature. A fact doubtful from the point of view of historical authenticity, a strange murder of an animal, an insulting description of Russians as cruel barbarians — all this, most likely, was the reason for the absence of this plot in the original literature, contemporary with the writing of the Notes on Muscovy, however, as well as in Russian seventeenth century literature.
Keywords
