“The Blessed Germany” Between Emotio et Ratio: New Aspects of German Space Imagery in “Travel Letters from England, Germany and France” by N. I. Gretch

Abstract

The paper deals with the representation of the German space in “Travel letters from England, Germany and France” by N. I. Gretsch. This text is compared as with author’s other travelogues dedicated to traveling through German lands as well as with the tradition of describing Germany in Russian literature in the end of the 18th – the first half of the 19th centuries. The article reveals the close connection of the spatial imagery in the Gretsch’s work with the sentimentalism world-image of Germany. In accordance with this world-image, German lands are marked mainly with idyllic features. Idyllic loci in the Gretsch’s travelogue are connected with a number of motifs, such as motifs of orderliness, coziness, visual attractiveness, abundance, vitality, purity, peacefulness, silence, justice, contentment, brightness, closeness, patriarchality, achrony, miniaturization. The motif of sacredness of German space is of particular importance for representing the “blessed Germany” in the text. This allows to set the opposition “sacred, law-abiding, peaceful Germany — desecrated, lawless, violent France.”

Keywords

• n. i. gretsch
• travelogue
• world-image
• germany
• imagology
• liminal space
• idyll
• rationality
• motif
• russian literature