“Letters of a Russian Traveler” by N.M. Karamzin: Literary and Geographical Aspects

Abstract

In the article the author examines the geoliterary aspects of “The Letters of a Russian Traveler” by N.M. Karamzin. This means that travel writing is seen as a way of literary exploration of space. Karamzin’s literary journey is characterized as a secular pilgrimage, in which holy places are replaced by cultural ones – natural, historical, cultural, and literary. The author changed the established vector of cultural assessments, considering Europe not as “paradise” and not as “hell”, but as a cultural space equal to Russia. “Notes” convincingly demonstrates that literary travel has a cyclical structure and a clear-cut spatial organization, which includes the linear space of roadside landscapes and the nuclear space of stops, which should be considered as an entrance to another culture. Important attributes of literary travel include a low speed of movement, which allows you to “read” the aesthetics and structure of the cultural roadside landscape, but also a low pace of the journey itself, which optimally combines stops and crossings, which allows you to harmonize the perception and images of new countries and localities.

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