Серебряное перо Русского Путешественника: к прочтению одной сложной литературной истории

Попов, Степан

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116392 Copy

Description

Title

Серебряное перо Русского Путешественника: к прочтению одной сложной литературной истории

Author(s)

Попов, Степан

Issue Date

2020-12

Keyword(s)

• Карамзин
• Письма Русского Путешественника
• серебряное перо
• Кант
• Просвещение
• публичная сфера
• модерность
• литературная прагматика
• культурная политика
• Karamzin
• Letters of a Russian Traveler
• silver pen
• Kant
• Enlightenment
• public sphere
• modernity
• literary pragmatics
• cultural politics

Abstract

This article focuses on Karamzin’s seemingly off-hand remark about the fact that all the Letters of a Russian Traveler were written not with the traditional goose-feather quill-, but rather silver-nibbed pen. A brief study of late-18th century metal pens and their cultural connotations shows that the silver pen in this period was not only a new, fashionable, and convenient writing implement, but also a symbol for the arrival of the modern era. And, as a close reading of Letter of a Russian Traveler demonstrates, that is also the case for the protagonist’s repeated references to his silver pen. The author argues that Karamzin’s invocation of this meaning-laden writing implement, especially in connection with his appropriation of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, made it possible for the Russian novelist to offer his readers a series of remarkable ideological statements about enlightenment in general, and Russia’s place in the modern world in particular.

Series/Report Name or Number

ВИВЛIОθИКА: E-Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies, vol. 8

Type of Resource

text

Language

other

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2020 Stepan Popov
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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