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Litera
Reference:
Shapovalov A.V.
Forms of the author's presence and the history of mentalities: problems of study (based on the material of the Slavic historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries)
// Litera.
2022. ¹ 5.
P. 184-191.
DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2022.5.37771 URL: https://en.nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=37771
Forms of the author's presence and the history of mentalities: problems of study (based on the material of the Slavic historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries)
DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2022.5.37771Received: 31-03-2022Published: 16-05-2022Abstract: The subject of the research is the application of the methodology of the history of mentalities to study the author's explications in the texts of the Slavic historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries. The social and psychological directions of the history of mentalities presented in the works of M. Blok, L. Fevre, J. Le Goff, J. Duby, A. Buro, R. Chartier are consistently considered, and then the main approaches of historical anthropology are analyzed. The texts of the "Tale of Bygone Years", "Czech Chronicle" by Kozma of Prague, "Chronicles and Deeds of Princes or Rulers of Poland" by Gallus Anonymous are selected as sources. Attention is focused on such forms of the author's presence as references of scribes about themselves or about the events of their lives, subjective and emotional statements, value judgments, stable expressions. The problems and prospects of applying the methods of the history of mentalities and historical anthropology in identifying and interpreting the statements of medieval scribes, as well as in the case of their use of various expressive means and stable formulas are discussed. The attractiveness of the history of mentalities, which makes it possible to explain the manifestations of medieval consciousness through the linguistic means of the era under study, as well as the complexity of solving the problem of the ratio of an individual and an "average individual", are noted. The conclusion is made about the prospects of the microhistoric approach to the study of the forms of the author's presence in the Slavic monuments of the historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries. and about the expediency of comparative studies in the study of individual statements of scribes. Keywords: history of mentalities, historical anthropology, forms of author's presence, collective consciousness, individual consciousness, symbol, steady expression, The Tale of Bygone Years, Czech Chronicle, Chronicle of Gallus AnonymousThis article is automatically translated. Mentality is understood as "attitudes of consciousness", "ideas about a person, his place in nature and society, his understanding of nature and God", which are "not subjected to logical systematization" [1, p. 159]. In the field of historiography, the concept of "mentality" includes socio-psychological attitudes, features of the worldview of people of a certain cultural and historical community [2, p. 75]. If at the initial stage the mentality was understood as something unified inherent in the whole society, then in the subsequent time there is an expansion of the research field, and the focus of attention is on the diversity of mentalities (the history of mentalities). In relation to traditional societies, researchers turn to the study of mentalities of different levels (elite consciousness, popular consciousness) [3, pp. 58-60], as well as various social groups (medieval Holsteins, mendicant orders, impostor rulers, etc.) [4, pp. 82-90]. In this regard, it is of interest to compare the research approaches of the history of mentalities and the study of the category of the author of medieval monuments of different genres, in particular, historical narrative. This is due to the recently increased interest in studying the forms of the author's presence in the Old Russian chronicles of the initial period [5],[6]. This article is an experience of applying the methodology of the history of mentalities to identify and interpret the author's explications in the Slavic monuments of historical narrative of the turn of the XI-XII centuries. The texts of the Tale of Bygone Years according to the Ipatiev and Laurentian lists (hereinafter referred to as PVL [7] and LL [8]), as well as the Czech Chronicle of Kozma of Prague (hereinafter referred to as CHH [9], Latin text [10]) and the Chronicle, synchronous with it in time of creation and the period described, were selected as sources. and the deeds of the princes or rulers of Poland" Galla Anonyma (hereinafter – HGA [11], Latin text [12]). The beginning of the study of the history of mentalities is associated with the names of M. Blok and L. Fevre. M. Blok's interest in collective consciousness, the peculiarities of feelings and way of thinking was due to the existence of book culture in the Middle Ages. "Epic stories in folk languages" attract the attention of M. Blok from the point of view of the history of social structure and collective memory [13, p. 97]. L. Fevre, on the contrary, understands mentality in a psychological way – as a perception that structures individual and collective experience. L. Fevre is interested in cases of "registration of shades of sensitivity", moral attitudes defining everyday practice, the ratio of emotional and automatic principles in the relationships of members of a certain community [14, pp. 111-112, 121]. In relation to the sources under consideration, this was manifested in the mention of emotions by the scribes: "work hard ... begin to push ... begin to dig ... keep me terrified begin to call" [7, stb. 201-202], "I don't blush" [9, p. 30], "what we can't even talk about without a tremor in our voice" [11, p. 50, a similar example, p. 92] (Latin text: "non ... erubesco" [10, p. 32], "quod sinevoce lacrimabili dicere non valemus" [12, p. 78, p. 178]). In all three texts, such examples are isolated. Thus, already at the initial stage, two main directions in the study of the history of mentalities were determined – sociological and psychological. Within the framework of the sociological direction of Zh . Le Goff draws attention to the ideas that people formed under the influence of historical reality, to the meanings that were hidden behind various symbols (words, sayings, clothes, customs, for more details, see [15, pp. 400-406]). According to the researcher, the peculiarities of medieval mentality include "the practice of constant repetition", evidence by authority (antiquity) and miracle [15, pp. 396-398]. This explains the attention of medieval historiographers to the description of celestial phenomena and attempts to interpret them: "this sign was not good" [7, stb. 109, a similar example stb. 153], "there was an eclipse of the sun, followed by a pestilence that struck cows, sheep and pigs" [9, p. 234] ("hora diei solis eclypsis fuit, et secuta est maxima pestilentia boum ovium atque suum" [10, p. 129]). The researcher also draws attention to such features of medieval thinking as the warriors' vision of the world, the confrontation of good and evil, the predilection of medieval scribes for "sparkling, bright colors" [15, pp. 407, 414-415]. Similar features are characteristic of all three sources under consideration: "the star is a great ray of blood" [7, stb. 153], "burning with anger, like this furnace, after it was kindled seven times in a row" [9, p. 197], "After all, no one considers it indecent if black is added to bright colors in paintings for a change" [11, p. 64] ("sedit in medio super truncum fornacis, plus succensus ira quam fornax, qui sepces succenditur flamma" [10, p. 113], "Nec indecens in picturis aliquando iudicatur si preciosis coloribus pro varietate operis niger color inseratur" [12, p. 112]). Note that these features are most strongly expressed in the CGA, which may be related to the genre of this monument (gestae as a narrative about the exploits of the ruler). Another representative of the sociological trend, J. Duby, understands mentality as a system of representations characteristic of some social groups, which determines social relations within these groups [16, p. 64]. The researcher complements the concept of "collective consciousness" by considering the dialogical relations of the individual with the social environment (the combination of sociological and biographical aspects in the history of mentalities). According to Zh . Duby, the study of mentality should be preceded by the study of the language (corpus of expressions) of a certain era, which reflects the most significant features of collective consciousness. Similar relationships between a person and his social environment in the PVL and CHH were manifested in the statements of scribes reflecting their belonging to a certain social group – the brethren of the monastery or the clergy of the cathedral: "we are in the cells resting ... we are running behind the monastery" [7, stb. 222], "Kozma, what is unworthy of the position of dean (rector – A.Sh.) occupies" [9, p. 99] ("Cosmas, haud dignus dici decanus" [10, p. 66]). The proposed approach is less productive in relation to the KHA, since we do not have accurate data on the origin and social status of the author of the Polish chronicle: "being with you (Polyakov – A.Sh.) an exile and an alien" [11, p. 106] ("nec ut patriam vel parentes meos exul apud vos et peregrinus exaltarem" [12, p. 210]). Within the framework of the psychological direction of the history of mentalities, A. Buro considers it necessary to focus on studying how the ideas accepted in this collective become individual. To do this, the researcher suggests three approaches: to identify general trends of behavior in a certain era, to present the generic as a sum of particular traits, and then to contrast the special and the collective [16, p. 68]. To understand the formation of general and particular representations, A. Buro turns to the study of a finite set of statements (a limited history of mentalities). Within the framework of this approach, the set of statements of the chronicler, which makes up his individual discourse, refers to the special (see autobiographical mentions of scribes and messages about their social status), and to the collective – statements characteristic of this era. In chronicles and chronicles, the general (collective) manifested itself in "etiquette formulas". These include descriptions of the qualities of a person when reporting his death ("But Gleb is kind to God and country-loving care, having a warm faith in the churches and a meek eye is red" [7, stb. 190-191], for more details, see [17, pp. 236-245]) and appeals to church hierarchs in the preface to the books CHH and HGA. Their different frequency in Eastern and Western Slavic texts indicates a different intellectual background of scribes. However, within the framework of such an understanding of mentality, it seems possible to speak not about the personality of the scribe, but only about the "average individual". The representative of the "new historical science" R. Chartier proposed to abandon the primacy of social differentiation in the study of man and to distinguish between common and unique phenomena. Within the framework of this approach, it seems useful to study the cultural context of the epoch and pay attention to the meanings that the reader "constructs" (reading as a "cultural practice" [18, p. 276]). In the Old Russian and Western Slavic texts, such differences are present not only at the structural level (the presence of prefaces and dedications preceding the books of CH and HGA), but also in the main content of the historical narrative. This difference can be clearly shown by the example of the appeal of scribes to readers. In the PVL, such appeals are combined with a request for prayer help: "if you read these books, then wake me up in prayers" [8, p. 188]. On the contrary, in HH and HGA, appeals to the reader are juxtaposed with self-deprecating or expressive statements: "Will you like, when reading in private, these old man's trifles" [9, p. 27], "Shed a tear, kind reader, after reading it grieving" [11, p. 48] ("Sive enim vobis soli hee seniles nugae placeant sive displiceant" [10, p. 31], "Et tu lector bone mentis, hec quicumque legeris" [12, p. 72]). Note that both chroniclers refer their readers to other texts, which is uncharacteristic for the PVL: "you can read about all this and the works written by others" [9, p. 58], "You can read more about this in the book on the sufferings of the holy martyr" [11, p. 33] ("quia iam ab aliis scripta legimus" [10, p. 45], "sicut in libro de passione martiris potest propensius inveniri" [12, p. 34]). This indicates the different existence of written monuments in the ancient Slavic states and their different perception by readers. At the end of the twentieth century, the history of mentalities gradually gives way to historical anthropology, which in its development went through two stages [19, pp. 180 – 182]. The first stage is connected with the attention of researchers to the collective consciousness and its stable structures in a specific historical period. In the monuments of the XI-XII centuries. this was manifested in the various use of topos by scribes as manifestations of constants of consciousness. So after a lengthy digression from the main course of the historical narrative, the Kiev chroniclers used the stable formula "we will return to the present" [7, stb. 13, stb. 159] (its variants: "to the present" [7, stb. 67], "to the former" [7, stb. 226], "on his own" [8, p. 175]). In similar cases, the authors of the chronicles under consideration replaced the topos with more lengthy expressions, which less often had a stable structure: "let's go back to what we have moved a little away from" [9, p. 47], "we, having lost the road, have moved far away from the business we started" [9, p. 136], "I will now return to his chronicle, from which he somewhat departed" [9, p. 200] ("redeamus unde paulo deviavimus" [10, p. 39], "longe digressi sumus ab incepto opere viarum per dispensia" [10, p. 84], "redeamus unde paul, digressi sumus, ad chronicam" [10, p. p. 114]). A similar situation takes place in the Polish chronicle [11, p. 28, 71, 79],[12, pp. 14, 130, 148]. These examples confirm the typical nature of the statements of the scribes when departing from the main course of the historical narrative and at the same time point to their differences, which could be due to the previous development of the written form of the language, longer for medieval Latin. The second stage of the development of historical anthropology is associated with the study of individual human traits. As noted by R. Van Dulmen, "anthropological historiography puts at the center of its research a specific historical person with his experience and way of behavior" [20, p. 223]. On such a micro-historical scale, single (side) phenomena, such as autobiographical and subjective-emotional statements of scribes, which are not motivated by the main content of the historical narrative, acquire special importance. These include autobiographical references of scribes about their age: "I am 17 years old from my birth" [7, stb. 149], "Oh, if God would return to me, an 80-year-old, the past years" [9, p. 238] ("O si mihi iam octogenario praeteritosDeus referat annos" [10, p. 130]) or about his participation in the events (about the participation of the Kiev chronicler in the transfer of the relics of Theodosius of the Caves, see [7, stb. 201-222], about the participation of Kozma of Prague in the embassy to Prince Otto – [9, p. 210-211]). It should be noted that the number of subjective-emotional statements correlates with the use of the weather grid as the main technique organizing the historical narrative. In this respect, the text of the HGA is indicative: it completely lacks dates, and therefore Gall is forced to link narrative fragments with first-person statements, which are often expressive and subjective: "But let's stop talking about mourning for the deceased Meshko and move on to joyful events" [11, p. 60] ("Sed de mestitia pueri sepulti sileamus et ad letitiam regnaturi pueri veniamus" [12, p. 104]). It should be noted that in CHH and PVL, in which a weather grid is used, there are significantly fewer such statements. Summing up, it should be noted the attractiveness of the history of mentalities, which allows you to find explanations for mental phenomena within the era itself, its cultural and linguistic means. The most productive approach for the study of PVL and CHH is the sociological direction of the history of mentalities, which allows us to determine the social position of the scribe and the characteristic features of his consciousness that determine the way of depicting and interpreting the events described, as well as other features of the narrative manner. In cases where the preserved texts of monuments do not contain references of scribes about themselves or about the events of their lives, the applicability of this approach is significantly limited (which is true for the KHA). However, the absence of such references is indicative for understanding the peculiarity of the social position of the scribe, as well as the tasks and features of the text he creates. At the same time, the considered directions of the history of mentalities not only contribute to the understanding of the self-presentation of the medieval scribe, but also raise new questions. The unsolved problems of the psychological direction of the history of mentalities should include the ratio of the individual person and the "average individual" of his time. Within the framework of historical anthropology, due to the micro-historical scale of research, some clarification of the problems occurred: the attention of researchers was attracted by single phenomena, not a person "in general", but "specific people in micro-communities" [19, p. 182]. Such an approach to the study of the author's explications in the PVL and CHH seems promising, however, in relation to many monuments of the XI-XII centuries. it often turns out to be difficult due to the insufficiency of the source base. For this reason, when analyzing individual statements, comparative studies that contribute to a more correct interpretation of the forms of the author's presence in the texts under consideration are of particular importance. References
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