"Imagining a character...": novel discourse in the memoirs of A. E. Labzina

Roshchina Ol'ga Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0001-9534-4436 PhD in Philology Associate Professor; Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, Theory of Literature and Methods of Teaching Literature; Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education 'Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University' 630126, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Vilyuyskaya str., 28 roschina67@mail.ru

Anna Evdokimovna Labzina (1758-1828) began writing her memoirs in 1810 at the age of fifty-two. The memoirs begin with the words "I will describe my whole life as much as I can remember" ^{[4, p. 1]}. However, they are interrupted in the middle of a sentence, and Labzina manages to describe life from childhood to over twenty years (there are no exact dates in the text), i.e. approximately until the middle of her first marriage to the Russian naturalist Alexander Matveevich Karamyshev.

The aim of the work is to study the features of the narrative discourse of Labzina's memoirs. According to V.I. Tyupa's definition, narrative discourse (narrative) is a communicative event of interaction of consciousnesses generated by the speech act of storytelling and differs from performative, iterative or meditative discourses in that it represents some story consisting of at least one event ^{[13, p. 147]}.

Speaking about Labzina's memoirs, the researchers note completely different features of their architectonics. A. Vacheva, focusing on the depicted heroine, believes that "Labzina's memoirs are of interest for their introspection, the desire of the narrator to show changes in her own personality, who, despite all the trials, has preserved the moral foundations brought up in her since childhood. <...> They are a kind of auto-life, telling about a spiritual feat in the name of God" ^{[1, p. 146]}. However, Yu. M. Lotman, paying attention to the writing author, fixes a different nature of text generation: "the creator of the memoirs styles herself into a saint, and her husband into a weak–minded sinner. <...> She puts the spectacle of her life in front of the reader, authoritatively distributing gestures and monologues between the actors. The abundance of direct speech is striking (and all the people mentioned by her speak the same – her own – language)" [6 pp. 299-302]. In our opinion, this way of narration and focus of attention is due to the stylization of the novel discourse, rather than hagiographic.

Labzina, describing her stay in the Kheraskovs' house from the age of 14 to 15, mentions that "she had not yet had a chance to read novels, and had not even heard of this name" ^{[4, p. 48]}, and even thought that this was the name of a man whom she had never seen at the Kheraskovs. It is not known which particular examples of the genre she had the opportunity to get acquainted with later, but the description of events, style, and ways of presenting the car heroine are obviously similar to S. Richardson's novel Pamela, or Rewarded Virtue, which was translated into Russian in 1787 and 1796. In our opinion, it is this novel that is the pretext of the "novel" layer of the discourse of Labzina's memoirs.

First of all, it is impossible not to notice the similarity of the main plot situation of the temptation of virtue in Richardson's novel ^[9] and the life situation in Labzina's memoirs. Both in the novel and in the memoirs, descriptions of cases of temptation to the virtue of the heroines are repeated many times. For Richardson, these are attempts by Mr. B. on a part of the unmarried young Pamela, for Labzina, her husband's proposals to take her a lover for pleasure or the birth of a child, and even threats about non–fulfillment of this requirement. Note that in Richardson's novel "The Memorable Life of the girl Clarissa Harlow", the main plot situations are somewhat different: at first, the Lovelace does not directly encroach on the honor of the heroine and repeatedly, willingly or unwittingly, proposes marriage to her, and in the end uses violence ^[10].

In some places of the descriptions in Labzina's memoirs, hagiographic and novel discourses overlap in a common semantic field: both Pamela's and Labzina's parents are described as exceptionally pious and devout, in difficult situations both invariably rely on God, if given the opportunity, and are engaged in charity. In addition to the temptation of virtue, the heroines undergo other tests, demonstrating the virtue of humility: Pamela meekly accepts the vain curses and abuse of her master in the first part of the novel, and the heroine Labzina humbly tolerates her husband's predilections for dissolute girls and cards.

Labzina, like Pamela, constantly talks about the universal goodwill of the absolute majority of those around her. Every time she describes a new space and the people in it, she does not miss the opportunity to say how much everyone loves her, which is also mentioned in conversations with her by her husband, Heraskov's nephew, Kheraskov himself, and the governor of Irkutsk. In this regard, she does not forget to mention the attention of famous people (Prince Potemkin and Princess Vyazemskaya) and the fact that she is accepted at court, and even the Empress herself orders that "they have a table and fruits" ^{[4, p. 66]}.

E. E. Prikazchikova notes that for Labzina, "the word "angel" becomes a means of self-identification" ^{[8, p. 200]}. It is worth adding that others constantly call her another friend, invaluable, amiable, sweet, meek, which is quite consistent with the general sentimentalist vocabulary. At the same time, the car heroine Labzina correlates herself with the princess several more times. It is significant that all these nominations are used by Richardson for the presentation of Pamela ^[9], while other markers are also used in relation to Clarissa – goddess, noble soul, proud ^[10], which are not found in Labzina's text.

A. Vacheva and E. E. Prikazchikova note that although Karamyshev is depicted as "a carrier of dark power in man, an unholy tempter who constantly experiences <...> the Christian foundations of the spouse," nevertheless, the memoirist "does not deny him the virtues, explaining his vices by the weakness of his nature" ^{[1, p. 151]}. In particular, Labzina says that Karamyshev is able to share the latter with the poor; describes that he sincerely worries when she is ill with fever; gives her pleasure by arranging a garden in front of a new house overnight; working at the Nerchinsk mines, he invariably takes care of convicts ^{[1, p. 151; 8, p. 201]}. Richardson portrays Mr. B. in a similar way, who, despite attempts on Pamela's innocence and kidnapping, still loves her and eventually decides to marry ^[9].

The very method of narration by Labzina is similar to a sentimental epistolary novel, where the narrative is adjacent to a large number of retold dialogues, in which the semantic conclusion is always the opinion of the author of the letter. However, if in Richardson's first novel a single point of view is produced in the minds of Pamela, her parents and the servants who love Pamela ^[9], then in the second novel Clarissa and Anna, as well as Lovelace and Belford, do not always agree on different issues ^[10]. In Labzina's memoirs, as in Richardson's first novel, all relatives and benefactors speak the same language – father, mother, nanny, aunt, mother–in-law, Kheraskov's nephew, Kheraskov himself and the governor of Irkutsk, who in similar expressions and thoughts instruct the heroine in Christian virtues - humility, patience, non-contradiction to her husband, non-speech, etc.e. hiding her husband's bad deeds from others. So even if Labzina read the novel about Clarissa, the translation of which was published in Russian in 1792, she does not use its model for her memoirs, just as she does not use the plots and poetics of Rousseau's Julia or the New Heloise or Madame de Stael's novels about Delphine and Corinne. In our opinion, this is due to the fact that the plot situations, character and discourse of the heroine of the first sentimental novel, which, according to general opinion, is considered "Pamela, or rewarded virtue", are more consistent with the hagiographic narrative model, which Labzina also uses for self-presentation.

Many people in Labzina's description demonstrate a characteristic sentimentalist sensitivity: the word forms of the verb "cry" in the masculine or feminine gender occur 51 times in the text and the word forms of the word "tears" 78 times. In sentimental novels in general, and in Richardson's novels in particular, as a rule, only characters capable of genuine emotional experiences cry, and who thereby demonstrate purely positive traits. And in Labzina's memoirs, the ability to bleed is inherent only to herself and other people who are good in her description, and even at times to her husband. As Pamela physically weakens during strong emotional experiences and is on the verge of losing her senses, so Labzina describes how she fell ill after the death of her mother, the departure of the Kheraskovs to Moscow and one of her husband's proposals to take a lover. Expressing the depth and acuteness of the characters' experiences through physical weakness and ailments has also become a commonplace of the sentimental novel, as has shedding tears. As N. D. Kochetkova notes, in sentimentalism, "true sensitivity, clumsily depicted, also easily risked turning into a false one, since certain stereotypes and cliches soon appeared in descriptions of sensitive scenes or characters, including the famous sentimental tears and sighs" ^{[3, p. 255]}.

E. E. Prikazchikova notes that in Labzina's memoirs, "the truth of the memoir fact" allows you to correct the image of the memoirist herself. Meek, unhappy, angelically defenseless in accordance with the "ideal" setting of her character, she often allows "blurts" in the text of the notes,"thanks to which it becomes obvious that she is "well versed in monetary calculations and has a resolute and firm "Ural" character" ^{[8, p. 202]}. Let's add that there are still quite a lot of such inconsistencies.

On the one hand, it is declared that Labzina, following the ideal romantic image of a gentle heroine, always agrees with someone's will – mother, mother-in-law, husband, mentors. On the other hand, it becomes obvious that her husband and mother-in-law give her complete freedom of action, using which the heroine can do whatever she wants (read, take drawing lessons, walk, pay visits, receive guests at home), and even show self-will, as evidenced by a deceptive arrival at a holiday in Peterhof contrary to her husband's prohibition and the involvement of old Golynsky and his mother-in-law in a deceptive justification. On occasion, Labzina, addressing influential people, tries to regulate her husband's life in accordance with her interests: she asks Prince Potemkin's entourage to detain him (and with him herself) longer in Tsarskoye Selo "under the guise that I have a lot of fun here, and for the air, but in fact so that to take him away from the company that I hate and is harmful to him" ^{[4, p. 73]}. Upon learning that the husband and the girls went to Kamenny Island to the baths, he informs the president of the berg college, who, meeting him there, sent "my husband to the corps for two weeks to do various tests, he went himself every day, but not at the appointed time - sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, then her husband did not dare to leave" ^{[4, p. 74]}, after which Karamyshev did not talk to her for two weeks. In Irkutsk, Labzina asks the governor to keep her husband at home for the whole day so that his nephew, who is offered to her as a lover, leaves. The justification for this act is in the words of the governor, to whom she then tells everything: "You will not sin if you do not obey your husband's will in such cases" ^{[4, p. 100]}.

Also, Labzina, focusing on the image of fifteen-year-old innocent Pamela, tries to present her character in a similar way. If the innocence of a thirteen-year-old car heroine, who does not understand that Karamyshev has a relationship with his niece, is beyond doubt, then the "innocent" treatment of two friends subsequently looks somewhat ambiguous. "Two of my friends, one is the nephew of my benefactors, and the other, who bought us a house, both loved me, <...> and they made me a little greenhouse, <...> in short, they tried to recognize my thoughts, just so that I would be comforted. In my simplicity, I considered them as brothers, and when they came to me, I gladly rushed to them, hugged them, kissed them, called them the most pleasant names, friends and comforters. They caressed me themselves and often, looking at my innocent treatment of them, cried. I was not afraid to do my caresses with them in front of my mother-in-law and my husband when he was at home, because they were the cleanest. At that time, I did not know any other love and was happy and calm on this side" ^{[4, pp. 78-79.]}. The innocence of the grown-up heroine in terms of absolute ignorance in matters of gender and behavior corresponding to the status of a married woman in this description does not quite agree with the situations described earlier of Nartov's expulsion from the marital bedroom, attempts to avert her husband from communication with girls, overcoming falling in love with Heraskov's nephew and the warnings of Heraskov himself "not to be in close friendship with any man" ^{[4, p. 48]}.

The discrepancies between the ideal novelistic image of the meek and innocent heroine and the described life situations in Labzina's memoirs even more reveal the very existence of the literary model, its contours, deliberate determination and a certain amount of fictionality. It is characteristic that in the surviving diary entries for 1818 ^[5] Labzina, describing events, her physical and mental well-being, constantly turning to God, does not use novel discourse. In our opinion, the novel discourse turns out to be necessary for the author of memoirs to conceptualize his own personality and biography. As A. L. Zorin notes, "in the second half of the XVIII century, literature increasingly takes over the production of "public images of feeling." <...> Any significant component of the mental life of an educated person was captured by one or another "exemplary" writer, who set the mode of the corresponding emotional experience and the behavior resulting from it" ^{[2, p. 44]}. It is only in Labzina's memoirs that an attempt is made to correlate already lived events with a literary model.

It is not known why Labzina did not fully realize her plan, although she still lived for eighteen years before her death. A. Vacheva believes that "the description of the "happy" present was not part of her task. It would contradict hagiographic discourse" ^{[1, p. 147]}. However, it can be assumed that for the memoirist, marriage with Alexander Fedorovich Labzin and participation in his Masonic activities were thought of according to the plot of Richardson's novel as "rewarding virtue." In addition, another similarity is found in the fate of Pamela and Anna Evdokimovna: being married, Pamela takes on the illegitimate daughter of Mr. B. and Sally Godwin, and Labzina in marriage takes on Ekaterina Mikulina and Sofia Mudrova ^{[7, pp. XVIII-XIX]}. In our opinion, in Labzina's memoirs, the stylizations of both hagiographic discourse and the discourse of the sentimental novel are contaminated. Only with the unfolding of the narrative, the life and character of the auto-heroine no longer fit into the given literary model of Richardson's novel, which may have been one of the reasons for Labzina's interruption of her memories.

As V. I. Tyupa notes, "the rich literary experience, being extrapolated to non-fiction narrative texts, opens up fundamentally new heuristic possibilities for their researchers" ^{[12, p. 11]}. The analysis of the narrative discourse of Labzina's memoirs allows us to identify another vector in the process of fictionalization of autobiographical narrative in the literary process of Russian literature in the second half of the XVIII – early XIX century – the self–identification of the author of memoirs with a literary hero and the stylization of novel discourse - along with the transfer of the structure of the plots of epic genres into the memoir narrative ^[11].