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Keywords: N. S. Sokhanskaya (Kokhanovskaya), Christian motives, autobiography, letters, epistolary complex, memoirs, confessional prose.
For citation:

Fetisenko, O. L. “Letters of N. S. Sokhanskaya (Kokhanovskaya) as an Attempt of ‘Spiritual Autobiography’.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 3, no. 4, 2021, pp. 164–181. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-4-164-181 

Author: Olga L. Fetisenko
Information about the author:

Olga L. Fetisenko, DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, nab. Makarova 4, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5670-2656 

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Received: May 14, 2021
Approved after reviewing: August 16, 2021
Published: December 25, 2021
Issue: 2021 Volume 3 No. 4
Department: Textual Criticism
Pages: 164–181
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-4-164-181
UDK: 821.161.1.0

Abstract:

Continuing the study of the life and work of Kokhanovskaya (N. S. Sokhanskaya), in this article the author introduces into scientific circulation large fragments of her unpublished letters to A. V. Pletneva (P. A. Pletnev’s widow) and M. O. Mozgova (Kokhanovskaya’s niece) and comes to the assertion that these epistolary materials can be considered not only as confessional prose, but as examples of Christian ascetic and teaching literature. A similar approach to Kokhanovskaya’s letters was outlined back in the 19th century by the famous bibliographer S. Ponomarev, who vainly tried to interest K. P. Pobedonostsev in this subject. The quoted texts, which constitute a kind of continuation of Sokhanskaya’s famous autobiography, refute in the best possible way the opinion voiced in one of the modern articles about Kokhanovskaya, the author of which called the writer’s life “a joyless vegetation”.

References

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Fetisenko, O. L. Kokhanovskaya: “Stepnoi tsvetok” russkoi slovesnosti. Teksty i konteksty N. S. Sokhanskoi [Kokhanovskaya: “Steppe Flower” of Russian Literature: Texts and Contexts by N. S. Sokhanskaya]. St. Petersburg, Pushkinskii dom Publ., 2021. 424 p. (In Russ.)