Abstract: The paradoxical title of the book Old Russian Literature as Literature is explained in the subtitle: On the manner of narration and image. This refers to the study of expressiveness, figurativeness, and figurative presentation in Old Russian literary texts of the 11^th–17^th centuries. The book consists of 26 essays, which are arranged according to the chronology of the works, from the oldest apocrypha to The Tale of Yeruslan Lazarevich according to the list of the 1710s.