“Debate about faith” as a plot-forming topos in the hagiograhy of princes-martyrs  of the Tatar-Mongol yoke’s epoch

Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 19
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Author: E. A. Andreeva
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Ekaterina A. Andreeva — PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St. 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

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DOI: 10.22455/978-5-9208-0610-9-485-497
Keywords: topos, the debate about faith, protective speeches, the hagiography of the princes of the martyrs, the holy Prince, the Book of Royal Degrees.
Date of publication: March 05, 2020

Abstract: This article considers the functioning of the topos “the debate about faith” in three texts about the death of Old Russian princes (Vasil’ko Konstantinovich of Rostov, Mikhail Vsevolodovich of Chernigov and Roman Olgovich of Ryazan) in the Horde in The Book of Royal Degrees. This topos has an important plot-compositional and ideological significance, and also makes it possible to characterize both martyrs and torturers. Being a common place of texts about the death of princes, protective speeches in each of the texts under retain their individual characteristics and make it possible to talk about the heroes as saints, that is, serve as a necessary element for the creation of hagiography.

References:

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