Hagiographic Images and Motifs in the Literary Cycle “The Northern Thebaid” by Viktor Pulkin

The article examines the images and motifs in the “Life of Alexander of Svir”, part of the literary cycle “The Northern Thebaid” by Viktor Pulkin. The author attempts to determine the key texts that comprise the “Northern Thebaid:” the writer did not publish it as a complete work; parts of the cycle are scattered across magazines and newspapers, and included in books as separate chapters. The writer conveyed the figurative and motif structure of the “Life” very precisely; the skaz retains the canonical hagiographic themes and character ranges, and preaches the most important ideas of Christian morality. However, the choice of artistic and stylistic means does not always correspond to the hagiographic tradition. It can be explained by the need to speak to the modern reader in a language that is understandable to him, in accordance with existing aesthetic habits and expectations. Therefore, the writer not only actively uses typical hagiographic plot lines, but also enriches the text with folklore and ethnographic components: village architecture and folk rituals are described in detail; folk songs, proverbs, sayings, etc., are widely quoted, and legends about the choice of a place for the construction of a temple play a plot-forming role. The narrative is distinguished by its developed dialogic nature and the use of conversational stylistic means. At the same time, the Christian component of the “Life” is also rainforced: Easter motifs appear, the sacred chronotope is expanded, the symbolic structure is complicated (the motif of harvesting is imbued with Christian meaning, images of stars appear, the motif of bell ringing is included, etc.). The writer quotes biblical sources, homiletic works, and the apophthegms of the Church Fathers. The images and motifs of hagiographic literature, subordinated to the requirements of the genre canon, received in the literary cycle a new impetus for perception, but already at a new historical stage, in a modern cultural context.