Apophatics of culture in the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who can be happy and free in Russia?”: national existence and otherness

The object of the article is apophatics as a cultural phenomenon. The subject is the national topic in the works by N. A. Nekrasov, this year they celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. The material for the article is the poem “Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia?”. The ethoses of life and death are hermeneutically reconstructed in the work. Much attention is paid to the Russian folklore tradition in the poem, which was expressed both explicitly and implicitly. The research methodology is reduced to a holistic onto-hermeneutic analysis aimed at highlighting the folklore, ethnographic paradigm of this literary text. Much attention is paid to a path-road mythologeme. Parallels are drawn with the Russian fairy tale, which is characterized by an otherworldly paradigm, the search for “another kingdom”. The research results are to identify the cultural potential of the poem for the further study of the national topic, national existence and otherness, apophatics as a phenomenon of Russian culture associated with the phenomenon of death. The results of the work can also be used in teaching courses in Russian literature, cultural studies, philosophy.