The binary oppositions in P.D. Boborykin's memoirs “The eternal city”

The article is a first attempt to discover binary oppositions used by P.D. Boborykin in the book about Rome, “The Eternal City”. Three oppositions are revealed: “ordinary - unusual”, “Italians - Russians” and “Rome - other European cities”, their role in solving the memoirist’s main task is defined, which is to create a text about a unique city with a focus on cognitive function. The particular attention is paid to the peculiarities and functions of binary oppositions in these memoirs. It is argued that the presence of oppositions is aimed to provide more favorable conditions for the reader to assimilate the information contained via the worldview more familiar to the addressee of the text. According to the well-known D.-H. Pageaux’s classification, the opposition in this book should be attributed to such kind of “filia” as is most likely the main one for the texts with a focus on a cognitive function. In addition, the author presents here the studies of the mechanism of the interaction between the poles in the binary opposition presented in these memoirs and the processes of formation of the pole of the object of perception and the pole of the subject of perception. It is argued that the mechanism of the interaction between the poles is aimed at gradually enlarging the pole of the object of perception unto the basic opposition “friend or foe” through the use of all the three identified oppositions. At the same time, the pole of the subject of perception does not change its contents, since it is actively formed by the author in advance, including the usage of the technology similar to a modern sociological survey. And if the enlargement of the pole of the object of perception in the process of narration can receive the status of an invariable attribute of an educational text with the help of further research in this direction, then the active formation of the pole of the subject of perception by the author, especially based on the technology of opinion polls, is most likely a common sign of documentary discourse, which include memoirs as well.