Russian students at the end of the 19th century: evaluative descriptions (a case study of the novels "Students" by N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky and "Classmates" by P. D. Boborykin)

This article focuses on evaluative descriptions of students from different points of view in Russian prose at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Prose of this period describes the results of the reforms of the 1860s, including the reform in the field of education. Students in the prose are presented as a social group which is not only engaged in getting education but is also involved in social and political activities. Evaluations of students by different members of the society and self-evaluations make it possible to get an idea of specific features of the student of this period. Analysis of such evaluative descriptions allows us to identify a range of views about the students in the period under study, and to understand students' place and role in the social life of that time. The research material were the novels Students (1895-98) by N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky and Classmates (1900) by P. D. Boborykin. To analyze the material, the classification approach worked out by N. D. Arutyunova is applied, taking into account different types of evaluations: general and special (sensory evaluations; psychological evaluations: intellectual and emotional; aesthetic evaluations; ethical evaluations; utilitarian evaluations; normative evaluations; teleological evaluations) and different subjects of evaluations, i.e. opinions are analyzed from the internal and external points of view, e. g., of current students, former and future, professors of universities, students' relatives, their close people, representatives of other social groups, including people of the older generation, etc. This approach makes it possible to identify how students were perceived in that period and how they influenced the society of that time.