‘The word of Daniil Zatochnik’: problems of studying and ways to solve them

The article examines the main problems of studying the monument of Russian literature of the late 12th - early 13th centuries The Word of Daniil Zatochnik. It should be distinguished from the closely related The Prayer of Daniil Zatochnik, which is considered to be a late revision of The Word. Until the 16th century, both monuments were very popular and were distributed in numerous copies. The study of The Word began in the 19th century, and a number of problems were identified at that period: it was impossible to unambiguously establish where and when it was written, who its author and addressee were. A considerable problem lies in numerous semantic contradictions, where one judgment is canceled by another. It is generally believed that the reason behind these contradictions is late inserts into the original text. It is not known by whom, when, and why they were made, but thanks to them there is every reason to say that the version of The Word known to us had not one, but at least two authors - one wrote the message to the prince, while the other edited it. A separate problem is the combination of quotations from the Holy Scriptures and folklore elements, which is not typical of the period when The Word was written, and also the open opposition between some of the author's ideas and the Christian teaching. According to the author of the article, the inserts were commenting in nature and were made in order to emphasize the traits of The Word protograph’s author such as pride, vanity, and rationalism. At the same time, the editor of the protograph treated its author not as a private person, but as a representative of an emerging spiritual and moral type that significantly departed from the norms of Christian life. To solve the identified problems, the author of the article suggests using the resources of fideistic literary criticism, making it possible to look at The Word from a religious-and-social perspective, as well as to trace its connections with other literary monuments of the period in question.