The theatricalisation of life in the era of Peter the Great in B.A. Sadovsky's novel “Karl Weber”

This article considers the phenomenon of the theatricalization of life as a source for creating plots by examining the 1928 novel by B.A. Sadovsky, The Adventures of Karl Weber. The novel depicts the era of Peter I and its parodic rituals (the wedding and funeral of jesters and other festivities) as perceived through the consciousness of a European. The hero of the novel witnesses the formation of a new kind of holiday of the new era. The carnivalesque behavior of the tsar and his entourage as well as the culture of jesters and skomorokhi provide the chaotic background for the adventurous world of the protagonist