Poetics of human interaction in K. D. Ushinsky’s essay “A Travel to Volhov”

Publicistics in all variety of its genres is traditionally perceived as a shaky boundary between the fictional imaginative interaction and interaction lit by the worldly life experience of the author / narrator and equipped by factual authenticity. In this connection it seems worthwhile to introduce into genre studies most meaningful fictional and publicistic publications of different (including really distant from us) cultural-historical periods, where one can find abundant data which will help us understand poetics of human interaction. My goal is to demonstrate one of the texts which extremely seldom attracts professional philological attention and which may be a source of genre observations, focused on the aesthetical (and ethical as well) component of spoken dialogue discourse. K. D. Ushinsky’s essay “A Travel to Volhov” (1852) is a remarkable collection of  numerous specimens of Russian colloquial culture, casting light on the poetics of sympathetic and kindly human interaction which we inherit regardless of all followed global historic transformations. The essay contains many valuable specimens of Russian folk speech genre culture in their historically specific every-day interpretations and actualizations. The subject of our analytical research is genres of farewell scenes at the wharf, occasional confidential talks, arguments coming to agreement, unmalicious and amusing bickering, friendly mockery and mimicry, warm-hearted inquiries, public contrition, pilgrim’s confession, etc. 

poetics of human interaction, publicistics, K. D. Ushinsky, “A Travel to Volhov”