UDC

821.161.1:82-1/-9

Authors

Anna A. Motorina
Moscow Region State University;
ul. Radio 10A, Moscow, 105005, Russian Federation;
e-mail: blackfish00@yandex.ru

Abstract

Based the writings of the life and acts of St. Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky, this article presents a comparative analysis of the biographical, autobiographical, memoir and hagiographical genres. These genres grew in importance during the crisis period at the turn of the 21st century. A theoretical definition of the features of hagiography in contemporary literary criticism was required. The paper provides a historiographic review of the opinions on the correlation between these genres in the works by V. Klyuchevsky, A. Kadlubovsky, G. Fedotov, E. Makarenko, L. Dorofeyeva, and A. Rastyagayev. Methodologically, the research is based on the genre division proposed by M. Bakhtin, who differentiates them according to the roles of the author’s and character’s images and correlation between them. The distinction between the genres is made taking into account their inner orientation toward fictionality, historical truth and artistic sincerity. In addition, the paper takes into consideration the judgments of N. Berdyaev, Vyach. Ivanov, P. Florensky, A. Losev, and A. Kadlubovsky on how myth, legend and writing of the life are related to objective reality and ideal reality. The article focuses on the book The Life and Acts of Archbishop and Surgeon Voyno- Yasenetsky by M. Popovsky and St. Luke’s autobiography I Learned to Love Suffering... The paper also contains a critical analysis of Popovsky’s book, which is not a pure biography or hagiography, but a writing of a mixed type, with the author’s subjective viewpoint being of utmost importance. This research proves the necessity of creating a proper canonical hagiography of St. Luke, who was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

Keywords

Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky, hagiography, writing of the life and acts, historical truth, canonical hagiography

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