Alien Space and Eschatological Time in the Chronotope of Exile (On the Example of Juozapas Silvestras Dovydaitis' Letters)

The article presents the experience of adapting the concept of a chronotope in a specific sociocultural context. The relevance of the study is due to the need to develop methods for analyzing utilitarian and quasi-utilitarian verbal practices, taking into account the specific spatio-temporal circumstances of their implementation. The study material is letters from Juozapas Silvestras Dovydaitis, a Lithuanian priest who spent several years in Siberian exile. The explicit model of the chronotope determines the choice of the material-the chronotope of exile, as defined by the authors of the article, which also determines the acceptable level of the results obtained. The subject-matter of the study is the chronotope as a sociocultural phenomenon. The chronotope in the article is presented as an event of the interaction of value-based, spatial and temporal attitudes of the author's consciousness in the process of creating an epistolary text. The features of the subject-matter determined the correlative method of the research. The authors proceed from the fact that the external change in the spatial configura-tion-the exile-leads to the transformation of the value-based experience of space. The value-based experience of distinguishing space between the author's space and the alien's one is overcome by the imaginary achievement of a point of view equally equidistant with respect to the distinguished spaces. In Dovydaitis's letters, this overcoming is carried out in lyrical digressions devoted to understanding his own changed position and perspectives. The imagined overcoming of the psychological inertia of distinguishing space between the author's own and that of an alien correlates with overcoming the psychological inertia of time delay, which leads to the formation of an eschatological perception of time. The productivity of two global chronotope projects has been outlined: (1) the ecumenical chronotope, which implies the abolition of the temporal hierarchy, and, accordingly, (2) the imperial chronotope, which implies the abolition of the spatial hierarchy, which dominates in the context of the secular "geographical imagination". The experience of the eschatological mode of time affects Dovydai-tis's ethical reflection. This is manifested in his reflection on communication with fellow-exiles, based on a comparison of life in exile with episodes of the life of famous characters of Holy Scripture. Thus, the chronotope of exile is formed as a correlative interdependence of alien space and eschatological time: specific value-based attitudes of consciousness. In the opinion of the authors of the article, the significance of this work for further research lies in expanding the repertoire of parameters of possible chronotopes in the sociocultural interpretation of this concept.

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