Eskhatological motives of the St. Petersburg and Venetian text. Correlation of St. Petersburg and Venice in the consciousness of Russian recipients

The paper deals with eskhatological myths of St. Petersburg and Venice, their development in the texts of travelogues and their inseparable connection with creative myths in the Russian-Italian travelogue. The predestination of these cities can be explained by their ‘eccentric' location, which is confirmed by the dominant macabre textual motives of delusiveness and explicit death appeal generating distinctive elements of the afterworld such as «grave», «coffin», etc. Analysis is made of the connection of the macabre motives with the semantics of the water primary element. The natural elements, such as numerous floods have become the reasons for the development of this variety of eskhatological myth. An attempt is made to correlate St. Petersburg and Venice in the consciousness of the Russian recipients and to appropriate the latter by means of the traveller’s internal reflection, up to the mutual assimilation of the toposes. In question. Some clichés of the St. Petersburg and Venetian descriptions have been revealed.

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