Phenomenology of domestic space in the literature of Russian sentimentalism

In Russian classicism, a platform of events was universal cosmic or generalized social space, and an appeal to the domestic sphere was associated with low genres, comedy or satire. Sensationalism made man a centre of the artistic panorama, and the main subject of interest became the formation of their personality which occurs under the influence of sensory impressions. It heightened attention to the sources of personal experience, to the nearest sphere of being delineated primarily by the range of home and family. Organic transition from the outside world apology to the priority of home and private sphere was contributed to by Horationism (imitation of Horace) which is not only a literary phenomenon, but also an influential cultural practice. The article analyses the features of home space reflection in Russian sentimentalism and reveals their relationship with orientations of Horationism, with the philosophy of moderation, simplicity and closeness to nature, opposed to the temptations of urban civilization. Sentimentalism reinterpreted Horatian spatial semantics, making a rural house almost the only area of organic existence. Classic complementarity of the public and the private was replaced by an antithesis, like in V.V. Kapnist's "Obukhovka" or N.M. Karamzin's "Epistle to Dmitriev". In the sentimental tradition, the house usually appeared as a "hut", a simple home. In this regard, it followed the poetics of an Idyll (periodicity, recurrence of events, details). Yet, it reflected a contemporary trend where the basic spatial plot became the hero's going beyond the domestic sphere with two possible outcomes: extension of the house to the limits of the universe (M.N. Muravjov's "Trilogy of Emiliy") or collapse of the idyllic chronotope due to the alien invasion of the outside world (N.M. Karamzin's "Poor Liza"). The image of the house had a specific variation in the story "The Island of Bornholm" by N.M. Karamzin, where it turned into a fortress which saves the world from the destructive desires of the castle inhabitants rather than gives the heroes a shelter from the outside world with its historical collisions.

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