Author's corpus and genre varieties of travel diaries in Siberian literature of the first half of the 19th century
The article is devoted to the study of travel diaries about Siberia in the first half of the 19th century through the prism of the sociology of literature, in particular, based on the theory of habitus by Pierre Bourdieu. The author aims to systematize these texts, revealing the relationship between the social positions of their creators - scientists, officials, writers - and their narrative strategies. Special attention is paid to the role of diaries in the formation of both the symbolic capital of the authors and the socio-cultural landscape of Siberia. The relevance of the work is due to the need to rethink the position of memoir and diary prose in Siberian literature, where it often finds itself on the periphery. Despite the extensive body of research devoted to documentary genres, the genre nature of Siberian travel diaries, their place in the literary field and their influence on the regional literary process have not been studied systematically enough. The article raises the problem of the marginalization of these texts and their genre ambiguity. The author relies on the classification of N.P. Matkhanova's travel notes, supplementing it with a sociological criterion that takes into account the authors' habitus - their education, status, profession. About 100 texts of travel diaries served as the research material. The application of Bourdieu's theory to Siberian memoir and diary prose makes it possible to reveal the connection between the social roles of authors and the peculiarities of their texts. The author complements Matkhanova's existing classification using a sociological approach that helps systematize diaries not only by genre, but also by social criteria. Special attention is paid to the role of travel diaries in the accumulation of symbolic capital. The main conclusions of the study indicate the genre diversity of travel diaries, which are conventionally divided into scientific reports, business notes, fictionalized texts and philistine notes. However, the boundaries between these varieties are often blurred due to the syncretic nature of diaries. Scientists such as Spassky and Bunge emphasized the research nature of their notes, contributing to the popularization of knowledge about Siberia. Officials, including Speransky and Korsakov, recorded administrative and ethnographic details, reflecting their official duties. Writers such as Shchukin and Avdeeva combined documentary with fiction, creating texts that can be classified as fictionalized notes. The author emphasizes that the diaries not only recorded reality, but also reflected the social trajectories of their creators. For example, the Decembrists, once in Siberia, transformed their economic and social capital into symbolic capital, using memoirs and diaries as a tool of self-identification. In this context, Siberia appears as a space of cultural transfer, where the interaction of local residents and newcomers (exiles, travelers, scientists) contributed to the exchange of symbolic capital and the formation of regional identity. The author declares no conflicts of interests.
Keywords
travel diaries, sociology of literature, Siberia, genre, habitus, dispositionsAuthors
| Name | Organization | |
| Mikhaylenko Kristina A. | National Research Tomsk State University | Mikhaylenko_ka@mail.ru |
References
Author's corpus and genre varieties of travel diaries in Siberian literature of the first half of the 19th century | Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta – Tomsk State University Journal. 2025. № 519. DOI: 10.17223/15617793/519/4