In the shadow of the Cherry Orchard. Myth and image of the noble nest in Russian literature of the late XIX century the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the last period of the existence of the so-called landowner hypertext of Russian literature, which falls at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This text is a collection of works by various authors who create a melancholy and nostalgic image of a noble manor, while this phenomenon of culture and social life was on the verge of collapse. The authors of the above-mentioned hypertext eagerly referred to the late-romantic myth of the noble's nest, which was developed in the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time, the writers mentioned by the author of the article, first of all Ivan Bunin, are aware of the decline of the then noble culture embodied in the manor house. Following Antoni Chekhov as the author of the tragicomedy The Cherry Orchard, they deliberately or involuntarily deconstruct the mentioned myth and the gentry hypertext.