in Old Russian Hagiography of the 13th – 17th Centuries
The genre of Old Russian visions is a vast, variegated material. This greatly complicates its
systematization. However, if we take as a basis the idea of connecting the genre with the medieval
picture of the world, possible to describe the visions as an orderly system. In accordance with the
dual picture of the world of Old Russian man, visions are divided by content into eschatological
and related to the earthly being. The main attention of our work is focused on visions of the last
thematic variety, because eschatological ones represent a specific group of material requiring
special research. Also, in accordance with the idea of dualism, the characters of another world in
visions of the earthly life belong to the sacred or infernal world. Therefore, in general, we can talk
about two types of characters in visions. The sacred characters (the Virgin, apostles, saints,
angels, etc.) have the main functions of the assistance in different variants, prophecy, punishment,
etc. The infernal characters (as a rule, these are demons) have functions of temptation and
torment. According to the named of the extramundane characters functions, thematic groups of
visions (help”, “prophecies”, “punishment”, etc.) are distinguished. Within each group, their
specific thematic varieties form several subgroups (for example, the «help» group has subgroups:
the «visions containing any indication of action», the «visions after / during which healing takes
place», the «visions in which the expelling demons takes place », etc.).
This article presents the experience in the typology of the visions reflecting our initial
observations and not pretending to be comprehensive. Therefore, all the thematic sections of the
typology are illustrated by particular examples can be corrected further in connection with the
replenishment of new material.
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in Old Russian Hagiography of the 13th – 17th Centuries // Сюжетология и сюжетография. 2019. № 1. Pp. 87–103. DOI: 10.25205/2410-7883-2019-1-87-103.