TYPOLOGICAL FEATURES OF A HUMBLE CHARACTER IN OLD RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND IVAN SHMELEV'S PROSE (THE TESTAMENT OF VLADIMIR MONOMAKH TO HIS CHILDREN AND IVAN SHMELEV'S NOVEL SUMMER OF THE LORD)

The article mainly raises a question about the representation of a character that we call "humble", his specific features, and the typological ties between the texts, which are both within the framework of Russian national cultural tradition. The Testament of Vladimir Monomakh to his Children, written in the 12th century, presents an ideal image of a man ? an Old Russian Prince. And in the medieval Russian booklore, liturgical originally, such an ideal character could be only humble ? like its Gospel Archetype. The portrayal of Vladimir Monomakh is defined by the dominant idea of repentance, that brings forth a genre of "confession and self-evaluation" (as termed by Mikhail Bakhtin). The idea of the Last Judgment motivates the Prince’s deeds and his axiological choice. The inner conflict is in Monomakh’s realization of his sinfulness, of his inconformity to his Archetype. The resolution of this inner conflict lies in the principle of synergy, or, in other words, a free union between human’s and God’s will, which actually is the main typological characteristic of the image of a humble man. Gorkin's character in the novel Summer of the Lord is another perfectly positive character of Russian literature ? a humble-type character (or a "hagiographycally-idyllic "supertype", by the definition of V. Khalizev). Gorkin is deep rooted in the Church, lives according to the Holy Tradition and this is what determines the type of his attitude towards the world. Like in Monomakh’s Testament, the whole narration of Shmelev’s novel is formed from the standpoint of the Last Judgment, and it is inseparably connected with the idea of meekness. For both Monomakh in his Testament and Gorkin in Shmelev's Summer of the Lord, Christ is the Archetype of meekness and their life principle is to follow Christ’s example. The narrative is also built on the principle of synergy. Due to the fact that both texts are included into the Holy Tradition context, there is typological similarity between the image of a humble man in the Old Russian text and the literature character in Ivan Shmelev’s novel.