Search
Submit an article
Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

2019 Vol. 10 №2

Back to the list Download the article
Malashchenko V. V.

The hagiographic genre of the life of Alexander (Plutarch’s Comparative biographies)

DOI
10.5922/2225-5346-2019-2-2
Pages
26-34
Plutarch Alexander the Great biographical genre biography hagiography life genre

Abstract

The article describes the main features of the hagiographic genre in the Life of Alexander from Plutarch’s Comparative Biographies. I use the comparative, reverse and structural-semantic methods to analyse the biography of Alexander the Great, the images of the protago­nist and the narrator, the unreality and the deification of the protagonist. There is a certain typological convergence between bios as a genre and Plutarch’s ancient biographies. This convergence is reflected in the structure of Alexander’s biography, which is built according to a certain model, a plot-scheme pattern, and includes Alexander’s birth, childhood, upbring­ing, adolescence, maturity, his victories, lifetime deification and death. The correlation of the two genre forms helps to reveal and explore the biographic image of Plutarch’s main character as well as his human fate, the aim of life and the freedom of choice. These aspects are reflected in the hagiographic genre. I analyse the similarities and differences of the narrative strategies employed since the narrative (non-diegetic narrator) in the hagiography genre is clearly relat­ed to the non-diegetic “multiple” narrator of Plutarch's biography. I argue that the genre of ancient biography with its topos of private life and its entertaining and instructive functions serves as a nutrient substrate for the formation of the genre of bios.

Reference

Averintsev, S. S., 1994. Good Plutarch tells about heroes, or happy marriage of a biographical genre and moral philosophy. In: Plutarkh. Sravnitel'nye zhizneopisaniya: v 2 t. [Plutarch. Comparative biographies: in 2 tons]. Vol. 1. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo «Nau­ka». pp. 637—653 (in Russ.).

Averintsev, S. S., 1973. Plutarkh i antichnaya biografiya: k voprosu o meste klassika zhanra v istorii zhanra [Plutarch and ancient biography: to the question about the place of the classic of the genre in the history of the genre]. Moscow: «Nauka» (in Russ.).

Averintsev, S. S., n. d. Pochemu Evangeliya — ne biografii? [Why are the Gospels not bio­graphies?]. Available at: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Sergej_Averincev/pochemu- evangelija-ne-biografii/ [Accessed 12 November 2018] (in Russ.).

Bakhtin, M. M., 1979. Author and hero in aesthetic activity. In: M. M. Bakhtin, ed. Estetika slovesnogo tvorchestva [Aesthetics of verbal creativity]. Moscow: Iskusstvo. pp. 7—180 (in Russ.).

Bitsilli, P. M., 1995. Elementy srednevekovoi kul'tury [Elements of medieval cul­ture]. Vol. XXVIII. St. Petersburg: Mifril (in Russ.).

Zhivov, V. M., 1994. Svyatost': kratkii slovar' agiograficheskikh terminov [Holiness: A short dictionary of hagiographic terms]. Moscow: «Gnozis» (in Russ.).

Avdiev, V. I., Pikus, N. N., eds., 1962. Istoriya Drevnei Gretsii [History of ancient Greece]. M. oscow: «Vysshaya shkola» (in Russ.).

Levek, P., 1989. Ellinisticheskii mir [Hellenistic world]. Moscow: Nauka. Glavnaya redaktsiya vostochnoi literatury (in Russ.).

Nikulina, E. N., 2008. Agiologiya: kurs lektsii [Hagiology: a course of lectures]. Moscow: PSTGU. Available at: URL: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Zhitija_svjatykh/ agiologija/ [Accassed 14 November 2018].

Popova, T. V., 1975. Antichnaya biografiya i vizantiiskaya agiografiya [Antique biog­raphy and Byzantine hagiography]. Antichnost' i Vizantiya. Moscow: «Nauka» (in Russ.).

Plutarkh, A., 1994. Plutarkh. Sravnitel'nye zhizneopisaniya: v 2 t. [Plutarch. Com­parative biographies: in 2 vol.]. Vol. 2. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo «Nauka» (in Russ.).