Transcultural russification of the Buddhist component in the religious and cultural utopia of the cycle “Eurasian Symphony” by I.A. Alimov and V.M. Rybakov
- Pages
- 85-94
Abstract
The article analyses the ways of Russification of Buddhism in the cycle of novels by Holm van Zaichik (V. Rybakov and I. Alimov) “Eurasian Symphony”. Buddhist ideas (for example, the idea of karma in its various forms), Buddhist images (in particular, architectural images), Buddhist vocabulary are integrated by the authors into the traditional patterns of Russian culture. Russian Buddhism depicted by V. Rybakov and I. Alimov in the novels of the cycleoffers answers to complex challenges identified by Russian culture and literature (a version of the theodicy), becomes a part of Russian sacred geography (the co-presence of Orthodox and Buddhist temples on the same land), generates a new, paradoxical idiomatics. The authors of the cycle “Eurasian Symphony” create a utopia of religious and cultural syncretism on the basis of transcultural interaction of religions in the guise of alternative history. At the same time, the main mode of narration in the novels of the cycle is the combination of a serious and ironic attitude to the created artistic world, which makes it possible to read the “Eurasian Symphony” in a variety of ways.