The article examines one of the essential problems in Nikolai Leskov’s literary work studies: the aesthetic meaning of the relationship between “one’s own” and “other’s” (borrowed) words in the writer’s texts. It has been established that all the “references” (including quotes) in “Kotin the Provider and Platonida” are endowed with the reminiscence functions. Leskov included ‘borrowed text’ into his story not as a quotation, but as a reminiscence capable of awakening a series of memories in readers’ mind. The path of creating an image runs from single reminiscences to a reminiscence field (a united space of memory) and then to the image. Above thirty reminiscences going back to ancient culture, the Old Testament history of the prophets, to Russian folklore, to 16th—19th centuries literature have been revealed in “Kotin the Provider and Platonida”. The article analyzes the reminiscence field’s element (“Robinson” — “island”) from the perspective of Konstantin Pisonsky’s image (one of Leskov’s “righteous men” characters). It is emphasized that the reminiscence field is also composed by the previous texts poetic techniques. In particular, the stringing traits technique is borrowed from folk culture (the teasers), the layering technique (“layer-by-layer paint application”) goes back to icon painting.
Acknowledgments: the research was supported by an internal grant of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (project No. 54-VG).
For citation: Fedorovskaya P.A., Evdokimova O.V. Quotes and reminiscences in Nikolay Leskov’s prose (“Kotin the Provider and Platonida”, 1867), Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2026, iss. 2, pp. 12—19.