Author’s fiction in “The Legend of Dracula the Voivode”
Abstract
The author of this article introduces a number of new sources into the Russian scientific circu-lation in particular, the letter about Dracula from the voivode Dan to the Hungarian king Matthew Corvin), that make us change the attitude to the role of fiction in “The Legend of Dracula the Voivode”. This literary work is a utopia or anti-utopia) with some elements of anti-behavior written on the theme of the perfect ruler, traditional for the medieval Russian literature. The parable of the two monks is the central episode in the work: the monks’ opini-ons can be understood as a prologue to the con-troversy between Ivan the Terrible and Andrei Kurbsky, as well as the discussions concerning the role of a sovereign for the collective salva-tion in the Romean kingdom, martyrdom and tyranny, the limits of royal power etc. that were widespread in the second half of the 16th centu-ry in the works of Russian scribes. It is stressed that the author of “The Legend of Dracula the Voivode” considered Dracula’s cruelty far less extraordinary than it may seem nowadays. In other words, the extent of fiction and creativity in the legend is much more than it is supposed to have been in a literary work of the end of the 15th century Russian literature. The image of Dracula does not fit to any stencil, the Old Russian author refused from moralizing, he did not even expressed his definite attitude to the char-acter, which was rather unusual. “The Legend of Dracula the Voivode” is analyzed in the article by means of taking into consideration such peculiarities of the medieval conscious-ness as more tolerant attitude to cruelty and violence, tendency to mysticism and supersti-tions, hyper emotionality, crudity of morals.
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