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Abstract: For the first time, the article examines the imagerial and semantic parallels between V. P. Astafyev’s novella “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. The work is based on the methodological principles of systemic-comparative, historico-functional, and structural-semantic text analysis, taking into account aspects of both the artistic form of the works and their thematic concerns. The study demonstrates that allusive references to the contexts of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” are reflected in “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” on different artistic planes: in the specificity of the organization of space and time (chronotopes of the steppe, the sea, panoramic vision); in the logic of the portrayal of the characters and in the semantics of the key images, including Prince Igor and Boris Kostyaev, Yaroslavna and Lucy, the images of Rus’ // Russia; in the genre organization of the work; in the system of plot-significant motifs related to the fate of the main characters (motifs of the journey, escape); and in a number of iconic details and symbolic connotations in the prologue and finale of “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”. It is found that these parallels and projections are not just typological in nature, but indicate the dialogic orientation of Astafyev’s creative consciousness towards the medieval epic tradition and the spiritual and moral polemic with it. Special attention in the comparative interpretation of the texts is paid to the problems of genre structure: “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” integrates the artistic forms of crying and glory, and in “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”, there takes place a transformation of semantic accents in this genre dyad. In the context of Astafyev’s narrative, the key themes of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” acquire a greater philosophical and existential scale. First of all, the traditional epic motifs of heroism, military valor and exploits are reinterpreted, which in the vision of the writer are deprived of poetization and aestheticization, lose the halo of “glory”, and the war itself is perceived as a tragedy and an existential catastrophe. Astafyev’s position towards “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” as an expression of medieval epic consciousness and traditions of the “military tale” can be considered ambivalent, since the writer does not so much refute such a worldview as reveals its historical locality and conditionality.

About the author(s) :

Mikhail V. Alekseenko

Ufa University of Science and Technology, Sterlitamak branch (Sterlitamak, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6465-3884

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 03.08.2025; date of publication: 29.12.2025

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