THE BINARY OPPOSITION “SELF/OTHER” IN M. PAVICH'S NOVEL “A LANDSCAPE PAINTED WITH TEA”

Nikolich Militsa

The article is devoted to the study of the binary opposition “self/other” in the context of the main character's transformation from the Serb Atanas Svilar to the Russian Afanasy Fedorovich Razin in M. Pavich's novel “A Landscape Painted with Tea”. The study focuses on the role of M. Pavich's authorial myth and the chronotope of the Holy Mountain as the source of Atanas's change, as well as the Russian cultural space that emerges as a result of his transformation. It is concluded that Russian culture is conceptualized as “self” in relation to the hero's identity and plays a key role in preserving his connection with his lost essence. In turn, the materialistic civilization of the Western world is presented as “other” and hostile space. It embodies the hero's break with the Byzantine-Holly Mountain tradition and leads to his moral degradation.

Keywords:Russian culture, the western world, The Holly Mountain, authorial myth, self/other, self-discovery