• Russian Language and Literature
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• no.61
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• pp.33-59
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• 2018

This article aims to analyze the D. Fonvizin's travelogue, Letters from France (1777-1778). Through this end, we try to understand what the 18th century travelogue did for modern Russian literature. We analyze Fonvizin's travelogue by comparing with Radishchev's and Karamzin's, where necessary, which are also major travelogues in the late 18th century. We examine his text by focusing on the discursive function of travelogue among the three functions of the travelogue text as a methodology. We explore how Russians see foreign countries and how foreign people see Russian as well. Through this approach, we argue that the "literary" model of the travelogue in the 18th century Russia can not be fully understood without a discussion on social discourse, as Fonvizin's travelogue reveals a matter of modern Russian identity. Fonvizin was the one of the first who wrote modern Russian travelogue while modern Russian prose arose in the 1770s and laid the groundwork for the modern Russian novels. It is no coincidence that Russia's modern literature arose when 'travel wring' became popular in the 18th century Russia.