Newspaper Satires by Leonid Andreev on the Volga and Kama Trips: Poetics of Impressionism
Among satirical articles by L.N. Andreev, published in the newspaper «Courier» (1900-1903), the genre of travel notes includes the following pieces: trips on the Volga and the Kama («Volga and Kama»), on the Riga beach («Travel impressions. Riga. The Baltic Sea»), on the Black sea («The south»). Here the readers are presented satires on the Volga and the Kama trips. The writer reflects on the Volga as the cradle of Russian freedom and strength. It is a «cheerful river». Its people are like epic heroes. In contrast to the Volga, the Kama is a dark and gloomy river; it is «terribly deserted». Andreev focuses on external impressions, sounds, colors, sensations. He creates landscape sketches, reminiscent of paintings by Russian artists inclined towards Impressionism. The author feels his involvement in the natural life and realizes himself a small particle of it. The paper analyzes the ideological and artistic originality and genre-stylistic peculiarities of travel notes. For the first time an attempt is made to install them in connection with the aesthetic principles of Impressionism.