Theory of fiction in the "Rhetoric" of M. V. Lomonosov: two editions of the theoretical text
The paper studies the first paragraphs of the chapter «On the Fictitious» of Mikhail Lomo­nosov's Rhetoric (1748). Analysis of the textual variants shows that, while working on Rhetoric, Lomonosov penned two versions of these theoretical paragraphs. The difference between these versions is not merely stylistical, it concerns the theory of fiction. The paper investigates the re­asons for these textual and theoretical changes, and shows that they are connected with some other fragments of Lomonosov's Rhetoric.