Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
Tea semiotics in Russian literature. Pushkin and others
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2025-2-129-154
Abstract
The article explores the semiotics of tea in the Russian literature of the late 18th — first half of the 19th cc. and traces the origins of the tea tradition as part of social and household lifestyle. The study analyzes contextualized mentions of tea drinking in the works by V. Narezhny, M. Chulkov, and A. Izmaylov, positing that it is only in fiction that the ‘tea storyline’ eventually receives specialized means of expression and memorable stylistic features as it becomes semantically conceptualized. The tea theme is viewed through the lens of 18th-c. prose and 19th-c. memoirs from before 1851, while its poetic representation in daily life is illustrated by A. Pushkin’s works, where its recurrent characteristics crystallize and gain aesthetic meaning. Mekhtiev suggests, for example, that the metaphoric tea subject spans phenomena as contrasting as idyll and tragedy, as if upholding the perennial quartet of birth — life — death — resurrection.
About the Author
V. G. Mekhtiev
Pacific National University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Vurgun G. Mekhtiev - Doctor of Philology.
136 Tikhookeanskaya St., Khabarovsk, 680035
References
1. Bakhtin, M. (2003). Collected works (7 vols). Vol. 1. Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskoy kultury. (In Russ.)
2. Bocharov, S. (1999). Plots of Russian literature. Moscow: Yazyki russkoy kultury. (In Russ.)
3. Chudakov, A. (1992). Word — thing — world. From Pushkin to Tolstoy. Moscow: Sovremenniy pisatel. (In Russ.)
4. Datsyshen, V. (2018). Tea trade in the history of Russian-Chinese relations (1861-1917). Sovremennaya Nauchnaya Mysl, 6, pp. 37-48. (In Russ.)
5. Fyodorov, V., ed. (1988). The Decembrists in the memoirs of their contemporaries. Moscow: MGU. (In Russ.)
6. Gubarevich-Radobylsky, A. (1908). Tea and tea monopoly: A study of the tea tariffs in Russia. St. Petersburg: Tip. redaktsii periodicheskikh izdaniy Ministerstva Finansov. (In Russ.)
7. Kaplin, A., ed. (2016). Slavophiles in memoirs, diaries, and correspondence of their contemporaries. Moscow: Institut russkoy tsivilizatsii. (In Russ.)
8. Kozlova, S. (2013). Axiology of the Russian house in Pushkin’s novel ‘Eugene Onegin.’ Izvestiya Altayskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Philology and Art History, 2-1, pp. 138-144. (In Russ.)
9. Kubasov, I. (2009). Vice-governorship of fable writer Izmaylov in Tver and Arkhangelsk (from 1827 to 1829). A study based on unpublished materials. In: A. Izmaylov, Selected works. Moscow: OGI, pp. 329-386. (In Russ.)
10. Kulisher, I. (2003). History of Russian trade and industry. Chelyabinsk: Sotsium. (In Russ.)
11. Lotman, Y. (1994). Conversations on Russian culture. Life and traditions of the Russian nobility (18th — early 19th cc.). St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo. (In Russ.)
12. Lotman, Y. (1995). Pushkin. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo. (In Russ.)
13. Lotman, Y. (2002). Articles on the semiotics of culture and art. St. Petersburg: Akademicheskiy proekt. (In Russ.)
14. Matveev, N. (1912). Moscow and lives therein on the eve of the 1812 invasion. Moscow: I. N. Kushner i K°. (In Russ.)
15. Mikhaylov, A. (1997). Languages of culture. Moscow: Yazyki russkoy kultury. (In Russ.)
16. Orlov, A., ed. (1955). Glinka in the memoirs of his contemporaries. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykalnoe iskusstvo. (In Russ.)
17. Podolskaya, I., ed. (1989). Russian memoirs. Selected pages. 1800-1825. Moscow: Pravda. (In Russ.)
18. Popov, K. (1870). On tea and its preparation by Russians in China. Moscow: I. N. Kushner. (In Russ.)
19. Pushchin, I. (1989). Notes on Pushkin. Letters. Ed. by M. Mironenko and S. Mironenko. Moscow: Pravda. (In Russ.)
20. Pushkin’s conversations: Reprint from the 1929 edition. (1991). Moscow: Politizdat. (In Russ.)
21. Sokolov, I. (2015). Chinese tea in Russia. (3 vols). Vol. 1. Moscow: Sputnik+. (In Russ.)
22. Stakheev, D. (1870). From China to Moscow. History of a box of tea. Essays. St. Petersburg, Moscow: M. O. Volf. (In Russ.)
23. Stennik, Y. (1983). Concept of the 18th century in Pushkin’s creative search. In: V. Vatsuro, ed., Pushkin: Research and materials. Vol. 11. Leningrad: Nauka, pp. 76-87. (In Russ.)
24. Taranov, D. (2020). Semantics of tea and coffee in A. Pushkin’s novel ‘Eugene Onegin.’ Filologicheskiy Vestnik Surgutskogo Gosudarstvennogo Pedagogicheskogo Universiteta, 3, pp. 50-55. (In Russ.)
25. Vatsuro, V., Gillelson, M., Iesuitova, R. and Levkovich, Y., eds. (1985). A. S. Pushkin in the memoirs of his contemporaries (2 vols). Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura. (In Russ.)
26. Vertinsky, A. (1991). By the long road... Ed. by Y. Tomashevsky. Moscow: Pravda. (In Russ.)
27. Vigzell, F. (1997). Sketches of Russian life in the 18th–19th cc.: Fortune-tellers and their clients. Otechestvennaya Istoriya, 1, pp. 159-167. (In Russ.)
Review
For citations:
Mekhtiev V.G. Tea semiotics in Russian literature. Pushkin and others. Voprosy literatury. 2025;(2):129-154. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2025-2-129-154
Views:
108
Email this article 
