Versions of Essayistic Practice of the Historical Narration in the Russian Historiography of the XVIII Century

Abstract

In paper studies the problem of the appearance, spread, and transformation of essayistic forms of historical narration in Russia of the XVIII century. The study was conducted in the subject field of a source study of historiography. The category “kind” was selected as the classification unit, it allows source analysis of historiographic sources in the context of European historical culture. The author drew attention to the narratological problem associated with the forms of historical writing. As a result of the analysis, the versions of the essay that were present in Russian historical culture of the 18th century, such as: “Essay”, “Nachertanie” (“Abriß”), “Izobrazhenie” (“Tableau”) and “Notes”. The conclusion is drawn that defining features of an essayistic form became an author’s position (testing) and imperfection / limitation of a narration that distinguished such practice from a strict scientific form of an historical writing.