старославянската

In the recently published article by the prominent Soviet researcher, an excellent expert on Old Russian and Old Slavic literature in general, Professor D. S. Likhachev, a whole series of general and specific questions in the field of medieval Slavic literature are put forward for consideration, which deserve the greatest attention. The author first of all makes an attempt to introduce into literary studies some new concepts and definitions, which is, above all, the concept of "system of literature", that is, "a certain relationship of its parts to each other: the types of literature (translated and original, church, historical, natural science, journalistic, etc.), of its genres, of its individual works". At the same time, he points out that the system or structure of a given literature is subject to continuous change, and differences are discernible in it according to individual historical periods. Professor D. Likhachev sets himself the task of examining the most ancient period of this development, namely the period from the 9th to the 13th centuries, and this concerns the emergence and initial development of literature among the southern and eastern (that is, Russian) Slavs. His attention is directed primarily to Old Russian literature: in his opinion, it presents "an example of those phenomena that are also characteristic of other Old Slavonic literatures." These general considerations represent for the Soviet specialist in Old Slavonic literature only an introduction to the consideration of several partial questions of particularly great interest. First of all, this is the question of the influence of the medieval literatures of the eastern and southern Slavs.