«Немецкая Казань»: имагологический анализ художественных произведений Гузель Яхиной
“German Kazan”: Imagological Analysis of Guzel Yakhina’s Literary Works

Summary/Abstract: The capital of the Republic of Tatarstan is a multicultural city. It is a combination of “Russian,” “Tatar” and, not least, “German elements”. The writer Guzel Yakhina has repeatedly addressed this cultural diversity in her literary works. In them a native of Kazan explores the past and present of the city. Excellent knowledge of German language and culture allows her to study in detail the “German trace” in the history of the capital of Tatarstan to determine its status. The article offers a brief imagological analysis of the images of “German Kazan” presented in the novel Zuleikha and the essay Garden on the Border, or the Garden “Russian Switzerland”. The imagological study conducted at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels shows that in Yakhina’s literary works the images of “German Kazan” are equivalent to the images of “Russian Kazan” or “Tatar Kazan.” The “German elements” are firmly rooted in the texture of the city and have been an integral part of its cultural code for several centuries. At the same time, following the novel and the essay, they do not have the status of an exotic “foreign,” but a familiar “other.”

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