“Inappropriate Digression about Medieval Autobiography” by Piotr Bitsilli and “Biographical Turn” in Modern Humanities

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https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-2-285-315

https://elibrary.ru/XUXEZL

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of Piotr M. Bitsilli’s first book “Salimbene. Essays on the Italian Life of the 13th Century” (Odessa, 1916) in the light of the new methodological approach to the study of autobiography that has begun to take shape during this period. The scholar analyzes a well-known source in the professional community, the “Chronicle” of the ordinary Franciscan monk Salimbene in new research optics, revealing on this example the “spiritual structure” of the individual and era, the elements of the religious and cultural “foundation”, the characteristics of the personal identity of the “ordinary person” and genius, “germ” of autobiographical introspection, etc. The theoretical intuitions of this work correlate with the problems of the modern “biographical turn”, which we consider at two levels: Kehre and Turn, as well as with the “ontology of biography” — an explication of the basic sociocultural presumptions (universals) of the existence of biography in history (communicative competence of the person to tell about himself/herself as about unique individuality, an isomorphism of the event/action and narrative/expression dimensions of life, rationalism, individualism, etc.).

Keywords: Piotr M. Bitsilli, Salimbene, autobiography, Kehre, Turn, ontology of biography, personal self-consciousness, spiritual mindset, cultural foundation.

Information about author: Inna V. Golubovich, DSc in Philosophy, Professor, Head of the Chair of Philosophy, I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, Dvorianskaya St. 2, 65086 Odessa, Ukraine.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3459-3417

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation: Golubovich, I.V. “ʽInappropriate Digression about Medieval Autobiography’ by Piotr Bitsilli and ‘Biographical Turn’ in Modern Humanities.” Emigrantica. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024. Issue 2: Piotr M. Bitsilli and the Humanities of the Russia Abroad, comp. M.A. Vasilieva, sci. ed. M.A. Vasilieva and A.V. Bakuntsev, ed. M.S. Shchavlinskii, D.V. Zaitsev. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 285–315. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2024-2-285-315

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Received: 12 August 2021
Approved after reviewing: September 14, 2022
Date of publication: December 26, 2024

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