Research into the problem of classifying mythological stories according to character-based and oppositional principles
Olga Belugina – Svetlana Starodubets – Olga Golovacheva – Svetlana Kurkina
DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.01.26
Abstract
The relevance of this research is based on the necessity to reconstruct the ancient Slavic culture, which is impossible without taking into consideration local traditions, including those associated with the existence of non-fairy tale prose in some Slavic regions. Mythological stories of the Russian-Belorussian represent linguistic and cultural phenomenon characterized by the presence of maximally bright national and cultural features of archaic character preserved in the conditions of historical and modern intercultural interaction. The leading method of studying the mentioned problem is the method of systematization based on techniques of searching and collecting information (field research interviews, survey, and questionnaire survey). The purpose of this study is to determine the distinguishing features of classifying field research materials (in particular, mythonyms) according to character-based and oppositional principles. The folklore material (mythological stories) collected in Russian-Belorussian borderland was systematized according to both standard character-based principle and oppositional principle. This approach contributes to reconstructing the more integrated system of Slavs’ representations of the world (moral beliefs, representations of space, time, and other concepts). The study proved the efficiency of the suggested classification of mythological stories for both scientific generalizations and areal research of mythonyms.
Keywords: Russian-Belorussian borderland, mythonyms (characters of mythological prose), non-fairy tale prose, bylichka, byvalshchina, opposition