Artistic and aesthetic reflection of the traditions of oral people's creativity in epic and literary works

Abstract

The identification and study of folk traditions in literary work is an urgent issue in philological science. The establishment of their artistic and aesthetic functionality, both in the work of folklore, epic, in particular, and literary, enhances the significance of this issue, as evidenced by the works and studies of a number of scholars devoted to it (M. K. Azadovsky, V. G. Bazanov, V. V. Blazhes, etc.). However, in studies devoted only to the identification and establishment of traditional images, motifs, plots, as well as rituals and customs included both in the fabric of an epic monument and in the plot of a literary novel or story, little attention is paid (or even avoided) precisely to their artistic functionality in the works. This is the novelty of the study conducted in this article.

Without claiming a comprehensive coverage of all traditional art forms, ancient rites and customs, the purpose of the article was to identify individual folklore thematic motifs (possibly key), images, to trace the features of their use in epics and literary creation. The task was to establish the artistic and aesthetic reflection of folk traditions, as well as ethnopedagogical customs, instructive traditions in the folk epic and national literature.

The materials of the study were the Bashkir epic, literary works of individual writers, in which the artistic and aesthetic significance of folk traditions is most clearly expressed. In particular, on the example of the Bashkir epics Ural-Batyr, Akhak-Kola, an attempt was made to disclose and analyze the reflection of folklore, ethno-pedagogical traditions in national literature, in which traditions, both in a narrow and broad sense, found an artistic and aesthetic, ideological and thematic reflection.

As the research methods, we selected textual, analytical, comparative contrasting methods of analysis using a systematic, integrated approach to it, which will expand and deepen knowledge about the nature of epic creation, a literary work in which folk traditions were originally used as a means of artistic enrichment.

The authors of the article come to the conclusion that for centuries, the artistic traditions of the epic – kubair, compiled and preserved in folklore and poetic art, were polished, passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, which was also a tradition, a tradition in narrative creativity. In them, universal, humanistic, moral and ethical principles were intertwined with the didactic, instructive beginning, covenant and wisdom of the ancients, which was also a tradition. Both medieval Bashkir poetry and modern prose often include in their epic canvas the mythological view of the people, their beliefs and sacred knowledge. Thus, in the latter, the image of a wolf occupies a special status, being a sacred, totem animal of many Turkic peoples, including Bashkirs. A literary work, being the fruit of individual creativity, often refers to folk traditions that are artistically transformed, endowed with a kind of artistic and aesthetic functionality.

Acknowledgements: The study was financially supported by the Russian Federal Property Fund in the framework of project No. 19-412-020008 “The archaic epic of the Bashkir people: artistic and stylistic aspect (epics Ural-Batyr, Akbuzat, Zayatulyak and Khuykhylu)”.

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