SOME PROBLEMS OF ETHNIC STUDY OF THE HEROIC EPIC

Abstract

Throughout the 20th century, folkloristics was dominated by the so-called poetic method, which was engaged in determining the artistic system of the heroic epic. At the same time, the question of the attitude of the epic to the historical events of the past was increasingly raised. Many folklorists and historians, represented by S. N. Azbelev, L. I. Emelyanov, N. I. Kravtsov, A. A. Petrosyan, M. M. Plisetsky, B. A. Rybakov, began to develop the problems of historicism in Russian epics. On this ground in the mid-1960s, a scholarly debate broke out around this problem: the historicism of the heroic epic. Despite the polemical nature of the judgment of many folklorists, they were on the side of the historical study of epics. Such a statement of the question, taking into account the posthumously published work “Excursions into the theory and history of the Slavic epic” (1999), turned out to be no stranger to B. N. Putilov himself, who diligently developed typological theory. In his later research, the author somewhat moved away from the original position. Against the broad background of the historical study of epics, folklorists went even further, distinguishing information of the ethnic order in the heroic epic. The purpose of this study was to determine the ethnic nature of the heroic epic, taking into account the methodological achievements of folkloristics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The relevance of this direction is that despite the numerous ethnonyms, toponyms, hydronyms, anthroponyms, etc., reflected in the heroic epic, they remained in the shadows for a long time. Historians, relying only on reliable facts, ignored such information, and folklorists, in turn, considered the object of historians. Therefore, the scholarly and cognitive process was replaced by a judgment on the personal contribution of epic storytellers who allegedly contributed ethnic nomenclature to the heroic epic. With the collapse of the USSR, many ideological prohibitions related to the ethnic nature of the Kazakh epic were lifted. This allowed individual scientists of the post-Soviet space to begin developing the ethnic origins of the heroic epic. Relevant materials were published, including on the pages of this publication, aimed at studying ethnic information in the Kazakh epic. From now on, the ethnic nature of the epic does not cause much disagreement. In Kazakh epic studies, this problem began to be developed more deeply, using methods of studying folkloristics, ethnography and ethnology. The article provides new information and judgments of individual researchers of the methodological order. Along with the well-known works of the above folklorists, hermeneutic judgments of A. M. Etkind are involved in scholarly use. Attention was drawn to the informative essence of the heroic epic, the cognitive possibilities of synchronous and diachronic research methods were determined. Summing up the material, the author concludes that without an ethnic group there is no heroic epic, and without an ethnic process – no epic tradition. 

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