Russian Literature and Mythology

Abstract:
Lead from the combined perspectives of the anthropology of the imaginary and comparative literature, our present investigation focuses on two dominant motives of the European imaginary – “the descent into Hell” (descensus ad Inferos) and “the golden bough” – as they appear in a body of texts from different periods and different national literatures. The texts referred to do not exhaust the subject, but only illustrate it: Virgil’s Aeneid, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Mikhail Sadoveanu’s Golden Bough and Doris Lessing’s Briefing for a Descent into Hell. As it is well-known, before becoming “literary”, “the descent into Hell” and “the golden bough” have had a long mythical career as initiation motives. Most of the selected texts develop around the initiation theme of salvation: escape from the hell of the world and from suffering, alluding to the soteriologic foundations of certain important universal religions.

Keywords: myth, intertextuality; “the descent into Hell” (descensus ad Inferos), “the golden bough”; soteriology; Dante, Thomas Mann, Mikhaïl Bulgakov, Mikhaïl Sadoveanu, Doris Lessing

Series Editor: Alyssa Dinega Gillespie (Bowdoin College)

"Myths and Taboos in Russian Culture" will be concerned with the generative myths that serve as the foundation of Russian cultural identity, and/or with taboos and other restraints on free artistic expression that result from the Russian historical experience of tight ideological control over thought and cultural endeavor. In other words, books in this series will explore, on the one hand, the master cultural narratives that are crafted by artists, writers, and intellectuals—including those that are mandated, whether explicitly or implicitly, by the political elite, and those that are positioned outside or in opposition to circles of power—and, on the other hand, narratives that are forbidden or unthinkable, all in an attempt to probe the fundamental "operating principles" of the Russian cultural heritage. The series is conceived as having a broad scope and may include studies of any historical period and any cultural manifestation.

В обстоятельной рецензии дается анализ учебного пособия «Беларуская  мiфалогия. Хрэстаматыя / уклад. В. С. Новак. Мiнск, 2013».  Рецензент подчеркивает необходимость и актуальность подобных изданий, носящих обобщающий характер, вместе с тем высказывает ряд серьезных замечаний, касающихся прежде всего несоблюдения принципов научности при издании книги.

Review gives circumstances analysis of the studying book “Belorussian myphology. Book / editor V.S. Novak. Minsk, Republic Institute of High school, 2013. — 394 p.: pictures”. Review emphasizes the necessity and topicality of editions, which has the common character, which has the range of serious notions. It is connected with another version of principles of scientific ways based on the edition of the book.

The purpose of this work is to examine the relationship between the culture of the Rus’ people and depictions of food as they appear in the early twelfth-century record of Russia’s earliest history, known as the Primary Chronicle.

This will show various types and uses of food, what its portrayal means for the narrative itself and why it may be represented this way due to religious and political realities in contemporary Kievan culture. The portrayal of food in this work has only been specifically discussed in Horace G. Lunt’s “Food in the Primary Chronicle” . However, this work examines the use of food in the collected stories as a linguistic exercise and provides little literary analysis.

I will examine these portrayals in order to show food as an implement of power which may be wielded or withheld just as a warrior-king chooses when to deploy his sword and when to stay it. Discussion of food items in various Biblical materials (e.g. psalms, Proverbs) which are repeated herein will be omitted in order to focus on those which reflect Rus’ mentalities toward food rather than those of the Bible; specifically, Rus’ mentalities toward food that were emerging or prevalent by the twelfth century when it was written down.

This project will examine the matter of food in the Primary Chronicle in order to shed new light on selected evidence of prestige, social status and godliness (or ungodliness) visible in foodstuffs; in other words, the power on one’s plate.