Typology of Witchcraft in Ukrainian and Russian Prose of the 1st Half of the 19th Century: Anthropology, Stereotyping, Semantics

Abstract

V članku so analizirana besedila ukrajinskih in ruskih pisateljev 19. stoletja, v katerih je čarovništvo postalo predmet domišljijske interpretacije. Izbrana dela pojasnjujejo značilnosti čarovniške tematike, njene psihološke in mitološke temelje, antropološke poetike podobe čarovnice in njene kulturne, zgodovinske ter nacionalne izkušnje. V literarnih podobah čarovnic se odraža neutemeljeno in s predsodki zaznamovano dojemanje Rominj in Judinj kot čarovnic, ki jih motivira vedeževanje, razširjeno pri teh narodih. Motiv za nenamerno postavitev moškega v čarovniški krog, ki se pojavlja v delih Manjkajoče pismo (Zgodba, ki jo je povedal diakon … cerkve) N. Gogolja in Kijevske čarovnice О. Somova, razkriva ljudske predstave o čarovniških orgijah. V znanih podobah duhov (pomočnikov čarovnic in čarovnikov) prepoznamo kombinacijo dveh motivov: spreobrnjenje demonov v živali in ljudi ter komunikacijo med peklenskim svetom in čarovnico ali grešnico.

The authors analyse the texts of Ukrainian and Russian writers of the nineteenth century, in which the witchcraft theme became the subject of imaginative interpretation in some way. The range of witchcraft theme features, its psychological and mythological foundations, anthropological poetics of the witch image, and its cultural, historical and national experience are clarified in the works. In literary images of witches the writers show the groundless and prejudiced perceptions of Roma and Jewish women as enchantresses, urged by sortilege, which was common among these nationalities. The motive of the accidental man on the witch coven, which is deployed in “The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N…Church” by N. Gogol, “The Witches of Kyiv” by O. Somov, represents people’s ideas of the witch orgies. In the familiar spirit images – helpers of witches and sorcerers – one can see a combination of two motives – turning demons into animals and people, and communication between the infernal world and a witch or sinner.