E-mail: t-kultura@yandex.ru Tel.: + 7 (495) 628-65-92
8, build. 3, Sverchkov side-str., Moscow, 101100, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Vice Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly almanac “Traditional Culture”, Polenov State House of Folk Arts (Moscow)
This article concerns the category of time in Russian non-magical prose folk tales about buried treasure, which is analyzed here for the first time. The image of buried treasure is multidimensional, multilayered and heterogeneous, and spoken narratives present it from various angles. When the idea of a hidden hoard is verbalized as something belonging to the world of mythological characters, cyclic time — predominantly calendar and daily time — gains relevance. However, if burying treasure is discussed, in most cases it is localized on a linear temporal scale. The connection between hidden treasure and particular historical figures or events relating to a distant past indicates a specific period of imaginary folklorehistorical time. In the stories about people and a time nearer to the narrator, the events are localized on a scale closer to real historical time. In narratives about a person’s contact with any kind of treasure the time described corresponds to the life of the narrator or a person positioned as a reliable source.
Agapkina T.A. (2002) Mifopoehticheskie osnovy narodnogo kalendarya. Vesennee-letnii tsikl [Mythopoetic Foundations of the Folk Calendar. The Spring-Summer Cycle]. Moscow: Indrik. In Russian.
Chervaneva V.A., Artemenko E.B. (2004) Prostranstvo i vremya v fol’klorno-yazykovoi kartine mira (na materiale epicheskikh zhanrov) [Space and Time in the Folkloric Linguistic Picture of the World (Based on Epic Genres)]. Voronezh: Voronezh. gos. ped. un-t. In Russian.
Kotelnikova N.E. (2015) Formula nevozmozhnogo v russkikh fol’klornykh rasskazakh o kladakh [The Formula of the Impossible in Russian Folktales About Treasure]. In: Funktsional’nostruktural’nyi metod P.G. Bogatyreva v sovremennykh issledovaniyakh fol’klora [The Functional-Structural Method of P.G. Bogatyrev in Modern Studies of Folklore]. Moscow: Gos. in-t iskusstvoznaniya. Pp. 190–198. In Russian.
Kotelnikova N.E. (2022) Vodnaya stikhiya i skrytye sokrovishcha v russkoi fol’klornoi proze [The Water Element and Hidden Treasures in Russian Folkloric Prose]. In: Simvolika vody v russkoi slovesnosti i mirovoi kul’ture [The Symbolism of Water in Russian Literature and World Culture]. Moscow: Knigodel; MGPU. Pp. 148–160. In Russian.
Levkievskaya E.E. (2009) Chlenenie istoricheskogo vremeni v ustnoi kul’ture vostochnykh slavyan XX veka [The Division of Historical Time in the Oral Culture of the Eastern Slavs of the Twentieth Century]. In: Znaki vremeni v slavyanskoi kul’ture: ot barokko do avangarda [Signs of Time in Slavic Culture: from Baroque to Avant-Garde]. Moscow: In-t slavyanovedeniya RAN. In Russian.
Levkievskaya E.E. (2020) Zmei [Snakes]. In: Narodnaya demonologiya Poles’ya: Publikatsiya tekstov v zapisyakh 80–90-kh gg. XX veka. T. 4: Dukhi domashnego i prirodnogo prostranstva. Nelokalizovannye personazhi [Folk Demonology of Polesie: The Publication of Texts in Records of the 1980–90s. Vol. 4: Spirits of Home and Natural Space. Non-Localized Characters]. Сomp. by L.N. Vinogradova, E.E. Levkievskaya. Moscow: Izdatel’skii Dom YASK. In Russian.
Tolstaya S.M. (1995) Vremya [Time]. In: Slavyanskie drevnosti: Etnolingvisticheskii slovar’ [Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary]. In 5 vol. Vol. 1. Ed. by N.I. Tolstoy. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. Pp. 448–452. In Russian.
Uspenskii B.A. (1989) Istoriya i semiotika (vospriyatie vremeni kak semioticheskaya problema). Stat’ya vtoraya [History and Semiotics (The Perception of Time as a Semiotic Problem). Article two]. In: Uchen. zap. Tartusk. gos. un-ta. Vyp. 855: Tekst — Kul’tura — Semiotika narrativa: Trudy po znakovym sistemam. XXII [Scientific Notes of Tartu State University. Vol. 855: Text — Culture — Semiotics of Narrative: Works on Sign Systems. XXII]. Tartu: Tartuskii gos. un-t. Pp. 18–38. In Russian.
Vinogradova L.N., Tolstaya S.M. (1994) K probleme identifikatsii i sravneniya personazhei slavyanskoi mifologii [On the Problem of Identification and Comparison of Characters in Slavic Mythology]. In: Slavyanskii i Balkanskii fol’klor [Slavic and Balkan Folklore]. Moscow: Nauka. Pp. 16–43. In Russian.
Vinogradova L.V. (2011) Ob odnom demonologicheskom motive “rusalki sushatsya” [About the Demonological Motif “Mermaids Drying Themselves]. Zhivaya starina [Living Antiquity]. 2011. No. 4. Pp. 31–34. In Russian
Kotelnikova N.E. Time in Russian Non-Fairytale Folklore About Treasures. Traditional Culture. 2024. Vol. 25. No. 2. Pp. 60–69. In Russian.