Алфавит деревьев русской литературы: образ ветлы и его фольклорные параллели

Abstract

The paper attempts to comprehensively describe the image of the white willow in Russian literature and folklore. This image is embedded in the world “tree alphabet”, which was written by the English ethnographer and poet Robert Graves. The scientist recreated such an alphabet, referring to different cultural traditions and paying great attention to Greek culture. In the Russian national image of the world, the archetype of a tree occupies a special place; the tree embodies world axis and symbolizes a certain border between the worlds. The white willow is related to willow and rakita, which is associated with the “other kingdom” (the texts of lullabies are indicative of this). In Russian literature, the image of the willow is frequent: it is found in the works of V. Zhukovsky, I. A. Bunin and M. Gorky, and in poetry of the 20th century, as well as in modern literature, in the artistic world of V. Dudarev. The methodology of this study consists in a holistic analysis of a literary text using structural, typological and comparative methods of research. The concept of “folklore” is not understood narrowly, since we are going beyond verbal forms of creativity, taking into account myth, ritual, and ritual. The image of the veil is placed in a wide context of the world culture.