The Story of the Maiden Laciona: Plot and Motif Composition of the Handwritten Tale in the Context of Russian Fiction of the 17th – 18th Centuries

Abstract

A handwritten tale of the middle of the 18th century The Story of the Maiden Laciona is known in a single copy. The tale tells about the escape of a girl with a lover from her parents’ house. To solve the question of whether the Russian fiction of the 17th – 18th centuries became a source of inspiration for the unknown author of the story, we applied the following methodology. Identifying a certain motive, we take into account its role in the plot of the Story and compare it with the function of the same motive in popular works of Russian fiction of the 17th – 18th centuries. In the typology of motives, the basis of our work was the MotifIndex by St. Thompson, taking into account the additions of D. P. Rotunda; in the classification of plots – the system for describing fairy-tale plots by A. Aarne and S. Thompson, modernized by H. J. Uther. As the analysis showed, the Story has no direct links with the works popular in Russia in the 17th – 18th centuries about the abduction of a maiden’s honor or about the abduction of a wife – stories on the plot of a picky bride and ATU 1419E. To search for possible sources of tale, the stories of the 17th – 18th centuries were drawn on related subjects or with similar motivic components. Based on the works of Thompson and Rotunda, the following motives were identified: an unfavorable prediction, paternal love in a daughter, a beautiful and intelligent girl, protection from men, boasting of a daughter, a secret lover, dates in the garden, a skilled musician, flight from home. In the details and motional components of the Story, parallels are found with the Story of Peter the Golden Keys, with the novel about Alfonzo Ramir and Angelica, with the Story of the Russian cavalier Alexander, perhaps with the Story of Yaropol Tsarevich and the Old Belarusian Story of Tristan. The Story is included in the so-called “fifth manuscript” of the combined manuscript from the Main Collection of the NIOR BAN (19.2.38). Based on the analysis of the paper, it can be concluded that the formation of the manuscript in which the Story is located dates back to the 1750s – 1760s. The literary setting of this original tale consists of popular love stories, most of which are found in other collections of fiction. The literary monument is being published for the first time.