| Title of the article: | Religious beliefs of ancient Slavs in the play «Glorious city of Smolevets» by E. N. Kletnova |
| Author(s): | PAVLOVA l. V., PASTERNAK T. K. |
| Section: | Philology |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Issue: | № 1 (39) |
| Pages: | 105-116 |
| Index UDK: | 821.161.1 |
| Index BBK: | 83-3 (2Рос=Рус)6 |
| Abstract: | The literary heritage of Ekaterina Nikolaevna Kletnova, a prominent archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnographer and a teacher, has never been the subject of a special study before. Her numerous opera librettos, essays, poems and plays were «scattered» in periodicals and archival collections in the end of XIX and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. The manuscript of Kletnova's play, «Glorious city of Smolevets», was discovered, and it served as the material for the research, the results of which are reflected in the article. The analysis of different levels of text: subject, perspective, composition and imagery — allowed to identify and describe the author's concept of interaction of paganism and Christianity and to define the meaning of the play. The history of the life quest of the knight Rusislava (dreams of wealth and fame, the pursuit of illusory happiness with Tsar Maiden, acquisition of useful skills of agriculture and genuine love for Lubawa, introduction into the Christian faith) represents a turning point in the history of Russia. Well-established and well-developed pagan views and values are being replaced by Christian ideals, which are gradually gaining strength. The originality of the author's position is that there is no tragedy in the description of the changes. They were caused not by the antagonism and struggle of various religious principles but by the natural development of the spiritual life of ancient Russia. The names of the gods and cults of fertility, love and art (Mother Earth Beluna, Yarily, Lada, Lyubemelya, Lola) were disappearing, but their functions were organically included in the new creed. Paganism had taught a man to worship the divine presence in the life and Christianity showed the God himself. |
| Keywords: | E. N. Kletnova, play, Slavic mythology, paganism, Christianity, the subject, the imaging system |
| Bibliography: | 1 Afanas'ev A. N. Poeticheskie vozzreniia slavian na prirodu: v 3 t. [Poetic views on the nature of the Slavs: in 3 vol.] Moscow, Sovremennyi pisatel' Publ., 1995. Vol. 1. 363 p. 2 Likhachev D. S. Kniga bespokoistv: Stat'i, besedy, vospominaniia [The book of concerns: papers, interviews, memoirs]. Moscow, Novosti Publ., 1991. 522 p. 3 Rybakov B. A. Iazychestvo drevnikh slavian [Paganism of ancient Slavs]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1994. 606 p. |
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