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Semantics and structure of the spatial picture of olonkho “Kindely Khatyas”

https://doi.org/10.25587/2782-4861-2025-2-103-116

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the spatial picture of the olonkho by N. D. Prokopyev “Kindely Khatyas”. The relevance of the study of this problem is associated with the prospects of studying the spatial picture of olonkho in line with the structural-semantic approach. The main goal of the article is to identify the features of the semantics and structure of the spatial picture of the olonkho “Kindely Khatyas”. Research methods: the leading research method is structural-semantic analysis, and semiotic analysis, the method of description and generalization are also used. The material for the analysis is extracted by the method of continuous sampling from the text of the olonkho “Kindely Khatyas”. In the course of the conducted research, the spatial structure of the olonkho under consideration was determined, deduced from the eventful development of the plot, set by the spatial movement of the hero-bogatyr, who is correlated with the sequence of locus: “the beginning of the creation of the world”, “native land”, “world tree”, “dwelling”, “aartyk ‘passage’” and “lower world”, microlocus “alaas”, “serge”. These epic loci as the subject of research are subjected to structural-semiotic analysis in our study. The study shows that the epic space is organized with the help of a set of semantic binary oppositions “own/foreign”, “center/periphery”, “up/down”, “near/far”, “east/west”, “white/black”, “male/female”. These binary oppositions go back to the archaic ideas of the Yakuts about space and the universe, which became, in particular, the basis for dividing space in olonkho. The study notes the presence of images associated with the fauna and natural landscape of the native territory of the Olonkho-teller N. D. Prokopyev (Olyokminsky district), which create a special background of epic loci and act as certain markers for positive or negative connotative meanings. The author comes to the conclusion that the locus implements vertical and horizontal variants of space. When analyzing spatial locus, the national originality of the perception of the world and modeling of the Universe, the ethnic specificity of sacred meanings transmitted through the objective world and sacred numerals, which are of an ideological nature, are manifested.

About the Author

O. A. Luginova
M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University
Russian Federation

Oksana A. Luginova, Researcher of the “Linguofolkloristics” Sector of the Olonkho Research Institute,

Yakutsk.



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Review

For citations:


Luginova O.A. Semantics and structure of the spatial picture of olonkho “Kindely Khatyas”. Epic Studies. 2025;(2):103-116. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.25587/2782-4861-2025-2-103-116

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