AXIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ORNITHOLOGICAL TOPIC

IN THE MARI AND UDMURT DRAMA OF THE SECOND HALF OF XX- THE BEGINNINGS OF THE XXI CENTURY*

 

Tatyana I. Zaitseva¹, Tatyana N. Belyaeva²**, Raisia A. Kudryavtseva³, Olga M. Maksimova⁴

¹Prof., Udmurt State University, RUSSIA, uawoz@rambler.ru

²Asst. Prof., Mari State University, RUSSIA, sokolova_beljaeva@mail.ru

³Prof., Mari State University, RUSSIA, kudsebs@rambler.ru

⁴PG student, Udmurt State University, RUSSIA, 24omax@mail.ru

**Corresponding author

 

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify and describe the axiological aspects of the ornithological topic in the modern Mari and Udmurt drama of the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The system of images of birds (swan, eagle, falcon, cuckoo, nightingale, duck, firebird, white bird, spring birds, blue bird, etc.) in their specific, metaphorical and symbolic meanings, in their correlation with values and disvalues is highlighted in the paper.

The principal conceptual importance of the ornithological image-symbol induces playwrights to put it in the title of the work. So, the symbolic images of birds are taken out in the title of the Mari playwrights’ plays «The blue bird» by V. Gorokhov, «The golden duck» by Yu. Bayguza and V. Pekteev, «The white swan» by V. Boyarinova, of the Udmurt plays «We are spring birds» by K. Kulikov, «The white swan» and «And the Cuckoo Keeps Cuckooing...» by E. Zagrebin.

In the art world of the playwrights, one can see the systematization of birds’ images according to the value principle, which is determined by either the national or their individual art perception: fearlessness (falcon), aspiration to the ideal (white swan, blue bird), talent (nightingale) are as highest values and egoism (eagle ), trouble and loneliness (cuckoo) are as disvalues.

The ornithological figurative symbolism of the Mari and Udmurt playwrights is considered as an effective art method of generalization of reality and as a way of expressing the author’s conception, in which a significant place is given to the universal (moral), ethnic, religious, aesthetic values or values of the society (family, social). The community and specificity of the art representation of ornithological theme in the Mari and Udmurt playwrights’ works are defined in this article.

The following groups of symbolic images of birds are represented in the Mari and Udmurt drama of the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, in the art structure of which there are explicit invariant axiological meanings:

1- generalized abstract images of birds: spring birds (a symbol of eternity, devotion, endlessness of life), a blue bird (a symbol of happiness, which is worthy a man who is able to overcome difficulties and work on himself, an ideal world-view and positive life attitudes), a white bird (high feelings and thoughts, a dream about family well-being and perfect world), a firebird (a symbol of happiness and family well-being);

2- specific birds in symbolic meaning, which can express different values of the author:

– positive: a swan (a symbol of eternity, devotion, endlessness of life), a white swan (an expression of the ideal, highly moral and sublime existence of man, a symbol of human purity and decency); a falcon (a symbol of fearlessness, dexterity, striving for victory and individual happiness), a nightingale (an expression of the musical endowment of a person);

– negative (disvalues): cuckoo (approach of misfortune, unprotected suffering and loneliness), eagle (egoism);

– complex (ambiguous): a golden duck (the symbol of the world’s birth, devotion to the patrimonial faith and at the same time the expression of temptations); a winged duck (a symbol of carnal pleasures and at the same time a human victim).

The research methods are historical-genetic, comparative and structural-semantic. 

Keywords: art axiology, Mari literature, Udmurt literature, drama, ornithological topic, images of birds.

 

*The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 18-012-00086.