SPECIAL ASPECTS OF THE USE OF MYTHOLOGIC MOTIFS BY G. GILMANOV IN PROSE

SPECIAL ASPECTS OF THE USE OF MYTHOLOGIC MOTIFS BY G. GILMANOV IN PROSE

Zaripova Gulusa Faritovna

Kazan Federal University

E-mail: gulusa15@yandex.ru

Annotation. This article is devoted to the story of G. Gilmanov "Forest spirit". Mythological motives are considered.

Key words: myth, reality, story, mythical images.

G.Gilmanov has been collecting and studying ancient myths, tales of yore, legends, magic spells, divinations of the Tatar people and has been also conducting scientific research regarding the world of spirits, doctrines on God for many years, and he has the same view in his works.

However, not all the characters of the author are as simple as in verbal folklore. G. Gilmanov invests them with qualities, which they did not have before. The characters are revealed only on the upside or change for the better during the development of events. “And their atrocities are only a response to people's bad deeds” [2: 92].

According to A. Shamsutova, “the quality, which unites the “Flying People”, “Angel”, “Predictor”, “Soul-Fish” and other works: a philosophical aspect (philosophy of life, cognition or acceptance), spiritual values ​​and images, thoughts of the Tatar people related to Islam, paganism are in the center of the works, existential ideas are transmitted through them. These works form a new direction that is “metaphysical realism” in Tatar literature, where realistic colors dominate [4: 140-143]. The metaphysical realism is a technique, in which the goal in itself is to reveal the metaphysical degree of being based on studies of the spirit, to describe byways of the human soul, the magical, unidentified aspects of the earth's appearance. The basis of this technique is realism, but such parallels as a “secret world”, “secret reality”, “true reality” are added [3: 140].

The life of the people of Kamparle, a Tatar village, is realistic in the “Forest Spirits” and the fantasy is the life of the estate hidden in the forest. The livelihood of fairy and mythological forest spirits is described in the work. These two worlds are connected by the main character named Khalim. The main plot of the work is various happenings in his life. G. Gilmanov, being a connoisseur of the Tatar mythology, introduces numerous mythologems into the work specially, thereby helping us to reveal his idea. The author's game with the myths increases interest and the reader cannot stop reading the work, as if the reader is bewitched.

The central confrontation between the two worlds is the confrontation between Khalim and the forest spirits in G. Gilmanov's novel “Forest Spirits”. However, each folk understands the word “forest spirit” individually. The forest spirits are old women, who set harm for getting harm, they were hunted from the village and are now taking revenge on the families. “The sarx consists of the fight between good and evil. If the evil part of the soul wins, then a person turns eventually into an ugly reptile. If the good part of the soul wins, then the person turns into a messenger of God”. Thus, the central philosophy of the writer is clear to us: every person experiences the fight between good and evil, an evil spirit lies in wait for everyone. If you do not confront him, do not defeat him, then you can turn into the evil spirit. If positive and negative qualities in the person’s nature, which replaced each other, comprised two concepts (the first one divides people into positive and negative human beings; the second one recognizes that there are both positive and negative parts of the soul, but one part dominates in each person however) in early Tatar literature, now the third concept is proposed that is each person comes to this world to fight with the negative part of his/her soul, to purify and improve spiritually [4: 31-32].

There are phenomena, which are peculiar to mythopoetic traditions in this work, that is to please the old women spirits, who have magic charms, to break free of them, a magical, fairy helper appears (who is Akkuz wolf cub in the third chapter). They all give the story a fabulous tone. What are these techniques for? We think these fictional fantasy stories are based on the author's knowledge of the reality. This feature helps G. Gilmanov to refer to the childern’s literature and  have an effect on the readers.

Let us consider the characters of the work. Sania, Ak Babai, her adviser and mainstay, and grandmother Vasima. There is also a grandmother Maimuna, she keeps a secret of opposing the evil spirits by the force of customs. However, the village does not live by well-wishing canons as does Sania, Ak Babai. The birth of Sania’s child in the forest, the disappearance of her husband in a magic way, all this alienates people from this family. What was even more destructive, it is that one day, their gates were smeared with resin. Not only spirits, but also fellow villagers drew a cross on their gates. The author gives a key to understand the symbol of the cross at this point. As far as the cross is a memory of the loss of the state for the Tatars.

The restriction of the “spirits”–problems in the work arouses disagreement in the soul. There are still the evil spirits, which want to steal humanity, mind of a person, put him/her off the stride. For example, the life in the estate of the spirits resembles the life, in which a person's mind is addled with ideology, a policy in which people become slaves. But there are no keys-codes, signs-symbols, which help to read this in the work, a human life is rated on a small social unit, that is the village [2: 116-117]. Thus, the mythology is implemented as a symbol in Gilmanov’s “Forest Spirits”.

Literature:

1. Gilmanov G. Forest spirits: a fantastic story. - Kazan: Kazan: Tatar.Keith.NSR., 2003. - 383 p. (in Tatar language)

2. Mingazova L. Lecturer will open miracles.../ the look on children's creativity of Galimzyan Gilmanova. – Kazan: Fatherland. 2017. - 92 p.

3. Zagidullina D. "Forest spirits" or in Tatar prose new qualities / Kazan Utlary. - 2001. - №11. - P. 111 to 119.

4. Samatova A. The pattern of the soul / the Maidan. - 2007. - №4. - 140-143 P.

5. Yusupova N. M. Gainullina G. R. History of Tatar literature (1940-2000). - Kazan: Kazan UN-Tu, 2014. – 102 P.