Folklore motif “Revived from Bones”: the problem of a cross-genre approach to description and interpretation

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of a cross-genre approach to studying the structure, semantics and pragmatics of the folklore motif. The interpretation of the relations between the “deep” and “surface” levels of the traditional text is based on the postulates of the Russian structural-semiotic school. Three main functions of the folklore motif are classification, narration and indexation. The author discusses the thesis that concrete pragmatic models and stylistic shapes of the folklore texts are formed on the basis of the dominant function of the motif and thereby are preserved by the genre system of a particular tradition and exploited by its users. The question of the correlation between archetypal and culturally related levels of the traditional text is discussed on the material of the motif “Animated from the bones” represented by the world wide folklore traditions. The article summarizes the results of various studies based on different methods, obviously tied by limitations of genre, ethnocultural or regional nature. The cross-genre and cross-cultural study of proverbs, demonological narratives, etiological, eschatological and hagiographic legends, fairy tales, calendar rituals, medical charms - with a common motif of “collecting bones” - promotes the effective approach for integrating achievements of particular methods as well as for solving complex folkloristics problems.