War metaphors in the song historical folklore of the Don Cossacks
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2022-5-3-130-148
Abstract
The article deals with the images of the war – one of the key concepts of the Don Cossacks’ world picture – in the historical song folklore. Military themes permeate most of the Cossacks historical songs. Along with the direct depiction of military actions and related phenomena and concepts, the songs contain allegorical, metaphorical descriptions of war – stable images associated with armed clashes. The author’s attention is focused on the last, as they show the deep interconnections of war with other basic concepts of the Cossack, and Russian in general, worldview.
The representations of war, reflected in the songs, are closely related to the understanding of life and death, one’s own and others’ and the main occupations of the Cossacks. War is described allegorically through images of natural disasters, social relations, and labor activities, and appears as a phenomenon beyond human control, characterized as an alien, otherworldly space, and thereby partially intersects with the people’s understanding of death. Many of the described metaphors (army – cloud; battle – harvest, feast; enemies – guests) were characteristic of all-Russian folk art from the earliest period, which shows the continuity of the Cossack folklore tradition with the Russian one.
Supporting agencies: The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, the project No. 17-18-01411, “Wars and the Population of Southern Russia in the 18th – Early 21st Century: History, Demography, Anthropology.”
About the Author
T. E. Grevtsova
Federal Research Center the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Tatiana E. Grevtsova, Cand. of Sci. (Philology)
bld. 41, Chehova St., Rostov-on-Don, 344006
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Review
For citations:
Grevtsova T.E. War metaphors in the song historical folklore of the Don Cossacks. Folklore: Structure, Typology, Semiotics. 2022;5(3):130-148. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2022-5-3-130-148
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