This article analyses several approaches to the study of myth in the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The recent works on the Pyramid Texts by H. Hays and A. Morales seem to regard the category of myth as somewhat irrelevant to this subject. Despite being mentioned in the introduction, the term is not used in analysis and interpretation of the Pyramid Texts as such. Since this corpus of religious texts forms the most important base for any discussion on myth in the Old Kingdom, it seems to be a practical implementation of J. Assmann’s hypothesis of the absence of myth in the age of pyramids. The present author reconsiders the main points of Assmann’s evaluation of myth in relation to the theory of myth proposed by E.M. Meletinsky. There seem to be a notion of ‘classical myth’, characterized by narrative organization and etiological function, which is usually regarded as myth par excellence. Assmann’s argumentation highlights aspects of early Egyptian texts which prevent them from being regarded as ‘classical myth’. Usually this results in avoidance of this category altogether as mentioned above. There is however another attitude to myth, developed by K. Goebs, who suggests a very useful model for integral description of Egyptian religion and ritual practice.

In this article Medieval bestiary is considered as a narrative text in which the function of motives is performed by the actions of the animal. These narrative motives can constitute a micro-plot which is interpreted by the narrator who unfolds his understanding of events. Similarities between the micro-plots of different bestiaries cannot conceal significant narrative variability, which becomes noticeable precisely in the combination of the texts devoted to the same animal. Narrative variations in а bestiary can be divided into three types: variations in the choice of typical actions (“properties”) of the animal; variations in the interpretation of these properties; variations in the very act of narration, which are manifested primarily in the level of detail with which the author treats the events in the bestiary. The moral and religious interpretation of the properties of the animal, perceived by the modern reader as a kind of improper insertion, performed the function of narrative denouement for the medieval reader, sometimes in absolutely unexpected manner.

The paper dwells on two motifs related to exorcism in medieval Russian hagiographies: violence towards the demon and questioning of the spirit. These motifs are connected to the three plot schemes often found in Christian literature: violence can be perpetrated against either a demon visiting a person in a vision or being contacted in real life (beating up a demon in “their own” guise), or a spirit having entered someone’s body. This last situation has analogues in the rites practiced in various Christian communities: beating of a possessed person, be it real or symbolic, is a widespread exorcistic practice correlating with stories of demons beaten up by saints. Questioning of the spirit who is talking via the possessed person is also a well-known move implemented in various banishing rituals and justified in a variety of texts. In this work both practices are analyzed on the basis of martyriums translated into Russian (those of Marina/Margaret of Antioch, Juliana of Nicomedia, Nikita the Demon Banisher, Hypatius of Gangra, etc.) and original hagiographies. Coexistence of various models of exorcism (“physical” and spiritual) is demonstrated as exemplified by two autobiographic hagiographies dating from the second half of the 17^th century – those of Protopope Avvakum and Friar Epiphanius.

The paper introduces the concept of an intradiegetic image – an image (a painting, a statue, a photo, etc.) that becomes one of the “characters” of the narrative plot in a literary or cinematic work. An intradiegetic image enters a state of forceful tension with its fictional surroundings: adapting to its environment, it deforms both the latter and itself. Such image damages the realistic illusion with its foreignness, highlights the contrast between two types of semiosis (iconic and symbolic), unfolds in narrative timing (while being initially fixed) and doubles the perceptive situation, turning the characters of the story into inside spectators. Its foreignness to the narration is indicated both by frame effects and the characters’ sacralizing actions and opinions about it. Multiplying (serialization) of intradiegetic images, increase in the number of their dimensions (flat images become tridimensional, tridimensional images start moving and changing with time) and a strong connection to human body are characteristic of intradiegetic images’ functioning in texts / films.

The paper discusses the sources used by I.M. Snegirev in his work “Russian folk festivals and superstitious rites” (1839) for the description of the autumn commemorative rite in Lithuania and Belorussia. The authors reveal that Snegirev, along with in the narrow sense ethnographic, historical texts and Slavic dictionaries, used as a source the second part of the drama “Dziady” (1823) by Adam Mickiewicz (namely, its preface, poetic refrains and particular motives). Besides that, Mickiewicz’s “Dziady” served as a source for some other ethnographic works, e. g. for the article by A.O. Muchlińsky on folk rites in the Novogrudok powiat (1830), which was also used by Snegirev. From the other side, Mickiewicz’s drama displayed both ethnographic impressions of his own childhood and youth, and images of the armchair “national mythology” obtained from the literary sources. Mickiewicz combines motifs and formulas, referring to various folklore and mythological discourses (from one side, elements of the authentic rite, aimed at communication with ancestors’ souls, and formulas and motifs of balladic narratives concerning the “impure” dead from the other side). Snegirev, in his turn, goes even further and combines those versatile elements within a single “folklore” text (an appeal to the summoned souls).

Textual analysis allows for finding out the ways of borrowing as well as the mechanisms of compilation, and raises the following issues. The first one is that of the sources perception by the authors who stood at the origins of Slavic ethnography, and of the quoting particularities of quoting, what turns the original author’s text into a type of “general” folklore knowledge. The second one is the understanding literary compilation as a method for transmission of information, when the initial text is transformed in a way to approximate the national tradition.

The article describes particular cases of migration of folkloric borrowings and stylizations from an author`s literary text into the ethnographic and local history literature, encyclopedias and dictionaries. It demonstrates typical routes of such migrations, depending on the genre of the borrowed material and the kind of stylization. For example, small genres of folklore, having been processed by the writer, turn into material for folklore studies through various collections, encyclopedias and dictionaries. Invented legends migrate in a longer way. Through the local history literature, media and guided tours, they first become a part of collective local knowledge, and then they become the research material for folklorists and urban anthropologists. At the same time, fragments of a literary text, stylized as an ethnographic essay, are sometimes used by ethnography directly, as authentic material, or cited by educational literature on folk culture. In that respect, the perception of an ethnographic novel is a special case of cognitive confusion in the distinction between fictional and documentary. Therefore, that genre is an inexhaustible source of pseudo-folklore material for ethnographers and local historians.

This article is based on research of the preserved documentary evidence of the work of the All-Soviet Commission on folk music of the Union of Soviet Composers in 1972–1979. During that period the Commission worked intensely on establishing one of its most important projects – “Folklore on Screen”, led by E.E. Alekseev and supervised by E.S. Novik. Informatsionnye pis’ma 1972–1979 [“Letters of Information”] is the only documentary evidence that not only allows to reconstruct the chronology of events, but also provides an insight into the full scale of the Commission’s creative and research potential and of the creative element put in its work. Administrative leverage and modest, yet steady financial support proved very important for the task as those provided independence from unnecessary pressure and dubious opinions.

Preparation of all issues of the Letters of Information was left to the staffers. Back in the day it looked like a formal routine job, a waste of time. Because of that, those “chronicles of our history” were being created without zist and half-heartedly. However, further events in our country have turned a presumably useless archive source into something of great research and cultural value.

The article dwells on the polemics between V.Ya. Propp and Claude Levi-Strauss concerning Propp’s book “Morphology of the Folktale.” Propp sees the review of his book by Levi-Strauss as a manifestation of aggression. This article discusses the linguistic, ideological and cultural causes of the conflict between the two scholars. While reading the original text of Levi-Strauss’s article, Propp misunderstands some French expressions. Levi-Strauss speaks of Propp’s formalism as in belonging to a certain research school, while Propp perceives the purely methodological argument of Levy-Strauss in an ideological vein, and it begins to appear to him as bordering on a political denunciation. Besides, both scholars are unfamiliar with the rest of each other’s works and have a misconception about each other’s research interests. The reason for that was in the academic isolation in which the Soviet philologist lived in the 1950s. As a result, in a regular review which is reasonably polemical and rather benevolent, Propp sees a challenge to a duel and composes his response as a retaliatory attack.