ORAL NARRATIVES ABOUT “DISTANT LANDS”: PLOT-MOTIVE MATRIX AND THEIR PROLONGATION IN NARRATIVES ABOUT

Abstract

In the proposed article the oral narratives about the “distant lands” and the “paradise garden” are analyzed. The main motives of oral stories about Germany and the nature of their functioning are highlighted. The folklore of this thematic group is an integral part of the huge array of Ukrainian folk art and the most universal form of the widespread type of legends about “distant lands”. It is noted that as in the past Zaporozhian Sich was the personification of a prosperous and happy life, so today one of such “distant lands” is Germany, which for decades, since the unification, has become an object for population migration from all over Europe and the symbol of the state with a strong economy and a broad labor market, which in turn gave rise to a whole layer of oral folk art, which was formed on ideas about a foreign and distant land, based on what was seen and heard from the others. On the basis of 100 narrative interviews, it was investigated that the dominant feature of the image of a distant country, of a particular historical era, is an image whose characteristic feature is a certain lack of connection with reality. This is most commonly expressed in excessive cleanliness, order, and architecture. However, in this reflection of reality, an emotional, metaphorical component can be traced, which gives the story a phantasmagorical character. It is emphasized that in the studied narratives, the attribute of harmony and abundance is clearly distinguished, which is formulated in the oscillation between the poles of structural ideas about the world – “here/there”, and “we/them”. An important place in the considered oral stories is occupied by the image of a paradise garden, which has a certain number of characteristic markers. This is a utopianism, an emphasis on a certain harmonization between society and nature, a spatial characteristic that is often realized through opposition.