Художественные аллегории серболужицкого обряда Ptači kwas и традиция звериных гротесков в поэтической культуре славянских народов

Abstract

This paper examines the best-known poetic narratives accompanying the traditional Sorbian ritual called Ptači kwas [“Birdball” or “Birdwedding”]. Etymologically connected to the old ritual of Vogelhochzeit with its pagan origins, the tradition of the “bird wedding” acquired moral and didactic meanings in the Sorbian culture which are rendered in this people’s songs such as Hlejće, nowa wěc so stała. This paper contests the claim that the aforementioned literary allegory may be typologically related to animal grotesques which are widely depicted in the poetic culture of the East Slavs. In the song Hlejće, nowa wěc so stała, as well as in all East Slavic animal grotesques, the traditional mythopoetic symbolism of chthonic orientation is unexpectedly modified—it is presented from the view point of modeling both existential strategies and collective roles. This explains the keen interest in bird and animal allegories on the part of East Slavic writers throughout the centuries (Mikhal Korycki, Jan Barszczewski, Kornei Chukovskii).