ON THE VISUAL ORIGINS OF ONE FOLKLORE MOTIF. THE TOMB IN THE CHURCH
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
The article examines the influence of Christian iconography on poetic images of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian spiritual verses. It claims that the icons that symbolize the Passion of Jesus Christ, both in the Western and Eastern European traditions, are possible sources of images and plots for a spiritual verse “Walking of the Virgin” (“Three Tombs”). The essay specifically focuses on the image of the Holy Sepulcher in Russian spiritual verse and its iconographic sources. It discusses a number of cases from the history of its iconography, from the images of the Holy Sepulcher in the Medieval Catholic churches to the ones in the Orthodox cathedrals and churches of the second half of 17th — the beginning of the 18th century. In spiritual verse, the notion of the “tomb in the church” as part of liturgical practice was related not only to death symbolism. In the verse “Walking of the Virgin,” the image of three tombs, and primarily the tomb of the Virgin, bears on the Western-European poetic tradition and includes images that function to deny the idea of the finitude of human existence and reaffirm the idea of eternal life. Flowers and birds over the tomb of the Virgin are emblematic: it is a verbal icon of a kind that corresponds with the final episode of the poem, its climax. This emblem refers to conventional images of the Christian iconography that convey Christian dogmas via a combination of contradictory elements that we see, for example, in the traditional image of the Flourishing Cross.
Authors and Affiliations
L. V. Fadeeva
FICTIONAL TIME AND SPACE IN THE PROSE OF SMALL ETHNIC GROUPS OF THE NORTH
The essay bears on Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of chronotope as “the gate” to “the sphere of meanings.” Without this methodological tool, it would be difficult to understand a national literature that is archetypal at its c...
ROMANTIC SELF IN SEARCH OF GOD: PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF S. T. COLERIDGE
The article deals with spiritual progress of S.T. Coleridge from his youthful interest in the followers of Locke (his direct predecessors in English intellectual tradition) to his fascination with pantheism, to his stud...
CHAPTERS FROM PUSHKIN’S NOVEL. CULTIC MECHANISMS AND TEXTUAL POETICS OF “THE LAST TEXT” AND THE SWORD OF “THE SENSITIVE NOBLEMAN” BY ANDREY BITOV
This study aims to trace and demonstrate the construction of Pushkin cult in two essays by Andrey Bitov, “The Last Text” and “The Sword of the Sensitive Nobleman.” It examines how cultic mechanisms including specific r...
THEATER IN THE AESTHETICS OF THE “YOUNG VIENNA” GROUP
The article examines “theater” as a cultural and artistic universal that served as a means ofThe article examines “theater” as a cultural and artistic universal that served as a means of developing mindset and self-ident...
LITERARY TRENDS: FOR THE PROJECT DICTIONARY OF LITERARY TRENDS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE AND AMERICA
The article is the outcome of the theoretical research prepared for the encyclopedia in progress entitled Dictionary of Literary Trends in the Twentieth Century Europe and America. This is the frst such encyclopedia kn...