Siberian Federal University 
- Issue
- Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2015 8 (7)
- Authors
- Nepomniashchikh, Natalia A.
- Contact information
- Nepomniashchikh, Natalia A.:Institute of Philology of SB RAS 8 Nikolaev Str., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia; E-mail:
- Keywords
- plot; motif; a combat between a man and a bear; Nivkh literature; Evenki literature
- Abstract
Some typical recurrent plots such as a plot of human – bear interaction are characteristic to the literature of the Native Siberians. A plot of a combat between a man and a bear is present at the works of almost all Siberian writers. This is due both to the circumstances of life in the taiga where it is difficult to avoid a meeting with that animal and to the folklore traditions. Many Siberian peoples worshipped the bear; the bear was considered to be the human’s ancestor. The Mansi, Khanty, Nanai, Nivkh, Tofalar, Even, and Evenki peoples celebrated the special bear festival. The bear cult is supposed to be very ancient. The fact that it is common for the people belonging to different language groups proves the similarity in their way of living determined by the similar geographic factors. The article discusses two versions of the “man – bear combat” plot. The first version is typical of V. Sangi’s writings. It considers a combat as an ordeal which is successfully overcome by a character. G. Keptuke’s book gives another version of the plot. A character is maimed in a combat because of his conceit and violation of an ancient custom. The plot describing an encounter of a man with a bear is one of the most common in the works of Siberian writers
- Pages
- 1427-1435
- Paper at repository of SibFU
- https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/19685
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).