“Singing is beautiful - reading is holy”. Sacred text, book and godliness in the paremic folklore of the Old Believers of the Novgorod region
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2021-2-66-81
Abstract
The article considers the mutual influence of the written and oral traditions of the Old Believers-Bespopovtsy of the Novgorod region on the example of proverbs that exist in those communities at the present time. The article substantiates an application of the approach to the Old Believers, considering it as a textual community, and reveals the role of interpretation of written sources in the oral paremia tradition.
Supporting agencies: The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the administration of the Novgorod region in the framework of the scientific project no. 18-49-530002 “Popular Christianity in the socio-cultural space of the Novgorod land of the 20th - 21st centuries: study of the dynamics of the phenomenon on the material of archival and newest materials of folklore and ethnographic expeditions”.
About the Author
I. A. Melnikov
National Museum Complex; Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ilia A. Melnikov - Cand. of Sci. (Cultural Studies), National Museum Complex in Velikii Novgorod.
bld. 8, Novgorodskii Kreml, Veliky Novgorod, 173000.
References
1. Belova, O.V. (2002), “‘The People's Bible'. On the issue of Interaction between oral and book-written traditions”, in Literatura, kultura i folklor slavyanskih narodov. XIII Mezhdunarodnyj s'ezd slavistov, Lyublyana, avgust 2003 g. [Literature, culture and folklore of the Slavic peoples. 13th International Congress of Slavists, Ljubljana, August 2003], Moscow, Russia, pp. 362-374.
2. Crummey, R.O. (1993), “Old Belief as popular religion. New approaches”, Slavic Reviev, vol. 52, no. 4 (winter), pp. 700-712.
3. Danilko, E.S. (2015), “Chuvash ‘Old Faith' in Chuvash. The book tradition and everyday practices of the Old Believer community”, Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, no. 5, pp. 19-32.
4. Gruznova, E.B. (2013), Na rasputie srednevekovya: yazycheskie tradicii v russkom prostonarodnom bytu (konec XV - XVI vv.) [At the Crossroads of the Middle Ages: Pagan Traditions in Russian Common Life (late 15th - 16th centuries)], St. Petersburg, Russia.
5. Lvov, A.L. (2011), Soha i Pyatiknizhie: russkie iudejstvuyushchie kak tekstualnoe staroobshchestvo [Plow and the Pentateuch: Russian Judaizers as a Textual Community], Saint Petersburg, Russia.
6. Melnikova, E.A. (without a year), Sovremennye ustnye rasskazy o Biblii v Novgorodskoj oblasti [The nowaday oral stories about the Bible in the Novgorod region] [Online], available at: http://www.ruthenia.ru/folklore/melnikova2.htm (Accessed 11 Mar.2021).
7. Melnikova, E.A. (2011), «Voobrazhaemaya kniga»: ocherki po istorii folklora o knigah i chtenii v Rossii [“An Imaginary Book”. Essays on the history of folklore about books and reading in Russia], Saint Petersburg, Russia.
8. Melnikov, I.A. (2015), “Spiritual centers of the Novgorod Old Believers of the first half -middle of the 19th century”, Vestnik Novgorodskogo universiteta, no. 90, pp. 98-100.
9. Moss, M. (2011), “Essay about a gift”, in Obshchestvo. Obmen.Lichnost’. Trudy posocial’noj antropologii [Society. Exchange. Personality. Works on Social Anthropology], Moscow, Russia, pp. 134-285.
10. Panchenko, A.A. (2002), Hristovshchina i skopchestvo: folklor i tradicionnaya kultura russkih misticheskih sekt [Christism (Christovschina - a trend in the Bespopovtsy Old Belief) and castratingism. Folklore and traditional culture of Russian mystical sects], Moscow, Russia.
11. Panchenko, A.A. (2012), Ivan i Yakov - neobychnye svyatye iz bolotistoj mestnosti: «Krest’yanskaya agiologiya» i religioznye praktiki v Rossii Novogo vremeni [Ivan and Yakov - unusual saints from the marshland. “Peasant agiology” and religious practices in New time Russia], Moscow, Russia.
12. Permyakov, G.L. (1988), Osnovy strukturnoj paremiologii [Fundamentals of structural paremiology], Moscow, Russia.
13. Potebnya, A.A. (1976), “From lectures on the theory of literature”, in Potebnya, A.A., Estetika i poetika [Aesthetics and poetics], Moscow, Russia.
14. Rychkova, E.V. (2014), “Biblical legends in the folklore of the Old Believers of the Southern Trans-Urals”, Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 167-169.
15. Tradicionnyj folklor staroobryadcev Buryatii (semejskih) v sovremennom bytovanii (po materialam polevyh issledovanij konca XX - nachala XXI v.) [Traditional folklore of the Old Believers of Buryatia (Semeyskie) in modern life (based on the materials of field studies of the late 20th - early 21st centuries)], Ulan-Ude, Russia.
16. Fedoruk, N.S. (2006), “Old Believers of the Novgorod province in the 19th century”, in Novgorodika-2006. Materialy nauchnoj konferencii 20-22 sentyabrya 2006 g [Novgorodika - 2006: Proceedings of the scientific conference on September 20-22, 2006], Velikii Novgorod, Russia, ch. 2, pp. 195-210.
17. Fishman, O.M. (2003), Zhizn’ po vere: tihvinskie karely-staroobryadcy [Life up to Faith: Tikhvin Karelians-Old Believers], Moscow, Russia.
18. Stock, B. (1983), The implications of literacy. Written language and models of interpretation in the 11th and 12th centuries, Princeton, USA.
19. Voznesenskii, A.V. (1996), Staroobryadcheskie izdaniya XVIII - nachala XIX veka [Old Believer publications of the 18th - early 19th century], Saint Petersburg, Russia.
20. Voskresenskaya, T.A. (2008), Novgorodskie staroobryadcy-bespopovcy vo vtoroi polovine XIX - nachale XX veka: Mirovozzrenie. Byt. Kultura [Novgorod's Old Believers-Bespopovtsy in the second half of the 19th - early 20th century: Worldview. Mode of life. Culture], Velikii Novgorod, Russia.
21. Zelenin, D.K. (1996), Izbrannye trudy. Ocherki russkoi mifologii: Umershie neestestvennoj smertyu i rusalki [Selected works. Essays on Russian mythology. Unnatural deaths and mermaids], Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Review
For citations:
Melnikov I.A. “Singing is beautiful - reading is holy”. Sacred text, book and godliness in the paremic folklore of the Old Believers of the Novgorod region. Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion. 2021;(2):66-81. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2021-2-66-81
Views:
702
Email this article 