FOLK MODELS IN STORIES ABOUT THE OCCUPATION DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. NARRATIVIZATION SCENARIOS AND THE WAYS OF COMBINING MOTIFS

Abstract

Folklorists often use classification systems such as catalogues of motifs or folk types. This method is widely applied to tales or legends. At the same time, it is used less often during analysis of stories about the recent past (for instance, about a war). I apply this method to oral stories collected on an expedition to the Bryansk region to make a motif-index. Using this method allows me to classify these texts, highlight the main themes and divide motives into two groups. I also examine how motives are combined in a longstories and, based on these combinations, I distinguish two scenarios of narrativization. There are two scenarios: incriminatory and apologetic. These two ways of combining motives allow narrators to express two different opinions on the ethical dilemmas of the wartime. The set of plots, as well as popular ways of combining them, shows us that these ethical dilemmas are most important and interesting for the people we have talked to.