S.G. Chavain's novel "Elnet": the unity of the Mari language, folklore and traditions

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of the genre content and poetics of the novel "Elnet" by the classic of Mari literature Sergey Grigoryevich Chavain in the unity of the Mari language, folklore and cultural traditions of the Mari people. The work is considered as a "linguistic metaphor", in the context of ideological issues of the epoch, as an intellectual novel in the Mari national literature. The author's concept associated with the archetypal image of the Elnet River, symbolically placed in the title of the work, is revealed, its connection with the writer's ideological plan, as well as with the Mari national and world cultural tradition, its literary and artistic context is revealed. Considerable attention is paid in the article to the consideration of this image as an expression of the traditional ancestral faith, the core of which is the worship of nature and the cultivation of the human in man in the bosom of the "accommodating and nurturing landscape" (the term of Lev Gumilev).  The article is devoted to a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the classic novel of Mari literature. The content of the actual literary text of the novel is considered in a broad socio-cultural context, through the prism of the mythological, philosophical, and aesthetic views of the Mari people. 3. The article proves that the name of Sergei Grigoryevich Chavain is one of the most fateful for the Mari nation; the author of the novel "Elnet" was concerned about the state of the intellectual and cultural status of the nation, its world–building horizon; the writer remains today a "singer of the people", a vivid symbol of national life. For the first time in regional science, the question is raised about the main levels of the Mari world created in the novel "Elnet" by Sergei Grigoryevich Chavain, vividly traced in the title image – the image of Elnet; they are defined in the article as follows: 1) Elnet as a tributary of the Volga, one of the most beautiful rivers in the territory of the Mari territory; 2) Elnet as the motherland, the Ecumene; 3) Elnet as the "golden" world of wonderful Mari songs; 4) Elnet as the prophetic Path of the Mari people. The story of Mari, understood by S. Chavain, is a Road leading into the distance behind an open door, at the same time it is a spiritual process fueled by a rich cultural heritage, currents of the present, and a dream of accomplishment.