Images-symbols in Alan Cherchesov's novel «A wreath on the wind's grave»

Abstract

The article presents a literary analysis of symbolic images as the most expressive artistic means in the novel «A Wreath on the Grave of the Wind» by the modern Russian-speaking Ossetian prose writer Alan Cherchesov. Symbolism, among other things, forms a mytho-epic idiostyle, necessary for reconstructing the myth-novel, a genre specific to modern North Caucasian literature. Such genre affiliation determines the typically animistic manifestations of A. Cherchesov's heroes. Actualizing modern moral and psychological problems, the author leaves his heroes within the framework of archaic traditional societies. Thus, surprisingly stable patterns of consciousness that developed in the prehistoric era are demonstrated. The most prominent symbols are such images of dead wind, river, time, road, landscape, egg. The novel presents an archetypal dual image of a new cultural hero and antihero (Atsamaz-Kazgeri), collective characters reflecting the positive and negative sides of civilization.