« 2022. # 2 (164)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2022. № 2 (164), 417—440

UDK [[801.81:398.22]:[314.745.25:[332.2:81’37]]](477)”194/196″

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2022.02.417

«THE LAND FOR HIM WAS ABOVE EVERYTHING»: THE CONCEPT OF EARTH IN FOLK STORIES ABOUT DISPLACEMENT OF UKRAINIANS IN 40—60’s OF THE XX CENTURY

PASTUKH Nadia

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7703-5541
  • Candidate of Philological Sciences (Ph. D. in Philology),
  • Senior Researcher at the Ethnology Institute
  • of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: npastukh@gmail.com

Abstract. On the basis of folk stories about the loss of land as a result of forced resettlement of Ukrainians in the 40—60’s of the twentieth century, the author analyzes the concept of «land». The research is based on the materials of the folklore records, which the author together with her colleague Olga Kharchyshyn recorded in Zastavna district of Chernivtsi region (2018), Nadvirna district of Ivano-Frankivsk region (2019) and in Starosambir district of Lviv region (2021) and which are stored in the Archive of the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; on the materials of records of Oksana Kuzmenko and Irina Koval-Fuchilo, which are in the private collections of folklorists, as well as on the recordings of Eugene Lunyo, presented in his collections of memoirs about the insurgent movement in Yavoriv region. The urgency of the article is due to the need to clarify and comprehend the new meanings and motifs of the folklore concept of «earth» in the twentieth century, as they still remain on the periphery of scientific horizons due to temporal proximity and formal inconsistency of the material. We mean first of all the folklore of the Ukrainian Resistance of the XX, in which the theme of land in connection with imperial wars, mass deportations and migration in general, socialization and confiscation of land, urbanization and modernization of society has acquired special significance and rethinking, sharpened traditional meanings and angles of vision. The object of the research is folk stories about the forced eviction of Ukrainians from their homes in the 40—60s of the twentieth century and deportation to Siberia, the Urals, Kazakhstan and other remote areas of the USSR, and the subject — the concept of «land» and folklore motifs and plots in which he appears. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the lexical and semantic field of the concept of «land», its component composition, longevity of tradition and dynamics of meaning in the context of motifs and plots of folk stories about land loss due to Ukrainian resettlement in the 40—60s of the twentieth century.

Keywords: displacement of Ukrainians, the concept of land, folk story, special settlements, Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), banderas.

Received 20.05.2022

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