On the issue of the bylina plots’ functional classification

Abstract

The classification of epic plots proposed by the Pudoga bylina narrator F.A. Konashkov still remains largely undefined in scholarly literature, though its analysis is important for historical functional appreciation of the Russian epic folklore. According to A.M. Linevskii, F.A. Konashkov selected his bylinas taking into account the gender-and-age, family, professional, and social status of his listeners (i.e., there are bylinas for young people, married couples, the military, the Heads, the merchants, etc.) and that principle, however plain in some aspects, implies a special understanding by the bylina narrator of his repertoire. Since it is inconceivable that the bylinas being intended for one class of listeners turned out to be – in terms of their language or composition – difficult for another, it seems only logical to conclude that the division in question is based on a certain extra-aesthetic principle. As shown by a comparative axiological analysis of each bylina group, all epic songs here are united by a similar didactic moral intent, an affirmation of comparable spiritual values and, consequently, a denial of categories and notions opposed to them. Therefore, F.A. Konashkov’s classification indicates those spiritual therapeutic tasks that could challenge Russian bylina narrators in a situation of the oral text’s “natural” existence – and, accordingly, can be applied to the whole corpus of national epic folklore.