Cultural codes in epic works of Belarusian literature at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries

Duktava Liubou Georgieuna ORCID: 0009-0003-5401-7932 PhD in Philology Senior Researcher; Center for Research of Belarusian Culture; Language and Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus 220072, Belarus, Minsk region, Minsk, Surganova str., 1/2 docent2020@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

The cultural code as a semiotic unit, which is the bearer of deep historical and cultural meanings, through which social, economic, geopolitical, cultural features, specifics of the national worldview, patterns of behavior of representatives of a certain nation or the population of the country as a whole are manifested, is considered in literary studies within the framework of a semiotic approach. The identification of cultural codes in the interpretation of literary works is one of the ways both to reveal their ideological orientation as a whole, and to convey certain cultural meanings manifested in the artistic canvas of the work at an implicit level with the help of characteristic images and motifs.

In modern humanitarianism, the concept of cultural code is used in the analysis of a multimodal text, and in this case it is not only about the verbal level of communication. From the point of view of communication theory, fiction acts as one of the channels for transmitting information using cultural codes, along with cinema, fine arts, mass media, etc. The study of cultural codes in the object of artistic creation presupposes an interdisciplinary approach to this problem. When interpreting literary works using cultural codes, researchers often appeal to the concepts of "intertextuality" by Y. Kristeva, "hypertext" by T. Nilson, concepts of the "artistic world" by D. Likhachev, "dialogue" by M. Bakhtin, structural poetics by Y. Lotman, etc., thereby emphasizing the need to search for interaction between the linguistic level and national cultural labeling in the artwork. The semiotic model of the literary process was studied by the literary critic V. Khalipov, who also stressed the importance of referring to the codes used by the author when reading the text. However, at the same time, the researcher, highlighting deterministic (sequence and predictability are characteristic of deterministic systems) and probabilistic codes, emphasizes the controversial conscious retouching of referring to cultural codes in a literary work: "Not only languages in a strictly linguistic sense, but also the "languages" of national cultural traditions, ideological and aesthetic systems of literary trends, etc. – all The cultural codes used by the authors when creating works of art will be systems of a probabilistic nature" ^{[1, p. 9]}.

It is of interest to consider individual cultural codes, which are a kind of markers of the national artistic picture of the world, in the works of large and medium epic forms of Belarusian literature at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. This is the purpose of this study.

The subject cultural code as a translator of the values of family, clan, native land in V. Gnilomedov's heptology (Kuzhal's code)

The novel cycle by V. Gnilomedov, which shows the history of a family of a Western Belarusian village in the first half of the twentieth century, consists of seven works: "Ulis from Pruska", "Russia", "Return", "Cornflowers at the turn", "War", "After the War", "The Truth lives in the middle". Kuzhal's subject code is the key to understanding the ideological orientation of the writer's heptology. Kuzhal, in one of the meanings, is a canvas made of linen threads, from which traditional clothes of Belarusians were made, as well as household goods (bed linen, bedspread), in the other – uncut flax, a vegetable crop that emphasizes the national flavor of Belarus, the image of flax flowers is present on the state coat of arms. In the works under consideration, this lexeme is present in the onymic field: it is advisable to note the symbolism of the surname of the hero of the novels in Leon Kuzhal's heptology (the researcher J. Shaladonova examines this aspect in more detail). His grandfather's surname is also taken by his non-native grandson Vladimir in the novel "The Truth Lives in the Middle".

The Belarusian history of the eventful twentieth century is shown through the history of human destinies, the novels tell about the way of life and the peculiarities of the worldviews of Belarusians, Russians, Jews, Gypsies, Americans. The image of kuzhal is symbolic – as an epic canvas of history is woven from linen threads, metaphors of human destinies. It should be noted that, according to the definition of a number of researchers, the cultural code is considered as a set of symbols, signs characteristic of a certain culture, aimed at its identification and use by the bearers of this culture (D. Gudkov, M. Epstein, etc.). Special emphasis in V. Gnilomedov's novels is placed on the value of preservation and creation for the family. Representatives of the older generation Leon and Fekla Kuzhali are shown as a kind of guardians and guardians of their descendants, under their attention, as if under an invisible veil, both family members and close people find salvation in the most difficult life situations: they save Vasily's son, help the partisans during the war, settle the fate of their sisters, their house becomes a hospitable haven for the "eternal vagrant" Kuzemka, as well as other people, etc. Their daily care for their grandson, Vladimir, is a life–giving source that makes it possible to feel the force field of the whole family. The novels more than once point to the metaphor of an invisible veil that protects the maturing Vladimir from any misfortunes from childhood, and emphasize the connection with the guardians of the family – representatives of the older generation Leon and Fekla Kuzhaly.

It is advisable to emphasize that the second meaning of the word "kuzhal" is associated with flax, this floral image is widely represented in the works of Belarusian folklore, literature, folk art. In the epic canvas of heptology, there are scenes where the work with linen is shown: "In autumn, the canvases were whitewashed. Begging, she folded a linen scroll on her lap with an accordion and, folding it, carried it to the river, soaked it, and then beat it with a rocking chair, raised it on the grass, crushed it with her feet. I cooked a solution of wood ash and bleached the canvas in it, then lined it with dew again, dried it. She could spin flax and wool for clothes, tow for bags" ^{[2, p. 427]} ("Cornflowers at the turn"). Flax symbolizes the indestructible connection of a person with his native land. In the novel "Ulis of Pruska" Leon Kuzhal goes to America to work in pre-revolutionary times, and returning to his native village, obsessively and enthusiastically plunges into work on his native land. The novels "Russia" and "The Return" describe a situation when, with the approach of the Russian-German front in 1915, residents of the West Belarusian village of Pruski find refuge in Russia, where Leon found a wife, and in 1922 the Pruskavians return to their native village. And although high waves of political passions were raging at home during this period in the so-called outskirts of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the thirst for their native land, home, work on the land of their ancestors shows the vitality of Belarusians despite numerous battles, as history shows, unfolding from century to century on the Belarusian land.

Spatial, character and action cultural codes in showing the way of life in modern Belarusian prose (for example, the codes "partisan forest", "Belarusian partisan", "toloka")

It is advisable to include codes related to the display of a certain model of behavior in which the collective "we" manifests itself among the national codes of Belarusians. In the novel "War", V. Gnilamedov focuses on conciliarity, the spiritual core that unites people in difficult times. Describing the events of the Great Patriotic War, the writer shows in some detail the life of the partisans in the forest: "A common misfortune and a common goal quickly unite people. This could be seen already from the way they worked. Some dripped a pit under the dugout, others sawed pines to lay out walls and make a ceiling, others sawed them. Trees were cut down at a distance, branches were cleaned off, divided into logs and pulled together here, for construction. Fragrant transparent resin dripped from fresh resinous roundels" ^{[3, p. 132]}.

The works of Belarusian writers I. Shamyakin, I. Chigrinov, I. Naumenko, V. Bykov, V. Gnilomedov show partisan Belarus. The expression "partisan forest" has become widely known, which is associated with the mental attitudes of Belarusians, tolerant and friendly in peaceful living conditions, but capable of mobilizing and fighting back in a critical situation of threats to sovereignty, violence for loved ones and others. Literary critic I. Shaladonov draws attention to this fact, who, considering the existential image of the Belarusian partisan in the stories, noted that if, in the status of a civilian, the position of a Belarusian is based on loyalty and subordination to a certain sovereign (king, state), then in the case of occupation "it is the partisan who consciously assumes part of the rights of the former sovereign, thereby giving themselves with the exclusive right to be responsible for the fate of their land, for the protection of their rights, as well as relatives and fellow tribesmen" ^{[4, p. 66]}. The researcher clarifies, being not fully designated in the status of the "right of war", the Belarusian in some ways becomes an involuntary detonator of a tough confrontation regarding the suppression of the people by the occupying forces: "The process of waging war, its forms and methods of confrontation between the warring parties become almost limitless and total, generating great ferocity and sacrifice among civilians" ^{[4, p. 66]}. Taking into account this connotation, we note that the partisan forest acts as a stronghold of inaccessibility, invincibility.

A feature of the wooded area of Belarus is the presence of swamps, impenetrable thickets. In literature, not only on the military topic, stories are described when the forest protects a person who hides in it from the threat posed by other people. In the novel "Wolf Island" by K. Zwirka, a place in the forest in the middle of impenetrable swamps, untouched by a human foot ("Wolf's sleep"), the secret road to which was known to the family of Kings, became a saving haven for the main character of Ignat's work, who became a hermit in difficult pre-war times. K. Zwirka describes in detail the life of the "Polessky Robinson", who managed not only to survive in the forest, but also to build a house and even set up a household, dreaming of taking his family to the forest and living a quiet life. The conflict of the work is based on the confrontation between man and the new order (the ongoing policy of collectivization), which gave rise to the circumstances in which he found himself in the status of an outcast.

Throughout history, the guerrilla forest has more than once been a place that protected from threats, a place where constants of a national character manifest themselves: to sacrifice oneself, but to preserve dignity; not to rely on anyone and work hard to achieve prosperity; despite obstacles, to believe in a better future. At the same time, the theme of freedom is connected with the code of the guerrilla forest: you went to the forest at a certain distance from home and can live as you please.

Thus, the code of the partisan forest, presented in fiction, is associated not only with the war period, but also, in general, with Belarusians' perception of the forest as a safe haven in a situation of turmoil, a place of feeling of will (freedom is always there), a haven for people for whom eternal values remain unshakable in spite of the events that broke the usual way life.

The Belarusian mentality is characterized by subordination only on reasonable grounds, while unions act as one of the super-values. And we are talking not only about the unifying possibilities of nepotism, the historical roots of which we observe in the evolution of the Belarusian village, which originally existed as a conglomerate, in which representatives of different clans (a family of peasants, a family of blacksmiths, a family of healers, etc.) coexist, passing on knowledge of spiritual and material significance from generation to generation, and therefore not only about the feeling of the scale and patronage of the family and the support of the family. One of the important alliances is toloka as a form of mutual assistance (for a short period of time, people unite to solve a certain task). And this is manifested not only during agricultural work, as shown in the prose of V. Gnilomedov, I. Naumenko, V. Kazko, A. Zhukov, etc. In I. Shamyakin's novella "Polesskaya Madonna", the association of people of different social statuses helps the heroine Nadezhda Rusak to find her son, in the novel "According to Your Faith" by V. Gavrilovich, the creative intelligentsia comes to the aid of the main character, writer Yevgeny Kavenka, to whitewash the memory of his family's military past.

Animalistic and character–based cultural codes in the disclosure of meanings in the dyad "friend and foe" in novels and novellas of Belarusian literature of the turn of the XX-XX I centuries. (for example, the codes of the wolf, the wolfman)

In the mythopoeic worldview of Belarusians, the codes of the wolf and the wolfman are associated with the polar features of human nature – rigidity and a sense of being an outcast. The image of the volkolak is associated with the image of the legendary Prince Vseslav the Magician, the hero of the "Word of Igor's Regiment", according to legend, capable of turning into a wolf. According to M. Epstein, S. Averintsev, the appeal to the mythological worldview in literature is associated with the tendency of writers to use "the original, archetypal constants of man and natural being" ^{[5, p. 224]}. In general, the images of the wolf and the wolfman are present in the mythologies of different peoples. According to the Belarusian folk tradition, wolves can be of two types by their origin: this is a sorcerer temporarily turned into a wolf, endowed with traits of bestial savagery, as well as unfortunate people turned into wild animals as a result of the witcher's magical actions. Hence the dual attitude towards the Volkolaks, which is reflected both in oral folk art and in literature. The mythologized image of the volkolak, emphasizing the national flavor, is represented in the Belarusian literature of the XIX-XX centuries. in the works of P. Bagrim, Y. Borshchevsky, A. Harun, Y. Kupala, V. Korotkevich, A. Kozhedub, in modern historical prose (the novel "The Trail of the Volkolak" by L. Daineka, "The Gold of Forgotten Graves" by L. Rublevskaya, "The Lithuanian Wolf" by A. Navarich, "Prince Volkolak" by M. Kutuzov).

In one of the variants of the Belarusian legends about werewolves, it is noted that a volkolak is a man whom a sorcerer turned into a wolf. This is especially typical for a wedding plot, when, due to the rancor of the magician, young people or guests turned into wild animals, and they could turn back if they heard the same melody with which the werewolf rite took place. This plot is shown in the story "Volkolak" by Ya. Borshchevsky, in the story "Volkolaks" by A. Kozhedub. In this aspect, the wolfman is shown to be a victim of circumstances. In adventure prose, the codes of the wolf, the volkolak are associated with an outcast man (the work of I. Shamyakin, K. Tsvirka, A. Navarich, etc.).

In literary works, the codes of the wolf and the volkolak help to emphasize cultural meanings within the framework of the binary opposition of "friend and foe". The hero of the story "The Persecution of the Big Beast" by A. Navarich, Levka Gritsev, hides in the forest after the war from fellow villagers who knew him as a traitor during the war. Rumors are spreading around the village that a werewolf has been found near the settlement. The volkolak code is used to show internal conflict when human and bestial (brutal) traits and actions are shown in the character. Ideological searches in understanding the events of the period of collectivization in modern prose occur with an assessment of the actions and motives of representatives of different parties, while writers also turn to the codes of the wolf, the wolfman, to emphasize the changes and constants of the dyad "friend – foe" when rethinking the events of the past. In the novel "Wolf Island" by K. Zwirka, it is shown that Ignat Korolenya hides from people, but does not hide from wolves: "He often met wolves here. When Ignat saw them, he did not run away from them and did not scare them away from himself. He pretended that he was not surrounded. The wolves weren't interested in him either. When they met, they went their own way, not paying attention to him. Complete peaceful coexistence was established between them and Ignat" ^{[6, p. 113]}. Another parallel between the life of a man and a wolf in this novel, which have fantasy features, can be traced through the fate of one of Ignatius Koroleni's sons: Yank's son, due to certain circumstances, was raised by a wolf pack and even became its leader.

Thus, in modern Belarusian prose, the codes of the wolf and the volkolak are the key to understanding the duality of human nature: tough, strong-willed and suffering at the same time.

Floral cultural code in showing the spiritual aspects of society in Belarusian literature (for example, the cornflower code)

The image of the cornflower (voloshka) is one of the famous symbols of Belarus, Belarusians. The ornament with the image of a cornflower is quite common on image Internet resources, souvenirs of the country. The image of the cornflower, which emphasizes the national flavor, acting as a symbol of the motherland, is present in the works of Belarusian writers and poets of different periods. He was praised by M. Bogdanovich in the poem "Slutsk Weavers", works of various genres are known, in the name of which the name of this plant is present: the story "Cornflowers" by M. Lynkov, the poems "Rye in cornflowers and daisies ...", "Cornflower" by E. Khvaley, the story "Cornflowers in rye" by I. Naumenko, the novel "Cornflowers" A. Kulakovsky et al.

The novel "Valiski at the Turn" by V. Gnilomedov, published in 2014, shows the life of Western Belarus in the interwar twentieth anniversary. At the turn of important socio-political changes, in a kind of epicenter of military confrontation, economic transformation, the story of a Belarusian family, the village of Pruski, is shown, which is for the writer a kind of Faulkner's "yoknapathofa" of the world of Belarusians. The primordial vitality, the beauty of the native land, along with the expectation of a new stage of life, is the atmosphere in which the characters of the novel are shown: "It was the summer of 1930. The Prussians lived in anticipation of some events, they were waiting for someone..." ^{[2, p. 6]}; "The August morning is unique and attractive in its own way. Even when you are on the road, burdened with daily chores" ^{[2, p. 17]}; "Pruskovites dispersed, worried, scratching their heads, sighing, thinking how it would all turn out" [val, p. 542]; "Haymaking in Pruska usually fell in June. And although it is said that mowing hay awakens a sense of celebration in a peasant, this work has never seemed easy for him. On the contrary, it required considerable strength, a wide range of soul and muscles, constant support and support, and hardy assistants" ^{[2, p. 562]}. The cornflower code is beauty and vitality, giving hope for a better future.

The color cultural code presented in Belarusian folklore and ethnography, as well as in the works of modern Belarusian prose writers (for example, codes white, black, red)

White, black, and red colors make up the main spectrum of color symbols in the mythopoeic worldview of Belarusians.

The white color is the code of purity, holiness, which is emphasized when interpreting the name of the country Belarus (as a derivative of the nomination "White Russia"), is reflected in the title of the work on the historical theme "Knights of White Russia" by I. Saverchenko. The metaphor "the land under white wings" was firmly established in Belarus with the publication of V. Korotkevich's essay of the same name, where, in addition to color, the emphasis is also on the stork. The red color as a code of life is present as one of the motifs in the novel "Wolf Island" by K. Tsvirka, in the story "Rowan Tree" by A. Fedorenko ("She lay red on a young atav – and shone with that hidden light that she survived, that she was finally able to give a rich fruit – all that she could give.." ^{[7, p. 251]}) and others.

According to the principle of binary opposition, these two colors are contrasted with the black color code of the dark origin (death, disease, evil, etc.). Various aspects of the semantics and functionality of color symbols in Belarusian folklore are considered in the works of T. Volodina, I. Kruk, T. Shamyakina, I. Shved, Yu. Yarotskaya, etc. According to the researchers, the triad "white–black–red" is associated with the human life cycle, his birth, death, life, which is reflected in ethnographic objects (red corner in the house, white festive clothes, black shroud, etc.), in works of oral poetry. On the place of the color code in the rituals of the life cycle of Belarusians and other Slavs, I. Shved notes: "The identification and related semantics and functionality of an object in a certain ritual are based on a color sign in accordance with the teleology of the latter, color acts as an iconic detail of the participants of a certain rite and the gifts they exchange. This finds a certain refraction in oral poetry, the color code of which is one of the most productive artistic resources. A whole complex of ethnophysiological, ethnomedical, ethnoesthetic and other ideas is transmitted through it" ^{[8, p. 357]}.

The black color as a code of death is widely used in works on the Chernobyl theme, especially in the lyrics, lyric epic - the books "Black Byl" by S. Zakonnikov, "Black Pain" by V. Vabishevich, etc. The antithesis "white – black" is present in the title of the story "Save and have Mercy on us, black stork" by V. Kazko. The black stork, unlike the white one, settles at a distance from humans. This rare bird is listed in the Red Book, lives in remote forest areas, its disappearance is threatened due to a major environmental disaster caused by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, pollution of Belarusian lands. The sacralization of the black stork is associated with the hope of continuing life and salvation from disaster.

Conclusions

The turn of the XX-XXI centuries represents a peculiar stage in the development of the Belarusian epic. During the formation and development of the independent Belarusian state, writers used national cultural codes that help to convey the necessary ideas to the reading audience in the most accurate way.

Among the cultural codes found in Belarusian prose that emphasize national labeling are "partisan forest", "kuzhal", "cornflower", "Belarusian partisan", etc. With the help of the kuzhal code, the value of family, family, native land in the novel cycle by V. Gnilomedov is shown. The code of the partisan forest in Belarusian literature is associated not only with the events of the Great Patriotic War, but also with the perception of the forest as a place of freedom, a refuge for people who, in a situation of confusion and loss of an accepted sovereign, can show belligerence, sometimes combined with self-sacrifice. Animalistic and floral codes are present in the works of modern Belarusian prose writers when showing the spiritual aspects of society, to reveal the meanings in the dyad "friend – foe". The color codes related to the white–black–red triad are associated with the semiotization of a person's life path from birth to death.

The study of national cultural codes in Belarusian literature is aimed at determining the specifics of the national picture of the world reflected in the works of Belarusian writers.