Animal Images in Tuvan and Kyrgyz Fairy Tales in Soviet Russian-Language Translated Editions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2025.3.19Keywords:
Tuvan folklore; Tuvan fairy tale; Kyrgyz folklore; Kyrgyz fairy tale; animal image; image of the fox; image of the hare; image of the wolfAbstract
This article examines the images of animals in Tuvan and Kyrgyz folk tales published as Russian-language translations during the Soviet period. The comparative analysis of animal images is conducted with consideration of the corresponding prism of Russian linguistic culture. The relevance and novelty of the study lie not so much in identifying animal images in the fairy tales of the two related linguistic cultures but rather in analyzing the unification of artistic perception of the imagistic range within a single Russian linguistic culture.
The most popular fairy tale animals in the analyzed translated fairy tales of the two ethnic cultures are the fox, the hare, and the wolf.
In the Russian interpretation of Tuvan tales, the image of the fox is conveyed through its craftiness and is represented within the characteristic of being “cunning”, whereas in the Russian-language translations of Kyrgyz tales, it centers around the concepts of “deception” and “punishment”, which ultimately lead to the characterization of the fox as “punished”. The image of the hare in the Russian translations of Tuvan and Kyrgyz tales is presented from two perspectives: the first — boastfulness, leading to the characterization of “bluffing”, and resourcefulness, which ensures the functioning of the characteristic “clever” within Russian linguistic culture. The naivety and gullibility of the wolf in translations of both Tuvan and Kyrgyz tales into Russian is defined by the general characterization as “stupid”.
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Sultanova Zh. O. Animal Images in Tuvan and Kyrgyz Fairy Tales in Soviet Russian-Language Translated Editions. New Research of Tuva, 2025, no. 3, pp. 317-332. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2025.3.19
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