Innovative meaning-generating structures in the early formation of a literary tradition: the case of Kosta Khetagurov
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2025-3-10
- Pages
- 154-168
Abstract
The article examines the conditions and mechanisms leading at an early stage of the formation of a literary tradition to the dependence of the innovative meaning of the word and its context. The translation of the title of Kosta Khetagurov‘s program verse “Nystwan”, which opens his poetic collection “Iron fændyr” (“Ossetian Lyre”), shows the fundamental differences between the semantics of this word in the ethnographic era and its modern interpretation. Further on, following Buslaev‘s fundamental idea that at its initial stage literature assumes not only secular, but also spiritual social obligations, it is possible to show that the title of the poem turns out to be a semantic intensifier, necessary to strengthen the imperative mood of the verb phrase “Nybbar myn!” (“Forgive (me)!”), which opens the verse. The word in the title is not only desemantized, but also loses its nominal features, at the same time acquiring verbal properties. As a result, the boundary, which should run between the title and the beginning of the poem, is blurred. At the same time, “Nystwan” acquires a special emotional strength, which puts it on a par with the verbal and interjective titles so characteristic of Kosta Khetagurov's poetry. This ‘blurring’ is due to the need to bring to a common denominator both Christian theological concepts, in this case, of a sacrifice, and also the ideology of the Ossetian spiritual tradition, which reveals itself in prayer and ritual tradition in general. It is also concluded that, in terms of semantics, Kosta Khetagurov, proceeds from the etymological meanings of the word ‘nystwan’, interpreting it as an Ossetian analogue of the historical and theological term ‘church tradition’, as a kind of ‘divine institution, rule’. The transition from folklore to literature itself is considered within the framework of the distinction proposed by Yu. M. Lotman between the aesthetics of sameness and the aesthetics of contradiction.