ПАТРИОТИЧЕСКОЕ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЕ САМОСОЗНАНИЕ: ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКИЙ ОБЗОР (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ШОТЛАНДСКОЙ ПОЭЗИИ ХІІІ−ХX ВВ.)

Научная статья
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18454/RULB.2020.24.4.3
Выпуск: № 4 (24), 2020
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Аннотация

В данной публикации рассмотрены теоретические аспекты национально-патриотического дискурса на материале шотландской поэзии ХІІІ−ХX вв. Детально рассматриваются два таких ключевых аспекта, как: национальная самоидентификация поэтов Шотландии и персонажей их поэзии; а также текстовые формы, воплощающие эту самоидентификацию. В статье приводятся данные тезаурусного, контекстуального и мифопоэтического (или мифологического) методов анализа. На базе нескольких аналитических методов определены ключевые концепты и аргументы, по которым можно отнести тот или иной литературный текст к национально-патриотическому дискурсу; выяснены через какие конкретные текстовые элементы эти концепты себя манифестируют. Рассмотрена модель мифоанализа на текстовом примере − анонимные стихи ХIII века, рисующие бедствия Шотландии после гибели короля Алекзандера III (1286). Детально исследуются понятия «Родина», «народ», «национальное», «национальный патриотизм», «нация этническая», «нация политическая», «государство» и «граждане», а также основные субъекты шотландского национально-патриотического дискурса.

Introduction

The purpose of this publication is to discuss the theoretical aspects of national-patriotic discourse, and above all, the debatable aspects. Only two key (from our point of view) aspects were chosen, namely: 1) the national identity of both the poets of Scotland and the characters of their poetry; 2) the text forms that embody this self-identification.

Methods

There are many scientific methods by which the given problem is solved. We have selected three methods of analysis: 1) thesaurus; 2) contextual; 3) mythopoetic (or otherwise, mythological). Preliminary experiments with them have shown that these methods help to formulate initial hypotheses much more quickly and accurately, and to come to certain preliminary conclusions based on the tasks of our research. These tasks are: 1) to identify the key concepts that can be used to refer a particular literary text to the national-patriotic discourse; 2) to find out through which specific text elements (including mythostructures) these concepts manifest themselves; 3) to outline the list of theoretical difficulties that arise while solving the first two problems.

The concept of “national” has undergone a long, centuries-old evolution. The most important frontier in its understanding was the end of the XVIII century, to be more precisely − the era of the French revolution and its ideology. It was just the time when the concept of “nation” was put forward and the accompanying concepts of “state” and “citizens” were named. Since then, what in Slavic languages and cultures is covered by the concept (otherwise − a social term-concept) “nationality”, for the “atlantic” world is divided into “political nation” and “ethnic nation”. For the concept “state” concept “homeland” is opposed, and for the concept of “(co)citizens” − the concept of “people”. Political patriotism, in our opinion, is more appropriate to call “(civil) loyalty”, and the term in connection with the concepts of “homeland” and “people” is considered “national patriotism”.

Hypotheses. 1. Ethnopatriotism (unlike patriotism of the political itself) is based on much deeper layers of ethnic consciousness and ethnic behavior.

2. It demonstrates typical features of the ancient mythological/mythopoietic mentality. Namely: 1) lococentric, 2) nostrocentric, 3) syncretic.

2.1. Logocentricity − we understand it as the orientation of this ethnic culture on the parameters and values, focused primarily in space and not in time.       2.2. Nostrocentricity (the term of Prof. Novilova M.A.) means the culture and its texts focused on “us”: on “our land”, “our race (people)”, our “language”, our “heroes”, etc. 2.3. Syncretism implies that different types of pictures of this world (and hence different ethnodiscourses) still exist in undivided unity. In other words, for ethnic consciousness, patriotism can be neither a purely scientific concept, nor an exclusively traditional behavioral prescription, nor only a myth-motive, nor a “poetic (lyrical) experience”. It covers all spheres of perception, thinking and activity of a person as a member of an ethnocollective, and therefore all its discourses and all its texts. In some types of texts/genres it can be thematically dominant, in others – the peripheral, or only marginal.

Let's check the hypotheses that are put forward using the methods: 1) thesaurus analysis; 2) contextual analysis; and 3) mythopoetic analysis.

1.2. Thesaurus and contextual analysis. Let's bring together the most nationally significant localities, events, personalities (and hence the literary heroes who represent them). In the Scottish version this list looks like this:

I. Religious subcontext. 1) St. Columba, christianizer of the Picts (VI century); 2) St. Mungo, christianizer of the Scots (VI century); 3) St. Margaret I, Queen of Scots, reformer of the Church and socio-cultural life of the country (XI century); 4) martyrs and preachers of the reformation (XVI-XVII centuries), including the ideology of the Scottish “reformers”, a preacher and a theologian John Knox (XVI century)).

II. Political subcontext. 1) Fergus, chief of the Irish Scots who migrated to Scotland (beginning of the IV century); 2) Aiden, king of Dalriada, the first Kingdom of the Scottish Scots (VII century); 3) Kenneth I of the (Mac) Alpin dynasty, king of Alba, the first United Kingdom of the Picts and Scots (IX century); 4) Malcolm III of the Canmore dynasty, husband of St. Margaret, the reformer king (XI century); 5) King Robert I of The Brusov and sir Walter Wallace, leaders of the national resistance and the struggle for political independence of Scotland (the end of XIII-the beginning of XIV centuries); 6) Queen Mary I of the Stuart dynasty, a rival of Elizabeth I of England from the Tudor dynasty, who was executed by her (XVI century); 7) Charles Edward Stuart (“the Younger Pretender”, “Handsome Charlie”) – the leader of the last armed revolt of the Scots against England and the last pretender to the Scottish throne from the Stuart dynasty (XVIII century)).

III. Cultural subcontext: 1) major Scottish writers: William Dunbar (XV century), Robert Burns (XVIII century), Walter Scott (XIX century), Hugh Mac Diarmid (XX century); 2) the most famous Scottish navigators and explorers: participants in the Viking campaigns (XI-IX centuries), Wood (XVI century), McKenzie, Park, sir Charles Murray (XVIII−XIX centuries); 3) the most famous Scottish seers, philosophers, scientists: Thomas Learmonth, Earl (Earl) Ersildunsky (XIII century), John Duns Scott (XIII century), Michael (Michael) Scottish (XV century), Adam Smith, David Hume, James Watt (XVIII century) [4], [5].

These are the main characters (or otherwise – the actors, or, in terms of conceptualism, the main subjects) of the Scottish national-patriotic discourse. If we talk about the main events (in terms of the same conceptualism − predicates) of this discourse, then, observing the proposed classification, we will name the following realities.

I. Religious subcontext. 1) Change of religions: paganism → Christianity (IV-VI centuries A.D. and further on). 2) Change of Church organization: an independent Celtic Church formed on the principles of Eastern (Catholic) Orthodoxy, based on the Middle East traditions of monastery, preaching, mentoring (IV−XIII centuries) → The Roman Catholic Church, which rebuilt the Church-administrative and confessional life of Scotland on the basis of strict hierarchy and strict theological, ceremonial and administrative discipline (XIII-XVI centuries). 4) Change of the dominant denominations: Catholicism → Protestantism (XVI-XVIII centuries), with an intermediate version, the Scottish Episcopal Church (late XVI-early XVIII centuries). 5) Trials of people accused of witchcraft; these processes affected the spiritual life of the country (late XIV-early XVIII centuries)).

II. Political subcontext. 1) Stages of consolidation of Scotland as a territory and as a state, and the Scots themselves – first as an ethnic, and then as a political nation. Among them – the Union of a) the Scottish Scotts with the inhabitants of the North of Scotland (Caledonia), Picts (XI c.) b) the Scots and the Picts to the third Celtic ethnomuseum of Scotland, the Britons (XI c.); c) all areas of Scotland into a single state (XI−XV cc.). 2) The struggle for independence against external enemies: a) the Romans (I−IV centuries), b) the angles and Saxons (V−VII centuries), c) the Normans (Vikings) (VIII−XI cc.); d) Norman (XI−XII centuries.); e) the English (from the XIII century). 3) The struggle for internal unity of Scotland, against strife: a) rivalries of clans / clans, tribes/tribal unions (the end of 2-nd Millennium B.C. to the IX century A.D.), b) competition of pretenders to the Scottish throne (IX-XVI centuries), c) the confrontation of individual social groups of different orientations: “traditionalists” and “modernizers”, “isolationists” and “European integrators”: (XVII−XXI centuries).

Finally, the most culturally marked, and therefore myth-generating places of action in the national patriotic discourse are such cultural symbols and realities as: 1) Shrines, temples, chapels, and monasteries. 2) Burial complexes, cemeteries, graves of legendary and historical persons. 3) the historical capitals of Scotland: a) Scone, b) Dunfermline, c) Aberdeen, d) Edinburgh. 4) Residences of rulers, spiritual and cultural "fathers of the nation", prominent figures of Scotland. 5) Places of the most fateful battles for Scotland, among them: a) at the village and river Bannockburn (1314); b) on Flodden field (1513); c) near mount Braemar and the village of Culloden (1746). 6) Natural realities: famous a) forests and parks; b) meadows and steppes; c) swamps and heaths; d) islands, capes, cliffs, sea caves; e) straits and bays (fjords); f) sources, mouths, bends and fords of rivers; g) lakes, springs and waterfalls; h) the most remarkable hills, rocks, mountain peaks and mountain caves; i) some stones and/or “prehistoric” stone complexes (mounds, dolmens, menhirs, etc.).

In accordance with the lococentric thinking of the ancients, the marked places “attract” some events, and these events, in turn, “demand” heroes that are adequate to them, with adequate properties: magic (for paganism) or spiritual (for Christianity).

2. Mythopoetic analysis. After such a ”national-patriotic map” has been compiled, we will try to determine: how does the literature of Scotland consist of individual national realities and symbols, characters, plots and plot motifs, not just “national color”, but “national myth”? Thus, we will use additional analytical methods, and first of all, the method of mythopoetic (mythological) analysis. As a classification for such analysis, it is convenient to use the division of mythological material into myths, anti-myths and counter-myths (the idea of prof. M.A.Novikova [8], [9], [10]).

2.1. Anti-myth is considered to be the myth of a hostile / alien otherworld (anti-world). 2.2. Counter-myths are myths of “own” world, “own” literature, but focused on the criticism of its short, well-established national system. Thus, a dynamic scale (or paradigm) is being built, along which national myth-making moves: from the stage of “constructive” ethnogenic activity (nationogenic myths) – to the stage of further development, and then, mass assimilation of this “own” mythosystem (culturogenic myths) – and even further, to the stages of their genotypization, and finally, to their anachronization. This creates, on the one hand, nostalgia, a conservative longing for the “good old days” and their myths. On the other hand, modern times actualize the need for counter-myths that critically overestimate the main ethno-and sociomyphs of given people.

Such crisis situations are familiar to the literature of Scotland. Thus, summary anthologies of Scottish poetry (see, for example, [1], [2], [3], [6], [7], [11] etc.) record both types of crossings across the border that separates non-national antimyphs from intra-national countermyphs. Markers, which still continues to divide these two varieties ethnomythology, serve: 1) addressers, and 2) addressees of these neomyphs, as well as 3) the nature of their acceptance/rejection of this national (and/or national-state) community.

Let's test the proposed model of mythoanalysis on a text example. There are anonymous poems of the XIII century, depicting the disasters of Scotland after the death of king Alexander III (1286), the last ruler of the Canmore dynasty. The author depicts the time of troubles after his death in the spirit of eschatological myth – as “the small end of the world”. From the country “went <...> peace and quiet”, and with them the prosperity of the people. Social problems had caused not only social but also cosmic chaos. “Every fruit that is poured out” fell to the ground; “both our bread and our ale have lost their power”; the negative transformation has affected even natural substances: “the gold metal turned to lead.” (In reality, this line means: during periods of changing of dynasties, the country becomes catastrophically poor; this leads to the issuance of inferior currency and the disappearance of expensive items from use).

However, this text is not, in our opinion, a model of a national anti-myth or a national counter-myth. Our arguments are: 1) The addresser of the text, its author, associates himself with “our”, not “someone else's” world. (Compare “our king”, “our bread”, “our land”); 2) Its addressee, those to whom this text is addressed, are also “our” people and even, in some ways, “our” Lord God, since he is asked to “save and have mercy” on “our” land. 3) The author would like to restore “our world” in the way it was before the ethnocrashing – the original Scottish world, where “everything <...> is in love, loved”. There is certainly a nostalgic, but also quite “correct” myth: the retro myth of “good old Scotland”.

Conclusion.

Let's sum up some results concerning the theoretical side of the problem and the prospects for its further study.

1. Patriotic national identity is based primarily on the concepts of “homeland” and “people”.

2. Both of these concepts are used in the literature with a significant concretizer – “own (“our”) Homeland” and “your (“our”) people”.

3. The most controversial here: 1) the semantic scope and 2) the emotional and evaluative content of these concepts, and in particular– 3) the volume and evaluability of their concretizer (“our” and its variants).

4. Who, and what kind of  homeland, what kind of people – “our” – just reveal several indicators. 1) Selection of textual realities, significant names, and leitmotif symbols that are put forward in strong textual positions. 2) Including them in the picture of the “own/other” world with the help of the pronominal concretizer “own/our” (in later literature – also “my”).

5. The most complex version of national-patriotic identity is represented by texts embodying counter-myths. The picture of “their” world is seen as if “not their” (or not quite “their”) eyes.

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