MAN AND BEAST IN AIDAR ZAKIEV’S PROSE: THE ANIMALISTIC CODE AS A PRINCIPLE OF WORLD MODELLING

Abstract

The article deals with the animalistic code in the prose of Aidar Zakiev, a representative of the younger generation of Tatar writers of Bashkortostan. The aim of the study is to identify the principles by which animal images organise the artistic model of the world in his prose. The material of the study comprises the short stories “A Bee with Butterfly Wings”, “In the Land of People” and “Two Souls”. It has been established that animalistic imagery performs characterological, axiological and structural functions here, and that it is carried not only by the animal, but also by the human being placed in the position of an animal. The development of the device has been traced from a metaphor in the title, through a recurrent motif, to the animal’s point of view organising the narration. The behaviour of the animal becomes the measure of humanity: the wolf, traditionally understood as the patron of the clan, retains this semantics in Zakiev’s prose, whereas in a number of works of contemporary regional prose it is lost. The desacralization of the mythological image thus proves to be reversible.