Mythopoetics of M. Mokaev: The Mountain Archetype

Examined the figurative realizations of one of the key archetypes in the poetics of M. Mokaev. The mountain, as a form of the material world, is an archetype of the ‘top’, symbolizing strength, connection with the divine. The path of spiritual enlightenment is associated with the motive of overcoming difficulties and trials. Mythological nominations act as carriers of value guidelines, correlate with the motive of inspiration, creative growth. In the poetry of the Balkarian writer, new information about the symbol is observed, presented in the form of author’s associations dating back to precedent texts. It is proved that the artistic system of M. Mokaev at a deep level is closely connected with the archaic ideas of the people, the cultural and historical chronotope. The correlation of spatial semantics with the mythological code is revealed in the poetic text through locative antitheses (profane/sacred, one’s own / someone else’s). As a result, it was revealed that the archetypal symbol of the mountain, on the one hand, is a fragment of an individual picture of the world, on the other hand, it interacts with universal categories and value orientations for world literature. The mythologem of the mountain contains not only a reference to myth as a text, but also goes back to myth as a genre, which creates a prerequisite for a mythological situation (‘life is an ascent’). Studying the poet’s idiostyle through the prism of the concepts of ‘archetype as a thought form’ (according to Yu. Lotman) allows us to penetrate more deeply into the author’s intent, to holistically present the artistic and aesthetic system of the writer.