Жаночая вусная гісторыя (на матэрыяле аповеду старэйшай жыхаркі вёскі Гарэлкі Жабінкоўскага раёна)

Abstract

The article uses the case study method to examine the peculiarities of narrativization of everyday female experience of “folkloric personality” in history, which includes the pre‑war (“under the Polish Pans”) and post‑‑war (“under Soviet power”) periods. Particular attention is paid to comprehending the survival strategy of “simple rural toilers” in extreme periods of history presented explicitly and implicitly in the text. The text, which is immersed in cultural, social, temporal and spatial contexts, indicates the verbal means of representation of evaluative meanings. The relevance of this research is conditioned by the necessity to reveal on the specific field material of Belarus, the scientific issues of memory and trauma, narrativization of everyday experience of a person in history (including the subjective experience of “pre‑Soviet and Soviet life”), comprehension of “national memory” as a problem of self‑‑identification in the mass post‑‑Soviet consciousness, as well as various aspects of gender history (including the consideration of survival strategies of women of different social status in extreme conditions). The main objective of this article is to identify the peculiarities of narrativization of ideas about “big” and “small” history, in which the life of a woman – an outstanding “folkloric personality” – is inscribed. The author transcribed and edited a recording (2023) of a conversation with a local resident of the Zhabinka district, and the resulting “oral history” material was interpreted using elements of narrative analysis, gender studies, and the case study method. It is shown that the ideas and images of oral historical (and at the same time biographical, moral, religious, psychological) narrative are formed under the influence of various mytho‑‑folklore, symbolic and epistemological factors.