E-mail: o.shepelyova@gmail.com Tel.: + 380 (71) 375-97-89
32, Zhelannaya str., 83001, Donetsk, DPR
Senior Lecturer, Department of History of Russian Literature and Theory of Philology, Donetsk National University
Based on the records of international student folklore and ethnographic expeditions of the Donetsk National University to the Upper Don at the beginning of the 21st century, the article examines the concepts of the deceased, that function both in the funeral and memorial ritual context, and in dream interpretation, demonology, and medical practice.
The folklore image of the deceased is one of the most common on the Upper Don. The field material showed that its specificity depends on the functional context, which affects the external and essential characteristics of the deceased, as well as determines the nature of his relationship with a relative. The material in the article is based on the sequence of events (death — dreams/ phenomena), which is also related to the functional context: the dead person appears in a dream and asks for the necessary thing after a “ritual error” during burial, and the “living” dead person walks and takes away the person who misses him and can not let him go.
Special attention is paid to the image of the “living” dead. So, on the Upper Don, this demonological character does not always correspond to the type of mythological lover. In the archive of expeditions there are records of longing not only for a husband, but also for a blood relative (pa- rent and child, sisters’ relationship).
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