History and Poetics of the Karachay-Balkarian Riddle

Introduction. The riddle which reflects the world outlook of the people is a popular genre in the Karachay-Balkar folklore. However, the richest materials collected over decades have not been studied so far. The present study aims at examining the history and poetics of the Karachay-Balkar riddle drawing on the works of leading foreign and Russian theorists. This has involved i) the discussion of the socio-cultural factors that were conducive to the emergence of the genre, ii) the description of the five principal thematic circles, iii) the analysis of the key structural formulas of the Karachay-Balkar riddle, and iv) the description of the expressive language of the puzzle. Data and research methods. Academic collections, including pre-revolutionary sources, were used as the database for the research, which involved comparative-historical, system-structural, semiotic, textological, and analytical methods. Results. The Karachay-Balkar puzzle may be seen as a bilateral artistic subculture, with one side facing the archetypal invariant, and the other characterized by variability, granted the historical and geographical contexts, the landscape of the North Caucasus, the life, and the culture of the highlanders. The conceptualization of the world in riddles involves five main ontological conceptual spheres: anthropocentric, ethnocultural, natural, cosmogonic, mental, and ethical. The riddle images are most often associated with ethnically marked objects. The distinct character of the Karachay-Balkar riddle is due to frequent use of rhymed poetic forms, verse formulas, proper names, as well as to a wealth of their expressive devices (metaphor, comparison, alliteration, antithesis, sarcasm, and humor). Also, the riddles have a great pedagogical potentiality. Conclusions. The analysis of the Karachay-Balkar riddles resulted in identifying the distinct features in the conceptualizations of the world by the North Caucasian highlanders, as well as in drawing a picture of their values in the material and spiritual spheres.

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