Research Article

THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE

Number: 121 March 21, 2025
RU KK TR EN

THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE

Abstract

The article studies the image of earthquakes in Tatar folklore and literature. The study revealed a range of Tatar vocabulary related to the earthquake theme. We prove that the small amount of language material under consideration сan be explained by the fact that the Republic of Tatarstan is located in a weakly seismic zone, so its inhabitants both in ancient times and now could rarely witness this natural disaster. The study revealed the predominance of the sworn expression «zhir upsyn» (may I fall through the earth) in the vocabulary, which is closely related to sinkholes in karst, which have the character of craters, caves, subsidences, saucers, basins, karst ditches and lakes in our republic. This oath has penetrated from oral speech into the works of oral folk art and literature. Descriptions of earthquakes are found in Tatar folk tales and toponymic legends. In them, this natural element is described as a terrible disaster, the finger of fate, God's providence, God's punishment, punishment for sins. This didactic message and religious discourse will find its place later in literary works. The first Tatar work, dedicated to the earthquake in Sicily, dates back to 1913. It is written in the genre of bayt (a poetic work) and its author was a sailor or a merchant. The work contains a description of the destroyed city and an operation to rescue survivors. The witnesses of the earthquakes in Crimea and Tashkent expressed their impressions in the genre of memories. In his novel, “The Japanese Tatar” V. Imamov (2003) describes the earthquake in 1928 in Tokyo. Ramis Aymet and Saniya Akhmetzyanova responded in a poetic form to the tragedy of 2023 that happened in Turkey. In addition to the realistic pictures of destruction, they contain observations of the people’s behavior in a critical situation. These artistic texts are united by the didactic message of the authors, who consider the earthquake as a terrible warning to a person mired in sin and pride. In addition to realistically and reliably portrayed images of destruction, they contain observations of the behavior of people in critical situations. This is the moral potential of these works.

Keywords

References

  1. Aguoru, D. (2013). Japanese Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Storms as Archetypal Symbols: an Explication of Kamo no Chōmei’s The Earthquake, The Tale of Heike, Rai Sanyō’s Hearing of the Earthquake in Kyoto and the Great East Japan Earthquake. Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, (14), 272–280.
  2. Butanaev, Yu.V., Ovsyuchenko, A.N., Sugarokova A.M. (2018) Pervye rezul'taty istoriko-seismologicheskogo analiza tuvinskogo fol'klora dlya ocenki seismicheskoi opasnosti Respubliki Tuva, Novye issledovaniya Tuvy, N. 3, 190-204.
  3. Çevirme, H. (2020). “A cultural approach to earthquake coping strategies: examples of Turkish folk poems and memorates September 2020”, Motif Akademi Halk Bilimi Dergisi, 31(13), 1073-1087.
  4. Chernenko, Ya.V. (2018) Velikie zemletryaseniya v Yaponii v literature XX v. (Great earthquakes in Japan in the literature of the 20th century) Problemy zarubezhnogo regionovedeniya: politika, ekonomika, kul'tura. Novosibirsk: Novosibirskij Gosudarstvennyj Tekhnicheskij Universitet.
  5. Clancey, G. (2006). Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. XIII.
  6. Imamov, V. (2014). Yapon Tatary (Japan Tatar) Imamov V. Zhidegen. Kazan.
  7. Isanbet, N. (1967) Tatar Miflary, (N. Isanbәtnen arhivy). Kulyazma.
  8. Jun Tang. (2011). Ezra Pound’s The River Merchant’s Wife: Representations of a Decontextualized “Chineseness”. Meta: Translators' Journal, Vol. 56, N. 3, 526-537.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

North-West (Kipczak) Turkic Dialects and Literatures, Turkish Folklore Outside Türkiye

Journal Section

Research Article

Early Pub Date

March 19, 2025

Publication Date

March 21, 2025

Submission Date

January 28, 2025

Acceptance Date

March 11, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Number: 121

APA
Khabutdinova, M., Ashrapova, A., & Aksoy, G. (2025). THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE. Türkoloji, 121, 41-64. https://doi.org/10.59358/ayt.1628446
AMA
1.Khabutdinova M, Ashrapova A, Aksoy G. THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE. Türkoloji. 2025;(121):41-64. doi:10.59358/ayt.1628446
Chicago
Khabutdinova, Mileuşe, Alsu Ashrapova, and Gülüse Aksoy. 2025. “THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE”. Türkoloji, nos. 121: 41-64. https://doi.org/10.59358/ayt.1628446.
EndNote
Khabutdinova M, Ashrapova A, Aksoy G (March 1, 2025) THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE. Türkoloji 121 41–64.
IEEE
[1]M. Khabutdinova, A. Ashrapova, and G. Aksoy, “THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE”, Türkoloji, no. 121, pp. 41–64, Mar. 2025, doi: 10.59358/ayt.1628446.
ISNAD
Khabutdinova, Mileuşe - Ashrapova, Alsu - Aksoy, Gülüse. “THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE”. Türkoloji. 121 (March 1, 2025): 41-64. https://doi.org/10.59358/ayt.1628446.
JAMA
1.Khabutdinova M, Ashrapova A, Aksoy G. THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE. Türkoloji. 2025;:41–64.
MLA
Khabutdinova, Mileuşe, et al. “THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE”. Türkoloji, no. 121, Mar. 2025, pp. 41-64, doi:10.59358/ayt.1628446.
Vancouver
1.Mileuşe Khabutdinova, Alsu Ashrapova, Gülüse Aksoy. THE THEME OF EARTHQUAKES IN TATAR FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE. Türkoloji. 2025 Mar. 1;(121):41-64. doi:10.59358/ayt.1628446