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in the sea, has old literary tradition – from antiquity (Alkey) and romanticists (Coleridge “The Rime of the Ancient mariner”, Lermontov “From Tsejdlitsa”) and to known “The Bateau Ivre” of Rimbaud. However, these images of Russian and Scottish literature embody something more, than tragedy of the lonely person – it’s the universal destiny of mankind.

Denis Glover, who has visited Murmansk in 1976, remembers the war time in a poem “For the Woman from Murmansk”. He emotionally describes the severe conditions of the Polar region and heroism of English marines: “We battled / as devils with the bitter sea storm and Germans. / Now I am much more senior, than was then. / But the Polar icy cold is memorable to me!”

War theme in works by frontline writers preserved traditional for the Kola North literature images of severe snowy nature and Russian national character as it was regarded by the past-time writers. It revealed itself brighter in extreme war situation and the heroic pathos was emphasized. Soviet and European writers have more in common describing the war theme in the Kola North. North is depicted as a universal image of the pole of cold and darkness, as a severe and dangerous world (icy sea, snow-clad mountains). War gives birth to chaos and death, however people are united by frontline brotherhood and the writers are united by equal respect to human values. A man, regardless his nationality, become not a victim but equally great to his tragic and heroic destiny.

§ 5. Modern Sami literature: Oktyabrina Voronova, Askold Bazhanov, Nadezhda Bolshakova in the context of national identity

Heyday of literature, in general, contributed to birth of contemporary literature of the Kola North indigenous Sami people and in 2010 it turned 20 years. Sami literature exists both in Russian and Sami. Some of contemporary Sami writers are not only literate but also have acquired higher education and experience in big cities of Russia. In late 1970s a teacher from Lovozero Alexandra Antonova composed a Sami letter book and translated into Sami creations by Bazhanov and Bolshakova and some poems of Russian poets. The Kola Sami prose and poetry have preserved their identity both in contents and imagery to traditional, century’s long mode of life and “arctic civilization” created by them. Researchers into Sami literature (Panteleeva, Bolshakova, Smirnov) distinguish general motives and main themes in Sami writers works and, according to a remarkable poet Oktyabrina Voronova, they are “the sun, tundra, river, mother, father, land” and, of course reindeer and “reindeer people”.

L. Panteleeva assumes that mythology defines the base of the Sami people spiritual consciousness. Sami writer’s world perception has preserved folklore origins. Askold Bazhanov was the first Sami poet who wrote a collection of poems about reindeer people (Sami). Askold Bazhanov, a man who worked all his life at an ore processing plant, nevertheless enchants in his poems the sun, northern

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nature, spolokhi (northern lights), and “the sun wind” gives birth to “green lights” and “above the frozen tundra rises the sun-The Big Star”. In his novel “The White Reindeer” the northern lights take a fellow to the sky who is searched for by his fiancée. In the works by Kola Sami contemporary civilization is reflected only when it menaces the life-circle and this is how, for example, appear the themes of war and depletion of land, tundra.

Let’s proceed to a talented Sami female poet Oktyabrina Voronova who is considered the first professional writer in Sami literature; many people assume that “Sami literature was born with her book of poems “Yalla”. Having received her higher education in Leningrad, the poet was influenced not only by Sami but also by Russian culture however the language of her poems is Sami, her native one as well as her world perception. Russian probably contributed to enriching of senses and imagery of her poems. Through Sami culture traditions and folklore imagery Oktyabrina Voronova renders the key idea of her poems – love for native land and its careful preservation, this is what her poem “The Land” is about:

I will say to anyone: Be a man,

And wherever you go –

Don’t harm your land! [Voronova, 1995, p. 126].

Land is both home and primordial northern nature and a feeling of freedom and happiness. The hero of Voronova’s poems has a subtle and rarely harmonic soul that understands the beauty of life and ordeals of destiny. When reading her poems one as if stands on a river bank or at the forest edge listening attentively to the clamour of water and rustling of trees, marveling at the play of colors, intonations, shades, feelings. In her poems there is a feeling of space, air and will. It is not surprising that well-educated and competent in Russian and European poetry Oktyabrina Voronova almost does not use citations, allusions and reminiscences from Russian or European poetry. Her gift of a poet naturally reflects national consciousness and ancient forms of nature personification beyond a foreign cultural context. And this means that in her native environment she uses the only possible Sami word and the only true metaphor for snow, reindeer, stone, sun, water, lichen, tundra… (the mountains are the Earth’s palms, the girl flitted like a grouse, luxuriant lichen was perfectly in keeping with the tundra, coming of autumn as if stroked with a fox’s paw tenderly green dresses of birches, in spring “your soul will blossom like snowdrops in the woods”)

[Ibid, p. 42, 45, 56, 57, 68, 74].

For example, the traditional literature context related to the word “stone” is a hindrance to the poet because stones are alive for her people: “the stones are silent, cold as dews of a frozen drop, as the moon’s breath”, moreover “people compare a brave heart to a stone” [Ibid, p. 83]. Which is an absolutely different meaning of the expression “a heart of stone” that exists in the European literature. The poetic Sami language of Voronova is aimed to preserve identity of the

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language itself and the mode of life it renders, as well as to express spontaneous feelings which stand beyond the symbols and metaphors generally accepted in traditional poetry. Probably for this reason Oktyabrina Voronova, who had a perfect command of Russian, preferred her poems were translated by others. In our opinion, best translations of her poems belong to a remarkable Murmansk poet Vladimir Smirnov who was, at the same time, a researcher into her poetry. Smirnov, who came from a local Pomor village of Teriberka, was a professional writer and a self-sufficient artist, a poet who touched upon acute topics of his days. His books are about seamen and war, nature and his small motherland, about friendship and the purpose of life. He has a different, manly poetic word but in his translations he surprisingly subtly preserves peculiarities of national mentality, imagery and emotional charge of Oktyabrina Voronova’s poems. Understanding that Iokanga Sami dialect is disappearing, he leaves without translation some Sami words which sometimes mean objects used in everyday life like a gem (“puinya” is a detail of reindeer harness). More often the sound of Sami words is poetically connected with the people’s idea of an object or phenomenon. For example, Voronova’s “chuzi”, a polar sparrow is “a piece of flesh, a handful of soil”, it chirps “chu-di, chu-di…” [Ibid, p. 110] it is smaller than other birds and defenseless and this word was left in the translation. In the poem “Ponoi” Smirnov left without translation the refrain of each line in Sami. The poems tell us about the main Sami river Ponoi and the expression “olme- vardem-yokgyn” means female guide of people, however the sound pattern of this phrase is more precisely rendered by “eagle’s screaming” in babbling of the river loping via stones.

First novel titled “Alhalalai” and written in Russian also appears in Sami literature, its author is Nadezhda Bolshakova, a founder and keeper of Oktyabrina Voronova museum in Revda and a member of Russia Writers Union. The author’s idea to unite traditional Sami culture realities and contemporary plot and thus to overcome ethnic historical isolation of Sami way of life seems interesting. The action takes place in the XVII and XX centuries and the main theme of the plot is that of love, which the author considers in gender aspect which makes the novel up-to-date. In the character of itelmen Lakhen, a beloved of Nastya, the main hero of the novel, the writer compares Russian minority peoples cultures and sees their similar features. Undoubtedly, a strong aspect of the novel is the author’s genuine and emotional admiration with the Sami people, its unique creativity. Nadezhda Bolshakova incorporates the Sami world into the major motherland; her characters discuss identity preservation of the Sami ethnicity and culture in the global world. It is more difficult because Sami native speakers gradually vanish as Sami, unlike Russian, is not a language in demand of the youth.

Contemporary Sami literature shows that aspiration to preserve national uniqueness is not a less active process than some destructive effects of multiculturalism. As we see, Russian culture and language do not suppress the Sami lan-

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guage but give a stimulus to literary creativity to the new generation that created alphabet, letter books and written language. Artistic consciousness of Sami writers even of that who writes in Russian, reflects his native world and national culture realities and the system of values connected with national identity is more sustainable than it is generally considered. In her article “15th anniversary of the

Sami literature” Nadezhda Bolshakova mentions quite a numerous group of

Sami authors with different fate in literature and she complains that there are few young writer and there is no due support from the State. However, interest in works by Kola Sami is great not least because their works are translated into many languages including Finnish and Scandinavian languages, English, German and even Vepps and Moksha languages.

§ 6. The Processes of globalization, identification and multiculturalism in the North as they reflect in the contemporary Literature:

Vitaly Maslov, Nicolai Kolychev, Paul Durcan

There is one more theme that entered the Kola North literature together with globalization processes – destruction of Pomors village “with its centuries long traditions, regular life and family principles” under pressure from civilization. Severe but uniquely beautiful northern nature dies, man loses his attachment to native places and moral orienteers in this complicated world” Such were key subjects in Vitaly Maslov’s (1936–2001) and Nicolai Kolychev’s works. Vitaliy Maslov came from a Pomors village of Semzha and after finishing a maritime school and several years at sea he was a chief of radio station at Lenin atomic icebreaker for more than 20 years. All his works – stories, novels, opinion journalism and poems-were dedicated to people’s life in a Pomor village, its traditional way of life and people bound with complicated relations. These are stories from his collection “Krutaya Dresva”, stories “Mutual Cover-up” and “From Hand to Hand” and his novel “Inner Market”. His Pomor characters are tightly attached to their native land and want to preserve both their village and connection with the sea and the strings connecting the past and the present. Pomors are proud of their seamanship. Mezens Kirill and Molchan Ruzhnikov took part in discovering of the Pacific Ocean, so did Isai of Mezens in Chukotka and Semen Dezhnev is known to everybody! In the story “Wedding” a Poor village named “Krutaya Dresva” was announced by its administration not perspective, Pomors left for different places and everyone found their own destiny, however they gathered together at their small motherland at a wedding, recollected the war and those who died and started arguing about the Pomor’s land fate. They decided to reestablish the collective farm but was it possible? Everyone – an officer, captain, navigator-already had their own life in the city. Morale and call of blood don’t let them leave their devastated native land: “more than once impassable stagnation and endless need made Pomors suppress in their soul the free wind of their fathers. But no sooner the life began to settle down

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and one could see something more than a loaf of bread than this loaf would grip the guts. And not butter but wind was in need then” [Maslov, 2004, vol. 2, p. 150]. Panteleeva writes that “Acute sense of truth rooted in ethic and ethnical people’s experience is inherent to Maslov. “He writes passionately and lyrically, using “live and infinitely diverse in its shades Pomor’s language” [Panteleeva, 2004, vol. 2, p. 156]. According to Maslov, man enters the world in his individual identity, his concept of people, as that of Tolstoy’s, is made up of multitude of destinies and volitions. The global world and civilization destroy what is most important in humans – moral attitude to their land and their people’s history. It is not by chance that it is Vitaly Maslov who becomes initiator of the Days of Slavic written language and culture revival in Russian.

Nikolai Kolychev is, undoubtedly, a poet of land; his traditions derive from Koltsov, Esenin, and Rubtsov. His imagery, range of metaphors, themes and intonations are Russian and Christian. It is love for life and motherland, compassion and sympathy to a human being, spiritual seeking that make the base of his poems.

Again under the sky in tears, sad rains Are sprawled-all over Russia

And I am roaming and from last yellow leaves Am kissing off the rain drops.

Save me, my land! I am so tired

Of living in evil. I am sick with thirst of revenge,

And you radiate goodness

Forgive me and teach to forgive.

The land’s end, the sea’s end, the world’s end…

This is the way I love you.

Not by chance was I born in this

Town on the very fringe [Kolychev, 2004, p. 300–305].

Kolychev’s lyrical hero is in search for moral sense of life, its natural beauty, he is responsive to good and somebody else’s grief and he is, in general, a traditional for Russian literature character who preserved identity to Russian national character in his conscientiousness and action.

However by the end of XX century the character of a Russian man living in the North loses its ideal feature in the eyes of European authors. The expected Future seemed surprisingly real for by the western account. We can speculate that North was effected by globalization processes, in modern civilization man is no longer dependent on nature, and his life became standard. It does not mean that national identity traits were lost but they are not fully demanded in this time and mode of life. In this sense an ironic and simultaneously lyrical poem “Zina in Murmansk” by a famous Irish poet Paul Durcan is interesting, it was written

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in mid 1980s. He visited Russia three times in 1986 however he had never been to Murmansk.

It is still unknown who had told him about an intelligent girl Zina, details of local life but he rendered with psychological precision a longing of a woman for a man with strong Russian northern character in which manliness, kindness and moral are not separable.

Educated Zina, live, cheerful, elegant after mastering typewriting was appointed to Murmansk –

This is a town where it is still possible To find a man of her dreams

of a relict race of men

who have lived the life of their ancestors for all these long thousands of years…

a man of mesolite period – to be a XX century husband!

Zina’s ideal is a combination of a Pomor peasant and a culture character. Here become evident echoes of those images that struck so much Nexø and Grieg in Russia.

He will catch Belomor sharks, And fowl white bears in the tundra

And in the evening in their log house

He will read for her Tolstoy, Valentine Rasputin, Chingiz Aitmatov and she meanwhile

Will darn his soaks Or handle the awl

Stitching his snow boots with a waxed thread…

But such men did not survive

In Murmansk and in Moscow as well. She has not found a single one, Mesolitically sexual

With not pasteurized blood.

Laughing at Zina’s dreams, Durcan describes her everyday occupations and “labour” of her boss:

She carries on correspondence of head of Belomor Steamship Company

In Komintern street, 18

While he, with his fourth wife, is busy

With every evening ritual: television and whoredom.

The poet regards Russian North as a standard part of the world civiliza-

tion:

Everything is the same From Murmansk to Batumi,

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From Novosibirsk to Shemakha…

He ends up his brooding about loss of northern mode of life and national identity with Zina’s thoughts about

Soon sharks and bears will die out – And so will women

Soon women will disappear at all.

And after midnight Zina asks herself: Am I the last alive woman in the world?

[Durcan, 1998, p. 102]

Search for heroes with “not pasteurized blood” who live in harmony with nature and conscience is next to most important in modern northern Russian and Norwegian literature. It is not by chance that characters of Vitaliy Maslov’s books are ready to refuse from personal benefit in order to restore their native village and the main character of Erlend Lo novel “Doppler” quits a prestigious job and even his family to live in the woods. However these actions are no more than personal attempts to survive and preserve national identity in the global world. Here appears a clash between civilization and nature where a human intuitively chooses severe space and not comfortable life. And now it is not about aspiration to explore this huge world as it was inherent to the Vikings or to make a beautiful dream of freedom and happiness come true – as it was desired by the Kola North inhabitants in first years after the revolution. Now western writers are unfortunately less interested in “mysterious Russian soul”.

Northern authors’ thoughts about identity preservation, search for spiritual kindred and preserving the imagery and archetypes peculiar to regional literature are in close contact with research into globalization processes and a marginal character. It should be noted that purely postmodernist works beyond real context are not inherent to the literature of northern countries. In works by many contemporary writers – Vitaliy Maslov, Oktyabrina Voronova, Erlend Lo, Hanna Erstavik one can recognize northern topics, traits of national character of those who live in the North. The Russian Kola North literature and literature of other Nordic countries remains a live process reflecting the world, changeable and at the same time stable in its origins.

§ 7. The dialogue between Northern cultures in the anthology of modern literature of the Barents-region “Here the Roads start”

Translation of literature in globalization era means not only a desire to get acquainted with new authors and a foreign culture but also aspiration to search for spiritual kindred, identity between those who live in the North. In this sense publication of anthology of the Barents region writers “Here the roads start” in

2001 was unprecedented because it included works by poets and writers from all

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the four countries and was translated into 7 languages (Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, North Sami, Tornedal Finnish and Nenetz). The project leader Gerda Helena Lindskog noted that authors from every region independently selected the material for the anthology. That’s why an observation of the editor Valery Lemesov is interesting which said that the book was holistic because all the authors were united by the idea that “North is a land where eternal call of the roots is stronger than any political borders” [Lemesov, 2001, p. 5–6]. He also adds that the book presupposed “a search for the roads that lie between people, cultures, these days and traditions”. It concerns understanding of literature role as a keeper of spiritual, moral and aesthetic contents of each ethnicity culture and its identity in general.

First of all the book represents a common model of northern world based on the image of northern nature and repeated life cycle, space, people, animals reflected in folklore. A Swedish writer Daga Nuberg in her poem “Oh, my North!” expresses the purpose of life in the North through familiar to everybody:

Oh, my North, a whole crystal world,

Where tread according to the sun and moon cycle.

An elk and a bear, a man and a whitefish,

A mountain finch and a lemming,

All are going in circle…

Here they reach to each other for saviour, Here only the language of love is understood.

There are no words for the deadly boredom of the North For the shade of the Earth axis,

For the white night and the miracle of Northern lights.

[Nuberg, 2001, p. 37]

Northerners are united in their attitude to nature: it is both a native land and endless cold space. About it are the poems by Sven Lokko and Victor Timofeev, Vladimir Sorokazherdiev, Niilo Rauhal, Jorm Etto. Nenetz and Sami authors often write about vulnerability of nature under the pressure of civilization. Civilization is also dangerous because it gives birth to spiritual impoverishment and aggression that’s why a topic of last war is tragic for many peoples. Together with these topic thoughts about spiritual and moral origins of life appear in the works of authors from different countries. In many stories we can see the idea of native culture and language value, endless loneliness of a man without his roots, that’s why there are so many interesting details from everyday life of each country and ethnicity. Selections of the texts from different countries also draw different national characters. Here appears a common idea of courageous and hardy northern people however its sternness only seems: life in severe nature fills up a man with emotions, desire to sacrifice, break the circle of loneliness, that’s why there are so many stories about love. Moreover, one can see an

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interest in another country and culture, this is how, for example, portraits of Russians are seen by Finns and Swedes.

Northern world, represented in this book has peculiar and clear cut external boundaries (unique imagery, range of themes reflecting realities of life in the North) and inner openness, peoples appeal to each other in search for mutual understanding and spiritual kindred.

CONCLUSION

In the conclusion we will notice that the identity assumes preservation of traditional themes, images, archetypes in the literature. It concerns also an image of national character and a circle of life. The modern Sami literature keeps the ethnic mentality and the myths of the reindeer people. In Russian literature all the processes become complicated. In the first half of the XX century the traditional model of northern life and national Russian character represented by the local writers resemble the same in the western authors’ works in many ways. The Second World War demands the identity of universal human values. In the second half of the XX century the Kola North literature reflects the globalization tendencies, the evolution and the break from tradition in understanding of the national identity, we can see new image of Russians through the eyes of regional and European writers. These processes are similar to the Nordic literatures. Thus multi-cultural and postmodernism tendencies are not popular in contemporary Kola land literature. Regional writers prefer to analyse the reality and the reasons of loosing identity. Nowadays we can see the opposing motion in literatures of northern countries to look for “northern identity”, to create a dialogue between cultures.

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Chapter 2. Man and the North in the Russian,

American and Norwegian Literature

Overview

The concept of the North consists of diverse and various features, it possesses both geopolitical and social, ethnocultural, and also as well as historical characteristics. The perception of the North changes in time and space, some stereotypes collapse, new images and senses are born. In our opinion, the literature reflects the image of the North in unity of its complicated and changing components, including philosophical, psychological and aesthetic understanding of Northland. Literature represents the North as a universal model of the world with constant characteristics of the Space, Nature, People and their Civilization and mythology.

Space is boundless, very cold and often deserted.

The Nature – in its romantic and majestic dimension – is deadly cold, with snow-covered hills and rocks, with a stormy sea and glaciers. The northern nature is mysterious. It breaks the rhythms of habitual development because of sunny nights and dark polar days. A northern country is the home for large number of animals and birds.

The North is the native land for various ethnic communities, indigenous population. – Sami people have been living here from the time immemorial, since the 13 century the Russian North has been occupied by the Pomors, today’s Norwegians are the descendants of ancient Vikings.

Styles of life, traditions, customs, mutual relations between the people, national character are defined by life in the North. The literature of the northern people from different countries, including the epos, has specific problems, the mutual themes, established literary images and traditions. We will notice that in this context we consider Norway and its literature as entirely belonging to the northern tradition. Literature reflects the identity of the people living in the North.

The main goal of the lecture is to represent an image of the North and the Man as reflected in the literature from the ancient days (from the sagas) to the contemporary global society in the context of evolution and constant values.

§ 1. The Theme of the North in Epics

The poetic representation of the North has an ancient tradition. An Icelandic sagas depict us harsh landscapes of the Arctic North and courageous Vikings, whose exploits are related not only to military victories, but the conquest of the nature. The basic characteristics of the North in sagas are: Time, Space, austere landscapes. The main heroes – Vikings flying on their ships to the coasts of Norway, Denmark, Greenland, America not counting the time, distances,

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