BYLICHKA

BYLICHKA is a folklore genre, a short story about a person meeting a supernatural creature. The narration is told on behalf of the main character by his friend, and the plausibility of the story is the organizing aesthetic basis of the genre. The main purpose of the narrator is to express a tense psychological situation. B. appeared in ancient times and its origin is connected with the personification of nature, beliefs in good and evil spirits (see Animism). The plot of B. describes different places and times. Common places are a dark forest, a bank of a river or a lake, a ravine, a cemetery, etc.; common time is night, dawn, twilight. The climax of B. is the moment when a person meets a supernatural creature (azhdakha, albasty, bi- sura, host-spirits, myaskay, shaytan, etc.) There are 2 types of them, according to ethnic concepts: evil, extremely dangerous demons and conditionally harmless, kind spirits. The latter were also considered as dangerous crea­ tures if people did not comply with certain prohibitions. B. is common for many Turkic­ speaking peoples.

F.A. Nadrshina