Abstract
The work of K.V. Ivanov «Narspi» is an artistic, but suffi ciently reliable ethnographic source about the life of Chuvash village of the late 19th – early 20th century. The poem has been reprinted many times. There are 31 copies of this work reissue in the funds of the « Chuvash Republic State archive of print», 9 of which were published in the Chuvash language in Moscow, Cheboksary and Kazan in 1919, 1930, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1967, 1976, 1993 and 1994. 2078 lines, collected in 14 chapters, create a story about the Chuvash culture and traditions. Referring to the various aspects of the life of the Chuvash, the peculiarities of farming or national representations, colorful examples and original descriptions are met. Researchers have repeatedly addressed and still address to this work, revealing new stylistic constructs, focusing attention on actual stories of today, but considering the poem only in terms of literature, but the text «Narspi» is fi lled with materials of ethnographic and folklore character as well. The author of the article for his part considers domesticated space created by the rural world. For the fi rst time settlements, houses, farm buildings and objects, shared by villagers, referred in the poem will be analyzed. The article mentions the structure of settlement and its street plan, the estate complex with residential and farm buildings, the internal organization of domestic space. The author’s style, narrating about Narspi and Setnera’s relationship and the Chuvash community as a whole, allows the reader to immerse himself in the village life of past centuries, thanks to the numerous ethnographic sketches, fi lling the content of the poem.
Keywords
«Narspi», poem, ethnography, Chuvash, traditions
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