MYTHOPOETICS OF THE FOX SPIRIT IN THE SHORT STORIES OF B. M. YULSKY AND PU SONGLING

Abstract

The article is devoted to the hermeneutic and comparative analysis of the short story The Fox’s Footprint (1939) by the Russian writer of the Harbin diaspora B. M. Yulsky. The mystical, mythological, adventure aspects are studied. The image of the fox spirit in Chinese culture, in particular, in the collection of stories Liao Zhai zhi yi (17th century) by the Chinese writer Pu Songling, is researched. The emphasis is placed on the cult of immortal foxes in Manchuria in the 19th — first half of the 20th century. It is proved that in his prose Yulsky relied on the eastern cultural context and thereby created the authorial frontier mythology, expressing it in the genre of the mystical-adventure story.