Academic literature on the topic 'Cycle werewolf'

This study, based on ethnographic, linguistic, and folk materials, describes and interprets Buryat ideas of birds. The analysis of lexical data reveals the principal groups of birds according to the Buryat folk classification. The bat’s status is indistinct, since bats are not subordinate to the kings of the animal world. Diagnostic criteria underlying the classification of birds are outlined. The main criterion was whether a bird was beneficial or harmful. Ornithomorphic images in Buryat mythology, folklore, and ritual are described. Cult birds and bird totems are listed, and relics of local bird cults (those relating to swan, goose, duck, pigeon, and eagle) are revealed. Birds with positive connotations are the swan, crane, swallow, pigeon, eagle, and eagle-owl. Those with negative connotation are the kite, raven, crow, quail, cuckoo, and hoopoe). The attitude toward ducks, hawks, magpies, and jackdaws is ambivalent. Certain birds (ducks and ravens) were related to cosmogonic ideas; others (swan, goose, eagle, etc.) were endowed with a werewolf capability. The raven, the cuckoo, and the hoopoe symbolized natural cycles, whereas the magpie and the quail were associated with the soul. The role of bird images in the mytho-ritual practices is discussed. The Buryat mythological ideas reflected not only specific ethnic views of certain birds, but also universal ones.

This article is devoted to the study of consumer society reflection in V.O. Pelevin‘s works published in the twenty-first century. There is an attempt to determine the main features of the consumer society to which the characters belong: dominance of focus toward to the satisfaction of private needs, the acquisition of material wealth as a means of achieving prosperity and happiness, the quality of consumed products (goods, services, etc.) determines the status of the consumer in society. V.O. Pelevin defines and ridicules capitalist culture using sarcasm and grotesque, demonstrating the image of consumer society exclusively in negative connotations. V.O. Pelevin reconstructs modern society, endowing it with the features of the world we are accustomed to, but absurdly creating his world of sellers and consumers included in a repeating cycle and changing roles depending on status within the framework of artistic reality. Aimed at revealing the author’s attitude to the consumer society and the novel characters’ attitudes to the object of study, selective analysis of a work fragments demonstrates the gradual inclusion of characters in the consumption culture and a deeper study of the phenomenon by the author. The article considers the consumer society reconstruction in the art world of the following works by V.O. Pelevin: novels Generation P, The Werewolf’s Holy Book, Svyashennaya kniga oborotnya, Empire V, Secret Views of the Fuji Mount, [Sekretnye vidi na goru Fuji], and a story Wind search record [Zapis‘ o poiske vetra]. Such a selective analysis reflects the transformation (which, depending on the point of view, can be called both evolution and degradation) of the consumer culture image and the position of the author may be determined.
 Keywords: consumer society, postmodernism, V.O. Pelevin, novels