Tiger mythology in the artistic ethnography of Venedikt Mart

The aim of this research is to identify the ways in which the mythological beliefs of the Chinese and Goldi (Nanai) people regarding the tiger are captured in V. Mart's artistic ethnography. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the introduction into scholarly discourse of previously unknown publications by Venedikt Mart of an artistic-ethnographic nature; the explication, within the examined texts, of elements of the ritual-mythological complex of the inhabitants of the Far Eastern frontier, at the center of which is the image of the Master of the Taiga – the tiger (Amba, Great Wang); and the investigation of the evolution and transformation of these images through the prism of the artistic, ethno-cultural, and socio-cultural perspectives of V. Mart across different periods of his work. The results demonstrate that the images and narratives of the "tiger mythology" of the Far Eastern frontier undergo a progressive development in Venedikt Mart's artistic-ethnographic texts throughout his career. Their reception is subject to changes in accordance with the evolution of the author's artistic techniques, as well as shifts in his socio-political and socio-cultural orientations. A profound immersion in the fundamental principles of the Chinese worldview enabled Mart to construct the plots of his works around the mythology of the tiger in its mystical variant. The "tiger mythology" of the Goldi (Nanai) people was utilized by the writer during the period of integrating his own artistic system into Soviet "literature of fact" and his endeavor to meet its demands. Detailed penetration into ethnographic works of that time and the occasional interpretation of the new Soviet genre conventions contributed to the birth of such a variation of the ethnographic story, in the center of the plot of which – the syncretization of the structure of a fairy tale and ethnographic realities. As a result, V. Mart creates a unique version of the ethnographic fairy tale in a new – "Soviet" – manner, while not distorting the essence of folk customs and traditions.