REFERRING TO THE TOPIC OF ACTIVITIES OF THE DEAD IN THE DREAM SPACE, ACCORDING TO BELARUSSIAN FOLKLORE MATERIALS OF XIX-XXI CENTURIES

Abstract

The article investigates the narratives of dreams, which represent the dead in the Belarusian traditional culture. An important motif of dreams – the characters with intrinsic motivation for physical activities, or vice versa, a complete lack thereof. Various scenarios of interactions between "this" world and the "other" are depicted via phenomenal features of dream world space. It is important, that unlike real communications, the nature of this dialogue is permitted in terms of tradition. Visualization of the dead as active being in dream world, however, has limitations. The article contains analysis of the correlation of certain factors as well as freedom of activities of the dead in the stories about dreams. Using the samples of ethnographic recordings made by the autho herself, as well as by participants of ethnographic expeditions organized by Polotsk State University, were identified the main subjects of interactions of "living world" and "the other world" in dreams, reasons of the difficulties in this communication, as well as the functionality of dreams of this category in Belarusian traditional culture.