Colour terms in Russian healing charms as expressions of illness and health

Abstract

Healing charms have been in use for more than a thousand years and are part not only of Russian folklore, but also of the Russian folk healing system.

This thesis explores the semantics of colour terms in healing charms, where these charms are conceptualised as part of the healing knowledge of the Russian people and as such exemplify the concepts of illness and wellness in that folk tradition. This study focuses on a selection of healing charms from Northern Russia as this archaic Slavic area is an important part in the Slavic ethnogenesis. The thesis examines the evaluative and symbolic meanings of colour terms in the research data and their broad spectrum of connotations in the healing charm texts. It documents and interprets the way the participants in the healing process attempted to make sense of the world in its complexity and depth through healing words and actions.

Combining Anglophone and Russian-speaking scholarship, the study is based on two main academic fields: folkloristics and colour semantics. It also draws on the fields of medical anthropology, literary studies, and linguistics. This facilitates the exploration of colour terms within the framework of both the Russian folk worldview and the charm world, while also analysing charm language as speech act.

This study adopts Berlin and Kay’s (1969) four primary criteria for Basic Colour Terms as well as Davis and Corbett’s (1995) elicitation and mapping procedures. These enable us to carry out an in-depth investigation of colour terms in healing charms and to uncover the cultural and medical significance of references to colour in these texts.

This thesis offers new insights into the semantics of colour terms as part of healing knowledge and their functioning in the process of healing.

This thesis also offers English-speaking scholars the opportunity to become acquainted with a corpus of Russian healing charms from Northern Russia since very few charm texts have been published in English translation.