In the Land of Giants: Eco-Mythology and Islamic Authority in the Post-Soviet Tatar Imagination

At the turn of the twenty-first century, giants occupied the imagination of occultists, neopagans, and nationalist writers. This article explores why those mythical colossi, a product of the pre-modern imagination, folklore, and childhood fantasy are still relevant to modern Tatars. More specificall...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Slavic review 2023-01, Vol.82 (1), p.137-158
Main Author: Kefeli, Agnès
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antiquity
Authority
Cartography
Childhood
Core curriculum
Curricula
Diaries
Fiction
Folklore
Genealogy
Geography
Guardians
Imagination
Islam
Literary criticism
Middle Ages
Mythology
Nationalism
Occult sciences
Postcommunist societies
Presidential elections
Religious identity
Sacredness
Secularism
Secularization
Sins
Towns
Urbanization
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Summary:At the turn of the twenty-first century, giants occupied the imagination of occultists, neopagans, and nationalist writers. This article explores why those mythical colossi, a product of the pre-modern imagination, folklore, and childhood fantasy are still relevant to modern Tatars. More specifically, it centers on Fäüziyä Bäyrämova, whose fiction stands prominently in environmental public-school curricula. This inquiry provides a literary genealogy of Tatar eco-mythology, while nuancing the previous assumption in literary studies that in its evolution, the gigantic has moved away from enchantment to secularization. Unlike medieval Anglo-Saxon giants who embodied the sins of humanity or represented the uncivilized “other,” Soviet giants were builders and guardians of Tatars’ Islamic sacred geography, threatened by urbanization and secularization. In Bäyrämova's reinterpretation, they reappear not only as guardians of a nationalist cartography, but also as transmitters of Islamic reform and orthopraxy. In both Soviet and post-Soviet contexts, giants emerge as conduits of religious authority.
ISSN:0037-6779
2325-7784
DOI:10.1017/slr.2023.97