Gastronomic Images in the Poetic Worldview of A. E. Kulakovsky

Abstract

The article examines the gastronomic code as a system-forming element of the poetic worldview in the works of A. E. Kulakovsky – Еksеkyleekh Eleksei, the founder of Yakut written literature. The relevance of the study stems from the need for a deeper understanding of the national distinctiveness of Yakut literature and the mechanisms of embodying ethnocultural identity through poetic text. The research problem is that gastronomic images in Kulakovsky’s poetry have previously been viewed primarily as ethnographic background rather than as an active poetic and structural component. The aim of the study is to identify the genre-stylistic and figurative functions of the gastronomic code, its role in creating artistic integrity, national flavor, and the axiological system of the works. To achieve this, the following tasks were set: analyzing gastronomic imagery in the context of poetics and style; determining the connection between the gastronomic code and genre specificity; examining its role in shaping the chronotope and value oppositions; assessing the significance of archaic food-related vocabulary as a linguistic-cultural archive. The methods employed include historical-literary, structural-poetic, and stylistic analysis, as well as an ethnopoetic approach within the framework of the theory of the artistic world (D.S. Likhachev) and chronotope (M. M. Bakhtin). The results demonstrate that the gastronomic code in Kulakovsky’s works serves as a fundamental principle for organizing the artistic world, fulfilling a polyfunctional role: from marking national identity and creating sensory imagery to shaping genre models (ritual, satire) and facilitating sacred communication. In satirical works, the same code acts as a tool for social criticism and psychological characterization. Research prospects are associated with the application of the developed approach to the analysis of other works of national literatures, as well as with further linguistic-cultural reconstruction of the fading layer of traditional vocabulary for an adequate interpretation of classical texts.