Transformation of Folk Demonology Images in A. N. Tolstoy's Cycle “Mermaid Tales”
The article examines transformations of lower folk demonology images in A. N. Tolstoy's cycle “Mermaid Tales”. The paper analyses the genesis of the author's interpretations of folkloric personages from house spirits, forest spirits (ovinnik, brownie, silvan, nixie and polevik) and zoomorphic demons (wild rooster, serpent) to devildom (mermaid, werwolf, kikimora, Anchutka the Heel-less). By the example of folk demonology images, the researcher examines specificity of Tolstoy's authorial tale poetics - folklorism, techniques of irony, grotesque and diminishment, implementation of the author's theory of gesture, synthesis of folkloric prose genres - fairy-tale, bylichka and byvalshchina. The researcher considers interrelation of folk demonology images and the mythological landscape depicted according to the Russian peasants' world conceptions, in particular, analyses peculiarities of the author's interpretation of the solar myth.