«The Wicked Witch of the East»: Baba Yaga в современном американском фэнтези

Abstract

The paper observes the Slavic-inspired young adult fiction and fantasy that is a recent and unexplored phenomenon in the U.S. literature. The author focuses on Baba Yaga, a powerful witch and boogeyman from the Slavic folklore, and studies the sources about her and the interpretation of this ogress in Naomi Novik’s novel Uprooted, Catherynne M. Valente’s novel Deathless and Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy. For these writers, Yaga embodies feminine power, knowledge, true vision, intuition and magic. At the same time, these authors try to move away from the fabulous Baba Yaga, either bringing her closer to the goddess of nature (Novik), or socializing and caricaturizing as much as possible (Valente), or humanizing (Arden). All the main heroines of the considered works evolve from a “maiden in trouble” to a “warrior maiden” who is able not only to help herself, but also to save others. It is concluded that the image of the Yaga warrior could reflect the ancient contacts of the Slavs, and, possibly, the Germans (Goths) with the Sarmatian or Greek women, the so called “amazons”, from the Black Sea or Azov coast. Accordingly, to a greater or lesser extent, the Slavic Yaga implements a feminist worldview, understandable to American readers, and acts as an assistant and a good advisor to the heroines on the path of their coming of age.

Keywords

• contemporary american fantasy
• young adult fiction
• slavic motifs
• baba yaga