Gender Representation of Women in Lezgin Folk Proverbs and Sayings A. R. Gasharova The G. Tsadasa Institute of Language, Literature and Art, Dagestan Federal Research Center
of Russian Academy of Sciences,
45, ul. M. Gadzhieva, Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, 367032, Russian Federation
For citation: Gasharova A. R
. Gender Representation of Women in the Lezgi Folk Proverbs and Say-
ings.
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies , 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, pp. 423–435.
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2021.308 (In Russian)
The article deals with the question of the abstract understanding of the cultural representation
of women in Lezgin folklore. Attention is paid to the ideas concerning gender stereotypes that
differ in various ethnic cultures, in connection with which the need to consider the socio-
cultural aspect for the display of the gender factor in Lezgin proverbs and sayings is revealed.
The question is raised about the specific features, according to which the image of a woman,
presented in Lezgin paremias, mainly represents negatively connotated gender stereotypes.
It is noted that the influence of the “other” class ideology is manifested inconsistently and
sometimes selectively because in Lezgin folklore, along with proverbs with a negative image of
women, directly opposite texts with a positive image coexisted. In the article, special attention
is paid to aphorisms in which a negative image of a woman and features of the manifestation
of gender stereotypes in Lezgin culture emerge. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that
this position has practically not been considered before and has not been studied on the basis
of the Lezgin paremias. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the study of folk pare-
mias with the identification features of the female image on specific factual material and the
establishment of development paths and the reasons for the existence of this thematic group is
currently the subject of increased attention among folklorists, linguists, culturologists, etc. The
author dwells on the identification of the socio-cultural aspect of the standard and distinctive
indicators of the female image. It is demonstrated that in order to display gender stereotypes,
one should take into account the national identity of the people and also determine the place
and role of women in the structure of family, family relationships and in society.
Вестник СПбГУ. Востоковедение и африканистика. 2021. Т. 13. Вып. 3 435
Keywords: Lezgin folklore, linguistic folkloristics, aphoristic genre, the image of a woman,
gender stereotyping.
