“Helicopter Rhapsody” as a historical-ethnographic source describing life in the North of Tyumen Region

Abstract

The novel “Helicopter Rhapsody” by L. Babanin describes the daily activities of pilots in the conditions of frontier, on the border of nature and industrial civilization. The subject of this research is the important factors of social psychology of the population of the Far North in the period of oil and gas exploitation. Analysis is conducted on text as a historical-ethnographic source about isolated lifestyle of the population during the exploration of oil and gas deposits in the North of Western Siberia in the late XX – early XXI centuries. Based on information provided in the novel, and attempt is made to reconstruct mentality of the people living in the conditions of Soviet and post-Soviet oil and gas frontier, as well as explicate the specificity of formation of industrial society in the North of Western Siberia. The author's special contribution consists in reliance on the interdisciplinary approach. The novelty is defined by usage of the concepts of frontier, trickstership, and theoretical groundwork in the area of literary studies applicable to the events of the recent past. The acquired results demonstrate that L. Babanin using the imagery means described the breakdown of former cultural regulators, and in many ways, the intuitive, archaic methods of seeking the way out typical to the characters of his novel. The informal functions of tricksters are implicitly present among the social roles. They have, albeit implicitly, in a number of public roles, there are informal functions of the trickster. Study of the novel “Helicopter Rhapsody” proves that the cultural boundaries between profane and sacred components were vague, and former meanings faded away back in the Soviet times. However, the entropy of culture cannot be eternal. It is justifiable to conclude that tricksters in the future may play positive roles for overcoming the national stagnation. This article is valuable for the researchers dealing with frontier and soft scientists studying the culture of Russian province.