Inicjacja w dorosłość jako ponowne tworzenie świata w opowiadaniu Czyngiza Ajtmatowa Łaciaty pies biegnący brzegiem morza
Coming of Age as Creating the World Anew in Chinghiz Aitmatov’s Spotted Dog Running on Seashore

Author(s): Rafał Siwicki
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: This article analyses one of the most important short stories by the prominent Kyrgyz author, Chinghiz Aitmatov, entitled Spotted Dog Running on Seashore. The predominant issue tackled in this paper is the rite of passage of the protagonist, which covers the participation of the eleven‑year‑old boy in his first hunting at the sea, along with other huntsmen of his lineage. Adopting the definition of initiation formulated by Mircea Eliade, who has expanded Arnold van Gennep’s findings, the paper presents an internal change of the protagonist, which takes place as an outcome both of experiencing sacrum (among others, by means of witnessing death), and of knowledge gained during the dramatic events at the sea. Approaching the aforementioned issue allows one to relate Aitmatov’s short story to contemporaneity. After all, it is possible to perceive the boy’s initial attitude as the behaviour of the contemporary human being: an egoistic individual who suffers from the inability of defining his or her place in the world or the purpose of his or her life. By means of overcoming these limitations, the protagonist makes his existence mature. His mature way of being in the world might be claimed to be the sui generis universal postulate made by Aitmatov; precisely, it should be understood first and foremost as accepting the primacy of interpersonal solidarity and the value which belonging to a community – family or lineage – holds. Yet another indicator of the maturity resurfaces in the manner in which the protagonist feels his own connection with the surrounding nature, and believes in its protective power, as it is revealed at the end of the short story.

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