Toponyms in the Structure of Valentin Kolumb's "Morkinsky Text"

This article continues the research of the authors, focusing on the contextual poetics of Mari poetry of the 20th and 21st centuries as a subject of literary studies. It examines toponyms within the framework of the contextual poetics of Mari lyric poetry from the second half of the 20th century, specifically in the structure of the "Morkin text" by Valentin Kolumba. As is well known, any "local text" serves as a source of important sociocultural information; thus, toponyms as devices of contextual poetics in a literary work actively participate in meaning-making and the creation of a sociocultural context. The aim of the article is to identify the characteristics of toponym usage as a technique of contextual poetics in the lyric works of Valentin Kolumba within the framework of localizing artistic space. This objective is being stated and realized for the first time in regional and national literary scholarship. The specific material of the study consists of the poems of the Mari poet from the first volume of his collected works (2005), which contain toponyms that form the "Morkin text" and represent the corresponding contextual content. The methods of research include historical-genetic and structural-semantic approaches; the work also employs textual, intertextual, and contextual analysis of literary works. The article systematically presents the types of toponyms in the poems of the Mari poet Valentin Kolumba and the relevant functions of toponyms within the formation of "local texts" in his lyrical works. The authors of the article have proven that toponyms in the "Morkin text" of Valentin Kolumba's lyrics are not a background element of the works, but an active participant in contextual meaning-making, a full-fledged technique of contextual poetics, through which the author's worldview is demonstrated, a specific sociocultural space is constructed, artistically reflected upon by the author, and the historical and mythological context of the Mari world is created. The materials of the article may be relevant not only in the context of contemporary studies of the poetics of Mari literature but also in the practices of teaching the native (Mari) language and native (Mari) literature in universities and schools.