Sculptural Ekphrasis: Development of the Image of the Golem from Folklore to Modern Russian Literature

The article considers sculptural ekphrasis, which is the paradigm of modeling the mythological fig-ure of Golem in world literature and folklore. The unified image of Golem as a man-made clay mute idol eventually evolves in folklore and literary nar-ratives, acquiring human qualities. The authors of the article chose three writers who created Golem: Czech Jan Kruta, Yiddish Isaac Bashevis Singer and Russian Sukhbat Aflatuni - in these texts the image of Golem is transformed from a sacred fig-ure to a tragicomic one. The motifs of the birth of Golem's image are traced (on the example of prose and poetic texts: Bulat Okudzhava, Dina Rubina, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt), as well as folklore narratives, his connection with the blood libel (in the estimation of folklorist and psychoanalyst Alan Dandes), folklore versions of Golem's background (on the example of Jewish folklore recorded in the Czech Republic, Golem's 'homeland'), the causes of Golem's death. In Sukhbat Aflatuni's story "The Golem of Tashkent" the image of Golem is embed-ded in post-colonial discourse. The entire plot of Golem's creation and destruction is presented in the world narrative as the work of a sculptor, and therefore the description of this image is logical to name a sculptural ekphrasis.