“From This Place You Cannot Hear Speech. From This Place You Cannot Receive a Letter”: The Letter-Message in Russian Funeral Lamentations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the use of verbal formulas in funeral and commemoration lamentations. The article consists of two parts: in part one there are some comments about lamenting and the existence of the texts in rites, while part two contains a text analysis of one particular verbal formula (the letter-message). This formula can be found in the lamentations of different cultures, but the Russian texts are the focus of this research.