Reflection of Basic Values in Folklore Literature: the Case of Russian and Japanese Cultures

There has been a great deal of attention toward universal values and beliefs shared by different cultures in cross-cultural communication theory. The representation of Russian and Japanese fundamental values and universal human values have been investigated for centuries. Yet no study has been conducted on the base of comparative analysis of the representation of core specific values and universal values in Japanese and Russian cultures. One of the most seminal approaches to understanding values is through the folklore. This paper focuses on the analysis of the core archetypes used in Japanese and Russian folklore fairytales, which reflect universal and specific values and beliefs. The research aims at identifying the contribution of archetypes to values explicit representation in different cultures’ folklore. The study determines the key research method is comparative analysis of Russian and Japanese folk-text. Differences in the reflection of the same values in different cultures are expected to be investigated.