Article

Name: Non-fairytale prose of Buryats: the specifity of the genre

Authors: B.-Kh. B. Tsybikova

In the section Повествовательный фольклор

Abstract: The classification of the non-fairytale prose of Buryats is based on narrative principle of text allocation that made possible to classify all texts according to distinctive semantic units. In this context the system of characters is taken into account as a significant grading factor. The most ancient texts genetically seem to be myths and oral mythological stories because they give the first attempts to clear up natural events and social processes incomprehensible for an ancient man. The worldview of our ancestors based on archaic beliefs and the interpretation of current events were manifested in primitive word pictures. “The development of details creating a myth and the background of a tale represents a mythological worldview. It is easy to understand that this worldview is opposed in our consciousness to the scientific one. By this characteristic we recognize it easily. But for the modern man the mythological worldview and the scientific one are interpenetrated, and the one worldview passes into the other” [S.Yu. Nekljudov]. No matter how difficult it is to demarcate two big blocks of Buryat legends and stories, nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish them. In our opinion, the differential characteristics between legends and tales are following main points. In stories the plot is based on facts of real life went down in history and human memory. They are widespread and variable. Stories have more or less established plot (such as genealogical stories, the voyage of Buryats to Peter the Great, the delimitation between Russia and China). Most of Buryat stories have an educative function. Adjacent to stories, the oral historical narratives differ by individual narration. That is why they are called ‘memoirs’ (memoirs / personalias). Stories and oral historical narratives are similar because they describe real life events and syncretize the informativity with the interpretation of a personal experience. The specificity of legends consists in legendary context, so it is rightful to consider these texts as legendary stories. In these texts glorifying notes predominate. Narrators of such texts are filled with sense of pride in their outstanding compatriots and contemporaries, that is why these texts contain elements of hyperbole, glorification, fantastic exaggeration.

Keywords: non-fairytale prose of Buryats, genre classification, myths, oral stories, stories, legends

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