Folklore Expeditions of 2012–2017: Oral Narratives as a Representation of Kalmyk Collective Memory

Abstract

Introduction. The article analyzes essentials of oral narratives recorded from respondents across Kalmykia in 2012–2017, focusing on how the former tend to articulate and characterize past events, activities of certain individuals and folklore characters who had left noticeable marks on the history of the ethnos, in the memory of individuals and society at large. Materials and methods. The study investigates authentic materials — narratives recorded from bearers of the Kalmyk oral tradition expressing their attitudes, assessments, and interpretations of events of the past. When it comes to define the scope of the research object, special attention is paid to theoretical and methodological generalizations developed by V. Shklovsky, W. Labov and J. Waletzky in their works examining oral narratives. Results. The study attests to oral narratives recorded at the beginning of the 21st century in Kalmykia cluster together to shape a specific form employed to register events, preserve and transmit data on the life of certain individuals and ethnos in all its diversity. The paper shows that Kalmyks have preserved the memory of epic heroes, legendary personalities of past eras, about events of later times, and they do find different ways to verbally transmit this knowledge of theirs to the new generation.

Keywords

• folklore expedition
• field material
• kalmyks
• oral narratives
• content of narratives
• events
• faces
• images
• memory