Жанровое своеобразие калмыцкой поэзии конца ХХ – начала XXI в.: тема картофеля в сибирской ссылке

Abstract

Introduction. The article deals with the theme of potatoes in the Siberian exile of Kalmyks (1943­–1957) and focuses on representative poems by Kalmyk poets of different generations written in the native and Russian languages. The texts were created by authors who survived the Siberian exile (i.e. were born during or after the latter) to convey personal and collective memories of the twentieth-century tragedy of the ethnos. Goals. The paper seeks to reveal the genre originality of such poems from the late twentieth through the early twenty first centuries, consider syntheses of genres, articulate some transformations of the folklore tradition in the genres of anthem, word, lamentation, etc. Methods. The comparative, comparative-typological, and historical-functional methods prove instrumental in examining the mentioned theme in the aspect of somewhat ‘delayed’ poetry of the last century and in the context of present-day literary processes. In general, the theme remains understudied in terms of the history of Kalmyk Deportation and has never been viewed through the prism of poems by selected authors. Results. Potatoes and Siberian exile in representative poems by Kalmyk poets of different generations shape a special discourse of personal and collective memories about the dramatic pages of twentieth-century history. The struggle for survival and absence of usual food did transform the traditional eating patterns of special settlers. The motif of frozen potatoes starts prevailing in the works to become a marker of starvation, cold, poverty, rightlessness. In Kalmyk poems about the exile, the genre originality of texts created as anthems, words, laments, and messages was manifested in transformed patterns of the folklore tradition. The inclusions of elements inherent to well-wishes (Kalm. yӧräl), anthems (chastr), words (üg), laments (enslɣn), teachings (surgaal), and dreams (züüdn) also attest to syntheses of genres characteristic of Mongolic folklores and literatures. Monologic and storyline forms determine the content-related aspect of the poems addressed to contemporaries and descendants — directly or else insisting that the tragic past of the people never be forgotten.