The Genre of Yöräl in 20th Century Kalmyk Poetry: Analyzing Newspaper Materials of the 1930s–1940s

Introduction. In folklore of Mongolic peoples, well-wishes are referred to as ritual poetry. This is one of the ancient, surviving and widespread genres to have essentially preserved the idea of word magic. It has undergone some changes but still articulates benevolent messages towards future. The Mongolian ерɵɵл (derived from Mong. ерɵɵ ‘bless, wish well, greet’), Kalmyk йɵрəл (from Kalm. йɵрǝх), and Buryat үрээрнууд address family life, nature, society, state, universe to narrate the history, lifestyles, culture, and philosophy of the ethnos. The article proves topical enough since yöräls by 20th century Kalmyk poets created on the basis of folklore analogues through interactions of oral folklore art and literature remain unexplored. Goals. The study aims at identifying and clarifying the genre differentiation of Kalmyk poets’ yöräls, thematic classification, poetics of texts. Materials and methods. The paper examines folklore and literary works from newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s. The historical/functional method shows perceptions of authorial yöräls through time. A comparative approach makes it possible to trace ties between folklore analogues and literary texts, investigates traditions and innovations — both in form and in contents — of the new yöräls by Kalmyk poets. The textual analysis reveals common features and differences of folklore and literary works of this genre. Results. In newspapers of those years, the work discovers yöräls authored by Kalmyk poets to be classified as ‘shin yöräl’ (‘new well wishes’) that served to reflect actual realities. Conclusions. While ancient yöräls had a short and spatial poetic form, the new ones of S. Kalyaev, Ts. Ledzhinov, L. Indzhiev, B. Dordzhiev, Kh. Syan-Belgin, M. Khoninov, D. Kugultinov, E. Kekteev, and K. Erendzhenov tended towards larger volumes, lexical diversity, sociopolitical and ideological orientation, thus showing a connection with modernity and enriching the genre system of  Kalmyk poetry. Another scientific problem is Russian translation of the Kalmyk authors’ poetic well wishes.

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