The dichotomy between the notions “self' and “other” in the animalistic Kalmyk ballads

The article examines the dichotomy “ours” and “aliens” in the animalistic ballad of the Kalmyk poets of the 20th century. The relevance of the study is determined by the insufficient study of the ballad of Kalmyk poets on the theme of the literary bestiary. The article deals with the dichotomy between the notions “self” and “other” within the animal world of the ballad of the Kalmyk poets of the 20th century. The relevance of the study is determined by the unexplored ballads of the Kalmyk poets on the theme of nature, with the heroes-representatives of the animal world of the steppe region. The purpose of the article is to explore the poetics of the Kalmyk literary ballad concerning the relationship between man and animals in the aspect of position, opposition and disposition. In the ballads by Timothy Bembeev “ Җivrn` tәәrңxә toһrun” (“The Ballad of the Clipped Wings”), Vladimir Nurov's “Bargin tusk ballad” (“The Ballad of the Dog Baltyk”), Mikhail Khoninov's “0m zalhsn shovum duulna” (“About the Bird Wounded in a Combat”) of the 1960s -1970s. The “self' vs. “other” dichotomy manifests the natural world and the human world both in conflict against each other and in alliance with each other. Whereas in heroic-patriotic and political ballads of Kalmyk authors the protagonists are usually designated by specific names, in the animalistic ballads about the animal world people are depersonalized: the nameless narrator actualizes this or that incident, emphasizing moral values; animal characters, as a rule, are not personalized, with the exception of a dog named Baltyk in V Nurov's ballad. The application of historical-literary and comparative-comparative methods allows us to identify the authors' intentions in the depiction of people and animals, wild and domestic, in conflicting situations of war and peace, freedom and bondage, good and evil, loyalty and enmity, strength and weakness. The poetics of the Kalmyk ballad emphasize the genre nature of the work, expressed either in the title or in the subtitle of the original text or its Russian translation. The ecological theme in the stories is translated by the authors as love for their native land, protection and preservation of the animal world. The national worldview of the Kalmyk poets projects a picture of the steppe fauna from the perspective of folk culture, customs and beliefs. Freserving the traditions of national versification, poets structure texts in different ways: with no division into stanzas (T. Bembeev), with division into quatrains (V. Nurov, M. Khoninov). The zoopoetics of the animalistic ballad of the three poets is closer to a story in verse.