Textology of the prologue to the “Dzhangar” epic: a comparative analysis of multi-temporal recordings from the Dzhangarchis -Eelyan Ovla and Teltya Lidzhiev

The article provides a comparative analysis of prologues to the Dzhangar narratives recorded from the renowned dzhangarchis Eelyan Ovla and Teltya Lidzhiev, and aims to examine the epic text for stability, determine the fundamentals and principles for the establishment of the expositional part of the epic. If the prologue is an artistic epic formation, then the exposition logically stands for an introductory part of any narrative regardless of its genre level and genre affiliation. It is evident that each of the mentioned epic prologues has certain artistic peculiarities determined by a corresponding epic tradition (school). And like any other epic cliche or any expanded plot motif of the “Dzhangar”, it is sequentially repeated within texts of the same epic performance school or cycle of narratives. The method of complete synoptical analysis developed by V. Gatsak for epic texts has been applied to analyze a total of three prologues recorded from Eelyan Ovla and one recorded from Teltya Lidzhiev who had inherited the bulk of the taleteller Okon Badmaev's epic repertory, the latter having been tutored by Okon Sharaev - Eelyan Ovla's nephew. So, Teltya Lidzhiev's epic repertory was constituted by songs of the Dzhangar that came down to him from the prominent rhapsode Eelyan Ovla. The synoptical comparison shows that Teltya Lidzhiev sought to observe conservative principles of his performance ‘school' and followed the canons of predecessors making use of standard and traditional plot structures, stylistic and compositional devices - but, however, the dzhangarchi kept within somewhat epic knowledge framework and developed his own way of performance extending or reducing artistic details, restructuring topics and sub-topics, thus turning the narrative into imaginative synonymy.