The genre of fable in the 20th century Kalmyk literature

The article examines the beginnings and the development of the genre of fable in Kalmyk literature in the 20th century, the genre which was borrowed from 19th century Russian literature. The issue has been neither the object nor the target of any research in Kalmyk studies. The paper revisits the inaccurate statement that the Kalmyk fable only came into existence in the 1960s, as the first samples can be traced to the 1930s works by Muutl Erdniev and Khasyr Syan-Belgin. Two fables by M. Erdniev are thoroughly analyzed in terms of genre, plot, topic, and artistic expression. The revival of the genre began in the late 1950s, in the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War and the thirteen year deportation of the Kalmyks. Amongst the fablers it is important to mention David Kugultinov, Mikhail Khoninov, and Timofei Bembeev as well. A case study of their representative 1950-1970s works concludes as follows. Thus, according to the theory of Kalmyk literature the term ‘fable' is associated with such notions as allusion and allegory (Kalm. tejg, yogt). Secondly, the authors used to indicate their fables differently (Kalm. tejg, shüvtr üg - ‘arrowy word', Rus. basnya or provided no clarifications at all). The majority of such works still remain untranslated into Russian. The Kalmyk fable not only demonstrates a significant influence of national folklore, including fairy tales about animals, but also is oriented towards the Russian fable tradition, mostly towards Ivan Krylov's works, hence the references to his plots and characters (in changed forms), and Kalmyk language translations of his compositions. While retaining the classical canons of fable, the Kalmyk authors introduced some ethnic peculiarities into the poetics of their works, resorting to elements of history, culture, everyday household activities, and applying other aphoristic genres, namely proverbs, sayings, and riddles. All the fables are versified (strophically), and retain the national versification pattern expressed by anaphora, and they are genre sketches or stories containing monologues and dialogues usually ending with some moral. The thematic range of fables is encompassing, from social and political satire to moral and spiritual tenets, thus indicating the relation to the reality of that period. Finally, the Kalmyk fable developed throughout the 1960-1970s to its decline in the early 1980s which was caused by actualization of other genres and deaths of some fablers. Consequently, the integrity of genre development, the unity of action and narrative brevity, binds with a living epic tradition, simplicity, unambiguity and consistency of images and characters, transference of human experiences and daily activities onto the world of nature, they all provide a common ground for the genres of classical fable and the Kalmyk one, thus manifesting correlations between traditions and novelties, national peculiarities and poetics.