Е. Е. БАЛДАНМАКСАРОВА. BURYAT POETRY OF THE XX CENTURY: ORIGINS AND POETICS OF GENRES. 2nd ed., ispr. and add. Ulan-Ude: Buryat Publishing House, State University, 2005, 252 p.

The monograph reflected the main trend of the time-the desire to sum up the development of literary thought in Buryatia at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries, which coincided with the general trend of Russian humanities, which has already been implemented in a number of publications (see, for example: Studying the literature of the East. Russia, XX century. Moscow, 2002).

The author of the book has set himself the task of understanding the genesis and development of poetic genres of Buryat literature in line with the general Mongolian cultural and literary tradition, taking into account previous research. Striving to show a picture of continuous operation

page 195
The study of Buryat poetry, including in this process the general Mongolian period of folklore and medieval literature, is a completely correct scientific position and, of course, deserves approval.

The monograph consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, and a bibliography. The introduction is devoted to a review of the scientific literature on the problems of interest to the author. Here we emphasize the idea that, despite many observations of Mongolian and Russian scholars regarding the specific features of the development of poetry of the general Mongolian period (XIII - XVIII centuries), there is no generalizing work on this issue. Therefore, E. E. Baldanmaksarova sees her task in filling this gap and showing what significance common Mongolian roots had for the formation of Buryat poetry proper.

In this regard, the first chapter of the monograph is called "The Origins of poetry of the Mongolian period". It contains four sections, which consistently consider the historical and cultural background of the origin of poetry of the Mongolian peoples. The end of the 12th and 13th centuries marked an important milestone in the history of the Mongol statehood. In the first half of the 13th century, the literature of the general Mongolian period also appeared, which was reflected in the appearance of the famous work "The Hidden Legend of the Mongols", which includes many genres of Mongolian literature and became the main source for studying medieval poetry of the Mongolian peoples.

The author pays great attention to the question of the origin of the Mongolian script, which until a certain time was the same for all the Mongolian peoples, as well as the question of the influence on the development of Mongolian culture of translations of works of ancient Indian and Buddhist literature that penetrated into Mongolia and Buryatia through Tibet. According to E. E. Baldanmaksarova, the common literary process among the Mongolian peoples was based on a common written language, a common book literary language, a common fund of folklore works, and the similarity of historical destinies and living conditions.

In this chapter, the analysis of the oldest mythopoetic layer of Mongolian literature - shamanic poetry-is of the greatest interest. Linking it with the ritual and mythological representations of the people, the author reveals the main elements of the imagery of works of this genre.

The section devoted to the analysis of medieval poetry shows the origin of the genres of panegyric (magtal) and lamentation (gamshil), which have close ties with folklore. They have come down to our time as part of the "Hidden Legend of the Mongols" and demonstrate an amazing development of style, which is also characteristic of texts created, according to the author, in the XIII - XIV centuries, but preserved in the corpus of works of the XVII - XVIII centuries. A lively connection between folklore and literature is also shown by the only extant lyrical poem of the XIV century, constructed in dialogical form, "The Golden Horde Manuscript on Birch Bark", which is of great importance for the study of traditional song lyrics.

The first chapter concludes with an analysis of the emergence of didactic poetry already in Buryat literature. It takes into account the folklore analogues of the teaching genre (surgal), known since the XIII century, as well as the influence of Buddhist moral literature, which was actively translated from the Tibetan language. The interaction of different cultural traditions led to the emergence of a special genre form of didactic poetry, which was analyzed in detail on the example of E.-H. Galshiev's work "Mirror of Wisdom" (XIX - early XX centuries).

Thus, we can speak of a very successful attempt to reconstruct the literary process of the Mongolian peoples on the basis of theoretical provisions of historical poetics, which made it possible to identify the most priority areas for Mongolian studies in the study of this problem.

The second chapter - "Buryat poetry of the XX century: the formation of the genre system" - includes three sections. The first of them deals with the problem of interaction between folklore and literature in terms of the transformation of folklore genres into works of literature, which is still relevant today among peoples with a strong and well-preserved tradition of oral and poetic creativity. The second and third sections analyze the historical song and its influence on the genre features of epic poems and the folk lyric song that influenced the emergence of the poem-song genre. E. E. Baldanmaksarova identifies two periods of co-existence of folklore and literature in the XX century: 20-50s and 60-90s. Each of these periods has its own specifics. The author convincingly shows how the genre system of Buryat poetry developed: from prose to prose.-

page 196
the ability to imitate verbal forms of folklore leads to understanding the need for new content and creating new forms. The emphasis placed on the idea of moving from folklore and mythological thinking to realistic thinking, which was not at all easy for the traditional Buryat mentality, seems legitimate and well-reasoned.

The third chapter - "Genre diversity of Buryat poetry of the second half of the XX century" - shows the further development of Buryat poetry in interaction with foreign poetic practice. Two sections of this chapter deal with the evolution of artistic consciousness, which has stimulated the search for new forms, and describe genre modifications of the poem in Buryat literature.

Having demonstrated the great importance of contacts between Buryat literature and Russian classical and Soviet multinational literatures, which contributed to the development of realistic tendencies in Buryat poetry, the author dwells in detail on the characteristics of the newly formed genres: the so-called little poem, which does not have a narrative plot, but is dedicated to the presentation of the author's philosophical concept; a lyrical cycle, where various poems on the subject are united into one whole by the figure of a lyrical hero; a modern lyric-epic poem, which combines a lyrical monologue and an epic narrative in its composition.

E. E. Baldanmaksarova notes a tendency to synthesize lyrics, drama and prose. In connection with the latter consideration, the book pays much attention to the appearance in Buryat literature of verlibre, which began to be introduced in the 1950s, and then became widely used. Quite correctly and very valuable is the author's statement that in terms of its rhythmic characteristics, European free verse is close to the native folk Mongolian and Buryat verse with its uneven lines, peculiar rhythmic division within the poetic lines and complete absence of rhyme. The replacement of the Mongolian and Buryat alliteration systems by equisyllabic poems with finite rhyme was influenced by Russian poetry.

In conclusion, the main results of the study are summarized and prospects for further study of the literary process in Buryatia are outlined. Describing each stage of development of Mongolian and Buryat poetry, the author characterizes different genres, mainly in terms of content. As for the formal side, in any case - whether we are talking about shamanic poetry, medieval literary or modern genres written according to the rules of versification that were not influenced by Russian poetry-the same formal categories are always indicated, and this is correct, because the system of versification is always the same. But these characteristics are not indicators of genres, they only characterize the system of versification. I would like to see genre differentiation based on formal criteria in the work, if, of course, such differentiation existed. You may need to write a new study to do this.

The paper also contains insufficiently thought-out formulations. For example, when listing new genre varieties, the author refers to them as "white verse" (p. 25). Similarly, the concept of "free verse" is considered. Meanwhile, neither one nor the other term is a designation of the genre, but only shows the principle of composing verse, i.e. it is a verse study term. The justification for the need to create a Mongolian script, among other correct statements, is found as follows:" At that time, at the behest of Kublai Khan, Chinese and Buddhist books were translated, and it was quite difficult to make an adequate translation in the Uyghur language " (p.36). I should have said "with the help of the Uyghur script", which really did not take into account some features of the Mongolian language.

The noted inaccuracies do not reduce the scientific merits of the reviewed monograph, which is a deep and multifaceted study of Buryat poetry in the context of Mongolian culture.

Permanent link to this publication: