Xinjiang Oirat version of the Jangar epic. Corpus of texts and plot composition

Abstract

The article deals in the substantive aspects of the Xinjiang Oirat version of the epic “Dzhangar”, was developed in line with the original national epic tradition, enriched with borrowings from the traditions of closely related Mongol-speaking peoples. The main objective of the research is to study forming the corpus of the version texts and to consider the plot composition, the issues of plot composition, the intertextual relationships and the contamination and innovation in the late epics. The text corpus of the Xinjiang Oirat version is rather heterogeneous in its qualitative composition. Along with the authentic samples, it includes consolidated texts subjected to certain treatment, as well as the texts borrowed by tradition. There is a large number of text variants. The plot structure is characterised by typological unity and is represented by the epic samples of different stages (archaic, classical and polystadial). In the plots of the late epics, it is possible to notice the processes of transformation, associated with a decrease in the level of heroic idealisation, the actualisation of the fabulous and everyday archaic, the contamination of plots, the book texts influence of book texts. One may also trace the dominance of some plots in the tradition, influencing the emergence of new plots, while retaining the invariant essence, they are modified and transformed at the plot-structural and motive levels.