New studies of the Kyrgyz epic tradition

Abstract

This paper presents the reviews upon two monographs on Kyrgyz epics, which were published a few years ago in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan in Russian. The first one was written by a researcher and popularizer of the epic “Manas’’ Talantaaly Bakchiev and is dedicated to the traditional narrators of tales - manaschi. The monograph considers the folklore ideas about the gift of storytelling, the stages in the future storyteller formation and training, as well as some modern aspects of the singing the epic tales. The book summarizes previous studies in that area and contains new ethnographic and biographical data. The second study is dedicated to the motifs of dreams and apparitions of characters in the epic of “Manas”, and was written by the folklorist and literary critic Nelya Bekmukhamedova. Based on a fairly representative set of records, the author of the monograph consistently analyses the means of the text expression and the symbolism of the motifs of dreams and apparitions of the epic characters, identifies their plot functions and proposes their classification.