“Unraveling the tangle”: Neklyudov’s methodology in folklore studies

This article presents a systematic reconstruction of the methodological principles underpinning Sergei Yu. Neklyudov’s approach as a coherent scholarly programme. Despite the widespread recognition of his work, Russian folklore studies has lacked a comprehensive exposition of his theoretical framework. The article examines three key dimensions of Neklyudov’s methodology: (1) the structural-semiotic approach, which conceptualises folklore as a text permeated by heterogeneous semantic relations, requiring a synthesis of synchronic and diachronic analysis; (2) the theory of the motif as a semantic unit within the paradigmatic dimension of tradition, functioning simultaneously as a narrative element and a mechanism of text generation; (3) the concept of the pre-text (avantexte) and montage, according to which oral texts are not extracted from memory in ready-made form but rather generated through the recombination of pre-textual elements operating at different levels. For Neklyudov, the motif constitutes a nodal point within the memory of tradition, condensing cognitive schemas, semiotic invariants, and textual realisations simultaneously across three operational levels: performance, genre, and archetype. This understanding renders the method productive both for the analysis of archaic mythological systems and for the study of contemporary folklore and post-folklore phenomena. The article positions Neklyudov’s approach in relation to classical directions in folklore studies (V. Propp, A. Dundes, Yu. Berezkin) and to anglophone scholarship on genre, intertextuality, and tradition (R. Bauman, Ch. Briggs, D. Noyes). It demonstrates how understanding tradition as a living communicative process transcends the division between historical and formal analysis, thereby opening new perspectives for contemporary research into cultural memory.

1. Berezkin, Yu.E. (2007), Mify zaselyayut Ameriku: Areal’noe raspredelenie fol’klornykh motivov i rannie migratsii v Novyi Svet [Myths populate America: Areal distribution of folklore motifs and early migrations to the New World], OGI, Moscow, Russia.

2. Berezkin, Yu.E. (2015), “Distribution of folklore motifs as information exchange, or where the West borders the East”, Antropologicheskii forum, no. 26, pp. 153–182.

3. Berezkin, Yu.E. (2019), “A motif’s age and ways to determine it”, Folklore: Structure, Typology, Semiotics, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 17–45.

4. Berezkin, Yu.E. (2024), “Rolling stones: data review and dating of the image”, Antropologicheskii forum, no. 61, pp. 106–140.

5. Briggs, C.L. and Bauman, R. (1992), “Genre, intertextuality, and social power”, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 131–172.

6. Dundes, A. (1962), “From etic to emic units in the structural study of folktales”, Journal of American Folklore, vol. 75, no. 296, pp. 95–105.

7. Dundes, A. (1987), Parsing through customs: Essays in psychoanalytic folklore, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, USA.

8. Khristoforova, O.B. and Chervaneva, V.A., comps. (2021), Fol’klornyi motiv: instrument analiza i ob”ekt izucheniya: materialy Mezhdunarodnogo kruglogo stola (Moskva, RGGU, 23–24 aprelya 2021 g.) [Folklore motif: instrument of analysis and object of study: materials of the International round table], RGGU, Moscow, Russia.

9. Lévi-Strauss, C. (2001), Strukturnaya antropologiya [Structural anthropology], EKSMO-Press, Moscow, Russia.

10. Meletinskii, E.M. (1983), “Semantic organization of mythological narrative and the problem of creating a semiotic index of motifs and plots”, in Trudy po znakovym sistemam [Works on sign systems], vol. 16, no. 635, pp. 115– 125.

11. Meletinskii, E.M. (1994), O literaturnykh arkhetipakh [On literary archetypes], RGGU, Moscow, Russia.

12. Meletinsky, E.M., Neklyudov, S.Yu., Novik, E.S. and Segal, D.M. (2001), Struktura volshebnoi skazki [Structure of the fairy tale], RGGU, Moscow, Russia. (Traditsiya – tekst – fol’klor: tipologiya i semiotika)

13. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (1977), “On the functional-semantic nature of the sign in narrative folklore”, in Barabash, Yu.Ya., ed., Semiotika i khudozhestvennoe tvorchestvo [Semiotics and artistic creation], Nauka, Moscow, USSR, pp. 193–228.

14. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (1984), “On some aspects of studying folklore motifs”, in Putilov, B.N., ed., Fol’klor i etnografiya: U etnograficheskikh istokov fol’klornykh syuzhetov i obrazov [Folklore and ethnography: At the ethnographic sources of folklore plots and images], Nauka, Leningrad, USSR, pp. 221–229.

15. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (1995), “After folklore”, Zhivaya starina, vol. 1, pp. 2–4.

16. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (1999), “Russian folkloristics and structural-semiotic research”, in Kargin, A.S., ed., Slavyanskaya traditsionnaya kul’tura i sovremennyi mir: Sbornik materialov nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii [Slavic traditional culture and the modern world: Proceedings of the Scientific and Practical Conference], iss. 3, GRTsRF, Moscow, Russia, pp. 54–62.

17. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2000), “Structure and function of myth”, in Eimermacher, K., Bomsdorf, F. and Bordyukov, G., eds., Mify i mifologiya v sovremennoi Rossii [Myths and mythology in contemporary Russia], AIRO-XX, Moscow, Russia, pp. 17–38.

18. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2001), “Avant-text in folklore tradition”, Zhivaya starina, vol. 4, pp. 2–4.

19. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2003), “Specificity of word and text in oral tradition”, in Ivanov, Vyach.Vs., ed., Evraziiskoe prostranstvo: Zvuk, slovo, obraz [Eurasian space: Sound, word, image], Yazyki slavyanskoi kul’tury, Moscow, Russia, pp. 108–119. (Yazyk. Semiotika. Kul’tura)

20. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2004), “Motif and text”, in Tolstaya, S.M., ed., Yazyk kul’tury: semantika i grammatika: K 80-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya akademika Nikity Il’icha Tolstogo (1923–1996) [Language of culture: semantics and grammar. On the 80th anniversary of the birth of Academician Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy (1923–1996)], Indrik, Moscow, Russia, pp. 236–247.

21. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2005), “Semantics of folklore text and ‘knowledge of tradition’ ”, in Dobrovolskaya, V.E. and Kotelnikova, N.Е., comps., Slavyanskaya traditsionnaya kul’tura i sovremennyi mir: Sbornik materialov nauchnoi konferentsii [Slavic traditional culture and the modern world. Proceedings of the conference], iss. 8, GRTsRF, Moscow, Russia, pp. 22–41.

22. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2006a), “Literary-folklore reconstructions and problems of paleofolklore’, in [Nikulin, N.I., ed.], Slovo i mudrost’ Vostoka: Literatura. Fol’klor. Kul’tura: K 60-letiyu akademika A.B. Kudelina [Word and wisdom of the East. Literature. Folklore. Culture. On the 60th anniversary of academician A.B. Kudelin], Nauka, Moscow, Russia, pp. 287–295.

23. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2006b), “Folklore and its research: twentieth century”, Ekologiya kul’tury, no. 2, pp. 121–127.

24. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2011), “Mythological tradition and mythological models”, RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. “Philology. Literature and Folklore Studies” Series, vol. 71, no. 9, pp. 11–33.

25. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2013), “Cultural memory in oral tradition: historical depth and transmission technology”, in Kotelnikova, N.E., ed., Navstrechu Tret’emu Vserossiiskomu kongressu fol’kloristov: Sbornik nauchnykh statei [Toward the Third All-Russian Congress of Folklorists. Collected articles], Gosudarstvennyi respublikanskii tsentr russkogo fol’klora, Moscow, Russia, pp. 9–15.

26. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2016), Literatura kak traditsiya: Temy i variatsii [Literature as tradition. Themes and variations], Indrik, Moscow, Russia.

27. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2017), “What is paleofolklore?”, Zhivaya starina, vol. 94, no. 2, pp. 2–5.

28. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2020), “Is the tsarevich doomed? On plot reconstruction of fragmentary monuments of traditional literature”, in Levkievskaya, E.E., Petrov, N.V. and Khristoforova, O.B., comps., “Oskolki” v traditsii [Fragments in tradition], Neolit, Moscow, Russia, pp. 19–81. (Traditsiya – tekst – fol’klor: tipologiya i semiotika)

29. Neklyudov, S.Yu. (2024), “Twenty years later...”, Folklore: Structure, Typology, Semiotics, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 137–141.

30. Noyes, D. (2009), “Tradition: Three traditions”, Journal of Folklore Research, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 233–268.

31. Noyes, D. (2016), Humble theory: Folklore’s grasp on social life, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, USA.

32. Olick, J.K. (1999), “Collective memory: The two cultures”, Sociological Theory, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 333–348.

33. Olick, J.K., Vinitzky-Seroussi, V. and Levy, D., eds. (2011), The collective memory reader, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

34. Panyukov, A.V. (2011), “Folklore tradition as a self-organizing system (toward problem formulation)”, RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. “Philology. Literature and Folklore Studies” Series, vol. 71, no. 9, pp. 34–41.

35. Panyukov, A.V. (2016), “Self-assembly of plot in folklore”, in Krasheninnikova, Yu.A., ed., Fol’kloristika Komi: Fol’klornye zhanry Evropeiskogo SeveroVostoka Rossii: dinamika razvitiya, transformatsii, klassicheskoe nasledie i sovremennye formy [Folklore of Komi: Folklore genres of European NorthEast Russia: dynamics of development, transformation, classical heritage and modern forms], Intitut yazyka, literatury i istorii Komi NTs UrO RAN, Syktyvkar, Russia, pp. 114–136. (Trudy Instituta yazyka, literatury i istorii Komi NTs UrO RAN; iss. 74)

36. Propp, V.Ya. (1928), Morfologiya skazki [Morphology of the fairy tale], Academia, Leningrad, USSR. (Voprosy poetiki; iss. 12)

37. Putilov, B.N. (1971), “Plot closure and the second plot layer in Slavic epic”, in Sheptunov, I.M., ed., Slavyanskii i balkanskii fol’klor [Slavic and Balkan folklore], Nauka, Moscow, Russia, pp. 75–90.

38. Putilov, B.N. (1975), “Motif as plot-forming element”, in Meletinskii, E.M. and Neklyudov, S.Yu., comps., Tipologicheskie issledovaniya po fol’kloru: Sbornik statei pamyati V.Ya. Proppa [Typological studies in folklore: Collected of papers in memory of V.Ya. Propp], Nauka, Moscow, Russia, pp. 141–156. (Issledovaniya po fol’kloru i mifologii Vostoka)

39. Silantiev, I.V. (1999), Teoriya motiva v otechestvennom literaturovedenii i fol’kloristike: ocherk istoriografii [Theory of motif in Russian literary studies and folklore studies: historiography essay], IDMI, Novosibirsk, Russia.

40. Van Dijk, T.A. and Kintsch, W. (1983), Strategies of discourse comprehension, Academic Press, New York, USA.