Abstract
The article examines the earliest and latest recordings of the plot about the father-killer and the incest (ATU/SUS 931) in the East Slavic folk tradition. Early and late recordings of oral narratives on this subject were done among the Russian population of Transbaikalia, which historically includes Chinese Russians living in the Hulunbuir of the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, China, bordering with Russia. We encounter the first evidence of the transition of the plot of the old Russian work The Tale of Andrew of Crete to oral existence in the papers of Küchelbeker who was in exile in Barguzin in the 1830s. Subsequently, folklore texts on the plot 931 were recorded only in Ukraine, in Belarus, and in the European part of Russia. In 2007–2019, I recorded several versions of the story about the father-killer and incest among Chinese Russians living in Ergun urban district; the traces of its existence were also discovered in East Transbaikalie. The analysis of these texts shows how the oral existence has altered the plot with a written origin; the transformation occurred due to the fictionionalization of the narrative and the relevance of archaic ideas about the predetermination of the human fate.
References
1 Arkhiv polevykh issledovanii Uchebno-nauchnogo tsentra sotsial’nykh antropologii Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo gumanitarnogo universiteta [Archive of the field studies of the Educational and Scientific Center for Social Anthropologies of the Russian State University for the Humanities]. Available at: http://www2.rsuh.ru/section. html?id=1518 (Accessed 01 January 2020). (In Russ.)
2 Arkhipova A.V. “Barguzinskaia skazka” V.K. Kiukhel’bekera [The Barguzin Fairy Tale by V. K. Küchelbecker]. In: Literaturnoe nasledstvo dekabristov [Literary heritage of the Decembrists]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1975, pp. 285–290. (In Russ.)
3 Klimova M.N. Povest’ o Andree Kritskom [The Tale of Andrew of Crete]. In: Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti Drevnei Rusi [Dictionary of Scribes and Books of the Old Russia]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1989, issue 2, part 2, ed. D.S. Likhachev, pp. 211–214. (In Russ.)
4 Klimova M.N. “Edipov siuzhet” v drevnerusskoi literature (povesti o krovosmesitele) [“Oedipus plot” in Old Russian literature (the story of the incest)]. Sibirskii filologicheskii zhurnal, 2008, no 3, pp. 22–34. (In Russ.)
5 Klyaus V.L. “Russkoe Trekhrech’e” Man’chzhurii: ocherki fol’klora i traditsionnoi kul’tury [“Russian Three Rivers” of Manchuria: Essays on folklore and traditional culture]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2015. 384 p. (In Russ.)
6 Kliaus V.L. Ukrainskii fol’klor u kitaiskikh russkikh Man’chzhurii [Ukrainian folklore by Chinese Russians Manchuria]. Traditsionnaia kul’tura, 2018, vol. 19, no 5, pp. 206–220. (In Russ.)
7 Kiukhel’beker V.K. Izhorskii [Izhorsky]. In: Kiukhel’beker V.K. Sochineniia: v 2 t. [Works: in 2 vols.]. Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel’ Publ., 1939. Vol. 2: Dramaticheskie proizvedeniia [Dramas]. 492 p. (In Russ.)
8 Povest’ vremennykh let [The Tale of Bygone Years], edition prepared, transl. and comm. by O.V. Tvorogov. Available at: http://lib.pushkinskijdom.ru/?tabid=4869 (Accessed 01 January 2020). (In Russ. and Old Russ.)
9 Propp V.Ia. Edip v svete fol’klora [Oedipus in the light of folklore]. In: Propp V.Ia. Fol’klor i deistvitel’nost’ [Folklore and reality]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1976, pp. 258– 299. (In Russ.)
10 Sravnitel’nyi ukazatel’ siuzhetov. Vostochnoslavianskaia skazka [Comparative plot guide. East Slavic Tale], ed. L.G. Baraga. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1979. 437 p. (SUS) (In Russ.)
11 Fol’klornaia kollektsiia Instituta mirovoi literatury im. A.M. Gor’kogo RAN [The Folklore collection at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences]. Available at: http://imli.ru/index.php/otdel-folklora/1524-folklornayakollektciya (Accessed 01 January 2020). (In Russ.)
12 Materiiali do ukraїns’koї etnol’ogiї [Materials on Ukrainian Ethnology]. L’vov, Drukarnia Naukovogo tovarystva im. T.G. Shevchenka Publ., 1909. Vol. 11, issue 2. 139 p. (In Ukrainian)
13 Uther H.-J. The types of international folktales. A classification and bibliography. Parts I–III. Helsinki, Suomal. tiedeakat., 2004. 619 p. (In English)