St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie Publ., 2010, 227 p. (in Russian)

In her fundamental work on the problems of folklore studies and literary criticism, I. V. Kulganek analyzed the repertoire of small genres of Mongolian poetic folklore for the first time in Russian and world Mongolistics from the perspective of modern achievements of European and Russian poetics. The importance of understanding Mongolian poetic folklore is dictated not only by the relevance of the topic, but also by its significance in modern processes of ethnic identification.

I. V. Kulganek thoroughly studied the source base of the subject under study. The chapter "Development of theoretical views on Mongolian poetic folklore" analyzes the works of Western European, Russian and Mongolian scientists, systematizes scattered results and data on research on small genres, epics and ritual folklore. I would like to note the importance of translations and comments on the scientific works of foreign scientists, which are necessary for future research on Mongolistics. The author, considering the historiography of the study of small forms of folklore of the Mongolian peoples, simultaneously presented the theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of Mongolian poetic folklore developed in the course of the study.

In the chapter "Stages of studying Mongolian poetic folklore by Mongolian scholars", I. V. Kulganek naturally draws on information about the poetic work of the Mongols found in early Chinese and Persian works. With such a broad approach to the research material, the author's conclusion is legitimate: "The problem of studying the actual poetic creativity by Mongolian scientists is inextricably linked with the history of philological science in medieval Mongolia. The origins of this problem go back to the time of the formation of a Single Mongolian state, when it became necessary to create a written language" (p. 67).

The paper examines in detail the scientific treatise of an Indian poetologist of the seventh century. Dandin's "Kavyadarsha" ("Zohist ayalguuni tol" - "Mirror of Poetry"), which became the basic theoretical principle for Mongolian writers and poets, who also "used it in the creative practice of the agglutinative Mongolian language" (p. 70). I. V. Kulganek provides not only a comprehensive analysis of scientific works on the poetic creativity of the Mongols, but also information on the collection of folklore texts, culture and ethnography. In this chapter, the author's comparative analysis of cult texts collected and studied by Western researchers is of particular interest.

There is no doubt that the chapter "Collections of Mongolian Folklore" is invaluable for folklorists of the Mongolian-speaking world, in which the genre composition of Mongolian poetic folklore is highlighted, and Mongolian, Kalmyk, and Buryat materials are clarified. Analyzing the materials on magical poetry, the author emphasizes the most significant and relevant detailed facts not only for folklorists, but also for historians and ethnographers: "The records of shamanic poetry stored in the Archive of Orientalists are valuable because almost all of them contain comments on texts, for example, a lengthy commentary has the text of invocation written by Khangalov (R. A. Khangalov). II, op. I, ed. hr. 353). In f. 28. op. I, ed. hr. 255 there is not only the text of the shaman's prayer at the wedding party, but also a description of the entire matchmaking rite with the participation of the shaman" (p. 115). Of course, invaluable assistance has been provided to researchers who no longer need to blindly search through all the funds for the necessary material.

I. V. Kulganek introduced a unique collection of Mongolian manuscripts and woodcuts from the Manuscript Collection of the SPbF Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and folklore texts from the Archive of Orientalists. The author has carried out a large textual work on the comparison of archival and printed materials.

materials of different folklore traditions of Mongolian-speaking peoples. Such a wide source base is the result of professional interests of Kulganek, who for many years was engaged in compiling catalogs, the most voluminous of which (Catalog of Mongolian-language folklore materials of the Archive of Orientalists at the SPbF Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 20 pech. l.) was published in 2000. The vast amount of material accumulated by her predecessors allowed I. V. Kulganek to present a work in which the structure, poetic language and artistic techniques of small genres of Mongolian folklore are most fully and comprehensively reconstructed.

The central chapter devoted to the poetics of Mongolian folk lyrics is also extremely interesting, revealing the structural (composition, architectonics) and artistic features of small genres of Mongolian poetic folklore. The paper defines the principles of forming the artistic and poetic canon, expressing the specifics of national culture. The plot, stylistics, and imaginative richness of small genres, such as praises, well-wishes, teachings, speeches, and songs (mong. magtaal, tsol, yerool, surgaal, ug, duu), aphoristic poetry; proverbs, sayings, riddles (Mong. tsetsen ug, mergen ug, zuir ug, Zuir tsetsen ug, onsogo) and magical poetry: spells, appeals, prayers, invocations, curses (Mong. бо моргол, дуудлага, хараал). In a Mongolian society focused on such traditional forms of regulation as ritual and custom, it is natural to have a variety of accompanying verbal material.

The author reveals the poetic specifics of traditional formulas of folk lyrics, aesthetic features of the poetry of "common places", in which peculiar artistic means are identified that are closely related to the traditional worldview of nomadic peoples. Revealing the aesthetic values of the people encoded in formulas and phraseological units, the author refutes the notorious attitude about the naivety of a folk song with actual examples: "the presence of a deep context and content does not allow us to talk about its "simplicity", "naivety"," immediacy"," artlessness" " (p.121). Such statements by I. V. Kulganek are proofs and convincing, because she studies folklore texts based on a rich source base, considering them in a broad ethnographic and cultural context.

When analyzing the poetics of children's folklore, I. V. Kulganek's study of the historical dynamics of small genres and the continuity of folklore traditions, identifying the plot and thematic composition of genres using data from psychology, folk pedagogy and ethnography is fruitful. This section analyzes the genesis and semantics of lullabies, artistic specifics, and typological originality of this genre. Identifying the plot beginning of Mongolian lullabies, the etymology of the word buuvei duu (lit.: soothing or lulling songs, from the word buuvei "bayu-bai"), the author states: "Their vocabulary reflects the typical nomadic living conditions, family ties, the surrounding nature, the animal world" (p. 135), and notes, what about the song-dance "Dance of the Crane "(Togoruuni bujig), "Swan Dance "(Hun shuvuuni bujig), "Hawk and Quail Dance" (Khartsaga bodnijn bujig), which goes back to masked performances imitating the habits of animals, you can add many songs and dances related to shamanic rituals and Buddhist performances.

The undoubted merit of I. V. Kulganek is the identification of the main varieties of small genres of Mongolian poetic creativity, in which the research approach is subtly combined with an understanding of the features of the Eastern worldview. Traditional archetypes hidden in the formula and subtle subtext require considerable effort to adequately perceive the text. In my opinion, here it is necessary to note the rare talent of the author, who knows how to feel someone else's culture and way of thinking with a sympathetic heart, with love and understanding.

The problem of laughter culture is a complex and multifaceted topic that has not been sufficiently developed in Mongolian literary studies. Analyzing images and basic forms of laughing behavior in small forms of folklore, the author builds a parallel world, opposed to the real "serious" world as dysfunctional, unsettled, unstable. As we know, the text is more than a designation of the problem field of literary analysis, and the extension of the concept of text is hermeneutically justified. Revealing the peculiarity of the laughter culture in Mongolian songs, proverbs and sayings, the author successfully combines the literal meaning, i.e. the text as such, with the peculiarities of understanding situations when analyzing the material. Considering the form and content of the text in an organic unity, I. V. Kulganek, in addition to the rhythm, intonation, rhyme of the verse, pays attention to the metrorhythmic structure, vocal me-

logies of songs. According to the author, the musical form, rhythm, tempo, and melody of Mongolian songs are often based on the psychological perception of sensory and intuitive sensations, the mental and emotional state of a nomad cattle breeder.

Allegory as an artistic image is most pronounced in the genre of riddles (onsogo). The study of the genesis and semantics of riddles reveals the role of the use of allegories in Mongolian society. According to the author: "Based on the theory of the origin of genres, according to which at a certain stage in the development of society, reality begins to be fixed according to some once-found scheme, it can be assumed that the genre-forming factor of riddles, or their basis, was the use of substitute words" (p.151). No less significant are the functions of riddles identified by the author in plot construction and artistic and stylistic design of large folklore genres. The monograph is rich in factual material, the semantic facets of which are closely interrelated. Here, the researcher's sensitivity in interpreting Mongolian texts is of particular importance: to correctly reveal the contextual motivation, while taking into account the aesthetics of the folklore word. The work is supplemented by the "Samples of Mongolian folk Lyrics" provided in the appendix.

The monograph by I. V. Kulganek makes a significant contribution to the established tradition of studying the genre originality of Mongolian folklore. The combination of scientific culture and excellent knowledge of the material made it possible to create a study that certainly contributes to the formation of a systematic view of the development of small genres in Mongolian folklore. The value of a peer-reviewed publication also lies in the fact that it can serve as a basis for numerous more detailed studies in the field of folklore of Mongolian-speaking peoples.

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