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Abstract:

The monograph delves into the poetics of the Yakut heroic epic, one of Siberia’s epic traditions that until recently has existed in oral form. Using representative folklore material, it examines the composition, structural units of the tradition’s formulaic language, and the intricacies of their reproduction. It analyzes the connection between the narrative discourse of Olonkho and its folklore context. The work builds upon the results of a corpus study of published and archival sources, enabling an investigation of the typology of the Yakut epic’s text-forming units based on real-world statistics of their existence. The book represents one of the first attempts to study the Yakut epic tradition from a structural-typological perspective. The book is intended for specialists in folklore studies, literary criticism, and ethnography, as well as a wide readership interested in the traditional culture of Siberian peoples.

Keywords: Oral Tradition, Poetics of Folklore, Heroic Epic, Formula, Yakut Tradition, Olonkho.