Information about the author:
Vladimir L. Klyaus
Vladimir L. Klyaus, DSc in Philology, 1) Head of Folklre Department, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia; professor, 2) Head of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences - Deputy Academician-Secretary of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Scientific and Organizational Work, 3) Russian State University for the Humanities, Miusskaya sq. 6, 125993 Moscow, Russia.
Abstract:
The article presents and analyzes mythological stories about people with supernatural abilities, which were recorded by the author. The material was collected in Australia from descendants of the Transbaikal territory. The respondents’ ancestors came from the Cossack villages and other settlements in Transbaikalia, when they fled to China in the 1920s and 1930s after the defeat of the White movement. From there, they refused to move to the USSR and emigrated to Australia in the 1960s. The plot system of the mythological stories about characters with magical powers is based on the folklore tradition of the Russian population of Transbaikalia. These stories are the most popular ones among the Australian residents of Transbaikalia. However, the events described in these stories take place in Transbaikalia and China, and there are no “Australian” stories, as the world of sorcerers, witches, healers, shamans, and lamas seems to have remained in the Russian and Chinese “rural” past.
