The Plot ATU/SUS 931 (“Oedipus” / “Incest”) in the Oral Literacy of the Transbaikal Russian-Chinese Borderland

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

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · China · Ethnology · Folklore · Genealogy · Geography · Literacy · Literature · Narrative · Population · Slavic languages · Sociology · Classics · Demography · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History

• "Oedipus plot" in Russian ancient literature (stories about an incestuous person)

  Margarita N Klimova•Sibirskii Filologicheskii Zhurnal•2008

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