Satirical Legacy of Mikhail Khoninov

Introduction. The family archive of the Kalmyk writer Mikhail V. Khoninov (1919–1981) contains unpublished works of various genres, both in the original and in translations. The latter comprise his satirical heritage represented by fables, feuilletons, apologues, couplets, quatrains, etc. Goals. The article introduces into scientific circulation Russian translations of some unpublished satirical poems and a feuilleton of the poet which for various reasons were never included in the author’s lifetime books, nor printed in magazine and newspaper versions. Materials and methods. The study explores the satirist’s fables and one feuilleton created in the 1970s and translated into Russian for a book in the Crocodile Library series. The historical literary, comparative, and descriptive methods made it possible to identify genre features, poetics of texts, and a tradition of laughter culture. Results. The analysis of the texts defines their satirical orientation characteristic of one part of the writer’s artistic heritage, variability of plots and motifs, stable images, allegorism, and connection with contemporaneity. Conclusions. Russian translations of the fables (‘Oh, Sanzhi ...’, ‘The Skillful Thief’, ‘Literary Horse Thief’, ‘Coryphaeus’, ‘Editing’) and one feuilleton (‘The Fraudsters’) by A. Vnukov, L. Shereshevsky, A. Nikolaev, M. Semenov, and A. Krongauz demonstrate a variety of themes and characters addressed by the poet. The to be introduced unpublished fables and one feuilleton by M. Khoninov shall be instrumental in supplementing book editions, reconstructing a creative history of the poet’s works and translation practices of ethnic poetry

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