Sergei Neklyudov: “I started studying Mongolian folklore, mythological and literary traditions as a student”

Dr. Sergey Neklyudov, one of the leading Russian folklorists and Mongolian studies scholars, academic director of the Center for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore of RSUH, was awarded the highest state award of the Mongolian Republic, the Order of the Polar Star. We talked with Sergey Yuryevich about the beginning of his academic career, methods of work and the latest research of the Center for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore.

With what did you start to study folklore of the Mongolian peoples? Why did you choose Mongolia?

I started studying Mongolian folklore, mythological and literary traditions as a student on the recommendation of Dr. Eleazar Meletinsky, my mentor, and later my colleague and friend. Initially, and for many years to come, the epic of the Mongolian peoples, including its literary (written) forms, became the subject of my research leading to my PhD dissertation (1973) and postgraduate of Folklore Studies defense (1985).

Another branch of research arose with the participation in the preparation of a large-scale encyclopedic project - "Myths of the peoples of the world" (mid-1970s); I have continued to study the mythology of the Mongolian peoples even after the publication of this work (1980-1982), almost all my life. The recently published (2019) two-volume book “Folklore Landscape of Mongolia” summarizes the results of these studies (1: “Myth and Rite”; 2: “Book and Oral Epos”) that have span half a century.

How have the methods of work changed over the years of studying this subject?

From the very beginning, Mongolian studies (as, indeed, studies of Russian or any other folklore or any other) necessarily included a comparative, structural and typological aspect. The practical tasks (consideration of specific forms of folk culture) and theoretical goals (identification of general patterns of construction of oral traditions and texts) complement each other: an in-depth study of the subject stimulates the development of folklore and anthropological concepts, and the latter, in turn, expand the possibilities of working with empirical material.

In this regard, over the entire long period of my academic biography, the methodological guidelines have not changed much. However, the subject of study itself has been significantly transformed: in the 1970s I was still lucky enough to write down wonderful examples of the Mongolian heroic epic, but by the time of the expeditions of the 2000s this tradition had completely died out.  On the other hand, I got the opportunity to observe a radical restructuring and mythological picture of the world, and the its genre system. Of course, we have had to adjust our analytical tools in accordance with such changes.

What kind of research related to the study of the culture of the Mongolian peoples, is carried out at Center for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore of RSUH?

Since 2006, the Mongolian expedition of the Center has been active (jointly with the Institute of Language and Literature of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences) and international conferences on Mongolian studies have been held. Until 2017, more than 10 expeditions took place, collecting valuable material in various regions of the country.  In addition, there were trips to Buryatia (the Trans-Baikal and Angara regions), to people who came from Mongolia in north-eastern Kazakhstan, to the Khulunbuir Aimag of Inner Mongolia . The collected materials are being prepared for publication, and the transcribed and translated records are posted on the website in the public domain.