ORAL LITERATURE
ORAL LITERATURE is one of the main kinds of verbal art (together with folklore and literature), improvised art of professional authors, which was accompanied with musical instrument in the majority of cases. Works of O.l. express the individual worldview, aesthetic ideals, style of particular authors. The nature of orality makes it closer to folklore, individual character – to literature. The author’s variant is relatively stable as he mostly uses poetic speech, easy means of formation, relevant content, his indisputable authority. The works of O.l. in contrast to folklore and literature are fully dedicated to the problems and events of modern reality for the author.
O.l. is common for many peoples of the world including Turkic folks. Monuments of Turkic literature, monuments in Kultegin’s honor, such as “Book of omens”, “Kitabi dede Korkud”, etc. were the first works of O.l. registered in written form afterwards. The stages of Bashkir O.l. development are: 1st stage (conditional, connected with different ceremonies) dated back from ancient times to approx. the 14th c., it is connected with baskes art, ceremonial folklore preserves the names of some of the first masters of word (Korkutata, Sukak, Tulka etc.); 2nd – yirau epoch (14th–16th c.); 3d – epoch of sesens (2nd part of the 16th c. – beginning of the 20th c.). After the October revolution in 1917 O.l. declines, as the majority of authors choose writing art and as they cannot reflect reality objectively anymore (due to political reasons). M.A. Burangulov, G.F. Vildanov, K.G. Gabitov, S.G. Mryasov, F.M. Suleymanov, M.I. Umetbayev, etc. are collectors of O.l. works.
The main genres of O.l are.: aytysh, proclamation, praise, kubair, song, dedication, tulgau, epic, etc. Poetsimprovisators often accompanied their works with dumbyra, kuray or kubyz playing.
M.Kh. Idelbayev
