CREATIVE SYNCRETISM AND THE GENRE TYPOLOGY OF THE EXILE FOLKLORE OF THE AKHALTSIKHE TURKS

Abstract

The article discusses the functional, semantic and structural aspects of the exile folklore of the Ahiska (Meskhetian) Turks. This people, historically populating the southwestern regions of Georgia, was deported to Central Asia in 1944. Speaking in the Eastern Anatolian dialect of the Turkic language, enriched with local elements, the Ahiska Turks now live in more than a dozen countries and are educated in eight languages. In the absence of a fertile ethnic and cultural environment, the main factor in the protection of national identity in exile was folklore, which underwent profound changes in this new context. The article shows that the changes in the exile folklore of the Ahiska Turks were first of all revealed in the heuristic nature of the folklore carriers and narrators. At present, the exile folklore of the Ahiska Turks, along with traditional narrators, is created by literate, often literary-educated, living in a modern information society, mostly born in exile - "authors", often in written form. The article analyzes the content, genre, stylistic features of the exile folklore of the Meskhetian Turks, reveals and classifies the features of folklore-literary syncretism. In the exile folklore of the Ahiska Turks, the aesthetics of texts and the suppression of traditional informative functions, the replacement of magical thinking with creative fantasy and literary imagination, the strengthening of personal beginnings and individuality are analyzed.