Indiana University Bloomington
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Mongolian Literature & Folklore
Catalog number CEUS-U 564
György Kara

The written and oral art of word, interaction of orality and writing. History of Mongol literary studies. Collections of monuments; internal and external sources. Broad and narrow concepts of literature. Periods and areas. Connections with other arts (music, drama, visual arts) and with the sacred.. Authorship and anonymity. Original and translated works. Indo-Tibetan, Chinese, Turkic and Western influences. Forms and functions. Prose and verse. Narrative and lyric genres. The Mongol verse.

Mongolic (Tabgach, Kitan, etc.) writing before the thirteenth century.
The Middle Mongol monuments in the Mongol heartland, in the Golden Horde, in Eastern Turkistan, in the Yuan empire, and in the Ilkhan’s territory.
Muslim and Chinese sources preserving Mongol literary traditions. Biograpies in the Yuan Annals. The Sheng wu qin cheng lu; Mongol anecdotes and Chinggis Khan’s aphorisms in Rashîdu’d-dîn Chronicle.
The Secret History of the Mongols. Its authorship, date, internal genres.
Chos-kyi ‘Od-zer, Sonom Gara and Shes-rab Seng-ge and other Buddhist literati.
Inscriptions, letters, documents.
The late-sixteenth-century revival of Mongol Buddhism and literary activities.
Cult of Chinggis Khan. The Two Gray Horses.
The Oirat story about the Khalkha Ubashi.
The versified history of the Tumet Altan Khan.
Historical literature from the late sixteenth to the seventeenth century.
Prince Tsogtu’s inscriptions (1624). Shireetu Guushi.
The Mongol Buddhist canon. Non-canonical works. Hagiography.
The Oirat Zaya Pandita’s translations and new literary language.
The Geser, the Jangar, and other epics: Alamzhi Mergen, Khan Kharankhui.
Chahar Gebshi Lubsangtsultim.
The eighteenth-century histories.
The Third Mergen Gegen’s writings.
Chinese novels and short stories translated, their way to Mongol story-tellers.
Dandzinrabjai’s lyric and didactic poetry. Sandag the Fabler’s soliloquies.
The Tumet Wangchingbala’s sons’ lyric and narrative works; Injannashi’s Blue Chronicle and his Summing Up.
Keshigbatu songs and other works. Ishidandzinwangjil’s Golden Teaching.
Nineteenth-century Buryat chronicles.
The oral genres.
Beginnings of modern literatures.