Khakass non-fairytale prose in the materials of the Manuscript Fund of the Khakass Research Institute of Language, Literature and History (1945–2000s)

The paper is devoted to the folklore heritage housed in the Manuscript Fund of the Khakass Research Institute of Language, Literature and History (KhRILLH). Systematic scientific research in the field of Khakass folklore began at the beginning of the 20th century. The regular formation of the Manuscript Fund of KhRILLH began in 1945. Now, it contains the richest materials on folklore collected during folklore and ethnographic expeditions: the “living” exist- ence of heroic epics, fairy tales, myths, legends, song genres of yr and takhpah, as well as ritual folklore. However, no sufficiently complete description of the manuscripts stored in the collection has been provided so far. The author considers the issues of differentiation and systematization of non-fairytale prose, plot, and thematic composition and characterizes the scholars’ collecting and research activities on Khakass non-fairytale prose from the middle of the 20 th – beginning of the 21st centuries. The study dealt with the archival records of the Handwritten Fund of KhRILLH, including the texts in Sagai, Kachin, Kyzyl, and Shor dialects of the Khakass language. The analysis involved archival texts deciphered from the materials of folklore expeditions. The work fills a number of gaps in the study of non- fairytale prose of the Khakasses and contributes to the further development of research in this direction. The paper is written as a result of the work on the volume of the series “Monuments of folklore of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East”.