Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor Arctic Murmansk State University  Murmansk, Russia  [email protected]
Abstract. Literature of the East Saami belongs to the literatures of Finno-Ugric peoples and is one of the youngest and most little-studied Finno-Ugric literatures that reflect the relevance and the novelty of the research. In the article under the Eastern Saami literature we understand literature of the Russian Saami in the Saami and Russian languages due to certain historical and political grounds. Officially the birth of the literature of the Russian Saаmi in the Saаmi language is related to the appearance of writing of the Kildin dialect in 1982; 1990 year was recognized as a year of birth of the Eastern Saаmi literature in its native language, when the first work in Yokanga dialect was published. Saаmi literature in the Russian language manifested about itself much earlier. Essentially the literature of the East Saаmi people is not represented in the «world literature» of non-Finno-Ugric type. For today not all Saаmi writers are known among both world and Russian community. The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of the status of the Eastern Saаmi literature, its formation and research. Literature of the Kola or the Russian Saаmi writers presently exists in the Kildin dialect of the Saаmi language (this dialect is the basis of writing) and in Russian language. The article discusses the features of East Saаmi literature, its main themes, and genres. The names of earlier unknown Saami writers are introduced into the scientific use; the overview of studies published in recent years is represented.
Key words: Eastern Saаmi literature, Russian Saаmi, Yokanga dialect, Kildin dialect.