Folklore genres. Examples of folklore genres. Folklore - what is it? Main characteristics

17.04.2019

Folklore(Folk-lore) is a special historically developed area folk culture.

The word "folklore", which often denotes the concept " folklore", came from the combination of two English words: folk - “people” and lore - “wisdom”.

The history of folklore goes back to ancient times. Its beginning is connected with the need of people to understand the natural world around them and their place in it. This awareness was expressed in inextricably fused words, dance and music, as well as in works of fine, especially applied, art (ornaments on dishes, tools, etc.), in jewelry, objects of religious worship...

From time immemorial, myths have come to us that explain the laws of nature, the mysteries of life and death in figurative and plot form. The rich soil of ancient myths still nourishes both folk art and literature. Unlike myths, folklore is already art form. Ancient folk art was characterized by syncretism, i.e. indivisibility different types creativity. In a folk song, not only words and melody could not be separated, but also the song could not be separated from the dance or ritual.

The mythological background of folklore explains why oral work did not have a first author.

Russian folklore is rich and diverse in terms of genres. Like literature, folklore works share into epic, lyrical and dramatic. TO epic genres include epics, legends, fairy tales, historical songs. TO lyrical genres These include love songs, wedding songs, lullabies, and funeral laments. TO dramatic - folk dramas (with Petrushka, for example). The initial dramatic performances in Russia were ritual games: seeing off Winter and welcoming Spring, elaborate wedding rituals, etc. In addition, there are small genres of folklore- ditties, sayings, etc.

Over time, the content of the works underwent changes: after all, the life of folklore, like any other art, is closely connected with history.

Significant difference folklore works from literary is that they do not have a permanent, once and for all established form. Storytellers and singers have honed their mastery of performing works for centuries.

Folklore is typical natural folk speech, striking in its richness of expressive means and melodiousness. Typical for a folklore work well-developed laws of composition with stable forms the beginning, development plots, endings. His style tends towards hyperbole, parallelism, constant epithets. Internal organization it has so much clear, stable character that even changing over the centuries, it retains its ancient roots.

Any piece of folklore functional- it was closely connected with one or another circle of rituals and was performed in a strictly defined situation.

Oral folk art reflected the whole set of rules of folk life. The folk calendar precisely determined the order of rural work. Rituals family life contributed to harmony in the family, including raising children. The laws of life of the rural community helped to overcome social contradictions. All this is captured in various types of folk art. An important part of life is holidays with their songs, dances, and games.

The best works of folk poetry close and understandable to children, have clearly expressed pedagogical orientation And distinguished by artistic excellence. Thanks to folklore, a child more easily enters into the world around him, more fully feels the beauty of his native nature, assimilates the people’s ideas about beauty, morality, gets acquainted with customs, rituals - in short, along with aesthetic pleasure, he absorbs what is called the spiritual heritage of the people, without which the formation of a full-fledged personality is simply impossible.

Since ancient times, there have been many folklore works specifically intended for children. This type of folk pedagogy has played a huge role in the education of the younger generation for many centuries and right up to the present day. Collective moral wisdom and aesthetic intuition developed a national ideal of man. This ideal fits harmoniously into the global circle of humanistic views.

2.2. The concept of children's folklore. Genres of works by U.N.T. accessible to preschool children.

Children's folklore- a phenomenon unique in its diversity: a huge variety of genres coexist in it, each of which is associated with almost all manifestations of a child’s life. Each genre has its own history and purpose. Some appeared in ancient times, others - quite recently, those are designed to entertain, and these are to teach something, others help a little person navigate big world…

The system of genres of children's folklore is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Non-fiction folklore

The poetry of nurturing:

Pestushki(from “nurture” - “nurse, raise, educate”) - these are short rhythmic sentences that accompany various activities with a baby in the first months of his life: waking up, washing, dressing, learning to walk. For pestles, both content and rhythm are equally important; they are associated with the physical and emotional development of the child, help him move, and create a special mood. For example, stretches:

Stretch, stretch,

Hurry, wake up quickly.

Lullabies- one of the ancient genres of children's non-fiction folklore, performed by women over the cradle of a child in order to calm him down and put him to sleep; often contains magical (spell) elements. We can say that lullabies are also pester songs, only associated with sleep.

Bye-bye, bye-bye,

You, little dog, don't bark,

Whitepaw, don't whine,

Don't wake up my Tanya.

Jokes- These are small poetic fairy tales in verse with a bright, dynamic plot. of a comic nature, representing a comic dialogue, appeal, funny episode built on illogic. They are not associated with specific actions or games, but are intended to entertain the baby.

And-ta-ta, and-ta-ta,

A cat married a cat,

For the cat Kotovich,

For Ivan Petrovich.

Boring tales- jokes that combine fairy-tale poetics with mocking or mocking content. The main thing in a boring fairy tale is that it is “not real, it is a parody of the established norms of fairy tale technique: beginnings, sayings and endings. A boring fairy tale is a cheerful excuse, a proven technique that helps a tired storyteller fight off the annoying “fairy tale hunters.”

For the first time, several texts of boring fairy tales were published by V.I. Dahlem in 1862 in the collection “Proverbs of the Russian People” (sections “Dokuka” and “Sentences and jokes”). In parentheses after the texts their genre was indicated - “annoying fairy tale”:

“Once upon a time there was a crane and a sheep, they mowed a haystack - should I say it again from the end?”

“There was Yashka, he was wearing a gray shirt, a hat on his head, a rag under his feet: is my fairy tale good?”

Amusing folklore

Nursery rhymes- small rhyming sentences that aim not only to amuse children, but also to involve them in the game.

Among the jokes we must include fables-shifters - a special type of rhyme songs that came into children's folklore from buffoon and fair folklore and cause laughter because they are deliberately displaced and the real connections of objects and phenomena are broken.

In folklore, fables exist both as independent works and as part of fairy tales. At the center of the fable is a obviously impossible situation, behind which, however, the correct state of affairs is easily guessed, because the shapeshifter plays out the simplest, well-known phenomena.

Techniques of folk fables can be found in abundance in original children's literature - in the fairy tales of K. Chukovsky and P. P. Ershov, in the poems of S. Marshak. And here are examples of folk tales-shifters:

Tongue Twisters- popularly poetic works, built on a combination of words with the same root or similar sound, which makes them difficult to pronounce and makes it an indispensable exercise for speech development. Those. tongue twisters - verbal exercises for quickly pronouncing phonetically complex phrases.

There are genres in children's folklore, reflecting relationships between children, child psychology. These are the so-called satirical genres: teasers and teases.

Teasers- short mocking poems ridiculing this or that quality, and sometimes simply attached to a name - a type of creativity almost entirely developed by children. It is believed that teasing passed on to children from an adult environment and grew out of nicknames and nicknames - rhyming lines were added to the nicknames, and a tease was formed. Now a tease may not be associated with a name, but make fun of some negative character traits: cowardice, laziness, greed, arrogance.

However, for every tease there is an excuse: “Whoever calls you names is called that!”

Underdress- a type of teaser containing a question fraught with a crafty catch. Suspenders are a kind of word games. They are based on dialogue, and dialogue is designed to take a person at his word. Most often it begins with a question or request:

Say: onion.

A knock on the forehead!

Mirilki- in case of a quarrel, peaceful sentences have been invented.

Don't fight, don't fight

Come on, make up quickly!

Game folklore

Counting books- short, often humorous poems with a clear rhyme-rhythm structure, which begin children's games (hide and seek, tag, rounders, etc.). The main thing in a counting rhyme is the rhythm; often the counting rhyme is a mixture of meaningful and meaningless phrases.

Game songs, choruses, sentences- rhymes that accompany children's games, commenting on their stages and the distribution of roles of participants. They either start the game or connect parts of the game action. They can also serve as endings in the game. Game sentences may also contain the “conditions” of the game and determine the consequences for violating these conditions.

Silent women– rhymes that are recited for relaxation after noisy games; After the poem, everyone should fall silent, restraining the desire to laugh or speak. When playing the game of silence, you had to remain silent for as long as possible, and the first person to laugh or let it slip would carry out a pre-agreed task: eat coals, roll in the snow, douse yourself with water...

And here is an example of modern silent games that have become completely independent games:

Hush hush,

Cat on the roof

And the kittens are even taller!

The cat went for milk

And the kittens are head over heels!

The cat came without milk,

And the kittens: “Ha-ha-ha!”

Another group of genres - calendar children's folklore- is no longer associated with the game: these works are a unique way of communicating with the outside world, with nature.

Calls- short rhymed sentences, appeals in poetic form to various natural phenomena, having an incantatory meaning and rooted in the ancient ritual folklore of adults. Each such call contains a specific request; it is an attempt, with the help of a song, to influence the forces of nature, on which the well-being of both children and adults in peasant families largely depended:

Bucket sun,

Look out the window!

Sunny, dress up!

Red, show yourself!

Sentences- poetic appeals to animals, birds, plants, which have an incantatory meaning and are rooted in the ancient ritual folklore of adults.

Ladybug,

Fly to the sky

Your kids are there

Eating cutlets

But they don’t give it to dogs,

They just get it themselves.

Horror stories- oral stories-scarecrows.

Children's folklore is a living, constantly renewed phenomenon, and in it, along with the most ancient genres, there are relatively new forms, the age of which is estimated at only a few decades. As a rule, these are genres of children's urban folklore, for example, horror stories - short stories with a tense plot and a frightening ending. As a rule, horror stories are characterized by stable motifs: “black hand”, “bloody stain”, “green eyes”, “coffin on wheels”, etc. Such a story consists of several sentences; as the action develops, the tension increases, and in the final phrase it reaches its peak.

"Red Spot"

One family received a new apartment, but there was a red stain on the wall. They wanted to erase it, but nothing happened. Then the stain was covered with wallpaper, but it showed through the wallpaper. And every night someone died. And the spot became even brighter after each death.

Folk songs, their types: lullaby, nursery rhymes, refrains, jokes, fables, etc. Richness of content, close to children's interests. Artistic features. Principles for selecting works by U.N.T. for children.

Pestushki, nursery rhymes, lullabies, jokes, upside-down fables - this is the so-called maternal poetry. It is intended for the little ones and enters a child’s life literally from the first days.

Lullabies- a true miracle of folk poetry. The experience of many generations has produced and polished their form. The main purpose of a lullaby is to calm the baby and make him sleep, so it is simple and melodic. In the old days, mothers noticed which words and tunes children fell asleep to better, remembered them, and repeated them. She repeated these songs to her younger brothers and sisters eldest daughter. So they passed from generation to generation. Such songs most often talk about peace and quiet. The song has a lot of repetitions and onomatopoeic words:

Bye-bye, bye-bye,

Go to sleep quickly.

And swing, swing, swing,

The rooks flew to us.

They sat on the gate.

The gate is creaking, creaking!

And the knee is sleeping, sleeping.

Mother's love and tenderness is manifested in affectionate addresses to the child: Vasenka, our Lidochka, child, little child. The content of lullabies is related to the immediate environment of the baby: cradle, blanket, pillow, baby; cooing pigeons (“ghouls”, “gulenki”), a dog, a bunny, and killer whales are often mentioned. Diminutive suffixes enhance melodiousness and soften the text. The scary wolf, which is usually used to scare children, is simply a “gray wolf” here.

The most popular character is the cat. Bayun cat is a symbol of home, comfort, peace. He is called upon:

Come, Kotya, spend the night,

Movo Vanechka download

I'm already a cat

I'll pay for the work...

I'll give you a jug of milk

Yes, a piece of cake.

In the simple, unpretentious texts of lullaby poetry, echoes of ancient beliefs were preserved, when a baby was spoken to by the evil ones, dark forces. Some mythological Babai, Mamai are the spirits of darkness, and Dream, Drema, Ugomon, on the contrary, are called upon for calm. Sometimes whole poetic pictures emerge:

Sandman wanders near the house,

Dream walks through the hallway,

And Sleep tortures Drema:

“Where is the cradle hanging here?

Where is the baby?

I'll go put them to bed

I’ll close my eyes!”

Over time, most of the spell formulas lost their original meaning and began to be perceived as a purely artistic device, creating a colorful, joyful world of childhood, where everything is unusual, but nothing should be surprising:

At the cat, at the cat

Cradle of gold

And [Kolya] has my

Even better than that.

Each song contains tender love for the child; a happy, rich future is predicted for him: “how he will grow up great, walk in gold, wear pure silver.” The future is connected with work and caring for loved ones.

Just like a hen rows a grain of grain,

So Mashenka takes one berry at a time, -

The peasant mother depicts the quick participation of her daughter-assistant in family affairs. Lullabies allow for many variations: each performer inserts the name of her child, her own special soothing words and sounds. Such songs are often performed one after another, connected by a melodic chorus.

In the repertoire of lullabies there were also those that reflected a hostile attitude towards children, even wishing for death. Apparently, there are several reasons for their occurrence. There were deep echoes of the ancient belief in the substitution of an infant by evil spirits. Sometimes they wished death for a child born out of wedlock. There have been cases of rough treatment of children by young nannies:

Sleep, jack-of-all-trades,

Sleep, it sucks

Sleep, little potion,

Evil root.

You cry for a long time

You won't let me sleep.

In old songs there are elements of intimidation and the threat of punishment:

Hush, Little Baby, Do not Say a Word,

Don't lie on the edge.

The little gray wolf will come,

He'll grab the barrel

And he will drag you into the woods,

Under a broom bush.

In this case, the nanny’s task was to warn the child from danger (“A child does not know the land”); the abundance of diminutive suffixes relieved emotional tension. This is one of the most popular stories.

The main purpose of lullaby lyrics is to calm and lull the child to sleep. This determines the melodic and poetic structure of the songs. The rhythm corresponds to the movement of a rocking cradle; assonances, i.e., consonances of vowels, noticeably predominate. All this helps you fall asleep quickly. For the same purpose, a melody without words can be performed: “A-a-a, A-a-a.”

Growing up, the baby gets acquainted with nursery rhymes - short play sayings. By listening, repeating and memorizing rhymed lines, the child masters the simplest movements and gestures, learns to speak, think, communicate with others, and express his emotions.

Pestushki. Pestushki (stretchers) are often associated with a lullaby - short rhymes, sentences that accompany the gentle stroking of a child's body, spreading of arms and legs (simple physical exercises).

Stretchers, stretchers!

Across the fat girl

And there are walkers in the legs,

And in the hands of grabbers,

And in the mouth there is a talk,

And come to your senses!

Rhythmic text is combined with active movements, evoking joyful emotions in the baby.

Dybok, Dybok,

Vanyusha will soon be one year old! -

adults say, helping the child stand on his feet. As he grows up, “maturing”, the texts of the pestles become more complex and funnier.

And when the child begins to show a conscious, interested attitude towards the environment, folk pedagogy will offer “funny” songs, or nursery rhymes - short play sayings. By listening, repeating and memorizing rhymed lines, the child masters the simplest movements and gestures, learns to speak, think, communicate with others, and express his emotions.

Nursery rhymes- these are funny songs that accompany games with a child. Here there is “The Horned Goat - Bearded”, which “gores, gores” the one who “doesn’t eat porridge, doesn’t drink milk”, and “Ladushki”, and numerous imitations of horse races accompanied by funny rhythmic verses.

With nuts,

With nuts!

Let's gallop

With rolls,

With rolls!

The particular popularity of the nursery rhyme “The White-sided Magpie” was noted by the famous collector and researcher of folklore of the last century, I.P. Sakharov: “Magpie, as a children’s game, amuses only children and mothers, and is sacredly observed in family life.” This game gives the child an object lesson in hospitality, generosity and fairness. The smallest finger, the little finger, did not tear the croup, did not carry water, did not chop wood, for which he did not receive any porridge.

The verbal part of the nursery rhyme is accompanied by active flexion and extension of the child’s fingers and stroking the palm. And this is by no means accidental. Brilliant folk wisdom has been confirmed by modern physiology: the development of the fingers of the hand affects the development of the brain of a growing person and his speech skills. It is no coincidence that exercise games like “Magpie” are so widespread among the Slavic peoples and are known to many peoples of Asia and Africa. These games represent the ideal combination of words and actions, beneficially influencing the aesthetic, mental and physical development of the child.

Towards the end of the lullaby period, the child's need for play and fun increases. And jokes are indispensable here.

Jokes- a more complex type of verbal creativity. A joke combines a song, a little fairy tale (pobaska), a tongue twister, and a game. The characters of this entertainment genre: “the long-nosed crane that went to the mill and saw wonders”, and “a bunny with short legs, morocco boots”, and a raven sitting on an oak tree, “playing a trumpet”, and many other birds and animals, well familiar to children. Jokes develop a child's imagination and sense of humor. Note that he is not a passive listener here either - he laughs, claps his hands, stomps to the beat of the words.

Often jokes have a dialogue form: question and answer. This gives the text dynamism, holds the child’s attention, is easily remembered by him and reproduced later. Here, for example, is how the dialogue is structured in the joke about Thomas riding a chicken:

Where are you going, Foma?

Where are you going?

Cut the hay!

- What do you need hay for?

Feed the cows!

What do you need cows for?

Milk it!

What do you need milk for?

Give the kids something to drink!

Among the jokes there are many “stupid absurdities”, fables , built on the displacement of concepts. The world of images familiar to the child appears in unusual, bizarre combinations:

Where have you seen this?

Where have you heard this?

So that the hen brings a bull,

The little piglet laid an egg,

So that a bear flies across the sky,

He waved his black tail.

Playing on incongruities and folkloric jokes characteristic of jokes attract the attention of professional poets. The poetics of fables has given rise to a rich literary tradition. In domestic literature these are poems by K.I. Chukovsky, S.Ya. Marshak, I.P. Tokmakova. Inverted tales have analogies in other languages. The English call this kind of poetry (“upside down” poetry).

Folklore and literature are two types of verbal art. However, folklore is not only the art of words, but also an integral part of folk life, closely intertwined with its other elements, and this is the significant difference between folklore and literature. But also as an art of words, folklore differs from literature. These differences do not remain unshakable at various stages of historical development, and yet the main, stable features of each of the types of verbal art can be noted. Literature is an individual art, folklore is a collective art. In literature there is innovation, and in folklore tradition comes to the fore. Literature exists in written form, a means of storing and transmitting an artistic text, a book serves as an intermediary between the author and his addressee, while a work of folklore is reproduced orally and stored in the memory of the people. A work of folklore lives in many variants; with each performance it is reproduced as if anew, with direct contact between the performer-improviser and the audience, which not only directly influences the performer (feedback), but sometimes also joins in the performance.

Anika the warrior and death. Splint.

Publications of Russian folklore.

The term “folklore,” which was introduced into science by the English scientist W. J. Toms in 1846, translated means “ folk wisdom" Unlike many Western European scientists, who classify folklore as the most diverse aspects of folk life (even culinary recipes), including here also elements material culture(housing, clothing), domestic scientists and their like-minded people in other countries consider folklore to be oral folk art - poetic works created by the people and existing among the broad masses, along with musical and dance folklore. This approach takes into account the artistic nature of folklore as the art of words. Folkloristics studies folklore.

The history of folklore goes back to the deep past of humanity. M. Gorky defined folklore as the oral creativity of the working people. Indeed, folklore arose in the process of labor, always expressed the views and interests of mainly working people, in it, in the most varied forms, a person’s desire was manifested to make his work easier, to make it joyful and free.

Primitive man spent all his time on work or preparing for it. The actions through which he sought to influence the forces of nature were accompanied by words: spells and conspiracies were pronounced, the forces of nature were addressed with a request, threat or gratitude. This undifferentiation of different types of essentially artistic activity (although the creators-performers themselves set themselves purely practical goals) - the unity of words, music, dance, decorative art - is known in science as “primitive syncretism”, traces of it are still noticeable in folklore. As a person accumulated more and more significant life experience, which needed to be passed on to subsequent generations, the role of verbal information increased: after all, it was the word that could most successfully communicate not only about what was happening Here And Now, but also about what happened or will happen somewhere And once upon a time or some day. Selection verbal creativity into an independent art form - the most important step in the prehistory of folklore, in its independent, although associated with mythological consciousness, state. The decisive event that paved the line between mythology and folklore proper was the appearance of the fairy tale. It was in the fairy tale that imagination - this, according to K. Marx, a great gift that contributed so much to the development of mankind - was first recognized as an aesthetic category.

With the formation of nations and then states, heroic epic: Indian “Mahabharata”, Irish sagas, Kyrgyz “Manas”, Russian epics. Lyrics not related to ritual arose even later: it showed interest in the human personality, in the experiences of the common man. Folk songs period of feudalism they talk about serf bondage, about the hard lot of women, about people's defenders, such as Karmelyuk in Ukraine, Janosik in Slovakia, Stepan Razin in Rus'.

When studying folk art, one should constantly keep in mind that people are not a homogeneous concept and are historically changeable. The ruling classes sought by all means to introduce into the masses thoughts, moods, works that were contrary to the interests of the working people - songs loyal to tsarism, “spiritual poems”, etc. Moreover, in the people themselves, centuries of oppression accumulated not only hatred for exploiters, but also ignorance and downtroddenness. The history of folklore is both a process of constant growth in the self-awareness of the people and the overcoming of what their prejudices were expressed in.

According to the nature of the connection with folk life, folklore is distinguished between ritual and non-ritual. The folklore performers themselves adhere to a different classification. For them, it is important that some works are sung, others are spoken. Philological scholars classify all works of folklore into one of three categories - epic, lyric or drama, as is customary in literary criticism.

Some folklore genres connected by a common sphere of existence. If pre-revolutionary folklore was very clearly distinguished by the social class of its speakers (peasant, worker), now age differences are more significant. A special section of folk poetry is children's folklore - playful (drawings of lots, counting rhymes, various play songs) and non-playful (tongue twisters, horror stories, changelings). The main genre of modern youth folklore has become the amateur, so-called bard song.

The folklore of every nation is unique, as is its history, customs, and culture. Epics and ditties are inherent only in Russian folklore, dumas - in Ukrainian, etc. The lyrical songs of every nation are original. Even the shortest works of folklore - proverbs and sayings - express the same idea in each nation in its own way, and where we say: “Silence is golden,” the Japanese, with their cult of flowers, will say: “Silence is flowers.”

However, already the first folklorists were struck by the similarity of fairy tales, songs, and legends belonging to different peoples. At first this was explained by the common origin of related (for example, Indo-European) peoples, then by borrowing: one people adopted plots, motifs, and images from another.

A consistent and convincing explanation of all phenomena of similarity can only be provided by historical materialism. Based on a wealth of factual material, Marxist scientists explained that similar plots, motifs, and images arose among peoples who were at the same stages of socio-cultural development, even if these peoples lived on different continents and did not meet each other. Thus, a fairy tale is a utopia, a dream of justice, which developed among various peoples as private property appeared among them, and with it social inequality. Primitive society did not know a fairy tale on any of the continents.

Fairy tales, heroic epics, ballads, proverbs, sayings, riddles, lyrical songs different nations, distinguished by national identity both in form and content, are at the same time created on the basis of laws common to a certain level of artistic thinking and established by tradition. Here is one of the “natural experiments” that confirms this position. The French poet P. J. Beranger wrote the poem “The Old Corporal”, using as a basis (and at the same time significantly reworking it) a “complaint” - a special kind of French folk ballad. The poet V. S. Kurochkin translated the poem into Russian, and thanks to the music of A. S. Dargomyzhsky, the song penetrated the Russian folklore repertoire. And when, many years later, it was recorded on the Don, it was discovered that the folk singers had made significant changes to the text (and, by the way, to the music), as if essentially restoring the original form of the French “complaint,” which the Don Cossacks, of course, had never heard. This is reflected in the general laws of folk song creativity.

Literature appeared later than folklore and has always, although in different ways, used its experience. At the same time, literary works have long penetrated folklore and influenced its development.

The nature of the interaction between the two poetic systems is historically determined and therefore varies at different stages artistic development. On this path, the process of redistribution that takes place at sharp turns in history is extremely important. social spheres actions of literature and folklore, which is based on the material of Russian culture of the 17th century. noted by Academician D.S. Likhachev. If back in the 16th century. storytellers were kept even at the royal court, then a century and a half later folklore disappears from the life and everyday life of the ruling classes, now spoken word poetry- the property of almost exclusively the masses, and literature - of the ruling classes. Thus, later developments can sometimes change the emerging trends in the interaction of literature and folklore, and sometimes in the most significant way. However, the completed stages are not forgotten. What began in the folk art of the time of Columbus and Afanasy Nikitin uniquely echoed in the quests of M. Cervantes and G. Lorca, A. S. Pushkin and A. T. Tvardovsky.

In the interaction of folk art with realistic literature The inexhaustibility of folklore as an eternal source of continuously developing art is revealed more fully than ever before. The literature of socialist realism, like no other, relies not only on the experience of its immediate predecessors, but also on all the best that characterizes the literary process throughout its entire length, and on folklore in all its inexhaustible richness.

The law “On the Protection and Use of Cultural Historical Monuments”, adopted in 1976, also includes “recordings of folklore and music” among national treasures. However, recording is only an auxiliary means of recording folklore text. But even the most accurate recording cannot replace the living spring of folk poetry.

How many interesting books my parents read to me as a child! It was they who introduced me to the fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin and K. I. Chukovsky, to the poems of S. Ya. Marshak and S. V. Mikhalkov, to the works about nature by V. V. Bianchi and M. M. Prishvin. And how many interesting fairy tales my grandmother read to me. But from none of them did I hear such words as folklore. That’s why I couldn’t answer the teacher’s questions: “What works of oral folk art do you know? What is folklore?

The teacher’s story about folklore interested me very much, so I decided to learn as much as possible about folklore, study the opinions of my classmates about the meaning of folklore in human life, find out which works of oral folk art the parents introduced their children to, which genres of folklore are most famous, and which we don't know anything.

The topic of my research work was of great interest not only to me, but also to my classmates. The children especially enjoyed finding and guessing Russian folk riddles, which differ from modern riddles. Therefore, we decided to collect all the materials we found about the riddles together. This is how our book “Russian Folk Riddles” was born.

The true history of the working people cannot be known without knowing oral folk art.

M. Gorky

For a long time, man cared not only about food and housing, he sought to understand the world around him, compared various phenomena, created new things in nature and in his imagination. The fruits of centuries-old observations and thoughts of the people, their dreams and hopes were embodied in artistic images stories and legends, fairy tales and songs. This is how the people created their art, their poetry.

Fairy tales, epics and songs, proverbs, riddles and other types of oral folk art are called folklore. The word "folklore" is of English origin (folk lore). It means: folk wisdom, folk knowledge.

In the Explanatory Word of S.I. Ozhegov the meaning of this word is explained as follows: folklore is folk art, a set of folk ritual actions.

The science of folklore - folkloristics - is a living and interesting science that is closely related to historical life people in various manifestations. Of course, in folklore works there is neither an accurate description of historical facts nor dates, and the events and characters depicted are often even impossible in reality. The historical value of folklore is that it is a spiritual biography of the people, a poetic chronicle of their centuries-old life. Various phenomena nature and social life in the minds of ancient people were personified in the images of good and evil creatures that helped or harmed man. People have always dreamed of victory over evil forces and believed in victory over them. This belief determines the victories of fairy-tale heroes over monsters and evil wizards. Fairy-tale heroes, fearless and persistent in achieving their goals, and their adventures delighted people, awakened in them good feelings and hatred of everything dark, selfish, and unfair. The fighting life of the epic heroes recalls the heroic and difficult past of the Russian people, instills in people pride in their homeland and love for it.

Work did not always bring joy to a person. The Russian people suffered for many centuries from the oppression of boyars and landowners. However, difficult trials did not kill the people’s hope for a happy life, the desire for justice and freedom. People sought to bring joy and beauty into their meager, often hungry lives. During the holidays they walked, danced and sang; greeted spring with cheerful round dances; they worked with song and whiled away the long journey; On long winter evenings they asked riddles and listened to fairy tales.

Folklore provides not only historical picture spiritual development of the people. The works of all his genres reveal the unique character of the Russian people. Courageous, strong, stern - according to epics and historical songs; cunning, mocking and mischievous - according to everyday tales; cheerful, playful and cheerful - in dance and comic songs; sad, deeply feeling and experiencing - according to lyrical songs; wise, observant, witty - according to proverbs - such is the Russian man in all his greatness, simplicity and beauty.

Folklore genres did not appear at the same time. Some of them arose in the era of the tribal system (fairy tales, riddles, ritual songs), others arose in a class society (epics, ditties, historical and lyrical songs). In villages and cities, in the vast expanses of the Russian land, there have always been many talented singers and storytellers, masters of apt and living words. However, they were not the only ones who participated in creative process. Once created, the text of an epic or fairy tale did not remain unchanged. In the performance of other people it was changed and remade. Each generation brought something new. In the mouths of different performers, the changes were not the same, so variations of one song, fairy tale, etc. arose. Thus, folklore works are collective in creation, performance and in the views and ideas expressed in them.

CONCLUSION: we must remember that we are all Russian people and it is our sacred duty to know the history of our homeland, the history of our ancestors. And where, if not in works of folk art, can one fully glean all historical knowledge and events.

Maybe we don’t always pay attention, but it’s worth watching, listening to conversations, and you can notice how beautifully some people speak, like my first teacher. Her speech contains many proverbs, sayings, funny and witty phrases. And let the old folklore disappear from oral existence, but it remains the spiritual value of the Russian person.

RITUALS POETRY

Nature and its phenomena have long been incomprehensible and mysterious to ancient man. His imagination infused fantastic creatures into the world around him, who ruled it, and in whose will lay the fate of man. Belief in supernatural forces forced ancient people to seek means of influencing these forces to obtain the desired results. The essence of the rituals lies in the fact that the performance of certain actions in a certain order, accompanied by verbal spells or songs, was supposed to help complete the necessary processes. Later, belief in ritual songs and the rituals themselves became not a means of influencing supernatural forces, but fun, a form of expressing a festive mood.

The following works of ritual poetry are distinguished: calendar ritual poetry

Ours is a kalyada

Neither small nor great,

She doesn't get into doors

And he sends us out the window:

"Don't break, don't bend -

Serve the whole pie!

The grapes are red and my green!”

Larks, come,

Take away the cold winter,

Bring warmth to spring!

We're tired of winter

She ate all our bread.

Family ritual poetry

It's not thunder that thunders in the mansion,

It is not the willow tree that is staggering in the field,

Bows to the damp earth -

Sweet child is blessed

Go to the golden crown!

The bells rang throughout the city,

The following people brought gifts around the house:

Gave gifts of light (name of the bride),

The good fellow accepted the gifts,

Good fellow - newlywed prince.

PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

Proverbs and sayings are familiar to each of us. How convincing and beautiful speech sounds if a person backs up his thoughts with a proverb or saying! A house cannot be built without corners, speech cannot be said without a proverb - this is how the people very precisely defined the meaning of the proverb.

Proverbs and sayings are very close to each other. They differ in that the first are usually expressed as an independent complete sentence, while the second is included in the sentence as its separate parts. Often the original meaning of a proverb is forgotten, since the phenomenon that gave rise to it passes away, but it is used in an allegorical sense. The collection of proverbs began in the 17th century. The most valuable and complete collection proverbs is the book by V. I. Dahl “Proverbs of the Russian People”, which includes about 30,000 texts. All proverbs can be combined into the following groups: about the homeland

A man without a homeland is like a nightingale without a song.

The Holy Russian land is great, and the sun is everywhere.

about study and work

Live and learn.

about a person, his essence, appearance, virtues and vices

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

It's warm in the sun, good in mother's presence.

about religion

An icon and a shovel are from the same tree.

about historical events

The royal favors are sown into the boyar sieve.

about health

Keep your head cold, your stomach hungry, and your feet warm.

practical philosophy

Live for people, people will live for you.

Riddles, like proverbs, have come to us from ancient times. In their origin, they are associated with the secret conventional speech of primitive tribes. The presence of such speech was due to the views of primitive people, who believed that all the nature and living beings around them understood human speech. In order to hide their intentions from those animals that people were going to hunt, or from the fictitious owners of the forest or river where they wanted to hunt, primitive hunters and fishermen used special invented words, believing that their meaning was clear only to them.

Every person who lived in such a primitive community had to be able to use secret speech. Works of folklore indicate that riddles were used to test the intelligence and wisdom of a particular hero.

Having freed themselves from ritual purposes in the course of a long life, riddles turned into a means of education and entertainment. They became interesting questions about objects or phenomena that should be named in answers - guesses. The search for clues develops intelligence and ingenuity, leads a person to understand the connections of some objects with others and realize the unity of the surrounding world.

Riddles began to be written down along with proverbs at the end of the 17th century, but their systematic collection began only in the middle of the 19th century. The most famous collectors of riddles were D. N. Sadovnikov and M. A. Rybnikova.

Riddles about man

In the morning - at four, at noon - at two, in the evening - at three. (Human)

Clothing and jewelry

I'm sitting on horseback

I don't know who

I'll meet an acquaintance,

I’ll jump off and pick you up. (a cap)

Hut, housework

The box is full of golden sparrows. (coals in the stove)

Peasant farming

He's thin, his head is about as big as a pound. (hammer)

Riddles about nature

Mother in the spring in a colored dress, stepmother in the winter in one shroud. (bird cherry)

About studying and books

Black, crooked, all mute from birth; stand in a row, now they'll start talking (letters)

About animals

Kharitonov’s wife walked under a tun,

I found seven hundred shirts,

The wind blew, all the shirts blew out (chicken)

Bylinas are epic works about the heroic past of the Russian people. The word "epic" is one of folk names These works were more often called “antiques.” As with any phenomenon of the distant past, there is a lot of mysterious and unclear things in epics for us. The study of epics is complicated by the fact that the time of their recording is separated from the time of their composition. And the epics changed from oral transmission from person to person. Something in their content was forgotten, something became incomprehensible. Nevertheless, through the efforts of many scientists, it was possible to resolve many issues relating to the Russian epic. This was facilitated by research into written documents, archaeological materials, and comparison of epics with other types of folk art. The origin of epics is associated with the time of the emergence and flourishing of the ancient Russian Kievan state. It is no coincidence that all the exploits of heroes are subordinated to the interests of the capital Kyiv.

In epics, heroes are glorified who did things impossible for an ordinary person. Only heroes are capable of the feats described in epic songs. Fairy tales also depict the unusual, the fantastic, but there the heroes are helped by wonderful things, magical powers. The epic heroes themselves possess all the necessary qualities to perform feats that only an entire people can do.

The people made Ilya Muromets the strongest and most powerful among all the heroes. An epic about this beloved folk hero, the defender of his interests has survived more than about anyone else.

CONCLUSION: There has not been a single century when the Russian people did not have to fight with those who like to profit at the expense of other lands. And in this struggle epics play a significant role. Since childhood, they instill in each of us a sense of patriotism, devotion to our country, pride in our people and their heroes.

SVYATOGOR

Svyatogor got ready for a walk in the open field.

Saddles his good horse

And he drives through an open field.

Svyatogor has no one to measure his strength with,

And the strength is in the veins

This is how it shimmers with life.

It feels heavy, like a heavy pregnancy.

This is what Svyatogor says:

“How would I find traction,

So I would lift the whole earth!”

Svyatogor runs over in the steppe

For a small saddle bag.

He takes the chaser, touches the purse - she won’t hide.

If he moves his finger, it won’t collapse,

Enough with a horse's hand - it won't rise:

“For many years I traveled around the world,

But I didn’t experience such a miracle,

Such a diva; haven't seen:

Small saddle bag

It won’t hide, it won’t collapse, it won’t rise!”

Svyatogor gets off his good horse.

He grabbed the purse with both hands.

He raised his purse above his knees, -

And Svyatogor sunk into the ground up to his knees,

And on the white face there are not tears, but blood flowing.

Where Svyatogor sunk, he couldn’t get up.

That was the end for him.

PESTUSHKS AND Rhymes

Pestushki are songs and rhymes that accompany the child’s first conscious movements. This “children's folklore” is intended to entertain and amuse children. They often reflect pictures of everyday work life. Nursery rhymes – songs and rhymes for a child’s first games with fingers, arms and legs. When the child wakes up and stretches, they stroke his tummy, saying:

Stretchers, stretchers!

Rotok - talkers,

Hands are grasping,

Legs are walkers.

Taking turns fingering the child’s fingers, they say:

Bolshak to chop wood,

And you should carry water,

And you have to heat the stove,

And sing songs to the baby,

Sing songs and dance,

Amuse my siblings.

Taking the child’s hands, they clap their hands to the beat, and when last words The arms are spread and raised onto the child’s head:

Okay, okay!

Where were you?

By Grandma.

What did you drink?

Sweet porridge,

The drunken gang

Grandma is kind.

We drank, ate, -

Shu-u-u - they flew,

They sat on their heads.

CALLS AND SENTENCES

Calls - children's song appeals to the sun and rainbow. Rain. To the birds. Sentences - verbal references to a snail, bugs, etc.

At the beginning of March, children call for spring:

Spring is red! What did you come with?

On the bipod, on the harrow,

On a sheaf of oatmeal,

On a rye ear.

It’s already raining, it’s raining,

Water with a ladle!

Sieve, decide,

A whole tub!

Rainbow - arc,

Don't let it rain

Come on honey,

Bell tower!

When there is a drought and the rains pass by or a little rain falls, they ask the rainbow not to take away the rain:

Rainbow is an arc.

Bring us some rain.

“A fairy tale is a twist, a song is a reality,” says the proverb. This folk saying aptly captures the essence of fairy tales: they tell about what did not happen and could not happen. Everyone knows about this, but they still love to listen or read fairy tales, these extraordinary stories made up from beginning to end. We excitedly follow all the adventures of Ivan Tsarevich, we are upset when he gets into trouble, we rejoice when he happily gets rid of the danger that threatened him and defeats Koshchei. We are pleased that a greedy wolf or a slow-witted bear gets into trouble, deceived by peaceful pets. We are fascinated by the fox's cunning tricks, but when she rescues the hare from the hut, we wish that she be quickly and severely punished. The peasant's funny and evil jokes about the envious priest and stupid master evoke our sympathy. We even seem to believe that everything was exactly as it is told in fairy tales. In fairy tales, even inanimate objects become alive.

All fairy tales have their roots in the distant past, when people thought that animals lead the same intelligent lives as people. In the fairy tale, strong and predatory animals are defeated, and weak and defenseless animals are victorious. Fairy-tale heroes are brave and courageous, selfless, persistent in achieving their goals, kind and responsive to the grief of others. All the best qualities that people endow with their heroes turn out to be precisely the reason that they find support from good wizards, inhabitants of wonderful worlds. And, on the contrary, greedy, envious, evil and ungrateful people are punished.

Fairy tales occupied significant place in life working person. The heroes of fairy tales, who embodied the best qualities of the people and fulfilled their dreams and desires in various ways, nurtured their dignity in a person, awakened hopes and aspirations for a better, happy, beautiful life.

CONCLUSION: The fairy tale affirms faith in goodness and justice. Fairy tales help to understand complex human relationships, see the good and bad in life, expose meanness and cowardice, lies and betrayal, hypocrisy and hypocrisy.

There was a tower in the field. A fly fly has arrived and knocks:

Nobody responds.

A fly fly flew in and began to live in it.

A jumping flea galloped up: