The word "folklore", which often denotes the concept of "oral" folk art", came from the combination of two English words: folk - “people” and lore - “wisdom”. Like literature, folklore works are divided into epic, lyrical and dramatic. TO epic genres include epics, legends, fairy tales, historical songs. Lyrical genres include love songs, wedding songs, lullabies, and funeral laments. To the dramatic - folk dramas(with Petrushka, for example). The original dramatic performances in Russia were ritual games: seeing off Winter and welcoming Spring, elaborate wedding rituals, etc. One should also remember about small genres of folklore - ditties, sayings, etc.
Children's folklore. This concept fully applies to those works that are created by adults for children. In addition, this includes works composed by the children themselves, as well as those passed on to children from oral creativity adults. That is, the structure of children's folklore is no different from the structure of children's literature. Many genres are associated with games in which the life and work of elders are reproduced, so the moral attitudes of the people, their national traits, and peculiarities are reflected here. economic activity. In the system of genres of children's folklore, “nurturing poetry” or “maternal poetry” occupies a special place. This includes lullabies, nurseries, nursery rhymes, jokes, fairy tales and songs created for the little ones.
Larger works of children's folklore - songs, epics, fairy tales.
Russians folk songs play a big role in the formation in children of an ear for music, a taste for poetry, love for nature, native land. The song has been around among children since time immemorial. Children's folklore also included songs from adult folk art - usually children adapted them to their games. There are ritual songs (“And we sowed millet, sowed...”), historical (for example, about Stepan Razin and Pugachev), and lyrical. Nowadays, children often sing not so much folklore songs as original ones. There are also songs in the modern repertoire that have long lost their authorship and are naturally drawn into the element of oral folk art.
Epics. This heroic epic people. It is of great importance in nurturing love for native history. Epic stories always tell about the struggle between two principles - good and evil - and about the natural victory of good. The most famous epic heroes- Ilya Muromets. Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich are collective images that capture the features real people, whose life and exploits became the basis of heroic narratives - epics (from the word “byl”) or antiquities. Epics are a grandiose creation of folk art. Their inherent artistic convention is often expressed in fantastic fiction. The realities of antiquity are intertwined in them with mythological images and motifs. Hyperbole is one of the leading techniques in epic storytelling. It gives the characters monumentality, and their fantastic exploits - artistic credibility.
Fairy tales. They arose in time immemorial. Telling fairy tales was a common hobby in Rus'; both children and adults loved them. In a fairy tale, truth and goodness certainly triumph. A fairy tale is always on the side of the offended and oppressed, no matter what it tells. It clearly shows where the correct life paths a person, what is his happiness and misfortune, what is his retribution for mistakes and how a person differs from an animal and a bird.
A fairy tale for children contains a special charm; some secrets of the ancient worldview are revealed. They find in the fairy tale story independently, without explanation, something very valuable for themselves, necessary for the growth of their consciousness. Imaginary, fantasy world turns out to be a reflection real world in its main principles. A fabulous, unusual picture of life gives the child the opportunity to compare it with reality, with the environment in which he, his family, and people close to him exist. The fairy tale accustoms him to the idea that evil must be punished in any case.
For children, it doesn’t matter at all who the hero of the fairy tale is: a person, an animal or a tree. Another thing is important: how he behaves, what he is like - handsome and kind or ugly and evil. The fairy tale tries to teach the child to evaluate the main qualities of the hero and never resorts to psychological complication. Most often, a character embodies one quality: the fox is cunning, the bear is strong, Ivan is successful in the role of a fool, and fearless in the role of a prince. The characters in the fairy tale are contrasting, which determines the plot: brother Ivanushka did not listen to his diligent, sensible sister Alyonushka, drank water from a goat’s hoof and became a goat - he had to be rescued; the evil stepmother plots against the good stepdaughter... This is how a chain of actions and amazing fairy-tale events arises. A fairy tale is built on the principle of a chain composition, which usually includes three repetitions. Sometimes repetition takes the form of dialogue; then, if children play in a fairy tale, it is easier for them to transform into its heroes. Often a fairy tale contains songs and jokes, and children remember them first.
The fairy tale has own language- laconic, expressive, rhythmic. Thanks to language, a special fantasy world is created. Based on theme and style, fairy tales can be divided into several groups, but usually researchers distinguish three large groups: tales about animals, fairy tales and everyday (satirical).
Folk tale and myth
World origins of children's literature: archaic civilizations, the era of antiquity, early stages of the development of world religions, world folklore. Mesopotamian civilization - the birth of writing in 3 thousand BC. “school” signs were found, teaching aids, tablets with exercises in various fields of knowledge (mathematics, language, law).
The reading circle of children and teenagers included the Sumerian-Akkadian “Epic of Gilgamesh”, 2-3 thousand BC. Its first Russian translator was Gumilyov. In 1997, Voskoboynikov wrote the children's story "The Brilliant Gilgamesh." This work consists of 12 “songs”, their sequence corresponds to the 12 signs of the zodiac. Plot motives: Gilgamesh, dressed in the skin of a lion he killed, defeats the heavenly bull, finds the flower of eternal youth, kills a snake that settled on a tree in a mysterious garden, receives sacred objects from underworld. Looks like Hercules.
The myth of the Divine Child was formed in ancient cultures along with the myths about the Mother, the Father, the World Tree, and the creation of the world. It is included in the system of mythological ideas of different peoples. The plots and motifs of children's folklore and children's literature are closely connected with the mythologeme of the Divine Child. The image of a child is inseparable from a miracle; the main function of the central character is to perform extraordinary things, miracles. The mythologem of the child’s Deities has a number of structure-forming motifs, each of which is reflected in the children’s literature known to us. The birth of a Child is often preceded by misfortune - a married couple experiences childlessness, like Samson’s parents in the Old Testament. The Divine Child is usually raised above the other heroes, the scale of his image is increased (in the story of Moses, for example). Often the Divine Child has some physical difference that makes him both beautiful and terrible. For example, the story of the miraculous birth of Samson, who grew up to be a strong man, all of whose strength lay in his hair. There were also child prophets, future saviors of the world, for example the prophet Muhammad. A child testifying to a miracle, seeing a divine teacher in his friend, is another structuring element of the poetics of children's literature. The childhood of Hercules, Alex of Macedon, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ is depicted as the era of the first miraculous acts. There are many miracles of healing: with one touch Jesus heals the foot of a young woodcutter. So, the basics are right lit-ry- image a child performing a miracle. The plot of children's literature largely consists of “good deeds.” In ancient texts, the child is depicted in a system of oppositions, conflicts: child-parents, child-other children, child-teachers.
Along with child characters, there are also “undivine” children. For example, the Old Testament story about the twins Esau and Jacob, one will become a skilled trapper, the other a meek “man of tents,” i.e. practitioner and lyricist. Comic and dramatic duets: Chuk and Huck in Gaidar, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and Twain.
Ancient Greek and Roman schools. Phlegon of Tralles, Rome author, 2nd century AD. collection “Amazing Stories”, in these stories there are fantastic creatures and ghosts; Eastern fairy tales are combined with elements of mysticism and fantasy.
Ancient civilization left the countries of the collapsing Roman Empire the richest cultural heritage, it lasted for many centuries until independent national cultures. With the establishment of Christianity, relations in society began to change, the authority of the ancient classics ceased to be indisputable, and folklore no longer provided answers to new questions.
(from lectures). A child’s first acquaintance with a myth is through church service. Myth is a story about the gods and heroes of ancient times. The cult of nature and ancestors is the starting point for the formation of a myth. The grain of myth is an archetype, a certain knowledge embedded in us. Myths are: astral (about the stars), calendar, anthropogonic (about the creation and origin of man), totemic (myth about the kinship of people with objects of living nature), eschatological (myth about the end of the world). The Christ myth reveals itself in prose: a re-imagining of sacred scripture for children, in a literary fairy tale, where the overlap of language and Christ myths occurs; in the genre of a Christmas story. Easter story, in fantasy plots.
Children's literature in RussiaXV-XVIII centuries
The entire history of ancient Russian children's literature can be divided into four periods:
1) second half of the 15th - first half of the 16th century, when the first educational works;
2) the second half of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, when 15 printed books for children were published;
3) 20-40s. XVII century, when regular poetry begins;
4) the second half of the 17th century - the period of the development of different genres and types of children's literature.
Great development in the 17th century. receives poetry. Poems of that time, addressed to children, were, from a modern point of view, still quite primitive. But it was with them that children's poetry began.
It was a rare children's handwritten or printed book without poems. There were especially many of them in the second half of the 17th century, when large works were written, which we now call poems. Poems set out rules of behavior and conveyed various information about the world. Most of the poems are anonymous. However, some authors were already known then, others have been identified now. The very first children's poet in Rus' should be considered the director of the Moscow Printing House, Savvaty. The reference book was responsible for the content and literacy of the book. Therefore, the most educated people were appointed to this position. Currently, more than ten poems by Savvaty are known, written by him specifically for children. Among them is the first poem in the book of the Moscow press, placed in the ABC edition of 1637. It consists of 34 lines. The poem simply, warmly and clearly tells the reader about the book he is holding in his hands, praises literacy and book wisdom, and gives various advice on how to study and how to read. According to the composition, this is an intimate conversation with a child on a topic that is interesting and important to him. The author convinces the child not to be lazy in learning, to be diligent, and to obey the teacher in everything. Only in this case can he learn the “wisdom scripture » (letter), become one of the “wise men” and become a “true son of light.” Later in the second half XVII c., this poem was widely distributed through handwritten books.
Another poem by Savvaty was also very famous - “A brief statement about laziness and negligence”, consisting of 124 lines. Created in it negative image a capable student, but lazy and careless. Savvaty tries to instill in children respect for literacy, an enthusiastic attitude towards education and contempt for ignorance. The author leads the reader to the conclusion that teaching is light, and ignorance is darkness. Savvaty uses persuasion as the main educational means, and how literary device- comparison, likening. For example, he says that a diamond is precious because of the play of light, color, and paints, and a person is precious because of his education and “his understanding.”
In another long poem of 106 lines called "The ABC of Vacation", an image of a positive student was created who heeded the advice of his teacher, studied diligently, and therefore the teacher taught him everything that he himself knew and could. This is like a parting word to a child on graduation day.
The most important poet of the 17th century. was Simeon of Polotsk. His real name is Petrovsky. In 1664, at the invitation of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Simeon moved to Moscow, where he opened a school and began to take an active part in literary and public life. Simeon of Polotsk took part in the creation of the primer of 1664. He also compiled the entire primer of the 1667 edition, which was republished in 1669. The preface written by Simeon for this primer is an outstanding pedagogical treatise of the 17th century.
But the primer of 1679 is of greatest interest. It contains two poems for children: “Preface to young men who want to learn” And "Admonition". The first of them talks about the book, praises literacy, and calls on children to study well, for those who work in youth will be at peace in old age. Of all labors, reading and learning bring the greatest pleasure and benefit. The second poem is placed at the end of the book. He wrote poetic prefaces to the books he published for children, “Testament” and “The Tale of Baarlam and Joasaph.” In them he talks about the content of the books, draws attention to the most important thing, trying to interest children and prepare them for perception. The most important books of Simeon of Polotsk are “Reef. Mologion”, which has 1308 large format pages, and “Vertograd multicolor”, consisting of 1316 pages. The books were intended, according to the author, “for the benefit of young and old,” who could “look for words in them” and read “to teach their age.” The books contain many poems that are accessible to children, including greeting poems from children to parents, relatives and patrons.
Poems about nature, minerals, animals, plants, entertaining legends, etc., were also available to children. For example, the poem “Arc” (“Rainbow”) or poems about earth and water. Being a teacher by profession and an outstanding The poet of his time, Simeon of Polotsk, made a significant contribution to the creation of literature for children.
The first Russian writer and poet whose work was entirely dedicated to children was Karion Istomin. In all his works, Karion Istomin glorified science, “enlightenment,” yagi. He believed that everyone should study: children of all classes, boys and girls, people of all nationalities. Science, according to Karion Istomin, should save people from want and grief. Although in most of his poems Istomin directly addressed the princes, he intended them for the entire Russian people.
During Karion Istomin’s lifetime, three of his books for children and a complete set of textbooks were published. Another children's book by Karion Istomin, The Big Primer, had 11 poems. In addition, he wrote more than ten books of poetry. Yes, in the book "Policy" tells about all the seasons, parts of the world, different countries. In a book of poetry "Domostroy", consisting of 176 lines, the rules of behavior are figuratively set out using vivid examples. The main content of the rules boils down to the requirement to study the “free sciences”, etc.
Genre of literary fairy tale. Traditional and innovative in Pushkin's fairy tales
Tales of A.S. Pushkin appeared during the peak period of his creativity. They were not intended for children, but almost immediately entered children's reading.
In 1830, Pushkin began work on a fairy tale about a bear, “Like Warm Spring Time,” which remained unfinished. In 1831, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda” were completed. In 1833, two fairy tales were written: “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” and “The Tale of dead princess and about the seven heroes." In 1834, “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel” appeared.
A.S. Pushkin creates his fairy tales based on folklore material. “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda” is close in plot to the folk tale “The Farmhand Shabarsha.” The plot of “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” is connected in origin with the fairy tale “The Greedy Old Woman” and was presented to Pushkin by the folklore collector writer V.I. Dahlem. “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” echoes the folk tale “About Wonderful Children.” “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights” is close to the plot of the folk tale “The Magic Mirror”. Turning to oral folk art, A.S. Pushkin sees in it inexhaustible possibilities for updating literature.
Tales of A.S. Pushkin - plot works, which depict the stark conflict between the light and dark worlds. An example is “The Tale of Tsar Saltan, his glorious and mighty hero Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and the beautiful Swan Princess.” It was written in 1831 and first published in 1832 in the third part of “Poems by A. Pushkin.” This was Pushkin's first fairy tale to appear in print. She received mixed responses. Not all contemporaries understood Pushkin’s innovation and saw the birth of a new poetic genre. From the very beginning, it gives a subtle satirical reduction in the image of the king: “During the entire conversation, he stood behind the fence...” According to the censorship conditions of A.S. Pushkin could not have ridiculed the high-born eavesdropper more openly. The fairy tale reflects the diverse shades of human feelings: “The cook is angry in the kitchen, the weaver is crying at the loom, and they envy the Sovereign’s wife,” and complex relationships between people are revealed.
Pushkin the storyteller spoke out against the monotony of poetry, against erased rhythmic and syntactic phrases. His verse is moving, conveying the rhythm of movement and the tension of events. Dynamism and speed of change of events freely and easily coexist with landscape paintings, laconic and visually colorful: The wind is rustling merrily, the ship is running merrily. The stars shine in the blue sky, the waves lash in the blue sea...
The sound organization of verse in Pushkin the storyteller is energetic and effective. Every sound has significance for him, sometimes conveying the splash of a sea wave, sometimes reproducing the flight of a mosquito or bumblebee.
Pushkin appears in “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” as a fighter for the nationality of the language, or “vernacular.” “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” ends not with a moralistic conclusion, as was the case with many other fairy tale writers, but with a cheerful feast glorifying the triumph of good.
Positive characters win in a long struggle: Prince Guidon meets with his father; the weaver, the cook and the matchmaker, Baba Babarikha, are put to shame. Readers wholeheartedly side with the “bright world” of the fairy tale, personified in the images of the Queen Mother, Prince Guidon, and the Swan Princess. Only the image of Tsar Saltan raises doubts and thoughts.
“The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda” is a satire on unscrupulous servants of the Orthodox Church deceiving the people. It ridicules human greed, stupidity and hypocrisy. The priest is going to hire a servant who will perform the duties of a cook, groom and carpenter for a pittance. Stupidity and greed force him to agree to receive clicks from Balda, whom he hired as an employee. But the priest is not only greedy, but insidious and evil, he is trying to destroy Balda by giving him impossible tasks, for example, collecting rent from the devils.
“The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda” was not published during the poet’s lifetime. It was first published by V.A. Zhukovsky in 1840 in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland” with major alterations caused by the strictness of censorship. "Pop" was turned into "merchant Kuzma Ostolop." It started like this:
Once upon a time there lived a merchant Kuzma the Stupid, nicknamed Aspen Forehead, and the whole tale was entitled: “The Tale of the Merchant Kuzma Ostolop and his Worker Balda.” The changes made by Zhukovsky distorted the social orientation of the fairy tale and violated the system of its images and poetic integrity.
At Pushkin's fairy tale characters psychologically and artistically perfect; In the process of working on the fairy tale, he constantly honed its verse, bringing it closer to the folk tale, sharpening the satire.
Artistic media Pushkin's fairy tales are inextricably linked with his poetic worldview. The poet spoke out against the pretentiousness and abstruseness of the verse; he sought to get closer to the folk saying with its aphorism.
Pushkin's verse in the fairy tale is full of movement. The poet sometimes constructs entire stanzas primarily from nouns and verbs in order to convey the severity of the struggle:
The poor demon crawled under the mare, strained, strained,
He lifted the mare, took two steps, fell on the third, and stretched out his legs.
At the end of the tale, a mocking attitude towards the priest is clearly expressed. In 1835, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,” written two years earlier, appeared in the magazine “Library for Reading.”
“The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” reflects motifs that exist not only in Russian, but also in foreign folklore. So, in the collection of the Brothers Grimm there is a similar fairy tale. Pushkin's fairy tale is a philosophical reflection on the confrontation between patient good and aggressive evil. The poet is no stranger to social motives. This is emphasized by the sharp contrast between the old man and the old woman: he remains a peasant, and she rises higher and higher on the social ladder.
The image of an old man personifies the folk beginning of a fairy tale. He is forced to submit to the will of the greedy old woman, but has no respect for her, no matter how high she rises. This is evidenced by his address to her when she wanted to become a queen:
“What, woman, have you eaten too much henbane?”
The image of the old woman gradually goes beyond the image of greed and becomes a symbol of social oppression. "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" reflected popular attitude to tyrants. Good does not so much defeat evil in open confrontation as survive it. The tale ends with an instructive picture of tyranny punished according to the laws of supreme justice (their exponent is a goldfish):
Lo and behold, there was a dugout in front of him again; His old woman sits on the threshold, and in front of her is a broken trough.
“The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights” was written in 1833. Published for the first time in 1834 in the magazine “Library for Reading”. It especially clearly reflected the humanistic orientation of Pushkin’s fairy tales. In "The Tale of the Dead Princess" positive characters endowed with such character traits that are valued by working people: kindness, generosity, courage, devotion in friendship.
The Queen Mother is faithfully waiting for her husband, who has set off on a long journey. Pushkin talks about this in vivid scenes, close in style to oral folk art.
Romantic motifs predominate in the image of the princess-daughter. She arouses the love of the girl Chernavka and the seven heroes by the fact that she is “cuter than everyone else, blushing and whiter than everyone else,” and, most importantly, with her kindness, responsiveness, and readiness to help.
The image of Prince Elisha is given in epic tones. The hero “sets out on the road for a beautiful soul, for a young bride.” He is close to nature. Elisha's lyrical appeals to the sun and the month, and finally to the wind, poetically color his image and give him a special charm. “The Tale of the Dead Princess” was written by the poet in a creative competition with Zhukovsky. But unlike him, Pushkin does not limit himself to a romantic depiction of heroes; he introduces realistic pictures of the life of the royal court, and creates satirical characters in his fairy tale. This is, to some extent, the king-father, who hastened to get married as soon as the prescribed period of widowhood had expired.
The main force of Pushkin’s satire is directed against the queen-stepmother, who personifies the “dark world” in the fairy tale. Envy and anger towards everything bright and good ultimately lead her to death: “Then she was overcome by melancholy, and the queen died.” So in a fairy tale, the victory of good symbolizes the death of evil.
In “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel,” which was written in 1834 and first published in 1835 (magazine “Library for Reading”), created satirical image King Dadon, who prefers to reign without worries, “lying on his side.” That is why the king thoughtlessly agrees to fulfill the first request of the astrologer, who gave him a golden cockerel. King Dadon is depicted as a man incapable of loving not only the country he rules, but also his own sons. Tears caused by their death easily give way to voluptuous delight in front of the Shamakhan queen. At the same time, the king is shown to be far from harmless: he is a tyrant, capable of, on a whim, destroying an old man who at one time came to his aid: “The king grabbed him on the forehead with his staff; he fell on his face and lost his breath.”
It should be noted that the positive heroes of all fairy tales by A.S. Pushkin - people from the people: the hardworking, resourceful and cheerful worker Balda (“The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda”); a selfless, kind, undemanding hard worker-old man (“The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”).
Pushkin's fairy tales, as well as folk tales, are characterized by faith in bright forces and feelings. Pushkin's fairy tales are optimistic; in them, good always triumphs over darkness and evil. Balda's resourcefulness and hard work help him defeat the priest; Elisha's love and faithfulness resurrect his bride; Guidon's filial devotion, his fight against envy and slander contribute to the triumph of truth.
Poetic speech in Pushkin’s fairy tales is also marked by national features. They are widely used folk sayings, proverbs, words and expressions, suffixes:
Folklore in its nature, content and purpose is deeply democratic, truly folk art. He is distinguished not only by his ideological depth, but also by his high artistic qualities. Folk poetry is distinguished by its peculiar artistic system visual arts and genres.
What are genres of Russian folklore?
One of the types of ancient creativity was labor songs with their simplest commands, shouts, signals given as work progresses.
Calendar folklore originally came from the urgent practical goals of people. It was associated with ideas about the annual agricultural cycle and changeable natural conditions. People sought to know the future, so they resorted to fortune telling and talked about the future based on signs.
This also explained wedding folklore. It is permeated with the thought of the safety of the family and clan, and is designed for the favor of the highest patrons.
Individual elements have also been preserved from antiquity children's folklore, which changed later under the influence of aesthetic and pedagogical functions.
Among the oldest genres - funeral lamentations. With the advent of universal conscription, mourning arose for those being drafted into service—recruitment lamentations.
Genres non-ritual folklore also developed under the influence of syncretism. It includes small folklore genres ( proverbs): proverbs, fables, signs and sayings. They contained human judgments about the way of life, about work, about higher natural forces, and statements about human affairs. “This is a vast area of moral assessments and judgments, how to live, how to raise children, how to honor ancestors, thoughts about the need to follow precepts and examples, these are everyday rules of behavior... In a word, the functionality of proverbs covers almost all ideological areas.” 9
Genres of oral prose include legends, tales, tales, legends. These are stories and incidents from life that tell about a person’s meeting with characters of Russian demonology - sorcerers, witches, mermaids, etc. This also includes stories about saints, shrines and miracles - about the communication of a person who has accepted the Christian faith with forces of a higher order .
Genres song epic: epics, historical songs, military songs, spiritual songs and poems.
Gradually, folklore moves away from everyday functions and acquires elements of artistry. The role of the artistic principle in it increases. As a result of historical evolution, folklore became poetic in its main and fundamental qualities, having reworked the traditions of all previous states of folklore. 10
Artistic creativity is embodied in all forms fairy tales: tales about animals, magic, everyday.
This type of creativity is also represented in riddles.
The earliest types of artistic creativity include ballads.
Lyrical songs they also carry artistic function. They are performed outside of rituals. The content and form of lyrical songs are associated with the expression of the experiences and feelings of the performers.
To artistic song folklore the newest formation modern researchers attribute romances And ditties.
Children's folklore has its own system of genres, correlated with age characteristics children. It has artistic and pedagogical functions. It is dominated by gaming principles.
The artistic spectacular theatrical basis contains folklore spectacles and folklore theater . It is presented in a wide variety of genres and types ( games, dressing up, nativity scene, playgrounds, puppet shows etc.).
A separate type of artistic representation is formed by the so-called fair folklore. It arose from fair performances, shouts of traders, farce barkers, joke speech, jokes and folk sayings.
At the intersection of long-standing traditions of folklore and trends new culture the genre has developed joke.
Detailed story about individual folklore genres will be undertaken in subsequent sections of the manual.
Russian folklore is the creativity of the people. It contains the worldview of thousands of people who once inhabited the territory of our state. Their way of life, love for the Motherland and their home, feelings and experiences, dreams and shocks - all this has been passed on from mouth to mouth for centuries and gives us a connection with our ancestors.
The heritage of our people is multifaceted and diverse. Conventionally, the genres of Russian folklore are divided into two groups, which include many types: ritual and non-ritual folklore.
Ritual folklore
This group of folk creations is in turn divided into two categories:
- Calendar folklore– a reflection of the way of life: agricultural work, Christmas carols, Maslenitsa and Kupala rituals. Through this genre of Russian folklore, our ancestors turned to Mother Earth and other deities, asking her for protection, a good harvest and grace.
- Family and household folklore, which described the order of life of each person: creating a family and the birth of a child, military service, death. Great songs, funeral and recruiting lamentations - for each event there was a special ritual that imparted special solemnity and mood.
Non-ritual folklore
It represents a larger group of folk art works and includes 4 subspecies:
- Petrushka Theater – street ironic theatrical performances performed by one actor;
- nativity scene and religious drama - performances on the theme of the Nativity of Christ and other events.
II. Folk poetry
- Epics: songs and tales telling about ancient heroes who defended their homeland, their exploits and valor. The epic about Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber is one of the most famous. Colorful characters, colorful epithets and the melodic melody of the storyteller paint bright image Russian hero, representative of the freedom-loving free people. The most famous are two cycles of Russian epics: and.
- Historical songs describe real events that happened in ancient times. Ermak, Pugachev, Stepan Razin, Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov - these and many other great people and their deeds have gone down not only in history, but also in folk art.
- A chastushka is an ironic quatrain that clearly evaluates, and more often ridicules, life situations or phenomena.
- Lyrical songs - responses common people on events in the political and social life of the state, the relationship between peasant and master, the inviolable principles of the peasants’ way of life, folk morality. Frequent (dancing) and drawn-out, bold and beautiful melodic, they are all deep in content and emotional intensity, forcing even the most callous nature to respond.
III. Folklore prose
The clearest example, familiar to each of us since childhood - fairy tales. Good and evil, justice and meanness, heroism and cowardice - everything is intertwined here. And only the pure and open heart of the protagonist is able to overcome all adversity.
IV. Folklore of speech situations.
A very diverse group. Here are proverbs, which are folk aphorisms, and riddles that develop thinking, and children's folklore (rhymes, nursery rhymes, counting rhymes, tongue twisters, and others), which helps the better development of children through play and fun.
This is only a small part of the heritage that our ancestors left. Their work has great cultural value. It doesn’t matter which genre of Russian folklore a particular masterpiece belongs to. All of them are united by one common feature - the principles of life are concentrated in each: love, kindness and freedom. Something without which human existence itself is unthinkable.
In the book by N.P. Kolpakova “Russian folk everyday song”, among others, “game” and “lyrical” are named. The term “everyday” is unfortunate because it inspires the idea that, in addition to everyday songs, there are some other, non-everyday songs. The term “household” should be completely removed from scientific use as too broad and therefore not having any specific meaning. All songs are decidedly everyday songs, either because they live and are used in everyday life, or because they directly or indirectly reflect the life of the Russian village.
Carols can just as much be called everyday songs as soldiers' marching songs or lullabies; the only difference is which aspects of Russian life are directly or indirectly reflected in it. There are no songs outside of everyday life.
The division into “game”, on the one hand, and “lyrical”, on the other, is incorrect because lyricism is a broad concept, which includes the most different kinds non-epic folk songs. This distribution is based on a narrow understanding of “lyrics” as an expression of deeply personal and intimate feelings. For folklore, such an understanding of “lyrics” is inapplicable.
Lyrics, along with epic and grammar, is a type of poetic creativity that expresses not only personal feelings of sadness, love, etc., but popular feelings of joy, sorrow, anger, indignation, and expresses it in a wide variety of forms. These forms constitute genres, while “lyrics” are not a genre. “Game” songs are one of the private forms of song performance; contrasting the concepts of “lyrical” and “game” songs and asserting their incompatibility is as wrong as talking about the incompatibility of the concepts of tree and birch.
The inability to distinguish genus and species, as well as to apply broader and narrower categories of classification, is generally very common. We can say that this method of distribution prevails in our country. The material is divided into categories without further subdivisions or ramifications, and phenomena of a very broad and very narrow nature fall into one row. The result is an enumeration without any divisions, without branches. Meanwhile, many errors could be avoided by using some signs for categories, others for subcategories, instead of combining them in one row, where they do not exclude each other.
It is quite obvious that as long as there are such erroneous ideas about the composition of Russian folklore, about the categories of this composition and about their relationships, the question of the genres of Russian song cannot be resolved.
How to get out of difficulties? We proceed from two theoretical premises. The first is that in folklore, with the unity or cohesion of content and form, the content is primary; it creates its own form, and not vice versa. This position remains true regardless of philosophical debates about what is meant by form and what by content.
The second premise is that different social groups create different, rather than identical, songs. Both of these premises are closely related. We believe that peasants, farm laborers, soldiers, workers will create songs with different content and that, due to this difference in content, their form will be different. This means that division on social grounds will not contradict division on poetic grounds. On the contrary, such a division will make it possible to introduce some system into the motley and varied world of song.
Without prejudging the question of what is called a genre in the field of lyric poetry and what is not, we will try to divide songs based on social class. From this point of view, three large groups can be distinguished:
- songs of peasants doing agricultural work;
- songs of peasants separated from agricultural labor;
- workers' songs.
Let us first dwell on the songs of the peasants themselves.
The traditional division of peasant lyrics into ritual and non-ritual is logically and factually correct. It is also correct to divide ritual lyrics into calendar and family ritual lyrics.
The word “calendar songs” when applied to the lyrics is not entirely appropriate. These are the songs of the big ones national holidays, which had a pronounced agricultural character. Therefore, it would be more correct to call the totality of these songs agricultural ritual lyrics.
Songs of this type are easily and naturally divided according to the holidays during which they were performed. At Christmas time, carols were sung - songs that glorified the owners and promised them a rich harvest, multiplication of livestock, health and prosperity. In gratitude for these promises (which were once credited with magical powers), the owners gave gifts to the carolers. Under New Year they sang underwater songs. These songs accompanied fortune-telling, which consisted of placing several rings in a dish of water, and then short songs were sung, promising marriage, separation, death, travel, etc. During the songs, the rings were taken out, and the one to whom the ring belonged took a song to yourself.
Continuing the review, we can name Maslenitsa songs. Their number is very small and they are poorly preserved. These are funny songs about meeting and seeing off Maslenitsa. On Yegoryev Day in central Russia, for the first time after winter, cattle were driven out to pasture. On this occasion, special songs were sung, Yegoryev songs, the content of which was reduced to spells or conspiracies to protect livestock from wolves, death and lack of food. During the vernal equinox, the welcoming of spring was celebrated. On the day of this holiday, larks or waders were baked and given to children. Children tied them to twigs or trees, which was supposed to represent the arrival of birds, and sang special songs called stoneflies.
These songs called for spring and praised it. The birds seemed to bring spring on their wings. The seventh Thursday after Easter was called Semik. On this day, they decorated the birch tree, danced under it and sang songs in praise of the birch tree. The girls worshiped each other, and songs were also sung about this. These songs are usually called Semitic songs. In these songs, ritual motifs are intertwined with love ones. We know that special Kupala songs were sung during the summer solstice - on the day of Ivan Kupala, but the Russians did not preserve such songs. Finally, during the harvest, stubble songs were sung in this way.
They sang about the imminent completion of work and about the treat that awaits the reapers. Such songs were accompanied by glorification of the owner, in whose field the reapers helped to reap. We could highlight carols, sub-bread songs, Maslenitsa songs, vesnyankas, Yegoryevsk songs, Semitic songs, stubble songs. All of them belong to the field of ritual agricultural lyrics, but they have different content and different forms, are performed differently, at different times and differ in their tunes.
Each of these types constitutes a genre, that is, it has a common poetic system and is performed at the same times, in the same forms, by the same musical style. A more detailed division of them is possible. So, for example, you can set different types carols, sub-bread songs, stoneflies, but these types do not represent new genres.
Another large area of ritual poetry is family ritual songs. These include funeral and wedding songs.
Funeral cries, or lamentations, or, as they are sometimes called popularly, screams, accompany all moments of the funeral rite: the dressing of the deceased, farewell before being taken out, immersion in the ground, the moment of relatives returning home to an empty hut. Each of these moments can be accompanied by songs that are specific in their content, but they can also be mixed.
The metrical structure of laments differs from the metrical structure of all other types of folk lyrics. In the classical form of laments, the meter is trochaic with a dactylic ending, the lines are long, covering from four to seven feet for different performers. Each line is syntactically complete, after each line there is a long pause, during which the singer sobs and sobs.
Wedding poetry also mainly consists of laments. The bride laments, or, if she does not know how to do this, the mourner. The main moments of the wedding ceremony, such as the conspiracy, bachelorette party, wedding day and others, are each accompanied by their own lamentations. The bride asked not to give her away in marriage, to postpone the wedding day, she is afraid of life in a new house, where hard work and unkind treatment await her.
All this shows that wedding laments represent a completely different genre than funeral laments. The bride sang sad songs, while the rest of the youth sang happy songs. This includes wedding songs for the newlyweds, their parents and guests of honor. On the contrary, mocking songs were sung towards the groomsmen, matchmakers and matchmakers; to get rid of such ridicule, it was necessary to pay off with money. The friend also created fun. But he did not sing, but performed various sentences, the content of which was greetings. These greetings may be accompanied by ridicule directed at girls, children, or, for example, grumpy old women who are offered to be shoved onto the stove, etc.
Friend's sentences are not songs. They are performed in rhymed prose, interspersed with all sorts of witticisms and jokes. Thus, the lamentations of the bride, majestic wedding songs and sentences of the groomsmen and songs of ridicule constitute the main genres of wedding poetry.
We move on to consider non-ritual lyrics - the richest type of folk song creativity. Having touched on ritual lamentations, we must resolve the issue of non-ritual lamentations. We mean those lamentations or laments that are performed over various misfortunes and disasters with which peasant life was so rich. Do these laments belong to the same genre as funeral laments or not?
One of these disasters is the transfer of a guy to a recruit, and subsequently the conscription of recruits into the army. This moment was accompanied by lamentations or cries, which are commonly called recruiting lamentations. But cries and lamentations could be accompanied by any other sad moment in the life of a peasant: a fire, sending a patient to the hospital; on various occasions, farm laborers and orphans lamented about their lot; they cried as they reminisced about their past.
During the Great Patriotic War women lamented when they received news of the death of their husband, son, brother. Refugees cried when returning home, seeing their homes destroyed. It is generally accepted to combine all types of lamentations into one genre, distinguishing three main types: funeral, recruitment and wedding. What the bride's wedding lamentations amount to completely special genre, we saw above.
There are more grounds for combining the laments of recruits and others with funeral laments. Indeed, the verse in both cases is sometimes completely the same, especially in the mouths of the same performers. Thus, the famous Irina Fedosova performed funeral and recruitment lamentations in exactly the same way. The difference here seems to concern only the subject matter, and this does not yet give grounds to talk about different genres.
From our point of view, the similarity of the metric system does not yet provide grounds for unification into one genre. Funeral laments are ritual poetry, with its roots going back to pagan times. The composition of ritual laments is determined by the course of the ritual, and therefore it is uniform, but the composition of non-ritual laments is as diverse as life itself is diverse. The world of ideas, images and vocabulary are also deeply different. They also differ in their everyday use, and this, as we have seen, is one of the signs of the genre.
We come to the conclusion that in the field of lamentations there are three genres: two ritual ones - weddings and funerals, and one non-ritual one, which includes recruitment lamentations and others associated with wartime disasters, as well as laments associated with various misfortunes of the old peasant life.
V.Ya. Propp. Poetics of folklore - M., 1998