Word " folklore"borrowed from English and translated literally as a folk song. Folklore is, firstly, a collection of texts of various genres: fairy tales, epics, conspiracies, laments and lamentations, ritual and non-ritual songs, historical songs, urban romance, ditties, anecdotes. Secondly, folklore refers to fine folk art and music, traditional toys, folk costumes. Folklore is everything that is created by the people. At the same time, the people are the collective creator of folklore works. This means that folklore works do not have a specific author. They were created and formalized over a long period of time collectively. As a result, a folklore tradition was developed.
Heroes and symbols of folklore
Tradition- This is a key concept for folklore. All folklore works are called traditional. Tradition is a certain established pattern, developed over a long time, according to which individual folklore works are created.
Tradition is closed. For example, a fairy tale has only six possible characters: the hero (Ivan Tsarevich), the sender (the king, the father), the desired character (the bride), the antagonist (Koschei, the serpent Gorynych), the giver (the character who gives something to the hero) and the helper (usually animals that help the hero). This is where her isolation manifests itself. There can't be any other characters here.
Folklore is a means, an instrument for consolidating, preserving and transmitting folk wisdom from generation to generation. This means that the performance of fairy tales, epics, and songs is initially necessary in order to convey traditional cultural information and experience from parents to children. For example, fairy tales convey moral standards that every member of society must comply with: the hero of fairy tales is brave, hardworking, respects parents and the elderly, helps the weak, wise, noble. IN heroic epics it says that you need to defend your homeland: the hero-defender is strong, brave, wise, ready to stand up for the Russian land.
Folklore is symbolic. This means that folk wisdom is transmitted in symbolic form. A symbol is a sign, the content of which in folklore is the traditional folklore meaning. For example, drake, dove, eagle, oak are symbols denoting good fellow. A dove, a duck, a swan, a birch tree, and a willow tree are symbols that represent the red maiden.
Folklore should not be taken literally. It is necessary to learn to see traditional folklore meanings behind symbols. The gold and silver bridle of a heroic horse does not at all mean that it is made of gold and silver. These metals symbolically denote the folklore meaning of “rich, noble.”
Who studies folklore?
Folklore reflects traditional folk culture. Russian traditional folk culture is a fusion of pagan and folk-Orthodox views on nature and society. In works of folklore, the characters are often animals and forces of nature (wind, sun). This reflects the pagan worldview of the people who spiritualized nature, believed in wonderful creatures, and prayed to them. Along with this, there are Christian characters (Mother of God, saints) - these are Orthodox Christian traditions.
Folklore is studied by folklorists. They go on expeditions to record works of oral folk art. After this, the symbolism of these works, their content and structure are examined. Outstanding folklore researchers are V.Ya. Propp, A. N. Afanasyev, S. Yu. Neklyudov, E. M. Meletinsky, B.T. Putilin.
Literature is the art of words. But there is another type of verbal art - oral folk art (oral literature, oral literature), or folklore. Folklore has specific features, which fiction does not have.
The international term "folklore" appeared in England in the mid-19th century. It comes from English. folk-lore (“folk knowledge”, “folk wisdom”) and denotes folk spiritual culture in varying degrees of its types.
Folklore is the subject of study of various sciences. Musicologists study folk music folk dances- choreographers, rituals and other spectacular forms of folk art - theater experts, folk arts and crafts - art critics. Linguists, historians, psychologists, sociologists and other scientists turn to folklore. Each science sees in folklore what interests it. The role of ethnology (from the Greek ethnos: “people” + logos: “word, teaching”), a science that pays a lot of attention to people’s life, is especially significant.
For philologists, folklore is important as the art of words. Philological folkloristics studies the totality of oral works of art of various genres created by many generations of people.
Folk verbal creativity was kept in the memory of people; in the process of communication, works passed from one to another and were not written down. For this reason, folklorists must engage in so-called “field work” - go on folklore expeditions to identify performers and record folklore from them. Recorded oral texts folk works(as well as photographs, tape recordings, diary notes from collectors, etc.) are stored in folklore archives. Archival materials can be published, for example, in the form of folklore collections.
When a folklorist engages in the theoretical study of folklore, he uses both published and archival recordings of folk works.
Folklore has its own artistic laws. The oral form of creation, distribution and existence of works is the main feature that gives rise to the specificity of folklore and causes its difference from literature.
Folklore is mass creativity. Works of literature have an author, works of folklore are anonymous, their author is the people. In literature there are writers and readers, in folklore there are performers and listeners.
Oral works were created according to already known models, and even included direct borrowings. The speech style used constant epithets, symbols, comparisons and other traditional poetic means. Works with a plot were characterized by a set of typical narrative elements and their usual compositional combination. In the images of folklore characters, the typical also prevailed over the individual. Tradition required the ideological orientation of the works: they taught goodness and contained the rules of human behavior in life.
The general thing in folklore is the main thing. Storytellers (performers of fairy tales), singers (performers of songs), storytellers (performers of epics), voplenitsy (performers of lamentations) sought first of all to convey to listeners what was in keeping with tradition. The repeatability of the oral text allowed for its changes, and this allowed an individual talented individual to express himself. Occurred multiple times creative act, co-creation in which any representative of the people could be a participant.
The development of folklore was facilitated by the most talented people endowed with artistic memory and creative gifts. They were well known and appreciated by those around them (remember I. S. Turgenev’s story “The Singers”).
Oral artistic tradition was a common fund. Each person could select for himself what he needed.
In the summer of 1902, M. Gorky observed in Arzamas how two women - a maid and a cook - composed a song (the story “How they composed a song”).
“It was in a quiet street of Arzamas, before evening, on a bench at the gate of the house in which I lived. The city was dozing in the hot silence of June everyday life. I, sitting by the window with a book in my hands, listened to how my cook, the portly, pockmarked Ustinya, talking quietly with the maid<...>Suddenly Ustinya speaks smartly, but in a businesslike manner: “Okay, Mangutka, tell me...” - “What is this?” - “Let’s put together a song...” And, sighing noisily, Ustinya begins to sing quickly:
"Oh, yes, on a white day, in the clear sun,
On a bright night, during the month..."
Hesitantly feeling for the melody, the maid timidly sings in a low voice:
"I'm worried, a young girl..."
And Ustinya confidently and very, touchingly brings the melody to the end:
"My heart is always aching..."
She finished and immediately spoke cheerfully, a little boastfully: “So it has begun, the song! I, my dear, will teach you how to put together songs; how to twist a thread. Well...” After a pause, as if listening to the mournful moans of frogs, the lazy ringing of bells, She again deftly played with words and sounds:
"Oh, the blizzards are fierce in winter
No cheerful streams in spring..."
The maid, moving closer to her, ... now more boldly, in a thin, trembling voice, continues:
“They don’t inform from their native side
Comforting news to my heart..."
“So there you go! - Ustinya said, slapping her hand on her knee. - And when I was younger, I composed even better songs! Sometimes my friends would pester me: “Ustyusha, teach me a song!” Eh, and I’ll drown!.. Well, what will happen next? “I don’t know,” said the maid, opening her eyes and smiling.<...>"The lark sings over the fields.
The cornflowers in the fields have bloomed,” Ustinya sings thoughtfully, folding his arms on his chest, looking at the sky, and the maid echoes smoothly and boldly:
“I should like to look at my native fields!”
And Ustinya, skillfully maintaining a high, swaying voice, spreads soulful words like velvet:
I’d like to take a walk with my dear friend through the forests!”
Having finished singing, they are silent for a long time..., then the woman says quietly, thoughtfully: “Did they compose the song poorly? It’s really good, after all.”
Not everything newly created was preserved in oral history. Repeatedly repeated fairy tales, songs, epics, proverbs and other works passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation." On this path, they lost what bore the stamp of individuality, but at the same time they identified and deepened what could satisfy everyone. The new was born only on a traditional basis, and it had to not just copy tradition, but complement it.
Folklore appeared in its regional modifications: folklore of central Russia, the Russian North, folklore of Siberia, Don folklore, etc. etc. However, local specifics have always had a subordinate position in relation to the all-Russian properties of folklore.
In folklore, a creative process constantly took place, which supported and developed the artistic tradition.
With the advent of written literature, folklore began to interact with it. Gradually, the influence of literature on folklore increased more and more.
The oral creativity of a people embodies its psychology (mentality, disposition of the soul). Russian folklore is closely related to the folklore of the Slavic peoples.
The national is part of the universal. Folklore contacts arose between peoples. Russian folklore interacted with the folklore of neighboring peoples - the Volga region, Siberia, Central Asia, Baltic States, Caucasus, etc.
Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore - M., 2002
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Federal agency railway transport
Siberian State Transport University
Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies
Russian folklore: origin and place in Russian culture
Essay
In the discipline "Culturology"
Supervisor
Professor
Bystrova A.N.
__________
Developed by
Student gr. D-112
King Ya.I.
__________
year 2012
Introduction
Our ancestors, unfamiliar with writing and books, were not cut off from previous generations. Ordinary Russian people, to whom they sang songs a long time ago, told fairy tales and came up with riddles, did not know how to Not read or write. But their verbal creativity was not forgotten or lost. It was carefully passed on from mouth to mouth, from parents to children. Folklore appeared long before literature and was created on the basis of a living spoken language, which is impossible without speech intonations and gestures.
Folk songs, fairy tales, proverbs, riddles delight us with the simplicity of their words, infect us with their joy, and excite us with the depth of their thoughts.
Our folk songs are poetic and beautiful: soulful and tender lullabies with which women lull their children to sleep; funny, comic songs.
Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people are full of deep meaning.
Folk riddles are witty and varied: about nature, about the house, about people, about animals, about the objects that surround a person, in a word, about everything that we see, hear, know.
Folklore works owe their perfection in the use of figurative language to the creative work of hundreds of people.
The purpose of this work is to review and present the views of historians and cultural scientists on the origin and place of Russian folklore in Russian culture using the exampleritual musical poetic folklore.
1. The concept of folklore
The word folklore literally translated from English means folk wisdom.
Folklore is poetry created by the people and existing among the masses, in which they reflect their work activities, social and everyday life, knowledge of life, nature, cults and beliefs. Folklore embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic fantasy, the richest world of thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness. This is oral, verbal artistic creativity that arose in the process of the formation of human speech 1 .
M. Gorky said: “... The beginning of the art of words is in folklore.”Where did he say this, on what occasion?In a pre-class society, folklore is closely connected with other types of human activity, reflecting the rudiments of his knowledge and religious and mythological ideas. In the process of development of society, various types and forms of oral communication arose. verbal creativity. Whose phrases are these? You didn't write them!
Some genres and types of folklore have lived a long life. Their originality can be traced only on the basis of indirect evidence: on texts of later times that retained archaic features of content and poetic structure, and on ethnographic information about peoples at pre-class stages of historical development. Where is the text from?
Only from the 18th century and later are the authentic texts known folk poetry. Very few records survive from the 17th century.
The question of the origin of many works of folk poetry is much more complicated than that of literary works. Not only the name and biography of the author - the creator of this or that text - are unknown, but the social environment in which the fairy tale, epic, song, time and place of their creation was also unknown. The author’s ideological plan can only be judged from the surviving text, which was often written down many years later. An important circumstance ensuring the development of folk poetry in the past was, according to N. G. Chernyshevsky, the absence of “sharp differences in the mental life of the people.”Where do these words come from? And why is Chernyshevsky not on the list of references?
"Mental and moral life", - he points out, - is the same for all members of such a people - therefore, the works of poetry generated by the excitement of such a life are equally close and understandable, equally sweet and related to all members of the people."Where does he “point” this and to whom exactly?In such historical conditions, works appeared that were created “by the whole people, as one moral person.” Where is the quote from? Thanks to this, folk poetry is permeated by a collective principle. It is present in the emergence and perception by listeners of newly created works, in their subsequent existence and processing. Whose text is this?
Collectivity manifests itself not only externally, but also internally - in the folk poetic system itself, in the nature of the generalization of reality, in images, etc. portrait characteristics heroes, in certain situations and images there are few folklore works individual characteristics, occupying such a prominent place in fiction. Whose text is this?
As a rule, at the moment of creation, the work experiences a period of particular popularity and creative flourishing. But there comes a time when it begins to become distorted, destroyed and forgotten. Whose text is this?
New times require new songs. The images of folk heroes express the best features of the Russian national character: the content of folklore works reflects the most typical circumstances of folk life. At the same time, pre-revolutionary folk poetry could not help but reflect the historical limitations and contradictions of peasant ideology. Living in oral transmission, the texts of folk poetry could change significantly. However, having achieved complete ideological and artistic completeness, works were often preserved for a long time almost unchanged as the poetic heritage of the past, as cultural wealth of enduring value. 2 Why is this just rewritten?
2. Specifics of folklore
Folklore has its own artistic laws. The oral form of creation, distribution and existence of works is the main feature that gives rise to the specificity of folklore and causes its difference from literature.
2.1. Traditionality
Folklore mass creativity. Works of literature have an author, works of folklore are anonymous, their author is the people. In literature there are writers and readers, in folklore there are performers and listeners.
Oral works were created according to already known models, and even included direct borrowings. The speech style used constant epithets, symbols, comparisons and other traditional poetic devices. Works with a plot were characterized by a set of typical narrative elements and their usual compositional combination. In the images of folklore characters, the typical also prevailed over the individual. Tradition required the ideological orientation of the works: they taught goodness and contained the rules of human behavior in life. Whose text is this?
The general thing in folklore is the main thing. Storytellers (performers of fairy tales), singers (performers of songs), storytellers (performers of epics), voplenitsy (performers of lamentations) sought first of all to convey to listeners what was in keeping with tradition. The repeatability of the oral text allowed for its changes, and this allowed an individual talented individual to express himself. A multiple creative act, co-creation, took place, in which any representative of the people could be a participant. Whose text is this?
The development of folklore was facilitated by the most talented people endowed with artistic memory and creative gifts. They were well known and appreciated by those around them (remember I. S. Turgenev’s story “The Singers”).Who should remember? This is probably what you are suggesting me to do... Thank you, I can do without such advice.
The oral artistic tradition was the common fund. Each person could select for himself what he needed.Is this a market or a store?
In the summer of 1902, M. Gorky observed in Arzamas how two women - a maid and a cook - composed a song (the story “How they composed a song”).
“It was in a quiet street of Arzamas, before evening, on a bench at the gate of the house in which I lived. The city was dozing in the hot silence of June everyday life. I, sitting by the window with a book in my hands, listened to how my cook, the portly, pockmarked Ustinya, talking quietly with the maid<...>Suddenly Ustinya speaks smartly, but in a businesslike manner: “Okay, Mangutka, give me a hint...” “What is this?” “Let’s put together a song...” And, sighing noisily, Ustinya begins to sing quickly:
"Oh, yes, on a white day, in the clear sun,
On a bright night, during the month..."
Hesitantly feeling for the melody, the maid timidly sings in a low voice:
"I'm worried, a young girl..."
And Ustinya confidently and very, touchingly brings the melody to the end:
"My heart is always aching..."
She finished and immediately spoke cheerfully, a little boastfully: “So it has begun, the song! I, my dear, will teach you how to put together songs; how to twist a thread. Well...” After a pause, as if listening to the mournful moans of frogs, the lazy ringing of bells, She again deftly played with words and sounds:
“Oh, no, the blizzards are fierce in winter
No cheerful streams in spring..."
The maid, moving closer to her, ... now more boldly, in a thin, trembling voice, continues:
“They don’t inform from their native side
Comforting news to my heart..."
“So there you go! Ustinya said, slapping her hand on her knee. And I was younger I composed even better songs! Sometimes my friends would pester me: “Ustyusha, teach me a song!” Eh, and I’ll drown!.. Well, what will happen next? “I don’t know,” said the maid, opening her eyes, smiling.<...>"The lark sings over the fields.
The cornflowers in the fields have bloomed,” Ustinya sings thoughtfully, folding her arms on her chest, looking at the sky, and the maid echoes smoothly and boldly: “I wish I could look at my native fields!” And Ustinya, skillfully supporting a high, swaying voice, stole velvet soulful words: “I wish I could take a walk through the woods with my dear friend!”
Having finished singing, they are silent for a long time..., then the woman says quietly, thoughtfully: “Did they compose the song poorly? It’s really good, after all.”What are the rewritten parts of Gorky's story doing here? This text is familiar to me even without student essays. But what he is doing here is completely unclear.
Not everything newly created was preserved in oral history. Repeatedly repeated fairy tales, songs, epics, proverbs and other works passed “from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation.” On this path, they lost what bore the stamp of individuality, but at the same time they identified and deepened what could satisfy everyone. The new was born only on a traditional basis, and it had to not just copy tradition, but complement it. Whose text is this?
Folklore appeared in its regional modifications: folklore of central Russia, the Russian North, folklore of Siberia, Don folklore, etc. etc. However, local specifics have always had a subordinate position in relation to the all-Russian properties of folklore.
In folklore, a creative process constantly took place, which supported and developed the artistic tradition. Whose text is this?
With the advent of written literature, folklore began to interact with it. Gradually, the influence of literature on folklore increased more and more.
The oral creativity of a people embodies its psychology (mentality, disposition of the soul). Russian folklore is closely related to the folklore of the Slavic peoples. Whose text is this?
National is part of the universal. Folklore contacts arose between peoples. Russian folklore interacted with the folklore of neighboring peoples: the Volga region, Siberia, Central Asia, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, etc. Whose text is this?
2.2. Syncretism
The artistic principle did not immediately win in folklore. IN ancient society the word merged with the beliefs and everyday needs of people, and its poetic meaning, if it existed, was not realized. Whose text is this?
Residual forms of this state were preserved in rituals, conspiracies and other genres of late folklore. For example, a round dance game is a complex of several artistic components: words, music, facial expressions, gesture, dance. All of them can only exist together, as elements of a whole round dance. This property is usually denoted by the word “syncretism” (from the Greek synkretismos “connection”).
Over time, syncretism has historically faded away. Different types of art have overcome the state of primitive indivisibility and stood out on their own. Their later compounds began to appear in folklore synthesis 3 . Why does this exist here in a form primitively copied from someone else’s work?
2.3. Variability
The oral form of assimilation and transmission of works made them open to change. There were no two completely identical performances of the same work, even when there was only one performer. Oral works had a mobile, variant nature,
Variant (from Latin variantis “changing”) each single performance of a folklore work, as well as its fixed text.
Since a folklore work existed in the form of multiple performances, it existed in the totality of its variants. Each version was different from the others, told or sung at different times, in different places, in different environments, by different performers or by the same person (repeatedly). Whose text is this?
Oral folk tradition sought to preserve and protect from oblivion what was most valuable. Tradition kept changes to the text within its boundaries. For variants of a folklore work, what is important is what is common and repeated, and what is secondary is how they differ from one another.
Let us turn to the variants of the riddle about the sky and stars. They were recorded in different provinces - Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Samara, etc. (see in the ReaderWho should go and look at something in the reader? Who is this designation addressed to?).
The artistic basis of the riddle is a metaphor: something has fallen apart and cannot be put back together. Metaphor is flexible. From the options we learn what exactly could crumble. As it turns out, peas (polka dots), beads, a carpet, a ship, a cathedral were scattered. It is usually noted where this happened: at our gates, on the matting, in all cities, in all suburbs, in mosses, in seas, on twelve sides. In one of the options, a narrative preamble appears, explaining the circumstances of what happened:
There was a girl from St. Petersburg walking,
Carried a jug of beads:
She scattered it<...>
Finally, those who cannot collect what has been scattered are listed: the king, the queen, the red maiden, the white fish (symbol of the girl-bride), the clerks (duma clerks), priests, silversmiths, princes, smart men, literate people, us fools. The mention of Serebrenikov hints at a hidden comparison: money and coins scattered. The white fish speaks of interaction with wedding poetry. In one of the options, the impossibility of collecting what has been scattered is emphasized paradoxically with the help of the statement:
God alone will gather
He'll put it in a box.
God resembles a thrifty peasant with a box, who does not tolerate loss and disorder. Since only God can collect what has been scattered, that means no one else can. In another version, tools are named (broom, shovel), which will not help in this situation. So, in the riddle of the sky and the stars there are stable and variable elements. The function (scattering) and its consequence (impossibility of assembly) are stable. All other elements are variable. Some of the variable elements are required (what was scattered; the place where it was scattered; those who cannot collect the scattered). Along with this, optional variable elements arose sporadically (under what circumstances something fell apart, by what means it was impossible to collect it).
Despite the strength and power of tradition, variation could still go quite far and express some new creative tendency. Then I was born a new version folklore work.
Version (from Latin versare “to modify”) a troupe of options that give a qualitatively different interpretation of the work.
For example, among the variants of the riddle we considered there is this:
A letter has been written
On blue velvet
And don’t read this letter
Neither priests nor clerks,
Not smart guys.
This is already a new version, since the stable element of the riddle (scattered cannot be collected) has acquired a different appearance (written cannot be read).From which author were these arguments and examples stolen?
As you can see, the differences between versions are deeper and more significant than the differences between variants. Options are grouped into versions according to the degree of similarity and range of differences,
Variability way of existence folklore tradition. An idea of an oral work can only be formed by taking into account as many of its variants as possible. They must be considered not in isolation, but in comparison with each other. Whose text is this?
In the oral tradition there are not and cannot be “right” or “wrong” options; it is flexible in its essence. Options of both high and low artistic quality, expanded or compressed, etc. appear. They are all important for understanding the history of folklore, processes of its development. Whose text is this?
When recording a folklore work, if it is for scientific purposes, certain requirements must be observed. The collector is obliged to accurately reproduce the text of the performer, and the recording he made must have a so-called “passport” (an indication of who, where, when and from whom recorded this version). Only in this case will the version of the work find its place in space and time and will be useful for the study of folklore. Whose text is this?
2.4. Improvisation
The variability of folklore could practically be achieved through improvisation.
Improvisation (from Latin improviso “unforeseen, suddenly”) creation of the text of a folklore work, or its individual parts, during the performance process.
Between acts of performance, the folklore work was stored in memory. While being voiced, the text seemed to be born anew each time. The performer improvised. He relied on knowledge of the poetic language of folklore, selected ready-made artistic components, and created their combinations. Without improvisation, the use of speech “blanks” and the use of oral-poetic techniques would be impossible. Whose text is this?
Improvisation did not contradict tradition; on the contrary, it existed precisely because there were certain rules, an artistic canon.
An oral work was subject to the laws of its genre. The genre allowed for one or another mobility of the text and set the boundaries of fluctuation.
IN different genres improvisation manifested itself with greater or lesser force. There are genres focused on improvisation (lamentations, lullabies), and even those whose lyrics were one-time (fair cries of traders). In contrast, there are genres intended for precise memorization, therefore, as if they did not allow improvisation (for example, conspiracies).
Improvisation carried a creative impulse and generated novelty. She expressed the dynamics of the folklore process 4 . Why, as I understand it, and everywhere else, is a primitive rewriting of other people’s texts proposed?
3
. Genres of folklore
Genres in folklore also differ in the method of performance (solo, choir, choir and soloist) and various combinations text with melody, intonation, movements (singing, singing and dancing, storytelling, acting).
With changes to social life societies, new genres also arose in Russian folklore: soldiers', coachmen's, barge haulers' songs. The growth of industry and cities gave rise to romances, jokes, worker, school and student folklore. Whose text is this?
In folklore there are productive genres, in the depths of which new works can appear. Now these are ditties, sayings, city songs, jokes, and many types of children's folklore. There are genres that are unproductive, but continue to exist. Thus, no new folk tales appear, but old ones are still told. Many old songs are also sung. But epics and historical songs are practically no longer heard live. Whose text is this?
For thousands of years, folklore was the only form of poetic creativity among all peoples. The folklore of every nation is unique, just like its history, customs, and culture. Thus, epics and ditties are inherent only in Russian folklore, dumas in Ukrainian, etc. Some genres (not just historical songs) reflect the history of a given people. The composition and form of ritual songs are different, which can be timed to coincide with periods of the agricultural, pastoral, hunting or fishing calendar; can enter into various relationships with rituals Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or other religions. Whose text is this?
Folklore of late times is the most important source for studying the psychology, worldview, and aesthetics of a particular people.
4. Ritual folklore as the most massive genre of folklore
The most extensive area of folk musical creativity Ancient Rus' amounts to ritual folklore, testifying to the high artistic talent of the Russian people. The ritual was a normative, strictly regulated religious act, subject to the canon that had developed over the centuries. He was born in the depths of the pagan picture of the world, the deification of natural elements. The most ancient are considered to be calendar ritual songs. Their content is associated with ideas about the cycle of nature and the agricultural calendar. These songs reflect the different stages of life of peasant farmers.
They were part of winter, spring, and summer rituals that correspond to turning points in the change of seasons. When performing the ritual, people believed that their spells would be heard by the mighty gods, the forces of the Sun, Water, and Mother Earth and would send them a good harvest, offspring of livestock, and a comfortable life.
One of the most ancient genres round dance songs. They held round dances throughout almost the entire year - on Christmastide, on Maslenitsa, after Easter. Round dances-games and round dances-processions were common. Initially, round dance songs were part of agricultural rituals, but over the centuries they became independent, although images of the work of the tiller were preserved in many of them:
And we just sowed and sowed!
Oh, Did Lado, they sowed, they sowed!
And we’ll just trample, trample!
Oh, Did Lado, let's trample it down.
Dance songs that have survived to this day accompanied men's and women's dances. Men's symbolized strength and dexterity, women's - tenderness, plasticity, stateliness. For many centuries, the dance tunes “Oh you, canopy, my canopy,” “Kamarinskaya,” “Barynya,” “I have it in my little garden,” and others have retained their popularity.
On the eve of Christmas and Epiphany, round dances and round dances were replaced by the singing of sub-dish songs - the mysterious time of Christmas fortune-telling began. One of the oldest sub-bread songs is “Bread Glory”, which has repeatedly attracted the attention of Russian composers:
A We sing this song to our bread, Slava!
We eat bread and give honor to bread, Glory!
Over the centuries, the musical epic begins to be replenished with new themes and images. Epics are born, telling about the struggle against the Horde, about travel to distant countries, about the emergence of the Cossacks, popular uprisings.
Folk memory has preserved many beautiful ancient songs for centuries. IN XVIII century, during the period of the formation of professional secular genres (opera, instrumental music), folk art for the first time became the subject of study and creative implementation. The educational attitude towards folklore was clearly expressed by the wonderful writer, humanist A.N. Radishchev, in the heartfelt lines of his “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”: “Whoever knows the voices of Russian folk songs admits that there is something in them that signifies spiritual sorrow... In in them you will find the formation of the soul of our people.” IN XIX V. The assessment of folklore as the “education of the soul” of the Russian people became the basis of aesthetics composer school from Glinka to Rimsky-Korsakov, and folk song itself is one of the sources of the formation of national musical thinking 5
Conclusion
The role of folklore was especially strong during the period of predominance of mythopoetic consciousness. With the advent of writing, many types of folklore developed in parallel with fiction, interacting with it, influencing it and other forms artistic creativity influence and experiencing the opposite effect. Folk musical art originated long before the emergence of professional music Orthodox church. In the social life of ancient Rus', folklore played a much greater role than in subsequent times. The most extensive area of folk musical creativity of Ancient Rus' consists of ritual folklore, testifying to the high artistic talent of the Russian people. The ritual was normative, strictly regulated religious action, subject to the canon that had developed over centuries. It was born in the depths of the pagan picture of the world, the deification of natural elements.
In the traditional folk culture of Russians there is no generalizing concept corresponding in meaning to the Western European term “music”. However, this word itself is used, but most often means precisely musical instrument, and with the advantage of a purchased one, such as an accordion or balalaika.
Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, dramatic games and performances formed an organic part of festive folk life, be it village gatherings, religious schools, soldier and factory barracks, or fair booths. In later times, this experience was enriched by borrowings from professional and popular literature and democratic theater.
Formation of the most famous folk plays occurred during the era of social and cultural transformations in Russia at the end of the 18th century. From that time on, popular prints and pictures appeared and were widely distributed, which were both a topical “newspaper” for the people, information and sources of knowledge. Sellers of popular prints ofeni penetrated into the most remote corners of Russia. Popular prints, sold at all fairs since the 19th century, were a mandatory decoration for the peasant hut. In urban areas, and later rural fairs carousels and booths were set up, on the stage of which performances were performed on fairy-tale and national historical themes, which gradually replaced earlier translated plays.
The specifics of the genre each time determined and limited the choice of repertoire, artistic means and methods of execution. The peculiarity of urban spectacular folklore partly helps to understand the widespread use of folk comedians in performances. They literally permeate the verbal fabric, and they largely determine the external form and content of ideas.
List of used literature
- Bakhtin M.M. Folk art and culture of the Middle Ages. M.: Yurayt 2001. 326 p.
- Velichkina O.V. Music in Russian folk weddings. M.: Eksmo 2003. 219 p.
- Vertko K.A. Russian folk musical instruments..-M. : Unipress 2004. 176 p.
- Gusev V.E. Rituals and ritual folklore.-M. :Phoenix 2003. 236
- Propp V.Ya Folklore.-M. : Yurayt 2000. -221 s.
1 Propp V.Ya Folklore.-M. : Yurayt 2000. с.21
2 Propp V.Ya Folklore.-M. : Yurayt 2000. с.43
3 Velichkina O.V. Music in Russian folk weddings. M.: Eksmo 2003. p.50
4 Velichkina O.V. Music in Russian folk weddings. M.: Eksmo 2003. p.69
5 Propp V.Ya Folklore.-M. : Yurayt 2000. с.190.
Folklore(Folk-lore) is a special historically established area of 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. indistinction between different types of creativity. IN folk song Not only could the words and melody 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 are divided 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 between folklore works and literary works 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.
Best works folk poetry close and understandable to children, have clearly expressed pedagogical orientation And distinguished by artistic excellence. Thanks to folklore, a child enters the world around him more easily and feels the beauty more fully. native nature, assimilates the people’s ideas about beauty, morality, gets acquainted with customs, rituals - in a word, along with aesthetic pleasure, 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.
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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 little man get your bearings in the 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, a funny episode built on illogic. They are not associated with specific actions or games, but are intended to entertain the baby.
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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 - special kind songs-rhymes that came into children's folklore from buffoon and fair folklore and cause laughter because they deliberately displace and disrupt the real connections of objects and phenomena.
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 rhyming sentences, appeals in poetic form to various phenomena nature, 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
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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 final phrase reaches its peak.
"Red Spot"
One family received new apartment, but there was a red spot 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 the baby was charmed by evil, dark forces. Some mythological Babai, Mamai are the spirits of darkness, and Sleep, Drema, Ugomon, on the contrary, are called upon for calm. Sometimes whole poetic pictures emerge:
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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).
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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
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- already more complex look 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!
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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 speech, 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 elements of material culture (housing, clothing), domestic scientists and their like-minded people in other countries consider oral folk art to be folklore - poetic works created by the people and existing among the broad masses, along with musical and dance folklore. This approach takes into account artistic nature folklore as the art of words. Folkloristics is the study of 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 indivisibility various types essentially already artistic activity(although the creators-performers themselves set 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 accumulates 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. The separation of verbal creativity into an independent form of art is 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 human personality, to experiences common man. Folk songs from the period of feudalism tell about serfdom, 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 an 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 are interconnected 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 are 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 of different peoples, differing in 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. 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, she was recorded on the Don, it was discovered that folk singers made significant changes to the text (and, by the way, to the music), as if restoring in the main the original form of the French “complaint,” which the Don Cossacks, of course, had never heard. This affected general laws folk song creativity.
Literature appeared later than folklore and has always, although in different ways, used its experience. In 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 of the social spheres of action of literature and folklore, which takes place at sharp turns in history, which, based on the material of Russian culture of the 17th century, is extremely important. 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 oral poetry is 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 echoed uniquely 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, is based not only on the experience of its immediate predecessors, but also on all the best that characterizes 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.