Saltykov-Shchedrin was a successor to the satirical traditions of Fonvizin, Griboedov, and Gogol. Shchedrin's gubernatorial activities allowed him to better discern the “evils of Russian reality” and made him think about the fate of Russia. He created a kind of satirical encyclopedia of Russian life. The tales summed up the writer’s 40-year work and were created over four years: from 1882 to 1886.
A whole series reasons prompted Saltykov-Shchedrin to turn to fairy tales. The difficult political situation in Russia: moral terror, the defeat of populism, police persecution of the intelligentsia - did not allow us to reveal everything social contradictions society and directly criticize the existing order. On the other hand, the fairy tale genre was close to the character of the satirical writer. Fantasy, hyperbole, irony, common in fairy tales, are very characteristic of Shchedrin’s poetics. In addition, the fairy tale genre is very democratic, accessible and understandable wide circles readers, people. The fairy tale is characterized by didacticism, and this directly corresponded to the journalistic pathos and civic aspirations of the satirist.
Saltykov-Shchedrin willingly used traditional techniques folk art. His fairy tales often begin like folk tales, with the words “once upon a time there lived,” “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state.” Proverbs and sayings are often found. “The horse runs - the earth trembles”, “Two deaths cannot happen, but one cannot be avoided.” The traditional method of repetition makes Shchedrin’s fairy tales very similar to folk tales. The author deliberately emphasizes one particular trait in each character, which is also characteristic of folklore.
But nevertheless, Saltykov-Shchedrin did not copy the structure folk tale, but brought something new into it. First of all, this is the appearance of the author’s image. Behind the mask of a naive joker is hidden the sarcastic grin of a merciless satirist. The image of a man is drawn completely differently than in a folk tale. In folklore, a man has intelligence, dexterity, and invariably defeats the master. In the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the attitude towards the peasant is ambiguous. Often it is he who remains the fool, despite his cleverness, as in the fairy tale “How one man fed two generals.” The guy showed himself to be a great guy: he can do everything, he can even cook a handful of soup. And at the same time, he obediently carries out the order of the generals: he makes a rope for himself so that he does not run away!
The writer essentially created new genre - political fairy tale*. The life of Russian society second half of the 19th century century has been imprinted in a rich gallery of characters. Shchedrin showed the entire social anatomy, touched upon all the main classes and strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, the intelligentsia.
Thus, in the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship,” rudeness and ignorance are immediately evident supreme authority, hostile attitude towards education. Another Toptygin, arriving in the voivodeship, wants to find some institute to “burn it down.” The writer makes the Donkey, the embodiment of stupidity and stubbornness, the main sage and adviser to Leo. Therefore, violence and chaos reign in the forest.
Using hyperbole, Shchedrin makes the images unusually vivid and memorable. Wild landowner, who had always dreamed of getting rid of the obnoxious men and their servile spirit, was finally left alone. And... he went wild: “He... was all overgrown with hair..., and his claws became like iron.” And it becomes clear: everything rests on the work of the people.
In “The Wise Minnow,” Shchedrin paints an image of the intelligentsia that succumbed to panic and abandoned active struggle into the world of personal concerns and interests. The common gudgeon, fearing for his life, walled himself up in a dark hole. Outwitted everyone! And the result of his life can be expressed in the words: “He lived and trembled, he died and trembled.”
In the gallery of images of Saltykov-Shchedrin there is an intellectual dreamer (“Crucian the idealist”), and an autocrat playing the role of a philanthropist (“Eagle the Patron”), and worthless generals, and a submissive “selfless hare” hoping for the mercy of “predators” ( here is another side of slave psychology!), and many others, reflecting historical era, with its social evil and democratic ideas.
In fairy tales, Shchedrin proved himself to be a brilliant artist. He showed himself to be a master of Aesopian language, with the help of which he was able to convey to the reader a sharp political thought and convey social generalizations in allegorical form.
Thus, starting from the fantasy of a folk tale, Shchedrin organically combines with a realistic depiction of reality. Extreme exaggeration in the description of characters and situations allows the satirist to focus attention on the dangerous aspects of the life of Russian society.
The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin had a great impact on further development Russian literature and especially the genre of satire.
The fairy tale genre in the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin
Saltykov-Shchedrin was a successor to the satirical traditions of Fonvizin, Griboedov, and Gogol. Shchedrin's gubernatorial activities allowed him to more deeply discern the “evils of Russian reality” and made him think about the fate of Russia. He created a kind of satirical encyclopedia of Russian life. The fairy tales summed up the writer's 40-year work and were created within four years: from 1882 to 1886. A number of reasons prompted Saltykov-Shchedrin to turn to fairy tales. The difficult political situation in Russia: moral terror, the defeat of populism, police persecution of the intelligentsia - did not allow us to identify all the social contradictions of society and directly criticize the existing order. On the other hand, the fairy tale genre was close to the character of the satirical writer. Fantasy, hyperbole, irony, common in fairy tales, are very characteristic of Shchedrin’s poetics. In addition, the fairy tale genre is very democratic, accessible and understandable to a wide range of readers and people. The fairy tale is characterized by didacticism, and this directly corresponded to the journalistic pathos and civic aspirations of the satirist. Saltykov-Shchedrin willingly used traditional techniques of folk art. His fairy tales often begin, like folk tales, with the words “once upon a time,” “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state.” Proverbs and sayings are often found. “The horse runs - the earth trembles”, “Two deaths cannot happen, but one cannot be avoided.” The traditional method of repetition makes Shchedrin’s fairy tales very similar to folk tales. The author deliberately emphasizes one feature in each character, which is also characteristic of folklore. But, nevertheless, Saltykov-Shchedrin did not copy the structure of a folk tale, but introduced something new into it. First of all, this is the appearance of the author’s image. Behind the mask of a naive joker is hidden the sarcastic grin of a merciless satirist. The image of a man is drawn completely differently than in a folk tale. In folklore, a man has intelligence, dexterity, and invariably defeats the master. In the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the attitude towards the peasant is ambiguous. Often it is he who remains the fool, despite his cleverness, as in the fairy tale “How one man fed two generals.” The guy showed himself to be a great guy: he can do everything, he can even cook a handful of soup. And at the same time, he obediently carries out the order of the generals: he makes a rope for himself so that he does not run away! The writer essentially created a new genre - a political fairy tale. The life of Russian society in the second half of the 19th century is captured in a rich gallery of characters. Shchedrin showed the entire social anatomy, touched upon all the main classes and strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, the intelligentsia. Thus, in the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship,” the rudeness and ignorance of the highest authorities and hostile attitude towards education are immediately striking. The next Toptygin, having arrived in the voivodeship, wants to find some institute to “burn it down.” The writer makes the Donkey, the embodiment of stupidity and stubbornness, the main sage and adviser to Leo. Therefore, violence and chaos reign in the forest. Using hyperbole, Shchedrin makes the images unusually vivid and memorable. The wild landowner, who had always dreamed of getting rid of the obnoxious men and their servile spirit, was finally left alone. And... he went wild: "He... was all overgrown with hair... and his claws became like iron." And it becomes clear: everything rests on the work of the people. In “The Wise Minnow” Shchedrin paints an image of the intelligentsia that succumbed to panic and abandoned active struggle into the world of personal concerns and interests. The common gudgeon, fearing for his life, walled himself up in a dark hole. Outwitted everyone! And the result of his life can be expressed in the words: “He lived - he trembled, he died - he trembled.” In the gallery of images of Saltykov-Shchedrin there is both an intellectual dreamer (“Crucian the Idealist”) and an autocrat playing the role of a philanthropist (“Eagle the Patron”), and worthless generals, and a submissive “selfless hare” hoping for the mercy of “predators” (this is another side of slave psychology!), and many others who reflected the historical era, with its social evil and democratic ideas. In fairy tales, Shchedrin showed himself to be a brilliant artist . He showed himself to be a master of Aesopian language, with the help of which he was able to convey a sharp political thought to the reader and convey social generalizations in allegorical form. Thus, Shchedrin organically combines the fantasy of a folk tale with a realistic depiction of reality. Extreme exaggeration in the description of characters and situations allows the satirist to focus on the dangerous aspects of the life of Russian society. Saltykov-Shchedrin's tales had a great impact on the further development of Russian literature and especially the genre of satire.The fairy tale is only one of the genres of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work, and, moreover, a genre that does not predominate in it. However, to characterize Shchedrin the artist, his tales are undoubtedly of paramount importance.
Fairy taleFairy tales are one of the most striking creations of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. IN literary heritage satirists, they are distinguished by the richness of ideas and images, the sharpness and subtlety of the satirical depiction of social types, the originality of style, and high perfection
N. N. Kovaleva satirical tales by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Program
ProgramThe main goal of this elective is to, through expanding, deepening, enriching students’ knowledge and ideas about the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, show the role of satire “in preserving the ideals of humanity,” in the name of which
Image of Judushka Golovlev. Satirical and psychological in the novel. Fairy tales of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin: problematics and artistic originality. Philosophical and satirical in a fairy tale
Fairy tale"The Story of a City" as satirical work: features of the issue and objects of satirical denunciation. Philosophical concept of history in the novel.
Universals of laughter culture in the artistic world of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
AbstractThe defense of the dissertation will take place on October 15, 2009 at a meeting of the dissertation council D 212.198.11 in Perm state university at the address: 614990,
- Lesson
developing: develop self-esteem, give the opportunity to look back at ourselves and at the world around us; develop logical thinking, oral monologue speech.
GENRE OF FAIRY TALES IN THE WORK OF M. E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN
Saltykov-Shchedrin's tales are usually defined as the result of his satirical creativity. And this conclusion is to some extent justified. Fairy tales chronologically complete the satirical work of the writer. As a genre, Shchedrin's fairy tale gradually matured in the writer's work from the fantastic and figurative elements of his satire. There are also a lot of folklore headpieces in them, starting from the use of the form of a long-past tense (“Once upon a time”) and ending with an abundant number of proverbs and sayings with which they are peppered. In his fairy tales, the writer touches on many problems: social, political and ideological. Thus, the life of Russian society is depicted in them in a long series of miniature paintings. Fairy tales present the social anatomy of society in the form of a whole gallery of zoomorphic, fairy tale images.
Thus, in the fairy tale “Crucian Crucian the Idealist” a system of ideas is presented that corresponded to the worldview of Shchedrin himself. This is a belief in the ideal of social equality and a belief in harmony, in universal happiness. But, the writer reminds: “That’s what the pike is for, so that the crucian carp don’t doze off.” Karas acts as a preacher. He is eloquent and beautiful in preaching brotherly love: “Do you know what virtue is?” The pike opened its mouth in surprise, mechanically drew in the water and... swallowed the crucian carp. This is the nature of all pikes - to eat crucian carp. In this tiny tragedy, Shchedrin presented what is characteristic of every society and every organization, what constitutes the natural and natural law of their development: there are strong who eat, and there are weak who are eaten. And social progress is the usual process of devouring some by others. Of course, such pessimism of the artist caused controversy and criticism in democratic circles. But time passed - and Shchedrin’s rightness became historical rightness.
But it was not only the intelligentsia who suffered in fairy tales. The people are also good in their slavish obedience. The writer drew terrible and bad pictures in “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals.”
Here is a portrait of a peasant. "Huge man", a jack of all trades. And he took apples from the tree, and he got potatoes from the ground, and he prepared a snare for the hazel grouse from his own hair, and he made fire, and he baked provisions, and he collected swan fluff. So what? The generals get a dozen apples each, and for themselves “one, sour.” He himself made a rope so that the generals would keep him on a leash at night. Moreover, he was ready to “please the generals because they favored him, a parasite, and did not disdain his peasant work!” No matter how much the generals scold the peasant for parasitism, the peasant “rows and rows and feeds the generals with herring.” It is difficult to imagine a more vivid and clear image of the moral state of the peasants: passive slave psychology, ignorance. Shchedrin seems to see the Russian people through the eyes of Porfiry Petrovich from Crime and Punishment. He directly called the man a foreigner, the way of thinking, behavior and morality of the Russian people was so inaccessible to him.
For Shchedrin, such an attitude towards his people acquired a parable-like and accessible form.
Shchedrin admires the man’s strength and endurance, which are as natural to him as his unparalleled obedience and complete idiocy. In this context, the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship” is uncharacteristic, where the men still lose patience and put the bear on a spear. However, Toptygin 2nd in this tale is not so much an exploiter as an ordinary robber, a sort of Manyl Samylovich Urus-Kugush-Kildibaev from “The History of a City.” But robbers were never favored in Rus' - hence the spear.
In his fairy tales, Shchedrin is full of sarcasm. He does not favor anyone in them. Everyone gets it: right and wrong, wise minnows, Russian liberals, pike, autocracy, and Russian peasants.
Let us remember the moral code of the dried roach: “If you drive more quietly, you will go further; a small fish is better than a big cockroach... Ears do not grow higher than the forehead” - this is what Shchedrin especially disgusts, the neat grayness. There is a protest against it, a caustic satire of fairy tales. And yet the elections are not comforting, Shchedrin’s fairy tales are still relevant today, and therefore, our society is stable: crucian carp are swallowed, generals are fed, roach preaches, a sensible hare plays with a fox - in general, everything is the same: “And every beast has its own life : for a lion - lion's, for a fox - fox's, for a hare - hare's."
A special place in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin is occupied by fairy tales with their allegorical images, in which the author was able to say more about Russian society of the 60-80s of the 19th century than the historians of those years. Saltykov-Shchedrin writes these fairy tales “for children of considerable age”, that is, for an adult reader, whose mind is in the state of a child, who needs to open his eyes to life. The fairy tale, due to the simplicity of its form, is accessible to anyone, even an inexperienced reader, and therefore is especially dangerous for those who are ridiculed in it.
The main problem of Shchedrin's fairy tales is the relationship between the exploiters and the exploited. The writer created a satire on Tsarist Russia. The reader is presented with images of rulers (“The Bear in the Voivodeship,” “Eagle Patron”), exploiters and exploited (“The Wild Landowner,” “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals”), and ordinary people (“The Wild Landowner,” “The Story of How One Man Fed Two Generals”) The wise minnow", "Dried roach").
Saltykov-Shchedrin turned to fairy tales not only because it was necessary to bypass censorship, which forced the writer to turn to Aesopian language, but also in order to educate the people in a form familiar and accessible to them.
a) In my own way literary form and style of Saltykov-Shchedrin's tales are associated with folklore traditions. In them we meet traditional fairy tale characters: talking animals, fish, Ivan the Fool and many others. The writer uses the beginnings, sayings, proverbs, linguistic and compositional triple repetitions, vernacular and everyday peasant vocabulary characteristic of a folk tale, constant epithets, words with diminutive suffixes. As in folk tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin does not have a clear temporal and spatial framework.
b) But using traditional techniques, the author quite deliberately deviates from tradition. He introduces socio-political vocabulary, clerical phrases, French words. The pages of his fairy tales include episodes of modern public life. This is how styles mix, creating comic effect, and connecting the plot with the problems
modernity.
Thus, enriching the tale with new satirical techniques, Saltykov-Shchedrin turned it into a tool of socio-political satire.
The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” (1869) begins as an ordinary fairy tale: “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a landowner...” But then the element modern life: “And that landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper “Vest” - a reactionary-serfdom newspaper, and the stupidity of the landowner is determined by his worldview. The abolition of serfdom aroused anger among the landowners towards the peasants. According to the plot of the fairy tale, the landowner turned to God to take the peasants from him:
“He reduced them so that there is nowhere to stick your nose out: no matter where you look, everything is prohibited, not allowed, and not yours!” Using Aesopian language, the writer depicts the stupidity of the landowners who oppress their own peasants, at the expense of whom they lived, having a “loose, white, crumbly body.”
There were no more peasants throughout the entire domain of the stupid landowner: “Where the peasant went, no one noticed.” Shchedrin hints at where the man might be, but the reader must guess this for himself.
The peasants themselves were the first to call the landowner stupid: “...even though their landowner is stupid, he has been given great intelligence.” There is irony in these words. Next, representatives of other classes call the landowner stupid three times (triple repetition technique): actor Sadovsky with his “actors” invited to the estate: “However, brother, you are a stupid landowner! Who gives you a wash, stupid one?”; the generals, whom instead of “beef” he treated to printed gingerbread and candy: “However, brother, you are a stupid landowner!”; and, finally, the police captain: “You are stupid, Mr. Landowner!” The stupidity of the landowner is visible to everyone, since “you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread at the market,” the treasury is empty, since there is no one to pay taxes, “robbery, robbery and murder have spread in the district.” But the stupid landowner stands his ground, shows firmness, proves his inflexibility to the liberal gentlemen, as his favorite newspaper Vest advises.
He indulges in unrealistic dreams that without the help of the peasants he will achieve prosperity in the economy. “He’s thinking about what kind of cars he’ll order from England,” so that there won’t be any servile spirit. “He’s thinking about what kind of cows he’ll breed.” His dreams are absurd, because he cannot do anything on his own. And only one day the landowner thought: “Is he really a fool? Could it be that the inflexibility that he so cherished in his soul, when translated into ordinary language, means only stupidity and madness?..” In the further development of the plot, showing the gradual savagery and bestiality of the landowner, Saltykov-Shchedrin resorts to the grotesque. At first, “he was overgrown with hair... his nails became like iron... he walked more and more on all fours... He even lost the ability to pronounce articulate sounds... But he had not yet acquired a tail.” His predatory nature was manifested in the way he hunted: “like an arrow, he will jump from a tree, grab onto his prey, tear it apart with his nails and so on with all the insides, even the skin, and eat it.” The other day I almost killed the police captain. But then the final verdict was passed on the wild landowner new friend bear: “...only, brother, you destroyed this guy in vain!
Why is that so?
But because this man was far more capable than your nobleman brother. And therefore I’ll tell you straight: you’re a stupid landowner, even though you’re my friend!”
So in the fairy tale the technique of allegory is used, where under the mask of animals they perform human types in their inhumane relationship. This element is also used in the depiction of peasants. When the authorities decided to “catch” and “install” the peasant, “as if on purpose, at that time, through provincial town an emerging swarm of men flew and showered the entire market square.” The author compares peasants to bees, showing the hard work of peasants.
When the peasants were returned to the landowner, “at the same time flour, meat, and all kinds of livestock appeared in the market, and so many taxes arrived in one day that the treasurer, seeing such a pile of money, just clasped his hands in surprise and cried out:
And where do you scoundrels get it from!!!” How much bitter irony there is in this exclamation! And they caught the landowner, washed him, cut his nails, but he never understood anything and learned nothing, like all the rulers who ruin the peasantry, rob the workers and do not understand that this could result in ruin for themselves.
Meaning satirical tales is that in a small work the writer was able to combine the lyrical, epic and satirical beginning and extremely sharply express his point of view on the vices of the class of those in power and on the most important problem of the era - the problem of the fate of the Russian people.
In 1883, the famous “Wise Minnow” appeared, which over the past hundred years has become extra years Shchedrin's textbook tale. The plot of this fairy tale is known to everyone: once upon a time there was a gudgeon, which at first was no different from its own kind. But, a coward by nature, he decided to live his whole life without sticking out, in his hole, flinching from every rustle, from every shadow that flashed next to his hole. So life passed me by - no family, no children. And so he disappeared - either on his own or some pike swallowed him. Only before death does the minnow think about his life: “Who did he help? Who did you regret, what good did he do in life? “He lived - he trembled and he died - he trembled.” Only before death does the average person realize that no one needs him, no one knows him and no one will remember him. But this is the plot, the external side of the fairy tale, what is on the surface. And the subtext of Shchedrin’s caricature in this tale of the morals of modern bourgeois Russia was well explained by the artist A. Kanevsky, who made illustrations for the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”: “...everyone understands that Shchedrin is not talking about fish. The gudgeon is a cowardly man in the street, trembling for his own skin. He is a man, but also a minnow, the writer put him in this form, and I, the artist, must preserve it. My task is to combine the image of a frightened man in the street and a minnow, to combine fish and human properties. It is very difficult to “comprehend” a fish, to give it a pose, a movement, a gesture. How to display forever frozen fear on a fish’s “face”? The figurine of the minnow-official gave me a lot of trouble....”
3. I.A. Bunin about the fate of the Russian peasantry. “Village”, “Merry Yard”, “Zakhar Vorobyov”. Features of the writer's realism (using the example of one of the works).
The writer did not accept the destructive way of life. He found moral values in the depths of the soul, which preserved the aspirations given to man by nature. This bright motif is the essence of many stories: “The Cheerful Yard” (1911), “Zakhar Vorobyov” (1912), “The Thin Grass” (1913), “Lyrnik Rodion” (1913). The inner appearance of the hero is revealed here in a local temporary situation - the fire of spiritual beauty burns briefly, but brightly. And the external, corrupting environment is given sparingly and distanced from the individual.
Social dissonances are by no means obscured. But the author looks at the transitory from the standpoint of the highest purpose of people - their birth in the name of nurturing new life on the ground. Those who, in contempt for selfish, mercantile inclinations, radiate warmth and love along this path are dear to the writer. These, in his opinion, are the prospects for peace, salvation from the terrible inertia of collapse. Bunin does not idealize his heroes. The familiar Bunin thought is heard again: you can touch the Beautiful only by overcoming your habitually limited interests. In “The Thin Grass” and other stories of the 1910s. sophisticated states of mind characteristic of those who live an ordinary fate. The writer emphasizes this point through various means. The narration reinforces the impression of the authenticity of what is happening by reference to the “real” scene of action, often to the opinion of “old-timers.” These are the beginnings of “The Merry Yard” and “Zakhar Vorobyov”. The transitions from an event to the hero’s understanding of it, from thinking about a person’s purpose to everyday scenes. Complex psychological processes are freely included during everyday existence. And these processes themselves, for all their depth and significance, originate from the simplest experiences. That is why the artistic collision of stories becomes so expressive - the character’s summing up of his life’s results. The specificity of the recreated world can divert attention from the writer’s true quest. This often happens. Bunin believed that “Zakhar Vorobyov” would protect him from the attacks of critics who attributed to the author of “The Village” a lordly attitude towards the people. And in this story they find only Zakhar’s unfulfilled dream of heroism and his humiliating death from drinking too much vodka. The content of the work is incomparably richer and more tragic.
Zakhar Vorobyov is constantly looking for warm, trusting contacts with people. First he tries to find an interlocutor who will listen and understand him. But conversations with random people they meet are crowned with complete and stupid indifference to him. TO suits people he went to the village of Zhiloye (ironic name), and there “it was deathly quiet. Not a single soul anywhere." Zakhar wants to shake “the little people hidden in the huts.” IN a short story“The Cheerful Yard” is the story of two lives and two deaths: the old peasant woman Anisya and her son Yegor. Anisya is literally dying of hunger: there wasn’t even anything for her bread crust(her yard is called “cheerful” by her neighbors in mockery of her miserable, unlucky existence). Egor, an “empty talker” who left his parents’ home long ago and “does not recognize either family, property, or homeland,” commits suicide in his senseless wanderings. The mother’s meek endurance rises to selflessness in the name of the lost Yegor. At the moment of her starvation death (a stray, semi-feral dog recognizes the unfortunate woman as “an equal”!) Anisya, “to the point of trembling in her arms and legs,” longs for “sweet happiness” - to begin a “new streak” of “existence in this world.” There is no trace of complacency or detachment in the dying woman’s feelings. Everything is given over to the passionate desire to “see the morning, love your son, go to him.” Yegor’s condition is contradictory, he is still characterized by stupid conceit, and next to him there is growing painful bewilderment, “dumb irritation” against everyone and everything. Yegor experiences “two series of feelings and thoughts: one is ordinary, simple, and the other is alarming, painful,” forcing “to think something that did not lend itself to the work of the mind.” The insurmountable duality, which makes the unthinking birds envy, is acutely and dramatically resolved with the death of Anisya. Yegor is now losing all connections with the world: “And the earth - the whole earth - seemed to be empty.”
The author uses " x-ray", highlighting the deep current inner life. The composition of stories, the change and detailing of episodes - everything expresses the chosen approach. Perhaps most clearly it appears in the speech element of the narrator and characters. Expressions derived from certain supporting concepts, persistently repeating themselves, immediately determine the leading melody of the work. In “The Thin Grass,” for example, there is a whole scattering of words-“signs” of difficult thoughts: “knowledge”, “mental abilities”, “thinking something of your own”, “poor memories”, “I don’t know anything”, “I don’t know why lived”, etc. This stream, of course, is not the only one; another flows towards it, conveying sensations of beauty and love. The semantic condensation of the text is achieved by these means.
A number of Bunin’s works are dedicated to a ruined village, ruled by hunger and death. The writer looks for an ideal in the patriarchal past with its old-world prosperity. The desolation and degeneration of noble nests, the moral and spiritual impoverishment of their owners evoke in Bunin a feeling of sadness and regret about the lost harmony of the patriarchal world, about the disappearance of entire classes (“Antonov Apples”). In many stories of 1890-1900, images of “new” people appear. These stories are imbued with a premonition of imminent alarming changes,
In the early 1900s, the lyrical style of Bunin's early prose changed. The story “The Village” (1911) reflects the writer’s dramatic thoughts about Russia, about its future, about the fate of the people, about the Russian character. Bunin reveals a pessimistic view of the prospects for people's life...
Critics noted the merits of Bunin’s language, his art of “raising everyday phenomena of life into the world of poetry.” There were no “low” topics for the writer. A reviewer for the magazine “Bulletin of Europe” wrote: “In terms of pictorial accuracy, Mr. Bunin has no rivals among Russian poets.” His sense of the Motherland, language, and history was enormous. One of the sources of his creativity was folk speech. Many critics compared Bunin's prose with the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, noting that he introduced new features and new colors into the realism of the last century, enriching it with the features of impressionism.
Saltykov-Shchedrin was a successor to the satirical traditions of Fonvizin, Griboedov, and Gogol. Shchedrin's gubernatorial activities allowed him to better discern the “evils of Russian reality” and made him think about the fate of Russia. He created a kind of satirical encyclopedia of Russian life. The tales summed up the writer’s 40-year work and were created over four years: from 1882 to 1886.
A number of reasons prompted Saltykov-Shchedrin to turn to fairy tales. The difficult political situation in Russia: moral terror, defeat
Populism and police persecution of the intelligentsia did not allow us to identify all the social contradictions of society and directly criticize the existing order. On the other hand, the fairy tale genre was close to the character of the satirical writer. Fantasy, hyperbole, irony, common in fairy tales, are very characteristic of Shchedrin’s poetics. In addition, the fairy tale genre is very democratic, accessible and understandable to a wide range of readers and people. The fairy tale is characterized by didacticism, and this directly corresponded to the journalistic pathos and civic aspirations of the satirist.
Saltykov-Shchedrin willingly used traditional techniques of folk art. His fairy tales often begin like folk tales, with the words “once upon a time there lived,” “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state.” Proverbs and sayings are often found. “The horse runs - the earth trembles”, “Two deaths cannot happen, but one cannot be avoided.” The traditional method of repetition makes Shchedrin’s fairy tales very similar to folk tales. The author deliberately emphasizes one particular trait in each character, which is also characteristic of folklore.
But nevertheless, Saltykov-Shchedrin did not copy the structure of a folk tale, but introduced something new into it. First of all, this is the appearance of the author’s image. Behind the mask of a naive joker is hidden the sarcastic grin of a merciless satirist. The image of a man is drawn completely differently than in a folk tale. In folklore, a man has intelligence, dexterity, and invariably defeats the master. In the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the attitude towards the peasant is ambiguous. Often it is he who remains the fool, despite his cleverness, as in the fairy tale “How one man fed two generals.” The guy showed himself to be a great guy: he can do everything, he can even cook a handful of soup. And at the same time, he obediently carries out the order of the generals: he makes a rope for himself so that he does not run away!
The writer essentially created a new genre - a political fairy tale. The life of Russian society in the second half of the 19th century is captured in a rich gallery of characters. Shchedrin showed the entire social anatomy, touched upon all the main classes and strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, the intelligentsia.
Thus, in the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship,” the rudeness and ignorance of the highest authorities and hostile attitude towards education are immediately striking. Another Toptygin, arriving in the voivodeship, wants to find some institute to “burn it down.” The writer makes the Donkey, the embodiment of stupidity and stubbornness, the main sage and adviser to Leo. Therefore, violence and chaos reign in the forest.
Using hyperbole, Shchedrin makes the images unusually vivid and memorable. The wild landowner, who had always dreamed of getting rid of the obnoxious men and their servile spirit, was finally left alone. I. went wild: “All of him. overgrown with hair, and his claws became like iron.” And it becomes clear: everything rests on the work of the people.
In “The Wise Minnow,” Shchedrin paints an image of the intelligentsia that succumbed to panic and abandoned active struggle into the world of personal concerns and interests. The common gudgeon, fearing for his life, walled himself up in a dark hole. Outwitted everyone! And the result of his life can be expressed in the words: “He lived - he trembled, he died - he trembled.”
In the gallery of images of Saltykov-Shchedrin there is an intellectual dreamer (“Crucian the idealist”), and an autocrat playing the role of a philanthropist (“Eagle the Patron”), and worthless generals, and a submissive “selfless hare” hoping for the mercy of “predators” ( here is another side of slave psychology!), and many others, reflecting the historical era, with its social evil and democratic ideas.
In fairy tales, Shchedrin proved himself to be a brilliant artist. He showed himself to be a master of Aesopian language, with the help of which he was able to convey to the reader a sharp political thought and convey social generalizations in allegorical form.
Thus, starting from the fantasy of a folk tale, Shchedrin organically combines with a realistic depiction of reality. Extreme exaggeration in the description of characters and situations allows the satirist to focus attention on the dangerous aspects of the life of Russian society.
The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin had a great influence on the further development of Russian literature and especially the genre of satire.