What is the difference between folk art and author's art? What is the difference between a folk tale and a literary one: originality and examples

12.04.2019

The concept of folklore.
The difference between oral folk art and fiction.
U.N.T. and its role in the system of education and training.

Folklore is a special historically established area of ​​folk culture.
The word "folklore", which often denotes the concept of "oral" folk art", came from the combination of two English words: folk - “people” and lore - “wisdom”.
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 a form of art. Ancient folk art syncretism was inherent, i.e. indivisibility different types 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. Lyrical genres include love songs, wedding songs, lullabies, and funeral laments. Dramatic ones include folk dramas (with Petrushka, for example). The initial dramatic performances in Rus' were ritual games: seeing off Winter and welcoming Spring, elaborate wedding rituals, etc. At the same time, 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.
A significant difference between folklore works and literary works is that they do not have a constant, once and for all established form. Storytellers and singers have honed their mastery of performing works for centuries.
Folklore is characterized by natural folk speech, amazing with wealth expressive means, melodiousness. For folklore work Well-developed laws of composition with stable forms of beginning, plot development, and ending are typical. His style tends toward hyperbole, parallelism, and constant epithets. Its internal organization has such a clear, stable character that even changing over the centuries, it retains its ancient roots.
Any piece of folklore is functional - it was closely connected with one or another circle of rituals, and was performed in a strictly defined situation.
The entire set of rules was reflected in oral folk art 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 are close and understandable to children, have a clearly expressed pedagogical orientation and are distinguished by artistic perfection. Thanks to folklore, a child can more easily enter into the world, feels the charm 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.

The concept of children's folklore

Genres of U.N.T. works 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 “to nurture” - “to nurse, raise, educate”) 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 physical and emotional development the child, help him move, and create a special mood. For example, stretches:
Stretch, stretch,
Hurry, wake up quickly.
Lullabies are 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 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.
And-ta-ta, and-ta-ta,
A cat married a cat,
For the cat Kotovich,
For Ivan Petrovich.

A boring fairy tale is a fairy tale in which the same piece of text is repeated many times.
Boring tales are 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 - shouldn’t 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 are small rhyming sentences that aim not only to amuse children, but also to involve them in the game.
Among the jokes we must also include inverted fables - special kind songs and rhymes that came to children's folklore from buffoonery, fair folklore and causing laughter by being deliberately displaced, the real connections of objects and phenomena are disrupted.
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 are folk 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 that reflect relationships between children and child psychology. These are the so-called satirical genres: teasers and teases.

Teasers - short mocking poems that ridicule this or that quality, and sometimes simply attached to a name - are 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 the tease may not be related to the name, but to make fun of some negative traits character: cowardice, laziness, greed, arrogance.

However, for every tease there is an excuse: “Whoever calls you names is called that!”
A teaser is a type of teaser containing a question containing a sly trick. 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.
- Onion.
- A knock on the forehead!
Mirilki - in case of a quarrel, peaceful sentences were invented.
Don't fight, don't fight
Come on, make up quickly!

Game folklore

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

Tsintsy-bryntsy, balalaika,
Tsyntsy-bryntsy, start playing.
Tsyntsy-bryntsy, I don’t want to
Tsyntsy-bryntsy, I want to sleep.
Tsintsy-Brintsy, where are you going?
Tsintsy-Bryntsy, to the town.
Tsintsy-Brintsy, what will you buy?
Tsyntsy-bryntsy, hammer!
The month has emerged from the fog,
He took the knife out of his pocket,
I will cut, I will beat,
You still have to drive.
Game songs, choruses, sentences - rhymes that accompany children's games, commenting on their stages and the distribution of roles of the 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 poems are poems 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 play: these works are a unique way of communicating with the outside world, with nature.
Calls are short rhymed sentences, appeals in poetic form to various natural phenomena, having an incantatory meaning and rooted in the ancient ritual folklore of adults. Each such call contains a specific request; this 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 are poetic appeals to animals, birds, plants, which have an incantatory meaning and are rooted in the ancient ritual folklore of adults.
Ladybug,
Fly to the sky
Your kids are there
Eating cutlets
But they don’t give it to dogs,
They just get it themselves.
Horror stories are oral horror stories.
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 motives: " black hand", "bloody stain", "green eyes", "coffin on wheels", etc. Such a story consists of several sentences, as the action develops, the tension increases, and in the final phrase it reaches its peak.
"Red Spot"
One family received 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.

There is a close connection between folklore and literature, due to the specifics of verbal creativity, which reflects a person’s ideas about the world around him and the patterns of development public consciousness. However, in folklore and literary works there are fundamental differences that determine their characteristic features and features.

Folklore in a broad sense - it is historically formed, absorbed folk traditions collective co-authorship, conveying in oral or playful form a poetic generalization of the experience of many generations. Folklore genres include ritual, song and epic. Epic genres include fairy tales, legends, epics, legends, tales, as well as small forms of oral folk art - proverbs, sayings, riddles and anecdotes. The word “folklore” is often used in a narrower meaning - to define the content and method of creating verbal artistic images characteristic of these genres.

Origin literature as an art form in many cultures is associated with the development folk epic. It served as the basis for chronicles and biographies of saints; storytelling principle borrowed from folklore tales, was used in constructing the plots of adventure and picaresque novels - the prototype of many genres modern prose; The figurative structure and rhythmic organization of epics, historical, and ritual songs are reflected in the author's poetry.

However, literary works did not obey folklore canons, had a more complex composition, a freely developing plot and could only exist in writing, since each of them was original essay created by one person.

Since the Renaissance, characteristic feature fiction becomes the author's style, and the object of the image is the inner world of the hero, in which the reader finds moral priorities and features of the era characteristic of a particular historical period in the development of society.

Modern literary process- a complex, diverse cultural phenomenon, manifested in the diversity of already established and just emerging forms of verbal creativity.

Unlike literature, folklore retains stable forms and a sedentary compositional structure of the text. The hero’s inner world is closed: only an event or action matters, in which it is not character traits that are manifested, but generally accepted principles of behavior, accepted as the basis of an order that establishes a balance between good and evil.

Conclusions website

  1. Folklore is a special form of oral folk art, which in verbal images conveys generalized ideas about the structure of the world and the human community. Literature as an art form is realized in written form and reflects the inner world of a person in the system public relations that developed in a specific historical period.
  2. Folklore works are the result of a collective creative process, in which it is impossible to establish authorship. Literature unites works whose authorship is reliably known.
  3. Folklore genres are subject to stable rules for constructing plots, creating a figurative structure and choosing means artistic expression. In literary works, the principles of plot construction and image creation are determined by the author.

Immense oral folk art. It has been created for centuries, there are many varieties of it. Translated from in English"folklore" is " national significance, wisdom." That is, oral folk art - everything that is created by the spiritual culture of the population over the centuries historical life his.

Features of Russian folklore

If you carefully read the works of Russian folklore, you will notice that it actually reflects a lot: the play of the imagination of the people, the history of the country, laughter, and serious thoughts about human life. Listening to the songs and tales of their ancestors, people thought about many difficult issues of their family, social and work life, thought about how to fight for happiness, improve their lives, what a person should be, what should be ridiculed and condemned.

Varieties of folklore

Varieties of folklore include fairy tales, epics, songs, proverbs, riddles, calendar refrains, magnification, sayings - everything that was repeated passed from generation to generation. At the same time, the performers often introduced something of their own into the text they liked, changing individual details, images, expressions, imperceptibly improving and honing the work.

Oral folk art for the most part exists in a poetic (verse) form, since it was this that made it possible to memorize and pass on these works from mouth to mouth for centuries.

Songs

A song is a special verbal and musical genre. It is a small lyrical-narrative or lyrical work, which was created specifically for singing. Their types are as follows: lyrical, dance, ritual, historical. Expressed in folk songs the feelings of one person, but at the same time of many people. They reflected love experiences, events of social and family life, reflections on difficult fate. In folk songs, the so-called technique of parallelism is often used, when the mood of a given lyrical character is transferred to nature.

Historical songs are dedicated to various famous personalities and events: the conquest of Siberia by Ermak, the uprising of Stepan Razin, the peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev, the battle of Poltava with the Swedes, etc. The narration in historical folk songs about some events is combined with the emotional sound of these works.

Epics

The term "epic" was introduced by I.P. Sakharov in the 19th century. It represents oral folk art in the form of a song, heroic, epic character. The epic arose in the 9th century; it was an expression of the historical consciousness of the people of our country. Bogatyrs are the main characters of this type of folklore. They embody the people's ideal of courage, strength, and patriotism. Examples of heroes who were depicted in works of oral folk art: Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, Mikula Selyaninovich, Alyosha Popovich, as well as the merchant Sadko, the giant Svyatogor, Vasily Buslaev and others. Life basis, at the same time enriched with some fantastic fiction, constitutes the plot of these works. In them, heroes single-handedly defeat entire hordes of enemies, fight monsters, and instantly overcome vast distances. This oral folk art is very interesting.

Fairy tales

Epics must be distinguished from fairy tales. These works of oral folk art are based on invented events. Fairy tales can be magical (in which fantastic forces are involved), as well as everyday ones, where people are depicted - soldiers, peasants, kings, workers, princesses and princes - in everyday settings. This type of folklore differs from other works in its optimistic plot: in it, good always triumphs over evil, and the latter either suffers defeat or is ridiculed.

Legends

We continue to describe the genres of oral folk art. A legend, unlike a fairy tale, is a folk oral story. Its basis is an incredible event, a fantastic image, a miracle, which is perceived by the listener or storyteller as reliable. There are legends about the origin of peoples, countries, seas, about the sufferings and exploits of fictional or real-life heroes.

Puzzles

Oral folk art is represented by many riddles. They are an allegorical image of a certain object, usually based on a metaphorical rapprochement with it. The riddles are very small in volume and have a certain rhythmic structure, often emphasized by the presence of rhyme. They are created in order to develop intelligence and ingenuity. The riddles are varied in content and theme. There may be several versions of them about the same phenomenon, animal, object, each of which characterizes it from a certain aspect.

Proverbs and sayings

Genres of oral folk art also include sayings and proverbs. A proverb is a rhythmically organized, short, figurative saying, an aphoristic folk saying. It usually has a two-part structure, which is supported by rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance.

A proverb is a figurative expression that evaluates some phenomenon of life. It, unlike a proverb, is not a whole sentence, but only a part of a statement included in oral folk art.

Proverbs, sayings and riddles are included in the so-called small genres of folklore. What is it? In addition to the above types, these include other oral folk art. The types of small genres are complemented by the following: lullabies, nurseries, nursery rhymes, jokes, game choruses, chants, sentences, riddles. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Lullabies

Small genres of oral folk art include lullabies. People call them bikes. This name comes from the verb "bait" ("bayat") - "to speak." This word has the following ancient meaning: "to speak, to whisper." It is no coincidence that lullabies received this name: the oldest of them are directly related to spell poetry. Struggling with sleep, for example, the peasants said: “Dreamushka, get away from me.”

Pestushki and nursery rhymes

Russian oral folk art is also represented by pestushki and nursery rhymes. At their center is the image of a growing child. The name “pestushki” comes from the word “to nurture”, that is, “to follow someone, raise, nurse, carry in one’s arms, educate.” They are short sentences with which in the first months of a baby’s life they comment on his movements.

Imperceptibly, the pestles turn into nursery rhymes - songs that accompany the baby's games with his toes and hands. This oral folk art is very diverse. Examples of nursery rhymes: “Magpie”, “Ladushki”. They often already contain a “lesson”, an instruction. For example, in “Soroka” the white-sided woman fed everyone porridge, except for one lazy person, although he was the smallest one (his little finger corresponds to him).

Jokes

In the first years of children's lives, nannies and mothers sang songs of more complex content to them, not related to play. All of them can be designated by the single term “jokes.” In content they resemble small tales in verse. For example, about a cockerel - a golden comb, flying to the Kulikovo field for oats; about the rowan hen, which “winnowed peas” and “sowed millet.”

A joke, as a rule, gives a picture of some bright event, or it depicts some rapid action that corresponds to the active nature of the baby. They are characterized by a plot, but the child is not capable of long-term attention, so they are limited to only one episode.

Sentences, calls

We continue to consider oral folk art. Its types are complemented by slogans and sentences. Children on the street very early learn from their peers a variety of calls, which represent an appeal to birds, rain, rainbows, and the sun. Children, on occasion, shout out words in chorus. In addition to the nicknames, in peasant family every child knew the sentences. They are most often pronounced one by one. Sentences - appeal to a mouse, small bugs, a snail. This may be imitation of various bird voices. Verbal sentences and song calls are filled with faith in the powers of water, sky, earth (sometimes beneficial, sometimes destructive). Their utterance introduced adult peasant children to the work and life. Sentences and chants are combined into a special section called “calendar children's folklore”. This term emphasizes the existing connection between them and the time of year, holiday, weather, the whole way of life and the way of life of the village.

Game sentences and refrains

Genres of oral folk art include playful sentences and refrains. They are no less ancient than calls and sentences. They either connect parts of a game or start it. They can also serve as endings and determine the consequences that exist when conditions are violated.

The games are striking in their resemblance to serious peasant activities: reaping, hunting, sowing flax. Reproducing these cases in strict sequence with the help of multiple repetitions made it possible to instill with early years the child respect for customs and the existing order, teach the rules of behavior accepted in society. The names of the games - "Bear in the Forest", "Wolf and Geese", "Kite", "Wolf and Sheep" - speak of a connection with the life and way of life of the rural population.

Conclusion

IN folk epics, fairy tales, legends, songs live no less exciting colorful images than in works of art classical authors. Original and surprisingly accurate rhymes and sounds, bizarre, beautiful poetic rhythms - like lace are woven into the texts of ditties, nursery rhymes, jokes, riddles. And what vivid poetic comparisons we can find in lyrical songs! All this could only be created by the people - Great master words.

Fairy tales are a favorite genre not only of children, but also of many adults. At first, the people were engaged in composing them, then professional writers also mastered them. In this article we will figure out what is different folk tale from literary.

Features of the genre

A fairy tale is the most common type of folk art, telling about events of an adventure, everyday or fantastic nature. The main idea of ​​this genre is to reveal the truth of life with the help of conventional poetic techniques.

At its core, a fairy tale is a simplified and abbreviated form of myths and legends, as well as a reflection of the traditions and views of peoples and nations. What is the difference between literary fairy tales and folk tales, if in this genre itself there is a direct reference to folklore?

The fact is that all literary fairy tales are based on folk art. Even if the plot of the work contradicts the folklore tradition, the structure and the main characters have a clearly visible connection with it.

Features of folk art

So, how does a folk tale differ from a literary one? First, let’s look at what is commonly called a “folk tale.” Let's start with the fact that this genre is considered one of the oldest and is recognized cultural heritage, which preserved the ideas of our ancestors about the structure of the world and about human interaction with it.

Such works reflected the moral values ​​of people of the past, manifested in a clear division of heroes into good and evil, national traits character, peculiarities of beliefs and way of life.

Folk tales are usually divided into three types depending on the plot and characters: magical, about animals and everyday.

Author's reading

To understand how a folk tale differs from a literary one, you need to understand the origins of the latter. Unlike its folk “sister,” the literary fairy tale arose not so long ago - only in the 18th century. This was due to the development educational ideas in Europe, which contributed to the beginning of the author's interpretations of folklore. Folk stories began to be collected and recorded.

The first such writers were the brothers Grimm, E. Hoffmann, C. Perrault, G.H. Andersen. They took famous folk stories, they added something to them, removed something, often added new meaning, changed the characters, and complicated the conflict.

Main differences

Now let's move on to how a folk tale differs from a literary one. Let's list the main features:

  • Let's start with the fact that an author's work always has the same unchangeable plot, while a folk story is modified and transformed throughout its existence, as the surrounding reality and people's worldview change. In addition, the literary version is usually larger in volume.
  • In the author's fairy tale, figurativeness is more clearly expressed. It has more details, details, colorful descriptions of actions and characters. The folk version very roughly describes the location of the action, the characters themselves and the events.
  • A literary fairy tale has a psychologism that is unusual in folklore. That is, the author pays a lot of attention to research inner world character, his experiences and feelings. Folk art never goes into such detail into a topic.
  • The main characters of folk tales are mask types, generalized images. The authors endow their characters with individuality, make their characters more complex, contradictory, and their actions more motivated.
  • In a literary work there is always a clearly expressed position of the author. He expresses his attitude to what is happening, evaluates events and characters, and emotionally colors what is happening.

What is the difference between a literary fairy tale and a folk tale: examples

Now let's try to put the theory into practice. For example, let's take the fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin.

So, in order to show the techniques of representation, let’s take “The Tale of dead princess" The author describes the furnishings and decoration in very detailed and colorful detail: “in a bright room... benches covered with a carpet,” a stove “with a tiled bench.”

The psychologism of the heroes is perfectly demonstrated by “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”; Pushkin pays great attention to the feelings of his hero: “he began to beat zealously... he burst into tears... his spirit was occupied.”

If you still don’t quite understand how a literary fairy tale differs from a folk fairy tale, then consider another example related to the individual character of the hero. Let us recall the works of Ershov, Pushkin, Odoevsky. Their characters are not masks, they are living people with their own passions and characters. Thus, Pushkin even endows the little devil with expressive features: “he came running... panting, all wet... wiping himself off.”

Concerning emotional coloring, then, for example, “The Tale of Balda” is jokey and mocking; “The Tale of the Golden Fish” is ironic and a little sad; “The Tale of the Dead Princess” is sad, sad and tender.

Conclusion

Summing up how Russian folk tales differ from literary ones, we note one more feature that generalizes all the others. An author's work always reflects the writer's worldview, his view of the world and his attitude towards it. This opinion may partially coincide with popular opinion, but will never be identical to it. Behind literary fairy tale The author's personality always comes through.

In addition, recorded tales are always tied to a specific time and place. For example, the plots of folk tales often travel and are found in different places, so it is almost impossible to date their origin. And the time of writing a literary work is easy to determine, despite the stylization of folklore.

a set of texts of Russian folk culture, transmitted mainly orally, having the status of authorless, anonymous and not belonging to certain individual performers, although the names of some outstanding master performers are known: the narrator of epics T. G. Ryabinin, the screamer I. A. Fedosova, the storyteller A. K. Baryshnikova, singer A.I. Glinkina. These texts are sung or narrated and have a more or less large form (historical song or proverb), are associated with rituals (calendar songs-spells, lamentations) or, on the contrary, are completely independent of them ( ditties, epics). The most important qualities of works of Russian folklore are determined by the cultural memory of the ethnic group, the given ideological and religious traditions and everyday pragmatism social structures, in which they exist. The concept of “Russian folklore” is associated with the idea of ​​traditionalism, although the quantitative accumulation of gradual changes leads to the emergence of new phenomena. The folklore tradition has both all-Russian features and local, regional ones, introducing into the general folklore fund an abundance of variants and features of the existence of each individual work, custom, ritual, etc. In the process of historical development, a gradual and natural dying of traditional folklore is observed. The most ancient forms of Russian folklore are rituals and ritual folklore, which include calendar holidays and rituals, ritual songs (carols, Maslenitsa, Trinity-Semitic, Kupala, stubble, etc.) and spell songs (sub-bowl songs, vesnyanka, Yegoryevsk songs, round dances etc.), incantations, lamentations, poetry of funeral and wedding rites. As the Russian state is being formed, the genre repertoire of Russian folklore is expanding significantly.

FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE:

THE ORAL AND WRITTEN WORD

Despite disagreements among folklorists about what to call folk poetry, everyone will probably agree that it has such defining features as collectivity, traditionality and the oral nature of the works. Moreover, each of the components may be present in other types of creativity, but in folklore they are necessarily in an indissoluble unity.

The collectivity of folk art is, first of all, a community of generations, which manifests itself at a variety of levels: the community of generations of a family, a village, a region, a nationality, humanity (let us remember in connection with the latter the world’s wandering stories). In other words: collectivity is inseparable from the tradition of transmitting works from one generation to another, and this transmission must necessarily be carried out orally.

Without detracting from the importance of tradition and collectivity in defining folk art, we intend to devote the article specifically to the oral factor of works of verbal folklore and, in this regard, look at the history of the relationship between Russian folklore and Russian literature.

When poetic folklore is called the art of words, it must be added that this word must necessarily be oral. It is very important. This is its fundamental difference from literature - the art of the written word.

The spoken word has its own special artistic possibilities: facial expressions, gesture, timbre of voice, intonation and other means that literature cannot use (or uses limitedly). The transmission of the spoken word into writing will always remain a surrogate. Any written recording of a fairy tale or song is in the nature of an imitation, which, for all its usefulness (even necessity), cannot replace the original, just as a photograph cannot replace a living object. The life of any piece of folklore takes place in many oral versions, similar in their core, but at the same time different from each other. Folklore is unthinkable without improvisation. This is the beauty of the art of spoken word: each text is unique and unrepeatable in its own way. Every time a miracle of art takes place directly before our eyes, in our presence.

16 Slavic traditional culture

At one time, voices were heard that folklore would inevitably perish, that it would be supplanted by literature. The “logic” was as follows: folklore is the art of the illiterate population, primarily rural, its oral character is determined mainly by the lack of education. If a storyteller graduates from school and learns to write, he will cease to be a storyteller and turn into a writer. The author of these lines fifty years ago himself defended such an incorrect position; incorrect for many reasons. Folklore was recognized only among the illiterate classes; the fact that fairy tales, anecdotes, gossip and rumors, songs, proverbs and sayings existed among the nobility and intellectuals was not taken into account. But most importantly, it was ignored that folklore has its own special artistic field, inaccessible to literature, to which it can only approach. There have always been masters of the spoken word, “beautiful storytellers,” whose art was not recorded in their time. This is how D.I. admitted to everyone. Fonvizin, who had the gift of “showing people”, as I.L. did in our time. Andronikov, how Ariadna Efron, daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva, entertained her cellmates. Oral histories M.S. Shchepkin admired A.S. Pushkin. An interesting narrator was N.K. Zagryazhskaya, from her Pushkin and P.A. Vyazemsky recorded many legends of the 18th century. There are memories of M. Gorky as a talented storyteller who loved to tell and listen to others.

But the art of the spoken word is not necessarily folklore. It becomes one only when both components meet - the oral word and tradition, that is, when the transmission of oral material has a traditional basis and is combined with the transmission of certain traditions.

The oral tradition arose and began to develop when there was no written language yet and therefore there could be no comparison with literature or opposition to it.

With the Baptism of Rus', literature began to develop, and already in the 12th century such a wonderful monument as “The Tale of Bygone Years” appeared, where the oral tradition of legends, traditions and even anecdotes was widely used. When the majority of society was illiterate, the social divide did not pass, as in later times, along the opposition: oral literature for the common people - writing for the upper classes. Social predilections could manifest themselves both in literature and folklore. An example is the various legends about Kiya the Prince and Kiya the Carrier. Probably, the legend of Kiev the Carrier in ancient times had a certain sacred character, which was lost by the 11th century. Then the legend about Prince Kiya appeared. Both are recorded in the Tale of Bygone Years, but at that time the legend of Kiya the carrier was already perceived as the legend of Kiya the commoner. In ancient Russian literature one can find works identical in ideological content to the oral tradition: the Life of Peter and Fevronya, democratic satire, etc.

The literary language at that time was the Church Slavonic language of the Great Russian edition. Oral spoken language could not be the object of writing. Modern philologist B.A. Uspensky calls this situation “Church Slavic-Russian diglossia,” in which there is a bookish language system associated with the written tradition and a non-bookish system associated with everyday life. Under these conditions, according to the scientist, no one uses the bookish language system as a means of conversational communication" (B.A. Uspensky. Brief outline of the history of the Russian literary language (XI-XIX centuries) M., 1994, p. 5) The division of literature and folklore then proceeded according to genres: some belonged to the written word (church official texts, lives, chronicles, stories, etc.), while others belonged to the oral word (fairy tales, songs, proverbs, sayings). proverbs and sayings in handwritten monuments, although collections of them already exist in the 17th century. If they appear in the chronicles, then only as a foreign quotation, and not in the language of the author (“Pogibosha, aki obre,” “Trouble, aki in Rodna,” etc. .d.).

While the majority of society remained illiterate, only the elements were open to them colloquial speech, which everyone knew, and with it songs and fairy tales - oral traditional poetry. Elizaveta Petrovna, still Grand Duchess When she was threatened with a monastery, in the evening on the porch of her palace she sang a song: “Oh, my life, my poor life.” A soldier standing nearby on guard heard this and told his neighbor in the barracks. But he was not surprised: “What’s strange here, the woman sings like a woman.” Then there was no social opposition: “folklore - non-folklore,” but there was: “ women's songs- men's songs." The fact that the future empress sang songs known to a simple peasant woman is a characteristic feature of the time.

When in the 18th century When a noble intelligentsia began to be created, at first it tried to fence itself off from folklore, which was well known to it from the stories of serf uncles and nannies, seeing in it only ignorance. Now in most cases they remember how Fonvizin masterfully mastered the elements of colloquial speech, knew proverbs and sayings. But who speaks in his comedies with proverbs and sayings? - Skotinin and Prostakovs! The playwright uses folk aphorisms in his language negative heroes as a sign of rudeness and ignorance. Mitrofan and Skotinin listen to the “stories” (fairy tales) of the bird-keeper Agafya. According to the tradition of the 19th century. one should be touched and talk about the closeness of Skotinin and Mitrofan to folk poetry. But for Fonvizin it’s different. For him, this is a sign of darkness and lack of culture, shameful for a nobleman.

V.F. Odoevsky has such an episode in the fairy tale “Town in a Snuff Box”. The bell boy explains: “This is our saying.” And the main character Misha objects: “Daddy says that it’s very bad to get used to sayings.” In the noble culture, the first half of the 19th century V. the proverb and saying bore the stamp of some taboo.

A new attitude towards oral poetry as “folk wisdom” arose at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries. in the works of A.N. Radishchev, N.M. Karamzin and, finally, A.S. Pushkin. It is in his works that the “oral” is most clearly marked as “folk”. By this time, “scissors” had already arisen between the people and the intelligentsia, highly educated people appeared who knew little oral creativity. Very soon they saw in this “the lack of their damned education” (A.S. Pushkin - L.S. Pushkin, November, 1824). It was then that the view of oral tradition as folk arose. It was at this time that literature and folklore became socially divided. The citation of folklore begins with the works of Pushkin as a sign of connection (or the desire for such a connection) with the people, and precisely with common people, understanding oral tradition as a special “folk wisdom”. Let us remember the images of Pugachev, Savelich, Varlaam with their songs, sayings and jokes.

Approximately with A.P. Chekhov, the situation changes radically. We are all people, and all the best that we have comes from the people,” he wrote. The division between folklore and literature is losing its social basis. Chekhov uses proverbs and sayings absolutely freely, without dividing the addressees of his letters into those for whom it is possible and those to whom it is indecent to use folk aphorisms in letters (in Pushkin this division is very clearly visible).

And A.A. Blok uses folklore images as personal, and not opposed to his speech practice (“My beloved, my prince, my groom...”).

In the works of poets of the twentieth century. images of traditional oral poetry often appear in the author's speech. At the same time, they are attracted not by social nature, but by artistic expressiveness.

B. Pasternak: ...where Makar didn’t send his calves...

A. Tvardovsky: When serious reasons

The chest has matured for speech,

The usual complaint begins,

If there are no words, don’t get me started.

Everything is words - for every essence,

Everything that leads to battle and labor,

But repeated in vain

They lose weight like flies die.

Poets use the term of folk poetics “beginning” and proverbs about Makar and dying flies as images known to everyone. These images are the public domain, and therefore the property of the poets. And poets treat them as their own property, allowing themselves to use them in their own way, in a slightly modified, but recognizable form (“didn’t drive” - instead of “didn’t drive”).

Today, folklore, like literature, serves the entire society; we can talk about nationwide oral creativity. The class division was replaced by a division into social groups: tourist folklore, student folklore, miners' folklore, prison folklore, etc.

There is a constant mutual influence of folklore and literature, but it is no longer of the same nature as it was in the 19th century. This is the mutual influence of two related arts words - oral and written, in both cases the art of figurative words.

Folklore as an art of the spoken word will live as long as oral speech will live. In this sense it is eternal. Genres change. The epics are gone, the “long” songs are gone; ditties, non-fairy tale prose, adaptations of literary songs, anecdotes, proverbs, sayings are actively alive.

In ancient times, the oral tradition contained the entire sum of human experience, it was comprehensive - this includes religion, science, meteorology, medicine, agronomy, ethics, and aesthetics. That is why the epic works of the distant past are so majestic. The division of labor also affected oral tradition. Science, theology, jurisprudence and other areas of knowledge emerged as independent activities. All that remains to modern folklore is the art of the spoken word. Therefore, neither epics nor the Iliad are possible today - their time has passed. But a ditty, a proverb, a saying carry a great poetic charge, which is necessary in our difficult life today.

One should be very attentive and attentive to the passing folklore careful attitude. You can’t help but admire him, you can’t help but love him. It can (and should) be heard from the stage, on radio and television - but still it will not replace modern folklore. And modern folklore is being created today: on the basis of tradition or on the basis of breaking tradition - descendants will figure it out. Our duty to them is to protect and preserve, record and record everything. Experience has shown that posterity can overestimate our records and what seems valuable today will not be of interest to anyone tomorrow. And vice versa.