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 them character traits 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. TO epic genres include fairy tales, traditions, 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, an arbitrarily developing plot and could only exist in written form, since each of them was an original composition created by one person.

Since the Renaissance, a characteristic feature fiction The author’s style becomes, and the object of the image is the hero’s inner world, in which the reader finds the moral priorities and features of the era characteristic of a specific 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 inactive compositional structure 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.

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, 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 ethnos, 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, as well as local and regional ones, bringing into the general folklore fund an abundance of options and features of the existence of each separate work, custom, ritual, etc. In the process of historical development, there is a gradual and natural dying of traditional folklore. The most ancient forms of Russian folklore - 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, vesnyankas, Yegoryev 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 diminishing 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. The oral stories of M.S. Shchepkin delighted 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, there was no social divide as in more late time, according to 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.” At that time 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 ordinary peasant women 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 the language of his negative characters 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 had little knowledge of oral literature. 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 of speech - 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.

The word "folklore", which often denotes the concept of "oral folk art", comes 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... They came to us from the depths of centuries and myths 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 was characterized by syncretism, i.e. indistinction between different types of creativity. In a folk song, not only words and melody could not be separated, but also the song could not be separated from the dance or ritual. The mythological background of folklore explains why oral works did not have a first author. With the advent of “author’s” folklore, we can talk about modern history. The formation of plots, images, and motifs occurred gradually and, over time, were enriched and improved by the performers.

The outstanding Russian philologist Academician A. N. Veselovsky, in his fundamental work “Historical Poetics,” argues that the origins of poetry lie in folk ritual. Initially, poetry was a song performed by a choir and invariably accompanied by music and dancing. Thus, the researcher believed, poetry arose in the primitive, ancient syncretism of the arts. The words of these songs were improvised in each specific case until they became traditional and acquired a more or less stable character. In primitive syncretism, Veselovsky saw not only a combination of types of art, but also a combination of types of poetry. “Epic and lyric poetry,” he wrote, “seemed to us to be the consequences of the decay of the ancient ritual choir” 1.

1 Veselovsky A. N. Three chapters from “Historical Poetics” // Veselovsky A.N. Historical poetics. - M., 1989. - P. 230.

It should be noted that these conclusions of the scientist in our time represent the only consistent theory of the origin of verbal art. “Historical Poetics” by A. N. Veselovsky is still the largest generalization of the gigantic material accumulated by folklore and ethnography.

Like literature, folklore works are divided into epic, lyrical and dramatic. Epic genres include epics, legends, fairy tales, and historical songs. Lyrical genres include love songs, wedding songs, lullabies, and funeral laments. Dramatic ones include folk dramas (with Petrushka, for example). The original dramatic performances in Russia were ritual games: seeing off Winter and welcoming Spring, elaborate wedding rituals, etc. One should also remember about small genres of folklore - ditties, sayings, etc.

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 permanent, once and for all established form. Storytellers and singers have honed their mastery of performing works for centuries. Let us note that today children, unfortunately, usually get acquainted with works of oral folk art through a book and much less often - in live form.

Folklore is characterized by natural folk speech, striking in its richness of expressive means and melodiousness. Well-developed laws of composition with stable forms of beginning, plot development, and ending are typical for a folklore work. 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.

Oral folk art reflected the entire set of rules of folk life. The folk calendar precisely determined the order of rural work. Rituals of family life contributed to harmony in the family and included 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.

Oral folk art and folk pedagogy. Many genres of folk art are quite understandable for young children. Thanks to folklore, a child enters the world around him more easily and more fully feels the charm of his native land.

childbirth, 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.

Children's folklore. This concept fully applies to those works that are created by adults for children. In addition, this includes works composed by the children themselves, as well as those passed on to children from the oral creativity of adults. That is, the structure of children's folklore is no different from the structure of children's literature.

By studying children's folklore, you can understand a lot about the psychology of children of a particular age, as well as identify their artistic preferences and level of creative potential. Many genres are associated with games in which the life and work of elders are reproduced, therefore the moral attitudes of the people, their national traits, features of economic activity.

In the system of genres of children's folklore, “nurturing poetry” or “maternal poetry” occupies a special place. This includes lullabies, nurseries, nursery rhymes, jokes, fairy tales and songs created for the little ones. Let us first consider some of these genres, and then other types of children's folklore.

Lullabies. At the center of all “mother’s poetry” is the child. They admire him, pamper him and cherish him, decorate him and amuse him. Essentially, it is the aesthetic object of poetry. In a child’s very first impressions, folk pedagogy instills a sense of the value of one’s own personality. The baby is surrounded by a bright, almost ideal world, in which love, goodness, and universal harmony reign and conquer.

Gentle, monotonous songs are necessary for the child's transition from wakefulness to sleep. From this experience the lullaby was born. Here the innate maternal feeling and the sensitivity to the peculiarities of age, organically inherent in folk pedagogy, were reflected. Lullabies reflect in a softened playful form everything that a mother usually lives with - her joys and worries, her thoughts about the baby, dreams about his future. In her songs for the baby, the mother includes what is understandable and pleasant to him. This is “gray cat”, “red shirt”, “ a piece of pie and a glass of milk", "crane-

face "... There are usually few words and concepts in the chauduel room - you laugh those

Fundamental;! Gsholpptok;

without which primary knowledge of the surrounding world is impossible. These words also give the first skills of native speech.

The rhythm and melody of the song were obviously born from the rhythm of the rocking of the cradle. Here the mother sings over the cradle:

There is so much love and ardent desire to protect your child in this song! Simple and poetic words, rhythm, intonation - everything is aimed at an almost magical spell. Often the lullaby was a kind of spell, a conspiracy against evil forces. Echoes of both ancient myths and the Christian faith in the Guardian Angel are heard in this lullaby. But the most important thing in the lullaby for all time remains the poetically expressed care and love of the mother, her desire to protect the child and prepare for life and work:

A frequent character in the lullaby is a cat. He is mentioned along with the fantastic characters Sleep and Dream. Some researchers believe that mentions of him are inspired ancient magic. But the point is also that the cat sleeps a lot, so it is he who should bring the baby sleep.

Often mentioned in lullabies, as well as in other children's folklore genres and other animals and birds. They speak and feel like people. Endowing an animal with human qualities is called anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is a reflection of ancient pagan beliefs, according to which animals were endowed with soul and mind and therefore could enter into meaningful relationships with humans.

Folk pedagogy included in the lullaby not only kind helpers, but also evil, scary, and sometimes not even very understandable ones (for example, the ominous Buka). All of them had to be cajoled, conjured, “distracted” so that they would not harm the little one, and maybe even help him.

A lullaby has its own system of expressive means, its own vocabulary, and its own compositional structure. Short adjectives are common, complex epithets are rare, and there are many verbose words.

Baiushki bye! Save you

I cry from everything, from all sorrows, from all misfortunes: from the crowbar, from the evil man - the Adversary.

And your angel, your savior, have mercy on you, from every sight,

You will live and live, Don’t be lazy to work! Bayushki-bayu, Lyulushki-lyulyu! Sleep, sleep at night

Yes, grow by the hour, You will grow big - You will begin to walk in St. Petersburg, Wear silver and gold.

owls of stress from one syllable to another. Prepositions, pronouns, comparisons, and entire phrases are repeated. It is assumed that ancient lullabies did without rhymes at all - the “bayush” song was kept with smooth rhythm, melody, and repetitions. Perhaps the most common type of repetition in a lullaby is alliteration, i.e. repetition of identical or consonant consonants. It should also be noted that there is an abundance of endearing and diminutive suffixes - not only in words addressed directly to the child, but also in the names of everything that surrounds him.

Today we have to talk with regret about the oblivion of tradition, about the ever-increasing narrowing of the range of lullabies. This happens mainly because the inextricable unity of “mother-child” is broken. And medical science raises doubts: is motion sickness beneficial? So the lullaby disappears from the lives of babies. Meanwhile, folklore expert V.P. Anikin assessed her role very highly: “A lullaby is a kind of prelude to the musical symphony of childhood. By singing songs, the baby’s ear is taught to distinguish the tonality of words and the intonation structure of native speech, and the growing child, who has already learned to understand the meaning of some words, also masters some elements of the content of these songs.”

Pestushki, nursery rhymes, jokes. Like lullabies, these works contain elements of original folk pedagogy, the simplest lessons of behavior and relationships with the outside world. Pestushki(from the word “nurture” - educate) are associated with the earliest period of child development. The mother, having unswaddled him or freed him from clothes, strokes his body, straightens his arms and legs, saying, for example:

Sweating - stretching - stretching, Across - fat, And in the legs - walkers, And in the arms - grabbers, And in the mouth - a talker, And in the head - a mind.

Thus, pestles accompany the physical procedures necessary for the child. Their content is associated with specific physical actions. The set of poetic devices in pets is also determined by their functionality. Pestushki are laconic. “The owl is flying, the owl is flying,” they say, for example, when waving a child’s hands. “The birds flew and landed on his head,” - the child’s hands fly up to his head. And so on. There is not always a rhyme in the songs, and if there is, then most often it is a pair. Organizing the text of the pestles as poetic work is also achieved by repeated repetition of the same word: “The geese flew, the swans flew. The geese were flying, the swans were flying..." To the pestles

similar to the original humorous conspiracies, for example: “Water is off a duck’s back, and thinness is on Efim.”

Nursery rhymes - a more developed game form than pestles (although they also have enough game elements). Nursery rhymes entertain the baby and create a cheerful mood. Like pestles, they are characterized by rhythm:

Tra-ta-ta, tra-ta-ta, A cat married a cat! Kra-ka-ka, kra-ka-ka, He asked for milk! Dla-la-la, dla-la-la, The cat didn’t give it!

Sometimes nursery rhymes only entertain (like the one above), and sometimes they instruct, giving the simplest knowledge about the world. By the time the child is able to perceive meaning, and not just rhythm and musical harmony, they will bring him the first information about the multiplicity of objects, about counting. The little listener gradually extracts such knowledge from the game song. In other words, it involves a certain amount of mental stress. This is how thought processes begin in his mind.

Forty, forty, First - porridge,

White-sided, the second - mash,

Cooked porridge, gave beer to the third,

She lured guests. The fourth - wine,

There was porridge on the table, but the fifth one got nothing.

And the guests go to the yard. Shu, shu! She flew away and sat on her head.

Perceiving the initial score through such a nursery rhyme, the child is also puzzled by why the fifth one did not get anything. Maybe because he doesn't drink milk? Well, the goat butts for this - in another nursery rhyme:

Whoever doesn’t suck a pacifier, Whoever doesn’t drink milk, That’s whoops! - gore! I'll put you on the horns!

The edifying meaning of the nursery rhyme is usually emphasized by intonation and gestures. The child is also involved in them. Children of the age for whom nursery rhymes are intended cannot yet express in speech everything that they feel and perceive, so they strive for onomatopoeia, repetitions of the words of an adult, and gestures. Thanks to this, the educational and cognitive potential of nursery rhymes turns out to be very significant. In addition, in the child’s consciousness there is a movement not only towards mastering the direct meaning of the word, but also towards the perception of rhythmic and sound design.

In nursery rhymes and petushki, there is invariably a trope such as metonymy - the replacement of one word with another based on the connection of their meanings by contiguity. For example, in the famous game “Okay, okay, where have you been? - At Grandma’s”, with the help of synecdoche, the child’s attention is drawn to his own hands 1.

joke called a small funny work, statement or simply a separate expression, most often rhymed. Entertaining rhymes and joke songs also exist outside the game (unlike nursery rhymes). The joke is always dynamic, filled with energetic actions of the characters. We can say that in a joke, the basis of the figurative system is precisely movement: “He knocks, strums along the street, Foma rides on a chicken, Timoshka on a cat - along the path there.”

The age-old wisdom of folk pedagogy is manifested in its sensitivity to the stages of human maturation. The time of contemplation, almost passive listening, is passing. To replace her time goes by active behavior, the desire to intervene in life - this is where the psychological preparation of children for study and work begins. And the first cheerful assistant is a joke. It encourages the child to action, and some of its reticence, understatement causes in the child a strong desire to speculate, to fantasize, i.e. awakens thought and imagination. Often jokes are built in the form of questions and answers - in the form of a dialogue. This makes it easier for the child to perceive the switching of action from one scene to another, and to follow the rapid changes in the relationships of the characters. Others are also aimed at the possibility of quick and meaningful perception. artistic techniques in jokes - composition, imagery, repetition, rich alliteration and onomatopoeia.

Fables, inversions, nonsense. These are varieties of the joke-accurate genre. Thanks to shapeshifters, children develop a sense of the comic as an aesthetic category. This type of joke is also called “poetry of paradox.” Its pedagogical value lies in the fact that by laughing at the absurdity of a fable, the child strengthens the correct understanding of the world that he has already received.

Chukovsky dedicated a special work to this type of folklore, calling it “Silent absurdities.” He considered this genre extremely important for stimulating a child’s cognitive attitude towards the world and very well substantiated why children like absurdity so much. The child constantly has to systematize the phenomena of reality. In this systematization of chaos, as well as randomly acquired scraps and fragments of knowledge, the child reaches virtuosity, enjoying the joy of knowledge.

1 The hands that visited the grandmother are an example of synecdoche: this is a type of metonymy when a part is named instead of the whole.

nia. Hence his increased interest in games and experiments, where the process of systematization and classification is put in first place. Changeling in a playful way helps the child to establish himself in the knowledge he has already acquired, when familiar images are combined, familiar pictures are presented in funny confusion.

A similar genre exists among other nations, including the British. The name “Sculptural absurdities” given by Chukovsky corresponds to the English “Topsy-turvy rhymes” - literally: “Rhymes upside down.”

Chukovsky believed that the desire to play shifters is inherent in almost every child at a certain stage of his development. Interest in them, as a rule, does not fade even among adults - then the comic effect of “stupid absurdities” comes to the fore, not the educational one.

Researchers believe that fables-shifters moved into children's folklore from buffoon and fair folklore, in which the favorite artistic device was the oxymoron. This is a stylistic device that consists of combining logically incompatible concepts, words, phrases that are opposite in meaning, as a result of which a new semantic quality arises. In adult nonsense, oxymorons usually serve to expose and ridicule, but in children's folklore they do not ridicule or ridicule, but deliberately seriously narrate about a known improbability. The tendency of children to fantasize finds application here, revealing the closeness of the oxymoron to the child’s thinking.

In the middle of the sea the barn is burning. The ship is running across an open field. The men on the street are beating 1, They are beating - they are catching fish. A bear flies across the sky, waving its long tail!

A technique close to an oxymoron that helps a shapeshifter to be entertaining and funny is perversion, i.e. rearrangement of subject and object, as well as attribution to subjects, phenomena, objects of signs and actions that are obviously not inherent in them:

Lo and behold, the gate is barking from under the dog... Children on calves,

A village was driving past a man,

In a red sundress,

From behind the forest, from behind the mountains, Uncle Egor is riding:

Servants on ducklings...

Don, don, dili-don,

Himself on a horse, in a red hat, wife on a ram,

The cat's house is on fire! A chicken runs with a bucket, Floods the cat's house...

Stabs- fences for catching red fish.

Absurd upside-downs attract people with their comic scenes and funny depictions of life’s incongruities. Folk pedagogy found this entertainment genre necessary, and it used it widely.

Counting books. This is another small genre of children's folklore. Counting tables are funny and rhythmic rhymes, to which a leader is chosen and the game or some stage of it begins. Counting tables were born in the game and are inextricably linked with it.

Modern pedagogy assigns play an extremely important role in the formation of a person and considers it a kind of school of life. Games not only develop dexterity and intelligence, but also teach one to obey generally accepted rules: after all, any game takes place according to pre-agreed conditions. The game also establishes relationships of co-creation and voluntary submission according to game roles. The one who knows how to follow the rules accepted by everyone and does not bring chaos and confusion into a child’s life becomes authoritative here. All this is working out the rules of behavior in future adult life.

Who doesn’t remember the rhymes of his childhood: “White hare, where did he run?”, “Eniki, beniks, ate dumplings...” - etc. The very opportunity to play with words is attractive to children. This is the genre in which they are most active as creators, often introducing new elements into ready-made rhymes.

Works of this genre often use nursery rhymes, nursery rhymes, and sometimes elements of adult folklore. Perhaps it is precisely in the internal mobility of the rhymes that lies the reason for their such wide distribution and vitality. And today you can hear very old, only slightly modernized texts from children playing.

Researchers of children's folklore believe that counting in the counting rhyme comes from pre-Christian “witchcraft” - conspiracies, spells, encryption of some kind of magic numbers.

G.S. Vinogradov called the rhymes of counting rhymes gentle, playful, a true decoration of counting poetry. The counting book is often a chain of rhyming couplets. The methods of rhyming here are very diverse: paired, cross, ring. But the main organizing principle of the rhymes is rhythm. A counting rhyme often resembles the incoherent speech of an excited, offended, or amazed child, so the apparent incoherence or meaninglessness of the rhymes is psychologically explainable. Thus, the counting rhyme, both in form and content, reflects the psychological characteristics of age.

Tongue Twisters. They belong to the funny, entertaining genre. The roots of these oral works also lie in ancient times. This is a word game included in the component cha

ust into the cheerful festive entertainments of the people. Many of the tongue twisters, which meet the aesthetic needs of a child and his desire to overcome difficulties, have become entrenched in children's folklore, although they clearly came from adults.

The cap is sewn, but not in the Kolpakov style. Who would wear Pereva's cap?

Tongue twisters always include a deliberate accumulation of difficult-to-pronounce words and an abundance of alliteration (“There was a white-faced ram, and white-faced all the sheep”). This genre is indispensable as a means of developing articulation and is widely used by educators and doctors.

Tricks, teases, sentences, refrains, chants. All these are works of small genres, organic to children's folklore. They serve the development of speech, intelligence, and attention. Thanks to the poetic form of a high aesthetic level, they are easily remembered by children.

Say two hundred.

Head in dough!

(Underdress.)

Rainbow-arc, Don't give us rain, Give us the red sun around the outskirts!

(Call.)

There is a little bear, there is a bump near the ear.

(Tease.)

Zaklichki in their origin are associated with the folk calendar and pagan holidays. This also applies to sentences that are close to them in meaning and use. If the first contain an appeal to the forces of nature - the sun, wind, rainbow, then the second - to birds and animals. These magical spells passed into children's folklore due to the fact that children were early introduced to the work and cares of adults. Later calls and sentences take on the character of entertaining songs.

In the games that have survived to this day and include chants, sentences, and refrains, traces of ancient magic are clearly visible. These are games held in honor of the Sun (Kolya

dy, Yarily) and other forces of nature. The chants and choruses accompanying these games preserved the people's faith in the power of words.

But many game songs are simply cheerful, entertaining, usually with a clear dance rhythm:

Let's move on to more major works children's folklore - songs, epics, fairy tales.

Russian folk songs play a big role in the formation in children of an ear for music, a taste for poetry, a love of nature, native land. The song has been around among children since time immemorial. Children's folklore also included songs from adult folk art - usually children adapted them to their games. There are ritual songs (“And we sowed millet, sowed...”), historical (for example, about Stepan Razin and Pugachev), and lyrical. Nowadays, children more often sing not so much folklore songs as original ones. There are also songs in the modern repertoire that have long lost their authorship and are naturally drawn into the element of oral folk art. If there is a need to turn to songs created many centuries, or even millennia ago, then they can be found in folklore collections, as well as in educational books by K. D. Ushinsky.

Epics. This is the heroic epic of the people. It is of great importance in nurturing a love for native history. Epic stories always tell about the struggle between two principles - good and evil - and about the natural victory of good. The most famous epic heroes - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich - are collective images that capture the features of real people, whose lives and exploits became the basis of heroic narratives - epics (from the word “byl”) or old Epics are a grandiose creation of folk art. The artistic convention inherent in them is often expressed in fantastic fiction. The realities of antiquity are intertwined in them with mythological images and motifs. Hyperbole is one of the leading techniques in epic storytelling. It gives the characters monumentality, and their fantastic exploits - artistic credibility.

It is important that for the heroes of epics the fate of their homeland is more valuable than life, they protect those in trouble, defend justice, and are full of self-esteem. Taking into account the heroic and patriotic charge of this ancient folk epic, K.D. Ushinsky and L.N. Tolstoy included excerpts in children’s books even from those epics that generally cannot be classified as children’s reading.

Baba sowed peas -

The woman stood on her toes, And then on her heel, She began to dance Russian, And then in a squat!

Jump-jump, jump-jump! The ceiling collapsed - Jump-jump, jump-jump!

The inclusion of epics in children's books is made difficult by the fact that without an explanation of events and vocabulary, they are not entirely understandable to children. Therefore, when working with children, it is better to use literary retellings of these works, for example, I.V. Karnaukhova (collection “Russian Heroes. Epics”) and N.P. Kolpakova (collection “Epics”). For older people, the collection “Epics”, compiled by Yu. G. Kruglov, is suitable.

Fairy tales. They arose in time immemorial. The antiquity of fairy tales is evidenced, for example, by the following fact: in the unprocessed versions of the famous “Teremka”, the role of the tower was played by a mare’s head, which the Slavic folklore tradition endowed with many wonderful properties. In other words, the roots of this tale go back to Slavic paganism. At the same time, fairy tales do not at all indicate primitiveness national consciousness(otherwise they could not have existed for many hundreds of years), but about the ingenious ability of the people to create a single harmonious image of the world, connecting everything that exists in it - heaven and earth, man and nature, life and death. Apparently fairy tale genre It turned out to be so viable because it is perfect for expressing and preserving fundamental human truths, the foundations of human existence.

Telling fairy tales was a common hobby in Rus'; both children and adults loved them. Usually, the storyteller, when narrating events and characters, reacted vividly to the attitude of his audience and immediately made some amendments to his narrative. That is why fairy tales have become one of the most polished folklore genres. They best meet the needs of children, organically corresponding to child psychology. A craving for goodness and justice, a belief in miracles, a penchant for fantasy, for a magical transformation of the world around us - the child joyfully encounters all this in a fairy tale.

In a fairy tale, truth and goodness certainly triumph. A fairy tale is always on the side of the offended and oppressed, no matter what it tells. It clearly shows where a person’s correct life paths are, what his happiness and unhappiness are, what his retribution for mistakes is, and how a person differs from animals and birds. Every step of the hero leads him to his goal, to final success. You have to pay for mistakes, and having paid, the hero again gains the right to luck. This movement of fairy-tale fiction expresses an essential feature of the people's worldview - a firm belief in justice, in the fact that the good human principle will inevitably defeat everything that opposes it.

A fairy tale for children contains a special charm; some secrets of the ancient worldview are revealed. They find in the fairy tale story independently, without explanation, something very valuable for themselves, necessary for the growth of their consciousness.

The imaginary, fantastic world turns out to be a reflection real world in its main principles. A fabulous, unusual picture of life gives the child the opportunity to compare it with reality, with the environment in which he, his family, and people close to him exist. This is necessary for developing thinking, since it is stimulated by the fact that a person compares and doubts, checks and is convinced. The fairy tale does not leave the child as an indifferent observer, but makes him an active participant in what is happening, experiencing every failure and every victory with the heroes. The fairy tale accustoms him to the idea that evil must be punished in any case.

Today the need for a fairy tale seems especially great. The child is literally overwhelmed by a constantly increasing flow of information. And although the mental receptivity of children is great, it still has its limits. The child becomes overtired, becomes nervous, and it is the fairy tale that frees his consciousness from everything unimportant and unnecessary, concentrating his attention on simple actions heroes and thoughts about why everything happens this way and not otherwise.

For children, it doesn’t matter at all who the hero of the fairy tale is: a person, an animal or a tree. Another thing is important: how he behaves, what he is like - handsome and kind or ugly and evil. The fairy tale tries to teach the child to evaluate the main qualities of the hero and never resorts to psychological complication. Most often, a character embodies one quality: the fox is cunning, the bear is strong, Ivan is successful in the role of a fool, and fearless in the role of a prince. The characters in the fairy tale are contrasting, which determines the plot: brother Ivanushka did not listen to his diligent, sensible sister Alyonushka, drank water from a goat’s hoof and became a goat - he had to be rescued; the evil stepmother plots against the good stepdaughter... This is how a chain of actions and amazing fairy-tale events arises.

A fairy tale is built on the principle of a chain composition, which usually includes three repetitions. Most likely, this technique was born in the process of storytelling, when the storyteller again and again provided listeners with the opportunity to experience a vivid episode. Such an episode is usually not just repeated - each time there is an increase in tension. Sometimes repetition takes the form of dialogue; then, if children play in a fairy tale, it is easier for them to transform into its heroes. Often a fairy tale contains songs and jokes, and children remember them first.

A fairy tale has its own language - laconic, expressive, rhythmic. Thanks to language, a special fantasy world is created, in which everything is presented large, prominently, and is remembered immediately and for a long time - heroes, their relationships, surrounding characters and objects, nature. There are no halftones - there is a tone

side, bright colors. They attract a child to them, like everything colorful, devoid of monotony and everyday dullness. /

“In childhood, fantasy,” wrote V. G. Belinsky, “is the predominant ability and strength of the soul, its main figure and the first intermediary between the spirit of the child and the world of reality located outside it.” Probably, this property of the children's psyche - a craving for everything that miraculously helps to bridge the gap between the imaginary and the real - explains this undying interest of children in fairy tales for centuries. Moreover, fairy-tale fantasies are in line with the real aspirations and dreams of people. Let's remember: the flying carpet and modern airliners; a magic mirror showing distant distances, and a TV.

And yet, the fairy-tale hero attracts children most of all. Usually this is an ideal person: kind, fair, handsome, strong; he certainly achieves success, overcoming all sorts of obstacles not only with the help of wonderful assistants, but above all thanks to his personal qualities - intelligence, fortitude, dedication, ingenuity, ingenuity. Every child would like to be like this, and perfect hero fairy tales becomes the first role model.

Based on theme and style, fairy tales can be divided into several groups, but usually researchers distinguish three large groups: tales about animals, fairy tales, and everyday (satirical) tales.

Tales about animals. Young children, as a rule, are attracted to the animal world, so they really like fairy tales in which animals and birds act. In a fairy tale, animals acquire human traits - they think, speak, and act. Essentially, such images bring to the child knowledge about the world of people, not animals.

In this type of fairy tale, there is usually no clear division of characters into positive and negative. Each of them is endowed with one particular trait, an inherent character trait, which is played out in the plot. So, traditionally the main feature of a fox is cunning, therefore we're talking about usually about how she fools other animals. The wolf is greedy and stupid; in his relationship with the fox, he certainly gets into trouble. The bear does not have such an unambiguous image; the bear can be evil, but it can also be kind, but at the same time it always remains a klutz. If a person appears in such a fairy tale, then he invariably turns out to be smarter than the fox, the wolf, and the bear. Reason helps him defeat any opponent.

Animals in fairy tales observe the principle of hierarchy: everyone recognizes the strongest as the most important. It's a lion or a bear. They always find themselves at the top of the social ladder. This brings the tale closer together

ki about animals with fables, which is especially clearly visible from the presence in both of them of similar moral conclusions - social and universal. Children easily learn: the fact that a wolf is strong does not make him fair (for example, in the fairy tale about the seven kids). The sympathy of the listeners is always on the side of the just, not the strong.

Among the tales about animals, there are some quite scary ones. A bear eats an old man and an old woman because they cut off his paw. An angry beast with a wooden leg, of course, seems terrible to kids, but in essence it is the bearer of fair retribution. The narrative allows the child to figure out a difficult situation for himself.

Fairy tales. This is the most popular and most loved genre by children. Everything that happens in a fairy tale is fantastic and significant in its purpose: its hero, falling into one place or another dangerous situation, saves friends, destroys enemies - fights for life and death. The danger seems especially strong and terrible because its main opponents are not ordinary people,” but representatives of the supernatural. dark forces: Serpent Gorynych, Baba Yaga, Koshey the Immortal, etc. By winning victories over these evil spirits, the hero, as it were, confirms his high human beginning, his closeness to the bright forces of nature. In the struggle he becomes even stronger and wiser, makes new friends and receives every right fortunately - to the great satisfaction of the little listeners.

In the plot fairy tale the main episode is the beginning of the hero’s journey for the sake of one or another important task. On his long journey, he encounters treacherous opponents and magical helpers. He has very effective means at his disposal: a flying carpet, a wonderful ball or mirror, or even a talking animal or bird, a swift horse or a wolf. All of them, with some conditions or without them at all, in the blink of an eye fulfill the requests and orders of the hero. They do not have the slightest doubt about his moral right to give orders, since the task assigned to him is very important and since the hero himself is impeccable.

The dream of the participation of magical helpers in people’s lives has existed since ancient times - since the times of the deification of nature, belief in the Sun God, in the ability to summon light forces with a magic word, witchcraft and ward off dark evil. " "

Everyday (satirical) tale closest to everyday life and does not even necessarily include miracles. Approval or condemnation is always given openly, the assessment is clearly expressed: what is immoral, what is worthy of ridicule, etc. Even when it seems that the heroes are just fooling around,

They delight the listeners, their every word, every action is filled with significant meaning and is connected with important aspects of a person’s life.

Constant heroes satirical tales“ordinary” poor people speak out. However, they invariably prevail over a “difficult” person - a rich or noble person. Unlike the heroes of a fairy tale, here the poor achieve the triumph of justice without the help of miraculous helpers - only thanks to intelligence, dexterity, resourcefulness and even fortunate circumstances.

For centuries, the everyday satirical tale has absorbed the characteristic features of the life of the people and their attitude towards those in power, in particular towards judges and officials. All this, of course, was conveyed to the little listeners, who were imbued with the healthy folk humor of the storyteller. Fairy tales of this kind contain the “vitamin of laughter,” which helps the common man maintain his dignity in a world ruled by bribery officials, unrighteous judges, stingy rich people, and arrogant nobles.

Animal characters sometimes appear in everyday fairy tales, and perhaps the appearance of such abstract characters, like Truth and Falsehood, Woe and Misfortune. The main thing here is not the selection of characters, but the satirical condemnation of human vices and shortcomings.

Sometimes such a specific element of children's folklore as a shapeshifter is introduced into a fairy tale. In this case, a shift in real meaning occurs, encouraging the child to correctly arrange objects and phenomena. In a fairy tale, the shapeshifter becomes larger, grows into an episode, and already forms part of the content. Displacement and exaggeration, hyperbolization of phenomena give the child the opportunity to laugh and think.

So, a fairy tale is one of the most developed and beloved genres of folklore by children. It reproduces the world in all its integrity, complexity and beauty more fully and brightly than any other type of folk art. A fairy tale provides rich food for children's imagination, develops imagination - this most important trait of a creator in any area of ​​life. And the precise, expressive language of the fairy tale is so close to the mind and heart of a child that it is remembered for a lifetime. It is not without reason that interest in this type of folk art does not dry out. From century to century, from year to year, classic recordings of fairy tales and their literary adaptations are published and republished. Fairy tales are heard on the radio, broadcast on television, staged in theaters, and filmed.

However, it cannot be said that the Russian fairy tale has been persecuted more than once. The Church fought against pagan beliefs, and at the same time against folk tales. Thus, in the 13th century, Bishop Serapion of Vladimir forbade “telling fables,” and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich drew up a special letter in 1649 demanding

We want to put an end to “telling” and “buffoonery”. Nevertheless, already in the 12th century, fairy tales began to be included in handwritten books and included in chronicles. And from the beginning of the 18th century, fairy tales began to be published in “face pictures” - publications where heroes and events were depicted in pictures with captions. But still, this century was harsh in relation to fairy tales. There are known, for example, sharply negative reviews about the “peasant fairy tale” of the poet Antiochus Cantemir and Catherine II; largely agreeing with each other, they were guided by Western European culture. The 19th century also did not bring the folk tale recognition from protective officials. Thus, the famous collection of A. N. Afanasyev “Russian Children's Fairy Tales” (1870) aroused the claims of a vigilant censor as allegedly presenting to the children's mind “pictures of the most crude self-interested cunning, deception, theft and even cold-blooded murder without any moralizing notes.”

And it was not only censorship that struggled with the folk tale. From the middle of the same 19th century, then-famous teachers took up arms against her. The fairy tale was accused of being “anti-pedagogical”; they were assured that it retarded the mental development of children, frightened them with images of terrible things, weakened the will, developed crude instincts, etc. Essentially the same arguments were made by opponents of this type of folk art both in the last century and in Soviet times. After the October Revolution, leftist teachers also added that the fairy tale takes children away from reality and evokes sympathy for those who should not be treated - for all sorts of princes and princesses. Similar accusations were made by some authoritative public figures, for example N.K. Krupskaya. Discussions about the dangers of fairy tales stemmed from the general denial of the value of cultural heritage by revolutionary theorists.

Despite difficult fate, the fairy tale lived on, always had ardent defenders and found its way to children, connecting with literary genres.

The influence of a folk tale on a literary tale is most clearly evident in the composition, in the construction of the work. The famous folklore researcher V.Ya. Propp (1895-1970) believed that a fairy tale amazes not even with imagination, not with miracles, but with the perfection of composition. Although the author's fairy tale is freer in plot, in its construction it obeys the traditions of folk fairy tales. But if its genre features are used only formally, if their organic perception does not occur, then the author will face failure. It is obvious that mastering the laws of composition that have evolved over centuries, as well as the laconicism, specificity and wise generalizing power of a folk tale, means for a writer to reach the heights of authorship.

It was folk tales that became the basis for the famous poetic tales of Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Ershov, and fairy tales in prose

(V.F. Odoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Tolstoy, A.M. Remizov, B.V. Shergin, P.P. Bazhov, etc.), as well as dramatic tales (S.Ya. Marshak, E. L. Schwartz). Ushinsky included fairy tales in his books “Children’s World” and “Native Word”, believing that no one could compete with the pedagogical genius of the people. Later, Gorky, Chukovsky, Marshak and our other writers passionately spoke out in defense of children's folklore. They convincingly confirmed their views in this area by modern processing of ancient folk works and the composition of literary versions based on them. Beautiful collections of literary fairy tales, created on the basis or under the influence of oral folk art, are published in our time by a variety of publishing houses.

Not only fairy tales, but also legends, songs, and epics have become models for writers. Certain folklore themes and plots merged into literature. For example, the 18th century folk story about Eruslan Lazarevich was reflected in the image of the main character and some episodes of Pushkin’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Lermontov (“Cossack Lullaby Song”), Polonsky (“The Sun and the Moon”), Balmont, Bryusov and other poets have lullabies based on folk motives. Essentially, “By the Bed” by Marina Tsvetaeva, “The Tale of a Stupid Mouse” by Marshak, and “Lullaby to the River” by Tokmakova are lullabies. There are also numerous translations of folk lullabies from other languages ​​made by famous Russian poets.

Results

Oral folk art reflects the entire set of rules of folk life, including the rules of education.

The structure of children's folklore is similar to the structure of children's literature.

All genres of children's literature have been and are influenced by folklore.

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

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 questions their family, social and work life, they 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 that 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 parallelism technique 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 of a heroic, epic nature. The epic arose in the 9th century, it was an expression historical consciousness 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. The basis of life, 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 history. Its basis is an incredible event, fantastic image, a miracle that 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, aphoristic popular 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 a certain 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, pesters, 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 related to spell poetry direct relation. 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 nursery rhymes turn into nursery rhymes - songs that accompany the baby's play 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 with 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.”

In a joke, as a rule, there is a picture of some bright event, or it depicts some kind of 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 nicknames, in a peasant family any 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 chants 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 game verdicts and choruses. 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 repeated repetition made it possible to instill in the child from an early age respect for customs and the existing order, to 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

Folk epics, fairy tales, legends, and songs contain 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 have been created only by the people - the great master of words.