A fairy tale is a specific phenomenon that combines several genres. Russian fairy tales are usually divided into the following genres: about animals, magical and everyday (anecdotal and novelistic). Historically, fairy tales are a rather late phenomenon. The prerequisite for their creation in every nation was the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the decline of the mythological worldview. The most ancient are tales about animals; later, fairy tales and anecdotal tales arose, and even later, novelistic tales.
The main artistic feature of fairy tales is their plot. The plot arose thanks to the conflict, and the conflict was generated by life. The basis of a fairy tale is always the antithesis between dream and reality. In the world of fairy tales, dreams triumph. Always appears in fairy tales main character, the action unfolds around him. The victory of the hero is a mandatory setting of the plot; the fairy-tale action does not allow violation of chronology or development parallel lines, it is strictly sequential and unilinear.
Fairy-tale plots can be combined into one narrative. This phenomenon is called contamination (from the Latin contaminatio - “mixing.”
Fairy-tale plots have the usual epic development: exposition - plot - development of action - climax - denouement. Compositionally fairy tale plot consists of motives. A fairy tale usually has a main, central motive. Fairy-tale motifs are often tripled: three tasks, three trips, three meetings, etc. This creates a measured epic rhythm, a philosophical tonality, and restrains the dynamic speed of the plot action. But the main thing is that the triplications serve to reveal the idea of the plot. Elementary plots consist of only one motif (this was probably the case in ancient myths). More complex look are cumulative plots (from the Latin cumulare - “increase, accumulation”) - resulting from the accumulation of chains of variations of the same motif. When telling fairy tales, they used traditional beginnings and endings - initial and final formulas. They were used especially consistently in fairy tales. The most typical are: In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived...(beginning); They made a feast for the whole world. And I was there, I drank honey-beer, it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth.(ending). The beginning took listeners away from reality into the world of a fairy tale, and the ending brought them back, jokingly emphasizing that a fairy tale is the same fiction as that very mead beer, which didn't get into my mouth.
Tales about animals (or animal epics) are distinguished by the main feature that their main characters are animals. Structurally, the works of animal epic are varied. There are single-motive tales ("The Wolf and the Pig", "The Fox drowns the jug"), but they are rare, since the principle of repetition is very developed. First of all, it manifests itself in cumulative plots different types. Among them is a three-time repetition of the meeting (“Bast and Ice Hut”). There are known plots with a multiple line of repetition ("The Fool Wolf"), which can sometimes pretend to develop into a bad infinity ("The Crane and the Heron"). But most often, cumulative plots are presented as repeatedly (up to 7 times) increasing or decreasing repetition. The last link has the resolving capability.
For the composition of fairy tales about animals great importance has contamination. Only a small part of these tales present stable plots; for the most part, the index reflects not plots, but only motives. Motifs are connected to each other in the process of storytelling, but are almost never performed separately.
The genre form of the fairy tale was determined in folklore quite late, only after the decline of the mythological worldview. Hero of a fairy tale - a common person, morally and economically disadvantaged as a result of the historical reorganization of the way of life. The fairy-tale conflict itself is a family one; it is in it that the social nature of the fairy tale genre is revealed. Two conflicts of different historical depth - mythological and family - were united within one genre thanks to the image of the main character, who in all his modifications combines mythological and real (everyday) features.
From mythology, the fairy tale inherited two types of hero: “tall” (hero) and "low" (fool); the fairy tale itself generated the third type, which can be defined as “ideal” (Ivan Tsarevich). A hero of any type, as a rule, is the third, younger brother and goes by the name Ivan.
The most ancient type of hero is the hero, miraculously born from a totem. Endowed with enormous physical strength, it expresses the early stage of human idealization. Around the extraordinary power of the hero. The main role of the heroine of a fairy tale is to be an assistant to the groom or husband. A fairy tale is one of the largest narrative forms of classical folklore. All its plots retain the traditional uniformity of composition: your kingdom - road to another kingdom - V another kingdom - road from another kingdom - your own kingdom. According to this narrative logic, a fairy tale combines a chain of motifs into a whole (plot).
In the construction of fairy-tale plots, traditional style played a certain role: beginnings, endings, as well as internal formulas of a compositional nature.
The presence of formulas is a clear sign of the style of a fairy tale. Many formulas are of a figurative nature, associated with wonderful characters, and are their unique markings.
The fairy tale actively used poetic stylistics common to many folklore genres: similes, metaphors, words with diminutive suffixes; proverbs, sayings, jokes; various nicknames for people and animals. Formulas depicting the wonderful horse, Baba Yaga, are widely known. Some fairy-tale formulas go back to conspiracies; they retain obvious signs of magical speech (summoning a wonderful horse,
Everyday tales. Everyday fairy tales express a different view of man and the world around him. Their fiction is based not on miracles, but on reality, people's everyday life.
The events of everyday fairy tales always unfold in one space - conventionally real, but these events themselves are incredible Thanks to the improbability of the events everyday tales and are fairy tales, not just everyday stories. Their aesthetics require an unusual, unexpected, sudden development of action. In everyday fairy tales, purely fantastic characters sometimes appear, such as the devil, Woe, Share. The plot develops thanks to the hero's collision not with magical powers, but with difficult life circumstances. The hero comes out unscathed from the most hopeless situations, because a happy coincidence of events helps him. But more often he helps himself - with ingenuity, resourcefulness, even trickery. Everyday fairy tales idealize the activity, independence, intelligence, and courage of a person in his struggle in life.
The artistic sophistication of the narrative form is not characteristic of everyday fairy tales: they are characterized by brevity of presentation, colloquial vocabulary, and dialogue. Everyday fairy tales do not tend to triple the motives and generally do not have such developed plots as fairy tales. Fairy tales of this type do not know colorful epithets and poetic formulas.
Of the compositional formulas, the simplest principle is common in them Once upon a time, there were as a signal for the beginning of a fairy tale. It is archaic in origin
The artistic framing of everyday fairy tales with beginnings and endings is not mandatory; many of them begin right from the beginning and end with the final touch of the plot itself.
Anecdotal tales. Researchers call everyday anecdotal tales differently: “satirical”, “satirical-comic”, “everyday”, “social everyday”, “adventurous”. They are based on universal laughter as a means of resolving conflict and a way to destroy the enemy. The hero of this genre is a person humiliated in the family or in society: a poor peasant, a hired worker, a thief, a soldier, a simple-minded fool, an unloved husband. His opponents are a rich man, a priest, a gentleman, a judge, a devil, “smart” older brothers, and an evil wife.
No one accepts such stories as reality, otherwise they would only cause a feeling of indignation. An anecdotal tale is a cheerful farce, the logic of the development of its plot is the logic of laughter, which is the opposite of ordinary logic, eccentric. The anecdotal tale developed only in the Middle Ages. It absorbed later class contradictions: between wealth and poverty, between peasants. Fairy tales use realistic grotesque - fiction based on reality. The fairy tale uses the technique of parody, comic word creation. Anecdotal tales can have an elementary, single-motive plot. They can also be cumulative (“A complete fool”, “Good and bad”). But their especially characteristic property is their free and mobile composition, open to contamination.
Novella fairy tales. Everyday short story tales introduced a new quality into narrative folklore: interest in inner world person.
The theme of fairy tales and short stories is personal life, and the characters are people related to each other by premarital, marital or other family relationships. The heroes of short story tales are separated lovers, a slandered girl, a son expelled by his mother, an innocently persecuted wife. According to the content in this genre, the following groups of plots are distinguished: about marriage or marriage (“Signs of a Princess,” “ Unsolved mysteries"); about the testing of women ("Dispute about the wife's fidelity", "Seven Years"); about robbers ("The Robber Groom"); about the predetermination of the predicted fate ("Marko the Rich", "Truth and Falsehood"). Often the plots are " wandering", developed in different time and among many nations.
In Russian fairy tales, many novelistic plots came from folk books XVII-XVIII centuries along with extensive translated literature - chivalric novels and stories. Short story tales have a structure similar to fairy tales: they also consist of a chain of motifs of different content. However, unlike fairy tales, short stories do not depict the entire life of the hero, but only some episode from it.
IN student years, this issue was perfectly covered by one of our university teachers from the department of preschool pedagogy.
It's time to blow off the dust from my mossy notes and share with you the well-known classification of fairy tales.
A fairy tale is a magical opportunity to penetrate the soul of a child, using all the power artistic means and the imagination of a little person.
Despite their simplicity (which is one of the facets of the genius of fairy-tale art), their classification is unexpectedly extensive and multifaceted.
What kind of fairy tales are there?
There are 3 main types of fairy tales:
- Animal Tales
- Fairy tales
- Everyday tales
Let's look at them in order:
Animal Tales
Since ancient times, man has existed side by side with animals. It is not surprising that such a neighborhood is reflected in folk art.
It is noteworthy that animals as such only occasionally become participants in works. For the most part, in fairy tales about animals, “animals” are endowed with human traits.
This image makes the character understandable and attractive at the same time.
Works of this type can be roughly classified:
By the nature of the characters:
- Wild animals
- Pets
- Objects of inanimate nature (sun, wind, frost)
- Items (stove, bast shoes)
- Mixed Variations
According to the role of the person in the plot:
- Dominant
- Equal
- Minor
By genre:
- A magical tale about animals
- Cumulative tale about animals (multiple cyclical repetition of plot elements)
- Fable
- Satirical
By target audience:
- For children (for a story to children / for a story by children themselves)
- For adults
I note that the above classification is quite arbitrary and can have many variations.
Let's move on to the next type.
Fairy tale
The peculiarity of this type of fairy tale is that characters placed in some kind of fantastic, unreal world that exists according to its own laws, different from ours.
As a rule, the action in such fairy tales follows a certain pattern. It is on the basis of similarity storylines and their classification is constructed:
- Heroic tales related to the victory over a magical creature (snake, giant)
- Heroic tales involving adventures in search of a magical object.
- Archaic tales
- Tales of persecuted families with mythical elements.
- Tales of persecuted families without mythical elements.
- Tales of Fairy Spouses
- Tales of Magic Objects
- Fairy tales associated with wedding trials
Everyday tales:
The peculiarity of this type lies in the reflection of everyday everyday life, social problems, making fun of bad human qualities. Highlight:
- Satirical-everyday
- Social and household
- Novelistic
- With elements of a fairy tale
- Mixed type
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Fairy tales are different:
Told and not told...
Let's start with the fact that I will give you the most famous classifications of fairy tales.
So, There are fairy tales: folk and . Folk tales are those that do not have a specific author; the tale was passed down among the people by word of mouth and no one will say who it was originally written by. An author's tale is a fairy tale that has a specific author. For example, "Black chicken or Underground inhabitants"is copyrighted because its author is known. This is Antony Pogorelsky.
Next classification concerns not the authorship, but the content of fairy tales. According to this characteristic fairy tales are divided into:
1. Tales about animals;
2. Magical;
3. Social and everyday (satirical and everyday). 
Animal Tales
These are the very fairy tales that should be read very first (up to 5-6 years). They involve permanent characters (wolf, fox, etc.). Basically, the constant characteristics of animals are indicated (fox - cunning, bear - strong, cat - smart, hare - timid, etc.). Of these fairy tales, the most notable ones are the covulative ones - selected according to the principle of plot connection (“Turnip”, “Kolobok”, “Teremok”). Many of them have a childish language connotation (mouse-norushka, cat-little white tummy).
Fairy tales
They involve romantic heroes, in which the most best qualities person. Required for this tale: image positive hero+ helpers + . The main thing in such fairy tales is: the struggle for love, for truth, for good. They are characterized by rich language, colorful definitions, negative characters– fantastic (Baba Yaga, Leshy, Kikimora, Zmey-Gorynych). As for the structure of fairy tales, there must be a fairytale beginning (once upon a time), a middle (the morning is wiser than the evening, how long is it short) and an ending (and I was there, I drank honey and beer).
Social and everyday tales
They are showing real life, social content, ridicule of negative human qualities. High moral qualities belong not to the rich and people of high rank, but to representatives of the people (soldier, old man). It is not strength that wins, but intelligence and skills. Are given spicy negative characteristics master, priest, king and others. Such tales appeared when there was a desire to change the social system, and they expressed the democratic spirit of the people (the author). In social fairy tales, puns, humor, reversals, laughter, and satire are widely used.
In addition to all of the above, other types of fairy tales appear: personalized- about a specific person who is not invented by the author, but actually exists. Therapeutic– which help correct children’s behavior and habits (for example, stop biting nails).
It is possible that there are other types of fairy tales, but these are the only ones I know. If you know more about what kind of fairy tales there are, I ask you to add to this list in the comments.
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Types of fairy tales
It is customary to distinguish 6 main types of fairy tales, each of which has its own purpose and special therapeutic effect:
These tales contain centuries-old wisdom, which the people put into them thanks to their own bitter experience. This also includes original stories, which are essentially the same fairy tales, parables, and myths. A fictional tale has a didactic, psychotherapeutic and psychocorrectional effect. Initially, it was not created for treatment at all, but today this type of story is successfully used by a huge number of psychotherapists.
2. Folk tale.
The oldest folk tales are usually called myths. The oldest basis of fairy tales and myths is the unity of nature and man. In ancient consciousness, it was customary to revive human relationships and feelings (grief, love, suffering, etc.), to personalize them. The same approach is used today in fairy tale therapy.
Fairy tale plots:
Among the huge variety fairy tales The following scenes can be distinguished:
- Tales about animals and relationships with them.
An interesting fact is that children under 5 years of age identify themselves with animals and try to be like them in many ways, therefore, in this period of life, fairy tales about animals will be more understandable and close to them. life experience, contained in stories about animals.
- Everyday tales.
They often talk about difficulties in family life, and also offers solutions to conflicts. In this type of fairy tale, the main emphasis is on a healthy sense of humor and leadership. common sense regarding troubles and adversities. They introduce us to little family tricks that can make life better. Such tales are optimal when working not only with preschoolers, but also with teenagers.
- Tales of transformations.
We all know sad story O The ugly duckling, who eventually won his place in life and the team. These stories are great for working with those who have low self-esteem or for working with adopted children.
- Scary tales.
In these fairy tales there are various evil spirits - ghouls, witches, ghouls and others. In all nations, in the children's subculture, a special place is given to horror tales, which allow children to heal on their own. This method of self-therapy invites the child to reproduce and experience a terrible situation in a fairy tale many times, thanks to which children get rid of accumulated tension and master new ways of responding to the problem. To increase a child’s resistance to stress and relieve him of tension, it is recommended to tell horror stories to a group of children and adolescents (at least 7 years old). However, when conducting such a lesson, it is necessary to observe 2 important rules: The story should be told in a “scary” voice, and the end of the story should be very unexpected and very funny.
- Fairy tales.
These stories are ideal for children aged 6-7 years. It is a fairy tale that helps create a “concentrate” of wisdom in the subconscious and assimilate information about spiritual development personality.
To successfully combat internal experiences, it is best to choose original fairy tales. Despite the fact that they contain too many of the author’s own projections and experiences, this allows the child to penetrate deeper into the problem and find a way to solve it.
4. Didactic fairy tale.
Various educational tasks are often framed in the form of these fairy tales. For example, there is math problems, written in the form of a didactic fairy tale. Solving an example in such a task means passing a test, coping with difficulties. Solving a series of examples can lead the hero to success and finally overcome the problem.
5. Psychocorrectional tale.
Actually, this is a fairy tale that helps to correct certain patterns of behavior in children. But in order for it to lead to the expected result, it is necessary to adhere to the basic principles when creating it:
It should be based on the same problem as the child’s, but veiled, without direct resemblance to it.
In a fairy tale, it is necessary to offer the child a substitute experience, with the help of which the child can choose one or another course of action in order to solve his problem.
Fairy tales... this word makes the hearts of both children and adults flutter. The children are looking forward to their next meeting with magical world, adults - remember their childhood. Traditionally, it is believed that fairy tales should be told by a grandmother - gray-haired, wise and ancient, like the Universe itself - and kind, like Mother Earth. Or maybe my mother was reading fairy tales, opening a large book with bright pictures...
Whatever the introduction to a fairy tale, it becomes the necessary “school” that every child goes through. However, there are also completely non-childish fairy tales - remember “ Donkey skin"Ch. Perrault, after all, not every parent will decide to read to their child a fairy tale about a king who intends to marry his own daughter, and O. Wilde’s cruelly sad fairy tale “The Birthday of the Infanta” is too difficult for children.
Chronologically, tales about animals can be considered the most ancient. They go back to the era of totemism, when a person considered himself a descendant of an animal - and this allowed him to be on an equal footing with those whom we now call “our smaller brothers.” common feature Such tales are animals acting like people. A typical example is a fairy tale about a fox and a hare who built themselves a hut - an ice hut and a bast hut...
Animals in such tales correspond to certain human types: the fox is cunning, the wolf is angry and aggressive, but not very smart, the bear is also not very smart, but is kind, the hare is peaceful and defenseless... It is interesting that these types are international. Discover J. W. Goethe's poem "Reinicke the Fox", based on the medieval "Roman of the Fox", which in turn goes back to folk tales about animals - and you will see all the same “animal-human types” that are familiar to us from Russian fairy tales.
A special category of fairy tales about animals are those in which humans are present. The relationship between humans and animals can be different. So, in famous fairy tale“Tops and Roots” - man triumphs over the bear - apparently, this plot was born already when man realized himself as an intelligent, thinking being, capable of dominating nature to a certain extent.
Another category is fairy tales. When talking about “fairy tales in general,” most often they mean them. Here there is everything that goes beyond everyday reality: “a certain kingdom, a certain state” (from the point of view ancient man- the other world), wizards, fairies, people turning into animals, objects with miraculous powers, spells, otherworldly creatures like Western elves or our Baba Yaga... Often the basis of such plots is the motive of initiation - a rite of passage: the hero must go through a series of tests to marry a princess, receive half a kingdom, etc. - in a word, to be reborn in a new quality. That is why the motif of “difficult tasks” is typical for fairy initiation tales: build a palace in one night, etc.
And finally - everyday tales. There is nothing miraculous in them - in such stories we meet ordinary people, however, more interesting, smarter or remarkable in some other way. These include, for example, tales about an experienced soldier (the most famous is “Porridge from an Ax”). These fairy tales are very young - they were born after the era of Peter the Great... and in general, everyday fairy tales can be considered the youngest. Perhaps they began to be composed already when man’s worldview became less “mystical”?
Of course, such a division is somewhat arbitrary - say, in fairy tales there may well be humanized animals (such as Gray Wolf, helping Ivan Tsarevich). And yet, this classification to a certain extent reflects the path traveled by humanity.
