What does folklore mean? Folklore - what is it? Main characteristics

Folklore is a kind of reflection of the people's consciousness. And this distinguishes it from other forms of linguistic art, including literature, in which folk wisdom expressed by the lonely personality of the author. A literary work can also reflect a purely personal perception of the environment, while folklore combines a collective, public vision. Modern literary criticism increasingly refers to the phenomenon of mass literature and the peculiarities of its functioning within Russia. Authors of the 21st century in Lately tend to actively interpret the prey of traditional culture. The growth in the popularity of popular literature is ensured by the use by writers of the reader's ability to reproduce on a subconscious level the images and plots already known to him, presented in the work. Very often such a "base" is folklore.

folklore motifs

Folklore motifs sooner or later are used by all writers, both mass and elite literature, the difference lies in their function at that level. In mass literature, folklore is primarily a “factor of education national literature”, that is, a guarantor of the correlation of the text with generally accepted standards of literature that the reader is ready to consume. Under such circumstances, literary scholars are trying to determine: what is folklore in literature, how do folklore motifs interact with works of mass literature and what are the features of their influence on the author's text, as well as the transformations that folklore text experiences as it is included in the plane of modern literary work and change it traditional meanings. Researchers set limits for entry folklore text into a literary text and the transformations of universal folklore archetypes are traced. One of the main tasks will be to find out what folklore is in literature, to explore their mutual influence and connections in works of popular literature.

traditional folklore

The main task of the authors of mass literature when writing a work is to interest the reader. To do this, first of all, they strive for a masterful depiction of intrigue. Zofia Mitosek writes in the article "The End of Mimesis" that "the construction of intrigue is a game of tradition and innovation." And if by the concept of traditions we mean “transmission from one generation to another traditional forms activities and communication, as well as the customs, rules, ideas, values accompanying them, ”for the reader, folklore is a worthy representative of the tradition in literature. IN modern society it is necessary to instill in the younger generation the need to study traditional folklore.

School curriculum: literature (grade 5) - genres of folklore

The fifth grade is an important phase in the development of the language education of schoolchildren. Referring to works using folklore materials due to the need for self-affirmation, the significant susceptibility of fifth grade students to folk art, the correspondence of folklore as a spoken word to the active speech of a child who is at the stage of constant development. Such education in high school gives the student a lesson in literature.

Genres of folklore to be studied in modern school:

Ballads and lyric songs

Ballads.
Family songs.
Public songs.
Shooting and rebel songs.
Chastushki.
Songs of literary origin.

Fabulous and non-fairytale historical prose

Folklore is a "genetic" element of the worldview

Artistic action in the plot of works of literature is most often simple and understandable, designed to respond ordinary consciousness reader. Folklore is a "genetic" element of the worldview and, as a rule, is laid in the mind with the first songs, fairy tales, riddles from childhood. So, at school, the peculiarities of folklore works give the student a lesson in literature (grade 5). Folklore makes the world clearer, tries to explain the unknown. Therefore, when the functions of folklore and literature interact, a powerful resource is created to influence the consciousness of the recipient, in which the text is able to mythologize human consciousness and even cause a transformation of the rational sphere of human thinking. The answer to the question “what is folklore in literature” is determined by the whole direction of the integral creative understanding and use. In works of folklore, the ideas of creativity are often revealed on the verge of intersection with literature. Perhaps this is also influenced by the original ritual folklore. Literature (grade 5) in the modern school is increasingly returning to the current topic of the spiritual and cultural revival, to the fundamental principle of the existence of our people, one of the main carriers of information about which is folklore.

Tradition of Analysis

In our time, there is already a certain tradition of analyzing what folklore is in literature, according to which equating creativity with standards mass culture considered inappropriate: despite the label of "mass" novels, they have their own style, creative manner and, most importantly, the theme of the works. They "regenerated" from the depths of the soul eternal themes, the reader's interest in which has been dormant from the beginning new era. The favorite themes of ancient authors are the village and the city, historical connection generations Mystic stories with a love-erotic coloring. On established historical images a modern manner of "direct" description of events is being built, traditional culture served in a modified version. The heroes of the works are characterized by the breadth of comprehension of life and psychological experience, the descriptions of their characters are emphasized by reminiscences to the history and culture of our people, which are most often manifested in the author's digressions and remarks.

Desacralization of folklore

Emphasis is placed on the visualization of paintings, which is carried out with the help of increased dynamism of the presentation of events and the effect of understatement, which stimulates the reader to creative "cooperation". In each novel, the hero exists in a world created by the author himself, with its own geography, history, and mythology. But when reading, the recipient perceives this space as already known, that is, he penetrates the atmosphere of the work from the first pages. The authors achieve this effect by including various folklore schemes; that is we are talking about about "imitation of myth by non-mythological consciousness", according to which folklore elements act under their traditional context and acquire a different meaning, but at the same time they perform the function of identification by the reader of the ancient meanings already known to him. Thus, in the texts of mass literature there is a desacralization of traditions and folklore.

The phenomenon of modification of the past and present

The phenomenon of modification of the past and present can be traced even in the nature of the construction of almost all works. The texts are replete with proverbs and sayings, which makes it possible to convey the centuries-old experience of the people in a compressed, condensed form. The main thing in the works is that they act as elements of the monologues and dialogues of the hero - most often, elderly characters, carriers of wisdom and morality, are used in this. Signs and sayings also perform the function of hinting at tragic fate heroes of that time. They carry deep meaning, one sign can tell everything life path hero.

Folklore is the harmony of the inner world

So, a certain mythologization and reference to folklore in the works is a natural and as integral part of the created world as the specificity of the peasantry, ethnic coloring and live, real broadcasting. Mass literature is built on the "basic models" of the reader's consciousness given people(which are based on "initial intentions"). In works such “initial intentions” are precisely folklore elements. By using folklore motifs there is closeness to nature, harmony inner peace, and other functions of folklore fade into the background, there is a simplification of sacredness.

Folklore(folk-lore) is an international term English origin, first introduced into science in 1846 by the scientist William Thoms. IN literal translation it means - "folk wisdom", " folk lore" and denotes various manifestations of folk spiritual culture.

In Russian science, other terms were also fixed: folk poetic creativity, folk poetry, folklore. titled " oral creativity people" emphasize the oral nature of folklore, in contrast to written literature. The name "folk poetic creativity" indicates artistry as a sign that distinguishes folklore from beliefs, customs and rituals. This designation puts folklore on a par with other types of folk artistic creativity and fiction. 1

Folklore is complex synthetic art. Often in his works elements are combined various kinds arts - verbal, musical, theatrical. It is studied by various sciences - history, psychology, sociology, ethnology (ethnography) 2 . He is closely associated with folk life and rites. It is no coincidence that the first Russian scholars took a broad approach to folklore, recording not only works of verbal art, but also recording various ethnographic details and realities. peasant life. Thus, the study of folklore was for them a kind of area of folklore 3 .

The science that studies folklore is called folklore. If by literature we understand not only written artistic creativity, but verbal art in general, then folklore is a special department of literature, and folklore, therefore, is a part of literary criticism.

Folklore is verbal oral creativity. It has the properties of the art of the word. In this he is close to literature. However, he has his specific features: syncretism, traditionality, anonymity, variability and improvisation.

The prerequisites for the emergence of folklore appeared in the primitive communal system with the beginning of the formation of art. ancient art words were inherent utility- the desire to practically influence nature and human affairs.

The oldest folklore was in syncretic state(from Greek word synkretismos - connection). A syncretic state is a state of fusion, non-segmentation. Art was not yet separated from other types of spiritual activity, existed in conjunction with other types spiritual consciousness. Later, the state of syncretism was followed by the separation of artistic creativity along with other types of public consciousness V independent region spiritual activity.

Folklore works anonymous. Their author is the people. Any of them is created on the basis of tradition. At one time, V.G. Belinsky wrote about the specifics of a folklore work: there are no "famous names, because the author of literature is always a people. No one knows who composed his simple and naive songs, in which the inner and outer life of a young people or tribe was so artlessly and vividly reflected. a song from generation to generation, from generation to generation; and it changes over time: sometimes they shorten it, sometimes they lengthen it, sometimes they remake it, sometimes they combine it with another song, sometimes they compose another song in addition to it - and now poems come out of the songs, which only the people can call themselves the author. 4

Academician D.S. is certainly right. Likhachev, who noted that there is no author in a folklore work, not only because information about him, if he was, has been lost, but also because he falls out of the very poetics of folklore; it is not needed from the point of view of the structure of the work. In folklore works there may be a performer, narrator, narrator, but there is no author, writer as an element of the artistic structure itself.

Traditional succession covers large historical intervals - whole centuries. According to academician A.A. Potebnya, folklore arises "from memorable sources, that is, it is passed from memory from mouth to mouth as far as memory is enough, but it has certainly passed through a significant layer of people's understanding" 5 . Each carrier of folklore creates within the boundaries of the generally accepted tradition, relying on predecessors, repeating, changing, supplementing the text of the work. In literature there is a writer and a reader, and in folklore there is a performer and a listener. "The works of folklore always bear the seal of time and the environment in which they lived for a long time, or "existed." For these reasons, folklore is called folk mass creativity. It does not have individual authors, although there are many talented performers and creators who are fluent in the generally accepted traditional methods of saying and singing. Folklore is directly folk in content - that is, in terms of thoughts and feelings expressed in it. Folklore is also folklore in style - that is, in the form of conveying content. Folklore is folklore in origin, according to all signs and properties of traditional figurative content and traditional stylistic forms. collective nature folklore. traditional- essential and essential specific property folklore.

Every piece of folklore exists in in large numbers options. Variant (lat. variantis - changing) - each new performance of a folklore work. oral works had a mobile variable nature.

A characteristic feature of the folklore work is improvisation. It is directly related to the variability of the text. Improvisation (it. improvvisazione - unexpectedly, suddenly) - the creation of a folk work or its parts directly in the process of performance. This feature V more characteristic of wailing and lamentation. However, improvisation did not contradict tradition and was within certain artistic limits.

Taking into account all these signs of a folklore work, we will give the maximum short definition folklore given by V.P. Anikin: "Folklore is the traditional artistic creativity of the people. It equally applies to oral, verbal, and other fine arts, how to ancient art as well as to the new, created in the new time and created in our days." 7

Folklore, like literature, is the art of the word. This gives reason to use literary terms: epic, lyric, drama. They are called genera. Each genus covers a group of works certain type. Genre- type art form(fairy tale, song, proverb, etc.). This is a narrower group of works than the genus. Thus, genus means a way of depicting reality, and genre means a type of artistic form. The history of folklore is the history of the change of its genres. In folklore, they are more stable than literary ones; genre boundaries in literature are wider. New genre forms in folklore do not arise as a result of creative activity individuals, as in literature, but must be supported by the entire mass of participants in the collective creative process. Therefore, their change does not occur without the necessary historical grounds. At the same time, genres in folklore are not unchanged. They arise, develop and die, are replaced by others. So, for example, epics appear in Ancient Rus', develop in the Middle Ages, and in the 19th century they are gradually forgotten and die off. With a change in the conditions of existence, genres are destroyed and forgotten. But that doesn't mean a decline. folk art. Changes in the genre composition of folklore are a natural consequence of the process of development of artistic collective creativity.

What is the relationship between reality and its representation in folklore? Folklore combines a direct reflection of life with a conventional one. "Here there is no obligatory reflection of life in the form of life itself, conventionality is allowed." 8 It is characterized by associativity, thinking by analogy, symbolism.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Modern literature has its origin and one of its forerunners was the folklore genre.

Even before the invention of printing, works of folk art were passed from mouth to mouth.

Today let's look at what folklore is in the modern sense, what functions it performs, who studies it and how, by what features one can distinguish folklore works and, of course, look at examples of such works in Russian art.

Folklore is our genetics

The term "folklore" (from the English folk-lore "folk wisdom") appeared in Europe at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. In Russia, it has been actively used since the 30s of the nineteenth century.

He generalized ideas about literary and musical works(songs, dances) created by the team unknown authors from the people for several tens (or hundreds) of years in the distant historical past.

Until the 20th century, works of arts and crafts and architectural creativity were also called folklore.

Simply put, folklore is oral folk art . Currently, the concept is actively used in the musical and literary sense.

We are interested in the latter, and it is important to note that it is he who is the first source of the emergence of fiction. Its second source is the spiritual literature created in such cultural centers, like monasteries, - influenced the people's worldview with a cementing moral principle.

Folklore opened the floodgates of everyday colloquial speech, sources of verbal imagery and fabulous fantasy.

Genres of folklore

Works of oral folk art are usually divided into three varieties:

Lyric;
epic;
Dramatic.

As in fiction, epic, and are represented by genres traditional for each of the genera. Lyric songs reveal the hidden themes of folk life.

The following types are distinguished:

historical;
love;
wedding;
funeral;
labor;
road (coachmen);
robbery;
comic.

epic genres-, fairy tale, tale, true story, fiction, bylichka, byvalshchina.

Small genres folklore - a proverb, a saying, a tongue twister, a riddle, a joke - are also elements of the epic.

To represent folklore dramatic works, you must see the folk fair theater "rayek". Texts for him were written in a special verse - raeshnik. Christmas mysteries, farce comedies, cartoons, everyday sketches - all this is a folk drama.

Features of folklore works

Having carefully read the definition, we can distinguish several important features of folklore:

it's our genetics. If the people disappear from the face of the Earth, it will be possible to “pick up” its culture with the help of fairy tales, legends, proverbs, songs.

Russian folklore

Works of Russian literary folklore are studied from the first steps schools. These are Russian folk tales, proverbs, riddles. Older children get acquainted with epics about Russian heroes.

In high school schools are being studied folklore sources works classical literature: stories and poems by A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol. Without knowing the folk plots and characters, which in a sense have become the ABC of national imagery, it is impossible to fully understand the diverse world of national culture.

Many people think that apart from "Kurochka Ryaba", "Kolobok" and "Turnip", the Russian people have nothing to tell. This is wrong. Open collection fairy tales- you are guaranteed an exciting read!

In a moment of lyrical longing, leaf through the collection folk songs better listen to them musical accompaniment. What they sing about touches everyone, touches the most secret strings, causes both smiles and tears. This is our sounding life, our knowing that everything in the world is repeatable.

What is the meaning of folklore

Folk art is always functional, it is not born out of nowhere and always has a clear goal. Scientists offer to share works of folklore to the following types:

Ritual;
Non-ritual.

The first type describes the repetition of ritual actions that are significant for many generations. life events. Ritual folklore is divided into family and calendar. The first concerns milestones family life: matchmaking and weddings, the birth of children, the death of relatives. It is widely represented by wedding and funeral songs, lamentations, incantations.

Separately worth children's folklore with his lullabies, nursery rhymes, pestles.

Non-ritual folklore is dedicated to calendar circle peasant life: the change of seasons and economic activity farm worker. Each event of the cycle is accompanied by special songs: carols, chants, smells, etc.

Non-ritual genres include epics, fairy tales, ditties, riddles, proverbs, sayings.

study of folklore

See how important folklore is! That is why it was necessary to create a separate scientific discipline to study it. It's called folklore. Along with ethnography, this science explores the life of the common people.

Ethnographers are engaged in the description of dwellings, clothing, dishes, food, rituals, discovering objects material culture, A folklorists do the same when studying the artistic word.

Their goal is to trace how the types and genres of artistic creativity have changed, how new plots and motives have appeared, what social and psychological phenomena found their way into some of the works.

Outstanding domestic scientists I. M. Snegirev, I. P. Sakharov, F. I. Buslavev, A. N. Veselovsky, P. N. Rybnikov, V. Ya. Propp and many others became the first collectors of folklore works.

Under their editorship, there were collections of proverbs, tales, recorded by them on expeditions around the country. Extracting old samples of folk art, folklorists give readers a rich world of our sounding past.

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