What are elements of folklore in literature? What is folklore and what genres does it include?

FOLKLORE

(eng. folklore - folk knowledge, folk wisdom), folk poetry, folk poetry, oral folk art, - the totality various types and forms of mass oral art. creativity of one or several. peoples The term "F." introduced in 1846 archaeologist W. J. Toms, as a scientist. the term is officially adopted by English. folklore society "Folklore Society", main. in 1878. Originally "F." meant both the subject of research and the corresponding science. In modern historiography is a science that studies the theory and history of f. and its interaction with other types of art, called. folkloristics.

The definition of F. cannot be unambiguous for all historians. stages, because its social and aesthetic. functions, content and poetics are directly dependent on the presence or absence in the cultural system of a given people its other forms and types (handwritten or printed book, professional theater and stage, etc.) and various ways of disseminating literary arts. works (cinema, radio, television, sound recordings, etc.).

F. arose in the process of the formation of human speech and in ancient times covered all forms of spiritual culture. It is characterized by comprehensive syncretism - functional and ideological. (F. contained the rudiments of artistic creativity, historical knowledge, science, religion, etc.), social (F. served all layers of society), genre (epic, fairy tale, legend, myth, song, etc. not yet differentiated), formal (the word appeared in inextricable unity with the so-called extra-textual elements - intonation, melody, gesture, facial expressions, dance, sometimes figurative art). Subsequently, in the process of social differentiation of society and the development of culture, various types and forms of f. arose, expressing the interests of the department. social strata and classes, folklore genres were formed that had various social and everyday purposes (production, social-organizing, ritual, gaming, aesthetic, cognitive). They were characterized varying degrees development of aesthetic beginning, various combinations of text and extra-textual elements, aesthetic.

The use of writing to record text distinguished literature from the oral forms of literary arts that preceded it. creativity. From the moment of their inception, writing and literature turned out to be the property of the highest social strata. At the same time, literature at first, as a rule, was not yet a phenomenon. artistic (for example, chronicles and annals, diplomatic and journalistic works, ritual texts, etc.). In this regard, the actual aesthetic. the needs of society as a whole for a long time were satisfied mainly with oral tradition. The development of literature and growing social differentiation led to the fact that already in the late feudal period. F.'s period became predominant. (and among many nations exclusively) the property of the working people. mass, because literary forms creativity remained inaccessible to them. Social differences in the environment that created literary and folklore works, caused the emergence of a definition. range of ideas and various arts. tastes. This was accompanied by the development of specific systems of literary (story, novel, poem, poem, etc.) and folklore (epic, fairy tale, song, etc.) genres and their poetics. The transition from oral forms of creation and transmission of art. works, which are characterized by the use of naturals. means of communication (voice - hearing, movement - vision), to fixing and stabilizing the text and reading it meant not only a more advanced way of accumulating and preserving cultural achievements. He was accompanied and determined. losses: a spatial and temporal gap in the moment of creation (reproduction) of art. the work and its perception, the loss of the immediate. contact between its creator (writer) and the perceiver (reader), loss of extra-textual elements, contact empathy and the possibility of making textual and other changes depending on the reaction of the perceivers. The significance of these losses is confirmed by the fact that even in conditions of universal literacy, not only traditional folklore, but also other oral and at the same time synthetic ones continue to exist and re-emerge. forms, and some of them are of a contact nature (theater, stage, readers, performances of writers in front of an audience, performance of poetry with a guitar, etc.).

Characteristic features of f. in the conditions of its coexistence with literature and in opposition to it: orality, collectivity, nationality, variability, combination of words and arts. elements of other arts. Each work arose on the basis of poetics developed by the team, was intended for a certain circle of listeners and acquired its origins. life, if it was accepted by the team. Changes made by the department. performers could be very different - from stylistic. variations until a significant reworking of the plan and, as a rule, did not go beyond the boundaries of the ideology and aesthetics of the definition. environment. Collectiveness creative. process in F. did not mean its impersonality. Talented masters not only created new songs, fairy tales, etc., but also influenced the process of dissemination, improvement or adaptation of traditions. texts to the historically changed needs of the team. Dialectical the unity of the collective and the individual was contradictory in F., as in literature, but in general the tradition in F. had higher value than in the literature. In social conditions. division of labor on the basis of oral tradition, in parallel with mass and unprofessional performance, which is characteristic of the arts of all nations, unique professions arose associated with the creation and performance of poetic, musical and other works (Ancient Greek rhapsodes and aedas; Roman mimes; Russian jonglers; later Russian kobzars; In the early feud. period, performers who served the dominant social strata emerged. A transitional type of singer-poet emerged, closely associated first with chivalry (French troubadours or German minnesingers), later with the burghers (German meistersingers) or the clerical-student environment (French or German vagantes; Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian . nativity scenes). In some countries and regions, in conditions of slow development, patriarchal-feudalism. way of life, transitional forms of a unique oral literature were formed. Poetic works were created specifically. persons, disseminated orally, there was a desire to stabilize their texts. At the same time, the tradition has preserved the names of the creators (Toktogul in Kyrgyzstan, Kemin and Mollanepes in Turkmenistan, Sayat-Nova in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, etc.). In Russian F. there was no developed professionalization of singers. We can only talk about the department. names mentioned in the writing of Ancient Rus' (singer Mitus; possibly Boyan).

Each genre or group of folk genres fulfilled a specific purpose. social and household functions. This led to the formation of the department. genres of F. with their characteristic themes, images, poetics, and style. In the ancient period, most peoples had tribal traditions, work and ritual songs, mythological. stories, early forms of fairy tales, spells, incantations. Later, at the turn of the transition from pre-class society to class society, modern societies arose. types of fairy tales (magical, everyday, about animals) and archaic. epic forms. During the formation of the state, heroic epic, then epic. ballad and historical songs content, history legends. Later other classical genres. F. formed non-ritual lyrical. song and romance, later types of folklore. drama and even later - the genres of worker F. - revolutionary. songs, marches, satire. songs, oral histories. The process of emergence, development of department. genres of f., especially the duration of their productive period, the relationship of f. with literature and other types of professional arts. creativity are determined by the characteristics of history. the development of each people and the nature of its contacts with other peoples. Thus, tribal traditions were forgotten among some peoples (for example, among the Eastern Slavs) and formed the basis of history. legends from others (for example, Icelandic sagas from Icelanders). Ritual songs, as a rule, were timed to different periods of the agricultural, pastoral, hunting or fishing calendar, and entered into various relationships with the rituals of the Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and other religions. The degree of connection between the epic and mythological ideas are determined by specific socio-economic. conditions. An example of this kind of connection is the Nart tales of the peoples of the Caucasus, Karelo-Fin. runes, ancient Greek epic Germanic languages ​​left oral existence relatively early. and Western Roman epic. The epic of the Turkic peoples existed for a long time and acquired later forms. and east Slavs

There are different genre versions of African, Australian, Asian and European fairy tales. peoples The ballad among some peoples (for example, the Scots) acquired clear genre differences, while for others (for example, the Russians) it is close to lyrical. or ist. song. The art of every nation is characterized by a unique combination of genres and a specific role of each of them in common system oral creativity, which has always been multi-layered and heterogeneous.

Despite the bright national coloring of folklore texts, many motifs, plots and even images of characters in F. different nations strikingly similar. Such similarities could arise as a result of the development of f. from a common source (common archaic features of f. the Slavs or Finno-Ugric peoples, which go back to the common Proto-Slavic or Proto-Finnish heritage), or as a result of the cultural interaction of peoples (for example, the exchange of fairy tale plots Russians and Karelians), or the independent emergence of similar phenomena (for example, common plots of fairy tales American Indians and peoples of the Center. Europe) under the influence of general patterns of development of the social system, material and spiritual culture.

In the late feudal period. time and during the period of capitalism in the people. lit. began to penetrate the environment more actively than before. works; some forms of lit. creativity acquired mass distribution (romances and songs of literary origin, so-called folk books, Russian “lubok”, German “Bilderbogen”, etc.). This influenced the plot, style, and content of folklore works. People's creativity storytellers acquired certain features of lit. creativity (individualization, psychologism, etc.).

In socialist In society, the availability of education has provided an equal opportunity for the development of talents and professionalization of people, and a variety of modern technologies have become widespread. forms of mass literary arts. culture - amateur lit. creativity (including partly in traditional folklore forms), amateur club performances, folk song creativity. choirs, etc. Some of these forms are creative, others are performing in nature.

Design of folkloristics in independent work. science dates back to the 30-40s. 19th century The formation of folkloristics and the beginning of scientific research. the collection and publication of F. was associated with three main. factors: lit. romanticism, which was one of the forms of expression of the self-awareness of the emerging bourgeoisie. nations (for example, in Germany, France, Italy), national liberation. movement (for example, among the southern and western Slavs) and the spread of social liberation. and educational ideas (for example, in Russia - A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov; in Poland - A. Mitskevich, etc.). Romantics (German scientists I. G. Herder, L. Arnim and C. Brentano, brothers W. and J. Grimm, etc.; English - T. Percy and J. Macpherson, etc.; Serbian - V. Karadzic and others; Finnish - E. Lönrot and others) saw in F. an expression of nationalism. spirit and national traditions and used folklore works to reconstruct history. facts not reflected in written sources. Emerging within the framework of romanticism, the so-called. mythological school (German scientists A. Kuhn, W. Schwarz, W. Manhardt and others; English - M. Muller, J. W. Cox and others; French - A. Pictet and others; Italian - A . de Gubernatis and others; Russian - F. I. Buslaev, A. N. Afanasyev, etc.), based on the achievements of Indo-European. linguistics, believed F. European. peoples the heritage of the most ancient Proto-Indo-European. myth-making. Romantics in glory. countries saw F. as a general glory. inheritance, preserved to varying degrees by different branches of the Slavs, just like the Germans. Romantics saw modernism in F. German-speaking peoples share the common heritage of the ancient Germans. In the 2nd half. 19th century based on philosophy. Positivism developed evolutionary schools in folklore studies, which is associated with a growing awareness of the unity of the laws of development of folklore and the recurrence of folklore plots and motifs in different ethnic groups. environments So representatives of the so-called. anthropologist schools (E. Tylor, E. Lang and J. Fraser - in England; N. Sumtsov, A. I. Kirpichnikov, A. N. Veselovsky - in Russia, etc.) explained the global recurrence of folklore phenomena by the unity of people. psychology. At the same time, the so-called comparativism (comparative historical method), which explained similar phenomena more or less mechanically. borrowing or “migration of plots” (German - T. Benfey, French - G. Paris, Czech - J. Polivka, Russian - V.V. Stasov, A.N. Pypin, A.N. Veselovsky, etc. .), and the “historical school” (the most vivid expression in Russia - V. F. Miller and his students; K. and M. Chadwick in England, etc.), which sought to connect the history of each people with its history and did a lot of work by comparison of sources documents and folklore stories (especially epic ones). At the same time" historical school"was characterized by a simplified understanding of the mechanism of artistic reflection of reality in F. and (like certain other trends in bourgeois folklore studies of the late 19th - early 20th centuries) the desire to prove that the masses only mechanically perceived and preserved art. values ​​created by the upper social strata. In the 20th century, Freudianism (interpreted folklore stories as a subconscious expression of inhibited sexual and other complexes), ritualistic. theory (linking the origin verbal art preim. with magic rituals; French scientists P. Centiv, J. Dumezil, English. - F. Raglan, Dutch. - J. de Vries, Amer. - R. Carpenter, etc.) and the “Finnish school”, establishing historical and geographical. areas of distribution of plots and developing the principles of classification and systematization of F. (K. Kroon, A. Aarne, W. Anderson, etc.).

The origin of the Marxist trend in folklore studies is associated with the names of P. Lafargue, G. V. Plekhanov, A. M. Gorky. In the 20-30s. 20th century The formation of Marxist folklore studies continued in the USSR, after the 2nd World War of 1939-45 it became widespread in socialism. countries (B. M. and Yu. M. Sokolov, M. K. Azadovsky, V. M. Zhirmunsky, V. Ya. Propp, P. G. Bogatyrev, N. P. Andreev, etc. - in the USSR; P Dinekov, C. Romanska, S. Stoykova and others - in Bulgaria; M. Pop and others - in Romania; D. Ortutai and others - in Hungary; , J. Ex, O. Sirovatka, V. Gasparikova and others - in Czechoslovakia; V. Steinitz and others - in the GDR). She considers f., on the one hand, as the oldest form of poetic poetry. creativity, a treasury of arts. people's experience masses, as one of the components of the classic. heritage of the national arts culture of each people and, on the other hand, as the most valuable source. source.

When studying ancient eras history of mankind, F. is often (together with archeology) an indispensable source of history. source, especially for studying history. development of ideology and social psychology adv. wt. The complexity of the problem lies in the fact that archaic. folklore works are known, as a rule, only in records of the 18th-20th centuries. or in earlier lit. processing (for example, German "Song of the Nibelungs"), or archaic. elements included in later aesthetics. systems. Therefore, the use of F. for history. reconstructions require great care and, above all, the involvement of comparisons. materials. The features of reflecting reality in various genres F., combining aesthetic, cognitive, ritual and other functions in different ways. Experience in studying genres that were perceived by performers as an expression of history. knowledge (prosaic historical traditions and legends, song historical epic), showed the complexity of the relationship between plots, characters, time, to which their actions are attributed, epic. geography, etc. and authentic history. events, their real chronological, social and geographical. environment. Development of artistic history the thinking of the people did not come from empiricism. and a specific depiction of events to their poeticization and generalization or legendary-fantastic. processing as events are forgotten, but vice versa - from the so-called. mythological epic, which is a fantastic reflection of reality in mythological categories (for example, the successes of mankind in mastering fire, crafts, navigation, etc. are personified in F. in the image " cultural hero"of the Promethean type), to heroic epics and, finally, to historical songs, in which much more specific historical situations, events and persons are depicted, or historical ballads, in which nameless heroes or heroes with fictitious names operate in a situation close to real-historical ones.

In the department the same stories of history. legends or epic. songs are reflected largely non-empirically. ist. facts, but typical socialist. collisions, history state of politics and arts. consciousness of the people and folklore traditions of previous centuries, through the prism of which history is perceived. reality. At the same time, as in the historical legends, and in historical-epic songs. works often preserved the most valuable historical sources. points of view details, names, geographical. names, everyday realities, etc. So, G. Schliemann found the location of Troy, using data from ancient Greek. epic songs "Iliad" and "Odyssey", although he did not accurately determine the location of the "Homeric" layer in the cultural layers of the Trojan excavations. The mechanism of reflection of the source is even more complex. in reality in vernacular fairy tales, lyrical and everyday songs. Songs of a ritual nature, conspiracies, etc., to a greater extent, reflect non-history. reality as such, and the everyday consciousness of the people themselves are facts of the people. everyday life That. F. as a whole did not passively reproduce the empirical. socio-economic facts and political reality or everyday life, but was one of essential means popular expressions aspirations. F. is also of great importance for elucidating the history of ethnicity. contacts, the process of formation of ethnographic. groups and historical-ethnographic. regions.

Lit.: Chicherov V.I., K. Marx and F. Engels on folklore. Bibliographical materials, "Soviet folklore", 1936, No. 4-5; Bonch-Bruevich V.D., V.I. Lenin on oral folk art, "Soviet ethnography", 1954, No. 4; Friedlander G. M., K. Marx and F. Engels and questions of literature, 2nd ed., M., 1968 (chapter folklore); Propp V. Ya., Specifics of folklore, in the collection: "Proceedings of the anniversary scientific session of Leningrad State University. Section of Philological Sciences, Leningrad, 1946; his own, Historical roots fairy tale, L., 1946; his, Folklore and Reality, "Russian Literature", 1963, No. 3; his, Principles of classification of folklore genres, "Soviet ethnography", 1964, No. 4; his, Morphology of a fairy tale, 2nd ed., M., 1969; Zhirmunsky V.M., On the issue of people. creativity, "Uch. zap. Leningrad. Pedagogical Institute named after A. I. Herzen", 1948, v. 67; his, Folk heroic epic, M.-L., 1962; Gusev V. E., Marxism and Russian. folkloristics late XIX- beginning XX century, M.-L., 1951; his, Problems of folklore in the history of aesthetics, M.-L., 1963; his, Folklore. History of the term and its modernity. meaning, "Soviet ethnography," 1966, No. 2; by him, Aesthetics of Folklore, Leningrad, 1967; Putilov B.N., On the main features of people. poetic creativity, "Scholarship of the Grozny Pedagogical Institute. Ser. Philological Sciences", V. 7, 1952, No. 4; him, About the historical. studying Russian folklore, in the book: Rus. folklore, c. 5, M.-L., 1960; Cocchiara J., History of folkloristics in Europe, trans. from Italian, M., 1960; Virsaladze E. B., The problem of the specificity of folklore in modern times. bourgeois folklore, in the book: Literary Research of the Institute of History. cargo. lit., v. 9, Tb., 1955 (summary in Russian); Azadovsky M.K., History of Russian. folkloristics, vol. 1-2, M., 1958-63; Meletinsky E. M., Hero of a fairy tale, M., 1958; his, Origin of heroic. epic Early forms and archaic monument, M., 1963; Chistov K.V., Folklore and modernity, "Soviet ethnography", 1962, No. 3; his, Sovr. problems of textual criticism in Russian. folklore, M., 1963: his own. On the relationship between folklore and ethnography, "Soviet ethnography", 1971, No. 5; his, Specificity of folklore in the light of information theory, "Problems of Philosophy", 1972, No. 6; Folklore and ethnography, Leningrad, 1970; Bogatyrev P. G., Questions of the theory of people. Art, M., 1971; Zemtsovsky I.I., Folklore as a science, in: Slav. musical folklore, M., 1972; Kagan M.S., Morphology of Art, Leningrad, 1972; Early forms of art, M., 1972; Corso R., Folklore. Storia. Obbietto. Metodo. Bibliographie, Roma, 1923; Gennep A. van, Le folklore, P., 1924; Krohn K., Die folkloristische Arbeitsmethode, Oslo, 1926; Croce V., Poesia popolare e poesia d "arte, Bari, 1929; Brouwer S., Die Volkslied in Deutschland, Frankreich, Belgien und Holland, Groningen-Haag., 1930; Saintyves P., Manuel de folklore, P., 1936 ; Varagnac A., Definition du folklore, P., 1938; Alford V., Introduction to English folklore, L., 1952; Ramos A., Estudos de Folk-Lore. (1951); Weltfish G., The origins of art, Indianapolis-N., 1953; Marinus A., Essais sur la tradition, Brux., 1958; Levi-Strauss S., La pendee sauvage, P., 1962; Bawra S. M., Primitive song, N. Y., 1963; Krappe A. H., The science of folklore, 2 ed., N. Y., 1964; "Volkspoesie", B., 1968; Weber-Kellermann J., Deutsche Volkskunde zwischen Germanistik und Sozialwissenschaften, Stuttg., 1969; , Parva chast, 2nd ed., Sofia, 1972; Ortutay G., Hungarian folklor. Essays, Bdpst, 1972.

Bibliography: Akimova T. M., Seminar on Narratives. poetic creativity, Saratov, 1959; Melts M. Ya., Questions of the theory of folklore (materials for the bibliography), in the book; Russian folklore, vol. 5, M.-L., 1960; his, Modern folklore bibliography, in the book: Russian folklore, vol. 10, M.-L., 1966; Kushnereva Z.I., Folklore of the peoples of the USSR. Bibliographical source in Russian language (1945-1963), M., 1964; Sokolova V.K., Sov. folkloristics for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, "Soviet ethnography", 1967, No. 5; Volkskundliche Bibliographie, V.-Lpz., 1919-57; Internationale volkskundliche Bibliographie, Basel-Bonn, 1954-; Coluccio F., Diccionario folklorico argentino, B.-Aires, 1948; Standard dictionary of folklore, mythology and legend, ed. by M. Leach, v. 1-2, N.Y., 1949-50; Erich O., Beitl R., Wörterbuch der deutschen Volkskunde, 2 Aufl., Stutt., 1955; Thompson S., Motif-index of folk-literature, v. 1-6, Bloomington, 1955-58; his, Fifty years of folktale indexing, "Humanoria", N.Y., 1960; Dorson R. M., Current folklore theories, "Current anthropology", 1963, v. 4, No. 1; Aarne A. and Thompson S., The types of folktale. A classification and bibliography, 2 rev., Hels., 1961; Slownik folkloru polskiego, Warsz., 1965.

K. V. Chistov. Leningrad.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. E. M. Zhukova. 1973-1982 .

See what “FOLKLORE” is in other dictionaries:

- (in the cultural aspect) in the “broad” sense (all folk traditional peasant spiritual and partly material culture) and “narrow” (oral peasant verbal artistic tradition). Folklore is a collection of... ... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

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

Even before the invention of printing, works of folk art were passed on by word of mouth.

Let's take a look today at what folklore is in the modern sense, what functions it performs, who studies it and how, by what features folklore works can be distinguished and, of course, let's look at examples of such works in Russian creativity.

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 began to be actively used in the 30s of the 19th century.

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

Until the twentieth century, folklore also called works of decorative, applied and architectural creativity.

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 the first source of the emergence of fiction. Its second source - spiritual literature, created in such cultural centers as monasteries - influenced the people's worldview with a cementing moral principle.

Folklore opened the floodgates of everyday colloquial speech, sources of verbal imagery and fairy-tale fantasy.

Genres of folklore

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

1. Lyrical;
2. Epic;
3. Dramatic.

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

The following types are distinguished:

1. historical;
2. love;
3. wedding;
4. funeral;
5. labor;
6. road (drivers);
7. robbers;
8. comic.

Epic genres- , fairy tale, fairy tale, true story, fable, bylichka, byvalshchina.

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

To present folklore dramatic works, you need to see the folk fair theater "rajek". The texts for him were written in a special verse - raeshnik. Christmas mysteries, farcical comedies, cartoons, everyday sketches - all this is folk drama.

Features of folklore works

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

it's our genetics. If a people disappears from the face of the Earth, their culture can be “pieced together” with the help of fairy tales, legends, proverbs, and songs.

Russian folklore

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

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

Many people think that apart from “Chicken Ryaba”, “Kolobok” and “Turnip” the Russian people have nothing to tell. This is wrong. Open a collection of fairy tales - exciting reading is guaranteed!

In a moment of lyrical melancholy, leaf through the collection of folk songs, or better yet, listen to them in musical accompaniment. What is sung in them concerns 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 works

Folk art is always functional, it does not appear out of nowhere and always has a clear goal. Scientists suggest share works of folklore for the following types:

1. Ritual;
2. Non-ritual.

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

Worth it separately children's folklore with his lullabies, nursery rhymes, petes.

Non-ritual folklore is associated with the calendar circle of peasant life: the change of seasons and the economic activity of the toiling farmer. Each event of the cycle is accompanied by special songs: carols, chants, smells, etc.

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

Studying folklore

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

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

Their goal is to trace how types and genres have changed artistic creativity, how new plots and motives appeared, what social and psychological phenomena found reflection in certain 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, collections of proverbs and tales were published, recorded by them on expeditions around the country. By obtaining ancient examples of folk art, folklorists give readers a rich world of our sounding past.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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Folklore and literature are two types of verbal art. However, folklore is not only the art of words, but also component folk life, closely intertwined with its other elements, and this is the significant difference between folklore and literature. But also as an art of words, folklore differs from literature. These differences do not remain unshakable at various stages of historical development, and yet the main, stable features of each of the types of verbal art can be noted. Literature is an individual art, folklore is a collective art. In literature there is innovation, and in folklore tradition comes to the fore. Literature exists in written form, a means of storage and transmission literary text, the book serves as an intermediary between the author and his addressee, while a work of folklore is reproduced orally and stored in the memory of the people. A work of folklore lives in many variants; with each performance it is reproduced as if anew, with direct contact between the performer-improviser and the audience, which not only directly influences the performer (feedback), but sometimes also joins in the performance.

Anika the warrior and death. Splint.

Publications of Russian folklore.

The term “folklore,” which was introduced into science by the English scientist W. J. Toms in 1846, translated means “folk wisdom.” Unlike many Western European scientists, who classify folklore as the most diverse aspects of folk life (even culinary recipes), including also elements of material culture (housing, clothing), domestic scientists and their like-minded people in other countries consider oral folk art to be folklore - poetic works created by the people and existing among the broad masses, along with musical and dance folklore. This approach takes into account the artistic nature of folklore as the art of words. Folkloristics is the study of folklore.

The history of folklore goes back to the deep past of humanity. M. Gorky defined folklore as the oral creativity of the working people. Indeed, folklore arose in the process of labor, always expressed the views and interests of mainly working people, and in it, in the most varied forms, a person’s desire to make his work easier, to make it joyful and free was manifested.

Primitive man spent all his time on work or preparing for it. The actions through which he sought to influence the forces of nature were accompanied by words: spells and conspiracies were pronounced, the forces of nature were addressed with a request, threat or gratitude. This indivisibility of different species is essentially already artistic activity(although the creators-performers themselves set themselves purely practical goals) - the unity of words, music, dance, decorative arts- known in science as " primitive syncretism", traces of it are still visible in folklore. As a person accumulates more and more significant life experience, which needed to be passed on to subsequent generations, the role of verbal information increased: after all, it was the word that could most successfully communicate not only about what was happening Here And Now, but also about what happened or will happen somewhere And once upon a time or some day. The separation of verbal creativity into an independent art form is the most important step in the prehistory of folklore, in its independent, albeit associated with mythological consciousness, state. The decisive event that paved the line between mythology and folklore proper was the appearance of the fairy tale. It was in the fairy tale that imagination - this, according to K. Marx, a great gift that contributed so much to the development of mankind - was first recognized as an aesthetic category.

With the formation of nations, and then states, a heroic epic took shape: the Indian Mahabharata, Irish sagas, Kyrgyz Manas, Russian epics. Lyrics not related to ritual arose even later: it showed interest in the human personality, in the experiences common man. Folk songs from the period of feudalism tell about serfdom, about the hard lot of women, about people's defenders, such as Karmelyuk in Ukraine, Janosik in Slovakia, Stepan Razin in Rus'.

When studying folk art, one should constantly keep in mind that people are not a homogeneous concept and are historically changeable. The ruling classes sought by all means to introduce into the masses thoughts, moods, works that were contrary to the interests of the working people - songs loyal to tsarism, “spiritual poems”, etc. Moreover, in the people themselves, centuries of oppression accumulated not only hatred for exploiters, but also ignorance and downtroddenness. The history of folklore is both a process of constant growth in the self-awareness of the people and an overcoming of what their prejudices were expressed in.

Based on the nature of the connection with folk life, folklore is distinguished between ritual and non-ritual. The folklore performers themselves adhere to a different classification. For them, it is important that some works are sung, others are spoken. Philological scholars classify all works of folklore into one of three categories - epic, lyric or drama, as is customary in literary criticism.

Some folklore genres are interconnected by a common sphere of existence. If pre-revolutionary folklore was very clearly distinguished by the social class of its speakers (peasant, worker), now age differences are more significant. A special section of folk poetry is children's folklore - playful (drawing lots, counting rhymes, various play songs) and non-fictional (tongue twisters, horror stories, changelings). The main genre of modern youth folklore has become the amateur, so-called bard song.

The folklore of every nation is unique, as is its history, customs, and culture. Epics and ditties are inherent only in Russian folklore, dumas - in Ukrainian, etc. Original lyrical songs every people. Even the most short works folklore - proverbs and sayings - each nation expresses the same thought in its own way, and where we say: “Silence is golden,” the Japanese, with their cult of flowers, will say: “Silence is flowers.”

However, already the first folklorists were struck by the similarity of fairy tales, songs, and legends belonging to different peoples. At first this was explained by the common origin of related (for example, Indo-European) peoples, then by borrowing: one people adopted plots, motifs, and images from another.

A consistent and convincing explanation of all phenomena of similarity can only be provided by historical materialism. Relying on the richest factual material, Marxist scientists explained that similar plots, motifs, and images arose among peoples who were at the same stages of socio-cultural development, even if these peoples lived on different continents and did not meet each other. Thus, a fairy tale is a utopia, a dream of justice, which developed among various peoples as private property appeared in them, and with it social inequality. Primitive society did not know fairy tales on any of the continents.

Fairy tales, heroic epics, ballads, proverbs, sayings, riddles, lyrical songs of different peoples, differing in national identity both in form and content, are at the same time created on the basis of what is common to a certain level artistic thinking and laws established by tradition. Here is one of the “natural experiments” that confirms this position. French poet P. J. Beranger wrote the poem “The Old Corporal”, using as a basis (and at the same time significantly reworking it) a “complaint” - a special kind of French folk ballad. The poet V. S. Kurochkin translated the poem into Russian, and thanks to the music of A. S. Dargomyzhsky, the song penetrated into Russian folklore repertoire. And when, many years later, she was recorded on the Don, it was discovered that folk singers made significant changes to the text (and, by the way, to the music), as if essentially restoring the original form of the French “complaint”, which Don Cossacks of course we've never heard of it. This is reflected in the general laws of folk song creativity.

Literature appeared later than folklore and has always, although in different ways, used its experience. In the same time literary works have long penetrated folklore and influenced its development.

The nature of the interaction between the two poetic systems is historically determined and therefore varies at different stages artistic development. On this path, what is done on sharp turns history of the redistribution process social spheres actions of literature and folklore, which is based on the material of Russian culture of the 17th century. noted by Academician D.S. Likhachev. If back in the 16th century. storytellers were kept even at the royal court, then a century and a half later, folklore disappears from the life and everyday life of the ruling classes, now oral poetry is the property of almost exclusively the masses, and literature - of the ruling classes. So later development can sometimes change the emerging trends in the interaction of literature and folklore, and sometimes in the most significant way. However, the completed stages are not forgotten. What began in the folk art of the time of Columbus and Afanasy Nikitin echoed uniquely in the quests of M. Cervantes and G. Lorca, A. S. Pushkin and A. T. Tvardovsky.

With the interaction of folk art with realistic literature, the inexhaustibility of folklore as eternal source continuously developing art. The literature of socialist realism, like no other, relies not only on the experience of its immediate predecessors, but also on all the best that characterizes the literary process throughout its entire length, and on folklore in all its inexhaustible richness.

The law “On the Protection and Use of Cultural Historical Monuments”, adopted in 1976, also includes “recordings of folklore and music” among national treasures. However, recording is only an auxiliary means of recording folklore text. But even the most accurate recording cannot replace the living spring of folk poetry.

“The Russian people created a huge oral literature: the wise

proverbs and cunning riddles, funny and sad ritual songs, solemn epics - spoken in a chant, to the sound of strings - about the glorious exploits of heroes, defenders of the people's land - heroic, magical, everyday and funny tales.

It is vain to think that this literature was only the fruit of popular leisure. She was the dignity and intelligence of the people. She established and strengthened his moral character, was his historical memory, the festive clothes of his soul and filled with deep content his entire measured life, flowing according to the customs and rituals associated with his work, nature and the veneration of his fathers and grandfathers.”

Words by A.N. Tolstoy very vividly and accurately reflect the essence of folklore. Folklore is folk art, very necessary and important for the study of folk psychology in our days. Folklore includes works that convey the basic, most important ideas of the people about the main values ​​in life: work, family, love, social duty, homeland. We are brought up on these works even now. Knowledge of folklore can give a person knowledge about the Russian people, and ultimately about himself

The word folklore in literal translation in English it means folk wisdom. Folklore is poetry created by the people and existing among the masses, in which they reflect their work activities, social and everyday life, knowledge of life, nature, cults and beliefs. Folklore embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic imagination, richest world thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness. This is oral, artistic verbal creativity, which arose in the process of formation of human speech.

Russian heroic epic (epics) - a wonderful heritage of the past, evidence ancient culture and the arts of the people. It has been preserved in living oral history, perhaps in its original form of plot content and the main principles of form. The epic got its name from the word “byl”, which is similar in meaning. This means that the epic tells about what once really happened, although not everything in the epic is true. The epics were written down from storytellers (often illiterate), who adopted them according to tradition from previous generations.

Bylina - old song, and not everything in it is clear; it is told in a leisurely, solemn tone. Many Russian epics talk about the heroic deeds of the people's heroes. For example, epics about Volga Buslaevich, the conqueror of Tsar Saltan Beketovich; about the hero Sukhman, who defeated his enemies - nomads; about Dobrynya Nikitich. Russian heroes never lie. Ready to die, but not leave their native land, they consider service to the fatherland their first and holy duty, although they are often offended by princes who do not trust them. The epics told to children teach them to respect human work and love their homeland. They united the genius of the people.

Throughout his life, folklore helps a person live, work, relax, helps make decisions, and also fight enemies, as shown above in the examples.

By its specificity, folklore is the most democratic form of art, and under any circumstances - whether there is peace on earth or war, happiness or sorrow, folklore remains stable and also active.

Word " folklore"borrowed from English and translated literally as folk song. Folklore is, firstly, a collection of texts of various genres: fairy tales, epics, conspiracies, laments and lamentations, ritual and non-ritual songs, historical songs, urban romance, ditties, jokes. Secondly, folklore refers to the visual folk art and music, traditional toys, folk costumes. Folklore is everything that is created by the people. At the same time, the people are the collective creator of folklore works. This means that folklore works do not have a specific author. They were created and formalized over a long period of time collectively. As a result, a folklore tradition was developed.

Heroes and symbols of folklore

Tradition- This is a key concept for folklore. All folklore works are called traditional. Tradition is a certain established pattern, developed over a long time, according to which individual folklore works are created.

Tradition is closed. For example, a fairy tale has only six possible characters: the hero (Ivan Tsarevich), the sender (the king, the father), the desired character (the bride), the antagonist (Koschei, the serpent Gorynych), the giver (the character who gives something to the hero) and the helper (usually animals that help the hero). This is where her isolation manifests itself. There can't be any other characters here.

Folklore is a means, an instrument for consolidating, preserving and transmitting folk wisdom from generation to generation. This means that the performance of fairy tales, epics, and songs is initially necessary in order to convey traditional cultural information and experience from parents to children. For example, fairy tales convey moral standards that every member of society must comply with: the hero of fairy tales is brave, hardworking, respects parents and the elderly, helps the weak, wise, noble. Heroic epics talk about the need to defend one’s homeland: the hero-defender is strong, brave, wise, ready to stand up for the Russian land.

Folklore is symbolic. This means that folk wisdom is transmitted in symbolic form. A symbol is a sign, the content of which in folklore is the traditional folklore meaning. For example, a drake, a dove, an eagle, an oak are symbols denoting a good fellow. A dove, a duck, a swan, a birch tree, and a willow tree are symbols that represent the red maiden.

Folklore should not be taken literally. It is necessary to learn to see traditional folklore meanings behind symbols. The gold and silver bridle of a heroic horse does not at all mean that it is made of gold and silver. These metals symbolically denote the folklore meaning of “rich, noble.”

Who studies folklore?

Folklore reflects traditional folk culture. Russian traditional folk culture- is a fusion of pagan and folk-Orthodox views on nature and society. In works of folklore, the characters are often animals and forces of nature (wind, sun). This reflects the pagan worldview of the people who spiritualized nature, believed in wonderful creatures, and prayed to them. Along with this, there are Christian characters (Mother of God, saints) - these are Orthodox Christian traditions.

Folklore is studied by folklorists. They go on expeditions to record works of oral folk art. After this, the symbolism of these works, their content and structure are examined. Outstanding researchers of folklore are V.Ya. Propp, A. N. Afanasyev, S. Yu. Neklyudov, E. M. Meletinsky, B.T. Putilin.