History of folklore. The history of folklore
Scientific publications of Russian folklore began to appear in the 30-40s of the 19th century. First of all, these are collections by Moscow University professor I.M. Snegirev "Russian common holidays and superstitious rituals" in four parts (1837-1839), "Russian folk proverbs and parables" (1848).
Valuable materials are contained in the collections of the folklorist scientist I.P. Sakharov "Tales of the Russian people about family life their ancestors" (in two volumes, 1836 and 1839), "Russian folk tales" (1841).
Gradually, wide public circles became involved in the work of collecting folklore. This was facilitated by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society created in 1845 in St. Petersburg. It had an ethnography department that was actively involved in collecting folklore in all the provinces of Russia. From nameless correspondents (rural and urban teachers, doctors, students, clergy and even peasants) the Society received numerous recordings of oral works, which formed an extensive archive. Later, much of this archive was published in “Notes of the Russian Geographical Society for the Department of Ethnography.” And in Moscow in the 60-70s, the “Society of Lovers of Russian Literature” was engaged in publishing folklore. Folklore materials were published in the central magazines "Ethnographic Review" and "Living Antiquity" and in local periodicals.
In the 30-40s P.V. Kireevsky and his friend the poet N.M. Languages were widely deployed and led the collection of Russian folk epics and lyrical songs(epics, historical songs, ritual and non-ritual songs, spiritual poems). Kireevsky was preparing materials for publication, but his untimely death did not allow him to fully implement his plans. During his lifetime, the only collection was published: spiritual poems. “Songs collected by P.V. Kireevsky” were first published only in the 60-70s of the 19th century (epics and historical songs, the so-called “old series”) and in the 20th century (ritual and non-ritual songs, “new series”).
In the same 30-40s, V.I.’s collecting activities took place. Dalia. He recorded works of various genres of Russian folklore, however, as a researcher of the “living Great Russian language", Dahl focused on preparing a collection of small genres closest to colloquial speech: proverbs, sayings, proverbs, etc. In the early 60s, Dahl’s collection “Proverbs of the Russian People” was published. In it, all the texts were grouped for the first time according to a thematic principle, which made it possible to objectively present the people’s attitude to various phenomena of life. This turned the collection of proverbs into a genuine book of folk wisdom.
Another detailed folklore publication was the collection of A.N. Afanasyev's "Russian Folk Tales", to which Dahl also made a great collecting contribution, who gave Afanasyev about a thousand fairy tales he recorded.
Afanasyev's collection was published in 8 issues from 1855 to 1863. There are a little more than a dozen fairy tales recorded by Afanasyev himself; he mainly used the archives of the Russian Geographical Society, the personal archives of V.I. Dalia, P.I. Yakushkin and other collectors, as well as materials from ancient handwritten and some printed collections. The first edition was published only best material. Approximately 600 texts in the collection covered a huge geographical space: the places of residence of Russians, as well as partly Ukrainians and Belarusians.
The publication of Afanasyev's collection caused a wide public response. It was reviewed by prominent scientists A.N. Pypin, F.I. Buslaev, A.A. Kotlyarevsky, I.I. Sreznevsky, O.F. Miller; in the Sovremennik magazine, N.A. gave a positive assessment. Dobrolyubov.
Later, fighting Russian censorship, Afanasyev managed to publish the collection “Russian Folk Legends” (1859) in London and the collection “Russian Treasured Tales” anonymously in Geneva in 1872.
Afanasyev's collection was partially translated into various foreign languages, and completely translated into German. In Russia it went through 7 complete editions.
From 1860 to 1862, simultaneously with the first edition of Afanasyev’s collection, a collection by I.A. Khudyakov "Great Russian Tales". New trends were expressed in the collection by D.N. Sadovnikov "Tales and legends of the Samara region" (1884). Sadovnikov was the first to convert close attention on an individual talented storyteller and recorded his repertoire. Of the 183 tales in the collection, 72 were recorded from Abram Novopoltsev.
In the middle of the 19th century, the history of collecting Russian folklore took place significant event: an actively existing living epic tradition was discovered in the Olonets region. Its discoverer was a man exiled in 1859 for political activity to Petrozavodsk P.N. Rybnikov. While working as an official in the governor's office, Rybnikov began to use official travel to collect epics. Over the course of several years, he traveled around a vast territory and recorded a large number of epics and other works of oral folk poetry. The collector worked with outstanding storytellers T.G. Ryabinin, A.P. Sorokin, V.P. Shchegolenko and others, from whom other folklorists subsequently recorded.
In 1861-1867, a four-volume edition of “Songs collected by P.N. Rybnikov” was published, prepared for publication by P.A. Bessonov (1 and 2 volumes), Rybnikov himself (3 volumes) and O. Miller (4 volumes). It included 224 recordings of epics, historical songs, and ballads. The material was arranged according to the plot principle. In the 3rd volume (1864), Rybnikov published “A Collector’s Note,” in which he outlined the state of the epic tradition in the Onega region, gave a number of characteristics to the performers, and raised the question of the creative reproduction of epics and the personal contribution of the storyteller to the epic heritage.
Following in the footsteps of Rybnikov, in April 1871, the Slavic scholar A.F. went to the Olonets province. Hilferding. In two months, he listened to 70 singers and recorded 318 epics (the manuscript was more than 2000 pages). In the summer of 1872, Hilferding again went to the Olonets region. On the way, he became seriously ill and died.
A year after the collector’s death, “Onega epics, recorded by Alexander Fedorovich Hilferding in the summer of 1871. With two portraits of Onega rhapsodes and melodies of epics” (1873) were published. Hilferding was the first to apply the method of studying the repertoire of individual storytellers. He arranged the epics in the collection according to storytellers, with premise biographical information. Hilferding’s latest journal publication, “Olonets Province and Its Folk Rhapsodes,” was included as a general introductory article.
60-70s years XIX centuries were a true flowering of collecting activity for Russian folkloristics. During these years, the most valuable publications of various genres were published: fairy tales, epics, proverbs, riddles, spiritual poems, spells, lamentations, ritual and extra-ritual songs.
At the beginning of the 20th century, work continued on collecting and publishing folklore. In 1908, a collection by N.E. was published. Onchukov "Northern Tales" - 303 tales from Olonets and Arkhangelsk provinces. Onchukov arranged the material not according to plots, but according to storytellers, citing their biographies and characteristics. Later, other publishers began to adhere to this principle.
In 1914, a collection by D.K. was published in Petrograd. Zelenin "Great Russian fairy tales of the Perm province." It included 110 fairy tales. The collection is prefaced by Zelenin's article "Something about storytellers and fairy tales of the Yekaterinburg district of the Perm province." It describes the types of storytellers. The material in the collection is arranged by artist.
The collection of brothers B.M. became a valuable contribution to science. and Yu.M. Sokolov "Tales and songs of the Belozersky region" (1915). It includes 163 fairy tale texts. The accuracy of the recording can serve as a model for modern collectors. The collection is compiled based on materials from the expeditions of 1908 and 1909 to the Belozersky and Kirillovsky districts of the Novgorod province. It is equipped with a rich scientific apparatus. Subsequently, both brothers became famous folklorists.
Thus, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a huge amount of material was collected and the main classical publications of Russian oral folk art appeared. This was of enormous importance both for science and for the entire Russian culture. In 1875, writer P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky in a letter to P.V. Sheinu described the significance of the work of folklorists-gatherers as follows:
“For a quarter of a century I traveled a lot around Russia, wrote down a lot of songs, legends, beliefs, etc., etc., but I could not have set foot if there had not been the works of the late Dahl and Kireevsky, there had not been your published works from Bodyansky, the works of L. Maykov, Maksimov and - may the Lord calm his drunken soul in the depths of Abraham - Yakushkin. I find your comparison of your work with the work of an ant not entirely fair.<...>You are bees, not ants - your job is to collect honey, our job is to cook honey (hudromel). If it weren’t for you, we would be brewing some kind of dank kvass, not honey.<...>Not even half a century will pass before the people's ancient traditions and customs dry up, old Russian songs will fall silent or become distorted under the influence of tavern and tavern civilization, but your works until distant times, until our later descendants, will preserve the features of our ancient way of life. You are more durable than us." 1
In the first decades of the 20th century, Russian folkloristics finally defined itself as a scientific discipline, separating itself from other sciences (ethnology, linguistics, literary criticism).
In 1926-1928, the brothers B.M. went on an expedition “in the footsteps of P.N. Rybnikov and A.F. Hilferding.” and Yu.M. Sokolovs. The materials of the expedition were published in 1948. Records of epics of 1926-1933 from the collections of the Manuscript Repository of the Folklore Commission at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences were included in the two-volume publication by A.M. Astakhova "Epics of the North". The collection of epics continued during the war and post-war years. The materials of three expeditions to Pechora (1942, 1955 and 1956) made up the volume “Epics of Pechora and the Winter Coast”.
Many new recordings of fairy tales, songs, ditties, works of non-fairy tale prose, proverbs, riddles, etc. were made. In the publication of new materials, firstly, the genre, and secondly, the regional principle prevailed. Collections reflecting the repertoire of a particular region, as a rule, consisted of one or a few related genres.
Collectors began to purposefully identify workers' folklore, folklore of hard labor and exile. The Civil and Great Patriotic Wars also left their mark on folk poetry, which did not escape the attention of collectors.
Classic collections of Russian folklore were republished: collections of fairy tales by A.N. Afanasyeva, I.A. Khudyakova, D.K. Zelenin, collection of proverbs by V.I. Dahl, collection of riddles by D.N. Sadovnikova and others. Many materials from old folklore archives were published for the first time. Multi-volume series are published. Among them are “Monuments of Russian Folklore” (Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) and “Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East” (Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk).
There are centers for the philological study of Russian folklore, with their own archives and periodicals. This is the State Republican Center of Russian Folklore in Moscow (which publishes the magazine "Living Antiquity"), the sector of Russian folk art of the Institute of Russian Literature ( Pushkin House) Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (yearbook "Russian folklore: Materials and research"), Department of Folklore of the Moscow state university them. M.V. Lomonosov (collections "Folklore as the Art of Words"), as well as regional and regional folklore centers with their archives and publications ("Siberian Folklore", "Folklore of the Urals", "Folklore of the Peoples of Russia", etc.). 2
In the study of folklore, one of the leading places is occupied by the Saratov School of Folklore Studies, the history of which is connected with the names of Moscow University professor S.P. Shevyrev, songwriter N.G. Tsyganov, local historian A.F. Leopoldov, member of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission A.N. Minha; subsequently - professors at Saratov State University - B.M. Sokolova, V.V. Bush, A.P. Skaftymova. Professor T.M. made a great contribution to the study of folklore. Akimov and V.K. Arkhangelskaya. 3
Folklore in the “broad” sense is all folk traditional peasant spiritual and partly material culture. In the “narrow” sense - oral peasant verbal artistic tradition, “oral literature”, “oral folk literature”. Folklore has specific features, which fiction does not have - the art of words.
The international term "folklore" appeared in England in the mid-19th century. It comes from English. folk-lore (“folk knowledge”, “folk wisdom”) and denotes folk spiritual culture in various volumes of its types.
a) folklore - orally transmitted common experience and knowledge. This means all forms of spiritual culture, and with the most expanded interpretation, some forms material culture. Only a sociological limitation (“common people”) and a historical and cultural criterion are introduced - archaic forms that dominate or function as relics. (The word “common people” is more definite than “folk” in sociological terms and does not contain an evaluative meaning (“people’s artist” “people’s poet”);
b) folklore - common people artistic creativity or more modern definition"artistic communication". This concept allows us to extend the use of the term “folklore” to the sphere of musical, choreographic, visual, etc. folk art;
c) folklore - a common folk verbal tradition. At the same time, from all forms of common people’s activity, those associated with the word stand out;
d) folklore - oral tradition. In this case, orality is given paramount importance. This makes it possible to distinguish folklore from other verbal forms (first of all, to contrast it with literature).
That is, we have the following concepts: sociological (and historical-cultural), aesthetic, philological and theoretical-communicative (oral direct communication). In the first two cases, this is a “broad” use of the term “folklore” and in the last two – two variants of its “narrow” use.
The unequal use of the term “folklore” by supporters of each of the concepts indicates the complexity of the subject of folklore studies, its connections with various types human activity and human life. Depending on which particular connections are given particular importance and which are considered secondary peripheral, the fate of the main term of folkloristics within the framework of a particular concept is formed. Therefore, the named concepts in in a certain sense not only intersect, but sometimes do not seem to contradict each other.
Thus, if the most important features of folklore are verbality and orality, then this does not necessarily entail a denial of connections with other artistic forms of activity, or even less a reluctance to take into account the fact that folklore has always existed in the context of folk everyday culture. That is why the dispute that flared up more than once was so meaningless - is folkloristics a philological or ethnographic science. If we're talking about about verbal structures, then their study must inevitably be called philological, but since these structures function in folk life, they are studied by ethnography.
In this sense, folkloristics is simultaneously an integral part of both sciences at every moment of its existence. However, this does not prevent it from being independent in a certain respect - the specificity of the research methods of folkloristics inevitably develops at the intersection of these two sciences as well as musicology (ethnomusicology), social psychology and so on. It is characteristic that after debates about the nature of folklore (and not only in our country), folklore studies became noticeably philologized and at the same time ethnographicized and moved closer to musicology and general theory culture (works of E.S. Markaryan, M.S. Kagan, theory of ethnicity by Yu.V. Bromley, semiotics of culture, etc.).
So, folklore is a subject of study different sciences. Folk music is studied by musicologists, folk dances by choreographers, rituals and other spectacular forms of folk art by theater scholars, folk arts and crafts by art historians. Linguists, historians, psychologists, sociologists and other scientists turn to folklore. Each science sees in folklore what interests it.
Folklore - the art of words, a set of oral works of art of different genres created by many generations of people; traditional everyday artistic creativity for the people and its result, reflecting the self-awareness of the people, formed as a result of centuries of history and manifested in oral form and in a large number of variants of works.
Let's imagine the general evolution of folklore from ancient times to the present day.
About availability primitive forms of folklore among our distant ancestors is evidenced by many data. Already during the formation of the Eastern Slavic tribes, unique games and rituals were common, which were accompanied by round dances, singing, playing simple musical instruments, dancing, games, and a complex of ritual actions.
Household and labor items and simple artistic instruments found today by historians and ethnographers give grounds to speak about fairly developed forms of folklore (in the current understanding) of human practice on the territory of pre-Christian and early Christian Rus'. This can probably be described as forms early traditional folklore One of the first documents of Ancient Rus' - “The Tale of Bygone Years” says that “games were organized between villages, and they gathered at these games, dances and all sorts of demonic songs, and here they kidnapped their wives in agreement with them.”
This document reflects its time - the time of early Christianity - and bears its signs. In particular, it evaluates folklore as a demonic activity bearing pagan influence. It is important to note something else: the development, social organization and practical meaning of such games, which could not appear overnight, and therefore had a long prehistory.
The Christianization of Rus' is far from an unambiguous phenomenon for folk culture, which was rooted in paganism and retained its powerful influence, gradually being included in a new religious and spiritual system. Pagan roots are the first and main sign in the development of early traditional folklore. Folk tales, round dances and songs, epics and thoughts, colorful and deep in meaning wedding ceremonies, folk embroidery, artistic wood carving - all this can be historically meaningful only taking into account the ancient pagan worldview.
Paganism determined the special flavor of Slavic folklore. Pagan romance gave special color to Russian folk culture. All heroic fairy tales turn out to be fragments of ancient Slavic myths and heroic epic. The ornamentation of peasant architecture, utensils and clothing is associated with paganism. Complex, multi-day wedding rituals are imbued with pagan motifs. A significant part of the song repertoire is imbued with pagan worldview. A living, unfading form of ritual dance, accompanied by music and singing, is colorful village round dances.
The main pagan rituals, holidays and songs are associated mainly with agriculture. Folk calendar, which we are trying to revive today and adapt to new conditions, is the agricultural calendar, and therefore all ritual folklore bears features of a pagan character.
One cannot ignore or underestimate the fact that early traditional folklore, which dates back to pagan times, was subject to constant pressure from Christian ideology, the spokesman of which was the church. This was most clearly manifested in the fight against buffoonery, some rituals and customs, and musical instruments in Rus' in the 15th-17th centuries.
We can say with a certain degree of convention that folk musical instruments, singing, elements of dramatic play and dance were widespread in all groups of the population, as well as applied creativity and crafts (in the current sense). Everyday life, life, and work practice were permeated with myths, rites, rituals, and celebrations.
At the initial stages of culture, folklore in its diverse forms and manifestations captured a vast sphere of life, and its specific gravity in the artistic culture of the Middle Ages was more significant than in the art system of modern times. Folklore filled the vacuum created by the absence of written forms of secular musical creativity. Folk song, the art of folk "players" - performers on musical instruments - were widespread not only among the lower working classes, but also among the upper strata of society, right up to the princely court.
Until the era of Peter I, folklore remained dominant artistic system in Rus'.
At the same time, it is necessary to note another important pattern - the gradual expansion of the layer of peasant folklore due to the growth of the mass of the peasantry.
Folklore has a specific historical coloring and a specific historical meaning: sacred, ritual, aesthetic, pragmatic. Within the boundaries of historical eras, various folklore waves arose, associated with specific historical events. Moreover, each folklore genre has its own patterns of emergence, flourishing, decay, and inclusion in culture. Its development does not coincide in its time frame with the boundaries of the phenomenon that caused it. Historical songs, tales about the Pugachev or Razin uprisings were born from them, but remained in culture even after their suppression.
For a long time historical period Peasant folklore remained the most powerful and holistic ideological and cultural system. The traditional centuries-old culture of the Russian village is not only a source of information about its roots that interests us. At the same time, she is the roots on which the mass of the working peasantry stood for a thousand years, the roots that fed not only the village, but also the urban settlement.
Due to the features social development Russia, which entered the capitalist path of development only in the second half XIX century., peasant folklore remained the dominant form of folk art until the beginning XX V. At the same time, we should talk about the emergence of new ones, and the attenuation and disappearance of previous genres of folklore. Behind these changes are objective historical prerequisites that ensure the adequacy of folk art to the fundamental requirements that were associated with the social, economic, and political situation in Russia.
Under the influence of powerful social factors, starting from the second half of the 19th century. peasant folklore is undergoing transformation and moving to the periphery artistic culture. This could not but radically affect the nature of his existence, development, and inclusion in the general context of life.
The emergence and development of other social groups, each of which developed its own specific forms folklore creativity(today they talk about student folklore, intelligentsia folklore, bourgeois folklore, worker folklore) led to its complication and differentiation.
The folklore of a certain group performs specific functions in relation to this group and has its own tasks, features and characteristics. Folklore, transferred from the peasant environment to the princely court or adopted by the working environment, becomes a different phenomenon, from an aesthetic point of view, because it begins to fulfill a different role. The creativity of different groups naturally comes into contact, and border borrowings arise. However, the specificity of each of the flows is always expressed quite clearly, even in the case of deep transformations. This applies to all genres and types of folklore of peasants, intelligentsia, workers, etc. without exception.
With the complication of the forms of social and spiritual life of society, folklore forms of peasant creativity were perceived and actively developed by representatives of the newly emerging classes and groups. The formation of the working class in Russia in the middle of the 19th century, its entry into the historical arena, increase in numbers, growth of political consciousness - all this was accompanied by the formation of a specific ethno-folklore environment. Forms of artistic creativity that corresponded to the spirit and tasks of the proletariat appeared, called workers' folklore.
We can talk about the existence in Russia XIX V. folk culture of landowners and noble estates, the Russian intelligentsia, which declared itself loudly from the beginning of the 19th century, and then students, workers and the city as a whole. Despite certain differences in forms of creativity, genre composition, and artistic imagery, the folklore of all social groups had a lot in common. Only over time, gradually, did each social group develop its own features in the folklore.
Since the end of the 19th century. folklore under the influence of objective geopolitical and economic processes, taking place in the country, experienced increasing pressure from other layers of culture, losing the most stable peasant origins. Mass de-peasantization, the destruction of the natural way of life of the peasantry, accompanied by the physical destruction of a significant part of it, led to the global destruction of the peasant layer of culture. Its erosion, which has been observed for more than half a century, has turned into an irreversible process.
The inculcation in the mass consciousness of the ideology of intolerance towards traditions and folklore culture led to the fact that they were actually driven out of life, allegedly because of their patriarchy and non-modernity. Folklore fell out of the field of attention of the powerful and extensive system of state and public assistance to folk art. All pre-revolutionary mass publications on traditional culture and folklore were closed and repurposed (for example, the magazine “Living Antiquity”, etc.). The practice was focused on the creation of folklore forms of amateur performances. This approach was dominant and defining. Some experts provided a “scientific” basis for the process of dying out of folklore and considered it necessary to pay increased attention to the creation of “novins”—Soviet folklore.
The idea of using folklore opportunities to praise the victories and achievements of socialism, the personalities of Lenin and Stalin, and other leaders of the state has spread in folk art.
Meanwhile, participants in scientific expeditions noted the presence of strong foundations for the development and existence of folklore. The village remained largely archaic. Previous traditions and customs were maintained by the artificial “freezing” of the village (its residents could not change their place of residence without special permission until the 60s). Many rituals remained in active use - weddings, christenings, funerals, folk singing, playing the harmonica, balalaika. There were truly outstanding people still alive folk performers, whose skill, knowledge of folklore, and ability to create it developed during the active existence of traditions. They formed a folklore environment around themselves. In general, the intra-village way of life retained the features of the pre-revolutionary one. New phenomena did not lead to fundamental changes in the cultural way of life.
Folklore in the pre-war decades had not yet been destroyed as an integral aesthetic phenomenon. In its depths, the most complex events took place, often latently. evolutionary processes, affecting primarily the qualitative aspects of its future existence.
The pace of destruction of the cultural and everyday way of life accelerated significantly after collectivization, and then during the Great Patriotic War. If collectivization marked the beginning of this process, then the war, having displaced hundreds of millions of people from their original places of residence, destroyed the folklore environment essentially throughout the entire European part of the USSR.
Folklore of the second half of the 40s - early 70s is folklore that exists, as it were, outside the socio-spiritual framework that has developed in society. Not only did he not fit into them, but he was also artificially taken outside the framework artistic life the masses. A situation arose when, despite the fact that the folklore tradition remained life-giving and retained its vibrant forms, it did not receive proper support and found itself suppressed and opposed to amateur artistic activity. Neglect folklore traditions took sharp forms of rejection traditional forms people's life.
Inculcation among the masses, both in the city and in the countryside, of the values of pseudo-folk culture or culture that is not perceived by them (in particular, opera, symphonic music, visual arts, classical ballet, etc.), led to blurring and accessible, close to the people culture - traditional. The goal of introducing everyone to the heights of musical, choreographic, dramatic, and visual arts came into conflict with the needs of the vast majority of the population, which could not for the most part perceive these values.
Today folklore is actively collected and studied by researchers, since modern society came to understand its value and enormous educational significance.
Folk verbal creativity was stored in the memory of people; in the process of communication, works passed from one to another and were not written down. For this reason, folklorists must engage in so-called “field work” - go on folklore expeditions to identify performers and record folklore from them. Recorded texts of oral folk works (as well as photographs, tape recordings, diary notes of collectors, etc.) are stored in folklore archives. Archival materials can be published, for example, in the form of folklore collections.
Folklore has its own artistic laws. The oral form of creation, distribution and existence of works is that main feature, which gives rise to the SPECIFICITY of folklore, causes its difference from literature.
1. Traditionality.
Folklore is mass creativity. Works of literature have an author, works of folklore are anonymous, their author is the people. In literature there are writers and readers, in folklore there are performers and listeners.
Oral works were created according to already known models, and even included direct borrowings. The speech style used constant epithets, symbols, comparisons and other traditional poetic devices. Works with a plot were characterized by a set of typical narrative elements and their usual compositional combination. In the images of folklore characters, the typical also prevailed over the individual. Tradition required the ideological orientation of the works: they taught goodness and contained the rules of human behavior in life.
Storytellers (performers of fairy tales), singers (performers of songs), storytellers (performers of epics), voplenits (performers of lamentations) sought, first of all, to convey to the listeners what was in accordance with tradition. The repeatability of the oral text allowed for its changes, and this allowed an individual talented individual to express himself. A multiple creative act took place, co-creation, in which any representative of the people could be a participant.
The oral artistic tradition was the common fund. Each person could select for himself what he needed.
Not everything newly created was preserved in oral history. Repeatedly repeated fairy tales, songs, epics, proverbs and other works passed “from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation.” On this path, they lost what bore the stamp of individuality, but at the same time they identified and deepened what could satisfy everyone. The new was born only on traditional basis, while it should not just copy tradition, but complement it.
In folklore, a creative process constantly took place, which supported and developed the artistic tradition.
2. Syncretism.
The artistic principle did not immediately win in folklore. In ancient society, the word merged with the beliefs and everyday needs of people, and its poetic meaning, if it existed, was not realized.
Residual forms of this state were preserved in rituals, conspiracies and other genres of late folklore. For example, a round dance game is a complex of several artistic components: words, music, facial expressions, gesture, dance. All of them can only exist together, as elements of a whole - a round dance. This property is usually denoted by the word “syncretism” (from the Greek synkretismos - “connection”).
Over time, syncretism has historically faded away. Different types of art have overcome the state of primitive indivisibility and stood out on their own. Their later connections—synthesis—began to appear in folklore.
3. Variability.
The oral form of assimilation and transmission of works made them open to change. There were no two completely identical performances of the same work, even in the case when there was only one performer. Oral works had a mobile, variant nature.
Variant (from Latin variants - “changing”) - each single performance of a folklore work, as well as its fixed text.
Since a folklore work existed in the form of multiple performances, it existed in the totality of its variants. Each version was different from others told or sung in different time, in different places, in different environments, by different performers or by one (repeatedly).
Oral folk tradition sought to preserve and protect from oblivion what was most valuable. Tradition kept changes to the text within its boundaries. For variants of a folklore work, what is important is what is common and repeated, and what is secondary is how they differ from one another.
4. Improvisation.
The variability of folklore could practically be achieved through improvisation.
Improvisation (from Latin improviso - “unforeseen, suddenly”) is the creation of the text of a folklore work, or its individual parts, in the process of performance.
Between acts of performance, the folklore work was stored in memory. As it was voiced, the text seemed to be born anew each time. The performer improvised. He relied on knowledge poetic language folklore, selected ready-made artistic components, and created their combinations. Without improvisation, the use of speech “blanks” and the use of oral-poetic techniques would be impossible.
Improvisation did not contradict tradition; on the contrary, it existed precisely because there were certain rules, an artistic canon.
An oral work was subject to the laws of its genre. The genre allowed for one or another mobility of the text and set the boundaries of fluctuation.
In different genres, improvisation manifested itself with greater or lesser force. There are genres focused on improvisation (lamentations, lullabies), and even those whose texts were one-time (fair cries of traders). In contrast, there are genres designed for precise memorization, therefore, as if they did not allow improvisation (for example, conspiracies).
Improvisation carried a creative impulse and generated novelty. It expressed the dynamics of the folklore process.
Folk art.
Each piece of oral folk art not only expresses the thoughts and feelings of specific groups, but is also collectively created and disseminated. However, collectivity creative process in folklore does not mean that individuals played no role. Talented masters not only improved or adapted existing texts to new conditions, but sometimes also created songs, ditties, and fairy tales, which, in accordance with the laws of oral folk art, were distributed without the name of the author. With the social division of labor, unique professions arose related to the creation and performance of poetic and musical works (ancient Greek rhapsodes, Russian guslars, Ukrainian kobzars, Kyrgyz akyns, Azerbaijani ashugs, French chansonniers, etc.).
In Russian folklore in the 18th-19th centuries. there was no developed professionalization of singers. Storytellers, singers, storytellers remained peasants and artisans. Some genres of folk poetry had mass distribution. Performing others required certain training, a special musical or acting gift.
The folklore of every nation is unique, just like its history, customs, and culture. Thus, epics and ditties are inherent only in Russian folklore, dumas - in Ukrainian, etc. Some genres (not just historical songs) reflect history of a given people. The composition and form of ritual songs are different; they can be timed to coincide with periods of the agricultural, pastoral, hunting or fishing calendar, and enter into various relationships with the rituals of Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or other religions. For example, the ballad among the Scots has acquired clear genre differences, while among the Russians it is close to a lyrical or historical song. Among some peoples (for example, Serbs), poetic ritual lamentations are common, among others (including Ukrainians) they existed in the form of simple prosaic exclamations. Each nation has its own arsenal of metaphors, epithets, comparisons. Thus, the Russian proverb “Silence is gold” corresponds to the Japanese “Silence is flowers.”
Despite the bright national coloring of folklore texts, many motifs, images and even plots are similar among different peoples. Thus, a comparative study of the plots of European folklore has led scientists to the conclusion that about two-thirds of the plots of fairy tales of each nation have parallels in the tales of other nationalities. Veselovsky called such stories “stray”, creating a “theory wandering stories”, which has been repeatedly criticized by Marxist literary criticism.
For peoples with a common historical past and speaking related languages (for example, the Indo-European group), such similarities can be explained by a common origin. This similarity is genetic. Similar features in the folklore of peoples belonging to different language families, but who have been in contact with each other for a long time (for example, Russians and Finns) are explained by borrowing. But even in the folklore of peoples living on different continents and probably never communicating, there are similar themes, plots, and characters. Thus, one Russian fairy tale talks about a clever poor man who, for all his tricks, was put in a sack and is about to be drowned, but he, having deceived the master or the priest (they say, huge schools of beautiful horses graze under the water), puts him in the sack instead of himself. The same plot can be found in the fairy tales of Muslim peoples (stories about Haju Nasreddin), and among the peoples of Guinea, and among the inhabitants of the island of Mauritius. These works arose independently. This similarity is called typological. At the same stage of development, similar beliefs and rituals, forms of family and social life develop. And therefore, both ideals and conflicts coincide - the confrontation between poverty and wealth, intelligence and stupidity, hard work and laziness, etc.
Word of mouth.
Folklore is stored in the memory of the people and reproduced orally. The author of a literary text does not have to directly communicate with the reader, but a work of folklore is performed in the presence of listeners.
Even the same narrator, voluntarily or involuntarily, changes something with each performance. Moreover, the next performer conveys the content differently. And fairy tales, songs, epics, etc. pass through thousands of lips. Listeners not only influence the performer in a certain way (in science this is called feedback), but sometimes they themselves become involved in the performance. Therefore, every piece of oral folk art has many variants. For example, in one version of the fairy tale The Frog Princess, the prince obeys his father and marries the frog without any discussion. And in another, he wants to leave her. In different fairy tales, the frog helps the betrothed to complete the king’s tasks, which are also not the same everywhere. Even such genres as epics, songs, ditties, where there is an important restraining element - rhythm, melody, have excellent options. Here, for example, is a song recorded in the 19th century. in Arkhangelsk province:
Dear Nightingale,
You can fly everywhere:
Fly to happy countries,
Fly to the glorious city of Yaroslavl...
Around the same years in Siberia they sang to the same tune:
You are my little darling,
You can fly everywhere
Fly to foreign countries,
To the glorious city of Yeruslan...
Not only on different territories, but also in various historical eras the same song could be performed in variations. Thus, songs about Ivan the Terrible were remade into songs about Peter I.
In order to remember and retell or sing some piece of work (sometimes quite voluminous), people have developed techniques that have been polished over centuries. They create a special style that distinguishes folklore from literary texts. Many folklore genres have a common origin. So, the folk storyteller knew in advance how to start the tale - In a certain kingdom, in a certain state... or Once upon a time... The epic often began with the words As in the glorious city of Kyiv... In some genres, endings are also repeated. For example, epics often end like this: Here they sing his glory... A fairy tale almost always ends with a wedding and a feast with the saying I was there, I drank honey and beer, it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth, or And they began to live and live and make good things.
There are also other, most varied repetitions found in folklore. Individual words may be repeated: Past the house, past the stone one, // Past the garden, the green garden, or the beginning of the lines: At dawn it was dawn, // At dawn it was dawn.
Entire lines, and sometimes several lines, are repeated:
Walking along the Don, walking along the Don,
A young Cossack is walking along the Don,
A young Cossack is walking along the Don,
And the maiden weeps, and the maiden weeps,
And the maiden weeps over the fast river,
And the maiden weeps over the fast river.
In works of oral folk art, not only words and phrases are repeated, but also entire episodes. Epics, fairy tales, and songs are built on the threefold repetition of identical episodes. So, when the Kaliki (wandering singers) heal Ilya Muromets, they give him “honey drink” to drink three times: after the first time he feels a lack of strength, after the second - an excess, and only after drinking the third time does he receive as much strength as he needs it.
In all genres of folklore there are so-called common, or typical, passages. In fairy tales - the fast movement of a horse: The horse runs - the earth trembles. "Politeness" (politeness, good manners) epic hero is always expressed by the formula: He laid the Cross in a written way, but he bowed in a learned way. There are formulas of beauty - Neither can be said in a fairy tale, nor described with a pen. The command formulas are repeated: Stand before me like a leaf before the grass!
Definitions are repeated, so-called constant epithets, which are inextricably linked with the word being defined. So, in Russian folklore the field is always clean, the month is clear, the maiden is red (krasna), etc.
Other artistic techniques also help with listening comprehension. For example, the so-called technique of stepwise narrowing of images. Here is the beginning of the folk song:
It was a glorious city in Cherkassk,
New stone tents were built there,
In the tents the tables are all oak,
A young widow is sitting at the table.
A hero can also stand out through contrast. At a feast at Prince Vladimir:
And how everyone sits here, drinks, eats and brags,
But only one sits, does not drink, does not eat, does not eat...
In the fairy tale, two brothers are smart, and the third ( main character, winner) is a fool for the time being.
Beyond certain folklore characters stable qualities are fixed. So, the fox is always cunning, the hare is cowardly, and the wolf is evil. There are certain symbols in folk poetry: nightingale - joy, happiness; cuckoo - grief, trouble, etc.
According to researchers, from twenty to eighty percent of the text consists of ready-made material that does not need to be memorized.
Folklore, literature, science.
Literature appeared much later than folklore, and has always, to one degree or another, used its experience: themes, genres, techniques - different in different eras. Yes, stories ancient literature rely on myths. Author's fairy tales, songs, and ballads appear in European and Russian literature. Due to folklore it is constantly enriched literary language. Indeed, in the works of oral folk art there are many ancient and dialect words. With the help of endearing suffixes and freely used prefixes, new expressive words are created. The girl is sad: You are my parents, my destroyers, my slaughterers... The guy complains: You, my darling spinner, you're a cool wheel, you've twisted my head. Gradually, some words enter colloquial and then literary speech. It is no coincidence that Pushkin urged: “Read folk tales, young writers, in order to see the properties of the Russian language.”
Folklore techniques were especially widely used in works about the people and for the people. For example, in Nekrasov’s poem Who Lives Well in Rus'? - numerous and varied repetitions (of situations, phrases, words); diminutive suffixes.
At the same time, literary works penetrated folklore and influenced its development. As works of oral folk art (without the name of the author and in various versions), the rubai of Hafiz and Omar Khayyam, some Russian stories of the 17th century, the Prisoner and the Black Shawl of Pushkin, the beginning of Korobeinikov Nekrasov (Oh, the box is full, full, // There are also calicoes) were distributed and brocade. // Have pity, my sweetheart, // Well done shoulder...) and much more. Including the beginning of Ershov’s fairy tale The Little Humpbacked Horse, which became the origin of many folk tales:
Behind the mountains, behind the forests,
Beyond the wide seas
Against heaven on earth
An old man lived in a village.
The poet M. Isakovsky and composer M. Blanter wrote the song Katyusha (Apple trees and pears blossomed...). The people sang it, and about a hundred different Katyushas appeared. So, during the Great Patriotic War they sang: Apple trees and pears do not bloom here..., The Nazis burned apple and pear trees... The girl Katyusha became a nurse in one song, a partisan in another, and a communications operator in the third.
At the end of the 1940s, three students - A. Okhrimenko, S. Christie and V. Shreiberg - composed a comic song:
In an old and noble family
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy lived
He ate neither fish nor meat,
I walked along the alleys barefoot.
It was impossible to print such poems at that time, and they were distributed orally. More and more new versions of this song began to be created:
Great Soviet writer
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy,
He didn't eat fish or meat
I walked along the alleys barefoot.
Under the influence of literature, rhyme appeared in folklore (all ditties rhymed, there is rhyme in later folk songs), division into stanzas. Under the direct influence of romantic poetry (see also ROMANTICISM), in particular ballads, a new genre of urban romance arose.
Study oral folklore poetic creativity not only literary critics, but also historians, ethnographers, and cultural experts. For ancient, pre-literate times, folklore is often the only source that has conveyed certain information to the present day (in a veiled form). So, in a fairy tale, the groom receives a wife for some merits and exploits, and most often he marries not in the kingdom where he was born, but in the one where his future wife is from. This detail of a fairy tale born in ancient times, suggests that in those days a wife was taken (or kidnapped) from another family. Available in fairy tale and echoes of the ancient rite of initiation - the initiation of boys into men. This ritual usually took place in the forest, in a “men’s” house. Fairy tales often mention a house in the forest inhabited by men.
Folklore of late times is the most important source for studying the psychology, worldview, and aesthetics of a particular people.
In Russia at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries. Interest in the folklore of the 20th century has increased, those aspects of it that not so long ago remained outside the boundaries of official science (political jokes, some ditties, Gulag folklore). Without studying this folklore, the idea of the life of the people in the era of totalitarianism will inevitably be incomplete and distorted.
Records of folklore during the period of Old Russian literature (XI-- 391 XVII centuries). As was said in the previous chapter, Russian literature makes extensive use of folklore already at the earliest early stages its formation and development. Various genres of folklore (traditions, legends, songs, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings) are included in chronicle“The Tale of Bygone Years” (beginning of the 12th century), in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (end of the 12th century), “Zadonshchina” (end of the 14th century), “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” (15th century), “ The Tale of Misfortune-Grief" (XVII century) and other monuments of ancient Russian literature.
It is possible that individual folklore works were first written down before being included in literature. For example, scientists believe that “Zadonshchina” and “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” were created on the basis of recorded folklore legends and stories. In manuscripts of the 16th century. Scientists have discovered records of fairy tales. From the 17th century The names of collectors of Russian folklore have reached us. For example, it is known that for the English traveler Richard James in 1619-1620. In the Arkhangelsk region, historical songs were recorded about the events of the era of “Troubles”. Another English traveler, Collins, wrote down two tales about Ivan the Terrible between 1660 and 1669. In 1681 folk lyrical songs recorded by P. A. Kvashnin-Samarin.
In the 17th century works of almost all genres of Russian folklore were recorded. For example, the fairy tales “About Ivan Ponomarevich”, “About the Princess and Ivashka the White Shirt”, etc., epics about Ilya Muromets, Mikhail Potyk and Stavr Godinovich, many legends, songs, proverbs and sayings.
By the 17th century The tradition of compiling handwritten folklore collections is ascending. At this time, there were many handwritten songbooks among the people, which, in addition to literary poems with spiritual content, also included folk songs. From the 17th century A handwritten collection of “Tales or popular proverbs in alphabetical order” has reached us. The collection included about 2800 proverbs.
Collection, study and publication of folklore in the 18th century. The tradition of compiling handwritten folklore collections continues in the 18th century. There are especially many handwritten songbooks that contain literary and folk songs. The 18th century marks the beginning of the development of folkloristic thought in Russia. Scientific interest in folklore in the first half of the 18th century. associated with the names of V. N. Tatishchev, V. K. Trediakovsky and M. V. Lomonosov.
V.N. Tatishchev (1686-1750) turned to the study of folklore while working on “Russian History...”. He draws on folklore as a historical source. Tatishchev studies folklore from chronicles and in real life. Characterizing ancient Russian history, Tatishchev touches on the epics about Ilya Muromets, Alyosha Popovich, Nightingale the Robber and Duke Stepanovich. He was also interested in other genres of folklore. Tatishchev, for example, compiled a small collection of proverbs.
Unlike the historian V.N. Tatishchev, the poet V.K. Trediakovsky (1703-1768) had a philological, rather than historical, interest in folklore. Trediakovsky studies folklore as a source of poetic phraseology and the national metric system. In the practice of Russian literature before Trediakovsky's reform, syllabic versification was used. Having studied the features of Russian folk versification, Trediakovsky, in his treatise “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems” (1735), proposed a system of syllabonic versification, which was later used by all Russian literary poetry. Trediakovsky’s individual remarks about the peculiarities of the language of Russian folk poetry are interesting. In particular, he notes the constant folklore epithets “tight bow”, “white tent”, etc.
More higher value in the study of Russian folk poetry are the works and individual statements of M.V. Lomonosov (1711-- 1765). Growing up in the North, Lomonosov was well acquainted with all genres of Russian folklore (fairy tales, epics, songs, proverbs and sayings). He also studies folklore from chronicles and handwritten collections. In his works, Lomonosov talks about folklore as a valuable source of information about pagan rituals, and talks about holding calendar holidays. Following Trediakovsky, Lomonosov studies folk versification and in his work “Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry” (1739) further develops the theory of syllabic-tonic versification. Lomonosov studies the language of folk poetry to understand the national characteristics of the Russian language. Folk proverbs and he uses sayings in his works “Rhetoric” (1748) and “Russian Grammar” (1757). In his works on the history of Russia, Lomonosov uses folklore as a historical source.
In the middle of the 18th century. S. P. Krasheninnikov is engaged in collecting folklore for historical and ethnographic purposes. In 1756, the first volume of his work “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” was published, which talks about the rituals of the Kamchadals and contains a number of folk songs. A.P. Sumarokov responded to S.P. Krasheninnikov’s book “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” with a review that expressed his views on folk poetry. Sumarokov evaluates the folklore of the Kamchadals mainly from an aesthetic point of view. The pathos of Sumarokov's review is the struggle for simplicity and naturalness in poetry.
The work of collecting Russian folklore intensified in the last third of the 18th century. If earlier folklore records were concentrated in handwritten collections, now they, like literary works, are published. For the first time, samples of Russian folklore were published in N.G. Kurganov’s “Pismovnik” (1796). More than 900 proverbs, about 20 songs, several fairy tales and anecdotes were published in the appendices to the “Pismovnik”.
In the future, separate collections are dedicated to various genres of Russian folklore. So, M.D. From 1770 to 1774 Chulkov published “Collection of Various Songs” in four parts, N.I. Novikov in 1780-1781. publishes in six parts “New and full meeting Russian songs", V.F. Trutovsky for the period from 1776 to 1795 published in four parts "Collection of Russian simple songs with notes". At the end of the 18th century. Less significant songbooks are also published:
“New Russian Songbook” (parts 1--3,
1790--1791), “Selected Songbook” (1792),
“Russian Erata” by M. Popov (1792), “Pocket Songbook” by I. I. Dmitriev (1796), etc.
The greatest value for us is the collection of N. Lvova --I. Pracha “Collection of Russian folk songs with their voices...” (1790). This is the only collection of the 18th century in which folk songs are published in their original form, without any editorial changes. In the period from 1780 to 1783, V. A. Levshin’s collection “Russian Fairy Tales” was published in 10 parts. Literary and folk works are presented here in processing. In addition to fairy tales of a magical and heroic nature, the collection also contains everyday fairy tales, in which satirical elements predominate. Folk tales in processed form are also published in the collections 394 “A Cure for Thoughtfulness” (1786), “Russian Fairy Tales Collected by Pyotr Timofeev” (1787), “Peasant Tales” (1793), in the collection of V. Berezaisky “Anecdotes of the Ancient Poshekhonets” ( 1798) etc.
Collections of proverbs appear. Thus, A. A. Barsov published “Collection of 4291 ancient proverbs” in 1770. N.I. Novikov republished this collection in 1787. Two years earlier, the poet I. F. Bogdanovich published the collection “Russian Proverbs,” in which folklore material was selected biasedly and subjected to significant literary processing.
The merit of Russian enlighteners of the second half of the 18th century. (N.G. Kurganova, M.D. Chulkova, V.A. Levshina, N.I. Novikova, etc.) in that they were able to correctly assess the importance of Russian folklore in the development of national literature, and did a great job of publishing ( however, in edited form) folk songs, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings. In his literary creativity they used folklore to depict folk customs and morals.
In the person of A. N. Radishchev (1749--1802) Russian educational thought of the 18th century. receives its highest development, rises to a truly democratic, revolutionary consciousness.
Radishchev's revolutionary beliefs determined the special nature of his use of folklore, a fundamentally new understanding of folk art. Radishchev speaks for the first time about folklore as an exponent of the people's worldview. In folk songs, Radishchev saw “the formation of the soul of our people.” They, according to Radishchev, reflected not only the everyday side of life, but also the social ideals of the people. They serve to comprehend Russian national character. In “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1790), Radishchev draws on folk art as material that reveals the true soul of the oppressed people, their painful situation under serfdom. It is for these purposes that in the chapter “Gorodnya” he cites the laments of the mother and bride for the recruit. Let us note that this is the first publication (albeit of literary treatment) of folk laments.
A.N. Radishchev uses folklore as a means of achieving not only the nationality, but also true realism, deep psychologism. Thus, in the chapter “Copper”, against the background of a cheerful round dance song “There was a birch tree in the field,” Radishchev, in contrast, deeply truthfully, with great psychological force, depicts the picture of the sale of serfs. The problem of the folk singer, first put forward by Radishchev, is of no small importance both for literature and for folklore studies. The image of the folk singer is drawn by Radishchev in the chapter “Wedge” of “Travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The singing of the old blind singer as depicted by Radishchev is true art, “penetrating into the hearts of the listeners.” Then Radishchev once again turned to the topic of folk singers in his poem “Songs Sung at Competitions in Honor of the Ancients” Slavic deities"(1800--1802). Here folk singers and poets act as the spiritual leaders of the people. It is curious that Radishchev’s “Songs...” in its poetic imagery and style have some features of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which Radishchev, like many of his contemporaries, considered not a literary, but a folklore monument.
From what has been said, it is obvious that the 18th century represents an important stage in the prehistory of Russian folkloristics as a science. At this time, significant folklore material was collected and published, and its significance as a phenomenon was correctly assessed. national culture. Radishchev expresses the most valuable idea about 396 folk songs as an expression of the soul of the people.
At the same time, it should be noted that in the 18th century. Russian folkloristics has not yet formed as a science. Folklore has not yet been recognized as an independent object of research; it is not yet clearly separated from literature. In most collections, folklore works are placed together with literary works. Folk works published in literary form. At this time, specifically folkloristic research methods and techniques had not yet been developed.