Genres of folklore: examples in literature. Features of collecting and researching oral folk art in Russia Household folklore

Russian folklore fully contains all the components characteristic of world folklore, the leading categories of which are “genus” and “genre”, and their mutual correspondence. There are three genera represented in Russian folklore:

1) epic, divided into documentary (non-fairytale) and fairy-tale prose. Non-fairytale (documentary) prose includes such genres as legends, traditions, folk stories, incidents, and fairytale - cult-animist tales, tales about animals, magical or fantastic tales, social and everyday tales, anecdotes, parables, fables ;
2) lyrics, includes ritual and lyrical songs. Ritual songs include calendar-ritual songs (carols, sowings, Epiphany songs, freckles, Easter songs, Kupala songs, harvesters) and family ritual songs (wedding, funeral, lamentations). Lyrical songs include family songs (songs about love, women’s lot, satirical songs) and social songs (Cossack, recruit, soldier, serf) songs;
3) drama, combines calendar-ritual (nativity scene, Christmas drama, Easter drama, spring-summer games, Kupala performance) and family-ritual (birth, housewarming, wedding, funeral) works, combining dramaturgy, development of events and synthesis music, words and actions.
4) lyric-epic, includes heroic lyric-epic works - epics, thoughts, historical songs, and non-heroic ones - ballads, chronicle songs. These works organically combine lyrical and epic elements.

Epic, lyrical, dramatic and lyrical-epic works are divided into genres - song (carols, thoughts, songs, ballads, etc.) and prosaic (fairy tales, myths, etc.), some of them have many varieties. For example, a fairy tale as a type has the following genres, or genre varieties: tales about animals, fairy tales, fairy tales, social tales and fables.

In another classification, Russian folklore is divided into such groups of genres as ritual and non-ritual folklore. Each of these types of folklore contains a spectrum of corresponding genres.

A) Ritual folklore:

calendar folklore: winter, spring, summer and autumn cycles (carols, Maslenitsa songs, vesnyankas),

family folklore (family stories, lullabies, wedding songs, lamentations),

occasional folklore (spells, chants, rhymes).

B) Non-ritual folklore:
- - folklore drama (Petrushka theater, nativity scene drama, religious drama),
- - poetry (epic, historical song, spiritual verse, lyric song, ballad, ditty),
- - prose: fairy tale (fairy tale: fairy tale, animal tale, social, historical) and non-fairy tale (tradition, legend, tale, mythological story,),
- - folklore of speech situations (proverbs, sayings, well wishes, curses, riddles, tongue twisters)

At the same time, there is a division of folklore into poetic and prosaic genres.

Oral folk art is the richest heritage of every country. Folklore existed even before the advent of written language; it is not literature, but a masterpiece of the art of oral literature. The genera of folklore creativity were formed in the pre-literary period of art on the basis of ceremonial and ritual actions. The first attempts to comprehend literary genera date back to the era of antiquity.

Types of folklore creativity

Folklore is represented by three genera:

1. Epic literature. This genus is represented in prose and poetry. Russian folklore genres of the epic kind are represented by epics, historical songs, fairy tales, tales, legends, parables, fables, proverbs and sayings.

2. Lyrical literature. All lyrical works are based on the thoughts and experiences of the lyrical hero. Examples of folklore genres of the lyrical direction are represented by ritual, lullabies, love songs, ditties, bayat, haivka, Easter and Kupala songs. In addition, there is a separate block - “Folklore lyrics”, which includes literary songs and romances.

3. Dramatic literature. This is a type of literature that combines epic and lyrical methods of depiction. The basis of a dramatic work is a conflict, the content of which is revealed through the acting of the actors. Dramatic works have a dynamic plot. Folklore genres of the dramatic kind are represented by family ritual songs, calendar songs, and folk dramas.

Individual works may contain features of lyrical and epic literature, therefore a mixed genre is distinguished - lyric-epic, which in turn is divided into:

Works with heroic characters, lyric-epic content (epic, duma, historical song).

Non-heroic works (ballad, chronicle song).

There is also folklore for children (lullaby, nursery rhyme, comfort, pestushka, fairy tale).

Genres of folklore

Folklore genres of folk art are represented in two directions:

1. Ritual works of UNT.

Performed during the rituals:

Calendar (carols, Maslenitsa activities, freckles, Trinity songs);

Family and household (birth of a child, wedding celebrations, celebration of national holidays);

Occasional works - came in the form of spells, counting rhymes, chants.

2. Non-ritual works of UNT.

This section includes several subgroups:

Drama (folklore) - nativity scenes, religious works, theater "Petrushki".

Poetry (folklore) - epics, lyrical, historical and spiritual songs, ballads, ditties.

Prose (folklore) in turn is divided into fairy-tale and non-fairy-tale. The first includes tales about magic, animals, everyday and cumulative tales, and the second is associated with famous heroes and heroes of Rus' who fought witches (Baba Yaga) and other demonological creatures. Also included in non-fairy tale prose are tales, legends, and mythological stories.

Speech folklore is represented by proverbs, sayings, chants, riddles, and tongue twisters.

Folklore genres carry their own individual plot and meaning.

Images of military battles, exploits of heroes and folk heroes are observed in epics, vivid events of the past, everyday life and memories of heroes from the past can be found in historical songs.

Stories about the actions of the heroes Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich are epic. The folklore genre of the fairy tale tells about the actions of Ivan the Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool, Vasilisa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga. Family songs are always represented by characters such as mother-in-law, wifey, hubby.

Literature and folklore

Folklore differs from literature in its unique system of constructing works. Its characteristic difference from literature is that the genres of folklore works have starters, beginnings, sayings, retardations, and trinity. Also significant differences in style compositions will be the use of epithet, tautology, parallelism, hyperbole, synecdoche.

Just as in oral folk art (ONT), folklore genres in literature are represented by three genera. This is epic, lyric, drama.

Distinctive features of literature and CNT

Large works of literature, represented by novels, short stories, novellas, are written in calm, measured tones. This allows the reader, without interrupting the reading process, to analyze the plot and draw appropriate conclusions. Folklore contains a saying, a beginning, a saying and a chorus. The technique of tautology is the basic principle of storytelling. Hyperbole, exaggeration, synecdoche and parallelism are also very popular. Such figurative actions are not allowed in literature all over the world.

Small folklore genres as a separate block of CNT works

This system includes mainly works for children. The relevance of these genres continues to this day, because every person gets acquainted with this literature even before he begins to speak.

The lullaby became one of the first works of folklore. The presence of partial conspiracies and amulets is direct evidence of this fact. Many believed that otherworldly forces act around a person; if a child sees something bad in a dream, it will never happen again in reality. This is probably why the lullaby about the “little gray top” is popular even today.

Another genre is nursery rhyme. To understand what exactly such works are, we can equate it to a sentence song or a song with simultaneous actions. This genre promotes the development of fine motor skills and emotional health in a child; the key point is considered to be scenes with the play of fingers “Magpie-Crow”, “Ladushki”.

All of the above small folklore genres are necessary for every person. Thanks to them, children learn for the first time what is good and what is bad, and are taught order and hygiene.

Folklore of nationalities

An interesting fact is that different nationalities, in their culture, traditions and customs, have common points of contact in folklore. There are so-called universal desires, thanks to which songs, rituals, legends, and parables appear. Many peoples hold celebrations and chanting to obtain a rich harvest.

From the above, it becomes obvious that different peoples are often close in many spheres of life, and folklore unites customs and traditions into a single structure of folk art.

Folklore. Genres of folklore

Folklore(from English folk- people, lore- wisdom) - oral folk art. Folklore arose before the advent of writing. Its most important feature is that folklore is the art of the spoken word. This is what distinguishes it from literature and other forms of art. Another important distinguishing feature of folklore is the collective nature of creativity. It arose as mass creativity and expressed the ideas of a primitive community and clan, and not of an individual.

In folklore, as in literature, there are three types of works: epic, lyrical and dramatic. At the same time, epic genres have poetic and prose forms (in literature, the epic genre is represented only by prose works: short story, tale, novel, etc.). Literary genres and folklore genres differ in composition. In Russian folklore, epic genres include epics, historical songs, fairy tales, traditions, legends, tales, proverbs, and sayings. Lyrical folklore genres include ritual songs, lullabies, family and love songs, lamentations, and ditties. Dramatic genres include folk dramas. Many folklore genres have entered literature: song, fairy tale, legend (for example, Pushkin's fairy tales, Koltsov's songs, Gorky's legends).

Genres of folklore each have their own content: epics depict the military feats of heroes, historical songs - events and heroes of the past, family songs describe the everyday side of life. Each genre has its own heroes: in epics there are heroes Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, in fairy tales - Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Baba Yaga, in family songs - wife, husband, mother-in-law.

Folklore also differs from literature in its special system of expressive means. For example, the composition (construction) of folklore works is characterized by the presence of such elements as a chorus, an opening, a saying, a slowdown in action (retardation), a trinity of events; for style - constant epithets, tautologies (repetitions), parallelisms, hyperboles (exaggerations), etc.

The folklore of different peoples has much in common in genres, artistic means, plots, types of heroes, etc. This is explained by the fact that folklore as a type of folk art reflects the general patterns of social development of peoples. Common features in the folklore of different peoples can arise due to the proximity of culture and life or long-term economic, political and cultural ties. The similarity of historical development, geographical proximity, movements of peoples, etc. also play a big role.

Types of small genres of folklore

Lullaby

Lullaby- one of the oldest genres of folklore, as evidenced by the fact that it retains elements of a talismanic conspiracy. People believed that a person is surrounded by mysterious hostile forces, and if a child sees something bad and scary in a dream, then in reality it will not happen again. That is why you can find the “little gray wolf” and other frightening characters in the lullaby. Later, lullabies lost their magical elements and acquired the meaning of good wishes for the future. So, a lullaby is a song that is used to lull a child to sleep. Since the song was accompanied by the measured swaying of the child, rhythm is very important in it.

Pestushka

Pestushka(from the word nurture, that is, to nurse, groom) - a short poetic chant of nannies and mothers, with which they accompany the actions of a child that he performs at the very beginning of his life. For example, when the child wakes up, the mother strokes and caresses him, saying:

Stretchers, stretchers,
Across the fat girl
And in the hands of the veil,
And in the mouth there is a talk,
And in the head there is reason.

When a child begins to learn to walk, they say:

Big feet
Walked along the road:
Top, top, top,
Top, top, top.
Little feet
Running along the path:
Top, top, top, top,
Top, top, top, top!

Nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme- an element of pedagogy, a song-sentence that accompanies playing with a child’s fingers, arms and legs. Nursery rhymes, like pesters, accompany the development of children. Small rhymes and songs allow you to encourage the child to take action in a playful way, while simultaneously performing massage, physical exercises, and stimulating motor reflexes. This genre of children's folklore provides incentives to play out the plot using fingers (finger games or Ladushki), hands, and facial expressions. Nursery rhymes help instill in a child the skills of hygiene, order, and develop fine motor skills and the emotional sphere.

Examples

"Magpie"

Option 1
Magpie Crow, (running finger over palm)
Magpie Crow,
I gave it to the kids.
(curls fingers)
Gave this one
Gave this one
Gave this one
Gave this one
But she didn’t give it to this:
- Why didn’t you cut wood?
- Why didn’t you carry water?

Option 2(features in the cartoon “The Little Mouse Song”):
Magpie Crow
Cooked porridge
She fed the babies:
Gave this one
Gave this one
Gave this one
But she didn’t give it to this.

"Okay" (clap hands on stressed syllables)

Okay, okay, where have you been? By Grandma!
What did you eat? Porridge!
What did you drink? Mash!
Butter porridge!
Sweet mash!
(Grandma is kind!)
We drank, ate, wow...
Shuuu!!! (Home) Let's fly!
They sat on their heads! ("Ladushki" sang)
We sat down and sat down,
Then we flew home!!!

joke

joke(from bayat, that is, to tell) - a poetic, short, funny story that a mother tells her child, for example:

Owl, owl, owl,
Big head,
She was sitting on a stake,
I looked to the side,
He turned his head.

Proverbs

They teach something.

The road is a spoon for dinner.
Don't go into the forest to be afraid of the wolf.
Birds of a feather flock together.
You can't pull a fish out of a pond without difficulty.
Fear has big eyes.
The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
There is no need for treasure if there is harmony in the family.
Don't have 100 rubles, but have 100 friends.
An old friend is better than two new ones.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
If I had known where you would fall, I would have laid out straws.
You make a soft bed, but sleep hard.
The Motherland is your mother, know how to stand up for her.
Seven do not wait for one.
If you chase two hares, you won't catch either.
The bee is small, but it also works.
Bread is the head of everything.
Being a guest is good, but being at home is better.

Games

There were special songs for the games. Games could be:

kissing. As a rule, these games were played at parties and get-togethers (usually ending with a kiss between a young guy and a girl);
ritual. Such games were characteristic of some kind of ritual, holiday. For example, Maslenitsa festivities (typical fun: removing a prize from the top of a pole, tug of war, competitions for dexterity, strength);
seasonal. Particularly common among children, especially in winter. We played the so-called “Warmers”: the leader shows some movements, and everyone else repeats. Or the traditional “collar” and “stream”.

An example of a kissing game:

Drake

The drake chased the duck,
The young man was driving sulfur,
Go home, Ducky,
Go home, Gray,
Duck has seven children,
And the eighth Drake,
And the ninth itself,
Kiss me once!

In this game, the "Duck" stood in the center of the circle, and the "Drake" outside, and played like a game of "cat and mouse". At the same time, those standing in the round dance tried not to let the “drake” into the circle.

Calls

Calls- one of the types of invocation songs of pagan origin. They reflect the interests and ideas of peasants about the economy and family. For example, the spell of a rich harvest runs through all the calendar songs; For themselves, children and adults asked for health, happiness, and wealth.

Calls are an appeal to the sun, rainbow, rain and other natural phenomena, as well as to animals and especially often to birds, which were considered the harbingers of spring. Moreover, the forces of nature were revered as living: they make requests for spring, wish for its speedy arrival, and complain about winter.

Larks, larks!
Come and visit us
Bring us a warm summer,
Take the cold winter away from us.
We're tired of the cold winter,
My hands and feet were frozen.

Counting book

Counting book- a short rhyme, a form of drawing lots to determine who leads the game. A counting table is an element of the game that helps establish agreement and respect for the accepted rules. Rhythm is very important in organizing a counting rhyme.

Aty-baty, the soldiers were walking,
Aty-baty, to the market.
Atty-batty, what did you buy?
Aty-baty, samovar.
How much does it cost?
Aty-baty, three rubles
Aty-baty, what is he like?
Aty-baty, golden.
Aty-baty, the soldiers were walking,
Aty-baty, to the market.
Atty-batty, what did you buy?
Aty-baty, samovar.
How much does it cost?
Aty-baty, three rubles.
Aty-baty, who's coming out?
Aty-baty, it's me!

Patter

Patter- a phrase built on a combination of sounds that makes it difficult to quickly pronounce words. Tongue twisters are also called “pure twisters” because they contribute and can be used to develop diction. Tongue twisters can be both rhymed and non-rhymed.

Greek rode across the river.
He sees a Greek: there is a cancer in the river,
He stuck the Greek's hand into the river -
Cancer for the hand of a Greek - DAC!

The bull was blunt-lipped, the bull was blunt-lipped, the bull's white lip was dull.

From the clatter of hooves, dust flies across the field.

Mystery

Mystery, like a proverb, is a short figurative definition of an object or phenomenon, but unlike a proverb, it gives this definition in an allegorical, deliberately obscure form. As a rule, in a riddle one object is described through another based on similar features: “The pear is hanging - you can’t eat it” (lamp). A riddle can also be a simple description of an object, for example: “Two ends, two rings, and a nail in the middle” (scissors). This is both folk fun and a test of ingenuity and intelligence.

The role of riddles and jokes was also played by inverted fables, which for adults appear as absurdities, but for children - funny stories about what does not happen, for example:

From behind the forest, from behind the mountains, Grandfather Egor is coming. He is on a gray cart, on a creaking horse, belted with an axe, a belt tucked into his belt, boots wide open, a zipun on his bare feet.

General history

Oral folk art (folklore) existed even in the pre-literate era. Works of folklore (riddles, tongue twisters, fables, etc.) were transmitted orally. They memorized them by ear. This contributed to the emergence of different versions of the same folklore work.

Oral folk art is a reflection of the life, way of life, and beliefs of ancient people. Works of folk art accompany a person from birth. They contribute to the formation and development of the child.

Notes

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See what “Small genres of folklore” are in other dictionaries: Genres of Lermontov's poetry - GENRES of Lermontov's poetry. Lit. L.'s activity took place in the era of destruction and diffusion of the genre system of the 18th century, and his creative work. heritage does not always lend itself to genre classification, at the same time reflecting the search for new forms. Student lyrics L.... ...

Lermontov Encyclopedia Meletinsky, Eleazar Moiseevich

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Eleazar Meletinsky Meletinsky

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- Eleazar Moiseevich Meletinsky (October 22, 1918, Kharkov December 16, 2005, Moscow) Russian scientist philologist, cultural historian, Doctor of Philology, professor. Founder of the research school of theoretical folkloristics. Contents 1... ...Wikipedia Meletinsky, Eleazar

Meletinsky E. Meletinsky, Eleazar

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Folklore as a special type of art is a qualitatively unique component of fiction. It integrates the culture of a society of a certain ethnicity at a special stage in the historical development of society.

Folklore is ambiguous: it reveals both boundless folk wisdom and folk conservatism and inertia. In any case, folklore embodies the highest spiritual powers of the people and reflects elements of national artistic consciousness.

Folklore (English folklore - “folk wisdom”) - folk art, most often oral; artistic collective creative activity of the people, reflecting their life, views, ideals; poetry created by the people and existing among the masses (legends, songs, ditties, anecdotes, fairy tales, epics), folk music (songs, instrumental tunes and plays), theater (dramas, satirical plays, puppet theater), dance, architecture, fine and arts and crafts.

Folklore is creativity that does not require any material and where the means of realizing the artistic concept is the person himself. Folklore has a clearly expressed didactic orientation. Much of it was created specifically for children and was dictated by the great national concern for young people - their future. “Folklore” serves the child from his very birth.

Folk poetry reveals the most essential connections and patterns of life, leaving aside the individual and special. Folklore gives them the most important and simple concepts about life and people. It reflects what is generally interesting and vital, what affects everyone: human work, his relationship with nature, life in a team.

The importance of folklore as an important part in education and development in the modern world is well known and generally accepted. Folklore always responds sensitively to people's needs, being a reflection of the collective mind and accumulated life experience.

Main features and properties of folklore:

1. Bifunctionality. Each folklore work is an organic part of human life and is determined by practical purpose. It is focused on a specific moment in people's life. For example, a lullaby - it is sung to calm and put a child to sleep. When the child falls asleep, the song stops - it is no longer necessary. This is how the aesthetic, spiritual and practical function of a lullaby is manifested. Everything is interconnected in a work; beauty cannot be separated from benefit, benefit from beauty.

2. Polyelement. Folklore is multi-elemental, since its internal diversity and numerous relationships of an artistic, cultural-historical and socio-cultural nature are obvious.

Not every folklore work includes all artistic and figurative elements. There are also genres in which there is a minimum number of them. The performance of a folklore work is the integrity of the creative act. Among the many artistic and figurative elements of folklore, the main ones are verbal, musical, dance and facial expressions. Polyelementity manifests itself during an event, for example, “Burn, burn clearly so that it doesn’t go out!” or when studying a round dance - the game “Boyars”, where movements take place row by row. In this game all the main artistic and figurative elements interact. Verbal and musical are manifested in the musical and poetic genre of the song, performed simultaneously with choreographic movement (dance element). This reveals the polyelement nature of folklore, its original synthesis, called syncretism. Syncretism characterizes the relationship, integrity of the internal components and properties of folklore.

3.Collectivity. Absence of author. Collectivity is manifested both in the process of creating a work and in the nature of the content, which always objectively reflects the psychology of many people. Asking who composed a folk song is like asking who composed the language we speak. Collectivity is determined in the performance of folklore works. Some components of their forms, for example, the chorus, require the mandatory inclusion of all participants in the action in the performance.

4. Illiteration. The orality of the transmission of folklore material is manifested in the unwritten forms of transmission of folklore information. Artistic images and skills are transferred from the performer, the artist, to the listener and viewer, from the master to the student. Folklore is oral creativity. It lives only in the memory of people and is transmitted in live performance “from mouth to mouth.” Artistic images and skills are transferred from the performer, the artist, to the listener and viewer, from the master to the student.

5.Traditionality. The variety of creative manifestations in folklore only outwardly seems spontaneous. Over the course of a long time, objective ideals of creativity were formed. These ideals became those practical and aesthetic standards, deviations from which would be inappropriate.

6.Variability. Variation network is one of the stimuli of constant movement, the “breathing” of a folklore work, and each folklore work is always like a version of itself. The folklore text turns out to be unfinished, open to each subsequent performer. For example, in the round dance game “Boyars”, children move “row by row”, and the step may be different. In some places this is a regular step with an accent on the last syllable of the line, in others it is a step with a stamp on the last two syllables, in others it is a variable step. It is important to convey the idea that in a folklore work creation - performance and performance - creation coexist. Variability can be considered as the changeability of works of art, their uniqueness during performance or other forms of reproduction. Each author or performer complemented traditional images or works with his own reading or vision.

7. Improvisation is a feature of folklore creativity. Each new performance of the work is enriched with new elements (textual, methodological, rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic). Which the performer brings. Any performer constantly introduces his own material into a well-known work, which contributes to the constant development and change of the work, during which the standard artistic image crystallizes. Thus, the folklore performance becomes the result of many years of collective creativity.

In modern literature, a broad interpretation of folklore as a set of folk traditions, customs, views, beliefs, and arts is widespread.

In particular, the famous folklorist V.E. Gusev in his book “Aesthetics of Folklore” considers this concept as an artistic reflection of reality, carried out in verbal, musical, choreographic and dramatic forms of collective folk art, expressing the worldview of the working masses and inextricably linked with life and everyday life. Folklore is a complex, synthetic art. His works often combine elements of various types of art - verbal, musical, theatrical. It is studied by various sciences - history, psychology, sociology, ethnography. It is closely connected with folk life and rituals. It is no coincidence that the first Russian scientists approached folklore broadly, recording not only works of verbal art, but also recording various ethnographic details and the realities of peasant life.

The main aspects of the content of folk culture include: the worldview of the people, folk experience, housing, costume, work, leisure, crafts, family relationships, folk holidays and rituals, knowledge and skills, artistic creativity. It should be noted that, like any other social phenomenon, folk culture has specific features, among which we should highlight: an inextricable connection with nature, with the environment; openness, the educational nature of Russian folk culture, the ability to contact the culture of other peoples, dialogicality, originality, integrity, situationality, the presence of a targeted emotional charge, preservation of elements of pagan and Orthodox culture.

Traditions and folklore are a wealth developed over generations and conveying historical experience and cultural heritage in an emotional and figurative form. In the cultural and creative conscious activity of the broad masses, folk traditions, folklore and artistic modernity merge into a single channel.

The main functions of folklore include religious - mythological, ceremonial, ritual, artistic - aesthetic, pedagogical, communicative - informational, social - psychological.

Folklore is very diverse. There is traditional, modern, peasant and urban folklore.

Traditional folklore is those forms and mechanisms of artistic culture that are preserved, recorded and passed on from generation to generation. They capture universal aesthetic values that retain their significance outside of specific historical social changes.

Traditional folklore is divided into two groups – ritual and non-ritual.

Ritual folklore includes:

· calendar folklore (carols, Maslenitsa songs, freckles);

· family folklore (wedding, maternity, funeral rites, lullabies, etc.),

· occasional folklore (spells, chants, spells).

Non-ritual folklore is divided into four groups:

· folklore of speech situations (proverbs, sayings, riddles, teasers, nicknames, curses);

Poetry (ditties, songs);

· folklore drama (Petrushka Theater, nativity scene drama);

· prose.

Folklore poetry includes: epic, historical song, spiritual verse, lyrical song, ballad, cruel romance, ditty, children's poetic songs (poetic parodies), sadistic rhymes. Folklore prose is again divided into two groups: fairy-tale and non-fairytale. Fairy-tale prose includes: a fairy tale (which, in turn, comes in four types: a fairy tale, a fairy tale about animals, an everyday tale, a cumulative fairy tale) and an anecdote. Non-fairy tale prose includes: tradition, legend, tale, mythological story, story about a dream. The folklore of speech situations includes: proverbs, sayings, well wishes, curses, nicknames, teasers, dialogue graffiti, riddles, tongue twisters and some others. There are also written forms of folklore, such as chain letters, graffiti, albums (for example, songbooks).

Ritual folklore is folklore genres performed as part of various rituals. Most successfully, in my opinion, the definition of the ritual was given by D.M. Ugrinovich: “Rite is a certain way of transmitting certain ideas, norms of behavior, values and feelings to new generations. The ritual is distinguished from other methods of such transmission by its symbolic nature. This is its specificity. Ritual actions always act as symbols that embody certain social ideas, perceptions, images and evoke corresponding feelings.” Works of calendar folklore are dedicated to annual folk holidays that were of an agricultural nature.

Calendar rituals were accompanied by special songs: carols, Maslenitsa songs, vesnyankas, Semitic songs, etc.

Vesnyanka (spring calls) are ritual songs of an incantatory nature that accompany the Slavic ritual of calling out spring.

Carols are New Year's songs. They were performed during Christmas time (from December 24 to January 6), when caroling was going on. Caroling - walking around the yards singing carols. For these songs, carolers were rewarded with gifts - a festive treat. The main meaning of the carol is glorification. Carolers give an ideal description of the house of the person being celebrated. It turns out that before us is not an ordinary peasant hut, but a tower, around which “stands an iron tyn”, “on each stamen there is a crown”, and on each crown “a golden crown”. The people living in it are a match for this tower. Pictures of wealth are not reality, but a wish: carols perform, to some extent, the functions of a magic spell.

Maslenitsa is a folk holiday cycle that has been preserved by the Slavs since pagan times. The ritual is associated with seeing off winter and welcoming spring, lasting a whole week. The celebration was carried out according to a strict schedule, which was reflected in the name of the days of Maslenitsa week: Monday - “meeting”, Tuesday - “flirt”, Wednesday - “gourmet”, Thursday - “revelry”, Friday - “mother-in-law’s evening”, Saturday - “mother-in-law’s gatherings” ", resurrection - "seeing off", the end of Maslenitsa fun.

Few Maslenitsa songs have arrived. According to theme and purpose, they are divided into two groups: one is associated with the rite of meeting, the other with the rite of seeing off (“funeral”) Maslenitsa. The songs of the first group are distinguished by a major, cheerful character. This is, first of all, a majestic song in honor of Maslenitsa. The songs accompanying the farewell to Maslenitsa are in a minor key. The “funeral” of Maslenitsa meant farewell to winter and a spell, welcoming the coming spring.

Family and household rituals are predetermined by the cycle of human life. They are divided into maternity, wedding, recruiting and funeral.

Maternity rites sought to protect the newborn from hostile mystical forces, and also assumed the well-being of the baby in life. A ritual bath of the newborn was performed, and health was charmed with various sentences.

Wedding ceremony. It is a kind of folk performance, where all the roles are written and there are even directors - a matchmaker or a matchmaker. The particular scale and significance of this ritual should show the significance of the event, play out the meaning of the ongoing change in a person’s life.

The ritual educates the behavior of the bride in her future married life and educates all participants in the ritual. It shows the patriarchal nature of family life, its way of life.

Funeral rites. During the funeral, various rituals were performed, which were accompanied by special funeral lamentations. Funeral lamentations truthfully reflected the life, everyday consciousness of the peasant, love for the deceased and fear of the future, the tragic situation of the family in harsh conditions.

Occasional folklore (from the Latin occasionalis - random) - does not correspond to generally accepted use, and is of an individual nature.

A type of occasional folklore are conspiracies.

CONSPIRACIES - a folk-poetic incantatory verbal formula to which magical power is attributed.

CALLS - an appeal to the sun and other natural phenomena, as well as to animals and especially often to birds, which were considered the harbingers of spring. Moreover, the forces of nature were revered as living: they make requests for spring, wish for its speedy arrival, and complain about winter.

COUNTERS are a type of children's creativity, small poetic texts with a clear rhyme-rhythm structure in a humorous form.

The genres of non-ritual folklore developed under the influence of syncretism.

It includes folklore of speech situations: proverbs, fables, signs and sayings. They contain a person’s judgments about the way of life, about work, about higher natural forces, and statements about human affairs. This is a vast area of moral assessments and judgments, how to live, how to raise children, how to honor ancestors, thoughts about the need to follow precepts and examples, these are everyday rules of behavior. In a word, their functionality covers almost all worldview areas.

RIDDLE - works with hidden meaning. They contain rich invention, wit, poetry, and a figurative structure of colloquial speech. The people themselves aptly defined the riddle: “Without a face in a mask.” The object that is hidden, the “face,” is hidden under a “mask” - an allegory or allusion, a roundabout speech, a circumlocution. Whatever riddles you can come up with to test your attention, ingenuity, and intelligence. Some consist of a simple question, others are similar to puzzles. Riddles are easily solved by those who have a good idea of the objects and phenomena in question, and also know how to unravel the hidden meaning in words. If a child looks at the world around him with attentive, keen eyes, noticing its beauty and richness, then every tricky question and any allegory in the riddle will be solved.

PROVERB - as a genre, unlike a riddle, is not an allegory. In it, a specific action or deed is given an expanded meaning. In their form, folk riddles are close to proverbs: the same measured, coherent speech, the same frequent use of rhyme and consonance of words. But a proverb and a riddle differ in that a riddle needs to be guessed, and a proverb is a teaching.

Unlike a proverb, a PROVERB is not a complete judgment. This is a figurative expression used in an expanded sense.

Sayings, like proverbs, remain living folklore genres: they are constantly found in our everyday speech. The proverbs contain a capacious humorous definition of the inhabitants of a locality, city, living nearby or somewhere far away.

Folklore poetry is an epic, a historical song, a spiritual verse, a lyrical song, a ballad, a cruel romance, a ditty, and children's poetic songs.

EPIC is a folk epic song, a genre characteristic of the Russian tradition. Such epics are known as “Sadko”, “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber”, “Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich” and others. The term “epic” was introduced into scientific use in the 40s of the 19th century. folklorist I.P. Sakharov. The basis of the plot of the epic is some heroic event, or a remarkable episode of Russian history (hence the popular name of the epic - “old man”, “old woman”, implying that the action in question took place in the past).

FOLK SONGS are very diverse in composition. In addition to songs that are part of the calendar, wedding and funeral rites. These are round dances. Game and dance songs. A large group of songs are lyrical non-ritual songs (love, family, Cossack, soldier, coachman, bandit and others).

A special genre of song creativity is historical songs. Such songs tell about famous events in Russian history. The heroes of historical songs are real personalities.

Round dance songs, like ritual songs, had a magical meaning. Round dance and game songs depicted scenes from wedding ceremonies and family life.

LYRICAL SONGS are folk songs that express the personal feelings and moods of the singers. Lyrical songs are unique both in content and in artistic form. Their originality is determined by their genre nature and specific conditions of origin and development. Here we are dealing with a lyrical kind of poetry, different from epic in the principles of reflecting reality. ON THE. Dobrolyubov wrote that folk lyrical songs “express an inner feeling excited by the phenomena of ordinary life,” and N.A. Radishchev saw in them a reflection of the people's soul, spiritual sorrow.

Lyrical songs are a vivid example of the artistic creativity of the people. They introduced a special artistic language and examples of high poetry into the national culture, reflected the spiritual beauty, ideals and aspirations of the people, and the moral foundations of peasant life.

CHASTUSHKA is one of the youngest folklore genres. These are small poetic texts of rhymed verses. The first ditties were excerpts from large songs. Chatushka is a comic genre. It contains a sharp thought, an apt observation. The topics are very diverse. The ditties often ridiculed what seemed wild, absurd, and disgusting.

CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE is usually called both works that are performed by adults for children, and those composed by the children themselves. Children's folklore includes lullabies, pesters, nursery rhymes, tongue twisters and chants, teasers, counting rhymes, nonsense, etc. Modern children's folklore has been enriched with new genres. These are horror stories, mischievous poems and songs (funny adaptations of famous songs and poems), jokes.

There are different connections between folklore and literature. First of all, literature traces its origins to folklore. The main genres of drama that developed in Ancient Greece - tragedies and comedies - go back to religious rites. Medieval romances of chivalry, telling about travels through imaginary lands, fights with monsters and the love of brave warriors, are based on the motifs of fairy tales. Literary lyrical works originate from folk lyrical songs. The genre of small action-packed narratives - short stories - goes back to folk tales.

Very often, writers deliberately turned to folklore traditions. Interest in oral folk art and passion for folklore awoke in the pre-romantic and romantic eras.

The tales of A.S. Pushkin go back to the plots of Russian fairy tales. Imitation of Russian folk historical songs - “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich...” by M.Yu. Lermontov. N.A. Nekrasov recreated the stylistic features of folk songs in his poems about the difficult lot of peasants.

Folklore not only influences literature, but also experiences the opposite influence. Many original poems became folk songs. The most famous example is the poem by I.Z. Surikov “Steppe and steppe all around..”

Folklore drama. These include: Parsley Theater, religious drama, nativity scene drama.

VERTEP DRAMA got its name from the nativity scene - a portable puppet theater in the shape of a two-story wooden box, whose architecture resembles a stage for performing medieval mysteries. In turn, the name, which came from the plot of the main play, in which the action developed in a cave - nativity scene. Theater of this type was widespread in Western Europe, and it came to Russia with traveling puppeteers from Ukraine and Belarus. The repertoire consisted of plays with religious themes and satirical scenes - interludes that were improvisational in nature. The most popular play is "King Herod".

PETRUSHKA THEATER – glove puppet theater. The main character of the play is the cheerful Petrushka with a large nose, a protruding chin, a cap on his head, with the participation of which a number of scenes are played out with various characters. The number of characters reached fifty, these are characters such as a soldier, a gentleman, a gypsy, a bride, a doctor and others. Such performances used techniques of folk comic speech, lively dialogues with play on words and contrasts, with elements of self-praise, using action and gestures.

The Petrushki Theater was created not only under the influence of Russian, Slavic, and Western European puppet traditions. It was a type of folk theater culture, part of the extremely developed entertainment folklore in Russia. Therefore, it has a lot in common with folk drama, with the performances of farce barkers, with the verdicts of the groomsmen at the wedding, with amusing popular prints, with the jokes of the raeshniks, etc.

The special atmosphere of the city's festive square explains, for example, Petrushka's familiarity, his unbridled gaiety and indiscriminateness in the object of ridicule and shame. After all, Petrushka beats not only class enemies, but everyone in a row - from his own fiancée to the policeman, often beats him for nothing (a blackamoor, an old beggar woman, a German clown, etc.), and in the end he gets hit too: the dog mercilessly tugs at his nose. The puppeteer, like other participants in the fair, square fun, is attracted by the very opportunity to ridicule, parody, beat, and the more, louder, more unexpected, sharper, the better. Elements of social protest and satire were very successfully and naturally superimposed on this ancient basis of laughter.

Like all folklore entertainments, “Petrushka” is filled with obscenities and curses. The original meaning of these elements has been studied quite fully, and how deeply they penetrated into the folk culture of laughter and what place swearing, verbal obscenity and demeaning, cynical gestures occupied in it, is fully shown by M.M. Bakhtin.

Performances were shown several times a day in different conditions (at fairs, in front of booths, on city streets, in the suburbs). "Walking" Parsley was the most common use of the doll.

For the mobile folk theater, a light screen, dolls, miniature backstage and a curtain were specially made. Petrushka ran around the stage, his gestures and movements creating the appearance of a living person.

The comic effect of the episodes was achieved using techniques characteristic of the folk culture of laughter: fights, beatings, obscenities, the imaginary deafness of a partner, funny movements and gestures, mimicking, funny funerals, etc.

There are conflicting opinions about the reasons for the extraordinary popularity of the theater: topicality, satirical and social orientation, comic character, simple play that is understandable to all segments of the population, the charm of the main character, acting improvisation, freedom of choice of material, the sharp tongue of the puppet.

Parsley is a folk holiday joy.

Parsley is a manifestation of popular optimism, a mockery of the poor at the powerful and rich.

Folklore prose. It is divided into two groups: fairy tale (fairy tale, anecdote) and non-fairy tale (legend, tradition, tale).

FAIRY TALE is the most famous genre of folklore. This is a type of folklore prose, the distinctive feature of which is fiction. Plots, events and characters in fairy tales are fictitious. The modern reader of folklore works also discovers fiction in other genres of oral folk art. Folk storytellers and listeners believed in the truth of tales (the name comes from the word “byl” - “truth”); the word “epic” was invented by folklorists; Popular epics were called “old times.” Russian peasants who told and listened to epics, believing in their truth, believed that the events depicted in them took place a long time ago - in the time of mighty heroes and fire-breathing snakes. They did not believe fairy tales, knowing that they told about something that did not happen, does not happen and cannot be.

It is customary to distinguish four types of fairy tales: magical, everyday (otherwise known as novelistic), cumulative (otherwise known as “chain-like”) and fairy tales about animals.

MAGIC TALES differ from other fairy tales in their complex, detailed plot, which consists of a number of unchanging motifs that necessarily follow each other in a certain order. These are fantastic creatures (for example, Koschey the Immortal or Baba Yaga), and an animated, human-like character denoting winter (Morozko), and wonderful objects (a self-assembled tablecloth, walking boots, a flying carpet, etc.).

Fairy tales preserve the memory of ideas and rituals that existed in deep, deep antiquity. They reflect ancient relationships between people in a family or clan.

EVERYDAY TALES tell about people, about their family life, about the relationship between the owner and the farmhand, the gentleman and the peasant, the peasant and the priest, the soldier and the priest. A commoner - a farm laborer, a peasant, a soldier returning from service - is always more savvy than a priest or landowner, from whom, thanks to cunning, he takes money, things, and sometimes his wife. Usually, the plots of everyday fairy tales are centered around some unexpected event, an unforeseen turning point that occurs thanks to the hero’s cunning.

Everyday tales are often satirical. They ridicule the greed and stupidity of those in power. They do not talk about wonderful things and travels to the distant kingdom, but talk about things from peasant everyday life. But everyday fairy tales are no more believable than magical ones. Therefore, the description of wild, immoral, terrible actions in everyday fairy tales does not evoke disgust or indignation, but cheerful laughter. After all, this is not life, but a fable.

Everyday fairy tales are a much younger genre than other types of fairy tales. In modern folklore, the heir to this genre was the anecdote (from gr.anekdotos - “unpublished”

CUMULATIVE TALES built on repeated repetition of the same actions or events. In cumulative (from Latin Cumulatio - accumulation) fairy tales, several plot principles are distinguished: accumulation of characters in order to achieve the necessary goal; a heap of actions ending in disaster; a chain of human or animal bodies; escalation of episodes, causing unjustified experiences of the characters.

The accumulation of heroes helping in some important action is obvious in the fairy tale “Turnip”.

Cumulative tales are a very ancient type of fairy tale. They have not been studied enough.

TALES ABOUT ANIMALS preserve the memory of ancient ideas, according to which people descended from ancestors - animals. Animals in these fairy tales behave like people. Cunning and cunning animals deceive others - the gullible and the stupid, and this trickery is never condemned. The plots of fairy tales about animals are reminiscent of mythological stories about heroes - rogues and their tricks.

Non-fairy tale prose is stories and incidents from life that tell about a person’s meeting with characters of Russian demonology - sorcerers, witches, mermaids, etc. This also includes stories about saints, shrines and miracles - about the communication of a person who has accepted the Christian faith with forces of a higher order.

BYLICHKA is a folklore genre, a story about a miraculous event that supposedly happened in reality - mainly about a meeting with spirits, “evil spirits”.

LEGEND (from Latin legenda “reading”, “readable”) is one of the varieties of non-fairy tale prose folklore. A written legend about some historical events or personalities. Legend is an approximate synonym for the concept of myth; an epic story about what happened in time immemorial; The main characters of the story are usually heroes in the full sense of the word, often gods and other supernatural forces are directly involved in the events. Events in the legend are often exaggerated, and a lot of fiction is added. Therefore, scientists do not consider legends to be completely reliable historical evidence, without denying, however, that most legends are based on real events. In a figurative sense, legends refer to the events of the past, covered in glory and arousing admiration, depicted in fairy tales, stories, etc. As a rule, they contain additional religious or social pathos.

Legends contain memories of ancient events, an explanation of some phenomenon, name or custom.

The words of Odoevsky V.F. sound surprisingly relevant. remarkable Russian, thinker, musician: “We must not forget that from an unnatural life, that is, one where human needs are not satisfied, a painful state occurs... in the same way, idiocy can occur from inaction of thought..., a muscle is paralyzed from an abnormal state of the nerve, “In the same way, a lack of thinking distorts artistic feeling, and the lack of artistic feeling paralyzes thought.” In Odoevsky V.F. you can find thoughts about the aesthetic education of children on the basis of folklore, consonant with what we would like to implement in our days in the field of children's education and upbringing: “... in the field of human spiritual activity I will limit myself to the following remark: the soul expresses itself either through body movements, shapes , colors, or through a series of sounds forming singing or playing a musical instrument"