Oral folk art represents a vast layer of Russian culture, formed over many centuries. The works of Russian folklore reflect many of the feelings of the people and their experiences, history, serious thoughts about the meaning of life, humor, fun and much more. Most works of oral folk art exist in poetic form, which made it possible to remember them well and pass them on from generation to generation orally.
Small genres of folklore include works of small volume: ditties, nursery rhymes, jokes, proverbs, riddles, lullabies, fables, tongue twisters. Sometimes they are classified as children's folklore, because in ancient times a person's acquaintance with these works occurred at an age when he did not even speak. These works are interesting for their brightness, accessibility, and form that is understandable to everyone.
Small genres of Russian folklore:
Russian folk proverbs
Russian proverbs and sayings are short, rhythmically organized, figurative folk sayings, often with edifying, instructive content; these are original folk aphorisms. They often consist of two parts, supported by rhyme, have rhythm, characteristic alliteration and assonance.
Russian folk nursery rhymes
Folk nursery rhymes are rhymed short stories, songs and poems, combined with simple movements, designed to entertain the child, train his memory, develop fine motor skills and coordination of movements, and harmonious development of the child as a whole, through an unobtrusive form of play.
Russian folk jokes
Jokes or amusements are small, funny, often rhymed works that tell in a bright, entertaining form about interesting events that happened to its heroes. They are distinguished by dynamic content, energetic actions of the characters, designed to interest the child, develop his imagination, and bring positive emotions.
Russian folk tales
Russian folk tales are small-scale fairy tales, sometimes presented in rhymed form, the plot of which is built on meaningless events that defy logic. Their task is to amuse the listener, instill in the child a sense of humor, logic, imagination and develop the entire thinking process as a whole.
Russian folk tongue twisters
Russian tongue twister is a short comic phrase built on a combination of difficult to pronounce sounds, invented by our ancestors for entertainment and now used to correct problems with speech and diction.
Introduction
There is a huge number of works devoted to the forms of manifestation of folklore consciousness and folklore texts. The linguistic, stylistic, ethnographic features of folklore texts are studied; their compositional structure, including images and motifs; the moral aspect of folklore creativity and, accordingly, the importance of folklore in the education of the younger generation, as well as much more, are analyzed. In this huge stream of literature about folklore, its diversity is striking, ranging from folk wisdom and the art of memory to a special form of social consciousness and a means of reflecting and understanding reality.
Folklore includes works that convey the basic, most important ideas of the people about the main values in life: work, family, love, social duty, homeland. Our children are still being brought up on these works. Knowledge of folklore can give a person knowledge about the Russian people, and ultimately about himself.
Folklore is a synthetic art form. His works often combine elements of various types of art - verbal, musical, choreographic and theatrical. But the basis of any folklore work is always the word. Folklore is very interesting to study as an art of words.
Oral folk art
The emergence of oral folk art
The history of oral folk art has general patterns that cover the development of all its types. The origins must be sought in the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. Folk art is the historical basis of all world culture, the source of national artistic traditions, and an exponent of national self-awareness. In ancient times, verbal creativity was closely connected with human labor activity. It reflected his religious, mythical, historical ideas, as well as the beginnings of scientific knowledge. Man sought to influence his destiny, the forces of nature through various spells, requests or threats. That is, he tried to come to an agreement with “higher powers” and neutralize hostile forces. To do this, a person needed strict adherence to a number of rules that showed their salvation in the times of their ancestors. However, if these rules are not followed, then chaos will begin in nature, and life will become impossible. The totality of rituals constitutes the only effective guarantee against all kinds of evil influences that inspire fear and fear. The rituals were reproductions of mythological stories and included dancing, singing, and dressing up.
The basis of Russian artistic culture is ancient Slavic mythology. Many ancient peoples created their own mythological pictures of the structure of the Universe, which reflected their belief in numerous gods - the creators and rulers of the world. Explaining the origin of the world as the acts of the gods, ancient man learned to co-create. He himself could not create mountains, rivers, forests and earth, heavenly bodies, which means that such myths reflected the belief in supernatural forces that participated in the creation of the Universe. And the beginning of all things could only be the primary element, for example, the world egg or the will of the gods and their magic word. For example, the Slavic myth about the creation of the world tells:
That it all started with the god Rod. Before the white light was born, the world was shrouded in pitch darkness. In the darkness there was only Rod - the Progenitor of all things. At the beginning, Rod was imprisoned in an egg, but Rod gave birth to Love - Lada, and with the power of Love destroyed the prison. This is how the creation of the world began. The world was filled with Love. At the beginning of the creation of the world, He gave birth to the kingdom of heaven, and under it He created the heavenly things. With a rainbow he cut the umbilical cord, and with a rock he separated the Ocean from the heavenly waters. He erected three vaults in the heavens. Divided Light and Darkness. Then the god Rod gave birth to the Earth, and the Earth plunged into a dark abyss, into the Ocean. Then the Sun came out of His face, the Moon - from His chest, the stars of heaven - from His eyes. Clear dawns appeared from Rod's eyebrows, dark nights - from His thoughts, violent winds - from His breath, rain, snow and hail - from His tears. Rod's voice became thunder and lightning. The heavens and all under heaven were born for Love. Rod is the Father of the gods, He is born of himself and will be born again, He is what was and what is to be, what was born and what will be born.
It was inherent in the mythological consciousness of our ancestors to connect various gods, spirits and heroes with family relations.
The ancient cult of the gods is associated with certain rituals - conditionally symbolic actions, the main meaning of which is communication with the gods. The ancient Slavs performed rituals in temples and sanctuaries - specially equipped places for worshiping the gods. They were usually located on hills, in sacred groves, near sacred springs, etc.
Ancient myths gave rise to and reflected various forms of religious life of people, in which various types of artistic activity of people arose (singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, the basics of fine and theatrical arts).
As noted earlier, folklore originates in ancient times. It originated and arose when the overwhelming majority of humanity did not yet have writing, and if they did, it was the lot of a few - educated shamans, scientists and other geniuses of their time. In a song, riddle, proverb, fairy tale, epic, and other forms of folklore, people first formed their feelings and emotions, captured them in oral work, then passed on their knowledge to others, and thereby preserved their thoughts, experiences, feelings in the minds and heads of their future descendants.
Life in those distant times was not easy for most living people, it remains so and will inevitably always be so. Many have to work hard and routinely, earning themselves only a small living, with difficulty providing a tolerable existence for themselves and their loved ones. And people have long realized that they need to distract themselves, those around them and their colleagues in misfortune from the work they do every day, with something fun that diverts attention from the topical everyday life and the unbearable conditions of hard work.
Russian folklore is a collection of works of oral folk art, endowed with deep ideological meaning and characterized by highly artistic qualities. In the process of work and everyday life, people observed the world around them. Thanks to this, life experience was accumulated - not only practical, but also moral. Simple observations helped to understand complex things.
Origins
The word “folklore” (translated from English into Russian - “folk wisdom, knowledge”) denotes various manifestations of folk spiritual culture and includes all poetic and prose genres, as well as customs, rituals and traditions accompanied by oral verbal artistic creativity.
Before the emergence of writing and literature on the territory of Ancient Rus', folklore was the only type of artistic creativity, a unique method of transmitting folk memory and experience of generations, the “mirror of the soul” of the Russian people, expressing their worldview, moral and spiritual values.
Russian folklore is based on historical events, traditions, customs, mythology and beliefs of the ancient Slavic tribes, as well as their historical predecessors.
Large and small genres of Russian folk art
Russian folklore is distinguished by its unique originality and diversity, with vibrant national cultural characteristics. Fairy-tale, epic and small genres of folklore were collected on the basis of the life experience of the Russian people. These simple and wise expressions of folk art contain thoughts about justice, relationships to work and people, heroism and identity.
The following genres of Russian folklore are distinguished, which clearly illustrate the multifaceted aspects of the life of a Russian person:
- Labor songs. They accompanied any work process (sowing, plowing a field, haymaking, picking berries or mushrooms), had the form of various shouts, chants, parting words and cheerful songs with a simple rhythm, a simple melody and simple text, which helped to get into a working mood and set the rhythm , united the people and spiritually helped to carry out the hard, sometimes backbreaking peasant labor;
- Calendar ritual songs, chants, spells, performed to attract good luck and prosperity, increase fertility, improve weather conditions, increase the offspring of livestock;
- Wedding. Songs performed on the day of matchmaking, farewell of parents to the bride, at the handover of the bride into the hands of the groom and directly at the wedding;
- Oral prose works. Legends, traditions, tales, stories that tell about historical and epic events in which the heroes are legendary Russian warriors, princes or tsars, as well as describing any unprecedented or unusual events that took place in the real life of a familiar narrator, and he himself is not was a witness to them and did not take part in them;
- Poetic folklore for children(jokes, nursery rhymes, nurseries, teasers, riddles, counting rhymes, teasers, fables and lullabies). They were usually performed in a short poetic, comic form, understandable and interesting for children's perception;
- Song or heroic epic(epics, historical songs). They tell about historical events that once happened in the form of a song; they usually glorified the exploits of Russian legendary heroes and heroes, performed by them for the benefit of the Russian Land and its people;
- Artistic tales(everyday, magical, about animals) represent the most common type of oral creativity in which people talked about fictional events and characters in an interesting and accessible form, thus displaying their concepts of good and evil, life and death, poverty and wealth, the surrounding nature and its inhabitants. Also included in Russian artistic creativity are ballads, anecdotes, fables and ditties;
- Folklore theatrical performances of a dramatic nature (nativity scenes, paradise, booths and performances of buffoons at fairs, holidays and folk festivals).
In addition to large forms of folklore (songs, fairy tales, myths, etc.) in Russian oral folk art there is a number of small folklore genres or non-ritual folklore:
- Riddles- questions describing an object, living creature or phenomenon in a figurative form (Two rings, two ends, and a carnation in the middle);
- Tongue twisters and tongue twisters- special phrases with repeated sounds and combinations of sounds, with the help of which diction is developed;
- Proverbs- apt edifying statements in poetic form (“Don’t open your mouth to someone else’s loaf”);
- Sayings- short, precise phrases that characterize the surrounding reality and people (“Two boots are a pair”); sometimes these are even parts of proverbs;
- Counting books- they were and are still used by children during games, when the role of each player is determined;
- Calls- calls for spring/summer/holiday in rhymed form;
- Nursery rhymes and pestushki, which were sung while a mother or another adult was playing with a small child (the clearest example is the game “Ladushki” with the nursery rhyme “Ladushki, ladushki, where were you...”).
Small folklore genres also include lullabies, games and jokes.
Folk wisdom and life
Any folklore (and Russian folklore in this regard is no exception) is a complex synthetic art, in the works of which elements of verbal, musical and theatrical creativity are often intertwined. It has a close connection with folk life, rituals, traditions and customs. This is precisely why the first folklorist scholars approached the study of this topic very broadly and recorded not only various works of oral folk art, but also paying attention to various ethnographic features and realities of the ordinary, everyday life of the common people, their way of life.
Pictures of folk life, traditions and rituals, various life situations were reflected in Russian songs, epics, fairy tales and other works of oral folk art. They tell about the appearance of a traditional Russian hut with a “rooster on a ridge”, with “slanting windows”, and describe its interior decoration: burners, cages, a red corner with icons, a nursing stove, beds, benches, porches, porch, etc. d. There is a bright and colorful description of the national costume for both women and men: warriors and kokoshniks for women, bast shoes, zipuns, foot wraps for men. Characters of Russian folklore sow wheat and grow flax, reap wheat and mow hay, eat porridge, eating it with pies and pancakes, washing it down with beer, honey, kvass and green wine.
All these everyday details in folk art complement and create a single image of the Russian people and the Russian Land, on which they live and raise their children.
In order to correctly judge an object, it is necessary to form a general concept about it, and this obliges us to give it a definition. What does it mean to define? Name the characteristics of the object? But each phenomenon has many signs. One could name the main ones, but this would mean giving a characteristic, not a definition. To give a definition, it is necessary to distinguish the characteristics of the genus and species. A generic feature is a feature common to the entire genus of the phenomenon to which the thing being defined belongs, and a specific feature is a feature that distinguishes the thing being defined from others belonging to this genus. What are the characteristics of genus and species in folklore? What phenomena does it coincide with in its generic character and how does it differ from them? These questions can only be answered by considering the subject of folklore.
Let us take as our starting point the generally accepted idea of folklore. It is known that the Russian people have created countless proverbs, sayings, riddles, epics, ballads, anecdotes, magical, everyday, funny tales, and tales about animals. It is also known that songs were sung everywhere. Plowmen-peasants, serfs-nobles, artisans-citizens, hunters, soldiers - in a word, ordinary people of all conditions - had their own songs. Even at the beginning of our century, puppeteers walked around villages and towns and entertained the audience with a comedy with Petrushka. And these days, songs are created, jokes in the form of short aphorisms go from mouth to mouth. What all named and unnamed types of creativity have in common is that it is primarily the art of words. The types of oral prose, poetry and drama that have ever existed and exist among the people collectively constitute what is commonly called folklore.
If we were content with listing different types of folklore works, we would never come closer to understanding them. We would simply convey the most general idea of folklore, but science cannot be satisfied with this. She needs to formulate an accurate concept about him.
Chapter I
From the history of terms
Let's start with the names of folklore, but not in order to base a definition on them: from the names you can only find out which features are considered important or generally characteristic of folklore.
In science, there are several names for folk art. In the middle of the 19th century. The name "folk poetry" was generally accepted. Along with recognition of the artistry of folklore, this name indicated that folklore belonged to the people and indicated that the people created folklore. Folklore works were seen as a direct expression of the people’s view of the world, and folk concepts and ideas were studied from them. By the name itself they wanted to distinguish mass folk art from the work of individual authors. Other folklore names adopted
in the science of that time, the term “folk poetry” was supplemented and clarified: it was called “impersonal”, “natural” and “unartificial”. The name “impersonal” emphasized the lack of individual authorship in folklore works, and the names “natural” and “unartificial” indicated that folklore is created without a theoretical view of artistic creativity, involuntarily, that singers and storytellers do not know either professionalism or artistic skills. Modern science considers the indication of the mass folk creative nature of folklore to be absolutely correct, and makes amendments and additions to other judgments.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. In science, the names “oral literature” and “folk literature” have become widespread. Until then, “literature” was the name given to the art of words, most often the professional activity of prose writers and poets, but the former name had a special meaning. The view has become widespread that folklore as the art of words was initially created by professional artists and only after some time their work became known to the people - the people allegedly only assimilated what was ready-made, but never created anything themselves. The definition of “oral” meant that in non-written, non-bookish
form, the people, for the most part illiterate, could only preserve the “literature” they had learned from others. It was called “folk” in the sense that the people only adopted the “literature”, that it “existed” among the people. The idea that folklore is the original creation of the people was excluded.
Soviet science did not accept either the name “folk literature” or the name “oral literature” or the concepts associated with them. Folklore is called “oral creativity of the people”, “folk-poetic creativity”, “oral-poetic creativity of the people”. These terms are consistently associated with the name “folk poetry”, as was customary in the science of the 19th century. At the same time, each of the names of folklore highlights features that are considered especially important.
The name “oral creativity of the people” emphasizes the oral nature of folklore and thereby distinguishes it from written literature. At the same time, folklore as the art of words is separated from other types: music, choreography, the art of embroidery, the art of toys and others.
The name “folk poetic creativity” indicates artistry as a sign by which folklore works are distinguished from beliefs, customs and rituals. This designation simultaneously puts folklore on a par with other types of folk art and fiction.
As for the name “oral poetic creativity of the people,” it combines the features contained in the previous ones; it is more complete than each of them taken separately.
Along with all the listed names of the oral poetic creativity of the people, Soviet science uses the international term “folklore” (English folklore - lit. folk - people, lore - knowledge, wisdom, i.e. “folk knowledge”, “folk wisdom”). This term appeared in the middle of the 19th century, it was proposed by the English scientist W. J. Thoms to designate
materials on ancient poetry, rituals and beliefs, but similar terms already existed in German scientific and fiction literature: das Volkstum, die Volkskunde, die Volksforschung, etc. The term die Volkskunde, corresponding to the English folklore, was introduced into science by J. F. Knaffl back in 1813 1. All this early terminology, denoting a set of works of oral creativity and related customs, rituals, and beliefs, identifies in folklore a sign of its belonging to folk archaic culture.
Western European science of the 19th century. introduced other terms into use. In France, the name “traditions populaires” appeared, similar to it in Italy - “tradizioni popolari”, in Spain - “tradiciones populares”. These names mark the centuries-old sustainable existence of folklore among the people. Folklore was associated with the manifestation of mass characteristics of the folk psyche and accordingly the names “demopsychologie” were introduced
(French) and “demopsychologia” (Italian). Folklore was also dissolved in general “ethnic studies” - “Volksforschung” (German), “demologie” (French), “scienza demica” (Italian), “demosofia” (Spanish), etc. Each of the terms in turn was associated with a special understanding of folklore.
So, several names of folklore passed before us: each of them pointed to several or one of its signs - a sign of the direct expression of nationality, orality, traditionalism, artistry, connection with folk life and other signs. This means that folklore is a very complex phenomenon and its definition must incorporate several features.
Chapter II
Folklore - the art of words
When starting to understand the concept of “folklore,” first of all, we must take into account the attribute that almost everyone takes into account, i.e., that folklore is art, artistic creativity. For this reason, the originality of folklore is usually clarified by comparing it with fiction. There is no doubt that folklore works also perform a number of practical non-aesthetic functions in everyday life: they lull children to sleep with lullabies, through spells they wish to restore the sick to health, to inspire affection, etc.; the rhythm of special songs helped to combine the physical efforts of those pulling the net, pushing the load, etc. But in folklore
no less than in literature, the artistic principle is developed, conscious of the people (in epics, fairy tales, lyrical songs, riddles and other works) or unconscious (in lamentations, ritual songs, spells, etc.), which, however, cannot interfere we must recognize the very fact of artistic creativity and in these
cases.
When comparing folklore with literature, one must, of course, take into account that the art of words in folklore is connected with other types of artistic creativity (the performing art of an actor, the skill of storytelling, the art of singing, music, etc.), but when comparing this point is not taken into account attention.
The art of words, bringing folklore and literature closer to each other, equally distinguishes them from other arts. The legitimacy of such consideration is justified by the very fact that the word in folklore performs a figurative and expressive function, and information and communication functions, as well as the combination of the art of the word with other arts, are nothing more than accompanying
circumstance. Although it is important, it does not prevent us from considering the art of words in itself in folklore. A similar study meets no objection when it comes to a literary work. It can also be combined with other arts (play and dramatic play, poetry and its artistic
reading, song and its performance, etc.).
All of the above fully explains why the originality
folklore is sought through its comparison with fiction. He is closest to her. The challenge is to understand what makes them different from each other.
When comparing folklore with literature, two trends emerged that were equally erroneous: the identification of folklore and literature and the absolutization of their differences. In the 20-50s, the first trend was widespread. In our time, another trend has emerged - an error of the opposite kind, which makes real the danger of the dissolution of folk art among everyday phenomena and the elimination of folkloristics as an art historical discipline.
In order not to fall into the mistake of identifying folklore with literature, we should take a closer look at the view that folklore is no different from literature, that it is created by the same creative individuals as authors - poets and prose writers in literature.
At one time, the famous folklorist Yu. M. Sokolov wrote about the importance of individual creativity in folklore: “The problem of creative individuality, long posed in Russian folklore, is now considered to be resolved in a positive sense, and the old romantic idea
the “collective” principle in the field of oral creativity is almost discarded or, in any case, limited to a very strong extent. And this is a solid achievement of Russian science” 1. The final work of Yu. M. Sokolov “Russian Folklore” also says: “Systematic observations of the life and work of epic storytellers, storytellers, compilers of tales, wedding groomsmen and other so-called bearers of folklore have shown what a huge role personal artistic skill plays in oral poetry , training, talent; memory and other aspects of the individual psyche" 2. The scientist saw in each performer of oral poetic works to a large extent also a creator - their author. Among folklore “authors” Yu. M. Sokolov saw “no less diversity of individual appearances than in written fiction” 3 .
Another famous folklorist, M.K. Azadovsky, also recognized as correct all theoretical provisions about the individual creative nature of folklore works. He spoke out against “misconceptions” about the existence of “so-called” folk art and considered individual creators in folklore as full-fledged and completely original authors 4 .
Other scientists from the 1930s and 1940s supported these findings. Thus, A.I. Nikiforov wrote: “The idea of collective mass creativity, put forward in the 60s of the last century, has now been replaced by the idea of individual creativity” 1.
The fundamental theoretical error in these judgments about the creative nature of folklore is that the process of creating works in folklore is identified with the literary one. “Author’s” books of storytellers were published with biographies, with analysis of the creative path, penetration into “individual” creative “laboratories”. Orality has become the only criterion of folklore.
In the science of folklore, another understanding of its creative specificity has been proposed. This understanding originates from folkloristics of the 40-60s of the 19th century, from “romantic”, as Yu. M. Sokolov and his other contemporaries called them, theories in science. Among the adherents of the “romantic” theory are: F. I. Buslaev, V. G. Belinsky, N. G. Chernyshevsky, O. F. Miller, A. A. Potebnya and many other scientists. In their judgments about folklore, all of them proceeded from the fact that it cannot be equated to literature both in content, and in the nature of creative processes, and in poetics.
In a review of Kirsha Danilov’s collection and other folklore collections, V. G. Belinsky wrote: “... the author of Russian folk poetry is the Russian people themselves, and not individuals.” I. G. Chernyshevsky spoke of folk songs as “created by the whole people,” as if they were created by “one moral person.” In this way, Chernyshevsky distinguished folklore works from works “written by individuals” 2. F. I. Buslaev, in turn, noted, speaking about the creation of myths, tales, epic songs, that “no one was exclusively
the creator of neither myth, nor legend, nor song. Poetic inspiration belonged to one and all, like a proverb, like a legal maxim. There was a whole people who were poets; He created poetic legends for centuries. Individual persons were not poets, but only
singers and storytellers; they only knew how to tell or sing more accurately and dexterously, which was known to everyone... The invention of fables, persons and events did not belong to the poet... The storyteller or singer was content with a few additions only in detail, when describing a person or event that had long been known to everyone; he was
free only to choose what seemed to him the most important in the folk tale, what could especially touch the heart. But even with the freedom of the story, the poet was not free to choose words and expressions... As if by the law of natural necessity, naive fantasy constantly
refers to the same images, expressions and whole speeches" 1 . Another contemporary scientist of F. I. Buslaev, O. F. Miller, wrote about the “lack of personal creativity” in folklore 2 . The same idea was put into the form of an easily remembered aphorism by Academician A. N. Veselovsky: “People's epics are anonymous, like medieval cathedrals” 3. The judgment is true not only in relation to epics.
The remarkable Russian philologist A. A. Potebnya, defining the essence of “folk” - folklore - creativity, noted that it “emerges from memorable sources (that is, when transmitted from mouth to mouth, as far as memory is sufficient), but certainly passed through significant -body layer of popular understanding.” This passage undoubtedly presupposes a change in the work in accordance with the concepts and ideas of the creative environment. The idea of “folk understanding” 4 A. A. Potebnya clarified with the following statement: “For a folk work that appears after another similar one, I assume a complete need, acting apart from consciousness, to remain in a known, predetermined rut of thought” 1 . In other words, in folklore there is traditional creativity: every new storyteller, singer creates, remaining within the boundaries of the generally accepted tradition.
M. Gorky spoke more than once about the nature of oral folk art. He saw in it “the collective creativity of the entire people, and not the personal thinking of one person” 2. For M. Gorky, every outstanding singer and storyteller in folklore was, first of all, a bearer
the wisdom that people's experience has accumulated, and the work of an individual master is inseparable from the previous tradition.
Modern folklorists owe it to M. Gorky that science has preserved and developed the most valuable part of the theoretical heritage of pre-revolutionary folkloristics. In the article “Specifics of Folklore” V. Ya. Propp wrote: “We stand on the point of view that folk art is not a fiction, but exists precisely as such, and that studying it is the main task of folkloristics as a science. In this regard, we identify ourselves with our old scientists, like F. Buslaev or O. Miller. What the old science felt instinctively, expressed naively, ineptly and not so much scientifically as emotionally, must now be cleared of romantic errors and raised to the proper height of modern science with its thoughtful methods and precise techniques” 3. Another scientist of our time, P. G. Bogatyrev, argued: “In the understanding of folklore as individual creativity, the tendency to eliminate the boundaries between the history of literature and the history of folklore has reached its highest point. ...This thesis must be subjected to thorough revision. Should this revision mean a rehabilitation of the romantic concept, which was so harshly criticized by representatives of the mentioned point of view? Without a doubt. The characterization of the difference between oral poetic creativity and literature given by romantic theorists contained a number of correct thoughts; the romantics were right insofar as they emphasized the collective nature of oral poetic creativity and compared it with language. Along with this correct text, the romantic concept had a number of statements that do not stand up to modern scientific criticism” 1.
As already noted, in modern science there is also a tendency to interpret folklore as a phenomenon of everyday life and from here derive all its properties. Thus, one of the ethnographic collections opens with an article that says: “...we do not think of questioning the specificity of folklore as a phenomenon of art. However, this should not shake, but confirm us in the opinion that the main feature of folkloristics is to be and remain at the same time a science - both philological and ethnographic, since every folklore phenomenon is simultaneously and inevitably both a fact of folk life and a fact
verbal art. In other words, every folklore phenomenon is an everyday and aesthetic phenomenon” 2. First of all, the assertion that folklore is always and “simultaneously” a phenomenon of everyday life and art is doubtful. A fairy tale, an epic, a lyrical song, although they exist, belong to the art of words, artistic creativity, and only to it. This can be said about many other folklore works. But lamentations, calendar and wedding songs, like some other types of creativity in folklore, may indeed not be of a conscious artistic nature and may not even be art at all. Folkloristics studies the aesthetic, ideological and artistic properties and features of folk art when it comes to phenomena included in everyday life, and, of course, in all cases when it deals with the art of words as such. Ethnography is occupied with something else: its subject is ethnic processes, ethnic communities. The subject area of ethnography as a science in its modern understanding is ethnos (people), and everything that an ethnographer studies is perceived by him “through the prism of performing” ethnic functions 1 . This also applies to folklore works. The famous Soviet ethnographer Yu. V. Bromley emphasized the difference between folklore and ethnographic analysis: “The general basis for determining the relationship of ethnography with art history disciplines when studying various types of folk art, in our opinion, should be the fulfillment by each of them of both aesthetic and ethnic functions" 2. Folklore studies is a philological and art-scientific discipline, and in this way its analysis of the art that is included in everyday life differs from the ethnographic approach, which has its own goals and objectives. Yu. V. Bromley, in particular, noted that even revealing the everyday purpose of each genre in folklore “does not yet give an answer to the question: how characteristic is it for the culture of a particular people” and does not contain ethnographic specificity: “Consequently, clarification not only philological and aesthetic, but
and cultural and everyday functions of oral folk art does not solve the actual ethnographic problems” 1 . Thus, folkloristics remains a science of art history and philology. Its subject is the art of words, artistic creativity in all its
historically established specifics. What is this specificity and in what forms is the artistic process carried out in it?
Literature
Immense oral folk art. It has been created for centuries, there are many varieties of it. Translated from English, “folklore” is “folk meaning, wisdom.” That is, oral folk art is everything that is created by the spiritual culture of the population over the centuries of its historical life.
Features of Russian folklore
If you carefully read the works of Russian folklore, you will notice that it actually reflects a lot: the play of the imagination of the people, the history of the country, laughter, and serious thoughts about human life. Listening to the songs and tales of their ancestors, people thought about many difficult issues of their family, social and work life, thought about how to fight for happiness, improve their lives, what a person should be, what should be ridiculed and condemned.
Varieties of folklore
Varieties of folklore include fairy tales, epics, songs, proverbs, riddles, calendar refrains, greatness, sayings - everything that was repeated passed from generation to generation. At the same time, the performers often introduced something of their own into the text they liked, changing individual details, images, expressions, imperceptibly improving and honing the work.
Oral folk art for the most part exists in a poetic (verse) form, since it was this that made it possible to memorize and pass on these works from mouth to mouth for centuries.
Songs
A song is a special verbal and musical genre. It is a small lyrical-narrative or lyrical work that was created specifically for singing. Their types are as follows: lyrical, dance, ritual, historical. Folk songs express the feelings of one person, but at the same time of many people. They reflected love experiences, events of social and family life, reflections on difficult fate. In folk songs, the so-called parallelism technique is often used, when the mood of a given lyrical character is transferred to nature.
Historical songs are dedicated to various famous personalities and events: the conquest of Siberia by Ermak, the uprising of Stepan Razin, the peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev, the battle of Poltava with the Swedes, etc. The narration in historical folk songs about some events is combined with the emotional sound of these works.
Epics
The term "epic" was introduced by I.P. Sakharov in the 19th century. It represents oral folk art in the form of a song of a heroic, epic nature. The epic arose in the 9th century; it was an expression of the historical consciousness of the people of our country. Bogatyrs are the main characters of this type of folklore. They embody the people's ideal of courage, strength, and patriotism. Examples of heroes who were depicted in works of oral folk art: Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, Mikula Selyaninovich, Alyosha Popovich, as well as the merchant Sadko, the giant Svyatogor, Vasily Buslaev and others. The basis of life, at the same time enriched with some fantastic fiction, constitutes the plot of these works. In them, heroes single-handedly defeat entire hordes of enemies, fight monsters, and instantly overcome vast distances. This oral folk art is very interesting.
Fairy tales
Epics must be distinguished from fairy tales. These works of oral folk art are based on invented events. Fairy tales can be magical (in which fantastic forces are involved), as well as everyday ones, where people are depicted - soldiers, peasants, kings, workers, princesses and princes - in everyday settings. This type of folklore differs from other works in its optimistic plot: in it, good always triumphs over evil, and the latter either suffers defeat or is ridiculed.
Legends
We continue to describe the genres of oral folk art. A legend, unlike a fairy tale, is a folk oral story. Its basis is an incredible event, a fantastic image, a miracle, which is perceived by the listener or storyteller as reliable. There are legends about the origin of peoples, countries, seas, about the sufferings and exploits of fictional or real heroes.
Riddles
Oral folk art is represented by many riddles. They are an allegorical image of a certain object, usually based on a metaphorical rapprochement with it. The riddles are very small in volume and have a certain rhythmic structure, often emphasized by the presence of rhyme. They are created in order to develop intelligence and ingenuity. The riddles are varied in content and theme. There may be several versions of them about the same phenomenon, animal, object, each of which characterizes it from a certain aspect.
Proverbs and sayings
Genres of oral folk art also include sayings and proverbs. A proverb is a rhythmically organized, short, figurative saying, an aphoristic folk saying. It usually has a two-part structure, which is supported by rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and assonance.
A proverb is a figurative expression that evaluates some phenomenon of life. It, unlike a proverb, is not a whole sentence, but only a part of a statement included in oral folk art.
Proverbs, sayings and riddles are included in the so-called small genres of folklore. What is this? In addition to the above types, these include other oral folk art. The types of small genres are complemented by the following: lullabies, nurseries, nursery rhymes, jokes, game choruses, chants, sentences, riddles. Let's take a closer look at each of them.
Lullabies
Small genres of oral folk art include lullabies. People call them bikes. This name comes from the verb "bait" ("bayat") - "to speak." This word has the following ancient meaning: “to speak, to whisper.” It is no coincidence that lullabies received this name: the oldest of them are directly related to spell poetry. Struggling with sleep, for example, the peasants said: “Dreamushka, get away from me.”
Pestushki and nursery rhymes
Russian oral folk art is also represented by pestushki and nursery rhymes. At their center is the image of a growing child. The name “pestushki” comes from the word “to nurture”, that is, “to follow someone, raise, nurse, carry in one’s arms, educate.” They are short sentences with which in the first months of a baby’s life they comment on his movements.
Imperceptibly, the pestles turn into nursery rhymes - songs that accompany the baby's games with his toes and hands. This oral folk art is very diverse. Examples of nursery rhymes: “Magpie”, “Ladushki”. They often already contain a “lesson”, an instruction. For example, in “Soroka” the white-sided woman fed everyone with porridge, except for one lazy person, although he was the smallest one (his little finger corresponds to him).
Jokes
In the first years of children's lives, nannies and mothers sang songs of more complex content to them, not related to play. All of them can be designated by the single term “jokes.” Their content is reminiscent of short fairy tales in verse. For example, about a cockerel - a golden comb, flying to the Kulikovo field for oats; about the rowan hen, which “winnowed peas” and “sowed millet.”
A joke, as a rule, gives a picture of some bright event, or it depicts some rapid action that corresponds to the active nature of the baby. They are characterized by a plot, but the child is not capable of long-term attention, so they are limited to only one episode.
Sentences, calls
We continue to consider oral folk art. Its types are complemented by slogans and sentences. Children on the street very early learn from their peers a variety of calls, which represent an appeal to birds, rain, rainbows, and the sun. Children, on occasion, shout out words in chorus. In addition to nicknames, in a peasant family any child knew the sentences. They are most often pronounced one by one. Sentences - appeal to a mouse, small bugs, a snail. This may be imitation of various bird voices. Verbal sentences and song chants are full of faith in the powers of water, sky, earth (sometimes beneficial, sometimes destructive). Their utterance introduced adult peasant children to the work and life. Sentences and chants are combined into a special section called “calendar children's folklore”. This term emphasizes the existing connection between them and the time of year, holiday, weather, the entire way of life and the way of life of the village.
Game sentences and refrains
Genres of oral folk art include playful sentences and refrains. They are no less ancient than calls and sentences. They either connect parts of a game or start it. They can also serve as endings and determine the consequences that exist when conditions are violated.
The games are striking in their resemblance to serious peasant activities: reaping, hunting, sowing flax. Reproducing these cases in strict sequence with the help of repeated repetition made it possible to instill in the child from an early age respect for customs and the existing order, to teach the rules of behavior accepted in society. The names of the games - "Bear in the Forest", "Wolf and Geese", "Kite", "Wolf and Sheep" - speak about the connection with the life and way of life of the rural population.
Conclusion
Folk epics, fairy tales, legends, and songs contain no less exciting colorful images than in the works of art of classical authors. Original and surprisingly accurate rhymes and sounds, bizarre, beautiful poetic rhythms - like lace are woven into the texts of ditties, nursery rhymes, jokes, riddles. And what vivid poetic comparisons we can find in lyrical songs! All this could have been created only by the people - the great master of words.
