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What traditions of folk art did Saltykov Shchedrin use. Project on literary criticism "Folklore motifs in fairy tales M

What traditions of folk art did Saltykov Shchedrin use. Project on literary criticism "Folklore motifs in fairy tales M

13.04.2019

The "ill-fated minnow" was not only the result of self-development and synthesis of habitual figurative associations. In the dramatic scene of the trial of the gudgeon Ivan Khvorov, the satirist depicted the massacre of the autocracy over the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries after March 1, 1881. The political acuteness of the topic required a complex artistic disguise, the invention of a special form, which was suggested to the satirist by the associations he had already used and enriched with some new achievements creative fantasy which gave the work a bright and unique originality.

This originality is expressed in the fact that people, observing the procedural rules, judge representatives of the animal world. Neither in fiction, nor in Russian folklore, nor in any other work of Shchedrin himself do we encounter such a phenomenon. "The Wise Minnow" appeared in Notes of the Fatherland in January 1884, that is, a year later than the "Unfortunate Minnow". The date of writing a fairy tale is usually either not given importance, or it is indicated erroneously.

Meanwhile, the clarification of the time of Shchedrin's work on the fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon" is important for a more complete disclosure of the ideological concept of the satirist. The tale, as can be established from Shchedrin's letters, was written at the end of January 1883. Shchedrin, apparently, set to work on it as soon as on January 21, 1883, he learned about the announcement of the second warning for the January book to Otechestvennye Zapiski, where the chapters of Modern Idyll, including The Unfortunate Minnow, were printed. Forced in connection with the warning to temporarily suspend " Modern idyll”, Shchedrin informed A.L. Borovikovsky in a letter dated January 31: “I wrote four fairy tales for the February book - it’s somehow shameful not to appear at all.” Among these tales was the "Wise Gudgeon". So for a quarter of a century one can observe in Shchedrin's works such elements of figurativeness, which are ultimately synthesized in the fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon".

The process of forming the ideological concept and the poetic form of this tale can serve to a certain extent as a prototype for the formation of many other satirist tales. This process can be represented as follows. The very tasks of satirical typification dictated the introduction into human images certain zoological nuances. Corresponding epithets and comparisons with animals appeared, separate episodes, scenes arose, and, finally, isolated tales in the form of an animal epic.

Shchedrin understood more and more clearly that the main reason for the defeat of the revolutionary fighters and the prolonged triumph of government and public reaction was the inconscience and disorganization of the masses, their ideological unpreparedness to fight for their rights.

The writer sought to reveal the main reason for the weakness of the liberation movement, so the problem of the people took a special place in latest works Shchedrin, therefore, he now considered "the mood of the masses" main theme. The image of the people is represented to some extent in almost all of Shchedrin's fairy tales, and, above all, in such as "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals", "The Wild Landowner", "Neighbors", "Konyaga", "Kissel ”, “Idle conversation”, “Village fire”, “By the way”, “Crow petitioner”. And in those fairy tales, the theme of which did not directly concern the peasant, the latter appears either in the collective image of “middle and small people who, because of a penny, fight all day in the rain and slush” (“Conscience Lost”), then in the episodic figure of Ivanushka , going “by way - to submit to the treasury by the road” (“Virtue and Vices”), or Ivan Poor, who lost his cow for unpaid taxes (“A Christmas Tale”).

And even Shchedrin's pictures of nature captured great sorrow for peasant Russia crushed by dirty bondage.

Against the dark background of the night, the author’s gaze catches, first of all, the “mourning points of the villages”, the “silent village”, the long-suffering army of people “gray, tortured by life and poverty, people with tormented hearts and drooping heads” (“Christ Night”). If we collect and group together numerous episodes and images of fairy tales related to the characteristics of the masses, then we will get a multifaceted, deep and dramatic picture of the life of post-reform Russia. It tells about the hopeless work, suffering, innermost thoughts of the people (“Konyaga”, “Village fire”, “Neighbors”, “By the way”), about his age-old humility (“The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”, " selfless hare”), about his futile attempts to find truth and protection in the ruling elite (“Crow-petitioner”), about spontaneous explosions of his class indignation against the oppressors (“Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Poor Wolf”), etc.

All these sketches, amazing in conciseness and brightness, peasant life, combining the high artistry of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin with the merits of a scientific political and economic treatise, with inexorable logic reveal the causes of social disasters.

Shchedrin not only knew how to understand the need and explain the origin of national disasters; he perceived them with that deep "heartache that makes one identify with worldly need and bear the sins of this world." The source of constant and painful thoughts of the writer was the striking contrast between strong and weaknesses Russian peasantry. On the one hand, the peasantry represented a tremendous force, showed unparalleled heroism in labor and the ability to overcome any difficulties of life; on the other hand, it meekly, submissively endured its oppressors, too passively endured oppression, fatalistically hoping for some kind of external help, nourishing a naive faith in the coming of good leaders.

The spectacle of the passivity of the peasant masses dictated to Shchedrin pages full of either lyrical melancholy, now aching anguish, now mournful humor, now bitter indignation. This motif of truly suffering love for the people runs through many of Shchedrin's tales. With bitter irony, Shchedrin depicted the pliancy, the slavish obedience of the peasantry in The Tale of How One Peasant Feed Two Generals, presenting here a picture of a screaming contradiction between the enormous potential power and the class passivity of the peasantry.

"The biggest man", he is a master of all trades. He got apples from a tree, and got potatoes in the ground, and made a snare for catching hazel grouse from his own hair, and took out a fire, and baked various provisions to feed the gluttonous parasites, and gathered swan's down so that they could sleep softly. Yes, he is a strong man! Before the force of his protest, if he were capable of it, the generals would not have resisted. Meanwhile, he resignedly obeys the generals. He gave them ten apples each, and took “one, sour” for himself. He himself twisted the rope so that the generals would keep him tied up at night. Moreover, he was ready to “please the generals for the fact that they favored him, the gonery, and did not disdain peasant labor!” No matter how much the generals scolded the peasant "for his parasitism", but "the peasant rows and rows and feeds the generals with herrings."

It is hard to imagine a more vivid depiction of the strength and weakness of the Russian peasantry in the era of the autocracy! Bearing in mind the passivity and humility of the peasant, the satirist with heartache likened Russian peasantry either a hare, afraid to violate the wolf’s order (“Self-sacrificing Hare”), then a crow - “a bird that breeds and agrees to everything” (“Eagle-patron”), then a darting jelly that allows you to eat yourself unhindered (“Kisel”). The satirist liked to repeat that the Russian peasant is poor in all respects, and above all poor in the consciousness of his poverty. In this sense, the image of a peasant in "Toy People" is noteworthy. A peasant comes to a bribe-taker, he feels “guilty”, and all his guilt lies only in the fact that he is a peasant. To atone for this "guilt" of his, he allows the bribe-taker to rob him clean, and in addition, he receives a fair amount of cuffs. “The peasant was badly rumpled, but, apparently, he was not upset at all. He understood that he had fulfilled his duty, and only slowly shook himself.

To feel “guilty” before the authorities, to give away everything that one has obtained by one’s own labor, to receive only cuffs for it, and at the same time to be satisfied that one has “fulfilled one’s duty” - this is the real tragedy of peasant unconsciousness! Recreating the picture of peasant disasters in fairy tales, Shchedrin consistently promoted the idea of the need to oppose the exploiters with the might of the people. He persistently inspired the oppressed masses that their oppressors were cruel, but not as powerful as it seemed to the frightened consciousness.

He sought to raise the consciousness of the masses to the level of their historical vocation, to equip them with courage and faith in their dormant forces, to awaken their enormous potential energy for collective self-defense and an active liberation struggle. In fairy tales, he repeatedly returned (of course, to the extent that it was possible in the legal press) to depict the process of maturing, revolutionary protest, sometimes spontaneous (“Poor Wolf”, “Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Crow-petitioner”), sometimes illuminated by the first glimpses of the awakening class consciousness (“The Way-Road”).

People's patience is not unlimited, the indignation of the masses is growing and must inevitably end in a spontaneous explosion: “We endure both cold and hunger, every year we all wait: maybe it will be better ... how long?” ("Way-road"); “How long will we endure? After all, if we ... ”(“ Raven-petitioner ”) Toptygin the 2nd, with his pogroms, brought the peasants out of patience:“ the peasants blew up, ”and they dealt with the oppressor, putting him on a spear (“Bear in the Voivodeship”). The fact that, on the one hand, the peasant democrat Shchedrin pinned his hopes primarily on the peasantry, and on the other hand, was fully aware that it was not ready for a consciously organized struggle, this circumstance was the source of the satirist's deep tragic feelings. .

With particular force, these experiences were reflected in the fairy tale "Konyaga", where the peasant mass is presented as a huge creative force, but a politically dormant force. The fairy tale "Konyaga" is the strongest work of Shchedrin in the series of his depictions of the position of the Russian peasantry in Tsarist Russia. The pain of Saltykov-Shchedrin for the Russian peasant that never subsided, all the bitterness of the writer’s thoughts about the fate of his people, his country, was concentrated in the narrow boundaries of one fairy tale and expressed itself in burning words, exciting images and paintings full of high poetry.

Tales Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote mainly from 1880 to 1886, at the final stage of his work. The form of a fairy tale was chosen by the writer not only because this genre provided an opportunity to hide the true meaning of the work from censorship, but also because it made it possible to simply and easily interpret the most complex problems of politics and morality. In the form most accessible to the masses, he, as it were, poured all the ideological and thematic richness of his satire.

Shchedrin's tales are truly encyclopedic. They reflected the entire Russian society of the post-reform era, all the public and social forces of Russia.

The main themes of the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin were: denunciation of the autocracy (“The Bear in the Voivodeship”), the ruling class (“The Wild Landowner”), liberalism (“ wise scribbler”, “Liberal”, “Karas-idealist”), and also touched upon the problem of the people (“The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”).

Folklore traditions are clearly traced in Shchedrin's fairy tales. The connection with folklore is established with the help of the traditional “once upon a time”, which is the beginning in a fairy tale. The writer also uses proverbs (“According to pike command, according to my desire...”), refers to folk sayings, filed in a socio-political interpretation.

The plot of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin is also folklore, since here good opposes evil, good opposes bad. However, the usual boundaries between these two concepts are blurred, and even positive characters are endowed with negative features, which are then ridiculed by the author himself.

Saltykov-Shchedrin had to constantly improve his allegorical manner in order to make his work accessible to the reader, therefore, proximity to folklore is also manifested in the figurative structure, which gives him the opportunity to directly use epithets, and when choosing animals for allegory, also rely on the fable tradition. The writer uses roles that are familiar to both fables and fairy tales. For example, in the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship”, the Bear Governor is a major, the Donkey is an adviser, the Parrots are buffoons, and the Nightingale is a singer.

The allegory of Shchedrin's fairy tales is always as transparent as in Krylov's fables, where, according to Belinsky, there are no animals, but people, "and, moreover, Russian people." It is no coincidence that the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin were called fables in prose, since they clearly traced the tradition of depiction corresponding to this genre. human vices in the form of animals. In addition, the Shchedrin tale, like the fable of Krylov or Aesop, always carries a lesson, morality, being a spontaneous educator and mentor of the masses.

In his fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin continues the Russian satirical literary tradition. For example, Gogol's motifs and polemics with Gogol can be traced in a number of fairy tales. In general, Gogol's satire largely determined the nature of the writer's further literary activity. For example, both in Gogol's "The Overcoat" and in "The Wise Scribbler" by Saltykov-Shchedrin, the psychology of the intimidated average person is shown. Shchedrin's innovation consisted in the fact that he introduced political satire into fairy tales, which has both a topical and universal sound. This writer turned the very idea of satire, going beyond the Gogol psychological method, pushing the boundaries of the possibilities of satirical generalization and ridicule. From now on, the subject of satire was not individual, often random events and incidents and not private individuals involved in them, but the whole life of the state from top to bottom, from the essence of the tsarist autocracy to the wordless slave people, whose tragedy was the inability to protest against cruel forms of life. Thus, the main idea of the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodship” is that the causes of national disasters are not only in the abuse of power, but also in the very nature of the autocratic system. And this means that the salvation of the people lies in the overthrow of tsarism.

Shchedrin's satire thus acquires a stable political coloring.

The satirist struggles not with specific phenomena, but with the social system that generates and nourishes these phenomena. Saltykov-Shchedrin considers everyone individual person as a product of its parent public environment, deprives the artistic image of all human features and replaces individual psychology with manifestations of the class instinct. Every action of the hero is comprehended by Shchedrin as socially necessary and inevitable.

In all the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, two planes are organically combined: real and fantastic, life and fiction, and fantasy is always based on real events.

The depiction of the “illusion” of political reality required an appropriate form, which, having brought the phenomenon to the point of absurdity, to the point of ugliness, would reveal its true ugliness. Such a form could only be the grotesque (connection of the incompatible), which is an important source of comic effect in fairy tales. Thus, the grotesque distorted and exaggerated reality, while fantasy gave the most unusual life phenomena the character of familiarity and everyday life, and the thought of the daily and regularity of what was happening only strengthened the impression. excessive cruelty political regime and the complete lack of rights of the people really bordered on magic, on fantasy. So, for example, in the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" Shchedrin, in an ugly comic form, showed the apogee of both the moral and external "neglect" of a person. The landowner “has become overgrown with hair, his nails have become like iron”, he began to walk on all fours, “has even lost the ability to articulate sounds”, “but he has not yet acquired a tail.” And in “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals,” the generals find a number of “Moskovskie Vedomosti” on a desert island.

Shchedrin uses hyperbole very actively. Both the dexterity of the peasant and the ignorance of the generals are extremely exaggerated. A skillful peasant cooked soup in a handful, stupid generals do not know that they bake flour rolls, and one even swallows the order of his friend.

Sometimes - although not as often and clearly as other means of artistic representation - Saltykov-Shchedrin uses antithesis (opposition). This can be seen in the example of "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals." The generals “raked in so much money - it can’t be said in a fairy tale or described with a pen”, and the peasant received “a glass of vodka and a nickel of silver”.

Important in understanding the tale is the author's irony, thanks to which the author's position is revealed. Irony can be traced in all the images present in fairy tales. For example, in “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals,” the calligraphy teacher cannot distinguish between cardinal directions.

The language of all the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin is distinguished by a special aphorism. The writer not only actively uses the elements of folklore (proverbs, sayings) already established in the language, but also introduces new expressions into it, for example: “Accept the assurances of my perfect respect and devotion”, “actually he was not angry, but so, cattle ".

So, the active use of artistic techniques allowed the writer to reveal more deeply the essence of the autocratic apparatus. In addition, the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin had a great influence on the further development of Russian literature and especially the genre of satire.

The plots of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tales are based on a grotesque situation, but behind it are always guessed real public relations, under the guise of a fairy tale, reality is shown. The grotesque-hyperbolic images of the heroes are, in fact, metaphors for the actual socio-psychological types of contemporary Russia.

Found in fairy tales real people, names of newspapers, references to topical socio-political topics. Along with this, there are also stylized situations that parody reality. In particular, ideological clichés and their typical linguistic forms are parodied.

Animals in fairy tales often act in a typical fable function, and not in a fairy tale one. Saltykov-Shchedrin uses “ready-made” roles assigned to some animals; traditional symbolism is found in his fairy tales.

Saltykov-Shchedrin demonstrates his adherence to the fable tradition, in particular, he includes morality in some fairy tales, a typical fable device, for example, "let this serve as a lesson to us."

The grotesque, as a favorite means of satire by Saltykov-Shchedrin, is already expressed in the very fact that animals act as people in specific situations, most often associated with

ideological disputes, socio-political issues relevant to Russia in the 1880s. In the depiction of these incredible, fantastic events, the originality of Shchedrin's realism is manifested, noticing the essence social conflicts and relationships specific traits which are hyperbolized.

Evil, angry ridicule of slave psychology is one of the main tasks of Shchedrin's fairy tales. He not only states these features of the Russian people - their long-suffering, unresponsiveness, not only anxiously seeks their origins and limits.

Saltykov-Shchedrin makes extensive use of allegory in his works. Including in fairy tales. He also masterfully uses the vernacular.

In conclusion, I would like to add that the thoughts expressed by the writer in fairy tales are modern today. Shchedrin's satire has stood the test of time and is especially poignant in a period of social turmoil such as Russia is experiencing today.

"The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals."

The plot of the tale is as follows: two generals suddenly found themselves in an unthinkable way on a desert island in a completely helpless state. This is the first of the features of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tales - a combination of the real and the fantastic. The second feature is irony. The image of these generals is filled with it, their appearance is ridiculous. They are in nightgowns, barefoot, but with an order around their necks. Thus, in the description by Saltykov-Shchedrin, the order depreciates, loses its meaning, since they received it not for work, but for "long sitting in the department." Ironically, the author also speaks of the general's abilities: he cannot remember them, except perhaps the calligraphic handwriting.

But the generals' stupidity is visible, their ignorance of life is obvious. They do not know how to do anything, they are used to living at the expense of others, they think that rolls grow on trees. Here the third pictorial technique is used - hyperbole, that is, exaggeration. Of course, there could not have been such stupid generals, but those receiving salaries beyond their merits - as many as you like. With the help of hyperbole, the author ridicules, depersonalizes this phenomenon. To emphasize the worthlessness of the generals, the author uses the fourth feature - contrast. The generals are not alone: miraculously, a peasant appeared on the island. Handyman of all trades, he fed the insatiable generals. Able to create everything: even cook soup in a handful. Saltykov-Shchedrin is ironic not only over the generals, but also over the peasant. In particular, over his obedience to stupid, defenseless generals. They forced him to twist a rope for himself - the generals wanted to tie him up so that he would not run away. The situation is fabulous, but the author used it to laugh evilly at his contemporary life, namely, at mediocre newspapers. After futile attempts to get food, the generals find one of these newspapers on the island and read it out of boredom. Saltykov-Shchedrin invites the reader to make fun of its content, stupid articles. The fairy tale ends with the peasant returning the generals to St. Petersburg, and in gratitude they give a glass of vodka and yes copper nickel. Saltykov-Shchedrin uses a phrase from folk tale: “It flowed down the mustache, but it didn’t get into the mouth.” But here it is used in the same ironic way - the peasant did not receive anything. The gentlemen live by the labor of the peasants, and the latter are ungrateful, while the savior people have nothing from their labor.

Saltykov-Shchedrin said: "I love Russia to the point of pain in my heart." It was love and the desire for change that guided him when, with the help of various visual means drew a real-fiction story about two worthless generals and a smart guy.

"Karas is an idealist."

This fairy tale Saltykov-Shchedrin like all his fairy tales, speaking name. By the title, we can already say that this tale describes a crucian who had idealistic views on life. The crucian carp is the object of satyrs, and in his image are people who, like him, hope for a class idyll.

He is pure in soul, and says that evil has never been driving force, it devastates our life and puts pressure on it. And good is driving force, it is the future.

But immersed in his ideological thoughts, he completely forgot that he lives in a world where there was, is and will be a place for evil. But Saltykov-Shchedrin ridicules not idealistic views, but the methods by which he wanted to achieve an idyll. In his fairy tales, the author uses three repetitions. Three times the crucian went to a dispute with a pike. Seeing her for the first time, he was not shy, she seemed to him an ordinary fish, like everyone else, only mouth to ear. He also told her about a happy life, where all the fish would be united, that even she listened to him, but the methods seemed ridiculous to her. Karas proposed to issue laws prohibiting, for example, pike from eating crucian carp. Yes, the fact is that these laws did not exist and probably never will. So the pike had three disputes with crucian carp, but accidentally swallowed it with water.

There is irony in this tale, because crucian carp is secretly mocked, saying that it is smart.

The images of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin entered our everyday life, and now you can see people promoting their ideology, but not able to implement it.

"Sane Bunny"

The sensible hare is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, "he reasoned so sensibly that it fit the donkey." He believed that “every animal has its own life” and that, although “everyone eats” hares, he is “not picky” and “agrees to live in every possible way.” In the heat of this philosophizing, he was caught by the Fox, who, bored with his speeches, ate him.

Fairy tale characters are standard for most fairy tales. One can recall not a single fairy tale where the main characters are a fox and a hare, and throughout the whole work their confrontation is considered. In fact, it is exciting and enough interesting story. That is why Saltykov-Shchedrin, in one of his fairy tales, stopped precisely on these characters.

The main theme of the tale is that by depicting animals, the author wanted each reader to transfer the content to himself, i.e. a fairy tale is like a fable and has a hidden meaning.

In my opinion, if we apply a fairy tale to the modern world, then its main idea is that for the most part stupid people much more and therefore those who are more literate and educated face many problems and non-recognition in society. Also, the mind of a hare is intertwined with a share of boasting and talkativeness, which ultimately leads to a deplorable end.

Each of the characters has their own point of view and expresses their thoughts. For excessive talkativeness, the hare was eaten by a fox, although his reasoning cannot be called meaningless and irrelevant.

"Wild Landlord"

The theme of serfdom and the life of the peasantry played an important role in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. The writer could not openly protest the existing system. Saltykov-Shchedrin hides his merciless criticism of the autocracy behind fabulous motifs. He wrote his political fairy tales from 1883 to 1886. In them, the writer truthfully reflected the life of Russia, in which despotic and all-powerful landowners destroy hard-working peasants.

In this tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin reflects on the unlimited power of the landowners, who in every way torment the peasants, imagining themselves almost as gods. The writer also speaks of the landowner's stupidity and lack of education: "that landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper" Vest "and his body was soft, white and crumbly." Shchedrin also reflects the disenfranchised position of the peasantry in tsarist Russia in this tale: "There was no need to light a torch for a peasant in the light, there was no more rod to sweep the hut with." The main idea of the fairy tale was that the landowner cannot and does not know how to live without a peasant, and the work of the landowner only dreamed of in nightmares. So in this tale, the landowner, who had no idea about labor, becomes a dirty and wild beast. After he was abandoned by all the peasants, the landowner never even washed his face: “Yes, I’ve been walking unwashed for many days!”.

The writer caustically ridicules all this negligence of the master class. The life of a landowner without a peasant is far from reminiscent of a normal human life.

The master became so wild that "from head to toe he was overgrown with hair, his nails became like iron, he even lost the ability to utter articulate sounds. But he has not yet acquired a tail." Life without peasants was also disrupted in the district itself: "no one pays taxes, no one drinks wine in taverns." "Normal" life begins in the county only when the peasants return to it. In the image. This one landowner Saltykov-Shchedrin showed the life of all the gentlemen in Russia. And the final words of the tale are addressed to each landowner: "He lays out grand solitaire, yearns for his former life in the forests, washes only under duress, and at times mumbles."

This fairy tale is full of folk motives, close to Russian folklore. There are no tricky words in it, but there are simple Russian words: "it's said and done", "muzhiks' trousers", etc. Saltykov-Shchedrin sympathizes with the people. He believes that the torment of the peasants is not endless, and freedom will prevail.

"Konyaga"

In the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the image of the Russian people, which was embodied in the image of a horse, is very well revealed. Konyaga - ordinary people, peasants who work for the benefit of the entire state, who with their labor are able to feed all the inhabitants of Russia. The image of Konyaga is saturated with pain and fatigue, which gives him a hard job.

If Saltykov-Shchedrin described the life of various social strata verbatim, then his works would not be allowed to print due to censorship, and thanks to the Aesopian language, he achieved a very touching and natural description of the estates. What is Aesopian language? This special kind secret writing, censored allegory, which was often used by fiction, deprived of freedom of expression under conditions of censorship. In the tale of Saltykov-Shchedrin "Konyaga" this technique is widely used, which allows you to expose reality and serves as a means of combating the infringement of the rights of the lower strata of society. politicians. This work shows the difficult, even ugly, life of the Russian people. Saltykov-Shchedrin himself sympathizes with the peasants, but he still shows this terrible picture of a beggarly way of life.

The field on which the peasant and horse work is boundless, just as their work and significance for the state are boundless. And, apparently, all the upper strata of the population are enclosed in the images of Pustoplyasov: gentlemen, officials - who only watch the work of the horse, because their life is easy and cloudless. They are beautiful and well-fed, they are given the food that the horse provides with his hard work and he himself lives from hand to mouth.

Saltykov-Shchedrin urges to think about the fact that such a hard work of the Russian people for the good of the state does not give them freedom from serfdom and does not save them from humiliation before officials and gentlemen who live easily, who can afford a lot.

The problem of the people and the bureaucracy is very relevant in our time, because for contemporary readers she will be interesting and curious. Also, thanks to the use of artistic medium as an Aesopian language, the problem of the fairy tale "Konyaga" is acute to this day.

Saltykov-Shchedrin in his work often resorted to the fairy-tale form of narration. folklore genre allowed the great satirist to denounce social vices and bureaucratic failure, bypassing strict censorship.

Let's look at examples of what techniques the master of the accurate pen resorted to and what was hidden behind them. In "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals," the satirist immerses the reader in absolutely fantasy world: two high ranks find themselves on a desert island.

At the same time, none of the generals is adapted to life in extreme conditions. They do not even know that food in its original form "flies, swims and grows on trees."

From the inevitable death of his comrades in misfortune, a peasant appears from nowhere. He fed and watered the generals, and also wove a rope for himself "so as not to run away." AT fairy tale a literate reader can easily understand the author’s hint, but Saltykov-Shchedrin introduces an additional detail into the narrative - “the number of the Moscow Vedomosti”, thereby enhancing the grotesque and dispelling doubts about the connection of a bizarre story with real life.

No less fantastically developing events in the "Wild Landowner".

The hero of this work is even more stupid than the generals mentioned. The landowner cannot stand the "servant spirit" and dreams of getting rid of the peasants, not realizing his dependence on them. As soon as the men leave the master, he begins to transform: he does not wash, does not cut his hair, and begins to walk on all fours. The culmination of savagery is the transformation of the hero into a bear. The image of the clubfoot was chosen by the author not by chance - he associates it with extreme savagery and stupidity.

It can be concluded that the writer deliberately combined folklore with satire in order to avoid censorship. At the same time, he managed to display topical topics in an accessible form and most fully.

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Updated: 2017-01-21

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Scientific and practical conference

"First steps into science-2015" on the basis of MBOU "Petropavlovsk secondary school named after the hero of the Soviet Union Zhukov D.A."

Theme:

“Folklore motifs in the fairy tales of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin" (project)

10th grade student,

MBOU "Solovyikhinskaya secondary school"

Scientific adviser:

Nechaeva Irina Nikolaevna,

teacher of Russian language and literature

Petropavlovskoe, 2015

Content

Plan of research work………………………………………………...2

Epigraph……………………………………………………………………………… 2 Relevance………………………………………………… ……………………...3

Objectives of the work………………………………………………………………………….5

Hypothesis………………………………………………………………………………4

Tasks of the work………………………………………………………………………..5

Research methods…………………………………………………………….5

Introduction …………………………………………………………………………..6

Main part.………………………………………………………………..7-16

Conclusion………………………………………………………..…………......17

Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………….18

Results…………………………………………………………………………18

Literature………………………………………………………………………… 19

Appendix ………………………………………………………………....20-22

Research Plan :

I stage.Organizational and preparatory.

Definition of the research topic; formulation of problematic research questions; research planning (goals, hypothesis, methods); familiarization with the criteria for evaluating the public defense of work.

II stage.Research.

Conducting research: collecting information; solution of intermediate tasks; registration of research results; information analysis; drawing conclusions

III.Final. Public defense of educational and research work.

Oral report with demonstration of materials, written report.

Epigraph

"Saltykov has ... this serious and vicious humor, this realism, sober and clear in the midst of the most unbridled imagination ..."

I.S. Turgenev

Relevance

A striking sign of the creativity of many writers of the 19th century was their ability to continue folklore traditions in their works. Pushkin, and Nekrasov, and Gogol, and Tolstoy were famous for this. But this series would be incomplete if we did not put one more name in it - Saltykov-Shchedrin.

The fairy tale is one of the most popular folklore genres. This type of oral storytelling with fantastic fiction has a long history. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are connected not only with the folklore tradition, but also with the satirical literary fairy tale XVIII-XIX centuries. Already in his declining years, the author turns to the genre of fairy tales and creates the collection "Tales for Children fair age". They, according to the writer, are called upon to "educate" these very "children", to open their eyes to the world around them.

In "Tales for Children of Fair Age" the writer castigates the unrest that hinders the development of Russia. And the main evil that the author condemns is serfdom.

I explore the connection of fairy tales from Saltykov-Shchedrin with the traditions of oral folk art, their thematic diversity, as well as artistic features. In his work on fairy tales, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin relied not only on the experience of folk art, but also on the satirical fables of I. A. Krylov, on the traditions of Western European fairy tales. He created new genre political fairy tale, in which fantasy is combined with real, topical political reality.

Saltykov-Shchedrin's faith in his people, in his history, remained unchanged. Thus, in the tales of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, satire on various aspects of life is clearly visible.

The language of Shchedrin's fairy tales is deeply folk, close to Russian folklore.Saltykov-Shchedrin introduced into the world of folk art topical political topics and with the help of familiar characters revealed the complex problems of our time.

Relying on folk wisdom using wealth folk speech, Russian folklore, imbued with purely folk humor, the writer created works whose purpose was to awaken in the people his great spirit, his will and strength. With all his work, Saltykov-Shchedrin strove to ensure that "children of a fair age" matured and ceased to be children.

Hypothesis: disclosure difficult problems modernity by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin through the introduction to the world of folk art, through folklore motifs.

Purpose of work: Learn the distinctive features and features of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Tasks:

draw attention to the study of the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin as prophetic;

collect material about artistic features, folklore motifs;

Research methods:

1. Questioning of students on the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

2. Selection and analysis of information from various sources.

3. Testing based on the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Object of study: the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, critical literature on this topic.

Study timeline: November 2014 – May 2015

Introduction.

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote more than 30 fairy tales. Appeal to this genre was natural for the writer. Fairy-tale elements (fantasy, hyperbole, conventionality, etc.) permeate all of his work.

“A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it! ..” But A. S. Pushkin was right. Yes, a fairy tale is a lie, fiction, but it is she who teaches to recognize and hate hostile traits in the world, a fairy tale shows everything positive traits people and stigmatizes, ridicules domination. With the help of a fairy tale, it is easier for the author to communicate with the people, because its language is understandable to everyone. In order to be convinced of this, I would like to analyze the work of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

What brings the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin closer to folk tales? Typical fairy-tale beginnings (“Once upon a time there were two generals ...”, “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there once lived a landowner ...”); proverbs (“at the command of a pike”, “neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen”); turns characteristic of folk speech (“thought and thought”, “said and done”); close to vernacular syntax, vocabulary; exaggeration, grotesque, hyperbole: one of the generals eats the other; The “wild landowner”, like a cat, climbs a tree in an instant, a peasant cooks soup in a handful. As in folk tales, a miraculous incident sets up the plot: two generals "suddenly found themselves on a desert island"; by the grace of God, "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of the stupid landowner." Saltykov-Shchedrin also follows the folk tradition in fairy tales about animals, when he ridicules the shortcomings of society in allegorical form!

The difference between the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin and folk tales is that they intertwine the fantastic with the real and even historically reliable.

Main part

Among the many genres of folklore, we are most interested infairy tale, becausefairy tale - very popular genre oral folk art, epic, prose, story genre.

The traditions of Fonvizin, Krylov, Gogol, Belinsky, Chernyshevsky and others, as well as folk art, were inherited and further developed in new era in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, who, denoting the most painful places of autocratic Russia, enriched literary images created by progressive writers before him. According to the fair definition of M. Gorky: "It is impossible to understand the history of Russia in the second half of the 19th century without the help of Shchedrin."
“Allegories in Shchedrin's work are enriched with folklore images and expressions, which made his language more colorful, vivid and passionate.
It has been repeatedly noted that the satirist's tales are organically connected with folklore. However, borrowing folklore images, Shchedrin endows them with new features, different from those that are inherent in them in folk tales. If in folklore the traits of animals are transformed into traits of people, then the writer satirically draws the reader's attention to individual traits of the human character, bringing him closer to the animal.

The use of proverbs and sayings is, perhaps, another of the features of Shchedrin's fairy tales, which, naturally, indicates their nationality, their originality.

A distinctive feature of the allegory of Saltykov's tales is the use by the author of the periphrase ("Bear in the Voivodeship", "Dried Vobla", "Eagle-philanthropist").

Another important feature of Shchedrin's tales is the use of beginnings and sayings, which give the tales a special, some kind of fantastic shade. But unlike folk tales, fantasy has a very real, vital basis.

The writer essentially created a new genre - a political fairy tale. The life of Russian society in the second half of the 19th century was captured in the richest gallery of characters. "Shchedrin showed the entire social anatomy, touched on all the main classes and strata of society: the nobility, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, the intelligentsia."

Sample Plan fairy tale analysis

What is the main theme of the story?

The main idea of the tale (why?).

Plot features. How is the main idea of the tale revealed in the system of characters?

Features of fairy tale images:
a) images-symbols;
b) the originality of animals;
c) closeness to folk tales.

Satirical techniques used by the author.

Features of the composition: inserted episodes, landscape, portrait, interior.

Combination of folklore, fantastic and real.

"Although animals, but still kings ..."

These words can be successfully attributed to the study of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, which the writer himself called fairy tales "for children of a fair age."

"Tales" is a kind of result of the writer's artistic activity, since they were created at the final stage of life and creative way. Of the 32 fairy tales, 28 were created within four years, from 1882 to 1886.

In the satirical images of the writer, not only laughter over how you can distort, mutilate your life and even your appearance, but also tears about how easily and imperceptibly a person is able to abandon his high destiny and irretrievably lose himself. (This is the hero of the fairy tale "The Wise Piskar" - from the word "squeak", since the minnow fish, if grabbed by hand, makes a sound similar to a squeak.)

The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are not the speech of a people-storyteller. These are philosophical and satirical tales. They are about life, about what the writer saw and observed in reality. To verify this, one can compare the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin with Russian folk tales and note their common and distinctive features.

Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin

Tales of the Russian people

Common features

Zachin
Fairy story
folklore expressions
Folk vocabulary
Fairy tale characters
ending

Distinctive features

Satire
Sarcasm
Mixing categories of good and evil
no good hero
Comparison of man to animal

Humor
Hyperbola
Victory of good over evil
Positive hero
Animal Humanization

What did Saltykov-Shchedrin teach "children of a fair age" to think about? - "Children of a fair age" should grow up and stop being children. What are the objects of Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire?

Government circles and the ruling class;

philistine-minded (liberal) intelligentsia;

the disenfranchised position of the people in Russia, their passivity and humility,

lack of spirituality.

Satirical techniques used in fairy tales by the writer. different ways laughter:

a) irony - ridicule, which has double meaning, where the true is not a direct statement, but the opposite;

sarcasm is a caustic and poisonous irony that sharply exposes phenomena that are especially dangerous for a person and society;

grotesque - an extremely sharp exaggeration, a combination of the real and the fantastic, a violation of the boundaries of plausibility;

b) allegory, allegory - a different meaning, hidden behind the external form. Aesopian language - artistic speech based on forced allegory;

c) hyperbole - excessive exaggeration.

As found out literary critics, a striking sign of the work of many writers of the XIX century was their ability to continue folklore traditions in their works. Pushkin, and Nekrasov, and Gogol, and Tolstoy were famous for this. “But this series would be incomplete if we did not put one more name in it - Saltykov-Shchedrin. Among the huge heritage of this writer, his fairy tales are very popular. It is in them that the traditions of Russian folklore are most clearly traced.

Saltykov-Shchedrin turned to fairy tales not only because it was necessary to bypass censorship, which forced the writer to turn to the Aesopian language, but also in order to educate the people in a familiar and accessible form.

a) in your own way literary form and style, the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are associated with folklore traditions. In them we meet traditional fairy-tale characters: talking animals, fish, Ivanushka the Fool and many others. The writer uses the beginnings, sayings, proverbs, linguistic and compositional triple repetitions, vernacular and everyday peasant vocabulary that are characteristic of a folk tale, permanent epithets, words with diminutive suffixes. As in a folk tale, Saltykov-Shchedrin does not have clear time and space frames.

b) But using traditional techniques, the author quite deliberately deviates from tradition. He introduces socio-political vocabulary, clerical turns, French words into the narrative. On the pages of his fairy tales there are episodes of modern public life. So there is a mixture of styles, creating comic effect, and the connection of the plot with the problems of the present.

Thus, having enriched the tale with new satirical devices, Saltykov-Shchedrin turned it into an instrument of socio-political satire.

The satirical fantasy of Shchedrin's final book is based on folk tales about animals. The writer uses ready-made content, honed by age-old folk wisdom, freeing the satirist from the need for detailed motivations and characteristics.

In fairy tales, each animal is endowed with stable qualities of character: the wolf is greedy and cruel, the fox is insidious and cunning, the hare is cowardly, the pike is predatory and gluttonous, the donkey is hopelessly stupid, and the bear is stupid and clumsy. This plays into the hands of satire, which by its very nature eschews details and depicts life in its sharpest manifestations, exaggerated and enlarged. Therefore, the fabulous type of thinking organically corresponds to the very essence of satirical typification. It is no coincidence that among folk tales about animals there are satirical tales: “About Yersh Ershovich, the son of Shchetinnikov” - a bright folk satire on court and legal proceedings, “About a toothy pike” - a fairy tale that anticipates the motives of the “Wise Piskar” and “Karas-idealist”.

Borrowing ready-made fairy tale plots and images from the people, Shchedrin develops the satirical content inherent in them. And the fantastic form is for him a reliable way of "Aesopian" language, at the same time understandable and accessible to the widest, democratic sections of Russian society. “With the advent of fairy tales, the addressee of Shchedrin's satire itself changes significantly, the writer now addresses the people. It is no coincidence that the revolutionary intelligentsia of the 80s and 90s used Shchedrin's tales for propaganda among the people.

Saltykov-Shchedrin willingly used the traditional methods of folk art. His fairy tales often begin, like folk tales, with the words “they lived and were”, “in a certain kingdom, in a certain state”. Often there are proverbs and sayings: "The horse runs - the earth trembles", "Two deaths cannot happen, one cannot be avoided." Shchedrin's fairy tales are very close to folk tales by the traditional method of repetition: "everyone was trembling, everyone was trembling ...", substitutions: "There were two generals ... at the behest of a pike, at my will, they found themselves on a desert island ...".

The author deliberately emphasizes one particular feature in each character, which is also characteristic of folklore. Sayings are often found (“at the behest of a pike”, “neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen”); turns characteristic of folk speech (“thought and thought”, “said and done”); syntax, vocabulary close to the folk language; exaggeration, grotesque, hyperbole: one of the generals eats the other; The “wild landowner”, like a cat, climbs a tree in an instant, a peasant cooks soup in a handful. As in folk tales, a miraculous incident sets up the plot: two generals "suddenly found themselves on a desert island"; by the grace of God, "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of the stupid landowner."

In the fairy tale “The Wise Scribbler”, Saltykov-Shchedrin also makes extensive use of expressions similar to proverbs and sayings (“wherever he turns, he is cursed everywhere”, “to live life is not like licking a whorl”, “it’s better not to eat, not to drink, rather than lose life with a full stomach”, “I’ll swim like a gogol across the river”, “how water tolerates such idols”).

The satirist does not parody folklore expressions and living, folk speech contemporary to him, but adapts them to solve his own artistic problems, which has become a characteristic sign of the author's style.

In his work on fairy tales, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin relied not only on the experience of folk art, but also on the satirical fables of I. A. Krylov, on the traditions of Western European fairy tales. He created a new genre of political fairy tale, in which fantasy is combined with real, topical political reality.

Saltykov-Shchedrin did not copy the structure of the folk tale, but introduced his own, new one into it. First of all, this is the appearance of the image of the author. Behind the mask of a naive joker is hidden the sarcastic grin of a merciless satirist. Quite differently than in a folk tale, the image of a peasant is drawn. In folklore, the peasant has sharpness, dexterity, and invariably wins over the master. In the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the attitude towards the peasant is ambiguous.

Often it is he who remains in the cold, despite his sharpness, as in the fairy tale "How one man fed two generals." “The comedy and parody of the figure of a wonderful man are obvious. On the one hand, Saltykov-Shchedrin parodies the motif of finding a miraculous helper by the hero, which is characteristic of folk fairy tales. Shchedrin's "man" is endowed with the same supernatural gift as any Gray wolf or Baba Yaga.5.70] But unlike the hero folk tales, to whom an assistant owes something (for example, a wolf - with his life), the peasant does not have the slightest reason to be grateful to the generals.

“In world literature, the mutual influence of the plots of fairy tales is clearly traced. different countries and peoples; in addition, we constantly meet some images that are firmly entrenched in world folklore. First of all, this can be said about the image of the wolf, which appears both in the fables of Aesop and in ancient Eastern tales (in particular, in Arabic). Russian folk tales, proverbs and sayings give colorful characteristics to the wolf. The wolf is not forgotten by Saltykov-Shchedrin ("Poor Wolf", "Candidate for Pillars").

Conclusion

His tales are a magnificent satirical monument of a bygone era. Not only the types created by Saltykov-Shchedrin, but also the winged words and expressions of the master of Aesopian speeches are still found in our everyday life. The word-images of his works, such as "pompadour", "idealist crucian", "bungler", "foam skimmer", firmly entered the life of his contemporaries.

“I love Russia to the point of pain,” said Saltykov-Shchedrin. He distinguished the dark phenomena of her life, because he believed that moments of insight were not only possible, but constituted an inevitable page in the history of the Russian people. And he was waiting for these minutes and all his creative activity tried to bring them closer, in particular, with the help of such artistic means as Aesopian language.

In general, all the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin can be conditionally divided into three main groups: fairy tales that castigate the autocracy and the exploiting classes; fairy tales that expose cowardice modern writer liberal intelligentsia and, of course, fairy tales about the people.

Images of fairy tales have come into use, have become common nouns and live for many decades. That's whyII think that it was not in vain that Pushkin said the words "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it! ..". After all, thanks to the fairy tale, we, I mean our generation, have learned, are learning and will learn to live.

Based on folk wisdom, using the wealth of folk speech, Russian folklore, imbued with purely folk humor, the writer created works whose purpose was to awaken in the people his great spirit, his will and strength.

Output

After analyzing the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, in accordance with the purpose of our work, I came to the following conclusions:

1. The writer's language is deeply folk, close to Russian folklore. In fairy tales, Shchedrin widely uses proverbs, sayings, sayings: “Two deaths cannot happen, one cannot be avoided”, “My hut is on the edge”, “Once upon a time ...”, “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state ...” .

2. "Fairy tales" by Saltykov-Shchedrin awakened the political consciousness of the people, called to fight, to protest.

3. Questioning showed:

Most of the students became interested in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Results:

Scientificthe significance of our work is related to the study a large number actual material.

Practical application : the results of our study can be found in the preparation of history and literature lessons using the political fairy tale genre.

The results of our study allow us to use the main conclusions of the work in the development of lessons and extracurricular activities in literature and moral education students.

Literature:

Bazanov V. G. From folklore to folk book. - L., 1973.

Bushmin A.S. The evolution of the satire of Saltykov-Shchedrin. - M., 1984.

History of Russian literature of the 19th century (second half). / Ed. S. M. Petrova. - M., 1974.

Kachurin M. G., Motolskaya D. K. Russian literature. - M., 1981.

Criticism about M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin //Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. History of one city. Lord Golovlev. Fairy tales. - M., 1997.

Lebedev Yu. V. Tales of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin / M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tales. - M., 1999.

Prozorov V. V. Saltykov-Shchedrin. - M., 1988.

Russian literature XIX century. Second half. Issue 1. / Ed. L. G. Maksidonova. - M., 2002.

Russian writers. Biobibliographic dictionary. / Ed. P. A. Nikolaev. - M., 1990.

Informational resources:

Application:

1. Test.

1. What explains M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin's choice of the fairy tale genre?

a) the desire to get away from life's plausibility.

b)desire to overcome censorship obstacles

c) addiction to allegorical! writing style

d) the popularity of fairy tales as a favorite genre
propaganda literature

2. What do the tales of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin have in common with folk tales?

a) fairy tale

b)based on real life

in)folk beliefs about good and evil

d) traditional fabulous tricks

e) socially acute problems

f) images of animals typical of folk tales

3. What is the difference between the “Shchedrinskaya” fairy tale and the folk one?

a) evil in the final is not always punished

b)use of sarcasm and satire

in)interpretation of characters

d) the introduction of images atypical for a folk tale

4. Distribute the names of fairy tales by subject.

"Wise scribbler"; "Bear in the province"; "Eagle patron"; "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals"; "Konyaga"; "Karas-idealist"; "Bogatyr"; "Crow petitioner"; "Dried vobla"; "Wild landowner".

a) the theme of the people

b)power theme

in)condemnation of philistinism

5. Distribute the comic funds in ascending order.

Sarcasm; humor; hyperbola; irony; grotesque; satire.

6. Match the example from the text of the fairy tale and the name of the artistic device that is used in it.

a) “The men see: although stupid, 1) irony
they are a landowner, and he has been given a great mind ... "

b)"Across provincial city flew away - 2) speech illogism
swarming swarm of men ... "

in)“He was an enlightened scribbler, 3) a grotesque
moderate liberal and very firm
understood that life is not

what to lick the whorl ... "

7. What heroes of fairy tales by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are not typical even for folk tales?

a)Bear

b)Donkey

in)Vobla

d) Hare

e) Piskar

e)a lion

g) Carp

h) Chizhik

8. Who is ridiculed in the fairy tale "The Wise Scribbler"?

a)government

b)revolutionary democrats
c) common people

d) liberals

Answers to the test "M. E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN. FAIRY TALES"

1. c, d

2. b, e

3. a, b

4. a) “The Bear in the Voivodship”, “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”, “Konyaga”, “Crow Petitioner”, “Wild Landowner”

b) "Bear in the Voivodeship", "Eagle Patron", "Bogatyr"

c) "Wise scribbler", "Karas-idealist", "Dried roach"

5. irony, humor, hyperbole, satire, sarcasm, grotesque

6. a - 3, b - 1, c - 2

7. c, e, f, g

8. c.

2. Questionnaire Questions (based on the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin)

1. Where and in what family was he born?

2. When did you start your literary activity?

3. Why do we study his work?

4. List the main life principles of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Was he a strong person?

5. What is the style of his works?

6. What is the phenomenon of Shchedrin's fairy tales?

The fairy tale genre is very popular in fiction. Writers from many countries of the world, inspired by the unfading charm of folk art, created literary works based on folklore stories, images, motives. You remember, of course, Pushkin's fairy tales. We have no doubt that from childhood you were accompanied by the tales of the Frenchman Charles Perrault, the German folklorists brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Dane Hans Christian Andersen. But the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are completely unusual, not even in plots, but in spirit and direction.

As you know, folk tales, depending on the subject matter, are divided into three categories: fairy tales about animals, fairy tales and household stories. Shchedrin's fairy tales can be perceived as a kind of fairy tales about animals. It is clear that folk fantasy ascribes to animals, fish, birds what is peculiar only to people. When animals in fairy tales talk, perform certain actions, express some opinions, this does not surprise anyone. But the Shchedrin fairy tale characters usually exist, as it were, in two dimensions - they can behave in accordance with their bestial nature, and at the same time show such human qualities that it is simply amazing how the author could think of it. Shchedrin knew how to compare the most remote and unusual phenomena, signs, properties. As a result, the hare turns out to be selfless for the writer, the eagle is a patron of the arts, the bear is a governor, the crucian is an idealist, etc.

Folk tales about animals are always based on allegory. Each animal is endowed with a certain characteristic. Since childhood, we have become accustomed to the fact that the fox is cunning, the wolf is cruel, the bear is strong and clumsy, the hare is cowardly, the donkey is stupid. And at the same time, these qualities, properties, character traits turn out to be inherent in people. This principle is also used by Shchedrin. His tales are also built on conscious allegory. But, as has already been said, the narrative is built on such a paradoxical, unusual, peculiar combination of two plans, which is found only in Shchedrin.

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