Grotesque is a term that means a type of artistic imagery (image, style, genre) based on fantasy, laughter, hyperbole, a bizarre combination and contrast of something with something.
In the genre of the grotesque, the ideological and artistic features of Shchedrin's satire were most clearly manifested: its political sharpness and purposefulness, the realism of its fantasy, the ruthlessness and depth of the grotesque, the sly sparkling humor.
"Tales" Shchedrin in miniature contain the problems and images of the entire work of the great satirist. If Shchedrin had written nothing apart from Tales, then they alone would have given him the right to immortality. Of the thirty-two tales of Shchedrin, twenty-nine were written by him in the last decade of his life and, as it were, sum up the writer's forty years of creative activity.
Shchedrin often resorted to the fairy-tale genre in his work. Elements of fairy-tale fantasy are present in “The History of a City”, while the satirical novel “Modern Idyll” and the chronicle “Abroad” include completed fairy tales.
And it is no coincidence that the heyday of the fairy tale genre falls on Shchedrin in the 80s of the 19th century. It was during this period of rampant political reaction in Russia that the satirist had to look for a form that was most convenient for circumventing censorship and at the same time the closest, understandable to the common people. And the people understood the political acuteness of Shchedrin's generalized conclusions, hidden behind Aesop's speech and zoological masks. The writer created a new, original genre of political fairy tale, which combines fantasy with real, topical political reality.
In Shchedrin's fairy tales, as in all of his work, two social forces confront each other: the working people and their exploiters. The people appear under the masks of kind and defenseless animals and birds (and often without a mask, under the name "man"), the exploiters - in the images of predators. And this is already grotesque.
“And I, if you saw: a man is hanging outside the house, in a box on a rope, and smears paint on the wall, or walks on the roof like a fly - this is who I am!” - says the savior-man to the generals. Shchedrin laughs bitterly at the fact that the muzhik, on the orders of the generals, weaves the rope himself, with which they then tie him up. The man is honest, straightforward, kind, unusually quick-witted and smart. He can do everything: get food, sew clothes; he conquers the elemental forces of nature, jokingly swims across the “ocean-sea”. And the muzhik treats his enslavers with derision, without losing his self-esteem. The generals from the fairy tale “How one man fed two generals” look like miserable pygmies compared to the giant man. To depict them, the satirist uses completely different colors. They do not understand anything, they are dirty physically and spiritually, they are cowardly and helpless, greedy and stupid. If you are looking for animal masks, then the pig mask is just right for them.
In the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" Shchedrin summarized his thoughts on the reform of the "liberation" of the peasants, contained in all his works of the 60s. Here he poses an unusually acute problem of the post-reform relations between the feudal nobility and the peasantry completely ruined by the reform: “A cattle will go to the watering place - the landowner shouts: my water! a chicken will wander out of the village - the landowner shouts: my land! And the earth, and water, and air - everything became his!”
This landowner, like the aforementioned generals, had no idea about labor. Abandoned by his peasants, he immediately turns into a dirty and wild animal, becomes a forest predator. And this life, in essence, is a continuation of his previous predatory existence. The savage landowner, like the generals, acquires the outward human appearance again only after his peasants return. Scolding the wild landowner for his stupidity, the police officer tells him that the state cannot exist without peasant taxes and duties, that without peasants everyone will starve to death, you can’t buy a piece of meat or a pound of bread in the market, and the masters will have no money. The people are the creators of wealth, and the ruling classes are only consumers of this wealth.
The carp from the fairy tale “Karas-idealist” is not a hypocrite, he is truly noble, pure in soul. His ideas as a socialist deserve deep respect, but the methods of their implementation are naive and ridiculous. Shchedrin, being himself a socialist by conviction, did not accept the theory of the utopian socialists, he considered it the fruit of an idealistic view of social reality, of the historical process. “I don’t believe... that struggle and strife were a normal law, under the influence of which everything living on earth is supposedly destined to develop. I believe in bloodless prosperity, I believe in harmony...” - the crucian ranted.
In other variations, the idealistic crucian theory was reflected in the fairy tales “The Selfless Hare” and “The Sane Hare”. Here, the heroes are not noble idealists, but cowardly townsfolk, hoping for the kindness of predators. Hares do not doubt the right of the wolf and fox to take their lives, they consider it quite natural that the strong eat the weak, but they hope to touch the wolf's heart with their honesty and humility. “Maybe the wolf… haha… will have mercy on me!” Predators are still predators. Zaitsev is not saved by the fact that they "did not let revolutions in, they did not go out with weapons in their hands."
Shchedrin's wise gudgeon, the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, became the personification of the wingless and vulgar philistine. The meaning of life for this “enlightened, moderately liberal” coward was self-preservation, avoiding clashes, avoiding struggle. Therefore, the minnow lived to a ripe old age unharmed. But what a humiliating life it was! It all consisted of continuous trembling for its own skin. "He lived and trembled - that's all." This fairy tale, written during the years of political reaction in Russia, struck without a hitch at the liberals who grovel before the government because of their own skin, at the townsfolk hiding in their holes from the social struggle.
The Toptygins from the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship”, sent by the lion to the voivodeship, set the goal of their rule to commit as much “bloodshed” as possible. By this they aroused the anger of the people, and they suffered the “fate of all fur-bearing animals” - they were killed by the rebels. The same death from the people was accepted by the wolf from the fairy tale “Poor Wolf”, which also “robbed day and night”. In the fairy tale “The Eagle-Patron”, a devastating parody of the king and the ruling classes is given. The eagle is the enemy of science, art, the protector of darkness and ignorance. He destroyed the nightingale for his free songs, writing the woodpecker “dressed up., in shackles and imprisoned in a hollow forever”, ruined the male crows to the ground. . “Let this serve as a lesson to the eagles!” - the satirist concludes the tale meaningfully.
All of Shchedrin's tales were subjected to censorship and alterations. Many of them were published in illegal publications abroad. The masks of the animal world could not hide the political content of Shchedrin's fairy tales. The transfer of human traits - psychological and political - to the animal world created a comic effect, clearly exposed the absurdity of the existing reality.
The images of fairy tales came into use, became common nouns and live for many decades, and the universal types of objects of satire by Saltykov-Shchedrin are still found in our lives today, you just need to take a closer look at the surrounding reality and think.
9. Humanism of F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment"
« The willful murder of even the last of people, the most malicious of people, is not allowed by the spiritual nature of man ... The eternal law came into its own, and he (Raskolnikov) fell under his power. Christ did not come to break, but to fulfill the law... Not so did those who were truly great and ingenious, who performed great deeds for all mankind. They did not consider themselves superhumans, to whom everything is permitted, and therefore they could give a lot to the “human” (N. Berdyaev).
Dostoevsky, by his own admission, was worried about the fate of "nine-tenths of humanity", morally humiliated, socially disadvantaged in the conditions of the contemporary bourgeois system. "Crime and Punishment" is a novel that reproduces pictures of the social suffering of the urban poor. Extreme poverty is characterized by "nowhere else to go". The image of poverty constantly varies throughout the novel. This is the fate of Katerina Ivanovna, who remained after the death of her husband with three young children. This is the fate of Mar-meladov himself. The tragedy of a father forced to accept the fall of his daughter. The fate of Sonya, who committed a "feat of crime" over herself for the love of her loved ones. The torment of children growing up in a dirty corner, next to a drunken father and a dying, irritated mother, in an atmosphere of constant quarrels.
Is it permissible for the sake of the happiness of the majority to destroy the “unnecessary” minority. Dostoevsky answers with all the artistic content of the novel: no - and consistently refutes Raskolnikov’s theory: if one person arrogates to himself the right to physically destroy an unnecessary minority for the sake of the happiness of the majority, then “simple arithmetic” will not work: apart from the old money-lender, Raskolnikov also kills Lizaveta - that the most humiliated and insulted, for the sake of which, as he tries to convince himself, the ax was raised.
If Raskolnikov and those like him take on such a lofty mission - defenders of the humiliated and insulted, then they must inevitably consider themselves extraordinary people, to whom everything is allowed, that is, inevitably end with contempt for the very humiliated and insulted whom they defend.
If you allow yourself "blood according to your conscience", then you will inevitably turn into Svidrigailov. Svidri-gailov is the same Raskolnikov, but already completely “corrected” from all sorts of prejudices. Svid-rigailov blocks all paths leading not only to repentance, but even to a purely official surrender to Raskolnikov. And it is no coincidence that only after the suicide of Svidrigailov, Raskolnikov makes this confession.
The most important role in the novel is played by the image of Sonya Marmeladova. Active love for one's neighbor, the ability to respond to someone else's pain (especially deeply manifested in the scene of Raskolnikov's confession to the murder) make the image of Sonya ideal. It is from the standpoint of this ideal that the verdict is pronounced in the novel. For Sonya, all people have the same right to life. No one can achieve happiness, his own or someone else's, through crime. Sonya, according to Dostoevsky, embodies the people's principle: patience and humility, boundless love for a person.
Only love saves and reunites a fallen person with God. The power of love is such that it can contribute to the salvation of even such an unrepentant sinner as Raskolnikov.
The religion of love and self-sacrifice acquires exceptional and decisive significance in Dostoevsky's Christianity. The idea of the inviolability of any human person plays a major role in understanding the ideological meaning of the novel. In the image of Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky executes the denial of the intrinsic value of the human person and shows that any person, including the disgusting old money-lender, is sacred and inviolable, and in this respect people are equal.
Raskolnikov's protest is associated with acute pity for the poor, suffering and helpless.
10. The theme of the family in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"
The idea of the spiritual foundations of nepotism as an external form of unity between people received special expression in the epilogue of the novel "War and Peace". In the family, as it were, the opposition between spouses is removed, in communication between them, the limitations of loving souls are complemented. Such is the family of Marya Bolkonskaya and Nikolai Rostov, where such opposite principles of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys are combined in a higher synthesis. Wonderful is the feeling of “proud love” of Nikolai for Countess Marya, based on surprise “before her sincerity, before that sublime, moral world, almost inaccessible to him, in which his wife always lived.” And touching is Marya's submissive, tender love "for this man who will never understand everything that she understands, and as if from this she loved him even more, with a hint of passionate tenderness."
In the epilogue of War and Peace, a new family gathers under the roof of the Lysogorsky house, uniting the heterogeneous Rostov, Bolkon, and, through Pierre Bezukhov, Karataev principles in the past. “As in a real family, several completely different worlds lived together in the Bald Mountain house, which, each holding its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole. Every event that happened in the house was equally - joyful or sad - important for all these worlds; but each world had completely its own, independent of the others, reasons to rejoice or grieve at any event.
This new family did not come about by accident. It was the result of the nationwide unity of people, born of the Patriotic War. Thus, in the epilogue, the connection between the general course of history and individual, intimate relationships between people is affirmed in a new way. The year 1812, which gave Russia a new, higher level of human communication, removed many class barriers and restrictions, led to the emergence of more complex and broad family worlds. The keepers of family foundations are women - Natasha and Marya. Between them there is a strong, spiritual union.
Rostov. The writer is especially sympathetic to the patriarchal Rostov family, whose behavior shows high nobility of feelings, kindness (even rare generosity), naturalness, closeness to the people, moral purity and integrity. The yard servants of the Rostovs - Tikhon, Prokofy, Praskovya Savvishna - are devoted to their masters, feel like a single family with them, show understanding and show attention to the lordly interests.
Bolkonsky. The old prince represents the color of the nobility of the era of Catherine II. He is characterized by true patriotism, breadth of political outlook, understanding of the true interests of Russia, and indomitable energy. Andrey and Marya are advanced, educated people who are looking for new ways in modern life.
The Kuragin family brings only troubles and misfortunes to the peaceful "nests" of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys.
Under Borodin, on the Raevsky battery, where Pierre ends up, one feels "common to everyone, like a family revival." “The soldiers ... mentally accepted Pierre into their family, appropriated and gave him a nickname. “Our master” they called him and they affectionately laughed about him among themselves.
So the feeling of the family, which in peaceful life is sacredly cherished by Rostovs close to the people, will turn out to be historically significant during the Patriotic War of 1812.
11. Patriotic theme in the novel "War and Peace"
In extreme situations, in moments of great upheavals and global changes, a person will definitely prove himself, show his inner essence, certain qualities of his nature. In Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" someone utters big words, engages in noisy activities or useless fuss, someone experiences a simple and natural feeling of "the need for sacrifice and suffering in the consciousness of a common misfortune." The first only think of themselves as patriots and loudly shout about love for the Fatherland, the second - patriots in fact - give their lives in the name of a common victory.
In the first case, we are dealing with false patriotism, repulsive with its falseness, selfishness and hypocrisy. This is how secular nobles behave at a dinner in honor of Bagration; when reading poems about the war, "everyone stood up, feeling that dinner was more important than poetry." A false patriotic atmosphere reigns in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Helen Bezukhova and in other St. Petersburg salons: “...calm, luxurious, preoccupied only with ghosts, reflections of life, St. Petersburg life went on in the old way; and because of the course of this life, great efforts had to be made to realize the danger and the difficult situation in which the Russian people found themselves. There were the same exits, balls, the same French theater, the same interests of the courts, the same interests of service and intrigue. This circle of people was far from understanding the all-Russian problems, from understanding the great misfortune and the need of the people in this war. The world continued to live by its own interests, and even in the moment of a nationwide disaster, greed, nomination, and service reign here.
False patriotism is also shown by Count Rostopchin, who puts up stupid "posters" around Moscow, urges the inhabitants of the city not to leave the capital, and then, fleeing the people's wrath, deliberately sends the innocent son of the merchant Vereshchagin to death.
The false patriot is represented in the novel by Berg, who, in a moment of general confusion, is looking for an opportunity to profit and is preoccupied with buying a wardrobe and a toilet "with an English secret." It doesn’t even occur to him that now it’s a shame to think about chiffonierochkas. Such is Drubetskoy, who, like other staff officers, thinks about awards and promotions, wants to "arrange for himself the best position, especially the position of adjutant with an important person, which seemed to him especially tempting in the army." It is probably no coincidence that on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, Pierre notices this greedy excitement on the faces of the officers, he mentally compares it with "another expression of excitement", "which spoke of not personal, but general issues, issues of life and death."
What "other" people are we talking about? These are the faces of ordinary Russian peasants, dressed in soldier's overcoats, for whom the feeling of the Motherland is sacred and inalienable. True patriots in Tushin's battery fight even without cover. Yes, and Tushin himself "did not experience the slightest unpleasant feeling of fear, and the thought that he might be killed or hurt painfully did not cross his mind." The living, vital feeling of the Motherland makes the soldiers resist the enemy with unthinkable stamina. The merchant Ferapontov, who gives his property for plunder when leaving Smolensk, is also, of course, a patriot. "Drag everything, guys, don't leave it to the French!" he shouts to the Russian soldiers.
Pierre Bezukhov gives his money, sells the estate to equip the regiment. A sense of concern for the fate of his country, participation in the common grief makes him, a wealthy aristocrat, go into the thick of the Battle of Borodino.
True patriots were also those who left Moscow, not wanting to submit to Napoleon. They were convinced: "It was impossible to be under the control of the French." They "simply and truly" did "that great work that saved Russia."
Petya Rostov rushes to the front, because "the Fatherland is in danger." And his sister Natasha releases carts for the wounded, although without family property she will remain a dowry.
True patriots in Tolstoy's novel do not think about themselves, they feel the need for their own contribution and even sacrifice, but they do not expect rewards for this, because they carry in their souls a genuine holy sense of the Motherland.
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The main problem of Shchedrin's fairy tales is the relationship between the exploiters and the exploited. The writer created a satire on tsarist Russia. The reader is presented with images of rulers (“The Bear in the Voivodeship”, “The Eagle-Patron”), exploiters and exploited (“The Wild Landowner”, “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”), the townsfolk (“The Wise Gudgeon”, “ Dried vobla”).
The fairy tale “The Wild Landowner” is directed against the entire social system based on exploitation, anti-people in its essence. Keeping the spirit and style of the folk tale, the satirist speaks about the real events of his contemporary life. The work begins as an ordinary fairy tale: “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a landowner ...” But then an element of modern life appears: “and that landowner was stupid, he read the newspaper Vest””. “Vest” is a reactionary-feudal newspaper, so that the stupidity of the landowner is determined by his worldview. The landowner considers himself a true representative of the Russian state, its support, he is proud that he is a hereditary Russian nobleman, Prince Urus-Kuchum-Kildibaev. The whole point of his existence is to pamper his body, "soft, white and crumbly." He lives at the expense of his peasants, but he hates them and is afraid, he cannot stand the “servant spirit”. He rejoices when, in some fantastic whirlwind, all the peasants were blown away, and the air became pure, pure in his domain. But the peasants disappeared, and such a famine set in that it was impossible to buy anything at the market. And the landowner himself went completely wild: “All of him, from head to toe, was overgrown with hair ... and his nails became like iron. He stopped blowing his nose a long time ago, but he walked more and more on all fours. I even lost the ability to pronounce articulate sounds ... ". In order not to starve to death when the last gingerbread was eaten, the Russian nobleman began to hunt: he would notice a hare - “like an arrow jumping off a tree, clinging to its prey, tearing it apart with its nails, yes, with all the insides, even with the skin, it will eat.” The savagery of the landowner testifies that he cannot live without the help of the peasant. After all, it was not for nothing that as soon as the “swarm of peasants” was caught and put in place, “flour, meat, and all kinds of living creatures appeared in the bazaar.”
The stupidity of the landowner is constantly emphasized by the writer. The peasants themselves were the first to call the landowner stupid, the representatives of other classes called the landowner three times stupid (three-fold repetition technique) representatives of other classes: actor Sadovsky (“However, brother, you are a stupid landowner! Who gives you a stupid wash?”) Generals, whom he instead of “beef -ki ”he treated me to printed gingerbread and candy (“However, brother, you are a stupid landowner!”) And, finally, the police captain (“You are stupid, mister landowner!”). The stupidity of the landowner is visible to everyone, and he indulges in unrealizable dreams that without the help of the peasants he will achieve the prosperity of the economy, reflects on the English machines that will replace the serfs. His dreams are ridiculous, because he cannot do anything on his own. And only once did the landowner think: “Is he really a fool? Is it possible that the inflexibility that he so cherished in his soul, translated into ordinary language, means only stupidity and madness? “If we compare the well-known folk tales about the gentleman and the peasant with the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, for example, with The Wild Landowner, we will see that the image of the landowner in Shchedrin’s fairy tales is very close to folklore, and the peasants, on the contrary, differ from fairy tales. In folk tales, a man is quick-witted, dexterous, resourceful, defeats a stupid master. And in the "Wild Landowner" there is a collective image of a hard worker
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin is the creator of a special literary genre - a satirical fairy tale. In short stories, the Russian writer denounced bureaucracy, autocracy, and liberalism. This article discusses such works by Saltykov-Shchedrin as "The Wild Landowner", "The Eagle-Maecenas", "The Wise Gudgeon", "Karas-Idealist".
Features of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin
In the tales of this writer, one can meet allegory, the grotesque, and hyperbole. There are features characteristic of Aesopian narrative. The communication between the characters reflects the relationships that prevailed in the society of the 19th century. What satire did the writer use? In order to answer this question, one should briefly talk about the life of the author, who so ruthlessly denounced the inert world of the landlords.
about the author
Saltykov-Shchedrin combined literary activity with public service. The future writer was born in the Tver province, but after graduating from the Lyceum he left for St. Petersburg, where he received a position in the Military Ministry. Already in the first years of work in the capital, the young official began to languish with bureaucracy, lies, boredom that reigned in institutions. With great pleasure, Saltykov-Shchedrin attended various literary evenings, which were dominated by anti-serfdom sentiments. He informed the people of St. Petersburg about his views in the stories "A Tangled Case", "Contradiction". For which he was exiled to Vyatka.
Life in the provinces gave the writer the opportunity to observe in every detail the bureaucratic world, the life of the landowners and the peasants oppressed by them. This experience became the material for the works written later, as well as the formation of special satirical techniques. One of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's contemporaries once said of him: "He knows Russia like no one else."
Satirical tricks of Saltykov-Shchedrin
His work is quite diverse. But fairy tales are perhaps the most popular among the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin. There are several special satirical techniques with which the writer tried to convey to the readers the inertia and deceitfulness of the landowner's world. And above all In a veiled form, the author reveals deep political and social problems, expresses his own point of view.
Another technique is the use of fantastic motifs. For example, in The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals, they serve as a means of expressing dissatisfaction with the landowners. And finally, when naming Shchedrin's satirical devices, one cannot fail to mention symbolism. After all, the heroes of fairy tales often point to one of the social phenomena of the 19th century. So, in the main character of the work "Konyaga" all the pain of the Russian people, oppressed for centuries, is reflected. Below is an analysis of individual works by Saltykov-Shchedrin. What satirical devices are used in them?
"Karas-idealist"
In this tale, the views of representatives of the intelligentsia are expressed by Saltykov-Shchedrin. The satirical techniques that can be found in the work "Karas the Idealist" are symbolism, the use of folk sayings and proverbs. Each of the characters is a collective image of representatives of a particular social class.
In the center of the plot of the tale is a discussion between Karas and Ruff. The first, which is already understood from the title of the work, gravitates towards an idealistic worldview, faith in the best. Ruff is, on the contrary, a skeptic, ironic over the theories of his opponent. There is also a third character in the tale - Pike. This unsafe fish symbolizes the powerful of this world in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Pikes are known to feed on carp. The latter, driven by better feelings, goes to the predator. Karas does not believe in the cruel law of nature (or the established hierarchy in society for centuries). He hopes to reason with Pike with stories about possible equality, universal happiness, and virtue. And therefore it dies. Pike, as the author notes, the word "virtue" is not familiar.
Satirical techniques are used here not only to denounce the rigidity of representatives of certain strata of society. With the help of them, the author tries to convey the futility of moralistic disputes that were widespread among the intelligentsia of the 19th century.
"Wild Landlord"
The theme of serfdom is given a lot of space in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. He had something to say to readers on this score. However, writing a journalistic article about the relationship of landowners to peasants or publishing a work of art in the genre of realism on this topic was fraught with unpleasant consequences for the writer. That is why I had to resort to allegory, light humorous stories. In "The Wild Landowner" we are talking about a typical Russian usurper, not distinguished by education and worldly wisdom.
He hates "muzhiks" and wants to kill them. At the same time, the stupid landowner does not understand that without the peasants he will perish. After all, he does not want to do anything, and he does not know how. One might think that the prototype of the hero of a fairy tale is a certain landowner, whom, perhaps, the writer met in real life. But no. This is not about any particular gentleman. And about the social stratum as a whole.
In full measure, without allegory, Saltykov-Shchedrin revealed this topic in "Lords of the Golovlevs." The heroes of the novel - representatives of a provincial landlord family - die one after another. The reason for their death is stupidity, ignorance, laziness. The character of the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" expects the same fate. After all, he got rid of the peasants, which at first he was glad, but he was not ready for life without them.
"Eagle-philanthropist"
The heroes of this tale are eagles and ravens. The first symbolize the landowners. The second - the peasants. The writer again resorts to the technique of allegory, with the help of which he ridicules the vices of the powerful of this world. There is also a Nightingale, Magpie, Owl and Woodpecker in the tale. Each of the birds is an allegory for a type of people or social class. The characters in the "Eagle-Patron" are more humanized than, for example, the heroes of the fairy tale "Karas-Idealist". So, the Woodpecker, who is in the habit of reasoning, at the end of the bird's story does not become a victim of a predator, but goes to jail.
"Wise Gudgeon"
As in the works described above, in this tale the author raises issues relevant to that time. And here it becomes clear from the very first lines. But the satirical tricks of Saltykov-Shchedrin are the use of artistic means for the critical depiction of vices not only social, but also universal. The author narrates in The Wise Gudgeon in a typical fairy-tale style: "Once upon a time there was ...". The author characterizes his hero in this way: "enlightened, moderately liberal."
Cowardice and passivity are ridiculed in this tale by the great master of satire. After all, it was precisely these vices that were characteristic of most representatives of the intelligentsia in the eighties of the XIX century. The minnow never leaves his hiding place. He lives a long life, avoiding encounters with dangerous inhabitants of the water world. But only before his death he realizes how much he has missed in his long and worthless life.
Scientific work product type:
Abstract full version
Product Creation Date:
Nov 17, 2011Product Version Description:
abstract in full
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GBOU Gymnasium №1505
"Moscow City Pedagogical Gymnasium-Laboratory"
Essay
The role of irony, hyperbole and grotesque in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin
Teplyakova Anastasia
Supervisor: Vishnevskaya L. L.
Relevance:
The works of Saltykov-Shchedrin are addressed to the people. They cover all the sore problems of society, and the author himself acts as a defender of the interests of the people. The basis of fairy tales was the folk plot of folklore works. There are also elements of folk poetry in fairy tales. For example, the author's idea of good and evil, reason and justice ... Satire mercilessly ridicules the unseemly essence of human behavior and motives, sharply condemns human vices and the imperfection of public life. The problems of society (of the time of Saltykov-Shchedrin) have something in common with the problems of modern society.
Fairy tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin are designed for any level of perception, they help the reader to develop. Rereading any of the fairy tales again, the reader can see for himself a deeper meaning, and not just a superficial plot.
In the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, very expressive satirical devices are used, such as: irony, hyperbole, grotesque. With their help, the author can express his position in relation to what is happening. And the reader, in turn, can understand his attitude towards the main characters. Saltykov also uses satire to express sympathy or antipathy for the actions of the behavior of his characters.
The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are also preferred by today's readers. He describes the events that take place in the form of fairy tales, summarizing the relationship comically or tragically through a combination of the realistic and the fantastic. They combine the fabulous and the real, there are even real people, newspaper titles and allusions to socio-political topics.
Target:
Determine the meaning and role of satirical devices in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Based on the above goals, we set ourselves the following tasks, which are supposed to be solved in the course of the study.
Tasks:
1) to form an idea about the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, about the artistic techniques used by him, by analyzing the scientific literature devoted to the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
2) understanding the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin as a special form of mastering the sotyric literary tradition, the formation of basic theoretical and literary concepts (irony, hyperbole, grotesque) as a condition for the full perception, analysis and evaluation of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Introduction.
Chapter 1. §1.
Chapter 1. §2. The role of the irony of hyperbole and the grotesque in Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Chapter 1. §3. Analysis of the fairy tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin. "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals" (1869).
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Chapter 1. Satire in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Reviewing the book by A. S. Bushmin "M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin". This book has seven chapters. The role of irony, hyperbole, and the grotesque in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin is considered in the sixth and seventh chapters.
§1. Themes and problems of fairy tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin.
According to Bushmin, "fairy tales" are one of the brightest creations and the most widely read of the books of the great Russian satirist. Despite the fact that the fairy tale is just one of the genres of Shchedrin's work, it harmoniously suited his artistic method. "For satire in general and, in particular, for Shchedrin's satire, the usual methods are artistic exaggeration, fantasy, allegory, convergence of social phenomena exposed to the phenomena of the living world," says the critic. In his opinion, it is important that under the current political situation, fantasy was to some extent "a means of artistic conspiracy of the most acute ideological and political ideas of the satirist." Emphasizing the relevance, Bushmin draws attention to the approximation of the form of satirical works to a folk tale, thanks to which the writer opened the way to a wider readership. Therefore, for several years, Shchedrin worked with enthusiasm on fairy tales. In this form, the most accessible to the masses and loved by them, the critic emphasizes, he, as it were, pours all the ideological and thematic richness of his satire and, thus, creates his own small satirical "encyclopedia for the people."
Arguing the satirist's tales, Bushmin notes that in the tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship" Autocratic Russia is symbolized in the form of a forest, day and night "thundering with millions of voices, some of which represented an agonizing cry, others - a victorious click." The fairy tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship" is written on one of the most basic and constant themes of Shchedrin's work. It is a sharp political satire, the author notes, on the governmental system of autocracy, serves to overthrow the monarchical principle of the state system. The "wild landowner" in the fairy tale of the same name of 1869, being without peasants, becomes furious, takes on the tack and appearance of a bear. The fitting of a bear costume to the corresponding social types ended by 1884 with the creation of the fairy tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship", where the royal dignitaries are transformed into fabulous bears raging in the forest slums. The satirist's ability to expose the "predatory interests" of the feudal lords and incite popular hatred towards them was clearly manifested already in the first Shchedrin tales: "The Tale of How One Muzhik Feed Two Generals" and "The Wild Landowner" (1869). According to the author, Shchedrin shows with examples of witty fairy tale fiction that the source of not only material well-being, but also the so-called noble culture is the work of the peasant. The generals, accustomed to living by other people's labor, found themselves on a desert island without servants, discovered the habits of hungry wild animals. "Saltykov-Shchedrin loved the people without blind admiration for them, without idolatry: he
deeply understood the strengths of the masses of the people, but no less keenly saw their weaknesses "¹. The author wants to note that when Shchedrin speaks of the masses, the people, he primarily has in mind the peasantry. "In "Tales" Saltykov embodied his many years observations on the life of the enslaved Russian peasantry, their bitter reflections on the fate of the oppressed masses, their deep sympathy for working humanity and their bright hopes for the strength of the people "¹. With bitter irony, the satirist noted, the pliability, slavish humility of the peasantry in "The Tale of one peasant fed the spirit of the generals. Before the force of his protest, if he were capable of this, the generals would not have resisted. the human image seemed insufficient to Shchedrin to reproduce the whole mournful picture of hard labor and irresponsible suffering, which was the life of the peasantry under tsarism. The artist was looking for a more expressive image - and found it in Konyaga, "tortured, beaten, narrow-chested, with protruding ribs and burned shoulders, with broken legs." According to the critic, this artistic allegory makes a huge impression and strikes many-sided associations. It evokes a feeling of deep compassion for a working person. The horse, like the peasant in the tale of two generals, is a hulk who did not realize his power of the reasons for his suffering situation, this is a captive fairy-tale hero - as Bushmin calls him. "If the first, philosophical part of The Horse" is a lyrical monologue of the author, filled with selfless love for the people, tormenting grief over his slave state and anxious thoughts about his future, then the final pages of the tale are an angry satire of the ideologists of social inequality, on all those idle dances, who tried by various theories to justify, poeticize and perpetuate Konyaga's servitude." "Resist, Konyaga! .. B-but, convict n-but!" - such is the whole meaning of the lordly love of people, surprisingly aptly conveyed by the satirist in the final words of the tale. One cannot but agree with the author that the rich ideological content of Shchedrin's tales is expressed in a publicly accessible and vivid artistic form that has adopted the best folk poetic traditions. They are written in real folk language - simple, concise and expressive. The literary critic notes that the connection between Shchedrin's fairy tales and folklore appeared in traditional beginnings using the long past tense (“Once upon a time there were ...”), and in the use of sayings (“at the command of a pike, at my will”, “neither in a fairy tale to say nor to describe with a pen ") and in the satirist's frequent appeal to folk sayings, always presented in a witty socio-political interpretation. Shchedrin's tale, taken as a whole, is not like folk tales. According to the author, the satirist did not imitate folklore samples, but freely created on their basis. Comparing Saltykov-Shchedrin with Pushkin and Andersen, Bushmin notices that the enriching influence of the artist on the genres of folk music is clearly manifested.
¹ A. S. Bushmin "M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin". Publishing house "Enlightenment". Leningrad. 1970
poetic literature. Each word, epithet, metaphor, comparison, each image in his fairy tales, the author claims, has a high ideological and artistic value, concentrates in itself, like a charge, a huge satirical power. "The masterful embodiment of the denounced social types in the images of animals achieves a vivid satirical effect with extreme brevity and speed of artistic motivations"¹. We also agree with the critic that social allegories in the form of tales about animals provided the writer with some advantages over censors, and made it possible to use sharper satirical assessments and expressions. The menagerie, as Bushmin calls it, presented in Shchedrin's fairy tale, testifies to the great skill of the satirist in the field of artistic allegory, to his inexhaustible ingenuity in allegorical devices. According to the literary critic, for his socio-political allegories, depicting the enmity of classes and the despotism of the authorities, Shchedrin used images fixed by fairy-tale and fable tradition (lion, bear, donkey, wolf, fox, hare, pike, eagle, etc.), and also, starting from this tradition, he extremely successfully created other images (carp, gudgeon, roach, hyena, etc.). The critic also does not deny that no matter how the satirist "humanizes" his zoological pictures, no matter how complex social roles he entrusts to his "tailed" heroes, the latter always retain their basic natural properties. Konyaga is an additional faithful image of a slaughtered peasant horse; bear, wolf, fox, hare, pike, ruff, crucian carp, eagle, hawk, raven, siskin - all these are not just symbols, not external illustrations, but poetic images that reflect the appearance, habits, properties of representatives of the living world, called by the will of the artist to make a parody of the social relations of the bourgeois-landlord state. "As a result, we have before us not a bare, not a straightforwardly tendentious allegory, but an artistic allegory that does not break with the reality of those images that are used for the purpose of allegory"¹. The author believes that, in general, the book of Shchedrin's fairy tales is a living picture of a society torn apart by internal contradictions. Hence the constant intertwining of the tragic and the comic in Shchedrin's fairy tales, the continuous change from feelings of sympathy to feelings of anger, and the acuteness of conflicts. Shchedrin's tales most fully demonstrate Shchedrin's humor in all the richness of its emotional nuances and artistic forms, Shchedrin's clever laughter - revealing, ennobling and educating, causing hatred and confusion among enemies, admiration and joy among champions of truth, goodness, justice. The critic notes that Shchedrin's "fairy tales" played a beneficial role in revolutionary propaganda, and in this respect they stand out from all the work of the satirist. Shdrinsky tales were constantly in the arsenal of the Russian Narodnik revolutionaries and served as an effective weapon for them in the struggle against the autocracy. Bushmin wrote his book in Soviet times, therefore he believes that Shchedrin's fairy tales are both a magnificent satirical monument of a bygone era and an effective means of combating
¹ A. S. Bushmin "M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin". Publishing house "Enlightenment". Leningrad. 1970
remnants of the past and with contemporary bourgeois ideology. That is why the Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin have not lost their vivid vitality in our time: they still remain an extremely useful and fascinating book for millions of readers.
§2. The role of irony, hyperbole and grotesque in Saltykov-Shchedrin.
For satire in general, for the satirical works of Saltykov-Shchedrin in particular, says Bushmin, the widespread use of hyperbole, i.e., artistic exaggeration, is characteristic. Hyperbolic forms in the works of Gogol and Saltykov are caused not by exclusivity, but, on the contrary, by the commonness, mass character of the phenomena depicted. The dominant part of society not only does not recognize its vices, but, in the opinion of the author, only raises them to the level of virtue, protected by common morality and law. In order for a widespread social vice that determines the nature of an entire class, a vice that has become familiar and has become commonplace, to be unraveled by everyone, to reach the consciousness and feelings of the reader, it must be sharply delineated, brightly titled, strongly emphasized in ¹A. S. Bushmin "M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin". Publishing house "Enlightenment". Leningrad. 1970
its core essence. The critic claims that this is. the main objective motivation for artistic hyperbole in satire. Artistic exaggeration is less tangible when it captures a whole area of passions, feelings, experiences, features of an internal or external portrait of a person, character traits, and in this case is harmonious. "Features of animality are also not only a satirical stigma imposed on the human face, by the will of the artist, but also a natural result of the satirical typification of negative human characters"¹. The author reveals his opinion that the material of the satirist - flat, meager, vulgar types - is too low, grossly poor in the possibilities of poetic, individualistic definitions. The pictorial element in social satire is intended, on the one hand, to make the rough, vulgar prose of life a fact of artistic activity and, on the other hand, not to embellish, not to soften, but to highlight all its unattractiveness more strongly. In the creative process, hyperbole is a simultaneous, merged expression of the ideological, aesthetic and moral denial or affirmation of the subject of the image. Hyperbole, the literary critic notes, is arranged only as a technical device, applied purely rationally, not inspired by the strong and sincere feeling of the artist - it can give nothing but a rough, dead caricature, devoid of ideological and artistic significance. The more majestic the object of admiration or the baser the object of indignation, the more hyperbole is manifested. Satire exaggerates what deserves rebuke, and exaggerates in a way that will cause laughter. For Shchedrin's satirical hyperbole, it is precisely the combination of cognitive and comic functions that is characteristic: through hyperbole, i.e. artistic exaggeration, the writer made the image more embossed and more ridiculous, sharply exposing the essence of the depicted negative phenomenon and executed him with a weapon of laughter, as Bushmin writes. A peculiar kind of artistic exaggeration is the grotesque, a bizarre, contrasting combination of real and fantastic signs in the human image. The literary critic concludes that hyperbole and grotesque play their effective role in Saltykov precisely because they are artistic instruments in a complex orchestra, organically included in a realistic system of various forms, techniques and means, as
inherited from their predecessors, and enriched by the satirist's own innovation. In sharply political plots, hyperbole manifests itself in all the richness of its ideological and aesthetic functions, and in the process of evolution of the satirist's work, it increasingly grew into fantasy.
§3. Analysis of the fairy tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin.
"The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals" (1869).
The conflict indicated in this tale is very great, since the work is written in a satirical genre. The heroes of this work occupy completely different levels of the social ladder, these are completely opposite layers of society between which clashes are inevitable. Deftly combining fantasy and reality, Saltykov-Shchedrin focuses on social inequality in relation to the peasant population of Russia.
In this tale there are elements of magic and elements of everyday life. The generals really served in some kind of registry, "remaining behind the staff, they settled in St. Petersburg, in Podyacheskaya Street, in different apartments; each had his own cook and received a pension." But, as in all fairy tales, there is magic here "at the behest of a pike at my will" they ended up on a desert island. The author shows his characters under the influence of circumstances that are disastrous for them: they turned into animal-like creatures and lost all humanity "... they did not understand anything. They didn’t even know any words, except: “accept the assurance of my perfect respect and devotion.”
As the story progresses, the character of the characters can be more accurately revealed. Generals who fell out of real life immediately began to turn into animals. "... an ominous fire shone in their eyes, their teeth chattered, a dull growl flew out of their chests. They began to slowly crawl towards each other and in the blink of an eye went berserk. Shreds flew ... ". But neither real people nor animals are obtained from them, since they are not capable of either physical or intellectual activity. "They began to look for where the east and where the west ... found nothing" "Tried to climb nothing happened ...". In addition to their work, they did not see or notice anything in life, even harsh life circumstances did not help them to look at life more realistically. "What, for example, do you think, why does the sun first rise and then set, and not vice versa? - You are a strange person ... after all, you get up first and go to the department, write there, then go to bed?" They could not even find an article in the newspaper that would not remind them of the "festival on the occasion of the sturgeon catch" that tormented them so much.
Each of the characters though is a collective image, but has its own individual character. One of the generals is very stupid, and the other is simply helpless in unusual circumstances. One of the generals "was smarter" is the only thing that distinguishes their author. Saltykov-Shchedrin shows officials as unnecessary elements of the state system, they are just masks behind which lies only emptiness. The combination of the grotesque and reality enables the author to give their qualities a fantastic coloring. Thus, the discrepancy between the position in society and human qualities becomes clearer.
The generals have already "drooped their heads", but the way out of the situation was found by itself. Two generals were saved by a simple man and they take it for granted "now they would serve a roll and grouse ...", without him it would be impossible to survive on a "desert island". Compared with the generals and in the reliability of the details, one can also find an exaggeration in the character of the peasant, but hyperbole is used for this. But these heroes are opposed to each other. In the image of a man, you can see the true human qualities, what kind of person is not indifferent to the world around him, nature and the people around him.
The generals cannot even appreciate the help rendered to them and consider the muzhik a "sluggish", "parasite" who "shirks away from work." They awarded the peasant "for his labors" "a glass of vodka and a nickel of silver" - this is a contrast to the wealth that the generals received "how much money they raked in here, I can’t describe it in a fairy tale with a pen!" The author, with the help of the grotesque, emphasizes the worthlessness of the perpetrators of social inequality, denounces social injustice with the help of satire. Taking events out of time from a place, the author emphasizes the social significance of the problem and universal values.
Conclusion.
After analyzing the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin and summarizing the book of A. S. Bushmin, we can draw the following conclusions.
A. S. Bushmin was a critic of the Soviet era, he was more interested in political issues than in art. Therefore, he considers Shchedrin's satire as a denunciation of the vices of civil servants. Saltykov-Shchedrin generalizes in generals the fairy tale "How one man fed two generals" of all representatives of power. Thus, the role of irony, hyperbole and grotesque in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin raises the social level of the peasantry and shows its independence in an exaggerated form. And satire makes fun of human stupidity and lack of education, which can be found in any class.
Bibliography.
1. Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E.. How one man fed two generals.-M .: Fiction, 1984.
2. Bushmin A. S. M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin-L.: Enlightenment, 1970.
Saltykov-Shchedrin can be called Pushkin's phrase "satire is a bold ruler." These words were spoken by A. S. Pushkin about Fonvizin, one of the founders of Russian satire. Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov, who wrote under the pseudonym Shchedrin, is the pinnacle of Russian satire. Shedrin's works, with all their genre diversity - novels, chronicles, short stories, short stories, essays, plays - merge into one huge artistic canvas. It depicts an entire historical time, like the Divine Comedy and the Human Comedy by Balzac. But he depicts in powerful condensations the dark sides of life, criticized and denied in the name of the always present, explicitly or implicitly, ideals of social justice and light.
It is difficult to imagine our classical literature without Saltykov-Shchedrin. This is, in many ways, a completely unique writer. "The diagnostician of our social evils and ailments," - this is how his contemporaries spoke of him. He knew life not from books. Exiled as a young man to Vyatka for his early works, obliged to serve, Mikhail Evgrafovich thoroughly studied bureaucracy, the injustice of the order, and the life of different strata of society. As a vice-governor, he was convinced that the Russian state primarily cares about the nobles, and not about the people, for whom he himself was imbued with respect.
The writer perfectly depicted the life of a noble family in the Golovlevs, chiefs and officials in the History of a City and many other works. But it seems to me that he reached the pinnacle of expressiveness in his short fairy tales "for children of a fair age." These tales, as the censors correctly noted, are real satire.
There are many types of masters in Shchedrin's fairy tales: landowners, officials, merchants and others. The writer often depicts them as completely helpless, stupid, arrogant. Here is "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals." With caustic irony, Saltykov writes: "The generals served in some kind of registry ... therefore, they did not understand anything. They did not even know any words."
Of course, these generals did not know how to do anything, only to live at the expense of others, believing that buns grow on trees. They almost died. Oh, how many such "generals" in our lives, who also believe that they should have apartments, cars, summer cottages, special rations, special hospitals, and so on and so forth, and "loafers" are obliged to work. If only these were on a desert island!
The man is shown as a fine fellow: he can do everything, he can do anything, he even cooks soup in a handful. But the satirist does not spare him either. The generals make this burly man twist a rope for himself so that he doesn't run away. And he obediently obeys the order.
If the generals ended up on the island without a peasant not of their own free will, then the wild landowner, the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, all the time dreamed of getting rid of the unbearable peasants, from whom a bad, servile spirit comes.
Finally, the peasant world disappeared, and the landowner was left alone - all alone. And, of course, wild. "All of him ... overgrown with hair ... and his claws became like iron." The hint is quite clear: the labor of the peasants lives in the bar. And therefore they have enough of everything: peasants, and bread, and livestock, and land, but the peasants have little of everything.
The writer's tales are full of lamentations that the people are too patient, downtrodden and dark. He hints that the forces above the people are cruel, but not so terrible.
The fairy tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship" depicts the Bear, who, with his endless pogroms, brought the peasants out of patience, and they put him on a stalk, "tore off his skin."
Not everything in Shchedrin's work is interesting to us today. But the writer is still dear to us with his love for the people, honesty, desire to make life better, loyalty to ideals.
Many have used fairy tales in their work. With its help, the author revealed one or another vice of humanity or society. The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are sharply individual and unlike any other. Satire was Saltykov-Shchedrin's weapon. At that time, due to the existing strict censorship, the author could not completely expose the vices of society, show all the inconsistency of the Russian administrative apparatus. And yet, with the help of fairy tales "for children of a fair age," Saltykov-Shchedrin was able to convey to people a sharp criticism of the existing order. The censorship missed the tales of the great satirist, failing to understand their purpose, revealing power, a challenge to the existing order.
To write fairy tales, the author used the grotesque, hyperbole, antithesis. Aesop was also important for the author. Trying to hide the true meaning of what was written from censorship, I had to use this technique as well. The writer liked to come up with neologisms that characterize his characters. For example, words such as "pompadours and pompadours", "foam skimmer" and others.
Now we will try to consider the features of the genre of the writer's fairy tale using the example of several of his works. In "The Wild Landowner" the author shows how far a rich gentleman who finds himself without servants can sink. This story uses hyperbole. At first, a cultured person, a landowner, turns into a wild animal that feeds on fly agaric. Here we see how helpless a rich man is without a simple peasant, how unfit and worthless he is. With this tale, the author wanted to show that a simple Russian person is a serious force. A similar idea is put forward in the fairy tale "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals." But here the reader sees the peasant's resignation, his obedience, unquestioning obedience to the two generals. He even ties himself to a chain, which once again indicates the humility, downtroddenness, and bondage of the Russian peasant.
In this tale, the author used both hyperbole and the grotesque. Saltykov - Shchedrin leads the reader to the idea that it is time for the peasant to wake up, to think about his position, to stop meekly obeying. In "The Wise Scribbler" we see the life of an inhabitant who is afraid of everything in the world. "The wise scribbler" is constantly locked up, afraid to once again go out into the street, talk to someone, get to know each other. He leads a closed, boring life. With his life principles, he resembles another hero, the hero of A.P. Chekhov from the story "The Man in the Case", Belikov. Only before his death, the scribbler thinks about his life: “Who did he help? And just before death, the layman realizes that no one needs him, no one knows him and will not remember him.
Terrible narrow-minded alienation, isolation in oneself is shown by the writer in "The Wise Scribbler". M.E. Saltykov - Shchedrin is bitter and hurt for the Russian people. Reading Saltykov-Shchedrin is rather difficult. Therefore, perhaps, many did not understand the meaning of his fairy tales. But the majority of "children of a fair age" appreciated the work of the great satirist on merit.
