Fairy tale: definition, functions and history of origin. What is a household story? Examples of this genre in folk art and literature

23.04.2019

The story is amazing! A wonderful world familiar from childhood, where good always triumphs over evil. Talking animals and dragons, brave heroes and beautiful princesses, good fairies and evil sorcerers live on the pages of fairy tale books. Fairy tales call not only to believe in miracles, but also teach kindness, responsiveness, not to succumb to difficulties, listen to parents and not judge others by appearance.

What are fairy tales

A fairy tale is a narrative with fictitious characters and a plot that has an everyday, heroic or magical character. They are folklore (compiled by the people), literary (include the features of folk tales, but belong to one author) and author's (written by one specific author). Folklore tales are divided into magical, everyday and about animals.

folklore

Before reaching the reader, they go a long way. In oral form, they are passed down from generation to generation until some collector of legends writes them down on paper. It is believed that the heroes of the first stories were the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other natural phenomena, and the images of people and animals began to be used later.

Folk tales have a fairly simple structure: a saying, a beginning, and an end. Text is easy to read and does not contain complex words. But with apparent simplicity, it retains all the richness of the Russian language. Folk tales are easy to digest even for toddlers, making them the best choice for bedtime reading. This will not only prepare the child for sleep, but also unobtrusively teach life values.

The main features of a fairy tale:

  1. Fairy-tale stamps "Once upon a time", "In a certain kingdom".
  2. Use of proverbs and sayings.
  3. Mandatory victory for good in the final.
  4. The tests that the heroes go through are educational and moral in nature.
  5. The animals saved by the hero help him get out of difficult situations.

household

The action takes place in everyday life, not "in a distant kingdom", but in an ordinary city or village. The life of that time, features and habits are described. The heroes are the poor and merchants, spouses, soldiers, servants and gentlemen. The plot is based on ordinary life situations and conflicts, which the heroes have to solve with the help of skill, ingenuity and even cunning.

Everyday fairy tales ridicule human vices - greed, stupidity, ignorance. The main message of such stories is that one should not be afraid of work, not be lazy and confidently overcome obstacles. Treat others with kindness, be responsive to someone else's grief, do not lie and do not be stingy. For example, "Porridge from an ax", "Turnip", "Seven-year-old daughter".

About animals

Often the characters are animals. They live and communicate like people, talk and play pranks, quarrel and make peace. Among the characters there is no clear division into positive and negative characters. Each of them is endowed with one distinctive feature, which is played out in the plot of the tale. A cunning fox, an evil wolf, a hardworking hare, and a wise owl. Such images are understandable to children, and give ideas about intelligence and stupidity, about cowardice and courage, about greed and kindness.

magical

What is a fairy tale? This is a mysterious world filled with magic and sorcery. Where animals, nature and even objects can speak. The composition is more complex, includes an introduction, an outset, a central plot, a climax and a denouement. The plot is based on overcoming a difficult situation or returning a loss. For example, "Morozko", "Finist clear falcon", "Cinderella".

The world of characters is unusually diverse. G The main characters have all the positive qualities, that is, such as kindness, generosity, responsiveness, courage. They are opposed by evil, greedy and selfish negative heroes. In the fight against enemies, the goodies are helped by wonderful helpers and magic items. The denouement is certainly happy. The hero returns home with honors, having overcome all hardships and obstacles.

Literary

Has a specific author but closely related to folklore. A literary tale reflects the author's view of the world, his ideas and desires, while folk tales demonstrate generalized values. The writer empathizes with the main characters, expresses sympathy for individual actors and openly ridicules the negative characters.

The basis is often the plots of folk tales.

  • the hero's belonging to the world of magic;
  • hostility between foster parents and children;
  • the hero is helped by nature, living creatures and magical attributes.

To imitate folk tales, the same principles apply: fairy-tale setting, talking animals, triple repetitions and vernacular. The images of the main characters of folk tales are often used: Ivan the Fool, Baba Yaga, Tsar Koschey and others. The author strives for greater detail, the characters and personal qualities of the characters are spelled out in detail, the environment is close to reality and there are always two generations: the older (parents) and the younger (children).

Vivid examples of a literary fairy tale include the work of A. Pushkin "The Goldfish", G. Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and Ch. Perrault "Puss in Boots".

Whatever the fairy tale, its goal is to teach the child not to despair, to boldly take on tasks, to respect the opinions of others. Looking at the bright illustrations, it is easy to come up with your own plot for an already familiar story. It will be useful even for an adult to break away from the usual cycle of days and plunge into the wonderful world of magic.

I. Concept II.C. as a genre 1. Origin C. 2. Types C. 3. Fairy-tale motifs and plots 4. Fairy-tale images 5. Composition C. 6. Existence C. III. Literary C. Bibliography ... Literary Encyclopedia

Legend, tradition, fable, legend, belief, anecdote, myth, parable, parabola, story, fiction .. This is a saying; wait, the fairy tale will be ahead. Ershov. See fudge. life's tale, tell tales! fairy tales! ... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and similar ... Synonym dictionary

Fairy tales, 1. A narrative work of oral folk art about fictitious events. Russian folk tales. Arabian tales. Tales about animals. Fantastic tales. "I will tell stories." Lermontov. “Not for reality and a fairy tale ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

On sleds. Narodn. Iron. Long, boring story. DP, 411. A Tale of Truth. Jarg. school Iron. Cool gradebook. Maksimov, 337. The Tale of the White Bull. 1. Unfold Shuttle. iron. The endless repetition of the same thing from the very beginning. ... ... Big dictionary of Russian sayings

Fairy tale- FAIRY TALE (using the term in its broadest sense) is any oral story told to listeners for the purpose of entertainment. The types of folk tales are very diverse and are different both in the popular environment and in scientific circulation ... ... Dictionary of literary terms

Fairy tale

Fairy tale- (Iron port, Ukraine) Hotel category: Address: Mayachny lane 7 B, Iron port, 73000, Ukraine ... Hotel catalog

Fairy tale- (Alushta, Crimea) Hotel category: Address: Chatyrdagskaya Street 2, 98500 Alushta, Crimea ... Hotel catalog

TALE, and, for women. 1. A narrative, usually folk poetic work about fictitious persons and events, predominantly. with the participation of magical, fantastic forces. Russian folk tales. Pushkin's Tales. 2. Fiction, lies (colloquial). Grandma's tales ... ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

One of the main genres of folklore, an epic, mostly prose work of a magical, adventurous or everyday nature with a fantasy setting. The best collections of fairy tales (Arabic One Thousand and One Nights, Indian Panchatantra, German ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

  • Fairy tale, Mironov Alexey. A fairy tale about Malanya - a white swan, about Tsar Yantar - a powerful hero, and about an unknown beast - Indrik, and about others. Tsar Saltan ruled for a long time. Although he had the highest rank of his State, ...
  • Tale of the account, Igor Yegiyan. The creative workshop "Good World" presents to your attention a new original approach to old Russian folk tales and more! With these books we open our big cycle...

"In a faraway kingdom, in a faraway state ...". Probably, each of us in childhood fell asleep to the quiet voice of our parents, who read or told fairy tales about beautiful princesses, brave princes and evil monsters. And in the same way, each of us will read such fairy tales to our children. What is a fairy tale, and why is it needed?

First of all, a fairy tale is a genre of literary creativity with an attitude towards fiction. Moreover, a fairy tale can be both oral and written. The main feature of the fairy tale is that it is always a fictional story with a happy ending, where good triumphs over evil. Fairy tales are authorial (composed by a certain author) and folk (composed by many people). There is also a well-known classification of fairy tales according to their content:

  • Fairy tales are magical. They reveal the best human qualities, the characters are romantic. In such a fairy tale, there is always a central positive hero, his assistants and magical objects. Heroes of fairy tales fight evil and injustice in the name of goodness and love. Examples include Russian folk tales about Ivan the Fool.
  • Tales about animals. Here, the permanent characters are animals (fox, wolf, bear, hare, etc.). Animals interact, each of them personifies one or another human quality, for example, a cat is smart, a fox is cunning, a bear is strong. Examples: "Teremok", "Turnip", "Kolobok".
  • Social fairy tales - illustrate real life, the characters are shown from the point of view of their social status, negative human qualities are ridiculed. The best qualities in such fairy tales are people from the people, who, as a rule, turn out to be smarter and more cunning than representatives of high social status (gentlemen, priests). These tales are satirical, full of humor and puns. Examples of social fairy tales: "Shemyakin's court", "Porridge from an ax", "The master and the carpenter", "The peasant and the priest".

How is a story different from a fairy tale?

The main difference between a tale and a fairy tale is that the tale has a narrator, and this narrator is not the author of the story. In addition, the heroes of the tale are most often real people, although many new fictional details are added to the tale.

How is a myth different from a fairy tale

A myth is a story about the life, way of life, traditions and characteristics of the people described in the myth. Myths are always associated with religion, they contain gods and demigods. In fairy tales, heroes can be ordinary people, just like you and me.

What are fairy tales for?

What is the meaning of the fairy tale? The purpose of the fairy tale is to teach children to distinguish good from bad, good from evil, ingenuity from stupidity. And I must say, the fairy tale copes with its task brilliantly.

In addition, the fairy tale helps children develop their imagination. After all, often parents tell magical stories without using pictures, which means that the child needs to imagine for himself how exactly the beautiful princess or shaggy monster looked like.

What do fairy tales teach? The fairy tale teaches not to despair in difficult times and always overcome difficulties. After all, the main character in fairy tales always takes on impossible tasks, for solving incredible mysteries.

The tale teaches how important it is for every person to have friends. And the fact that if you do not leave a friend in trouble, then he will help you in difficult times.

The fairy tale teaches not to judge people by their appearance. After all, in them any frog can easily turn out to be a beautiful girl, and a monster - an enchanted prince.

The story teaches us to obey our parents. After all, a son or daughter who performs the instructions of a father and mother in fairy tales always finds himself in a better position than their negligent brothers and sisters.

Often a fairy tale teaches patriotism. No wonder the knights so readily rush to defend their native land from foreign invaders.

And finally, the fairy tale teaches us to be smart, not to rush to solve a particular problem, to think over our decisions.

Reading fairy tales is useful not only in childhood. Growing up, we often forget that in the end, good always triumphs over evil, that any difficulties can be overcome, that a handsome prince on a white horse is already looking for his princess, and she is humbly waiting for him. So read fairy tales. Tell them to your children, come up with new stories together, accompany them with playing with dolls or drawing. After all, giving yourself and your child a little good mood before going to bed is very simple!

It doesn't necessarily mean thrilling action with magical transformations, where glorious heroes defeat mythical monsters with the help of amazing artifacts. Many of these stories are based on events that could well have taken place in real life. These are household stories. They teach goodness, ridicule human vices: greed, stupidity, cruelty, and others, often contain an ironic basis and social background. What is a household story? This is an instructive story without any special supernatural miracles, useful for children, often making even adults think.

"Turnip"

It is not necessary to look too far in search of an example of such a tale. They can be served by the well-known story about the turnip, which my grandfather planted in the garden. The old man did not expect that she would grow too big, so much so that he could not pull her out of the ground alone. In order to cope with a difficult task, the grandfather called for help from all members of his family. They turned out to be a grandmother, a granddaughter and animals living in the house. Thus, the turnip was stretched out. The idea of ​​a simple plot is easy to understand. When everyone works together, together and unitedly, everything is sure to work out. Even a small mouse - and she took part in the described action.

In this example, it is easy to understand what a household fairy tale is. Of course, the mentioned story contains some fantastic facts. For example, a turnip can't grow that big, and animals aren't smart enough to do that kind of work. However, if we discard these details, the moral of the story is very useful and can be useful in real life.

Heroes of Russian fairy tales

The features of everyday fairy tales are that most often they contain healthy satire. Naive innocence turns out to be wiser than the most sophisticated cunning, and resourcefulness and ingenuity repel arrogance, vanity, arrogance and greed. Here vices are ridiculed, regardless of faces and ranks. In such stories, the stupidity and laziness of almighty kings, the greed of hypocritical priests are mercilessly scourged.

Ivanushka the Fool often turns out to be a wonderful hero of Russian fairy tales. This is a special character who always emerges victorious from all, even the most incredible trials. You can understand what a household fairy tale is by remembering other interesting and vivid characters created by the imagination of the Russian people. They are a cunning man who is able to circle around the finger of all his offenders from among the greedy rich, as well as a soldier whose resourcefulness will delight anyone.

"Porridge from an ax"

Among the examples of everyday fairy tales in which the above-mentioned characters are involved, one can name “Porridge from an ax”. This is a very small but instructive story about how easy and fun it is to overcome life's difficulties and hardships if you treat everything with humor and have an approach to people.

The resourceful soldier, having come to stay with a stingy old woman who pretended to be poor in order not to treat her guest with anything, decided to use a trick to achieve his goal. He volunteered to cook food with an axe. Driven by curiosity, the hostess of the house, without noticing it herself, provided the soldier with all the products necessary for cooking and allowed him to take away the ax, which supposedly had not yet been cooked. Here, the sympathies of all readers and listeners, as a rule, turn out to be on the side of the resourceful serviceman. And interested persons are given a chance to laugh merrily at the greedy old woman. This is what a household fairy tale is at its best.

literary works

Many great writers also worked in fairy tale genres. A striking indicator of this are the works of the nineteenth-century genius Saltykov-Shchedrin. Imitating folk art, the author assigned the characters a certain social status, which conveyed his political ideas to the readers.

Most of his stories should rather be classified as animal tales. They contain allegories, the purpose of which is to reveal social vices. But this does not exhaust the list of works of this writer, consonant with the genres of folk tales. Everyday fairy tales created on a social basis, for example, are reminiscent of "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals." This peculiar narrative breathes with subtle humor and inimitable satire, and its characters are so reliable that they are relevant for any era.

jokes

Anecdotes are also examples of everyday fairy tales. The attitude to this kind of folklore, of course, is far from clear for everyone. But in this colorful genre, folk identity, the concept of morality and various vicissitudes of social relations are clearly expressed. In addition, this form of creativity is always relevant and constantly evolving.

According to the data of modern folklore, everyday jokes in different areas have their own characteristics and features, which is of interest for scientific study. This also applies to the general patterns of formation and development of this genre, which have become a topic for research and presentation in many scientific works and dissertations. At all times, an anecdote has proved to be an excellent way for the people to respond to the arbitrariness of the authorities, to phenomena and events that contradict their concepts of justice and ethics.

Other genre forms

It is not difficult to understand how a household fairy tale differs from a fairy tale. Of course, stories about sorcerers and fantastic adventures are always interesting and find their fans. But capacious, witty stories that reveal the full depth of social and human relations simply cannot be irrelevant. Among other varieties of the genre of everyday fairy tales are riddles and ridicule. The first of them is an allegorical description of some object or event and is given in the form of a question. And the second is a clearly satirical short work, which especially gives a reason to have fun over the vices of unworthy people. There are also boring tales. This is a very interesting genre. In such stories, a certain set of words is deliberately repeated, there is no plot as such, because the action essentially develops in a vicious circle. A striking and well-known example of such a story is the Tale of the White Bull.

All of the above works constitute a treasury of folklore, a storehouse of his wisdom, sparkling humor carried through the centuries.

Previously, the word " fable". Word " fairy tale"suggests that they will find out about him, "what it is" and find out "what" she, a fairy tale, is needed for. A fairy tale with a purpose is needed for the subconscious or conscious teaching of a child in the family the rules and purpose of life, the need to protect their "area" and a worthy attitude towards other communities. It is noteworthy that both the saga and the fairy tale carry a colossal informational component, passed down from generation to generation, faith in which is based on respect for one's ancestors.

folk tale

A folk tale based on a traditional plot belongs to prose folklore (fairy tale prose). The myth, having lost its functions, has become a fairy tale. Initially, the fairy tale, separated from the myth, opposed the myth as:

  1. profane - sacred . The myth is connected with the ritual, therefore the myth, at a certain time and in a certain place, reveals secret knowledge to the initiates;
  2. Non-strict certainty - strict certainty . The departure of the fairy tale from the ethnographic nature of the myth led to the fact that the artistic side of the myth came to the fore in the fairy tale. The tale was "interested" in the fascination of the plot. The historicity (quasi-historicity) of the myth has become irrelevant for the fairy tale. The events of the fairy tale take place outside the geographic confinement within the framework of the fairy tale geography.

A folklore fairy tale has its own specific poetics, which was insisted on by A.I. Nikiforov and V. Ya. Propp. The texts of this genre are built using the clichés established by tradition:

  1. Fairy tale formulas - rhythmic prose phrases:
    • “Once upon a time ...”, “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state ...” - fabulous initials, beginnings;
    • “Soon the fairy tale is told, but not soon the deed is done” - median formulas;
    • “And I was there, I drank honey-beer, it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth”, “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows”, - a fabulous ending, finale;
  2. “Common places" - whole episodes wandering from text to text of different fairy tales:
    • The arrival of Ivan Tsarevich to Baba Yaga, where prose is interspersed with rhythmic passages:
      • The clichéd description of the portrait is "Baba Yaga, a bone leg";
      • Cliched formulaic questions and answers - “where are you going, the road”, “stand facing me, back to the forest”, etc .;
    • A clichéd description of the scene: “on the viburnum bridge, on the currant river”;
    • A clichéd description of actions: moving the hero on a “flying carpet”;
    • General folklore epithets: “beautiful girl”, “good fellow”.

A folklore fairy tale meets three requirements of folklore existence (general folklore features):

  1. Orality.
  2. Collectivity.
  • antagonist (pest)
  • donor
  • assistant
  • princess or her father
  • sender
  • hero
  • false hero.

Propp creates the so-called. metascheme of a fairy tale, consisting of 31 functions. Meletinsky, continuing after Propp's research on the genre definition of a fairy tale, combines Propp's fairy tale functions into large structure-forming units in order to more accurately give a genre definition of a fairy tale. The scientist says that a fairy tale is characterized by such common units presented in all fairy tale texts as ελ ... EL, where Greek letters are a test of the hero of a fairy tale by a donor and a reward for the hero (Baba Yaga gives Ivan Tsarevich a magic ball for that he behaved correctly). The Latin letters, in Meletinsky's formula, denote the battle over the antagonist and the victory over him (the role of the antagonist is played in the fairy tale by Koschei Immortal, the Serpent Gorynych). Victory over the antagonist is unthinkable without the help of a magical remedy previously received from the donor. Meletinsky proposes to single out not only the genre of a fairy tale, but also to distinguish between its genre types, introducing additional units to determine the genre types of a fairy tale:

  • presence / absence of an object of struggle independent of the hero (O - O)
  • obtaining a marriage partner and a wonderful item (O¹ - O²)
  • obtaining an object by the hero for himself or for the king, father, family, his community (S - S_)
  • factor of the family nature of the main collision (F - F)
  • identification of a fairy tale with a distinctly mythological coloring of the demonic world hostile to the hero (M - M).

Thanks to these units, five groups of fairy tales can be distinguished:

    1. O 1 SˉFˉM - heroic tales, snake fighting type (AT 300-301).
      • O 2 SˉFˉM - heroic tales of the quest type (AT 550-551).
    2. OˉSFˉM - archaic tales of the "children at the cannibal" type (AT 311, 312, 314, 327).
      • O 1 SˉFM - fairy tales about family persecuted, given into the power of forest demons (AT 480, 709).
      • OˉSFMˉ - fairy tales about family persecuted without mythical elements (AT 510, 511).
    3. O 1 SFˉM - fairy tales about wonderful spouses (AT 400, 425, etc.).
      • O 2 SFˉMˉ - fairy tales about wonderful objects (AT 560, 563, 566, 569, 736).
    4. O 1 SFˉMˉ - fairy tales about wedding trials (AT 530, 570, 575, 577, 580, 610, 621, 675).
    5. O 1 SˉFˉMˉ - (AT 408, 653).
      • O 2 SˉFˉMˉ - (AT 665).

Using the above classification of types of fairy tales, one must keep in mind that many fairy tales have, so-called. the second moves (ups and downs), which is expressed in the fact that the main character of the tale briefly loses the object of his desire.

Meletinsky, singling out five groups of fairy tales, tries to solve the problem of the historical development of the genre in general, and plots in particular. The built-up scheme O - Oˉ, M - Mˉ, F - Fˉ, S - Sˉ, in many respects corresponds to the general line of development from myth to fairy tale: demythologization of the main conflict and highlighting the family principle, narrowing of collectivism, development of interest in personal destiny and compensation socially disadvantaged. All stages of this development are present in a fairy tale. The tale contains some motifs characteristic of totemic myths. The mythological origin of the universally widespread fairy tale about marriage with a wonderful “totem” creature, who temporarily shed an animal shell and assumed a human form, is quite obvious (“Husband is looking for a disappeared or kidnapped wife (wife is looking for a husband)” SUS 400, “The Frog Princess” 402, “ Scarlet flower "425 ° C, etc.). A fairy tale about visiting other worlds to free the captives who are there (“Three Underground Kingdoms” SUS 301 A, B, etc.). Popular tales about a group of children who fall into the power of an evil spirit, a monster, a cannibal and are saved thanks to the resourcefulness of one of them ("The Witch's Thumb Boy" SUS 327 B, etc.), or about the murder of a mighty snake - a chthonic demon (" The winner of the snake "SUS 300 1, etc.). In a fairy tale, a family theme is actively developed (“Cinderella” SUS 510 A, etc.). For a fairy tale, a wedding becomes a symbol of compensation for the socially disadvantaged ("Sivka-Burka" SUS 530). The socially disadvantaged hero (younger brother, stepdaughter, fool) at the beginning of the tale, endowed with all the negative characteristics from his environment, is endowed with beauty and intelligence at the end (“Humpbacked Horse” SUS 531). The distinguished group of fairy tales about wedding trials draws attention to the story of personal destinies. The novelistic theme in a fairy tale is no less interesting than the heroic one. Propp classifies the genre of fairy tale by the presence in the main test of "Battle - Victory" or by the presence of "Hard task - Solving a difficult task". The household fairy tale became a logical development of a fairy tale.

novelistic fairy tale

novelistic fairy tale(or, social and domestic) has the same composition as a fairy tale, but qualitatively different from it. The fairy tale of this genre is firmly connected with reality, there is only one, the earthly world, and the features of life are realistically transmitted, and the main character is trickster, an ordinary person from the people's environment, fighting for justice with those in power and achieving his goal with the help of ingenuity, dexterity and cunning.

anecdotal tale

anecdotal tale, distinguished by A. N. Afanasyev, differs from an anecdote in that a fairy tale is a detailed narrative of an anecdote.

fiction

Fables These are fairy tales built on nonsense. They are small in volume and often have the form of rhythmic prose. Fables are a special genre of folklore that is found among all peoples as an independent work or as part of a fairy tale, buffoon, bylichka, bylina.

Collecting fairy tales

In Europe, the first collector of fairy-tale folklore was the French poet and literary critic Charles Perrault (1628-1703), who in 1697 published the collection Tales of Mother Goose. In 1704-1717, an abridged edition of the Arabian tales "A Thousand and One" Nights prepared by Antoine Galland for King Louis XIV was published in Paris. However, the beginning of the systematic collection of fairy folklore was laid by representatives of the German mythological school in folklore, primarily members of the circle of Heidelberg romantics, the Brothers Grimm. It was after they published the collection “Home and Family German Tales” in 1812-1814, which was sold in large circulation, that writers and scientists from other European countries showed interest in their native folklore. However, the Grimm brothers had predecessors in Germany itself. For example, back in 1782-1786, the German writer Johann Karl August Muzeus (died in 1787) compiled a five-volume collection "Folk Tales of the Germans", but it was published only in 1811 by his friend the poet Wieland. In Russia, the Russian ethnographer was the initiator of collecting Russian folk tales.



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