Tales of M. E

24.03.2019

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Introduction………………………………………………………………..3

1. The originality of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin…………………….4

2. Elements of fantasy in the "History of one city"…………..9

Conclusion……………………………………………………………19

References…………………………………………………...20

Introduction

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin in his work chose the right weapon satirical principle images of reality with the help of fantasy elements. He became the successor of the traditions of D.I. Fonvizin, A.S. Griboyedov, N.V. Gogol in that he made satire his political weapon, fighting with it sharp questions of his time.

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote more than 30 fairy tales. Appeal to this genre was natural for Saltykov-Shchedrin. Elements of fantasy permeate all the writer's work. In the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin, political problems are developed, topical issues are resolved. Defending the advanced ideals of his time, the author acted in his works as a defender of the people's interests. Enriched folklore stories new content, Saltykov-Shchedrin directed the genre of fairy tales to instill civic feelings and special respect for the people.

The purpose of the abstract is to study the role of fantasy elements in the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

1. The originality of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin

Saltykov-Shchedrin refers to the fairy tale genre in his work more than once: first in 1869, and then after 1881, when historical conditions(the assassination of the king) led to increased censorship.

Like many writers, Saltykov-Shchedrin uses the fairy tale genre to reveal the vices of man and society. Written for "children of a fair age," the fairy tales are a sharp criticism of the existing system and, in essence, serve as a weapon incriminating the Russian autocracy.

The themes of fairy tales are very diverse: the author not only opposes the vices of autocracy (“The Bear in the Voivodeship”, “Bogatyr”), but also denounces noble despotism (“The Wild Landowner”). The views of the liberals (“Karas-idealist”), as well as the indifference of officials (“Idle conversation”) and narrow-minded cowardice (“Wise gudgeon”) cause particular condemnation in the satirist.

However, there is a theme that, one might say, is present in many fairy tales - this is the theme of the oppressed people. In the fairy tales “How one man fed two generals”, “Konyaga” it sounds especially bright.

Themes and problems determine the variety of characters acting in these witty satirical works. These are stupid rulers, who strike with their ignorance and tyrant landowners, officials and townsfolk, merchants and peasants. Sometimes the characters are quite reliable, and we find in them the features of specific historical persons, and sometimes the images are allegorical and allegorical.

Using the folklore and fairy-tale form, the satirist covers the most pressing issues of Russian life, acts as a defender of popular interests and advanced ideas.

The tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals” stands out from all of them with its special dynamism, variability of the plot. The writer uses a fantastic technique - the generals, as if “by pike command”, are transferred to a desert island, and here the writer, with his characteristic irony, demonstrates to us the complete helplessness of officials and their inability to act.

“The generals served all their lives in some kind of registry; there they were born, brought up and grew old, therefore, they did not understand anything. They didn't even know the words." Due to their stupidity and narrow-mindedness, they almost starved to death. But a man comes to their aid, who is a master of all trades: he can hunt and cook food. The image of a “hefty man” in this tale personifies both the strength and weakness of the Russian people. Skill, his extraordinary abilities are combined in this image with humility, class passivity (the man himself weaves a rope to be tied to a tree at night). Having gathered ripe apples for the generals, he takes sour, unripe ones for himself, and he was also glad that the generals "praised him, a parasite, and did not disdain him for peasant labor."

The tale of two generals suggests that the people, according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, are the backbone of the state, they are the creator of material and spiritual values.

The theme of the people is developed in another fairy tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin - “Konyaga”, which was created in 1885. In style, it differs from others in the absence of action.

This tale is called the strongest work in the series dedicated to the plight of the Russian peasantry. The image of a horse-worker is collective. He personifies the entire forced laboring people, it reflects the tragedy of millions of peasants, this enormous force, enslaved and disenfranchised.

In this tale, the theme of the obedience of the people, their wordlessness and lack of desire to fight also sounds. Konyaga, “tortured, beaten, narrow-chested, with protruding ribs and burned shoulders, with broken legs” - such a portrait is created by the author, who mourns for the unenviable fate of a disenfranchised people. Reflections on the future, the fate of the people are painful, but filled with selfless love.

In the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, with the help of Aesopian language, elements of fantasy, folk traditions And satirical devices different themes are heard.

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 lived a landowner ..."; sayings ("at the command of a pike", "neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen" ); characteristic of folk speech turns ("thought and thought", "it is said - it is done"); close to vernacular syntax, vocabulary, orthoepy. Exaggeration, grotesque, hyperbole: one of the generals eats the other; the “wild landowner”, like a cat, climbs a tree in an instant; a man cooks soup in a handful. As in folk tales, a miraculous incident ties up the plot: by the grace of God, "there was no peasant in the entire space of the stupid landowner's possessions." folk tradition Saltykov-Shchedrin also follows in fairy tales about animals, when he ridicules the shortcomings of society in allegorical form.

Difference: the interweaving of the fantastic with the real and even historically reliable. "Bear in the Voivodeship": among actors- the image of Magnitsky, a famous reactionary in Russian history, suddenly appears: even before Toptygin appeared in the forest, all printing houses were destroyed by Magnitsky, students were given into soldiers, academicians were imprisoned. In the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" the hero gradually degrades, turning into an animal. The incredible story of the hero is largely due to the fact that he read the Vesti newspaper and followed its advice. Saltykov-Shchedrin simultaneously respects the form of a folk tale and destroys it. The magic in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin is explained by the real, the reader cannot escape reality, which is constantly felt behind the images of animals, fantastic events. Fairy-tale forms allowed Saltykov-Shchedrin to present ideas close to him in a new way, to show or ridicule social shortcomings.

“The wise minnow” is an image of a frightened inhabitant to death, who “protects everything only his hateful life.” Can the slogan "survive and the pike not get into hailo" be the meaning of life for a person?

The theme of the tale is connected with the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya, when many representatives of the intelligentsia, frightened, withdrew from public affairs. A type of coward is created, miserable, unhappy. These people did no harm to anyone, but lived their lives aimlessly, without impulses. This tale is about the civic position of a person and about the meaning human life. In general, the author appears in a fairy tale in two faces at once: a folk narrator, a simpleton joker and at the same time a person wise by life experience, a writer-thinker, a citizen. Details interspersed in the description of the life of the animal kingdom with its inherent details real life of people. The language of a fairy tale combines fairy words and phrases, colloquial of the third estate and the journalistic language of that time.

2. Elements of fantasy in"HistoryAndone city"

"The History of a City" is the most significant fantastic and satirical work of Russian literature. This book is the only successful attempt in our country to give in one work a picture (parodic and grotesque, but surprisingly accurate) not only of the history of Russia, but also of its contemporary image for the writer. Moreover, while reading The History of a City, you constantly catch yourself thinking that this book is about our time, about “post-perestroika” Russia, its socio-political, psychological and artistic discoveries are so topical for us.

Saltykov-Shchedrin could write such a universal for Russia literary work only in the form of grotesque, fantasy and satire. Modern critics of Saltykov-Shchedrin, his fellow writers and ordinary readers adhered to two different opinions about the "History of a City": some saw in it only an unfair caricature of Russian history and the Russian people (Leo Tolstoy was among the supporters of this point of view), others saw the dawn of a new one in Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire, happy life(Liberal Democrats, Social Democrats). In the Soviet period, official science pretended that the work had nothing to do with Soviet reality. Only now it becomes clear that "The History of a City" is a book "for all times" and not only about Russia at the end of the 20th century, but also about other countries.

Despite the fact that Saltykov-Shchedrin's book is the first such significant grotesque-satirical work of Russian literature, the forms of grotesque, fantasy and satire in literature and art are by no means new. The very origin of the words speaks about this, and also, to a certain extent, about the essence of these methods: fantastich (fantasy) in Greek in the literal sense of the word - the art of imagining; satira (satura) in Latin - a mixture, all sorts of things; grottesco in Italian - "cave", "grotto" (to refer to bizarre ornaments found in the 15th-16th centuries during excavations of ancient Roman premises - "grottoes"). Thus, the "fantastic grotesque" and satirical works date back to the ancient, so-called "mythological archaic" ("low version" of the myth) and to the ancient satirical novel, to the folk fantastic grotesque of the Renaissance. Later, these terms became the subject of special studies in literary criticism and aesthetics. First serious research grotesque as an artistic, aesthetic method was undertaken more than 200 years ago in 1788 in Germany by G. Schneegans, who first gave a generalized definition of the grotesque. Later, in 1827, the famous French writer Victor Hugo, in his Preface to Cromwell, for the first time gave the term "grotesque" a broad aesthetic interpretation and drew the attention of a wide section of the reading public to it.

In our time, “grotesque”, “fantastic”, “satire” is understood approximately as follows. Grotesque in literature is one of the types of typification, mostly satirical, in which real life relationships are deformed, credibility gives way to caricature, fantasy, and a sharp combination of contrasts. (Another, similar definition: Grotesque is a type of artistic imagery that generalizes and sharpens life relationships through a bizarre and contrasting combination of real and fantastic, credibility and caricature, tragic and comic, beautiful and ugly. Fantasy is a specific method of artistic depiction of life, using art form-image (an object, a situation, a world in which the elements of reality are combined in an unusual way - unbelievably, “wonderfully”, supernaturally). Satire is a specific form of artistic reflection of reality, through which negative, internally perverse phenomena are exposed and ridiculed; a kind of comic, destroying ridicule of the depicted, revealing its internal inconsistency, its inconsistency with its nature or purpose, “idea”. It is noteworthy that these three definitions have something in common. So, in the definition of the grotesque, both the fantastic and the comic are mentioned as its elements (a type of the latter is satire). It is advisable not to separate these three concepts, but to speak of the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin as satirical, written in the form of a fantastic grotesque. Moreover, the unity of all three artistic methods is emphasized by many researchers of Saltykov-Shchedrin's work when they speak of his works as parts of an integral satirical, grotesque world. Analyzing this world (the most striking embodiment of which is the "History of a City"), literary critics note the following features of it. The grotesque seems to "destroy" the real country of Russia and its people in the "household", everyday plausibility and creates new patterns and connections. A special grotesque world arises, which is essential, however, for revealing the real contradictions of reality. Therefore, the grotesque in Saltykov-Shchedrin consists, as it were, of two planes, and its perception is dual. What at first glance seems random, arbitrary, in fact, turns out to be deeply natural. The nature of the comic in the "History of a City" does not at all consist in strengthening the farcical principle (in "comedy"), but is connected with its two-dimensionality. The comic is released along with the comprehension of the essence of the grotesque, with the movement of the reader's thought from a superficial plane to a deeper one. Moreover, in Shchedrin's "History of a City" the grotesque beginning is not just an essential part. On the contrary, the grotesque principle is laid at the very foundation of the work. The grotesque is often characterized by the desire for the ultimate generalization, mostly satirical, to comprehend the essence of the phenomenon and extract from it some meaning, a concentrate of history. That is why the grotesque turned out to be the only possible form for Saltykov-Shchedrin and the basis of his work. The range of the generalized phenomenon in the "History of a City" expands to amazingly wide limits - to the generalization of the trend of all Russian history and modernity. The generalization and concentration of historical content determine a particularly sharp combination of humor and sarcasm, comic and tragic elements in the grotesque. Reading the "History of a City", you are convinced of the validity of another important conclusion made by philologists: the grotesque is striving for a holistic and multifaceted expression of the basic, cardinal problems of human life.

In the work of the great satirist one can see, on the one hand, the element of folk art and folk comedy, on the other, an expression of the inconsistency and complexity of life. The images of the folk grotesque, built on the unity of polar, contrasting (and comical in their contrasting fusion) elements, capture the essence of a sharply contradictory life, its dialectics. Laughter reduction, rapprochement of contrasts, as it were, abolishes all unambiguity, exclusivity and inviolability. The grotesque world realizes a kind of folk laughter utopia. The entire content of the "History of one city" in a compressed form fits into the "Inventory for the mayors", therefore the "Inventory for the mayors" the best way illustrates the techniques by which Saltykov-Shchedrin created his work.

It is here, in the most concentrated form, that we meet “bizarre and contrasting combinations of the real and the fantastic, the plausibility and the caricature, the tragic and the comic” that are characteristic of the grotesque. Probably, never before in Russian literature has such a compact description of entire epochs, layers Russian history and life. In the "Inventory" the reader is bombarded with a stream of absurdity, which, oddly enough, is more understandable than the real contradictory and phantasmagoric Russian life. Let's take the first mayor, Amadeus Manuilovich Klementy. Only seven lines are devoted to him (approximately the same amount of text is given to each of the 22 mayors), but each word here is more valuable than many pages and volumes written by contemporary Saltykov-Shchedrin official historians and social scientists. comic effect is created already in the first words: an absurd combination of a foreign, beautiful and high-sounding name for the Russian ear Amadeus Klementy with a provincial Russian patronymic Manuilovich says a lot: about the fleeting "westernization" of Russia "from above", about how the country was flooded with foreign adventurers, about , how alien to ordinary people were the morals imposed from above, and about many other things. From the same sentence, the reader learns that Amadeus Manuilovich ended up in the mayor’s office “for skillful cooking of pasta” - a grotesque, of course, and at first it seems funny, but after a moment the modern Russian reader understands with horror that in the one hundred and thirty years that have passed since writing the "History of a City", and in the 270 years that have passed since the time of Biron, little has changed: and before our eyes, numerous "advisers", "experts", "creators of monetary systems" and the "systems" themselves were discharged from the West crackling foreign chatter, for a beautiful, exotic surname for the Russian ear ... And after all, they believed, they believed, like the Foolovites, just as stupid and just as naive. Nothing has changed since then. Further, the descriptions of the “town governors” almost instantly follow one after another, piled up and mixed up in their absurdity, together making up, oddly enough, almost scientific picture Russian life. This description clearly shows how Saltykov-Shchedrin “constructs” his grotesque world. To do this, he really first “destroys” the plausibility: Dementy Vaolamovich Brudasty had “some special device” in his head, Anton Protasyevich de Sanglot flew through the air, Ivan Panteleevich Pimple turned out to be with a stuffed head. In the "Inventory" there is something not so fantastic, but still very unlikely: the mayor Lamvrokakis died, eaten in bed by bedbugs; foreman Ivan Matveyevich Baklan is broken in half during a storm; Nikodim Osipovich Ivanov died of exertion, "struggling to comprehend some Senate decree," and so on. So, the grotesque world of Saltykov-Shchedrin is constructed, and the reader laughed at him to his heart's content. However, our contemporary soon begins to understand that the absurd, fantastic world of Saltykov is not so absurd as it seems at first glance. More precisely, it is absurd, it is absurd, but real world, real country no less absurd. In this "high reality" of Shchedrin's world, in the understanding by the modern reader of the absurdity of the structure of our life, lies the justification and purpose of Shchedrin's grotesque as artistic method. Organchik The following detailed account of the "acts" of the mayors and the description of the behavior of the Foolovites more than once makes modern reader involuntarily exclaim: "How could Saltykov-Shchedrin 130 years ago know what is happening to us at the end of the twentieth century?" The answer to this question, according to Kozintsev, must be sought in the dictionary for the word "genius". In places, the text of this chapter is so amazing and so testifies to the exceptional visionary gift of Saltykov-Shchedrin, supported by the methods of hyperbole, grotesque and satire he uses, that it is necessary to quote several quotations here. “The inhabitants rejoiced... They congratulated each other with joy, kissed, shed tears... In a fit of delight, Foolov's old liberties were also remembered. The best citizens..., having formed a nationwide veche, shook the air with exclamations: our father! Even dangerous dreamers appeared. Guided not so much by reason as by the movements of a noble heart, they argued that trade would flourish under the new city governor and that sciences and arts would arise under the supervision of district overseers. They didn't refrain from making comparisons. They remembered the old mayor who had just left the city, and it turned out that although he was also handsome and clever, but after all that, the new ruler should already be given the advantage by one volume that he was new. In a word, in this case, as in other similar cases, both the usual Foolovian enthusiasm and the usual Foolovian frivolity were fully expressed ... Soon, however, the townsfolk became convinced that their glee and hopes were, to a minimum, premature and exaggerated. .. The new mayor locked himself in his office ... From time to time he ran out into the hall ... he said “I won’t stand it!” - and again hid in the office. The Foolovites were horrified ... suddenly the thought dawned on everyone: well, how will he flog an entire nation in such a manner! ... they became agitated, made a noise and, inviting the superintendent of the public school, asked him the question: were there examples in history when people ordered, waged wars and concluded treatises with an empty vessel on their shoulders? A lot has already been said about the "organ", the mayor Brudast, from this amazing chapter. No less interesting, however, is the description of the Foolovites in this chapter.

At the time of Saltykov-Shchedrin, and even now, the grotesque image of the Russian people he created seemed and still seems to many to be forced, and even slanderous. It was common for monarchists, liberals, and social democrats alike to idealize the people, to ascribe to it some sublime, abstract qualities. Both liberals and socialists thought it incredible that the broad masses of the population could endure for centuries a long succession of "organists" and "former scoundrels", sometimes bursting into outbursts of unreasonable enthusiasm or anger. This position was considered historical mistake” or “contradiction between the productive forces and production relations” and seemed to be correctable by introducing representative democracy or putting into practice the theories of Marxism. Only later did it gradually become clear that the seemingly paradoxical, absurd and grotesque features of the national Russian character are confirmed by serious scientific analysis. Thus, we see that Saltykov-Shchedrin's grotesque and satire were not only expressive means by which he solved artistic problems, but also a tool for analyzing Russian life - contradictory, paradoxical and seemingly fantastic, but internally integral and containing not only negative traits but also elements of sustainability and a guarantee of future development. In turn, the very foundations of the contradictory Russian life dictated to Saltykov-Shchedrin the need to use precisely the forms of the fantastic grotesque.

The story about Ugryum-Burcheev is probably the most widely cited chapter of the History of a City in perestroika times. As you know, Arakcheev and Nicholas I were the direct prototypes of the image of Grim-Burcheev, and the military settlements of the Nikolaev era were the prototype of the barracks town of Nepreklonsk, and literary critics of the Soviet period paid attention to this. However, reading this chapter, you can clearly see the features of the amazing similarity between Nepreklonsk and barracks socialism of the Stalinist type. Moreover, Saltykov-Shchedrin managed to point out the main features of the society built by the "levelers", and even such details of this society, which, it seems, were absolutely impossible to predict 60 years before. The accuracy of Saltykov-Shchedrin's providence is amazing. In his book, he foresaw both the “barracks” appearance of that society, to which the “idea of universal happiness” would lead, elevated to “a rather complex and inextricable administrative theory of ideological tricks”, and the enormous victims of the Stalin era (“the solved issue of general extermination”, “ a fantastic failure in which “everything and everything disappeared without a trace”), and the miserable straightforwardness of the ideology and “theory” of barracks socialism (“Having drawn a straight line, he planned to squeeze into it all the visible and invisible world”- how not to recall here the primitive theories of gradual “erasing the edges” and “improving” everything and everyone), and annoying collectivism (“Everyone lives every minute together ...”), and much more. And the more particular features of Saltykov-Shchedrin's "society of the future" are like two drops of water similar to the reality of the Stalinist dictatorship. Here is the low origin of the "mayor", and his incredible, inhuman cruelty towards the members of the own family, and two official ideological holidays in Nepreklonsk in the spring and autumn, and spy mania, and the gloomy-grumbling "plan for the transformation of nature", and even the details of the illness and death of Glum-Burcheev ... When you reflect on how Saltykov-Shchedrin succeeded with such accuracy to foresee the future of Russia, you come to the conclusion that his literary method of studying the world and the country, based on artistic logic fantastic hyperbole, turned out to be much more accurate and powerful than the scientific forecasting methods that guided social scientists and philosophers, the writer's contemporaries. Moreover, in the chapter on Ugryum-Burcheev, he gave a more accurate diagnosis of the society of barracks socialism than most Russian scientists of the 20th century! This aspect of the problem also attracts attention. When Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote his "dystopia", much of what he said about Nepreklonsk seemed and was for that time precisely fantasy, hyperbole and grotesque. But after 60 years, the most fantastic predictions of the writer turned out to be realized with amazing accuracy. Here we have an example of how (perhaps for the only time in the history of literature) the fantastic grotesque and artistic hyperbole of such magnitude is absolutely certain to become a real life. In this case, the fantastic grotesque allowed the writer to reveal hidden for the time being, but inexorable mechanisms of transformation of society. The reason that Saltykov-Shchedrin turned out to be more perspicacious than all the major philosophers of his time lay, obviously, in the very nature of his artistic creativity and method: the method of fantastic grotesque allowed him to single out essential elements and patterns. historical process, and a great artistic talent allowed at the same time (unlike social sciences) to preserve the totality of details, accidents and features of living, real life. Art world, constructed in this way by Saltykov-Shchedrin, turned out to be a reflection of such a real force that over time he inexorably and menacingly made his way into life. Instead of a conclusion: “It” The final lines of the “History of a City” contain a gloomy and mysterious prediction, not deciphered by the author: “The North has darkened and covered with clouds; from these clouds something rushed to the city: either a downpour, or a tornado ... It was approaching, and as it approached, time stopped its run. At last the earth shook, the sun went dark... the Foolovites fell on their faces. Inscrutable horror appeared on all faces, seized all hearts. It has come ... "Many researchers of Saltykov-Shchedrin's work write that by" it "the writer meant social revolution, "Russian rebellion", the overthrow of the autocracy. The fantastic nature of the image of “it” emphasizes in Saltykov-Shchedrin the tragedy of the social cataclysms he expects. It is interesting to compare the prophecy of Saltykov-Shchedrin with the forecasts of other Russian writers. M.Yu. Lermontov in his poem, which is called “Prediction”, wrote: A year will come, a black year for Russia, When the crown of the kings will fall; The mob will forget their former love for them, And the food of many will be death and blood; ... It is significant that Pushkin described similar events with much greater optimism as regards changes in society itself, and welcomed the most "radical" measures against the tsar, his family and children: Autocratic villain! I hate you, your throne, Your death, the death of children With cruel joy I see. Finally, Blok in "Voice in the Clouds" also looks to the future with a fair amount of optimism: We fought with the wind and, eyebrows furrowed, In the darkness we could hardly distinguish the path ... And then, like an ambassador of a growing storm, A prophetic voice hit the crowd. - Sad people, tired people, Wake up, find out that joy is near! Where the seas sing about a miracle, Where the light of the lighthouse goes! As we can see, the opinions of the great Russian poets on the future of Russian ups and downs radically diverged.

It is known that the forecasts of events in Russia made by other great Russian writers - Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov - turned out to be much less accurate than the providences of Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Conclusion

Like his works, the figure of Saltykov-Shchedrin still remains one of the most paradoxical in the history of Russian literature. While many literary critics and the “general reader” often place him much lower than Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov, connoisseurs of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work consider him the successor to the traditions of the titans of Renaissance and Enlightenment literature: Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift.

Saltykov-Shchedrin, with the help of elements of fantasy, was able to see and reflect in his fairy tales not only the specific and passing troubles of his time, but also the eternal problems of relations between the people and power, the shortcomings of the people's character.

Perhaps centuries will pass, and the work of our great satirist writer will be as relevant as it was a hundred years ago, as it is now. In the meantime, we, together with him, “laughingly say goodbye to our past” and look with anxiety and hope into the future of our great and unfortunate Motherland.

Bibliography

1. Efimov A.I. The language of satire by Saltykov-Shchedrin. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 1953.

2. Makashin S.A. Saltykov, Mikhail Evgrafovich. // KLE. T.6. - M.: SE, 1971.

3. Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Evgrafovich // Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: Who's Who / Ed. V. Gakov. - Minsk: IKO Galaxias, 1995.

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fairy tale and fabulous fantasy have always been close to the work of the satirist. He used them both in “The History of a City” (“Organchik”, a mayor with a stuffed head), and in “ Modern idyll"("The Tale of the Zealous Boss"), and in the cycle of essays "Abroad" ("The Triumphant Pig, or the Pig's Conversation with the Truth"), and in "Satires in Prose". Folk Russian fairy tales attracted the writer with their life truth, sly humor, constant condemnation of evil, injustice, stupidity, betrayal, cowardice, laziness, glorification of goodness, nobility, intelligence, fidelity, courage, diligence, malicious mockery of the oppressors, sympathy and love for the oppressed. in the fantastic fabulous images the people reflected the phenomena of reality, and this made fairy tales akin to Shchedrin's talent.

In total, the writer created more than 30 fairy tales, and the vast majority of them - in the 80s. This is not accidental: in the 1980s, the oppression of censorship increased unheard of, the autocracy mercilessly cracked down on revolutionary organizations, and a hail of persecution fell upon progressive literature. In April 1884, the best magazine of the era was closed - “ Domestic notes”, headed by Shchedrin for many years. The writer, in his words, "was taken away, crumpled and sealed soul." In this era of “unbridled, incredibly senseless and brutal reaction” (V. I. Belinsky), it was difficult to live, writing was almost impossible. But the reactionaries failed to silence the voice of the great satirist. Faithful to his revolutionary duty, Shchedrin continued to serve those ideas for which he devoted his entire life. “I disciplined myself so much,” he wrote, “that it seems that I won’t allow myself to die without working out.”

During these years of unprecedented revelry of reaction, Shchedrin created most of his brilliant fairy tales.

The hostility of the autocracy to the people, culture and art is beautifully shown in the fairy tale "The Eagle-Maecenas". The predatory and merciless eagle, who was used to robbing, was “sickened of living in alienation,” he, on the advice of those close to him, began to “patronize” the sciences and arts, although he himself was ignorant and “never ... had never seen a single newspaper.” The “golden age” at the court of the eagle patron began with the fact that a new tax called “enlightenment” was determined from the crows. The golden age did not last long, however. The eagle tore his teachers - the owl and the falcon - in two, the nightingale for the fact that "art" in it could not sit in the servile framework and constantly bulged out into the wild ... ... in shackles and imprisoned in a hollow forever”; then followed a pogrom at the academy, where the owls and owls protected science "from a dashing eye", the alphabet was taken from the crows, "they pounded it in a mortar and from the resulting mass they made playing cards". The tale ends with the thought that "enlightenment is harmful to eagles ..." and that "eagles are harmful to education."

Shchedrin subjected tsarist officials to merciless ridicule in "The Tale of the Zealous Chief ...". In this tale, the great Russian writer Shchedrin gives the type of bureaucrat-tyrant, very limited and stupid, but extremely self-confident and zealous. All the activity of this tyrant was reduced to the fact that he "stopped the people's food, abolished the people's health, burned the letters and scattered the ashes in the wind." In order to “poke the fatherland” even more, the boss and the “bastards” around him act according to the program they created: “So that we, the bastards, speak, and the others remain silent ... So that we, the bastards, live in a habit, and the rest of us, so that not a bottom, there was no cover. So that we, scoundrels, are kept in the hall and in tenderness, and the rest of all - in shackles.

This program created by the "scoundrels" truthfully reflected contemporary writer reality, when genuine, and not fabulous, "zealous bosses" acted according to the rule; “The more harm the boss does, the more benefit he brings to the fatherland. Science will abolish - good; the city will burn - good; the population will frighten - even more benefit.

In the fairy tale "Bogatyr" Shchedrin depicted the autocracy in the image of the "hero", the son of the Baba Yaga, who slept soundly in a hollow for a thousand years, and the people - in the image of the fool Ivanushka. During the time that the “hero” slept, his long-suffering side “had all the pains”, and not once did the “hero” either move his ear or move his eye to find out why the earth was moaning all around. The “hero” did not move even when the country was attacked by cruel and inexorable “adversaries”. "Bogatyr", personifying autocracy, turns out to be an imaginary god
tyrem, moreover, rotten through and through. “At that time, the fool Ivanushka approached the Bogatyr, broke the hollow with his fist - he looks, but the Viper’s torso was eaten away from the Bogatyr right up to the very neck.”

In all these fairy tales, a disguised call for the destruction of the autocracy was well understood by readers.

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Fairy tales sum up the entire satirical work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. The fairy tales show all aspects of the social and political life of Russia in the 60-80s of the XIX century. Saltykov-Shchedrin exposed social inequality, the arbitrariness of the autocracy, the cruel exploitation of the people. These themes are reflected in the fairy tales “The Bear in the Voivodship”, “The Eagle Patron”, “The Poor Wolf”, “The Wild Landowner”, “Neighbors”, “The Raven Petitioner” and others. Outraged by the selfishness and cruelty of the oppressors, Saltykov-Shchedrin treats the people with warmth and love. At the same time, he condemns his humility, naive belief that one can find the truth and protection in power (the fairy tales “Konyaga”, “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals”, “By the Way”, “Village Fire ”, “Idle Talk” and others). Saltykov-Shchedrin also stigmatizes the liberals, who distract the people from the struggle with empty rhetoric. The author condemns selfish philistine wisdom " dried wobble” and minnows, begging for handouts by selfless and sane hares. Saltykov-Shchedrin believed in social equality, harmony, and universal happiness. These ideas are presented in his fairy tales. A prime example the fairy tale “Karas-idealist” serves. The author immediately warns that everything in life is much more complicated than it seems at first glance, there will always be those who oppose any positive idea. In the fairy tale, this is reflected in the words: “That’s what the pike is for, so that the crucian does not doze off.” The idealist carp acts as a preacher, He is eloquent and convincing in preaching brotherly love: “Do you know what virtue is? The pike gaped in surprise. She automatically drew water and… swallowed the crucian.” Pikes are so arranged that they must eat the weakest. In any society there are strong people who eat and weak people who are eaten. The tale reflected the social philosophy of the world of the oppressors and the oppressed. But was it only at that time that a fairy tale was relevant? I think it applies to the modern world as well.

In the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, the characters are animals, birds, and fish, who act like people. “The minnow does not receive a salary and does not keep servants,” he dreams of winning two hundred thousand. In the fairy tale “The Eagle-Patron”, the Eagle is the king of birds, but it is endowed with character traits of people who act as patrons in the field of education. The eagle decided to start science and art at the court. However, he soon got tired of playing the role of a philanthropist: he destroyed the nightingale-poet, put shackles on the learned woodpecker and imprisoned him in a hollow, ruined the raven. “Searchs, investigations, trials” began, “the darkness of ignorance” set in. The writer showed in this tale the incompatibility of tsarism with science, education and art, and concluded that "eagles are harmful for education."

The wise minnow embodied the character traits of a typical layman who is always afraid of something. The minnow was afraid all his life that a pike would eat him, so he sat in his hole for a hundred years away from danger. The minnow "lived and trembled, and died and trembled." But even at the end of his life he thought about his existence. Before his death, the gudgeon tries to comprehend: why did he tremble and hide all his life? “What were his joys? Who did he comfort? Who will remember its existence? Saltykov-Shchedrin states the moral of the tale in this way: “Those who think that only those minnows can be considered worthy citizens and, mad with fear, sit in holes and tremble, believe incorrectly. No, these are not citizens, but at least useless minnows. No one from them is warm or cold, they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.

In the fairy tale “The Bear in the Voivodeship”, the king, ministers and governors are ridiculed. Three Toptygins successively replace each other in the voivodeship, where the lion sent them in order to “pacify the internal adversaries”. The first was engaged in small "shameful atrocities", the second - in large "brilliant". But after he pulled a horse, a cow and a couple of sheep from a peasant, the men killed him. The third Toptygin was the most bloodthirsty, but acted more cautiously than the others. Long years he took honey, chickens, piglets from the peasants. In the end, the peasants' patience snapped and Toptygin was put on a spear. Saltykov-Shchedrin shows that the cause of poverty and lawlessness of the people is not only in the abuse of power, but also in the very nature of the autocratic system. The whole system is vicious and its overthrow is required - this is the idea of the fairy tale.

If ministers, officials and other representatives of power act as predators (a bear, an eagle), then a simple worker who drags out his miserable existence is compared to a horse. “Fed up idle dancers” talk about the reasons for Konyaga's immortality. One suggests that Konyaga is strong because he is from constant work " common sense a lot has accumulated”, another sees in Konyaga “the life of the spirit and the spirit of life”, the third argues that Konyaga “work gives .... peace of mind, ”the fourth, that Konyaga is simply used to his fate and needs only a whip. The horse is working, the “idle dancers” are shouting: “B-but, convict, n-but!”

Not always Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts people in the form of animals, often the landowner acts as a landowner, the peasant plays the role of a peasant. In the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals,” the main characters are a man and two idler generals. Two completely helpless generals miraculously ended up on a desert island, and they got there right out of bed - in nightgowns and with orders around their necks. The generals almost eat each other, because they cannot not only catch fish or game, but also pick fruit from a tree. In order not to perish from hunger, they decide to look for a peasant. And he is right there: sitting under a tree and shirking from work. The “huge man” turns out to be a master of all trades. He took apples from a tree, and “dug up potatoes from the ground, and prepared a snare for grouse from his own hair, and got a fire, and prepared provisions, and gained swan's down. And what? He gave ten apples to the generals, and took one for himself - “sour”. He even twisted a rope so that his generals would be tied to a tree with it. Moreover, he was ready to “please the generals for the fact that they favored him, a parasite, and did not disdain his peasant labor.” No matter how much the generals scold the peasant for parasitism, and the peasant "rows and rows, and feeds the generals with herrings." The author shows the passivity of the peasant, his slave psychology, readiness to endure and feed the generals who rob him.

Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin have not lost their relevance in our time. And now you can meet crucians that are eaten by pikes, men who feed generals, dried wobbles and other characters in the fairy tales of this writer.

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FAIRY TALES IN THE WORKS OF M. E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN

1. Saltykov-Shchedrin's satire.
2. Genre features fairy tales.
3. Heroes.
4. Fantastic motives.

The tales of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are a very special layer of the writer's work. Almost all Saltykov-Shchedrin created in last years life. These short works amaze with a variety of artistic techniques, as well as with their social significance. The writer addresses his "fairy tales" to "children of a fair age." Thus, Saltykov-Shchedrin seems to want to debunk the naive illusions of some adults who are accustomed to looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. The writer treats his readers harshly, does not spare them. The satire of Saltykov-Shchedrin in fairy tales is especially sharp and ruthless. The writer uses fantastic motifs to emphasize social contradictions. He is venomous and merciless. But otherwise his works would not be so accurate and truthful. I. S. Turgenev wrote about the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin: “I saw how the audience writhed with laughter when reading some of Saltykov's essays. There was something terrible about that laugh. The audience, laughing, at the same time felt how the scourge whipped itself. The writer used satire to make readers think about social and social contradictions, to arouse in their minds indignation about what is happening around.

Saltykov-Shchedrin did not accidentally choose the fairy tale genre. Thanks to allegory, he could openly express his opinion on the most various issues. Saltykov-Shchedrin managed to harmoniously connect the genres of fairy tales and fables. From fairy tales, the writer borrowed such genre devices as unexpected transformations, the scene of action (the writer often says: "in a certain kingdom ..."). The genre of fables is manifested in the choice of heroes. A wolf, a hare, a bear, an eagle, a crow and other animals, birds and fish are perceived by the reader as masks behind which quite recognizable faces from the human world are hidden. Under the masks of representatives of the animal world, Saltykov-Shchedrin shows character traits different social types. The topical content of fairy tales is only emphasized by the intensity of passions that are characteristic of every fairy tale. Saltykov-Shchedrin aimed to use a grotesquely ugly form to show the vices of public life, as well as weak sides of people. Behind the heroes of fairy tales it is easy to recognize human characters, their writer shows them so recognizable. If Saltykov-Shchedrin makes people the heroes of fairy tales, then he depicts a fantastic situation. People, being in the center of this situation, look very unattractive. Fantasy in fairy tales is an extraordinary situation. And everything else - human types, characters - it's all quite real. All stories are very interesting. For example, the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" shows us a very stupid and short-sighted gentleman. He always enjoyed the fruits of the labors of his peasants, but did not appreciate it at all. Moreover, the master turned out to be so stupid that he decided to get rid of the peasants. His wish came true. What happened after that? The landowner degraded, ran wild. Fantastic in a fairy tale is the situation when the desire of a stupid master came true, and the peasants disappeared from his estate. The fantastic nature of the tale shows that the well-being of the landowner rested solely on the peasants. And as soon as the peasants were gone, the landowner turned into a wild beast. The harsh truth of this tale is that the ruling class uses the work of ordinary people and at the same time does not appreciate them at all.

Saltykov-Shchedrin repeatedly emphasizes the wretchedness, stupidity, short-sightedness of the representatives ruling class. For example, the fairy tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals” makes you think about how helpless the generals are and how strong and savvy a simple person is. The generals cannot do without his help, and he himself lives perfectly alone. Saltykov-Shchedrin endows animals human features and reproduce any social situation. In the fairy tale selfless hare The hare is cowardly, weak, indecisive. He is a typical victim, humiliated and helpless. The wolf is invested with power, personifies the master. The hare puts up with his position as a slave, does not try to do anything for the sake of changes in his life. The despot wolf revels in power, humiliating the unfortunate victim. People are guessed under the mask of animals. Tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin - realistic works. The writer calls a spade a spade using allegory. In the fairy tale “The Selfless Hare”, the wolf says: “For not stopping from my first word, here is my decision for you: I sentence you to be deprived of your stomach by tearing it to pieces. And since now I am full, and my wolf is full, and we have enough stock for another five days, then you sit under this bush and wait in line. Or maybe ... ha ha ... I will have mercy on you. He is clearly mocking the victim. But the trouble is that the victim deserves such an attitude. After all, a slavishly submissive hare is deprived of pride, self-respect. He personifies the common people, patient, humble and helpless. From the point of view of Saltykov-Shchedrin, all these qualities deserve censure. The writer considered satire to be an effective and effective weapon capable of opening one's eyes to various social and personal vices.

The writer's tales are very important place in the treasury of Russian literature. Their relevance is obvious even now, when a lot of time has passed since the moment of writing. All the same, there are phenomena in society that deserve sharp censure.

Introduction

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin in his work chose the satirical principle of depicting reality with the help of elements of fantasy as a sure weapon. He became the successor of the traditions of D.I. Fonvizin, A.S. Griboyedov, N.V. Gogol in that he made satire his political weapon, fighting with it with the sharp questions of his time.

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote more than 30 fairy tales. Appeal to this genre was natural for Saltykov-Shchedrin. Elements of fantasy permeate all the writer's work. In the works of Saltykov-Shchedrin, political problems are developed, topical issues are resolved. Defending the advanced ideals of his time, the author acted in his works as a defender of the people's interests. Having enriched folklore plots with new content, Saltykov-Shchedrin directed the genre of fairy tales to educate civic feelings and special respect for the people.

The purpose of the abstract is to study the role of fantasy elements in the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

The originality of the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin

Saltykov-Shchedrin repeatedly refers to the fairy tale genre in his work: first in 1869, and then after 1881, when historical conditions (the assassination of the tsar) led to tightening of censorship.

Themes and problems determine the variety of characters acting in these witty satirical works. These are stupid rulers, who strike with their ignorance and tyrant landowners, officials and townsfolk, merchants and peasants. Sometimes the characters are quite reliable, and we find in them the features of specific historical figures, and sometimes the images are allegorical and allegorical.

Using the folklore and fairy-tale form, the satirist covers the most pressing issues of Russian life, acts as a defender of popular interests and advanced ideas.

The tale “The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals” stands out from all of them with its special dynamism, variability of the plot. The writer uses a fantastic trick - the generals, as if “at the behest of a pike”, are transferred to a desert island, and here the writer, with his characteristic irony, demonstrates to us the complete helplessness of officials and their inability to act.

The tale of two generals suggests that the people, according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, are the backbone of the state, they are the creator of material and spiritual values.

The theme of the people is developed in another fairy tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin - “Konyaga”, which was created in 1885. In style, it differs from others in the absence of action.

In the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, with the help of Aesopian language, elements of fantasy, folklore traditions and satirical devices, various themes sound.

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 lived a landowner ..."; sayings ("at the command of a pike", "neither in a fairy tale to say, nor to describe with a pen" ); turnarounds characteristic of folk speech (“thought and thought”, “said - done”); syntax, vocabulary, orthoepy close to the folk language. Exaggerations, grotesque, hyperbole: one of the generals eats another; “wild landowner”, as a cat climbs a tree in an instant, a man cooks a handful of soup.As in folk tales, a miraculous incident sets up a plot: by the grace of God, "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of a stupid landowner." The folk tradition of Saltykov-Shchedrin follows in fairy tales about animals, when in allegorical form he ridicules the shortcomings of society.

Difference: the interweaving of the fantastic with the real and even historically reliable. “The Bear in the Voivodship”: among the characters - animals, the image of Magnitsky, a famous reactionary in Russian history, suddenly appears: even before Toptygin appeared in the forest, all printing houses were destroyed by Magnitsky, students were given into soldiers, academicians were imprisoned. In the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner" the hero gradually degrades, turning into an animal. The incredible story of the hero is largely due to the fact that he read the Vesti newspaper and followed its advice. Saltykov-Shchedrin simultaneously respects the form of a folk tale and destroys it. The magic in the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin is explained by the real, the reader cannot escape reality, which is constantly felt behind the images of animals, fantastic events. Fairy-tale forms allowed Saltykov-Shchedrin to present ideas close to him in a new way, to show or ridicule social shortcomings.

The theme of the tale is connected with the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya, when many representatives of the intelligentsia, frightened, withdrew from public affairs. A type of coward is created, miserable, unhappy. These people did no harm to anyone, but lived their lives aimlessly, without impulses. This tale is about the civil position of a person and about the meaning of human life. In general, the author appears in a fairy tale in two faces at once: a folk narrator, a simpleton joker and at the same time a person wise by life experience, a writer-thinker, a citizen. In the description of the life of the animal kingdom, with its inherent details, details of the real life of people are interspersed. The language of the fairy tale combines fabulous words and phrases, the spoken language of the third estate and the journalistic language of that time.