All genres of folklore. Large folklore genres, their features

Folklore. Genres of folklore

Folklore(from English folk- people, lore- wisdom) - oral folk art. Folklore arose before the advent of writing. Its most important feature is that folklore is the art of the spoken word. This is what distinguishes it from literature and other forms of art. Another important distinguishing feature of folklore is the collective nature of creativity. It arose as mass creativity and expressed the ideas of a primitive community and clan, and not of an individual.

In folklore, as in literature, there are three types of works: epic, lyrical and dramatic. At the same time, epic genres have poetic and prose forms (in literature epic kind represented only by prose works: short story, novella, novel, etc.). Literary genres and folklore genres differ in composition. In Russian folklore epic genres include epics, historical songs, fairy tales, traditions, legends, tales, proverbs, sayings. Lyrical folklore genres include ritual songs, lullabies, family and love songs, lamentations, and ditties. Dramatic genres include folk dramas. Many folklore genres have entered literature: song, fairy tale, legend (for example, Pushkin's fairy tales, Koltsov's songs, Gorky's legends).

Genres of folklore each have their own content: epics depict the military feats of heroes, historical songs - events and heroes of the past, family songs describe the everyday side of life. Each genre has its own heroes: in epics there are heroes Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, in fairy tales - Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Baba Yaga, in family songs - wife, husband, mother-in-law.

Folklore also differs from literature in its special system of expressive means. For example, for composition (construction) folklore works characterized by the presence of such elements as the lead, the beginning, the saying, slowing down the action (retardation), the trinity of events; for style - constant epithets, tautologies (repetitions), parallelisms, hyperboles (exaggerations), etc.

The folklore of different nations has much in common in genres, artistic means, plots, types of heroes, etc. This is explained by the fact that folklore as a type of folk art reflects general patterns social development peoples General Features in the folklore of different peoples can arise due to the proximity of culture and life or long-term economic, political and cultural ties. The similarity of historical development, geographical proximity, movements of peoples, etc. also play a big role.

Folklore, translated from English, means " folk wisdom, folk knowledge.” was first introduced by the English scientist W.J. Toms in 1846. At first, this term covered the entire spiritual (beliefs, dances, music, wood carving, etc.), and sometimes the material (housing, clothing) culture of the people. Since the beginning of the 20th century. the term is also used in a narrower, more specific meaning: oral folk art.

Folklore is an art that has been formed over many centuries and changes over time.

Only all 3 of these factors, present AT THE SAME TIME, are a sign of folklore and distinguish it from literature.

Syncretism is the unity and indivisibility of various types of art, characteristic of the early stages of its development. Artistic creativity is not separated from other types of activity and, together with them, is directly included in practical life. Syncretism is an undeveloped state of early traditional folklore. The most ancient types of verbal art arose in the process of the formation of human speech in the Upper Paleolithic era. Verbal creativity in ancient times it was closely connected with human labor activity and reflected religious, mythical, historical ideas, as well as the beginnings of scientific knowledge. Ritual actions through which primitive sought to influence the forces of nature, fate, were accompanied by words: spells, conspiracies were pronounced, various requests or threats were addressed to the forces of nature. The art of words was closely connected with other types of primitive art - music, dance, decorative art. In science this is called “primitive syncretism.” Traces of it are still visible in folklore.

The Russian scientist A.N. Veselovsky believed that the origins of poetry are in folk ritual. Primitive poetry, according to his concept, was originally a choir song accompanied by dancing and pantomime. The role of the word at first was insignificant and entirely subordinated to rhythm and facial expressions. The text was improvised according to the performance until it acquired a traditional character.

As humanity accumulated more and more significant life experience that needed to be passed on to subsequent generations, the role of verbal information increased. The separation of verbal creativity into an independent art form is the most important step in the prehistory of folklore.

Types of folklore: Epic (legends, fairy tales, traditions, epics - genres) Lyric-epic genre (transitional) - romance

Lyrics (songs, ditties); Drama (folklore theater)

Types of folklore: Archaic - folklore develops among peoples at the primitive stage of development. There is no written language yet; culture is oral. The folklore of people with mythological thinking covers the entire culture of the ethnic group. Classical - folklore develops in the era when states are formed, writing and literature emerge. Here artistic fiction is formed, a genre system is formed. Modern - post-folklore, which developed in Russia after the abolition of serfdom. His element is the city. Epic songs, fairy tales and traditional lyrical songs are being replaced by songs of a new formation, ditties, and anecdotes.

Folklore (according to V.E. Gusev) – verbally – musically – choreographically – dramatic part folk art(spiritual component folk culture) – not material art. Materially expressed (DPI) – folk art.

Folklore is a syncretic and synthetic art, because combines various types of arts.

Signs of folklore: Orality (not only the form of dissemination, but the form in which it has the greatest aesthetic impact); Impersonality (the work has an author, but is not identified); Collectivity (as an aesthetic category. The quality of the project accepted by the team corresponds to folk tradition. Collectivity = tradition + improvisation); Traditionality (works are inserted on the basis of traditions); Variability (different options in different territories); Improvisation; Nationality (aesthetic category, expression of ideals, interests, aspirations of the people).

Tradition is stable patterns, artistic techniques and means used by a community of people for many generations and passed on from generation to generation. Tradition is understood as the most general principles of creativity, and in folklore - a set of stable plot forms, types, heroes, and poetic forms.

Folklore genres:

The folklore genre is a set of works united by a common poetic system, everyday use, forms of performance and musical structure. (V.Ya. Propp) Genre is a unit of classification of folklore

Ph-r is divided into genera (epic, lyric, drama), genera - into types (eg, songs, fairy tales, etc.), and types into genres. If the method of existence of works is used as the basis for the classification, then the genre will be divided into ritual and non-ritual.

The epic reproduces reality in narrative form in the form of objective pictures. Divided into: Songs (poems)

Epics; historical songs; ballads; spiritual poems; Prose; Fairytale prose; Animal Tales; Fairy tales; Jokes

Novels; Non-fairy prose; Legends; Legends; Bylichki (demonological stories).

In epic folklore genres, the main artistic feature is the plot. It is built on a conflict, which is based on the hero's clash with supernatural or real opponents. The plot can be both simple and complex, the events can be perceived as both real and fictional, and the content can be related to the past, present and future.

Lyrics - lyrics poetically depict the inner, mental state of a person, his subjective experiences

Songs of Ditties; Lamentations; Dramatic genres of folklore have a spectacular and playful nature, and convey an attitude to reality in play action; Ritual games; Dramatic games; Late theatrical genres; Theater of live actors; Puppet show; Rayok;

According to the method of existence of works, folklore is divided into: Ritual; Ritual calendar; Ritual family; Non-ritual.

In addition, there are small genres of folklore: paremias; Proverbs and sayings; Puzzles

And also such types as children's folklore (lullabies, teasers, horror stories, chants, etc., folklore of workers (songs, ditties, prose), folklore of the Second World War (ditties, f-r of the front, rear, hijacked into occupation, Victory and .etc.)

Each folklore genre has its own circle of heroes, its own plots and stylistic devices, however, all folklore genres in their natural existence are interconnected and form a system. In this system, outdated f.zh. are destroyed. and on their basis new ones are born.

Folklore researchers: V.N. Tatishchev (18th century), Slavophiles P.V. Kirievsky, N.M. Yazykov, V.I. Dahl et al.; 1850-60s: F.I. Buslaev, A.N. Afanasyev, A.N. Veselovsky, V.F. Miller; beginning of the Soviet era: B.M. and Yu.M. Sokolovs, D.K. Zelenin, M.K. Azadovsky, N.P. Andreev. Second floor. 20 in: V.I. Chicherov, V.Ya. Propp, N.N. Veletskaya, V.K. Sokolova, L.N. Vinogradova, I.E. Karpukhin, V.P. Anikin, E.V. Pomerantseva, E.M. Meletinsky, V.A. Bakhtin, V.E. Gusev, A.F. Nekrylova, B.N. Putilov, etc.

Folklore, by its nature, content and purpose, is a deeply democratic, truly folk art. He is distinguished not only by his ideological depth, but also by his high artistic qualities. Folk poetry is distinguished by a unique artistic system visual arts and genres.

What are genres of Russian folklore?

One of the types of ancient creativity was labor songs with their simplest commands, shouts, signals given as work progresses.

Calendar folklore originally came from the urgent practical goals of people. It was associated with ideas about the annual agricultural cycle and variable natural conditions. People sought to know the future, so they resorted to fortune telling and talked about the future based on signs.

This also explained wedding folklore. It is permeated with the thought of the safety of the family and clan, and is designed for the favor of the highest patrons.

Individual elements have also been preserved from antiquity children's folklore, which changed later under the influence of aesthetic and pedagogical functions.

Among the oldest genres - funeral lamentations. With the advent of universal military duty There was a lament for those being drafted into service - recruiting laments.

Genres non-ritual folklore also developed under the influence of syncretism. It includes small folklore genres ( proverbs): proverbs, fables, signs and sayings. They contained human judgments about the way of life, about work, about higher natural forces, and statements about human affairs. “This is a vast area of ​​moral assessments and judgments, how to live, how to raise children, how to honor ancestors, thoughts about the need to follow precepts and examples, this life rules behavior... In a word, the functionality of proverbs covers almost all ideological areas." 9

Genres of oral prose include legends, tales, tales, legends. These are stories and incidents from life that tell about a person’s meeting with characters of Russian demonology - sorcerers, witches, mermaids, etc. This also includes stories about saints, shrines and miracles - about the communication of a person who has accepted the Christian faith with forces of a higher order .

Genres song epic: epics, historical songs, military songs, spiritual songs and poems.

Gradually, folklore moves away from everyday functions and acquires elements of artistry. The role of the artistic principle in it increases. As a result of historical evolution, folklore became poetic in its main and fundamental qualities, having reworked the traditions of all previous states of folklore. 10

Artistic creativity is embodied in all forms fairy tales: tales about animals, magic, everyday.

This type of creativity is also represented in riddles.

The earliest types of artistic creativity include ballads.

Lyrical songs also have an artistic function. They are performed outside of rituals. The content and form of lyrical songs are associated with the expression of the experiences and feelings of the performers.

Towards the artistic song folklore the newest formation, modern researchers include romances And ditties.

Children's folklore has its own system of genres, correlated with the age characteristics of children. It has artistic and pedagogical functions. It is dominated by gaming principles.

Artistic entertainment theatrical basis contains folklore spectacles and folklore theater . It is presented in a wide variety of genres and types ( games, dressing up, nativity scene, playgrounds, puppet shows, etc.).

A separate type of artistic representation is formed by the so-called fair folklore. It arose from fair performances, shouts of traders, farce barkers, joke speech, jokes and folk jokes.

At the junction of the combination of long-standing traditions of folklore and the trends of a new culture, the genre has developed joke.

A detailed account of individual folklore genres will be made in subsequent sections of the manual.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Modern literature has its beginning and one of its forerunners was the folklore genre.

Even before the invention of printing, works of folk art were passed on by word of mouth.

Let's take a look today at what folklore is in the modern sense, what functions it performs, who studies it and how, by what features folklore works can be distinguished and, of course, let's look at examples of such works in Russian creativity.

Folklore is our genetics

The term “folklore” (from the English folk-lore “folk wisdom”) appeared in Europe at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. In Russia it began to be actively used in the 30s of the 19th century.

He generalized ideas about literary and musical works (songs, dances) created by a group of unknown authors from the people over several tens (or hundreds) of years in the distant historical past.

Until the twentieth century, folklore also called works of decorative, applied and architectural creativity.

Simply put, folklore is oral folk art. Currently, the concept is actively used in the musical and literary sense.

We are interested in the latter, and it is important to note that it is the first source of occurrence fiction. Its second source - spiritual literature, created in such cultural centers as monasteries - influenced the people's worldview with a cementing moral principle.

Folklore opened the floodgates of everyday colloquial speech, the sources of verbal imagery and fairy-tale fantasy.

Genres of folklore

Works of oral folk art are usually divided into three varieties:

1. Lyrical;
2. Epic;
3. Dramatic.

As in fiction, epics are represented by traditional genres for each genre. Lyrical songs reveal hidden themes folk life.

The following types are distinguished:

1. historical;
2. love;
3. wedding;
4. funeral;
5. labor;
6. road (drivers);
7. robbers;
8. comic.

Epic genres- , fairy tale, fairy tale, true story, fable, bylichka, byvalshchina.

Small genres folklore - proverb, saying, tongue twister, riddle, joke - also elements of the epic.

To present folklore dramatic works, you need to see the folk fair theater "rajek". The texts for him were written in a special verse - raeshnik. Christmas mysteries, farcical comedies, cartoons, everyday sketches - all this is folk drama.

Features of folklore works

Having carefully read the definition, we can identify several important features of folklore:

it's our genetics. If a people disappears from the face of the Earth, its culture can be “pieced together” with the help of fairy tales, legends, proverbs, and songs.

Russian folklore

Works of Russian literary folklore are studied from the first stages schools. These are Russian folk tales, proverbs, riddles. Older children get acquainted with epics about Russian heroes.

In high school schools study folklore sources of works classical literature: stories and poems by A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol. Without knowing folk stories and characters, which in a sense have become the ABC of national imagery, it is impossible to fully understand the diverse world of Russian culture.

Many people think that apart from “Chicken Ryaba”, “Kolobok” and “Turnip” the Russian people have nothing to tell. This is wrong. Open a collection of fairy tales - exciting reading is guaranteed!

In a moment of lyrical melancholy, leaf through a collection of folk songs, or better yet, listen to them with musical accompaniment. What is sung about in them concerns everyone, touches the most secret strings, causes both smiles and tears. This is our sounding life, our knowing that everything in the world is repeatable.

What is the meaning of folklore works

Folk art is always functional, it does not appear out of nowhere and always has a clear goal. Scientists suggest share works of folklore for the following types:

1. Ritual;
2. Non-ritual.

The first type describes the repetition of ritual actions and life events that are significant for many generations. Ritual folklore is divided into family and calendar. The first concerns the milestones of family life: matchmaking and weddings, the birth of children, the death of relatives. It is widely represented by wedding and funeral songs, lamentations, and incantations.

Worth it separately children's folklore with his lullabies, nursery rhymes, petes.

Non-ritual folklore is associated with the calendar circle of peasant life: the change of seasons and economic activity hard worker-farmer. Each event of the cycle is accompanied by special songs: carols, chants, smells, etc.

Non-ritual genres include epics, fairy tales, ditties, riddles, proverbs, and sayings.

Studying folklore

You see how important folklore is! That is why it was necessary to create a separate scientific discipline to study it. It's called folkloristics. Along with ethnography, this science explores the life of ordinary people.

Ethnographers are engaged in describing dwellings, clothing, dishes, food, rituals, discovering objects of material culture, and folklorists do the same when studying artistic expression.

Their goal is to trace how types and genres of artistic creativity changed, how new subjects and motifs appeared, what social and psychological phenomena reflected in certain works.

Outstanding domestic scientists I. M. Snegirev, I. P. Sakharov, F. I. Buslavev, A. N. Veselovsky, P. N. Rybnikov, V. Ya. Propp and many others became the first collectors of folklore works.

Under their editorship, collections of proverbs and tales were published, recorded by them on expeditions around the country. By obtaining ancient examples of folk art, folklorists give readers a rich world of our sounding past.

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Folklore as a special type of art is a qualitatively unique component of fiction. It integrates the culture of a society of a certain ethnicity at a special stage in the historical development of society.

Folklore is ambiguous: it reveals both boundless folk wisdom and folk conservatism and inertia. In any case, folklore embodies the highest spiritual powers of the people and reflects elements of national artistic consciousness.

The term “folklore” itself (from the English word folklore - folk wisdom) is a common name for folk art in international scientific terminology. The term was first coined in 1846 by the English archaeologist W. J. Thomson. It was first adopted as an official scientific concept by the English Folklore Society, founded in 1878. In the years 1800-1990, the term came into scientific use in many countries of the world.

Folklore (English folklore - “folk wisdom”) - folk art, most often oral; artistic collective creative activity of the people, reflecting their life, views, ideals; poetry created by the people and existing among the masses (legends, songs, ditties, anecdotes, fairy tales, epics), folk music(songs, instrumental tunes and plays), theater (dramas, satirical plays, puppet theatre), dance, architecture, fine and decorative arts.

Folklore is creativity for which no material is required and where the means of embodiment artistic design is the man himself. Folklore has a clearly expressed didactic orientation. Much of it was created specifically for children and was dictated by the great national concern for young people - their future. “Folklore” serves the child from his very birth.

Folk poetry reveals the most essential connections and patterns of life, leaving aside the individual and special. Folklore gives them the most important and simple concepts about life and people. It reflects what is generally interesting and vital, what affects everyone: human work, his relationship with nature, life in a team.

The importance of folklore as an important part in education and development in the modern world is well known and generally accepted. Folklore always responds sensitively to people's needs, being a reflection of the collective mind and accumulated life experience.

Main features and properties of folklore:

1. Bifunctionality. Each folklore work is an organic part of human life and is determined by practical purpose. It is focused on a specific moment in people's life. For example, a lullaby - it is sung to calm and put a child to sleep. When the child falls asleep, the song stops - it is no longer necessary. This is how the aesthetic, spiritual and practical function of a lullaby is manifested. Everything is interconnected in a work; beauty cannot be separated from benefit, benefit from beauty.

2. Polyelement. Folklore is multi-elemental, since its internal diversity and numerous relationships of an artistic, cultural-historical and socio-cultural nature are obvious.

Not every folklore work includes all artistic and figurative elements. There are also genres in which there is a minimum number of them. The performance of a folklore work is the integrity of the creative act. Among the many artistic and figurative elements of folklore, the main ones are verbal, musical, dance and facial expressions. Polyelementity manifests itself during an event, for example, “Burn, burn clearly so that it doesn’t go out!” or when studying a round dance - the game “Boyars”, where movements take place row by row. In this game all the main artistic and figurative elements interact. Verbal and musical are manifested in the musical and poetic genre of the song, performed simultaneously with choreographic movement (dance element). This reveals the polyelement nature of folklore, its original synthesis, called syncretism. Syncretism characterizes the relationship, integrity of the internal components and properties of folklore.

3.Collectivity. Absence of author. Collectivity is manifested both in the process of creating a work and in the nature of the content, which always objectively reflects the psychology of many people. Asking who composed a folk song is like asking who composed the language we speak. Collectivity is determined in the performance of folklore works. Some components of their forms, for example, the chorus, require the mandatory inclusion of all participants in the action in the performance.

4. Illiteracy. The orality of the transmission of folklore material is manifested in the unwritten forms of transmission of folklore information. Artistic images and skills are transferred from the performer, the artist, to the listener and viewer, from the master to the student. Folklore is oral creativity. It lives only in the memory of people and is transmitted in live performance “from mouth to mouth.” Artistic images and skills are transferred from the performer, the artist, to the listener and viewer, from the master to the student.

5.Traditionality. The variety of creative manifestations in folklore only outwardly seems spontaneous. Over the course of a long time, objective ideals of creativity were formed. These ideals became practical and aesthetic standards, deviations from which would be inappropriate.

6.Variability. Variation network is one of the stimuli of constant movement, the “breathing” of a folklore work, and each folklore work is always like a version of itself. The folklore text turns out to be unfinished, open to each subsequent performer. For example, in the round dance game “Boyars”, children move “row by row”, and the step may be different. In some places this is a regular step with an accent on the last syllable of the line, in others it is a step with a stamp on the last two syllables, in others it is a variable step. It is important to convey the idea that in a folklore work creation - performance and performance - creation coexist. Variability can be thought of as changeability works of art, their uniqueness during performance or other form of reproduction. Each author or performer complemented traditional images or works with his own reading or vision.

7. Improvisation is a feature of folklore creativity. Each new performance of the work is enriched with new elements (textual, methodological, rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic). Which the performer brings. Any performer constantly contributes to famous work own material, which contributes to the constant development and change of the work, during which the standard artistic image crystallizes. Thus, the folklore performance becomes the result of many years of collective creativity.

In modern literature, a broad interpretation of folklore as a set of folk traditions, customs, views, beliefs, and arts is widespread.

In particular, the famous folklorist V.E. Gusev in his book “Aesthetics of Folklore” examines this concept as an artistic reflection of reality, carried out in verbal, musical, choreographic and dramatic forms of collective folk art, expressing the worldview of the working masses and inextricably linked with life and everyday life. Folklore is a complex, synthetic art. His works often combine elements various types arts - verbal, musical, theatrical. It is studied by various sciences - history, psychology, sociology, ethnography. It is closely connected with folk life and rituals. It is no coincidence that the first Russian scientists approached folklore broadly, recording not only works of verbal art, but also recording various ethnographic details and the realities of peasant life.

The main aspects of the content of folk culture include: the worldview of the people, folk experience, housing, costume, labor activity, leisure, crafts, family relationships, folk holidays and rituals, knowledge and skills, artistic creativity. It should be noted that, like any other social phenomenon, folk culture has specific features, among which we should highlight: an inextricable connection with nature, with the environment; openness, the educational nature of Russian folk culture, the ability to contact the culture of other peoples, dialogicality, originality, integrity, situationality, the presence of a targeted emotional charge, preservation of elements of pagan and Orthodox culture.

Traditions and folklore are a wealth developed by generations and transmitted in an emotional and figurative form historical experience, cultural heritage. In the cultural and creative conscious activity of the broad masses, folk traditions, folklore and artistic modernity merge into a single channel.

The main functions of folklore include religious - mythological, ceremonial, ritual, artistic - aesthetic, pedagogical, communicative - informational, social - psychological.

Folklore is very diverse. There is traditional, modern, peasant and urban folklore.

Traditional folklore is those forms and mechanisms of artistic culture that are preserved, recorded and passed on from generation to generation. They capture the universal aesthetic values, which retain their significance outside of specific historical social changes.

Traditional folklore is divided into two groups – ritual and non-ritual.

Ritual folklore includes:

· calendar folklore (carols, Maslenitsa songs, freckles);

· family folklore (wedding, maternity, funeral rites, lullabies, etc.),

· occasional folklore (spells, chants, spells).

Non-ritual folklore is divided into four groups:

· folklore of speech situations (proverbs, sayings, riddles, teasers, nicknames, curses);

Poetry (ditties, songs);

· folklore drama (Petrushka Theater, nativity scene drama);

· prose.

Folklore poetry includes: epic, historical song, spiritual verse, lyric song, ballad, cruel romance, ditty, children's poetic songs (poetic parodies), sadistic rhymes. Folklore prose is again divided into two groups: fairy-tale and non-fairytale. Fairy-tale prose includes: a fairy tale (which, in turn, comes in four types: a fairy tale, a fairy tale about animals, an everyday tale, a cumulative fairy tale) and an anecdote. Non-fairy tale prose includes: tradition, legend, tale, mythological story, story about a dream. The folklore of speech situations includes: proverbs, sayings, well wishes, curses, nicknames, teasers, dialogue graffiti, riddles, tongue twisters and some others. There are also written forms of folklore, such as chain letters, graffiti, albums (for example, songbooks).

Ritual folklore- These are folklore genres performed as part of various rituals. Most successfully, in my opinion, the definition of the ritual was given by D.M. Ugrinovich: “Rite is a certain way of transmitting certain ideas, norms of behavior, values ​​and feelings to new generations. The ritual is distinguished from other methods of such transmission by its symbolic nature. This is its specificity. Ritual actions always act as symbols that embody certain social ideas, perceptions, images and evoke corresponding feelings.” Works of calendar folklore are dedicated to annual folk holidays that were of an agricultural nature.

Calendar rituals accompanied by special songs: carols, Maslenitsa songs, vesnyankas, Semitic songs, etc.

Vesnyanka (spring calls) are ritual songs of an incantatory nature that accompany the Slavic ritual of calling out spring.

Carols are New Year's songs. They were performed during Christmas time (from December 24 to January 6), when caroling was going on. Caroling - walking around the yards singing carols. For these songs, carolers were rewarded with gifts - a festive treat. The main meaning of the carol is glorification. Carolers give an ideal description of the house of the person being celebrated. It turns out that before us is not an ordinary peasant hut, but a tower, around which “stands an iron tyn”, “on each stamen there is a crown”, and on each crown “a golden crown”. The people living in it are a match for this tower. Pictures of wealth are not reality, but a wish: carols perform, to some extent, the functions of a magic spell.

Maslenitsa is a folk holiday cycle that has been preserved by the Slavs since pagan times. The ritual is associated with seeing off winter and welcoming spring, lasting a whole week. The celebration was carried out according to a strict schedule, which was reflected in the name of the days of Maslenitsa week: Monday - “meeting”, Tuesday - “flirt”, Wednesday - “gourmet”, Thursday - “revelry”, Friday - “mother-in-law’s evening”, Saturday - “mother-in-law’s gatherings” ", resurrection - "seeing off", the end of Maslenitsa fun.

Few Maslenitsa songs have arrived. According to theme and purpose, they are divided into two groups: one is associated with the rite of meeting, the other with the rite of seeing off (“funeral”) Maslenitsa. The songs of the first group are distinguished by a major, cheerful character. This is, first of all, a majestic song in honor of Maslenitsa. The songs accompanying the farewell to Maslenitsa are in a minor key. The “funeral” of Maslenitsa meant farewell to winter and a spell, welcoming the coming spring.

Family and household rituals predetermined by the cycle human life. They are divided into maternity, wedding, recruiting and funeral.

Maternity rites sought to protect the newborn from hostile mystical forces, and also assumed the well-being of the baby in life. A ritual bath of the newborn was performed, and health was charmed with various sentences.

Wedding ceremony. It is a kind of folk performance, where all the roles are written and there are even directors - a matchmaker or a matchmaker. The particular scale and significance of this ritual should show the significance of the event, play out the meaning of the ongoing change in a person’s life.

The ritual educates the behavior of the bride in her future married life and educates all participants in the ritual. It shows the patriarchal nature of family life, its way of life.

Funeral rites. During the funeral, various rituals were performed, which were accompanied by special funeral lamentations. Funeral lamentations truthfully reflected the life, everyday consciousness of the peasant, love for the deceased and fear of the future, tragic situation families in harsh conditions.

Occasional folklore (from the Latin occasionalis - random) - does not correspond to generally accepted use, and is of an individual nature.

A type of occasional folklore are conspiracies.

CONSPIRACIES - a folk-poetic incantatory verbal formula to which magical power is attributed.

CALLS - an appeal to the sun and other natural phenomena, as well as to animals and especially often to birds, which were considered the harbingers of spring. Moreover, the forces of nature were revered as living: they make requests for spring, wish for its speedy arrival, and complain about winter.

COUNTERS are a type of children's creativity, small poetic texts with a clear rhyme-rhythm structure in a humorous form.

The genres of non-ritual folklore developed under the influence of syncretism.

It includes folklore of speech situations: proverbs, fables, signs and sayings. They contain a person’s judgments about the way of life, about work, about higher natural forces, and statements about human affairs. This is a vast area of ​​moral assessments and judgments, how to live, how to raise children, how to honor ancestors, thoughts about the need to follow precepts and examples, these are everyday rules of behavior. In a word, their functionality covers almost all worldview areas.

RIDDLE - works with hidden meaning. They contain rich invention, wit, poetry, and a figurative structure of colloquial speech. The people themselves aptly defined the riddle: “Without a face in a mask.” The object that is hidden, the “face,” is hidden under a “mask” - an allegory or allusion, a roundabout speech, a circumlocution. Whatever riddles you can come up with to test your attention, ingenuity, and intelligence. Some consist of simple question, others are similar to puzzles. Riddles are easily solved by those who have a good idea of ​​the objects and phenomena they are talking about. we're talking about, and also knows how to unravel the hidden meaning in words. If a child looks at the world with attentive, watchful eyes, noticing its beauty and wealth, then every tricky question and any allegory in the riddle will be solved.

PROVERB - as a genre, unlike a riddle, is not an allegory. In it, a specific action or deed is given an expanded meaning. According to its form folk riddles are adjacent to proverbs: the same measured, coherent speech, the same frequent use rhymes and consonances of words. But a proverb and a riddle differ in that a riddle needs to be guessed, and a proverb is a teaching.

Unlike a proverb, a PROVERB is not a complete judgment. This is a figurative expression used in an expanded sense.

Sayings, like proverbs, remain living folklore genres: they are constantly found in our everyday speech. The proverbs contain a capacious humorous definition of the inhabitants of a locality, city, living nearby or somewhere far away.

Folk poetry- this is an epic, a historical song, a spiritual verse, a lyrical song, a ballad, a cruel romance, a ditty, and children's poetic songs.

EPIC is a folk epic song, a genre characteristic of the Russian tradition. Such epics are known as “Sadko”, “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber”, “Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich” and others. The term “epic” was introduced into scientific use in the 40s of the 19th century. folklorist I.P. Sakharov. The basis of the plot of the epic is some heroic event, or a remarkable episode of Russian history (hence popular name epics - “old man”, “old woman”, implying that the action in question took place in the past).

FOLK SONGS are very diverse in composition. In addition to songs that are part of the calendar, wedding and funeral rites. These are round dances. Game and dance songs. A large group of songs are lyrical non-ritual songs (love, family, Cossack, soldier, coachman, bandit and others).

A special genre of song creativity is historical songs. These songs talk about famous events Russian history. The heroes of historical songs are real personalities.

Round dance songs, like ritual songs, had magical meaning. Round dance and game songs depicted scenes from wedding ceremonies and family life.

LYRICAL SONGS are folk songs that express the personal feelings and moods of the singers. Lyrical songs are unique both in content and in artistic form. Their originality is determined by their genre nature and specific conditions of origin and development. Here we are dealing with a lyrical kind of poetry, different from epic in the principles of reflecting reality. ON THE. Dobrolyubov wrote that folk lyrical songs “express an inner feeling excited by phenomena ordinary life", and N.A. Radishchev saw in them a reflection of the people's soul, spiritual sorrow.

Lyrical songs are a vivid example of the artistic creativity of the people. They contributed to national culture special artistic language and samples high poetry, reflected the spiritual beauty, ideals and aspirations of the people, the moral foundations of peasant life.

CHASTUSHKI – one of the youngest folklore genres. These are small poetic texts of rhymed verses. The first ditties were excerpts from songs big size. Chatushka is a comic genre. It contains a sharp thought, an apt observation. The topics are very diverse. The ditties often ridiculed what seemed wild, absurd, and disgusting.

CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE is usually called both works performed by adults for children and those composed by the children themselves. Children's folklore includes lullabies, pesters, nursery rhymes, tongue twisters and chants, teasers, counting rhymes, nonsense, etc. Modern children's folklore has been enriched with new genres. These are horror stories, mischievous poems and songs (funny adaptations famous songs and poems), jokes.

Exist different connections folklore and literature. First of all, literature traces its origins to folklore. The main genres of dramaturgy that have developed in Ancient Greece, - tragedies and comedies - go back to religious rituals. Medieval chivalric novels, telling about travels through imaginary lands, about fights with monsters and about the love of brave warriors, are based on the motifs of fairy tales. Literary lyrical works originate from folk lyrical songs. The genre of small action-packed narratives - short stories - goes back to folk tales.

Very often writers deliberately turned to folklore traditions. Interest in oral folk art and passion for folklore awoke in the pre-romantic and romantic eras.

The tales of A.S. Pushkin go back to the plots of Russian fairy tales. Imitation of Russian folk historical songs- “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich...” by M.Yu. Lermontov. N.A. Nekrasov recreated the stylistic features of folk songs in his poems about the difficult lot of peasants.

Folklore not only influences literature, but also experiences the opposite influence. Many original poems became folk songs. The most famous example is the poem by I.Z. Surikov “Steppe and steppe all around..”

Folklore drama. These include: Parsley Theater, religious drama, nativity scene drama.

VERTEP DRAMA got its name from the nativity scene - a portable puppet theater in the shape of a two-story wooden box, whose architecture resembles a stage for performing medieval mysteries. In turn, the name, which came from the plot of the main play, in which the action developed in a cave - nativity scene. This type of theater was widespread in Western Europe, and he came to Russia with traveling puppeteers from Ukraine and Belarus. The repertoire consisted of plays with religious themes and satirical scenes - interludes that were improvisational in nature. The most popular play is "King Herod".

THEATER OF PETRUSHKA – glove puppet show. The main character of the play is the cheerful Petrushka with big nose, with a protruding chin, with a cap on his head, with the participation of which a number of scenes are played out with various characters. The number of characters reached fifty, these are characters such as a soldier, a gentleman, a gypsy, a bride, a doctor and others. Such performances used techniques of folk comic speech, lively dialogues with play on words and contrasts, with elements of self-praise, using action and gestures.

The Petrushki Theater was created not only under the influence of Russian, Slavic, and Western European puppet traditions. He was a kind of folk theatrical culture, part of the extremely developed (spectacular folklore) in Russia. Therefore, it has a lot in common with folk drama, with the performances of farcical barkers, with the verdicts of groomsmen at a wedding, with funny popular prints, with jokes from raeshniks, etc.

The special atmosphere of the city's festive square explains, for example, Petrushka's familiarity, his unbridled gaiety and indiscriminateness in the object of ridicule and shame. After all, Petrushka beats not only class enemies, but everyone in a row - from his own fiancée to the policeman, often beats him for nothing (a blackamoor, an old beggar woman, a German clown, etc.), in the end he gets hit too: the dog mercilessly tugs at his nose. The puppeteer, like other participants in the fair, square fun, is attracted by the very opportunity to ridicule, parody, beat, and the more, louder, more unexpected, sharper, the better. Elements social protest, satires were very successfully and naturally superimposed on this ancient basis of laughter.

Like all folklore entertainments, “Petrushka” is filled with obscenities and curses. Original meaning These elements have been studied quite fully, and how deeply they penetrated into the folk culture of laughter and what place swearing, verbal obscenity and demeaning, cynical gestures occupied in it, is fully shown by M.M. Bakhtin.

Performances were shown several times a day in different conditions (at fairs, in front of booths, on city streets, in the suburbs). "Walking" Parsley was the most common use of the doll.

For the mobile folk theater, a light screen, dolls, miniature backstage and a curtain were specially made. Petrushka ran around the stage, his gestures and movements creating the appearance of a living person.

The comic effect of the episodes was achieved using techniques characteristic of folk culture of laughter: fights, beatings, obscenities, the imaginary deafness of a partner, funny movements and gestures, mimicking, funny funerals, etc.

There are conflicting opinions about the reasons for the extraordinary popularity of the theater: topicality, satirical and social orientation, comic character, simple play that is understandable to all segments of the population, the charm of the main character, acting improvisation, freedom of choice of material, the sharp tongue of the puppet.

Parsley is a folk holiday joy.

Parsley is a manifestation of popular optimism, a mockery of the poor at the powerful and rich.

Folklore prose. It is divided into two groups: fairy tale (fairy tale, anecdote) and non-fairy tale (legend, tradition, tale).

FAIRY TALE is the most famous genre of folklore. This is a type of folklore prose, distinctive feature which is fiction. Plots, events and characters in fairy tales are fictitious. Modern reader folklore works reveals fiction in other genres of oral folk art. Folk storytellers and listeners believed in the truth of tales (the name comes from the word “byl” - “truth”); the word “epic” was invented by folklorists; Popular epics were called “old times.” Russian peasants who told and listened to epics, believing in their truth, believed that the events depicted in them took place a long time ago - in the time of mighty heroes and fire-breathing snakes. They did not believe fairy tales, knowing that they told about something that did not happen, does not happen and cannot be.

It is customary to distinguish four types of fairy tales: magical, everyday (otherwise known as novelistic), cumulative (otherwise known as “chain-like”) and fairy tales about animals.

MAGIC TALES differ from other fairy tales in their complex, detailed plot, which consists of a number of unchanging motifs that necessarily follow each other in a certain order. These are fantastic creatures (for example, Koschey the Immortal or Baba Yaga), and an animated, human-like character denoting winter (Morozko), and wonderful objects (a self-assembled tablecloth, walking boots, a flying carpet, etc.).

Fairy tales preserve the memory of ideas and rituals that existed in ancient times. They reflect ancient relationships between people in a family or clan.

EVERYDAY TALES tell about people, about their family life, about the relationship between the owner and the farmhand, the gentleman and the peasant, the peasant and the priest, the soldier and the priest. A commoner - a farm laborer, a peasant, a soldier returning from service - is always more savvy than a priest or landowner, from whom, thanks to cunning, he takes money, things, and sometimes his wife. Usually, the plots of everyday fairy tales are centered around some unexpected event, an unforeseen turning point that occurs thanks to the hero’s cunning.

Everyday tales are often satirical. They ridicule the greed and stupidity of those in power. They do not talk about wonderful things and travels to the distant kingdom, but talk about things from peasant everyday life. But everyday fairy tales are no more believable than magical ones. Therefore, the description of wild, immoral, terrible actions in everyday fairy tales does not cause disgust or indignation, but cheerful laughter. After all, this is not life, but a fable.

Everyday fairy tales are a much younger genre than other types of fairy tales. IN modern folklore The heir to this genre was the anecdote (from gr.anekdotos - “unpublished”

CUMULATIVE TALES built on repeated repetition of the same actions or events. In cumulative (from Lat. Cumulatio - accumulation) fairy tales, several plot principles are distinguished: accumulation of characters in order to achieve the necessary goal; a heap of actions ending in disaster; a chain of human or animal bodies; escalation of episodes, causing unjustified experiences of the characters.

The accumulation of heroes helping in some important action is obvious in the fairy tale “Turnip”.

Cumulative tales- a very ancient type of fairy tale. They have not been studied enough.

TALES ABOUT ANIMALS preserve the memory of ancient ideas, according to which people descended from animal ancestors. Animals in these fairy tales behave like people. Cunning and cunning animals deceive others - the gullible and the stupid, and this trickery is never condemned. The plots of fairy tales about animals are reminiscent of mythological stories about heroes - rogues and their tricks.

Non-fairy tale prose is stories and incidents from life that tell about a person’s meeting with characters of Russian demonology - sorcerers, witches, mermaids, etc. This also includes stories about saints, shrines and miracles - about the communication of a person who has accepted the Christian faith with forces of a higher order.

BYLICHKA is a folklore genre, a story about a miraculous event that supposedly happened in reality - mainly about a meeting with spirits, “evil spirits”.

LEGEND (from Latin legenda “reading”, “readable”) is one of the varieties of non-fairy tale prose folklore. A written legend about some historical events or personalities. Legend is an approximate synonym for the concept of myth; an epic story about what happened in time immemorial; the main characters of the story are usually the heroes in in every sense words, often gods and others are directly involved in events supernatural powers. Events in the legend are often exaggerated, and a lot of fiction is added. Therefore, scientists do not consider legends to be completely reliable historical evidence, without denying, however, that most legends are based on real events. IN figuratively legends refer to the events of the past, covered in glory and arousing admiration, depicted in fairy tales, stories, etc. As a rule, they contain additional religious or social pathos.

Legends contain memories of ancient events, an explanation of some phenomenon, name or custom.

The words of Odoevsky V.F. sound surprisingly relevant. remarkable Russian, thinker, musician: “We must not forget that from an unnatural life, that is, one where human needs are not satisfied, a painful state occurs... in the same way, idiocy can occur from inaction of thought..., a muscle is paralyzed from an abnormal state of the nerve, “In the same way, a lack of thinking distorts artistic feeling, and the lack of artistic feeling paralyzes thought.” In Odoevsky V.F. you can find thoughts about the aesthetic education of children based on folklore, consonant with what we would like to bring to life these days in the field children's education and education: “... in the field of human spiritual activity I will limit myself to the following remark: the soul expresses itself either through body movements, shapes, colors, or through a series of sounds that form singing or playing a musical instrument”