What are literary stories about? Literary tale. What are the folk traditions of a literary fairy tale manifested in

Gradually literary tale has become a full-fledged fiction. Today this genre is universal, it reflects the phenomena of the surrounding reality, its problems, achievements, successes and failures. At the same time, the connection with folklore remained the same, inextricable. So, let's try to figure out what a literary fairy tale is.

Definition

First, let's give a definition: a fairy tale is a folk poetic narrative work that tells about fictional events and heroes. Often involving fantastic and magical phenomena.

Now let's find out what a literary fairy tale is.

This is a genre of storytelling with a fantastic or magical plot that takes place in real or magical world in which both real ones can act, and the author can raise the moral, social, aesthetic problems of history and modernity.

The definitions are similar, but in the second, concerning a literary fairy tale, there is a certain concretization and clarification. They concern the types of characters and space, as well as the author and the problems of the work.

Features of a literary tale

Now we list the main features of a literary fairy tale:

  • Reflects the aesthetics and worldview of its era.
  • Borrowing characters, images, plots, features of language and poetics from a folk tale.
  • A combination of fiction and reality.
  • Grotesque world.
  • There is a game start.
  • The desire to psychologize the characters.
  • The position of the author is clearly expressed.
  • Social assessment of what is happening.

Folk and literary tale

What is a literary tale, how does it differ from a folk tale? The author's fairy tale is considered a genre that has absorbed folklore and literary principles. It grew out of folklore, transforming and changing its genre differences. We can say that the folk tale has evolved into a literary one.

A literary fairy tale goes through a series of stages as it moves away from the original source - a fairy tale. We list them in order of increasing distance:

  1. A simple record of folklore tales.
  2. Processing records of folk tales.
  3. Retelling of the story by the author.
  4. In the author's fairy tale, the internal form differs from the folk one, and folklore elements change depending on the writer's intention.
  5. Parodies and stylizations - their tasks are related to the pedagogical orientation.
  6. A literary fairy tale is as far as possible from common folklore plots and images. The speech and style of such a fairy tale is closer to the literary tradition.

What are the folk traditions of a literary fairy tale manifested in

What is a literary tale? This, as we have already said, is a combination of literary and folklore. Therefore, in order to answer the question, let us determine what the folk tale inherited from the literary tale.

Writers usually take folklore plots as a basis. For example:

  • the magical origin or birth of the protagonist;
  • a stepmother's dislike for her stepdaughter;
  • the trials of the hero are necessarily of a moral nature;
  • rescued animals that become the hero's helpers, etc.

Writers also exploit endowed with certain functions. For example:

  • The ideal hero.
  • Assistant of the ideal hero.
  • The one who sends the hero on his way.
  • The giver of a magical thing.
  • The one who harms perfect hero and interferes with the task.
  • A stolen character or thing.
  • A false hero is one who tries to appropriate other people's exploits.

The space and time of the fairy-tale world are often built according to the laws of folklore. It's a fantastic vague place, and time slows down and speeds up, it is also magical and does not succumb to the laws of reality. For example: faraway kingdom, faraway state; whether long or short; a fairy tale quickly affects, but the deed is not done soon.

Trying to bring their tales closer to folk tales, writers resort to the use of folklore poetic speech: epithets, triple repetitions, vernacular, proverbs, sayings, etc.

Turning to folk traditions, we were able to answer what a literary fairy tale is in its connection with folklore. Let us now consider another component of our fairy tale - the literary one, and try to understand what separates it from the folk heritage.

What is a literary fairy tale and how does it differ from a folk tale

Examples and comparisons of literary and folk tales allow us to highlight a number of their differences.

Literary tale is distinguished by its depiction. The author tries to describe in detail the area, events, to make the characters closer to reality, so that the reader believes in what is happening as much as possible.

Thus, what is a literary fairy tale, if not the psychologism of the characters? The writer tries to explore inner world character, portray experiences. So, Pushkin in "Tsar Saltan", depicting the meeting of the hero with his wife and son, describes: "Zealousness beat in him ... the spirit in him took up the tsar burst into tears." You don't see that in folklore.

Ershov, Pushkin, Odoevsky and other fairy tale writers endow their characters with a full-fledged character. These are not just heroes characteristic of folklore, they are full-fledged living people with their aspirations, experiences, contradictions. Even the devil in "The Tale of Balda" Pushkin endows with a naive childish character.

What else is a literary fairy tale different from

What is a literary tale? The answers to this question can be found in the specifics, namely, in vivid expression. In a fairy tale, it manifests itself through assessments, attitudes towards what is happening, from which it is easy to guess which of the characters the author sympathizes with and which he does not like or ridicule. So, describing the priest, his fears and natural greed, Pushkin makes fun of it.

A literary fairy tale will always reflect the author's view of the world, his idea of ​​life and ideas. We will see the writer, his aspirations, values, spiritual world, desires. In a folklore tale, only the ideals and values ​​of the whole people can be reflected, the identity of the narrator in it will be erased.

So, what is a literary fairy tale in its classical sense? This is a fusion of the author's identity and folk traditions.

The origins of the literary tale

The roots of the literary fairy tale go back to ancient times. There is a recorded Egyptian tale of two brothers dating back to the thirteenth century. BC e. The epic also contains references to fairy tales, for example, in the Babylonian cycle about Gilgamesh, among the Assyrians - in the legends about Ahikar, in Greek - these are the Iliad and the Odyssey.

During the Middle Ages, the church used a literary fairy tale, turning it into a parable. This tradition continued until the 19th century.

The Renaissance brought elements of fairy tales into the short story, using them to create satirical and didactic elements.

The emergence of the literary tale

But only in the XVIII century. the literary fairy tale became an independent artistic genre, largely due to the enthusiasm of romanticism for folk traditions. At this time, in order to answer the question of what a literary fairy tale is, examples would have to be taken from Charles Perrault and A. Gallan in Europe and from M. Chulkov in Russia.

In the 19th century the popularity of the literary fairy tale is growing. Goethe, Chamisso, Tieck, Edgar Poe, Hoffmann, Andersen turn to this genre. Russian literature of this period is also rich in fairy tales. These are V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, N. Gogol, A. Tolstoy and others.

Pushkin's Tales

What is a literary tale? The definition that we gave above is perfectly illustrated by the fairy tales of A.S. Pushkin. Initially, they were not designed for children, but quickly found themselves in a circle children's reading. The names of these fairy tales are known to us since childhood:

  • "The Tale of Tsar Saltan".
  • "The Tale of the Priest and his Worker Balda".
  • "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish".
  • "Tale of dead princess and about 7 heroes.
  • "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel".

All these tales have a plot connection with folk tales. So, "The Tale of Balda" resembles the folk tale "Labor Shabarsh". “About the fisherman and the fish” - “The greedy old woman”, the recording of which was presented to the poet by V. I. Dal, a well-known collector of folklore. "The Tale of Saltan" is close to the fairy tale "About wonderful children." Pushkin saw in folk art inexhaustible themes and plots for literature. Thus, the poet's tales, better than any definition, can answer the question of what a literary tale is.

Summary of "Tales of the priest and his worker Balda"

Consider one of Pushkin's fairy tales. The essence of this tale is a satire on church ministers who deceive the people. Human qualities are also ridiculed: stupidity, greed and hypocrisy. Out of greed, the priest decides to hire a servant for a penny who will do hard work. Stupidity forces him to agree to Balda's proposal. But as the reckoning approaches, deceit and anger wake up in the priest - he decides to destroy the worker.

In this tale, as in others, Pushkin creates psychologically perfect characters. Each author gives character and personality traits. And although the language is poetic, it is as close as possible to the folk. Pushkin always sought to move away from pretentious literary verse to something lighter, more flexible, and freer. All these qualities he managed to find in folk art.

Thus, a literary fairy tale has a rich history of development, is a unique fusion of folklore and author's work, and continues to develop to this day.

What literary fairy tales have you read and who are their authors?

Answer

P.P. Ershov. "The Little Humpbacked Horse".

V.F. Odoevsky. "Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants", "Moroz Ivanovich".

S.T. Aksakov. "The Scarlet Flower".

L.N. Tolstoy. "The Tale of Ivan the Fool and His Two Brothers: Semyon the Warrior and Taras the Belly, and the Mute Sister Malanya, and the Old Devil and the Three Little Devils."

V.M. Garshin. "Frog traveler".

D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak "Alyonushka's Tales".

M. Gorky. "About Ivanushka the Fool."

A.I. Tolstoy. "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio".

V.V. Bianchi. "Adventures of the Ants".

E.A. Perm. "How fire took water in marriage."

Very interesting is the tale of V.A. Zhukovsky "Three belts". It tells about the poor girl Lyudmila, whom the sorceress awarded for her kindness and modesty with a magic belt. When the young prince Svyatoslav drew attention to Lyudmila, the envious sisters offered her a rich outfit and took away the magic belt. The old sorceress took pity on the girl and returned the belt to her. Lyudmila became the wife of Svyatoslav.

The tale is similar to the folk tale in that in it two older sisters envy the younger one, happiness and the groom go to the younger one - modest and hardworking, as, for example, in the fairy tale "Havroshechka".

From the folk tale of Zhukovsky it differs in a special language, in which there are many literary words and expressions, and the fact that the author especially emphasizes main idea his fairy tale. Zhukovsky tells us that modesty is more important than vanity, that envy and pride are terrible monsters that poison the human soul, and happiness goes to the modest and kind.

Fairy tales are a very important genre in literature. It is from him that young children begin their acquaintance with the world of prose and poetry. But what do they mean, what is the history and specificity of author's fairy tales? Consider all this below, as well as a list of Russian literary fairy tales with their authors and features.

Definition

A fairy tale is a genre in literature, usually based on folklore. It can be both prosaic and poetic. However, this is mainly folklore prose, and each nation has its own fairy tales. The main difference for them is usually the presence of mythical creatures and / or fantasy, fantastic, magical elements.

But unlike folklore works, fairy tales always have an author. Often in them there is an obvious struggle between good and evil, bad and good. Usually there main character- "favorite" of the author and, as a result, the reader. And there is also an antihero - a mythical villain.

History

As mentioned above, fairy tales originate from folklore. However, not always, because they can be purely copyrighted. They appeared a long time ago in the form of folklore works, transmitted "by word of mouth". In Russia, for a long time, their own folk tales.

Some works can be attributed to very old fairy tales. For example, many folklore tales Ancient Russia and church parables of the Middle Ages, in many ways reminiscent of the genre we are considering.

Further, fairy tales began to appear in Europe in the usual sense for people: the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault and many others. But on the territory modern Russia earlier (and still) Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was very popular. In the 18th century, in general, many writers liked to take the basis from folklore and thus create new works.

In the 20th century, even more fairy tales appeared. Such great writers as Maxim Gorky, Alexei Tolstoy and others were known as the authors of this genre.

Specificity

Author's tales are also called literary. As already described above, they are distinguished from folklore works by the presence of an author. Of course, even very old folk tales had their creators, but the authors as such were lost, because for centuries the stories passed orally from one person to another, sometimes even significantly changing, since each person could interpret and retell differently, and so for a long time.

Another difference between an author's fairy tale and a folk tale is that it can be both in verse and in prose, while the second one can only be in prose (initially it was only oral). Also in folklore, the theme of the confrontation between good and evil is usually touched upon, while in literary works it's not obligatory.

Another difference is that folk tales have more superficially described characters, while in literary ones, on the contrary, each character is pronounced and individual. In folklore, there are still beginnings, sayings and peculiar turns of speech. They also tend to be even smaller than literary ones. This is all due to the fact that it was transmitted orally, so much was lost, and the size was shortened, because it was forgotten over the generations. But nevertheless, the tendency to different turns of speech, characteristic only of Russian fairy tales, has been preserved. For example, "once upon a time", the epithet "good fellow", and Pushkin: "in a distant kingdom, in a distant state", etc.

The most surprising thing is that there is no exact definition of the author's fairy tale as such. Yes, it came from folklore and has changed a lot, which helps in defining this term. Fantastic creatures have been preserved that change depending on the people. Fairy tales are usually small in size. They definitely have a twist. But you can always find some kind of morality, which is the main goal of the tale. This distinguishes it from fantasy, where the emphasis is not on morality, but on storytelling, which also differs in that it has more adventure, breathtaking events. Also fantasy works and epics are long in size. And the world described in them usually does not have a folklore basis under itself. It is often the fiction of an author who has completely created his own reality. In fairy tales, on the contrary, there is fiction, but it is within the framework of the real world.

Kinds

Many researchers divide literary fairy tales into several categories. E. V. Pomerantseva, for example, divides them into 4 genres:

  • adventurous novelistic;
  • household;
  • about animals;
  • magical.

And here is another Russian folklorist V. Ya. Propp divides fairy tales into more categories:

  1. About inanimate nature, animals, plants, objects. Everything is simple here: fairy tales about this tell, respectively, about animals or inanimate nature as the main element. An interesting fact here is that such works are rarely Russian or European. But such tales are often found among the peoples of Africa, North America.
  2. Cumulative tales designate such works where repeated plot replay until the denouement reaches its climax. This makes it easier for children to understand. A striking example is the stories about the turnip and the bun.
  3. The everyday (short story) genre tells about different people by their characters. For example, a fairy tale about an evil deceiver or about a stupid person.
  4. Boring fairy tales are designed to lull children to sleep. They are very short and simple. (For example, a fairy tale about a white bull).
  5. Fables about what could not be in reality. It is worth noting that all fairy tales have a share of fiction, but fiction is the most fiction: talking animals, humanized bears (they live like people, communicate, etc.). As a rule, all subspecies intersect with each other. It is rare that a work belongs to only one of them.

In Russian fairy tales, heroic, soldierly offshoots are still distinguished.

The most interesting thing is that fairy tales as a genre are studied very seriously. In Europe, A. Aarne wrote the so-called "Index of fairy-tale types" in 1910, where there are also divisions into types. In contrast to the typology of Propp and Pomerantseva, well-known European fairy tales about fooled devils and anecdotes are added here. Based on the works of Aarne, S. Thompson created his own index of fairy tales in 1928. A little later, folklorist N. P. Andreev and many other researchers were engaged in such a typology, but with the introduction of Russian (Slavic) species.

Above, we examined the main subspecies, which are more related to folk art. Author's tales tend to be much more complex, and it is not easy to type them into a particular subgenre, but they have taken a lot from folklore and the species described above as a basis. Also, plot motifs are taken as the basis from many sources. For example, the hatred of the stepdaughter and stepmother, which is popular in the works.

And now let's move on to the lists of folk and literary tales.

Fairy tales for grade 1

The list is long, since children begin their acquaintance with reading with stories and fairy tales, because they are small and easy to memorize and master. In the first grade it is recommended to read:

  1. Small folk tales. Often they are about animals: "Cat and Fox", "Gingerbread Man", "Crow and Cancer", "Geese-Swans", as well as "Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka", "Porridge from an Ax", "Man and Bear", " Cockerel-golden scallop", "Morozko", "Bubble, straw and bast shoes", "Teremok", "At the command of the pike", etc.
  2. Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood.
  3. Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich, "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" and other short stories.

Literary tales: grade 2, list

  1. Folk tales in the processing of A. N. Tolstoy.
  2. Works by the Brothers Grimm, such as The Bremen Town Musicians.
  3. E. L. Schwartz, "The New Adventures of Puss in Boots".
  4. C. Perro: "Puss in Boots" and "Little Red Riding Hood".
  5. Tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
  6. As well as small works by A. S. Pushkin, D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak, P. Ershov, P. Bazhov, K. D. Ushinsky and others.

List of literary fairy tales for grade 3

Fairy tales are also read in these classes, but they are longer, and there are also fewer folk tales and more literary ones. For example, the well-known fairy tale by Lewis Carroll about Alice Through the Looking-Glass. As well as larger fairy tale stories by Mamin-Sibiryak, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Pushkin, Bazhov, Zhukovsky, Tchaikovsky, Perrault, Andersen and many others.

4th grade

List of literary fairy tales:

  • Garshin V. M., "The Tale of the Toad and the Rose";
  • Zhukovsky V. A., "The Tale of Tsar Berendey", "There the skies and waters are clear";
  • E. Schwartz "The Tale of Lost Time".

5th grade

Literary tales in high school in the reading program are much less common than in grades 1-4, but nevertheless there are such works. For example, Andersen's and Pushkin's fairy tales, which are also available in elementary grades. The list of literary fairy tales of the 5th grade does not end there. There are also works by Zhukovsky, Schwartz and many others for children of this age.

Instead of a conclusion

A fairy tale is a very interesting genre, which is still being studied by various researchers, and children read according to the school curriculum. Initially, they were only folk, transmitted orally. But then authorial literary tales began to appear, which usually take folklore plots and characters as a basis. Such works are small, they have fiction and a special story. But this is what makes the fairy tale genre special and distinguishes it from others.

The literary fairy tale as a genre, of course, is a full-fledged and full-blooded direction of literature. It seems that the demand for these works will never be exhausted, they will certainly and constantly be in demand by both children and adults of all ages. Today, this genre is more universal than ever. Literary tales and their authors are popular, although there are certain setbacks. The connection with folklore is still preserved, but modern realities and details are also used. big enough. Trying to designate only the very best, you can write more than one sheet of paper. But nevertheless we will try to do it in this article.

Features of a literary fairy tale

How does it differ from folklore, folk. Well, firstly, the fact that she has a specific author, writer or poet (if she is in verse). And folklore, as you know, involves collective creativity. The features of a literary fairy tale are that it combines the principles of both folklore and literature. You can say so: this is the next step in the evolution of folklore. After all, many authors retell well-known plots of fairy tales, which are considered folk, using the same characters. And sometimes they come up with new original characters and talk about their adventures. The title may also be original. Hundreds of literary tales have been invented, but all of them have a specific authorship and a pronounced

A bit of history

Turning to the origins of the author's fairy tale, one can conditionally note the Egyptian "About Two Brothers", recorded back in the 13th century BC. Also, recall the Greek epics "Iliad" and "Odyssey", the authorship of which is attributed to Homer. And in church parables - nothing more than a semblance of a literary fairy tale. During the Renaissance, a list of literary fairy tales would probably have been a collection of short stories by famous writers.

The genre was further developed in the 17-18 centuries in European fairy tales by C. Perrot and A. Gallan, Russian - by M. Chulkov. And in the 19th a whole galaxy of brilliant authors in different countries uses a literary tale. European - Hoffmann, Andersen, for example. Russians - Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Leskov. The list of literary fairy tales in the 20th century is expanded by A. Tolstoy, A. Lindgren, A. Miln, K. Chukovsky, B. Zakhoder, S. Marshak and many other equally famous authors.

Pushkin's Tales

The concept of "literary author's fairy tale" perhaps best of all illustrates the work of Alexander Pushkin. In principle, these works: the tales “About Tsar Saltan”, “About the Fisherman and the Fish”, “About the Priest and His Worker Balda”, “About the Golden Cockerel”, “About the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs” - were not planned to be presented to a children's audience . However, due to circumstances and the talent of the author, they soon appeared on the list for reading to children. Vivid images, well-remembered lines of poetry put these tales in the category of unconditional classics of the genre. However, few people know that Pushkin used folk tales as the basis for the plots of his works, such as "The Greedy Old Woman", "Labor Shabarsh", "The Tale of Wonderful Children". And in the folk art itself, the poet saw an inexhaustible source of images and plots.

List of literary tales

You can talk for a long time about the originality of retellings and alterations. But in this regard, it would be best to recall Tolstoy's famous fairy tale "Pinocchio", which the author "rewrote" from Collodian's "Pinocchio". Carlo Collodi himself, in turn, used folk image street theater wooden puppet. But Pinocchio is a completely different, author's tale. In many ways, according to some critics, it surpassed the original in terms of its literary and artistic value, at least for the Russian-speaking reader.

Of the original literary fairy tales, where the characters were invented by the author himself, we can single out two stories about Winnie the Pooh, who lives with his friends in the Hundred Acre Forest. The magical and optimistic atmosphere created in the works, the characters of the inhabitants of the Forest, their characters are striking in their unusualness. Although here, in terms of organizing the narrative, a technique previously used by Kipling is used.

Interesting in this context are the tales of Astrid Lindgren about the funny flying Carlson, who lives on the roof, and the Kid, who becomes his friend.

Screen adaptations of literary tales

It should be noted that literary fairy tales are fertile and inexhaustible material for film adaptations, artistic and "cartoon". What is the screen adaptation of the cycle of tales by John Tolkien (Tolkien) about the adventures of the hobbit Baggins (in one of the first translations into Russian - Sumkins).

Or the world famous epic about young wizards and Harry Potter! And cartoons in general are innumerable. Here you have Carlson, and the Wizard of the Emerald City, and other heroes, characters of literary fairy tales familiar to everyone since childhood.