Russian fairy tale

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"Skazka" redirects here. For the 2022 film, see Fairytale (film).
Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf (Zvorykin)

A Russian fairy tale or folktale (Russian: ска́зка; skazka; "story"; plural Russian: ска́зки, romanized: skazki) is a fairy tale from Russia.

Various sub-genres of skazka exist. A volshebnaya skazka [волше́бная ска́зка] (literally "magical tale") is considered a magical tale.[1][need quotation to verify] Skazki o zhivotnykh are tales about animals and bytovye skazki are tales about household life. These variations of skazki give the term more depth and detail different types of folktales.

Similarly to Western European traditions, especially the

Narodnye russkie skazki. Scholars of folklore still refer to his collected texts when citing the number of a skazka plot. An exhaustive analysis of the stories, describing the stages of their plots and the classification of the characters based on their functions, was developed later, in the first half of the 20th century, by Vladimir Propp
(1895-1970).

History

Appearing in the latter half of the eighteenth century, fairy tales became widely popular as they spread throughout the country. Literature was considered an important factor in the education of Russian children who were meant to grow from the moral lessons in the tales. During the 18th Century Romanticism period, poets such as Alexander Pushkin and Pyotr Yershov began to define the Russian folk spirit with their stories. Throughout the 1860s, despite the rise of Realism, fairy tales still remained a beloved source of literature which drew inspiration from writers such as Hans Christian Andersen.[2]

Effects of Communism

The messages in the fairy tales began to take a different shape once Joseph Stalin rose to power under the Communist movement.[3] Fairy tales were thought to have a strong influence over children which is why Joseph Stalin decided to place restrictions upon the literature distributed under his rule. The tales created in the mid 1900s were used to impose Socialist beliefs and values as seen in numerous popular stories.[3] In comparison to stories from past centuries, fairy tales in the USSR had taken a more modern spin as seen in tales such as in Anatoliy Mityaev's Grishka and the Astronaut. Grishka and the Astronaut, examines modern Russian's passion to travel through space as seen in reality with the Space Race between Russia and the United States.[4] The new tales included a focus on innovations and inventions that could help characters in place of magic which was often used as a device in past stories.

Influences

Russian kids listening to a new fairy tale

In

Russian culture. In Russia, fairy tales were propagated almost exclusively orally, until the 17th century, as written literature was reserved for religious purposes.[5] In their oral form, fairy tales allowed the freedom to explore the different methods of narration. The separation from written forms led Russians to develop techniques that were effective at creating dramatic and interesting stories. Such techniques have developed into consistent elements now found in popular literary works; They distinguish the genre of Russian fairy tales. Fairy tales were not confined to a particular socio-economic class and appealed to mass audiences, which resulted in them becoming a trademark of Russian culture.[6]

Cultural influences on Russian fairy tales have been unique and based on imagination. Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Polish-American author and Nobel Prize winner, claims that, “You don't ask questions about a tale, and this is true for the folktales of all nations. They were not told as fact or history but as a means to entertain the listener, whether he was a child or an adult. Some contain a moral, others seem amoral or even antimoral, Some constitute fables on man's follies and mistakes, others appear pointless." They were created to entertain the reader.[7]

Russian fairy tales are extremely popular and are still used to inspire artistic works today. The Sleeping Beauty is still played in New York at the American Ballet Theatre and has roots to original Russian fairy tales from 1890. Mr. Ratmansky’s, the artist-in-residence for the play, gained inspiration for the play's choreography from its Russian background.[8]

Formalism

From the 1910s through the 1930s, a wave of literary criticism emerged in Russia, called Russian formalism by critics of the new school of thought.[9]

Analysis

Many different approaches of analyzing the

synchronic and diachronic approaches.[10][11] Other differences can come from the relationship between story elements. After elements are identified, a structuralist can propose relationships between those elements. A paradigmatic relationship between elements is associative in nature whereas a syntagmatic relationship refers to the order and position of the elements relative to the other elements.[11]

Motif

Before the period of Russian formalism, beginning in 1910,

motif the "simplest narrative unit."[12]
Veselovsky proposed that the different plots of a folktale arise from the unique combinations of motifs.

Motif analysis was also part of Stith Thompson's approach to folkloristics.[13] Thompson's research into the motifs of folklore culminated in the publication of the Motif-Index of Folk Literature.[14]

Structural

In 1919, Viktor Shklovsky published his essay titled "The Relationship Between Devices of Plot Construction and General Devices of Style".[12] As a major proponent during Russian formalism,[15] Shklovsky was one of the first scholars to criticize the failing methods of literary analysis and report on a syntagmatic approach to folktales. In his essay he claims, "It is my purpose to stress not so much the similarity of motifs, which I consider of little significance, as the similarity in the plot schemata."[12]

dramatis personae, involved in the actions are second to the action actually being carried out. This also follows his finding that while some functions may be missing between different stories, the order is kept the same for all the Russian fairy tales he analyzed.[6]

Morphology of the Folktale,[18] scholars have speculated that the idea of the function, widely attributed to Propp, could have first been recognized by Nikiforov.[19] One source claims that Nikiforov's work was "not developed into a systematic analysis of syntagmatics" and failed to "keep apart structural principles and atomistic concepts".[16] Nikiforov's work on folklore morphology was never pursued beyond his paper.[18]

Writers and collectors

Alexander Afanasyev

Alexander Afanasyev

Church Slavonic had on printed literature in Russia, which allowed for only religious texts to be spread. To this, Afanasyev replied, “There is a million times more morality, truth and human love in my folk legends than in the sanctimonious sermons delivered by Your Holiness!”[21]

Between 1855 and 1863, Afanasyev edited Popular Russian Tales [Narodnye russkie skazki], which had been modeled after the Grimm's Tales. This publication had a vast cultural impact over Russian scholars by establishing a desire for folklore studies in Russia. The rediscovery of Russian folklore through written text led to a generation of great Russian authors to come forth. Some of these authors include Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Folktales were quickly produced in written text and adapted. Since the production of this collection, Russian tales remain understood and recognized all over Russia.[20]

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin is known as one of Russia’s leading writers and poets.[22] He is known for popularizing fairy tales in Russia and changed Russian literature by writing stories no one before him could.[23] Pushkin is considered Russia’s Shakespeare as, during a time when most of the Russian population was illiterate, he gave Russian’s the ability to desire in a less-strict Christian and a more pagan way through his fairy tales.[24]

Pushkin gained his love for Russian fairy tales from his childhood nurse, Ariana Rodionovna, who told him stories from her village when he was young.[25] His stories served importance to Russians past his death in 1837, especially during times political turmoil during the start of the 20th century, in which, “Pushkin’s verses gave children the Russian language in its most perfect magnificence, a language which they may never hear or speak again, but which will remain with them as an eternal treasure.”[26]

The value of his fairy tales was established a hundred years after Pushkin’s death when the Soviet Union declared him a national poet. Pushkin’s work was previously banned during the Czarist rule. During the Soviet Union, his tales were seen acceptable for education, since Pushkin’s fairy tales spoke of the poor class and had anti-clerical tones.[27]

Corpus

According to scholarship, some of "most popular or most significant" types of Russian Magic Tales (or Wonder Tales) are the following:[a][29]

Tale
number		 Russian classification
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index
Grouping		 Examples Notes
300 The Winner of the Snake The Dragon-Slayer
301 The Three Kingdoms The Three Stolen Princesses The Norka; Dawn, Midnight and Twilight [b]
302
Kashchei
’s Death in an Egg		 Ogre's (Devil's) Heart in the Egg The Death of Koschei the Deathless
307 The Girl Who Rose from the Grave The Princess in the Coffin [c]
313 Magic Escape The Magic Flight The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise [d]
315 The Feigned Illness (beast’s milk) The Faithless Sister
325 Crafty Knowledge The Magician and his Pupil [e]
327 Children at Baba Yaga’s Hut Children and the Ogre
327C Ivanushka and the Witch The Devil (Witch) Carries the Hero Home in a Sack [f]
400 The husband looks for his wife, who has disappeared or been stolen (or a wife searches for her husband) The Man on a Quest for The Lost Wife The Maiden Tsar
465 The Beautiful Wife The Man persecuted because of his beautiful wife Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What [g]
480 Stepmother and Stepdaughter The Kind and Unkind Girls
Vasilissa the Beautiful
519 The Blind Man and the Legless Man The Strong Woman as Bride (Brunhilde) [h][i][j]
531 The Little Hunchback Horse The Clever Horse The Humpbacked Horse; The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa [k]
555 Kitten-Gold Forehead (a gold fish, a magical tree) The Fisherman and His Wife The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish [l][m]
560 The Magic Ring The Magic Ring [n][o]
707 The Tale of Tsar Saltan [Marvelous Children] The Three Golden Children
Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Wicked Sisters
 [p]
709 The Dead Tsarina or The Dead Tsarevna Snow White The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights [q]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Propp's The Russian Folktale lists types 301, 302, 307, 315, 325, 327, 400, 461, 465, 519, 545B, 555, 560, 567 and 707.[28]
  2. ^ A preliminary report by Nikolai P. Andreyev declared that type 301, "The Three Kingdoms and the Stolen Princesses", was among the "most popular types" in Russia, with 45 variants. The type was also the second "most frequently collected in Ukraine", with 31 texts.[30]
  3. ^ French folklorist Paul Delarue noticed that the tale type, despite existing "throughout Europe", is well known in Russia, where it found "its favorite soil".[31] Likewise, Jack Haney stated that type 307 was "most common" among East Slavs.[32]
  4. ^ A preliminary report by Nikolai P. Andreyev declared that type 313, "The Magic Flight", was among the "most popular types" in Russia, with 41 variants. The type was also the "most frequently collected" in Ukraine, with 37 texts.[33]
  5. ^ Commenting on a Russian tale collected in the 20th century, Richard Dorson stated that the type was "one of the most widespread Russian Märchen".[34] In the East Slavic populations, scholarship registers 42 Russian variants, 25 Ukrainian and 10 Belarrussian.[35]
  6. ^ According to professor Jack V. Haney, this type of a fishing boy and a witch "[is] common among the various East European peoples."[36] Likewise, according to Andreas Johns, the tale type is "the third most popular Russian folktale".[37]
  7. ^ According to professor Jack V. Haney, the tale type, including previous type AaTh 465A, is "especially common in Russia".[38]
  8. ^ Russian researcher Dobrovolskaya Varvara Evgenievna stated that tale type ATU 519 (SUS 519) "belongs to the core of" the Russian tale corpus, due to "the presence of numerous variants".[39]
  9. ^ Following Löwis de Menar's study, Walter Puchner concluded on its diffusion especially in the East Slavic area.[40]
  10. ^ Stith Thompson also located this tale type across Russia and the Baltic regions.[41]
  11. ^ According to Jack Haney, the tale type "is extremely popular in all three branches of East Slavic".[42]
  12. ^ According to professor Jack V. Haney, this type is "common among the East Slavs".[43]
  13. ^ The variation on the wish-giving entity is also attested in Estonia, whose variants register a golden fish, crayfish, or a sacred tree.[44]
  14. ^ According to professor Jack V. Haney, the tale type is "very common in all the East Slavic traditions".[45]
  15. ^ Wolfram Eberhard reported "45 variants in Russia alone".[46]
  16. ^ According to professor Jack V. Haney, the tale type is "a very common East Slavic type".[47]
  17. ^ According to professor Jack V. Haney, the tale type is "especially common in Russian and Ukrainian".[48]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-313-33610-2
    .
  2. ^ Hellman, Ben. Fairy Tales and True Stories : the History of Russian Literature for Children and Young People (1574-2010). Brill, 2013.
  3. ^
    S2CID 155258933
    .
  4. ^ Mityayev, Anatoli. Grishka and the Astronaut. Translated by Ronald Vroon, Progress, 1981.
  5. S2CID 163086804
    .
  6. ^
    OCLC 1020077613.[page needed
    ]
  7. ^ Singer, Isaac Bashevis (16 November 1975). "Russian Fairy Tales". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Greskovic, Robert (2 June 2015). "'The Sleeping Beauty' Review: Back to Its Russian Roots". Wall Street Journal.
  9. JSTOR 2708893
    .
  10. OCLC 826479070.[page needed
    ]
  11. ^
    OCLC 1000297853.[page needed
    ]
  12. ^
    OCLC 944065310
    .
  13. JSTOR 3814885
    .
  14. ^ Kuehnel, Richard; Lencek, Rado. "What is a Folklore Motif?". www.aktuellum.com. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  15. ^
    OCLC 843208720.[page needed
    ]
  16. ^
    OCLC 1009096.[page needed
    ]
  17. ^ a b Aguirre, Manuel (October 2011). "AN OUTLINE OF PROPP'S MODEL FOR THE STUDY OF FAIRYTALES" (PDF). Tools and Frames – via The Northanger Library Project.
  18. ^
    OCLC 1089596763.[page needed
    ]
  19. JSTOR 2494072
    .
  20. ^ a b Levchin, Sergey (2014-04-28). "Russian Folktales from the Collection of A. Afanasyev : A Dual-Language Book". ProQuest.
  21. OCLC 960947251.[page needed
    ]
  22. OCLC 611246966
    .
  23. ^ Alexander S. Pushkin, Zimniaia Doroga, ed. by Irina Tokmakova (Moscow: Detskaia Literatura, 1972).
  24. OCLC 929159387
    .
  25. OCLC 960947251.[page needed
    ]
  26. ^ Akhmatova, “Pushkin i deti,” radio broadcast script prepared in 1963, published in Literaturnaya Gazeta, May 1, 1974.
  27. ^ Nikolajeva, Maria. "Fairy Tales in Society's Service." Marvels & Tales (2002): 171-187.
  28. ISBN 9780814334669
    .
  29. ISBN 978-9955-21-352-9
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  30. S2CID 163283485
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  31. ^ Delarue, Paul. The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1956. p. 386.
  32. ^ Haney, Jack V.; with Sibelan Forrester. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. p. 536.
  33. S2CID 163283485
    .
  34. ISBN 0-226-15874-8
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  35. ^ Горяева, Б. Б. (2011). "Сюжет «Волшебник и его ученик» (at 325) в калмыцкой сказочной традиции". In: Oriental Studies (2): 153. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/syuzhet-volshebnik-i-ego-uchenik-at-325-v-kalmytskoy-skazochnoy-traditsii (дата обращения: 24.09.2021).
  36. JSTOR j.ctt9qhm7n.115
    .
  37. ISBN 978-0-8204-6769-6
    .
  38. Project MUSE book 42506
    .
  39. ^ Добровольская Варвара Евгеньевна (2018). "Сказка "слепой и безногий" (сус 519) в репертуаре русских сказочников: фольклорная реализация литературного сюжета". Вопросы русской литературы, (4 (46/103)): 93-113 (111). URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/skazka-slepoy-i-beznogiy-sus-519-v-repertuare-russkih-skazochnikov-folklornaya-realizatsiya-literaturnogo-syuzheta (дата обращения: 01.09.2021).
  40. ISBN 9783205994572
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  41. ISBN 0-520-03537-2
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  42. ISBN 978-1-315-70007-6
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  43. JSTOR j.ctt9qhm7n.115
    .
  44. ISBN 978-9949-544-19-6
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  45. Project MUSE book 42506
    .
  46. ^ Eberhard, Wolfram. Folktales of China. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1956. p. 143.
  47. Project MUSE book 42506
    .
  48. Project MUSE book 42506
    .

Further reading

The Three Kingdoms (ATU 301):

  • Лызлова Анастасия Сергеевна (2019). Cказки о трех царствах (медном, серебряном и золотом) в лубочной литературе и фольклорной традиции [FAIRY TALES ABOUT THREE KINGDOMS (THE COPPER, SILVER AND GOLD ONES) IN POPULAR LITERATURE AND RUSSIAN FOLK TRADITION]. Проблемы исторической поэтики, 17 (1): 26-44. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ckazki-o-treh-tsarstvah-mednom-serebryanom-i-zolotom-v-lubochnoy-literature-i-folklornoy-traditsii (дата обращения: 24.09.2021). (In Russian)
  • Матвеева, Р. П. (2013). Русские сказки на сюжет «Три подземных царства» в сибирском репертуаре [RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES ON THE PLOT « THREE UNDERGROUND KINGDOMS» IN THE SIBERIAN REPERTOIRE]. Вестник Бурятского государственного университета. Философия, (10): 170-175. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/russkie-skazki-na-syuzhet-tri-podzemnyh-tsarstva-v-sibirskom-repertuare (дата обращения: 24.09.2021). (In Russian)
  • Терещенко Анна Васильевна (2017). Фольклорный сюжет «Три царства» в сопоставительном аспекте: на материале русских и селькупских сказок [COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE FOLKLORE PLOT “THREE STOLEN PRINCESSES”: RUSSIAN AND SELKUP FAIRY TALES DATA]. Вестник Томского государственного педагогического университета, (6 (183)): 128-134. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/folklornyy-syuzhet-tri-tsarstva-v-sopostavitelnom-aspekte-na-materiale-russkih-i-selkupskih-skazok (дата обращения: 24.09.2021). (In Russian)

Crafty Knowledge (ATU 325):

Mark the Rich or Marko Bogatyr (ATU 461):

External links

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