Test work on the culture of the ancient Russian state. Place of origin of epics

Such genres as heroic epic, myth and epic are among the most ancient literary works. They became the first genres of literature, originating at a time when humanity first began to use writing.

Heroic epic, myth, epic; difference between myth and fairy tale

Myth, epic and heroic epic have a number of characteristics that generalize them, as well as some points that still speak of deep differences between them. These genres arose on a real historical basis.

Heroic epic and epic often glorify peoples who resisted invaders, heroes of military conflicts, glorify their courage, boldness and patriotism. In myths, the motive of heroism is partly mixed with mystification, but they are also based on historical events, the reality of which is still in doubt.

Myth over ancient genre, than the heroic epic and epic. Its origin is attributed to the heyday of ancient civilizations. It is false to believe that myths existed exclusively in Ancient Greece and Rome. In Slavic culture, myths also occupied a leading place.

However, due to the fact that the Slavs did not have writing in the early stages of their development, many myths were lost in the thickness of history and have not survived to this day. IN modern theory In literature, the fairy tale genre is considered in the status of a “degraded myth.”

To dispel false identification of myth and fairy tale, the main distinguishing features of these genres should be analyzed. First, fairy tale and myth fulfill different functions: a myth explains to a person the origin of the phenomena around him, a fairy tale performs an educational and entertaining function.

Secondly, a person perceives a myth as an exaggerated reality, while a fairy tale is initially considered a fiction.

Techniques for creating a heroic character in an epic

In the process of creating a heroic character in the epic, stylistic, lexical devices, and syntactic schemes were often widely used.

Quite often in heroic epic There are phraseological phrases that emphasize the hero’s merits: “fast as lightning.” The heroic character of the protagonist is a composite phenomenon - most often it includes positive features several people, and sometimes the whole people.

Hero hero

The main character of the epics known today is a hero - a hero - a man with enormous physical strength, a sense of patriotism, courage and determination. Hero - hero - central figure heroic epics. In contrast to him, negative heroes are often included - invaders, mythological creatures with whom he fights in order to protect his fatherland and his people.

The role of the literary word in an epic work

In epic works, lexical devices are always used, which are combined into epic formulas. The artistic epic formula is a combination of a noun and an adjective with a stable epithet - black death, white face, good fellow.

Bylinas - poetic heroic epic of ancient Rus', reflecting the events historical life Russian people mainly from the 11th to 16th centuries. The common name among the people is: oldies, oldies, oldies. In scientific and scientific popular literature until the 40s of the 19th century. They were more often called: heroic tales. The term epics came into general use in the second half of the 19th century. V.F. Miller, and after him other scientists, believed that this term was first introduced by a collector and amateur folklore of the 30-40s of the 19th century. I. P. Sakharov, who used the expression “Tales of Igor’s Campaign” (see “Let’s start singing songs based on the epics of this time ...”). Recent research by Soviet researchers has shown that the terms “epic” and “byl” as names of ancient Russian epic songs were used by writers and researchers of the 18th - early XIX V. In some areas these names are also found in the vernacular.

ORIGIN OF EPICS

In folkloristics, there are different views on the time of the origin of epics. Some researchers (V.F. Miller, B. and Yu. Sokolov, etc.) believe that the genre of epics developed in the conditions of Kievan Rus, simultaneously with the events described, and in subsequent times only received development.

Other scientists (M.E. Khalaisky, S.K. Shambinago, etc.) argued that epics were mainly created in Muscovite Rus'.

Recently, an interesting theory has been put forward, which claims that epics were mainly formed in the Middle Ages, after the fall of Kievan Rus, as heroic songs, united by the image of the capital city of Kyiv and Prince of Kyiv Vladimir. According to this theory, epics were composed as songs about the past, and not about the present. The “epic time” of epics is the era of the Kyiv state, depicted in epics as a time when the people performed feats and restored justice; This contrasted the epic time with modernity with its separate policy of princes and the Tatar yoke in Rus'.

Undoubtedly, it should be recognized that the origin of epics is epic songs feudal Rus'. As a special genre, they received their initial development during the creation process ancient Russian state. In their development, epics go through several stages that correspond to and reflect historical reality. Continuing the traditions of the epic creativity of the East Slavic tribes, from which the Kievan state was formed several centuries later, the historical epic of the pre-Mongol period of Rus', as can be judged from the texts that have reached us, was a sum of individual songs glorifying the power and greatness of the Kievan state. During the Tatar yoke, the concept of Kievan Rus arose as an epic time of epics, and the cyclization of the epic was planned, educating the patriotic feelings and aspirations of the people; at the same time, the main image of the Russian epic becomes the image of a hero, uniting all the best forces of the state for a crushing rebuff to the enemy. During the same period, the development of ancient Russian cities as important state and cultural centers led to the illumination in the epic of the social and family life of Rus', its ideological and cultural life. Both of these periods were the heyday of the epic epic. And although we do not have records of epics made before the 17th century, the stability of the content and form of the ancient Russian epic allows us to consider the main composition of epics as folk art of medieval Rus'.

Under the conditions of the Moscow state and after the reforms of Peter the Great’s time, the genre of epics continues to live and develop, but basically reflects the same historical events, as in previously created works. New texts of epics appear in most cases as retellings of stories and fairy tale epics. Bylinas in Muscovite Rus' undoubtedly did not remain unchanged; they introduced features of modern social and political struggle, culture and life; they were interpreted as works that spoke about the present, although they narrated about past times.

CLASSIFICATION OF EPICS

By their nature, epics are divided into heroic, the main theme of which is the fight against an external enemy and the defense of Rus', and novelistic, describing mainly the social and family life of the medieval Russian state.

Due to the fact that the main attacks of the enemy fell on the southern Russian principalities and northeastern Rus', heroic themes heroic epics, telling about the defense of the homeland from the enemy, are concentrated around Kyiv. This is the so-called Kiev cycle of epics.

The Kyiv cycle of epics, whose main characters are Ilya Muromets, Dobryiya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich, is joined by Galician-Volyn epics. The difference between the Galician-Volyn epics and the Kyiv ones is that they usually talk about the fight against an enemy attacking from the west (see epics about Prince Roman).

Novellistic epics, as a rule, talk about the life of Novgorod and its people. The originality of Novgorod epics is determined by the historical destinies of Novgorod. It is known that Novgorod and the Novgorod land were placed in a special position in relation to Tatar yoke. The Novgorod lands, especially the outlying lands of the Russian North, suffered less from the Tatar yoke. It is quite clear that the topic of family and public life It was common for the Novgorod lands even at the time of the Tatar invasion. The best known are the epics of the Novgorod cycle about Sadko and Vasily Buslaev.

The word “epic” came to us from the Greek language, translated from which it means “word”, “narration”. The dictionary gives the following interpretation: firstly, epic is “a literary genre, distinguished along with lyrics and drama, represented by such genres as fairy tale, legend, varieties of heroic epic, epic, epic poem, story, story, short story, novel, essay. Epic, like drama, is characterized by the reproduction of action unfolding in space and time, the course of events in the lives of the characters.” (18). The epic is characterized specific trait, which lies in the organizing role of the narrative. The author of the epic appears before us as a narrator who narrates events of great significance in the life of the people, describes the appearance of the characters and their destinies. The narrative layer of speech of an epic work easily interacts with dialogues and monologues. The epic narrative either becomes “self-sufficient, for a while, setting aside the statements of the characters, then becomes imbued with their spirit; sometimes it frames the characters’ remarks, sometimes on the contrary, it reduces it to a minimum and temporarily disappears.”(18). But overall, it dominates the work and holds together everything depicted in it. That is why the features of the epic are largely determined by the properties of the narrative.

In the epic, speech performs the function of reporting what happened earlier, as if it were something remembered. This means that a temporary distance is maintained between the conduct of speech and the depicted action in the epic. The epic poet talks “about an event as something separate from himself.” (Aristotle 1957:45). The narrator, on whose behalf the epic narrative is told, is an intermediary between the person depicted and the readers. In the epic we do not find any information about his fate, about his relationship with the heroes. However, his speech and manner of description allow us to talk about how the world in which the characters depicted lived was perceived in those distant times. The epic also absorbed the originality of the narrator’s consciousness.

The epic embraces existence in its thematic volume, spatio-temporal extent and event intensity. Such visual and expressive means used in the epic, such as portraits, direct characterizations, dialogues and monologues, landscapes, actions, gestures, facial expressions, give the images the illusion of visual and auditory authenticity. The epic is characterized by the fictional, artistic and illusory nature of what is depicted.

The epic form relies on various types of plot. The plot of the works can be extremely tense or weakened, so that what happened seems to drown in descriptions and reasoning.

An epic can contain a large number of characters and events. The epic is a kind of representation of life in its integrity. The epic reveals the essence of an entire era and the scale of creative thinking.

The volume of text of an epic work is varied - from miniature stories (early works of O. Henry, A.P. Chekhov) to spatial epics and novels (Mahabharata, Iliad, War and Peace). An epic can be either prosaic or poetic.

Speaking about the history of the emergence of the epic, it is worth emphasizing the fact that the epic was formed in different ways. The combination of panegyrics (eulogies) and laments contributes to the emergence of the epic. Panegyrics and laments are often composed in the same style and meter as the heroic epic: the manner of expression and lexical composition are almost the same. Later, panegyrics and laments would be preserved as part of epic poems.

The first epic songs were based on the lyric-epic genre. They arose from the ritual syncretic ideas of the people. Early epic creativity and the further development of forms of artistic storytelling were also greatly influenced by oral, and later written, historical legends.

Ancient and medieval literature is characterized by the appearance of folk heroic epic. The formation of a carefully detailed narrative replaced the naive-archaic poetics of short messages characteristic of myth, parable and early fairy tales. In the heroic epic, there is a great distance between the characters described and the narrator himself; the images of the hero are idealized.

But already in ancient prose significant changes occur, namely, the distance between the author and the main characters ceases to be absolutized. Using the examples of the novel “The Golden Ass” by Apuleius and “Satyricon” by Petronius, we see that the characters become storytellers, they talk about what they saw and experienced. (Veselovsky: 1964).

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. The leading genre of the epic is the novel, where “personal, demonstratively subjective narration” dominates. (Veselovsky 1964:68). Sometimes the narrator looks at the world through the eyes of one of characters, imbued with his state of mind. This method of storytelling is characteristic of L. Tolstoy and T. Mann. There are other ways of narration, for example, the story about what happened is at the same time a monologue of the hero. For novel prose of the 19th-20th centuries. emotional and semantic connections between the statements of the characters and the narrator will become important.

Having examined the peculiarities of the emergence of the epic, we will focus on the study of the heroic epic, since in our work we will compare two heroic epics, namely, the Adyghe epic “about the Narts” and the German epic “The Song of the Nibelungs”.

“A heroic epic is a heroic narrative of the past, containing complete picture people’s life and represents in harmonious unity a certain epic world of heroic heroes.”

The features of this genre developed at the folklore stage, which is why the heroic epic is often called folk. However, it is important to note that such an identification is inaccurate, since the book forms of the epic have their own stylistic and sometimes ideological specificity.

The heroic epic has come to us in the form of extensive epics, book (Greek - “Iliad”, “Odyssey”; epic of the peoples of India - “Mahabharata”) or oral (Kyrgyz epic - “Manas”; Kalmyk epic - “Dzhangar”), and in the form of short “epic songs” (Russian epics, poems from the Elder Edda) partly grouped into cycles (“Nart epic”).

The folk heroic epic arose in the era of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and developed in antiquity and feudal society, in conditions of partial preservation of patriarchal relations and ideas, in which the typical image of the heroic epic of social relations as blood, clan may not yet represent a conscious artistic technique. (Zhirmunsky 1962).

In archaic forms of the epic, such as the Karelian and Finnish runes, the Nart epic, a fairy-tale-mythological plot is characteristic, where the heroes have superpower, and their enemies appear in the guise of fantastic monsters. The main themes are the fight against monsters, heroic matchmaking with one's betrothed, family revenge, and the struggle for wealth and treasure.

In the classical forms of the epic, heroes-leaders and warriors represent historical people, and their opponents are often identical to historical invaders, foreign oppressors (for example, the Turks and Tatars in the Slavic epic). Epic time - glorious historical past at the dawn of origin national history. In the classical forms of epic, historical or pseudo-historical heroes and events are glorified, although the depiction of historical realities itself is still subject to traditional plot schemes. The epic background represents the struggle of two tribes or nationalities, which are more or less correlated with real historical events. Often, the center of the narrative is a certain historical event (the Trojan War in the Iliad, the battle of Kurushetra in the Mahabharata), less often a mythical one (the fight with the giant in the Narts). Power is usually concentrated in the hands of the main character (Charlemagne in the “Song of Roland”), however, the bearers of active action are warriors, whose characters are distinguished not only by courage, but also by cunning and independence Achilles - in the Iliad, Ilya Muromets - in epics , Sausyryko - in “Narts”). The obstinacy of the heroes leads to a conflict with the authorities, but the social nature of heroic activity and the commonality of patriotic goals ensure a resolution of the conflict. The epic is characterized by a description of the actions of the heroes, and not their psychological and emotional experiences. The plot is usually filled with numerous ceremonial dialogues.

Dedicated folk heroes songs and legends were usually passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. Later, when writing appears, every nation strives to record in writing all those events that reflect their history and culture. That is why it is no coincidence that the epic formula is used in epics.

The epic formula is “a mnemonic device associated with the oral nature of the existence of the epic and used quite freely by the storyteller. The formula in the epic is an expressive preparation determined by three factors:

2. syntax scheme

3. lexical determinant.

This template (the content of which is a separate image, idea, feature of the description) can be adapted to any thematic or phraseological situation. The poet has at his disposal a large number of formulas that enable him to express various specific aspects of a given situation in accordance with the needs of the moment. The formula serves as a micro-unit of action, capable of being combined with other formulas to form a speech segment.”

There are types of formulas, and formulas, in turn, are divided into two categories:

"1. a combination of the “noun + adjective” type (“blue sea” or “black death”), in which the noun is accompanied by a so-called “stable epithet”; the epithet is not functionally related to the narrative context

2. repeating turns, extending to part of a line, to a separate line, to a group of lines; they are strictly functional and necessary for the narrative, their primary task is to depict how certain recurring events occur.

For example, the Nart epic is characterized by the use of the combination “noun + adjective”. Here are some examples: “brave heart”, “red sun”, “hot heart”, “black clouds”, “endless distance”, “cold night”.

In the German epic, we also find a familiar formula: “rich outfit”, “reliable guard”, “unfortunate burden”, “fearless warrior”, “silk tents”.

Narrative formulas are also used in epics. They serve as mandatory plot links. Let us give a few examples from the “Song of the Nibelungs”: “And they carried seven thousand dead men out of the hall”, “the bravest of men was killed by the hand of a woman”; from the Nart epic: “he jumped onto his horse with lightning, grabbed the chain, pulled him in the hands of his strong ones,” “angrily cut off his head with a sword, for the insults caused to his people.” (Shazzo 2001:32).

Bylinas are a poetic heroic epic of Ancient Rus', reflecting the events of the historical life of the Russian people. The ancient name for epics in the Russian north is “old times”. Modern name genre - “epics” - was introduced back in the first half of the 19th century by folklorist I.P. Sakharov based on famous expression from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - “epics of this time.”

The time of composition of epics is determined in different ways. Some scientists believe that this is an early genre that developed during the times of Kievan Rus (X-XI centuries), others - a late genre that arose in the Middle Ages, during the creation and strengthening of the Moscow centralized state. The genre of epics reached its greatest flourishing in the 17th–18th centuries, and by the 20th century it fell into oblivion.

Bylina, according to V.P. Anikina, these are “heroic songs that arose as an expression historical consciousness people in the East Slavic era and developed in the conditions of Ancient Rus'...”

Bylinas reproduce the ideals of social justice and glorify Russian heroes as defenders of the people. They reveal social moral and aesthetic ideals, reflecting historical reality in images. In epics, the basis of life is combined with fiction. They have a solemn and pathetic tone, their style corresponds to the purpose of glorifying extraordinary people and majestic events of history.

The famous folklorist P.N. recalled the high emotional impact of epics on listeners. Rybnikov. For the first time he heard live performance epics twelve kilometers from Petrozavodsk, on the island of Shui-Navolok. After a difficult swim on the spring, stormy Lake Onega, settling down for the night by the fire, Rybnikov imperceptibly fell asleep...

The main characters of epics are heroes. They embody the ideal of a courageous person devoted to his homeland and people. The hero fights alone against hordes of enemy forces. Among the epics, a group of the most ancient stands out. These are the so-called epics about “elder” heroes, associated with mythology. The heroes of these works are the personification of unknown forces of nature associated with mythology. Such are Svyatogor and Volkhv Vseslavevich, Danube and Mikhailo Potyk.

In the second period of their history, the ancient heroes were replaced by heroes of modern times - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. These are the heroes of the so-called Kyiv cycle of epics. Cyclization refers to the unification of epic images and plots around individual characters and places of action. This is how the Kiev cycle of epics, associated with the city of Kiev, developed.

Most epics depict the world of Kievan Rus. The heroes go to Kyiv to serve Prince Vladimir, and they protect him from enemy hordes. The content of these epics is predominantly heroic and military in nature.

Another major center of the ancient Russian state was Novgorod. Epics of the Novgorod cycle - everyday, novelistic. The heroes of these epics were merchants, princes, peasants, guslars (Sadko, Volga, Mikula, Vasily Buslaev, Blud Khotenovich).

The world depicted in epics is the entire Russian land. So, Ilya Muromets from the Bogatyrskaya outpost sees high mountains, green meadows, dark forests. The epic world is “bright” and “sunny”, but it is threatened by enemy forces: dark clouds, fog, thunderstorms are approaching, the sun and stars are dimming from countless enemy hordes. This is a world of contrast between good and evil, light and dark forces. In it, heroes fight against the manifestation of evil and violence. Without this struggle, the epic peace is impossible.

Each hero has a certain, dominant character trait. Ilya Muromets personifies strength; he is the most powerful Russian hero after Svyatogor. Dobrynya is also a strong and brave warrior, a snake fighter, but also a hero-diplomat. Prince Vladimir sends him on special diplomatic missions. Alyosha Popovich personifies ingenuity and cunning. “He won’t take it by force, but by cunning,” they say about him in epics. Monumental images of heroes and grandiose achievements are the fruit of artistic generalization, the embodiment in one person of the abilities and strength of a people or social group, an exaggeration of what actually exists, that is, hyperbolization and idealization. The poetic language of epics is solemnly melodious and rhythmically organized. His special artistic means - comparisons, metaphors, epithets - reproduce pictures and images that are epically sublime, grandiose, and when depicting enemies - terrible, ugly.

In different epics, motifs and images, plot elements, identical scenes, lines and groups of lines are repeated. Thus, through all the epics of the Kyiv cycle there are images of Prince Vladimir, the city of Kyiv, and heroes. Bylinas, like other works of folk art, do not have a fixed text. Passed from mouth to mouth, they changed and varied. Each epic had an infinite number of variants.

In epics, fabulous miracles are performed: the reincarnation of characters, the revival of the dead, werewolves. They contain mythological images of enemies and fantastic elements, but the fantasy is different from that of a fairy tale. It is based on folk historical ideas. The famous folklorist of the 19th century A.F. Hilferding wrote:

“When a person doubts that a hero can carry a forty-pound club or put down an entire army in one place, epic poetry killed in it. And many signs convinced me that the northern Russian peasant singing epics, and the vast majority of those who listen to him, certainly believe in the truth of the miracles that are depicted in the epic. The epic preserved historical memory. Miracles were perceived as history in the life of the people.”

There are many historically reliable signs in the epics: descriptions of details, ancient weapons of warriors (sword, shield, spear, helmet, chain mail). They glorify Kyiv-grad, Chernigov, Murom, Galich. Other ancient Russian cities are named. Events also unfold in Ancient Novgorod. They indicate the names of some historical figures: Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh. These princes were united in the popular imagination into one collective image of Prince Vladimir - “Red Sun”.

There is a lot of fantasy and fiction in epics. But fiction is poetic truth. The epics reflected the historical conditions of life Slavic people: aggressive campaigns of the Pechenegs and Polovtsians to Rus', destruction of villages, full of women and children, plunder of wealth. Later, in the 13th–14th centuries, Rus' was under the yoke of the Mongol-Tatars, which is also reflected in epics. During the years of people's trials, they instilled love for native land. It is no coincidence that the epic is heroic folk song about the feat of the defenders of the Russian land.

However, epics are painted not only heroic deeds heroes, enemy invasions, battles, but also everyday human life in its social and everyday manifestations and historical conditions. This is reflected in the cycle of Novgorod epics. In them, the heroes are noticeably different from the epic heroes of the Russian epic. The epics about Sadko and Vasily Buslaev include not just new original themes and plots, but also new epic images, new types of heroes who do not know other epic cycles. Novgorod heroes, unlike the heroes of the heroic cycle, do not commit feats of arms. This is explained by the fact that Novgorod escaped the Horde invasion, Batu's hordes did not reach the city. However, the Novgorodians could not only rebel (V. Buslaev) and play the gusli (Sadko), but also fight and win brilliant victories over the conquerors from the West.

Vasily Buslaev appears as the Novgorod hero. Two epics are dedicated to him. One of them talks about the political struggle in Novgorod, in which he takes part. Vaska Buslaev rebels against the townspeople, comes to feasts and starts quarrels with “rich merchants”, “men (men) of Novgorod”, enters into a duel with the “elder” Pilgrim - a representative of the church. With his squad he “fights and fights day until evening.” The townspeople “submitted and made peace” and pledged to pay “three thousand every year.” Thus, the epic depicts a clash between the rich Novgorod settlement, eminent men and those townspeople who defended the independence of the city.

The hero's rebellion is manifested even in his death. In the epic “How Vaska Buslaev Went to Pray,” he violates prohibitions even at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, swimming naked in the Jordan River. There he dies, remaining a sinner. V.G. Belinsky wrote that “Vasily’s death comes directly from his character, daring and violent, which seems to be asking for trouble and death.”

One of the most poetic and fabulous epics of the Novgorod cycle is the epic “Sadko”. V.G. Belinsky defined the epic “as one of the pearls of Russian folk poetry, poetic apotheosis of Novgorod." Sadko is a poor psaltery player who became rich thanks to skillful playing of the gusli and the patronage of the Sea King. As a hero, he expresses infinite strength and endless prowess. Sadko loves his land, his city, his family. So he refuses untold riches offered to him and returns home.

So, epics are poetic, works of art. They contain a lot of unexpected, surprising, incredible things. However, they are fundamentally truthful, conveying the people's understanding of history, the people's idea of ​​duty, honor, and justice. At the same time, they are skillfully constructed, their language is unique.
Artistic originality of epics

The epics were created in tonic (also called epic, folk) verse. In works created in tonic verse, the poetic lines may have a different number of syllables, but there should be a relatively equal number of stresses. In epic verse, the first stress, as a rule, falls on the third syllable from the beginning, and the last stress on the third syllable from the end.

Epic tales are characterized by a combination of real images that have a clear historical meaning and are conditioned by reality (the image of Kyiv, the capital Prince Vladimir), with fantastic images (the Serpent Gorynych, the Nightingale the Robber). But the leading images in epics are those generated by historical reality.

Often an epic begins with a chorus. It is not related to the content of the epic, but represents independent picture, preceding the main epic story. The outcome is the ending of the epic, a short conclusion, summing up, or a joke (“then the old days, then the deed,” “that’s where the old days ended”).

The epic usually begins with a beginning that determines the place and time of action. This is followed by an exposition in which the hero of the work is highlighted, most often using the technique of contrast.

The image of the hero is at the center of the entire narrative. Epic grandeur of the image epic hero is created by revealing his noble feelings and experiences, the qualities of the hero are revealed in his actions.

Tripleness or trinity in epics is one of the main depiction techniques (in heroic outpost There are three heroes standing, the hero makes three trips - “Three trips of Ilya”, Sadko is not invited to the feast three times by the Novgorod merchants, he casts lots three times, etc.). All these elements (threefold persons, threefold action, verbal repetitions) are present in all epics. Hyperboles used to describe the hero and his feat also play a large role in them. The description of the enemies (Tugarin, Nightingale the Robber), as well as the description of the strength of the warrior-hero, are hyperbolic. There are fantastic elements in this.

In the main narrative part of the epic, the techniques of parallelism, stepwise narrowing of images, and antithesis are widely used.

The text of the epic is divided into permanent and transitional passages. Transitional passages are parts of the text created or improvised by narrators during performance; permanent places - stable, slightly changed, repeated in various epics (heroic battle, hero’s rides, saddling a horse, etc.). Storytellers usually assimilate and repeat them with greater or less accuracy as the action progresses. The narrator speaks transitional passages freely, changing the text and partially improvising it. The combination of permanent and transitional places in the singing of epics is one of the genre features of the Old Russian epic.

The work of the Saratov scientist A.P. is devoted to elucidating the artistic originality of Russian epics and their poetics. Skaftymov “Poetics and genesis of epics”. The researcher believed that “the epic knows how to create interest, knows how to excite the listener with anxiety of expectation, infect the listener with the delight of surprise and capture the winner with ambitious triumph.”

D.S. Likhachev in his book “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” writes that the time of action in epics refers to the conventional era of the Russian past. For some epics it is the idealized era of Prince Vladimir of Kyiv, for others it is the era of Novgorod freedom. The action of the epics takes place in the era of Russian independence, glory and power of Rus'. In this era, Prince Vladimir reigns “forever”, the heroes live “forever”. In epics, the entire time of action is assigned to the conventional era of Russian antiquity.

Literature from the 18th century for children. (Researcher Savvaty, Simeon Polotsky, Karion Istomin).

Children's literature in Russia XV-XVIII centuries

The entire history of ancient Russian children's literature can be divided into four periods:

1) second half of the 15th - first half of the 16th century, when the first educational works;

2) second half of XVI - beginning of XVII c., when 15 printed books for children were published;

3) 20-40s. XVII century, when regular poetry begins;

4) the second half of the 17th century - the period of the development of different genres and types of children's literature.

Great development in the 17th century receives poetry. Poems of that time addressed to children were, with modern point vision, still quite primitive. But it was with them that children's poetry began.

It was a rare children's handwritten or printed book without poems. There were especially many of them in the second half of the 17th century, when large works were written, which we now call poems. Poems set out rules of behavior and conveyed various information about the world. Most of the poems are anonymous. However, some authors were already known then, others have been identified now. The very first children's poet in Rus' should be considered the director of the Moscow Printing House, Savvaty. The reference book was responsible for the content and literacy of the book. Therefore, the most educated people. Currently, more than ten poems by Savvaty are known, written by him specifically for children. Among them is the first poem in the book of the Moscow press, placed in the ABC edition of 1637. It consists of 34 lines. The poem simply, warmly and clearly tells the reader about the book he is holding in his hands, praises literacy and book wisdom, and gives various advice on how to study and how to read. According to the composition, this is an intimate conversation with a child on a topic that is interesting and important to him. The author convinces the child not to be lazy in learning, to be diligent, and to obey the teacher in everything. Only in this case can he learn “wisdom writing” (literacy), become one of the “wise men” and become a “true son of light.” Later, in the second half of the 17th century, this poem was widely distributed through handwritten books.

Another poem by Savvaty, “A Brief Reprimand about Laziness and Neglect,” consisting of 124 lines, was also very famous. Created in it negative image a capable student, but lazy and careless. Savvaty tries to instill in children respect for literacy, an enthusiastic attitude towards education and contempt for ignorance. The author leads the reader to the conclusion that teaching is light, and ignorance is darkness. Savvaty uses persuasion as the main educational means, and how literary device- comparison, likening. For example, he says that a diamond is precious because of the play of light, color, and paints, and a person is precious because of his education and “his understanding.”

In another large poem, consisting of 106 lines, called “Vacation ABC,” the image of a positive student is created who heeded the advice of his teacher, studied diligently, and therefore the teacher taught him everything that he himself knew and could. This is like a parting word to a child on graduation day.

The most important poet of the 17th century. was Simeon of Polotsk. His real name is Petrovsky. In 1664, at the invitation of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Simeon moved to Moscow, where he opened a school and began accepting Active participation in literary and social life. Simeon of Polotsk took part in the creation of the primer of 1664. He also compiled the entire primer of the 1667 edition, which was republished in 1669. The preface written by Simeon for this primer is an outstanding pedagogical treatise of the 17th century.

But the primer of 1679 is of greatest interest. It contains two poems for children: “Preface to young men who want to learn” and “Admonition.” The first of them talks about the book, praises literacy, and calls on children to study well, for those who work in youth will be at peace in old age. Of all labors, reading and learning bring the greatest pleasure and benefit. The second poem is placed at the end of the book. He wrote poetic prefaces to the books he published for children, “Testament” and “The Tale of Baarlam and Joasaph.” In them he talks about the content of the books, draws attention to the most important thing, trying to interest children and prepare them for perception. The most important books of Simeon of Polotsk are “Reef. Mologion”, which has 1308 large format pages, and “Vertograd multicolor”, consisting of 1316 pages. The books were intended, according to the author, “for the benefit of young and old,” who could “look for words in them” and read “to teach their age.” The books contain many poems that are accessible to children, including greeting poems from children to parents, relatives and patrons.

Poems about nature, minerals, animals, plants, entertaining legends, etc., were also available to children. For example, the poem “Arc” (“Rainbow”) or poems about earth and water. Being a teacher by profession and an outstanding poet In his time, Simeon of Polotsk made a significant contribution to the creation of literature for children.

The first Russian writer and poet whose work was entirely dedicated to children was Karion Istomin. In all his works, Karion Istomin glorified science, “enlightenment,” yagi. He believed that everyone should study: children of all classes, boys and girls, people of all nationalities. Science, according to Karion Istomin, should save people from want and grief. Although in most of his poems Istomin directly addressed the princes, he intended them for the entire Russian people.

During Karion Istomin’s lifetime, three of his books for children and a complete set of textbooks were published. Another children's book by Karion Istomin, The Big Primer, had 11 poems. In addition, he wrote more than ten books of poetry. So, the book “Polis” talks about everyone, the seasons, parts of the world, different countries. The poetic book “Domostroy”, consisting of 176 lines, figuratively sets out the rules of behavior using vivid examples. The main content of the rules boils down to the requirement to study the “free sciences”, etc.

1). The question of the origin of the heroic epic - one of the most difficult in literary science - has given rise to a number of different theories. Two of them stand out: “traditionalism” and “anti-traditionalism.” The foundations of the first of them were laid by the French medievalist Gaston Paris (1839-1901) in his major work “The Poetic History of Charlemagne” (1865). The theory of Gaston Paris, called the “cantilena theory,” boils down to the following main principles. The primary basis of the heroic epic were small lyrical-epic cantilena songs, widespread in the 8th century. Cantilenas were a direct response to certain historical events. For hundreds of years, cantilenas existed in... oral tradition, and from the 10th century. the process of their merging into large epic poems begins. An epic is a product of long-term collective creativity, highest expression spirit of the people. Therefore, it is impossible to name a single creator of an epic poem; the recording of poems itself is a more mechanical process than a creative one,

The positions of “traditionalists” and “anti-traditionalists” were to a certain extent brought together in his theory about the origin of the heroic epic by Alexander Nikolaevich Veselovsky. The essence of his theory is as follows. The beginning of epic creativity was small songs - lyrical-epic cantilenas, born as a response to events that excited the people imagination. After a while, the attitude towards the events described in the songs becomes calmer, the severity of emotions is lost and then an epic song is born. Time passes, and the songs, in one way or another close to each other, develop into cycles. And finally the cycle turns into epic poem. As long as the text exists in the oral tradition, it is the creation of a collective. At the last stage of the formation of the epic, the decisive role is played by the individual author. Writing down poems is not a mechanical act, but a deeply creative one.

The fundamentals of Veselovsky’s theory retain their significance for modern science (V. Zhirmunsky, E. Meletinsky), which also dates the emergence of the heroic epic to the 8th century, believing that the epic is the creation of both oral collective and written individual creativity.

Only the question of the fundamental principles of the heroic epic is corrected: they are considered to be historical legends and the richest arsenal of figurative means of the archaic epic.

It is no coincidence that the beginning of the formation of the heroic (or state) epic dates back to the 8th century. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), over the course of a number of centuries there was a transition from slave-owning forms of statehood to feudal ones, and among the peoples Northern Europe- the process of the final decomposition of patriarchal-tribal relations. Qualitative changes associated with the establishment of a new statehood definitely made themselves felt in the 8th century. In 751, one of the largest feudal lords in Europe, Pepin the Short, became king of the Franks and founder of the Carolingian dynasty. Under the son of Pepin the Short, Charlemagne (reign: 768-814), a huge state was formed, including a Celtic-Roman-Germanic population. In 80b, the pope crowned Charles with the title of emperor of the newly revived Great Roman Empire. In turn, Kara completes the Christianization of the German tribes, and seeks to turn the capital of the empire, Aachen, into Athens. The formation of the new state was difficult not only because of internal circumstances, but also because of external ones, among which one of the main places was occupied by the ongoing war between Christian Franks and Muslim Arabs. This is how history powerfully entered the life of medieval man. And the heroic epic itself became a poetic reflection of the historical consciousness of the people.

The focus on history determines the decisive features of the difference between the heroic epic and the archaic epic, Central themes The heroic epic reflects the most important trends in historical life, a specific historical, geographical, ethnic background appears, mythological and fairy-tale motivations are eliminated. The truth of history now determines the truth of the epic.

Heroic poems created by different peoples of Europe have much in common. This is explained by the fact that a similar historical reality was subjected to artistic generalization; this reality itself was comprehended from the point of view of the same level of historical consciousness. In addition, the medium of image was an artistic language that has common roots in European folklore. But at the same time, in the heroic epic of everyone separate people many unique, nationally specific features.

The most significant of the Heroic poems of the peoples of Western Europe are considered to be: French - “The Song of Roland”, German - “Song of the Nibelungs”, Spanish - “Song of My Cid”. These three great poems make it possible to judge the evolution of the heroic epic: “The Song of the Nibelungs” contains a number of archaic features, “The Song of My Sid” shows the epic at its end, “The Song of Roland” is the moment of its highest maturity.

2) GENERAL FEATURES OF THE HEROIC EPIC

During the Mature Middle Ages, the development of the traditions of folk epic literature continued. This is one of the significant stages in its history, when the heroic epic became the most important link in medieval book literature. The heroic epic of the Mature Middle Ages reflected the processes of ethnic and state consolidation and the emerging seigniorial-vassal relations. The historical theme in the epic has expanded, displacing the fairy-tale-mythological theme, and the significance has increased Christian motives and patriotic pathos intensified, a larger epic form and a more flexible style were developed, which was facilitated by some distance from purely folklore models. However, all this led to a certain impoverishment of the plot and mythopoetic imagery, so subsequently the chivalric romance again turned to folklore fiction. All these features of the new stage in the history of the epic are closely interconnected internally. The transition from epic archaics to epic classics, in particular, was expressed in the fact that the epics of nationalities that had reached the stage of clear state consolidation abandoned the language of myth and fairy tales and turned to developing plots taken from historical legends(while continuing to use, of course, old plot and language clichés dating back to myths).

Clan and tribal interests were pushed aside by national interests, albeit still in their infancy, therefore in many epic monuments we find pronounced patriotic motives, often associated with the fight against foreign and other religious conquerors. Patriotic motives, as is specific to the Middle Ages, partly appear in the form of contrasting Christians with “infidel” Muslims (in Romanesque and Slavic literatures).

As said, the epic at the new stage depicts feudal strife and seigniorial-vassal relations, but due to the epic specificity, vassal loyalty (in the “Song of the Nibelungs”, “Song of Roland”, “Song of my Sid”), as a rule, merges with loyalty to family, tribe, home country, to the state. A characteristic figure in the epic of this time is the epic “king”, whose power embodies the unity of the country. He is shown in a difficult relationship with the main epic hero- bearer of people's ideals. Vassal loyalty to the king is combined with a story about his weakness, injustice, with very critical image court environment and feudal strife (in the cycle of French poems about Guillaume of Orange). The epic also reflects anti-aristocratic tendencies (in songs about Dietrich of Bern or in “Song of My Sid”). In epic-heroic works of the XII-XIII centuries. At times, the influence of the courtly (knightly) novel also penetrates (in “The Song of the Nibelungs”). But even with the idealization of courtly forms of life, the epic mainly preserves folk-heroic ideals and heroic aesthetics. The heroic epic also displays some tendencies that go beyond its genre nature, for example, hypertrophied adventurism (“Raoul de Cambrai” and others), material motivations for the behavior of the hero who patiently overcomes adverse circumstances (in “The Song of My Sid”), drama , reaching the point of tragedy (in “The Nibelungs” and in “The Song of Roland”). These Diverse Trends Reveal Hidden Opportunities epic kind poetry, anticipate the development of romance and tragedy.

The stylistic features of the epic are now largely determined by a departure from folklore and a deeper processing of folklore traditions. In the process of transition from oral improvisation to recitation from manuscripts, numerous enjambements appear, i.e. transfers from verse to verse, synonymy develops, the flexibility and variety of epic formulas increases, sometimes the number of repetitions decreases, a clearer and more harmonious composition becomes possible (“Song of Roland").

Although broad cyclization is also familiar to oral creativity (for example, in folklore Central Asia), but basically the creation of large-scale epic works and their arrangement in cycles is supported by the transition from oral improvisation to a handwritten book. Apparently, bookishness also contributes to the emergence of “psychological” characteristics, as well as the interpretation of the heroic character in terms of a kind of tragic guilt. However, the interaction between folklore and book literature actively continues: in the composition and especially the performance of many epic works, the participation of shpilmans and jugglers was great during this period.

6) One of the most remarkable monuments of medieval literature is considered to be the epic tale of the French people - “The Song of Roland”.

Minor historical fact formed the basis of this heroic epic and over time, enriched by a number of later events, helped the widespread dissemination of tales about Roland and the wars of Charlemagne in many literatures of Western Europe.

The Song of Roland clearly expresses ideology feudal society, in which the faithful service of a vassal to his overlord was an untouchable law, and violation of it was considered betrayal and treason. However, the traits of courageous steadfastness, military valor, selfless friendship and a thoughtful attitude to what is happening were not given a class-feudal connotation in the poem, as in the remarkable monument of creativity of the Russian people “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”; on the contrary, these convincing properties of the valiant defenders of the homeland - military leaders-peers and their vassals, were perceived as typical, national. To an even greater extent, recognition and sympathy from the broad masses were facilitated by thoughts about the defense of the fatherland, about the shame and danger of defeat, which run like a red thread through the entire poem.