A fable is a literary genre whose heroes are animals endowed with character traits inherent in people. The manner of narrating the plot is satirical in nature, where the vices of the characters, their wrong behavior, bad character traits, as well as the result to which this can lead, are ridiculed and directly indicated. The moral of the fable is a direct moralizing.

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The emergence and development of the fable genre

According to sources that have survived to this day, the author of the first fables was slave Aesop from the island of Samos. According to some sources, his owner was called Iadmon, according to others - Xanth. Aesop became famous for centuries for his extraordinary mind and the fact that for his wisdom and ability to give important advice to his master, he was granted freedom. A feature of Aesop's fables was that he in an allegorical form described to his master the situation that was exciting and the correct way out of it.

Aesop's fables have not survived in their original form. But they were passed down by people from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, and were later artistically processed and written down in Latin and Greek poets of our era (Phaedrus - I century, Babrius - II century and Avian - V century).

Fable literary genre in Europe

Beginning in the 16th century, poets and prose writers in Europe were fond of translating ancient literature. FROM early XVII century, the fable in Europe received its rapid development and passed into the category of a literary genre.

Famous European fabulists are People: German poets G. Lessing and H. Gellert, French poet J. La Fontaine, English poet T. Moore. They were fond of ancient literature and imitated Aesop in style.

Fable in Russia

In the XVII-XVIII centuries. In the past, many poets and writers of Russia, paying tribute to European fashion, also engaged in translations of ancient literature, as well as translations into Russian of the works of European fabulists. Among them are: S. Polotsky, A. Sumarokov, I. Khemnitser, A. Izmailov, I. Dmitriev, A. Kantemir, V. Trediakovsky. Very moralizing fables for children were written by L. Tolstoy. Thanks to the efforts of the listed great Russian poets and writers, a new genre appeared, developed and established itself in Russian literature - fable.

The main master of the Russian fable in poetic form is Krylov Ivan Andreevich. His characters are realistic, alive and recognizable; ridiculed vices and shortcomings are inherent not only to a single individual, but are characteristic of large groups of people and even society as a whole; their morality is endowed with centuries-old folk wisdom, which makes them understandable and relevant for all times and peoples.

In Soviet literature, the fable continued to occupy its significant niche in a number of literary genres. The "father" of the Soviet fable was Demyan Bedny. His themes were revolutionary, he ridiculed the remnants of the bourgeois mentality, opposing to it the new socialist way of life and its inherent values.

In later Soviet literature, the successor of the fable genre was Sergei Mikhalkov. His characters were of a sharply pronounced satirical nature, aimed at exposing servility, sycophancy and other morally low deeds that flourished in society at that time.

In Soviet literature, fabulists of various nationalities and nationalities that inhabited the territory found their place. Soviet Union. Their characters were endowed with national features and specific color, were relevant and instructive.

Signs of the fable genre

The fable genre has several signs and features that distinguish it from other literary genres.:

How to distinguish a fable from a fairy tale

Fable, fairy tale and parable are consonant with each other. They have much in common, but there are also very significant differences between them, which make it possible to accurately determine which particular literary genre they belong to.

Fables, fairy tales and parables have the following common features:

• are instructive;
• can be in prose and in verse;
• animals and plants endowed with human traits can act as the main characters;
• The story is told in allegorical form.

Differences:

As an example, let's recall A. S. Pushkin's "The Tale of the Dead Princess". The story begins with the death of the king's first wife, from whom he has a little daughter. After a year of longing and sadness, the king marries another. Over time, the daughter grows into a beauty, and then events related to the female jealousy of the stepmother for the stepdaughter begin to unfold. And so on, up to the moment when Tsarevich Elisha finds her in a crystal coffin and awakens her from a long sleep with a kiss. I mean, it's a long story.

In fables, a separate small episode of some event is described. As an example, let's take I. Krylov's fable "Elephant and Pug". We do not know anything about this event: what kind of Elephant it is, where and why it was brought from, how long the Elephant stayed in the city. We only know that Moska jumped out of the crowd of onlookers and barked at this important visiting guest. That's the whole plot, but morality is clear to everyone, and it has not lost its relevance to this day.

Significance in parenting

In the upbringing of a child, the fable has a very great importance. Acquaintance with her in a child occurs at the age when the first books begin to be read to him. Not yet comprehending all the deep meaning, the child begins to distinguish the bad behavior of some characters from the good behavior of others, to understand the allegorical forms of the characters, to understand humor and draw the first conclusions for himself. The best perception of the plot is served by illustrations and the child learns to visually perceive and distinguish the described images.

The most famous epic genre studied in elementary school is the fable. Bass is:

1. A short story, usually poetic, as a rule, is satirical.

2. A moralizing and satirical short story in prose and verse, in which, under the guise of pictures from the life of animals, human shortcomings are drawn.

3. The genre of didactic poetry, a short narrative form, plot-finished and subject to allegorical (allegorical, visual, pictorial expression of abstract concepts through a specific image) interpretation as an illustration of a well-known worldly or moral rule.

4. Literary genre; a short, usually poetic story, in an allegorical form, satirically depicting human actions and relationships.

Origin of the genre

The fable is one of the oldest literary genres. In ancient Greece, Aesop (VI-V centuries BC) was famous for writing fables in prose; in Rome - Phaedrus (I in AD). The most prominent fabulist of modern times was the French poet J. La Fontaine (XVII century).

In Russia, the development of fables dates back to the middle of the 18th - early 19th centuries. and is associated with the names of A.P. Sumarokova (“parables”), I.I. Khemnitser, A.E. Izmailova, I.I. Dmitriev, although the first experiments with poetic fables were in the 17th century. Simeon of Polotsk and in the 1st half of the 18th century. at A.D. Cantemir. In Russian poetry, a fable free verse is developed, conveying the intonations of a laid-back and crafty tale.

Fables I.A. Krylova, with their realistic liveliness, sensible humor and excellent language, marked the heyday of this genre in Russia. In Soviet times, the fables of D. Bedny, S. Mikhalkov, F. Krivin and others gained popularity.

There are two most famous concepts of the origin of the fable. The first is represented by the German school of Otto Crusius, A. Hausrath and others. According to this concept, the story is primary in the fable, and morality is secondary; the genre comes from the animal tale, while the animal tale comes from myth. The second concept was put forward by the American scientist B.E. Perry. According to her, morality is primary in a fable; the fable is close to comparisons, proverbs and sayings; like them, this genre arises as an auxiliary means of argumentation.

Purpose of the fable - ridicule of human shortcomings, vices, negative social phenomena. The characters in the works of this genre are animals, plants, things. The characteristics of the characters are not given in detail. It is realized not through actions, but through such detailing on the part of the author.

In a fable, a narration and a conclusion from it are distinguished, i.e. a certain provision (a moralizing conclusion, aphorism, rule, advice, indication) attached to the narrative. This conclusion - the so-called moral - in the fable is usually attached at the end, sometimes at the beginning. Most often contained in a hidden form, as easily implied in connection with the events and conversations described. Morality can be expressed as explicitly, i.e. the author of the fable, and implicitly, i.e. output by the reader himself. In Russian literature, Krylov brought the fable to the greatest artistic perfection. His fables are distinguished by the accuracy of folk sayings, a cheerful and mocking tone, and the practicality of the general spirit. The morality of Krylov's fables belongs to the field of worldly wisdom, aimed at encouraging skills that are useful in life.

The fable, in terms of the role that animals play in it, goes back to the legends of primitive times, when the animation of animals was imagined to be completely identical with human animation and conscious will, reason, etc. were attributed to animals.

The fable, as a rule, is built on the basis of contrasting paired signs with the opposite meaning: mind - stupidity, greed - generosity, diligence - laziness, simplicity - cunning, etc.

Having studied and analyzed scientific literary sources, we summarized the information received, arranging everything in Table 1.

Artistic features. The skill of Krylov the fabulist remains unsurpassed. He succeeded in turning the conditionally didactic genre into a form of truly realistic works, anticipating many of the discoveries of Griboyedov and Pushkin. In fables, Krylov used the entire previous literary experience: from dramaturgy, he takes the sharpness and dynamism of the plot, the skill in building a dialogue, the speech characteristics of the characters; from prose - the simplicity and naturalness of the story, the psychological reliability of the motivation for the behavior of the characters; from folklore - folk images and language.

It was the language of Krylov's fables that became a genuine discovery for Russian literature, paving the way for the development of prose, dramaturgy and poetry. Before him, no one wrote so simply, accessible and aptly. The basis of the language of Krylov's fables is folk colloquial with abundant inclusion of colloquialisms (“bawls nonsense”;, “not for the future”;, “breath has stolen”;), phraseological units, proverbs and sayings (“The work of the master is afraid”;, “Swallow alone does not make spring”;). No wonder Belinsky saw in Krylov's fables

a feature that is generally characteristic of a Russian person, “the ability to express himself briefly, clearly and curly at the same time” ;. The great Russian fabulist enriched the Russian language with many aphorisms and popular expressions(“I didn’t even notice the elephant”;, “But the chest just opened”;, “Yes, things are still there”;), which have firmly entered into speech and enriched the modern Russian language.

Glossary:

• features of Krylov's fables
• artistic features of Krylov's fables
• artistic features of the fable
• features of Krylov's fable
• artistic originality of Krylov's fables

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The name of the great Russian fabulist I. A. Krylov is among the names of poets beloved by the people, the founders of Russian literature. Many generations were brought up and are being brought up on them.

Krylov's fables have gained worldwide recognition. They combine harsh truth with deep mental picturesque language. Brief and well-aimed Krylov's sayings have long turned into proverbs and sayings, became a national treasure even during the life of the fabulist.

The fame of the fabulist largely pushed aside in our perception of Krylov the playwright, prose writer, lyricist, although the works of Krylov late XVIII centuries are of outstanding interest, because along with Radishchev, Novikov, Fonvizin, young Krylov is one of the most significant representatives of the satirical trend in Russian literature of the second half of XVIII century.

But only in the fable it was considered possible to use the colloquial language, vernacular and dialectisms, which I. A. Krylov defended. The spoken language was used by him not for the sake of rudeness, but for the sake of accuracy, special expressiveness.

Home compositional feature fable as a genre is its ambiguity. The fable consists of obligatory two parts (they may be unequal in volume): a story and a moral conclusion (morality, edification). This duality forms a combination of two principles in the fable genre: aesthetic and logical. One is expressed in an artistic form (pictures, images), the other - in the form of an idea, a conclusion, a thought.

The organization of speech in the fable is based on the author's live address to the reader, on the one hand, and on the dialogue of the characters, on the other. There is almost always dialogue in the fable.

The fables created by Krylov were written in a free (fable) rhythm, multi-foot iambic. Such a rhythm allows you to pause, say something with a tongue twister, highlight something in speech, that is, convey the changing intonations of live speech.

As for the language of Krylov, we all know this language from childhood, we easily learn it and - it turns out! We don't know much about him and we can't say much about him. What is language? How is it arranged? How is it developing? What parts does it consist of? How do these parts interact? How is it related to human activities? Is it possible to improve the language? We will try to answer all these and many other questions in this work.

Many in Krylov want to see a fabulist without fail, but there is something more in him. Fables are only form; what is important is the spirit that would also be expressed in another form. Krylov's fables, of course, are fables, but more than that, they are something more than fables. . . Krylov's fables are not just fables, they are stories, a comedy, a humorous essay, an evil satire - in a word, whatever you want, just not just fables.

Krylov himself, by reading his fables, emphasized the simplicity, naturalness of their folk speech, their realism. All memories of his performance of his fables speak of this. So, S. Zhikharev, after listening to Krylov's reading, wrote down: “And how this Krylov reads! Clearly, simply, without any frills, and meanwhile with extraordinary expressiveness; Every verse sticks in my memory. After him, right, and ashamed to read.

The naturalness and simplicity of his reading were so great that his performance of his fables was sometimes not called "reading", but they said that he "tells his fables."

Krylov's fables do not age. Each new generation is brought up on them; they have entered the fund of national culture. The lines of Krylov's fables, their very names have become familiar, entered into speech, are quoted in newspapers, are familiar to both old and young.

Krylov's fables paved the way for Pushkin, Gogol, Koltsov, Nekrasov and many other poets, introducing them to the pure spring of folk speech, showing an example of realistic painting, verbal skill. That is why the Krylov tradition has not died out to this day.

The knowledge of Krylov the fabulist lies in the fact that he managed to combine poetry and simplicity in his work, based on colloquial speech. Before Krylov, in the era of classicism, spoken language was allowed only in low genres. Krylov, on the other hand, proved the possibility of using the spoken language in poetic speech. He managed to create an image of folk speech, which was not limited to any one style, but could be freely used in various stylistic layers. The main merit of Krylov was that he expanded the genre framework of the fable, giving it a philosophical and social content, accommodating the advanced ideas of the century in small form. “The poet and the sage merged into one in him,” wrote N.V. Gogol. Krylov's fable work anticipated and prepared the transition of Russian literature to realism (for example, the connection between Krylov's fables and A. S. Griboyedov's first realistic comedy "Woe from Wit" is obvious). Realistic images in Krylov's fables could only arise because the author created a poetic language that made it possible to embody these realist tendencies.

So, the theme of our thesis is "Linguistic features of the fables of I. A. Krylov." The relevance of this topic is undeniable, because:

• - firstly, the linguistic features of the fables of I. A. Krylov have not been sufficiently studied and require further special study. After all, change is an inevitable companion of linguistic history. Modern Russian literary language did not appear suddenly, imperceptible accumulations and shifts occurring over many centuries were deposited in it;
• - secondly, not only literary, but also linguistic analysis contributes to a more complete and deeper understanding of the ideological and figurative content of fables artistic text. Understanding the state of linguistic thought underlies our work. For all sections of the thesis, a multidimensional approach to linguistic units is used, which makes it possible to identify interrelations and transitivity linguistic phenomena and trends in their development, as well as features of functioning in various sociolinguistic conditions.

In accordance with this approach, we analyzed the literature: monographs, study guides; works that have become classics and represent the national linguistic tradition; research recent years reflecting modern trends where the most valuable information on the studied problems is available.

Thanks to the research of A. V. Desnitsky, S. F. Eleonsky, M. N. Morozov, we understand a lot better, as we have come closer to the historical understanding of Krylov’s work as a whole and to the correct idea of ​​the various stages of his creative way, about the linguistic features of Krylov's fables.

The author of the book "Ivan Andreevich Krylov" A. V. Desnitsky (10) introduces the reader to fascinating world literary research. He is trying, drawing on conflicting printed sources, memoirs, documents, works of art, to recreate the biography of the great Russian fabulist, playwright, journalist and poet I. A. Krylov, which remains largely unclear and “mysterious” for modern researchers; describe the socio-political, ideological, moral and cultural atmosphere in Russia at the end of the 18th - early XIX centuries. On a number of issues not studied in literary science, the author expresses his original point of view.

The books of S. F. Eleonsky “Literature and Folk Art” (12) cover the problem of the relationship and mutual influences of literature and folk art, are given in a consistent historical and literary order of analysis of the works of Russian folklore closest to folklore. fiction. Krylov drew proverbs, sayings and jokes not so much from books as directly from the people, and widely used them in the verbal painting of his fables. When creating images of animals, for example, a crafty Fox or an industrious Bear: “The Fox will hide from the rain and under the harrow”, “The Fox does not mess up its tail”, “Rules like a bear in the forest bends arcs”, “Operation - does not soar, but breaks - does not grieve. S. F. Eleonsky said: “All this is expressed in such original images, indescribable in any language in the world, that Pushkin himself is not complete without Krylov.”

In the book of M. N. Morozova "Poetics and Stylistics of Russian Literature", the language of Krylov's fables is considered in various, sometimes bizarre forms; in other words, every fact, every linguistic phenomenon is considered on its own, in isolation from others and from the general course language development. The author in this book sets the task of giving a complete and systematic description of the morphological analysis of words as parts of speech, focusing on difficult cases qualifications of linguistic phenomena due to polysemy, homonymy.

Artistic features. The skill of Krylov the fabulist remains unsurpassed. He succeeded in turning the conditionally didactic genre into a form of truly realistic works, anticipating many of the discoveries of Griboyedov and Pushkin. In fables, Krylov used all the previous literary experience: from dramaturgy, he takes the sharpness and dynamism of the plot, skill in building dialogue, and the speech characteristics of the characters; from prose - the simplicity and naturalness of the story, the psychological reliability of the motivation for the behavior of the characters; from folklore - folk images and language. It was the language of Krylov's fables that became a genuine discovery for Russian literature, paving the way for the development of prose, dramaturgy and poetry. Before him, no one wrote so simply, accessible and aptly. The basis of the language of Krylov's fables is a folk colloquial language with an abundant inclusion of vernacular (“bawls nonsense”, “not for the future”, “breathing has stopped”), phraseological units, proverbs and sayings (“The work of the master is afraid”, “Swallow alone does not make spring” ). No wonder Belinsky saw in Krylov's fables a feature that is generally characteristic of a Russian person, "the ability to express himself briefly, clearly and curlyly together." The great Russian fabulist enriched the Russian language with many aphorisms and winged expressions (“I didn’t even notice the elephant”, “But the chest just opened”, “Yes, things are still there”), which have become firmly established in speech and enriched the modern Russian language.

Fable - short story, most often in verse, mostly of a satirical nature. A fable is an allegorical genre, therefore, moral and social problems are hidden behind the story about fictional characters (most often about animals).

The emergence of the fable as a genre dates back to the 5th century BC, and the slave Aesop (VI-V centuries BC) is considered its creator, who was unable to express his thoughts in a different way. This allegorical form of expressing one's thoughts was subsequently called the "Aesopian language". Only around the 2nd century BC. e. fables began to be written down, including Aesop's fables. In ancient times, the famous fabulist was the ancient Roman poet Horace (65–8 BC).

In the literature of the 17th-18th centuries, ancient subjects were processed.

In the 17th century, the French writer La Fontaine (1621–1695) revived the fable genre again. Many of the fables of Jean de La Fontaine are based on the plot of Aesop's fables. But the French fabulist, using the plot of an ancient fable, creates a new fable. Unlike ancient authors, he reflects, describes, comprehends what is happening in the world, and does not strictly instruct the reader. Lafontaine focuses more on the feelings of his characters than on moralizing and satire.

In 18th-century Germany, the poet Lessing (1729–1781) turned to the fable genre. Like Aesop, he writes fables in prose. For the French poet Lafontaine, the fable was a graceful short story, richly ornamented, "a poetic toy." It was, in the words of Lessing's fable, a hunting bow, so beautifully carved that it lost its original purpose, becoming the decoration of the living room. Lessing announces literary war Lafontaine: "The narrative in the fable," he writes, "...should be compressed to the utmost possible; deprived of all ornaments and figures, it must be content with clarity alone" ("Abhandlungen uber die Fabel" - Discourses on the fable, 1759).

In Russian literature, the foundations of the national fable tradition were laid by A.P. Sumarokov (1717–1777). His poetic motto was the words: "As long as I do not fade with decrepitude or death, I will not stop writing against vices ...". The fables of I.A. Krylov (1769–1844), which absorbed the experience of two and a half millennia, became the pinnacle in the development of the genre. In addition, there are ironic, parodic fables of Kozma Prutkov (A.K. Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers), revolutionary fables of Demyan Bedny. The Soviet poet Sergei Mikhalkov, whom young readers know as the author of "Uncle Styopa", revived the fable genre, found his own interesting style of modern fable.

One of the features of fables is allegory: a certain social phenomenon is shown through conditional images. So, behind the image of Leo, traits of despotism, cruelty, injustice are often guessed. The fox is a synonym for cunning, lies and deceit.

It should be noted such features of the fable:
a) morality;
b) allegorical (allegorical) meaning;
c) the typicality of the described situation;
d) characters-characters;
e) ridicule of human vices and shortcomings.

V.A. Zhukovsky in the article "On the fable and fables of Krylov" pointed out four main features of the fable.
First fable feature - character traits, then how one animal differs from another: “Animals represent a person in it, but a person is only in some respects, with some properties, and each animal, having with it its inalienable permanent character, is, so to speak, ready and clear for everyone an image of both a person and a character belonging to him. You make a wolf act - I see a bloodthirsty predator; bring a fox onto the stage - I see a flatterer or a deceiver ... ". So, the Donkey personifies stupidity, the Pig - ignorance, the Elephant - sluggishness, the Dragonfly - frivolity. According to Zhukovsky, the task of the fable is to help the reader to simple example deal with difficult life situations
Second feature of the fable, writes Zhukovsky, is that "transferring the reader's imagination to new dreamy world, you give him the pleasure of comparing the fictional with the existing (which the first serves as a likeness), and the pleasure of comparison makes morality itself attractive. "That is, the reader may find himself in an unfamiliar situation and live it together with the characters.
Third feature of the fable moral lesson , morality, condemning negative quality character. "There is a fable moral lesson which you give to man with the help of cattle and inanimate things; presenting to him as an example creatures that are different from him by nature and completely alien to him, you spare his vanity, you force him to judge impartially, and he insensitively pronounces a severe sentence on himself," writes Zhukovsky.
Fourth feature - instead of people in the fable, objects and animals act. "On the stage on which we are accustomed to seeing a person acting, you bring out with the power of poetry such creations that are essentially removed from it by nature, miraculousness, just as pleasant for us as in the epic poem the action of supernatural forces, spirits, sylphs, gnomes and the like. The strikingness of the miraculous is communicated in a certain way to the morality that is hidden under it by the poet; and the reader, in order to reach this morality, agrees to accept the miraculousness itself as natural.

Krylov's childhood passed in Tver, in a poor noble family, in close contact with the people. At merry festivities, the boy listened to sharp words and jokes, laughed at sarcastic anecdotes about bribe-taking officials, at stories about cunning peasants.

Very early, Krylov began official service, back in hometown Tver, and then continued it in St. Petersburg. At the age of fifteen, he began to "expose the vices" by writing the comic opera "The Coffee House", and in 1789, at the age of twenty, he began to publish his journal "The Spirit Mail".

Rich life experience, keen observation and a huge poetic talent formed the basis of the work of Krylov the fabulist. His first fable, The Oak and the Reed, was published in 1806; soon small collections began to appear one after another. And since then, Krylov's fables have firmly established themselves in the reading of children.

The fable, as you know, belongs to the satirical genre, the origins of which are rooted in antiquity. Then the fable was a small moralizing story or parable, in which the endowed usually acted. human features animals, less often people.

Krylov's fables contain a whole moral code on which children were brought up generation after generation. Of the many fables of Krylov, at least a dozen are remembered from the very early years. Basically, these are those of them, in the chased lines of which there are simple but important worldly truths. “And you, friends, no matter how you sit down, / You’re not good at being musicians” - what is it about? Yes, of course, about unlucky people who do not know the business, replacing it with fuss and chatter. Children in science - without annoying moralizing and fun.

Among contemporaries, fables were especially successful, where Krylov opened public ulcers. Democracy permeated the entire system of his views and determined the objects and problems of his satire. Krylov's artistic thinking is close in spirit to the traditions of oral folk satire.

In the fable "The Donkey", a riddle seems to be guessed: is it about growth or something else? The subtext of the fable is revealed directly in its final moral maxim: high growth or high rank will not save, if the soul is low. The fable “The Fox-Builder” tells how Leo, in order to protect his chicken coop from thieves, instructed the great craftswoman, the Fox, to build it; the chicken coop is built for a feast for the eyes, but only the chickens are disappearing more than ever: the Fox “brought the structure down in such a way, / So that no one would break into it in any way, / Yes, only she left a loophole for herself.”

Developing the traditional features of the genre (the allegorism of the characters, the semantic duality of the narrative, the conflict of the situation, the moral maxim), Krylov turned his fables into small artistic masterpieces with a flexible rhythm, lively colloquial language, and humor. In addition, they allegorically, but sharply depicted specific vices of reality, which made them artistic journalism. “Each fable of Krylov was a response to contemporary events. This was precisely its new aesthetic function.

Reality clearly emerges in such well-known, textbook fables by Krylov as "Trishkin's caftan", "Demyanova's ear", "Swan, Pike and Cancer", "Wolf and Lamb", "Dragonfly and Ant", etc.

Belinsky spoke of "an inexhaustible source of Russianisms" in Krylov's fables. The capacity of the word, conciseness, naturalness of speech bring their language closer to aphorism. folk proverbs. Many well-aimed phrases and expressions from Krylov's fables entered colloquial use along with the proverbs: "Helpful fool more dangerous than the enemy”, “And Vaska listens and eats”, “Thin songs of the Nightingale in the claws of the Cat”, etc.

At the same time, truly vernacular- accurate, flexible, bright - perfectly embodied in the poetic size that Krylov wrote. He perfectly mastered iambic - this main size of Russian versification of the 19th century - and made it the basis of his fables. This required, in addition to a unique talent, a creative "cunning": Krylov refused an equal number of stressed syllables in each line. And although the founder of the Russian fable should rightly be considered Sumarokov, who created both the genre form (a live everyday scene) and the poetic one (“free”, multi-footed verse), the fable under the pen of Krylov reached a high artistic perfection.

The fabulist created paintings full of not only wisdom and authenticity, but also bright colors. “In form, most of Krylov's fables are miniature plays with all the features of a dramatic action. Let us recall at least the fables "The Wolf and the Lamb" or "Demyanov's Ear". They contain an accurate depiction of characters, a lively and witty dialogue, a rapid development of the action, and the words from the author resemble stage directions explaining the course of the action. Therefore, they have often been staged for almost two centuries.

Some of his fables are genuine paintings, full of vivid colors. His pen was compared to the master's brush: "Painting in the sounds themselves!" - admired Zhukovsky. “Everything is picturesque with him, from the depiction of nature, captivating and formidable, and even dirty, to the transfer of the slightest nuances of conversation ...,” wrote Gogol.

It was easy for artists to illustrate Krylov's fables. Many of his fables are complete pieces of music, sonorous, richly instrumented, free and easy to pronounce.

Perhaps that is why composers were so eager to set them to music. Most of the fables are excellent one-act miniature plays: sharp, vivid characters actors, lively, witty dialogue, fast paced action. Words from the author resemble stage directions, that is, explanations of actions. Aren't his "Dragonfly and Ant", "Wolf and Lamb", "Crow and Fox", "Fox and Grapes" little plays?

“The talent of a teacher is felt in all his fables. They bring up love for the fatherland, inspire a sense of civic duty, teach honesty, nobility, selflessness, respect for work, for the people. These are the lessons of life, the practical transfer of the experience and wisdom of generations.”

And therefore his fables served, serve and will serve eternal educational purposes, they are "educational", like all advanced Russian literature.

Any fable of his is a satire, and even more powerful satire, as the writer Bestuzhev-Marlinsky said; "that it is short and told with an air of innocence."

The appearance of each new Krylov's fable was a holiday for contemporaries. The new fable sounded so simple, natural, familiar, as if everyone had known it since childhood, and at the same time it was so fresh that a person who reread it for the tenth time found more and more colors in it. It seemed like an amazing mystery, some kind of magic. An ordinary word under the pen of a fabulist seemed to come to life: either it became heavy, like a heavy stone, or it turned into something weightless, like the breath of a light breeze. The word became the obedient instrument of his thought; he played with them, smashed, pricked, destroyed, caressed, unlived. “None of the poets knew how to make his thought so tangible and express himself so accessible to everyone as Krylov,” Gogol testified.

Even Lomonosov praised the beauty, sonority, accuracy and brilliance of Russian speech. Already Derzhavin penetrated the secrets of "sound-writing" and created poems similar to music. But only Krylov revealed to us all the richness of his native language.

He abandoned the artificial division of the language into high, medium and low syllables, as required by the supporters of classicism, he abandoned the refined, harmonious style of Karamzin and the archaic "true Russian" vocabulary of Shishkov. In Krylov's fables, as in life, various language styles. With amazing skill, he conveyed the slightest shades of human relations, the most diverse types and characters.

"Saint Petersburg Vedomosti" wrote: "Krylov is gone. A truly original poet, when our literature was still living on imitation, a predominantly folk poet, when the very word “nationality” was not yet used ... Krylov always had success, which none of our other poets enjoyed, because Krylov was a purely Russian poet - Russian in mind, sound, bright and powerful, Russian by unchanging good nature, Russian by playful, harmless irony, so characteristic of our people - irony, which is always accompanied by a smile of benevolence. In numerous of his works, he spoke truths to everyone and everyone, always accurate, always bitter, not offensive to anyone, precisely because they were sealed with the seal of goodwill, that there was not a drop of bile in his mockery.

It lies in the deepest nationality of Krylov's fables. Born by the wisdom and spirit of the people, they returned to the people again. “In his fables, as in a clean, polished mirror, the Russian practical mind is reflected, with its apparent slowness, but with sharp teeth that bite painfully; with his sharpness, sharpness and good-natured sarcastic mockery; with his natural fidelity to the view of objects and the ability to express himself briefly, clearly and curly at the same time. They contain all worldly wisdom, the fruit of practical experience, both their own and bequeathed by the fathers from generation to generation, ”wrote V.G. Belinsky.

V.A. Zhukovsky rightly noted that Krylov “tells freely ... He has a flexible style that he always applies to his subject: either he rises in a majestic description, or touches us with a simple image of a tender feeling, or amuses with a funny expression or turn. He is skilled in painting - having the gift of imagining his subjects very vividly, he also knows how to transfer them to the reader's imagination; each person acting in the fable has a character and image that is decent to him alone; the reader is definitely mentally present at the action that the poet describes.

Since childhood, we have known Krylov's fables. Clear, light, wise verses sink into the soul. Moral teaching - and it is necessarily present in the fable - is gradually assimilated, and the power of its influence is enormous. Fables teach to be honest, to love the Fatherland, to work for good...

The strong always blame the powerless. This expression begins the fable "The Wolf and the Lamb" (1808). The work of Ivan Krylov itself is written according to a wandering plot popular in world literature, which was addressed by the most prominent fabulists of the world: Aesop, ...

Krylov belonged to the Russian enlighteners of the 18th century, headed by Radishchev. But Krylov failed to rise to the idea of ​​an uprising against the autocracy and serfdom. He believed to improve social order can be through moral re-education ...

The events of the Patriotic War were also reflected in the fable "The Crow and the Chicken". Its interpretation is admissible in two ways: one can think that the Crow, who remained in Moscow when the French entered, is Napoleon. Dreaming of great glory and booty, the emperor "got caught like a Crow ...

In Krylov's fables - the life and customs of the Russian people, his worldly experience, folk wisdom. According to V. G. Belinsky, the fables expressed “a whole side of the Russian national spirit: the Russian practical mind ... with sharp teeth that bite painfully. In them...

The great Russian fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov wrote many of his fables in the footsteps of specific historical events. Found a warm response in his work Patriotic War 1812. Several fables were dedicated to her major events. The members themselves...

Krylov's fables have become a fundamentally new phenomenon in relation to the varieties of this genre, established in Russian literature of the 18th century - classic and sentimentalist fables. The first was created by A.P. Sumarokov and V.I. Maikov. It is characterized by a deliberate mixture of "high" and "low" syllables, designed for comic effect. The founder of the sentimentalist fable was M. N. Muravyov, and consummate master- I. I. Dmitriev. It differs from the classic "lightness", elegance, "pleasantness" of the style, which does not allow anything "low" and rude, which can offend the "enlightened taste". Both of these varieties of fables remained a purely moralistic, moralistic genre. They ridiculed universal human vices and taught lessons of an equally abstract universal “virtue”.
Having retained the main genre features of the fable - allegory, the semantic duality of the narrative, the conflict of the plot - Krylov critically portrays the very specific social vices of contemporary Russian reality.

The image of a simple-hearted and crafty narrator came to the fore in Krylov's fables, telling about the living scenes he saw, the content of which is unusually diverse - from everyday to social and philosophical and historical topics. The narrator's point of view is often hidden and does not appear directly and openly: he refers to the general opinion, to rumor, to tradition, which are expressed in proverbs and sayings. A wide stream of popular, colloquial language poured into the fable. Each character spoke in a language corresponding to his position, psychology, character. The verbal mask of the fable character has lost its conventionality. This was clearly manifested in such fables as Demyanov's Ear, The Cat and the Cook, The Peasant and the Sheep, The Wolf and the Lamb, and many others.

Neighbor called neighbor to eat; But there was another intent here: The owner loved music And lured his neighbor to listen to the singers ...

("Musicians")

Here, a Russian person laughs good-naturedly at absurdities, which also appear in a purely Russian way. And the unlucky lover of singing, and his "well done", and the deceived neighbor - everyone here is cunning, and singing, and indignant in Russian.

The morality that crowns the “Musicians” fable is, in essence, a modified proverb:

And I'll say: for me it's better to drink, Yes, understand the matter.

Even in those cases when Krylov processes traditional fable plots, in the very look at things, in the logic of the speeches and actions of the characters, in the environment surrounding them, the spiritual atmosphere generated by the national way of Russian life is captured in everything.

Krylov's fables reflected the life and customs of the people, his worldly experience, and folk wisdom. Krylov's fables can be divided into three cycles according to their content: social, moral-philosophical and everyday, or moralizing. At first, Krylov's work was dominated by translations or transcriptions of Lafontaine's famous French fables ("The Dragonfly and the Ant", "The Wolf and the Lamb"), then gradually he began to find more and more independent plots, many of which were associated with topical events in Russian life. Thus, the fables “Quartet”, “Swan, cancer and pike”, “Wolf in the kennel” became a reaction to various political events. FOLKLORE

Allegory came to literature from folklore, parables, fairy tales, especially fairy tales about animals, where traditional characters acted, such as a fox, a bear, a hare, a wolf. Each of them was obviously endowed with a certain character trait. The reception of allegory was used by the classicists, for example, in odes. Krylov combined the experience of using this technique by different literary genres into one whole. The fable ant is the personification of industriousness (“Dragonfly and Ant”), the pig is ignorance (“Pig under the Oak”), the lamb is meekness, like the “Lamb of God” (“Wolf and Lamb”).

Bright, well-aimed, lively Russian language, inseparable connection with Russian folklore, subtle humor distinguish Krylov's fables. His fables reflected the soul and wisdom of the Russian people.

10. Lyrica E.A. Baratynsky.

The work of E. Baratynsky is one of the most peculiar phenomena of the Russian romantic movement.
On the one hand, Baratynsky is a romantic, a poet of modern times, who exposed the internally contradictory, complex and bifurcated spiritual world of a contemporary person, reflecting in his work the loneliness of this person. After all, the deep social contradictions of Russian and European life, which led to the crisis of enlightenment thought and to a romantic reaction to it, did not pass by the mind of the poet. But on the other hand, this is a poet, whose works are characterized by the desire for a psychological disclosure of feelings, philosophy. If it was not typical for romantics to criticize feelings from the standpoint of reason, since they arise involuntarily and are not subject to the rational will of a person, then, according to Baratynsky, the movements human soul spiritualized, and therefore, not only reasonable, but also amenable to analysis. Unlike romantics, he prefers the truth obtained by reason, and not "dream" and "dream", which perish at the first collision with real life. The lyrical hero of Baratynsky does not escape reality into the world of dreams and dreams, most often he is sober and cold, and not passionate.
In early works, in elegies, the hero of Baratynsky not only expresses his emotions, but also analyzes, reflects; he appears as a person full of hesitation, contradictions, inner turmoil:

I am dear to you, you say
But the extra prisoner is dearer to you,
I am very dear to you, but, alas!
You and others are cute too ...
("The bait of affectionate speeches ...");
I am filled with passionate longing,
But no! I won't forget my mind...
(“To me with a noticeable rapture…”)

One of the main themes of his elegies is the collision of a lyrical hero, full of dreamy ideals, with harsh reality, with a cold life experience that only causes disappointment:

Deception has disappeared, there is no happiness! and with me
One love, one despair...
("This kiss, bestowed by you...")

The hero of his poetry can no longer entertain himself with illusions and self-deception. He looks at the world soberly and warily.
On the other hand, another key theme of Baratynsky's early lyrics can be considered an analysis of his own duality, inconsistency, and hesitation:

With longing for joy I look,
Her radiance is not for me,
And I hope in vain
In my sick soul I wake up ...
Everything seems to me: I'm happy with a mistake,
And fun does not suit me.
(“He is close, the day of rendezvous is near…”)

In his lyrics, Baratynsky is also inclined to explore the contradictions of life and death, to talk about freedom of choice and predestination. The idea that the ability to love is granted to a person from above, that God endows a person with passions sounds very clearly in his poems:

Madman! Isn't it, isn't it the will from above
Gives passion to us? And isn't it her voice
Do we hear in their voice?

And that is why he comes in his reflections to the justification of Providence:

Oh, painful for us
Life, beating with a mighty wave
And in the narrow verge squeezed by fate.
(“Why does a slave dream of freedom? ..”)

Thus, it can be concluded that early lyrics E. Baratynsky is very personal, psychological, but at the same time philosophical.
How is this synthesis of lyrics and philosophy achieved? In his work, Baratynsky primarily focuses on the semantic expressiveness of the word, its content. Hence the capacity of phrases, the depth of metaphors and generalizations, which sometimes take the form of aphorisms:

May life give joy to the living,
And death itself will teach them how to die.
("Scull")

Powerless in themselves
And, in our young years,
We make hasty vows
Funny, maybe all-seeing fate.
("Confession")

Consider the features of the artistic system and poetics of E. Baratynsky on a specific example.
disbelief
Don't tempt me unnecessarily
The return of your tenderness:
Alien to the disappointed
All the delusions of the old days!
I don't believe in assurances
I don't believe in love
And I can't surrender again
Once changed dreams!
Do not multiply my blind longing,
Do not start a word about the former
And, a caring friend, sick
Do not disturb him in his slumber!
I sleep, sleep is sweet to me;
Forget old dreams
In my soul there is one excitement,
And you will not awaken love.
At first glance, we see in this elegy the conflict of the lyrical hero with the outside world, which is characteristic of all romantics, the departure of the lyrical hero into the dream world:

...sick
Do not disturb him in his slumber!
I sleep, my sleep is sweet...

The theme of the elegy is the experiences of the lyrical hero, who experienced disappointment in this life. But on closer examination, it turns out that experiences are subject to analysis. From the first lines it becomes clear that lyrical hero, addressing a woman, she is well aware that she does not love him, this is just a whim, she does not need his sincere feelings:

Don't tempt me unnecessarily
The return of your tenderness ...

Feelings are gone, it's just an imitation. Those feelings, deep and strong, apparently, once turned out to be a deception, a dream:

And I can't surrender again
Once changed dreams!

and the lyrical hero does not want to be in this "deception" again. He is not to blame for not believing in “assurances”, “does not believe in love”, does not believe in “experienced dreams”. He just submits to the general course of life, in which happiness is impossible, true love is also impossible:

In my soul there is one excitement
And you will not awaken love.

"Excitement" instead of love. High feelings turned into a deception for him, and only some half-feelings remained. Therefore, the lyrical hero is disappointed, and the “former” only “multiplies” his already “blind longing”. The lyrical hero does not want to remember what he has experienced, since these experiences only bring him pain, so he calls himself "sick" and asks him "not to disturb" in his "drowse".

We see how throughout the poem the feeling loses its spirituality. The semantic series built in the elegy convinces us of this: tenderness - seduction - assurances - love - dreams - blind longing - sick - drowsiness - experienced dreams - one excitement. In order to build it, you need a deep analysis of your experiences. Perhaps that is why literary scholars and critics have repeatedly expressed the idea that “in Baratynsky’s elegies, a complete “history” of feeling is given, as it were, from its fullness to the disappearance and the emergence of a new emotional experience.” (V.I. Korovin)

The elegy is clearly divided into two parts. If in the first part (1.2 quatrains) the lyrical hero talks about what was, about former feelings (tenderness, love, etc.), then in the second part (3.4 quatrains) we see what has become, Or rather, what is left of these feelings. And the hero does not reflect on the past, but on what this “past” has led to (longing, drowsiness, etc.) Previous feelings are important only because they need to be understood, thought over, understood, comprehended and concluded: love is already do not return, do not "awaken".

If you pay attention to the syntax, you can see that the lyrical hero speaks of past feelings with enthusiasm, excitedly: this is evidenced by the exclamation marks that end the first two quatrains. Memories of these feelings cause a storm of emotions in the hero, but cause pain. He seems to be trying to convince or justify his current state. In the third quatrain, which also ends with an exclamation mark, the subject has already changed, but the hero has not yet calmed down, he is still under the control of emotions. And in this light, the appeal "caring friend" sounds even sarcastic. But at the end of the poem, we see that the lyrical hero is already cold and reasonable. He made a decision: he does not want to return to that deceitful world of "dreams" in which he had previously been. The lyrical hero, albeit disappointed, albeit without love, remains in the real world. And even if life without love is also “sleeping”, “drowsiness”, nevertheless the hero remains in it with his thoughts, with his “blind longing”. Therefore, at the end of the elegy there is no longer an exclamation mark, but there is a period, indicating that the last quatrain is a kind of conclusion from the previous analysis of one's own experiences.

Now the title of the poem becomes clear. To disbelieve means to deprive of confidence, to deprive of faith. Consequently, the lyrical hero ceases to believe in bright sincere feelings, in ideals, in human relationships. And he puts an end to the question of his experiences. After all, the story is told in the first person, which means that the hero speaks about his own experiences. He lost faith in the existence of happiness and chose for himself "a different path."

Thus, we can say that the very thought of the death of a genuine feeling becomes the subject of the poem. And elegiacity is achieved precisely by the fact that the logical development of the thought of the death of feelings is accompanied by a deep emotional experience.