Artistic system of the children’s poetic folklore of Dagestan

Abstract

The subject of this research is the artistic system of children's folklore of Dagestan. Based on the analysis the example of cradlesongs, play poetry, and calendar songs, the author determines their thoughtful humanistic and democratic motif, high ideological focus, and aesthetic perfection. The article covers the ideological, thematic and artistic content, and highlights the archaic elements of cradlesong poetry, which enjoys most popularity among other genres of the poetic folklore. The author’s special contribution consists in explication of specificity of artistic means and aesthetic foundations of the folk worldview and culture reflected in folk poetry; as well as in analysis of compositions of various folklore genres as the elements of single literary system, which indicates their focus on labor, strong ideals of patriotism, kindness and continuity throughout the entire social practice of the people. The oriented towards a young developing individual, children's poetic folklore reconstructs the work and life experience in a form comprehensible to a child. This is why were created the cradlesongs, nursery rhymes, games that involved poetry, and all these word-creating activities, which in their centuries-long evolution led to higher imagery, infused and gifted each upcoming generation truly humanistic values. Children's poetic folklore that reflects the questions of folk pedagogy based on life experience of the mountaineers, had a major impact upon the development Dagestan children's literature.