Russian Fairy Tales Research Articles

Culture and politics of laziness, from fairy tales to Oblomov and Bartleby

The thesis of this paper is that laziness is not a psychological property of an individual subject but a collective sentiment: it is a reaction, or perhaps even a rebellion, against those who lock us within a culture that sees activity as a supreme value, often as an end in itself. Laziness is the response to those who force us to do and overdo, to give ourselves over to our occupations with zeal and constancy, total dedication and blind perseverance. So, it is not true that a lazy person does nothing, rather they do everything they can in order to not do anything. They work frantically in order to create the perfect conditions that allow them to activate their inertia. This paper tries to prove this thesis by analyzing some exemplary texts such as Goncharov's Oblomov, and linking it, upstream, with traditional Russian fairy tales and, downstream, with Melville Bartleby's famous tale.

Этнолингвистические элементы как конституенты текстовых категорий (на материале русского и немецкого языков)

The research aims to determine the extent to which the semantic blocks of ethnolinguistic elements participate in the formation of the text categories of temporality, locality, modality in the fairy-tale type of a text. Scientific novelty of the paper lies in discovering the text functions of ethnolinguistic elements for the first time. It is also the first time that the most active blocks of the ethnic elements of the Russian and German languages involved in the construction of the above-mentioned text categories in the fairy-tale type of a text have been identified and calculated mathematically. As a result of a linguistic analysis of the ethnolinguistic components of the German and Russian fairy tales, it is confirmed that the fairy-tale type of a text acts as equally valuable material both for the study of the ethnic characteristics and national worldview of the considered people and for certain text categories formation.

Towards End-to-End Natural Language Story Generation Systems

Storytelling and story generation systems usually require knowledge about the story world to be encoded in some form of knowledge representation formalism, a notoriously time-consuming task requiring expertise in storytelling and knowledge engineering. In order to alleviate this authorial bottleneck, in this paper we propose an end-to-end computational narrative system that automatically extracts the necessary domain knowledge from corpus of stories written in natural language and then uses such domain knowledge to generate new stories. Specifically, we employ narrative information extraction techniques that can automatically extract structured representations from stories and feed those representations to an analogy-based story generation system. We present the structures we used to connect two existing computational narrative systems and report our experiments using a dataset of Russian fairy tales. Specifically we look at the perceived quality of the final natural language being generated and how errors in the pipeline affect the output.

Predicting Proppian Narrative Functions from Stories in Natural Language

Computational narrative systems usually require knowledge about the story world and narrative theory to be encoded in some form of structured knowledge representation formalism, a notoriously time-consuming task requiring expertise in both storytelling and knowledge engineering. In this paper we present an approach that combines supervised machine learning with narrative domain knowledge toward automatically extracting such knowledge from natural language stories, focusing specifically on predicting Proppian narrative functions. Our experiments on a dataset of Russian fairy tales show that our system outperforms an informed baseline and that combining top-down narrative theory and bottom-up statistical models inferred from an annotated dataset increases prediction accuracy with respect to using them in isolation.

Русские народные сказки в США: в графических комментариях А. Алексеева и научном осмыслении Р. Якобсона

We analyze the graphic commentaries of Alexander Alexeieff, the illustrator and the first wave emigrant, made for The Russian Fairy tales published in the USA in 1946. We believe A. Alexeieff to have been the second to illustrate The Russian Fairy tales in the USA as Ivan Bilibin, the eminent Russian painter and book illustrator had preceded him. A. Alekseev brought his vision of artistic images to the illustration of The Russian Fairy tales, combining ancient Slavonic motives with Christian symbolism. We assume the publication also to be unique as Roman Jakobson, the well-known philologist an ancient Slavonic and Russian folklore explorer wrote the foreword to the book being cited in Russian for the first time. Having briefly considered R. Jakobson’s life and creative work, we presume it to be quite logical Jacobson to have been baptized according to the Russian Orthodox tradition, as well as to have backed up the theory of Eurasianism. From this point of view, the analyzed edition of The Russian Fairy tales is holistic in content, harmoniously combining the traditional values of the cultural heritage of the Russian world and the work of outstanding figures that developed and propagated its values and enduring significance through their works.

АПОФАТИКА БОЛЕЗНИ. ЭТОСЫ ЖИЗНИ И СМЕРТИ В СТИХОТВОРЕНИИ С. ЕСЕНИНА «ВЕЧЕР ЧЕРНЫЕ БРОВИ НАСОПИЛ…»

Subject of the article: apophatic of a disease. The article examines how the apophatic of culture is implemented through a literary work, namely, the apophatic component of a disease phenomenon is studied. Object of the article: a later poem by S.A. Yesenin “Evening Drew Together its Black Eyebrows...” Many researchers refer to this lyric text, but consider it only in the context of the book “Tavern Moscow”. However, this poem is of particular value in the cultural-philosophical understanding of the phenomenon of disease and death in the Russian version of logocentrism. Research methodology: a holistic ontohermeneutic analysis of a literary text with the use of a semantic research method.Results: the analysis of Yesenin’s later poem, identification of its ontological meaning, ethos of life and death allow raising the issue of a disease phenomenon in poetics, which is apophatic in nature, and this requires additional culturological commentary. Drawing parallels with the Russian fairy tale, turning to its otherworldly paradigm seems productive, since Russian folklore inspired the poet’s artistic life. In the Russian fairy tale, the search for “another kingdom” presupposes the resolution of the issue of temporary death and rebirth in a new capacity. The appeal to philosophical reflections on the axiological status of a disease of the German philosopher Rudolf Steiner, whose ideas were close to the representatives of the Silver Age, is also productive, since the anthroposophist highlights the apophatic side of the disease, endowing it with meaning-generating functions.

АПОФАТИКА КРАЯ В ПОЭМЕ ВАЛЕРИЯ ДУДАРЕВА «ПЕТУШКИ — КОХМА, ДАЛЕЕ НИГДЕ»

Subject of the article: apophatic of a literary work. The article examines how the apophatic of culture, the problem of hierotopy is implemented through a literary work. Object of the article: a poem of the contemporary poet V. Dudarev “Petushki – Kokhma, Further Nowhere”, consisting of thirteen short stories. Many writers openly refer to well-known literary plots, which make their works easily recognizable. However, in modern poetry there are examples of latent organic assimilation of eternal images and plots. Undoubtedly, Dudarev refers to V. Erofeev’s poem “Moscow – Petushki”, but enters into a creative dialogue-dispute with the classic, which manifests itself at the super-textual level and is associated with the search for a fatherland, home. Research methodology: a holistic analysis of literary texts in an ontohermeneutic key with the use of a semantic research method. Results:Valery Dudarev’s poem is based on the plot of a metaphysical journey and the main character finding a small homeland, a fatherland, which is apophatic in nature, and this requires additional culturological commentary. Drawing parallels with the Russian fairy tale, turning to its otherworldly paradigm seems productive, since Russian folklore is an inexhaustible apophatic source in Russian culture.

Бинарные оппозиции в концептосфере русской сказки

Бинарные оппозиции в концептосфере русской сказки

АПОФАТИКА ТЕКСТА. СОН ТАТЬЯНЫ В РОМАНЕ А.С. ПУШКИНА «ЕВГЕНИЙ ОНЕГИН»: КУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ КОММЕНТАРИЙ

The object of the article is apophatics as a phenomenon of artistic culture. The subject is the national topic in A.S. Pushkin’s works. The material for the article is the novel “Eugene Onegin”. The fifth chapter of the novel, namely Tatyana’s dream, is in the center of the hermeneutic reconstruction. Much attention is paid to the Russian folklore tradition in the novel, which is expressed both explicitly and implicitly. The research methodology is reduced to a holistic ontohermeneutical analysis aimed at highlighting the folkloric, ethnographic paradigm of this literary text, which allows addressing the issues of the creative process itself ontologically, digging into the understanding of the phenomenon of Pushkin’s “magic crystal”. Much attention is paid to the dream as a borderline state, which is equated with death. Parallels are drawn with the Russian fairy tale and folkloric account. Tatyana has semiotic thinking, and this must be taken into account by a researcher analyzing the oneiric space of "Eugene Onegin". The research results are to identify the cultural potential of the work for further study of the national topic, national existence and otherness, apophatics as a phenomenon of Russian culture associated with the phenomenon of death. The research results can also be used in teaching courses on Russian literature of the 19th century, cultural studies, philosophy.

Russian folk tale

The article presents different types of fairy tales: magic, everyday and animal tales. The tale is a rich folklore genre. The article also includes the words of our great writers about the fairy tale. Human motives are described in the Russian fairy tale. Influence of a fairy tale, its impact on the development of literature. The fairy tale has a pronounced character. A fairy tale reflects the cultural heritage of mankind, sifting out the superficial, unimportant for centuries. She carefully preserves the particles of the truly valuable. This creates a measured epic rhythm, a philosophical tonality, and restrains the dynamic swiftness of plot action. Lomonosov wrote that, thanks to fantastic fiction, an ordinary and natural idea, that is, the truth of life is expressed more strongly than if the story was carried out without fiction.

АПОФАТИКА КУЛЬТУРЫ В ПОЭМЕ Н.А. НЕКРАСОВА «КОМУ НА РУСИ ЖИТЬ ХОРОШО»: НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЕ БЫТИЕ И ИНОБЫТИЕ

The object of the article is apophatics as a cultural phenomenon. The subject is the national topic in the works by N. A. Nekrasov, this year they celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. The material for the article is the poem “Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia?”. The ethoses of life and death are hermeneutically reconstructed in the work. Much attention is paid to the Russian folklore tradition in the poem, which was expressed both explicitly and implicitly. The research methodology is reduced to a holistic onto-hermeneutic analysis aimed at highlighting the folklore, ethnographic paradigm of this literary text. Much attention is paid to a path-road mythologeme. Parallels are drawn with the Russian fairy tale, which is characterized by an otherworldly paradigm, the search for “another kingdom”. The research results are to identify the cultural potential of the poem for the further study of the national topic, national existence and otherness,apophatics as a phenomenon of Russian culture associated with the phenomenon of death. The results of the work can also be used in teaching courses in Russian literature, cultural studies, philosophy.

Positive heroes of Russian and Chinese fairy tales (contrastive aspect)

Positive heroes of Russian and Chinese fairy tales (contrastive aspect)

Ictional personification in russian and Chinese Folk Fairy Tales

Ictional personification in russian and Chinese Folk Fairy Tales

Dialogue of Cultures: Russian and Chinese Fairy Tales

Dialogue of Cultures: Russian and Chinese Fairy Tales

«ЩЕГОЛ» НА ВОСТОЧНОЕВРОПЕЙСКОМ ПЕРЕКРЕСТКЕ: «РУССКИЕ» ПОДТЕКСТЫ РОМАНА ДОННЫ ТАРТТ

Attention to the western reception of Eastern Europe has been relevant for several centuries, but it is especially characteristic of the turn of the 21st century. The inertia of the Cold War is still felt in popular culture: evil is essentialized in the images of Russia/Eastern Europe and Russians/Eastern Europeans every time. Another tradition prefers to create the image of a Russian relying on the harmless, inactive characters of Russian fairy tales and novels, such as Emelya and Oblomov. Russia itself is often not named or portrayed in films and texts; it is replaced by Eastern Europe, Siberia, and fictional cities. The article highlights the main characteristics of the Eastern European text according to Larry Wolff: remoteness, coldness, savagery, passionateness, ambivalence, theatricality, frightening suspense. Eastern European images by the contemporary American writer Donna Tartt (Boris Pavlikovsky and other Slavs in her novel The Goldfinch) are compared with the interpretation of such images in the popular culture and by the writers of the 20th century (in William Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge). In Tartt’s novel, we encounter heroes who are not just interested in Russia and Russians/Eastern Europeans, but are literally fascinated by them, trying to learn the language, study Russian literature. It has been suggested that Fyodor Dolokhov from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, one of the key novels in the world literary tradition, could be the prototype for a significant number of Eastern European images. This ambivalent image combines all the main characteristics of the Eastern European text and allows both negative (most often) and positive (with careful consideration of the plots and characteristics) interpretations. For example, coldness, winter, blizzard can be considered as negative characteristics (especially considering some connotations), but, in the classic novel, which is also oriented towards Dickens, they are naturally connected with the Christmas theme of the miraculous elimination of contradictions, the fabulous resolution of all problems, and transformation. Therefore, it is not surprising that the “code” of the character is repeated, from name to separate themes and motifs. The characteristics Wolff lists – robbery, philosophizing, masquerading, duality – generate both repulsion and attraction. It is possible that the positive perception of Eastern Europe is rooted in the approach to the theme through the prism of literature and literary criticism. Tartt as a philologist is expectedly more influenced by modern literary theory inspired by the formalists, Propp, Bakhtin, Jakobson, and Lotman, than by political clichés.

Сакрализация визуальных образов прошлого в открытке советского времени: история и мифология

The paper addresses the illustrated postcard of the Soviet era as a means of representing the heroes of Russian history. It is noted that the processes of sacralization of certain characters significant in a specific cultural and historical context, understood in a broad sense, occurred in several directions — creation of the myth of the “hero of the people”, the myth of a leader, as well as the reinterpretation of folklore and mythological plots. The images of folk heroes were associated with people's liberation movements, or feats committed during current events, such as the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. Another key section of the visualization of history using a postcard came to be the creation of mythotexts dedicated to the leaders of the state, primarily V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin. Along with the real historical characters, the heroes of Russian fairy tales and epics were used in the creation of a historical picture. The study shows how, using a postcard, elements of the visual image of the hero were formed, highlighting how illustrated postcard acted as an ideal means of broadcasting and animation of visual images, a tool for creating stable visual clichés. The author comes to the conclusion that in the case of a historical postcard, the compensatory function of culture was carried out — the replacement of the religious system of values with a set of sacralized images of a different origin — as well as that the postcard of the Soviet era may be considered at present as an artifact of historical memory and a significant visual source of historical information.

Lexico-grammatical features of the adapted Russian fairy tale as a folklore genre

Lexico-grammatical features of the adapted Russian fairy tale as a folklore genre

FEATURES OF THE TRANSLATION OF RUSSIAN DIALECTISMS INTO VIETNAMISE (ВАSED ON THE VOCABULARY OF RUSSIAN FOLK FAIRY TALES)

Summary. The purpose of this study is a systemic comparative analysis of Russian and Vietnamese folklore and the development, based on such an analysis, of proposals for optimization, unification and systematization of methods of Russian into Vietnamese translation. The object of the analysis is the dialectisms found in Russian folk tales. The subject of the research is the general and specific characteristics of Russian and Vietnamese folklore and fairytale onomasticons and the ways of transferring Russian folklore and fairytale dialectisms into the Vietnamese language. The work uses a complex method of linguistic analysis, including a descriptive method, a method of contextual and comparative analysis, a method of statistical analysis. As a result of the analysis, we have established that the techniques used in translating Russian fairy-tales into Vietnamese are very diverse. The translator must know how to apply flexibly various translation techniques, so that, on the one hand, not to lose the original meaning of the tale, and on the other hand, to present it, taking into account the picture of the world of the two peoples. Analysis of the existing Russian into Vietnamese transmission of folklore and fairy-tale proper names revealed its disorder: translators do not have unity in their approaches to the transmission of derivatives of their own names. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using these materials in the university course of RFL, as a separate special course on translation skills, as well as in the process of teaching specialist translators. These conclusions and recommendations can be used in the practical activities of translators of Russian folklore into Vietnamese and other foreign languages.

“Friend-or-foe” opposition and its implementation through the concepts “house” and “forest” in Russian fairy-tale discourse

Researches of the discursive analysis become more and more significant sphere of linguistics. Both forest and house act as two main and never identical worlds. The fundamental conceptual opposition of fairy-tale discourse is based on the concepts of house and forest, fundamental opposite worlds. The purpose of the article is to examine the two concepts as crucial components of friend-or-foe opposition, and to reveal features of their representation in Russian linguistic culture. During the research, the author used descriptive, inductive and cultural-historical methods. The research showed that the concepts of forest and house are key components of fairy-tale discourse, have nationally specific features in Russian fairy-tales revealed in the texts. The theoretical relevance of the article lies in the fact that contributes to working out the problem of national worldview representation and Russian ethnos mentality. The practical relevance of the article consists in possibility of using its materials in the process of teaching, while compiling lectures, guides for teachers, seminars on fairy-tale discourse. A role of house and forest for Slavic people is really significant. Besides, the results of the study show the necessity of further analysis of fairy-tale discourse, more detailed description of the concepts and their comparison with the concepts of other national fairy-tales.

Russian And Tatar Fairy-Tales as A Means of Language Learning

Reading fairy tales aloud is a great way to improve the pronunciation of your language, as they are meant to be spoken and heard by others. By offering an interesting and novel topic for class discussion, which could encourage shyer or more creative students to speak up, they can also improve the speaking skills of students. During the study, polling methods, interviews, and content analysis were used. It has been found that more consideration was given to the conflict itself in Russian fairy-tales, and to pre-conflict and post-conflict – in Tatar fairy-tales. The predominant behavioural strategy is a confrontation; the most successful tactics are cunning, fleeing from the place of conflict and reliance on a support group. Little attention is given to the emotions of the characters. In general, the fairy-tales examined to provide a limited set of conflict management practices. However, the combination of Russian and Tatar fairy-tales significantly enriches it.