THE FIRST WORK BY E.M. MELETINSKY CONCERNING THE HERO OF FAIRY TALE

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-151
Author(s):  
Natalia Yu. Kostenko ◽  

The article considers the history of creation of a previously unpublished work by E.M. Meletinsky, preceding the first draft of his doctorate thesis and monograph “The hero of fairy tale”. A typewritten copy of it was preserved among the documents seized during the scholar’s second arrest in 1949 and later donated to the library of Petrozavodsk University. During his time as a post-graduate student in the Central Asian University (then-name of National University of Uzbekistan) Meletinsky was already interested in historical poetics and folklore studies. That resulted in the “Fairytale plots in question about their everyday meaning” article. The fact that it was the first ever Meletinsky’s work on fairy tales is obvious not only from the documents and memoirs of Meletinsky himself, but from the very structure of the article: in the first chapters the author, taking a problem posed by A.N. Veselovsky in “The poetics of plots” – “to check Russian data about the third sibling, the little fool, the cinderwench against other people’s fairy tales” – as a basis, dwells extensively the motif of the youngest sibling in world fairy tales and the history of studying it, but in the last chapter he moves to the analysis of another motif – the tales about a “poor orphan”. Namely that motif, being in stadia way older, takes centre stage not only in the 1948 thesis, but in all of Meletinsky’s works on fairy tales prior to the second arrest, both published and unpublished.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
Yang Yubing ◽  

The article discusses "the power of stone” in the tales by P. P. Bazhov on the example of iconic stones of the Ural lytic culture: malachite, emerald, chrysolite. Using the method of cultural-historical, ideological-figurative and symbolic-contextual analysis, the author examines the history of the discovery of the stone riches of the Urals, the place of lytic discourse in the world of Bazhov’s tales, as well as the specific symbolism of gemstones (malachite, copper emerald, chrysolite) in the writer’s fantastic work. This is the relevance of the study. The author of the work proves the ambivalent nature of malachite as the main stone of the Ural mountains, symbolizing the beauty of the Mistress-Malachite, copper emerald, embodying the absolute power of the “stone force”, embodying the secret wealth of the mountains, inaccessible to ordinary mortals, like the secret of the stone flower. The third stone that embodies the lytic power of the Ural Mountains is the Bazhov chrysolite. The article consistently examines the evolution of Bazhov’s “iconic” stones in the writer’s artistic world during the transition from fairy tales depicting the pre-revolutionary life of the Urals to fairy tales depicting the realities of the revolutionary and Soviet Urals. It can be said that by depicting the evolution of the “stone power” of the main Ural gems, Bazhov prepared the ground for depicting the lytic discourse of the tales of the new Urals. In these tales, along with real stones, such as the eagle stone from the tale Eagle feather or “sun stone” - plagioclase from the same tale, mystical and semi - mystical stones will be used: “at all simple, on five faces” stone key of the earth (the fairy tale Key of the Earth, “patient stone” (the fairy tale Distant little body). The article will be of interest to all humanitarians working with the symbolism of stones in Russian literature of the XIX-XX centuries. Keywords: P. P. Bazhov, tales, “power of stone”,malachite, emerald, chrysolite


Author(s):  
Jack Zipes

This book explores the legacy of the Brothers Grimm in Europe and North America, from the nineteenth century to the present. The book reveals how the Grimms came to play a pivotal and unusual role in the evolution of Western folklore and in the history of the most significant cultural genre in the world—the fairy tale. Folklorists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm sought to discover and preserve a rich abundance of stories emanating from an oral tradition, and encouraged friends, colleagues, and strangers to gather and share these tales. As a result, hundreds of thousands of wonderful folk and fairy tales poured into books throughout Europe and have kept coming. The book looks at the transformation of the Grimms' tales into children's literature, the Americanization of the tales, the “Grimm” aspects of contemporary tales, and the tales' utopian impulses. It shows that the Grimms were not the first scholars to turn their attention to folk tales, but were vital in expanding readership and setting the high standards for folk-tale collecting that continue through the current era. The book concludes with a look at contemporary adaptations of the tales and raises questions about authenticity, target audience, and consumerism. The book examines the lasting universal influence of two brothers and their collected tales on today's storytelling world.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Emma Louise Parfitt ◽  
Emine Erdoğan ◽  
Heidi Fritz ◽  
Peter M. Ward ◽  
Emma Parfitt ◽  
...  

The conversation piece is the product of a group interview with Professor Jack Zipes and provides useful insights about publishing for early career researchers across disciplines. Based on his wider experiences as academic and writer, Professor Zipes answered questions from PhD researchers about: writing books, monographs and edited collections; turning a PhD thesis into a monograph; choosing and approaching publishers; and the advantages of editing books and translations. It presents some general advice for writing and publishing aimed at postgraduate students. Professor Zipes is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, United States, a world expert on fairy tales and storytelling highlighting the social and historical dimensions of them. Zipes has forty years of experience publishing academic and mass-market books, editing anthologies, and translating work from French, German and Italian. His best known books are Breaking the Magic Spell (1979), Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983), The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012), and The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (2014).


Humanities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Rebekah Slodounik

Written in 1941, while she was living in exile in Mexico, and published in 1944 in Mexico and the United States, Anna Seghers’ novel Transit replicates on a formal level an experience of displacement, statelessness, and exile. In the following analysis, I examine Transit as a text of forced migration. Several features of the novel attempt to produce an experience of displacement: the narrative situation, the incorporation of descriptions that place the events of World War II into a longer history of forced migration, and the use of references to the genre of the fairy tale. The descriptions that engage with past forced migration and displacement attempt to universalize the historical specificities of the time period, whereas the references to fairy tales generate a sense of timelessness associated with this genre. Through these strategies, Seghers’ novel itself attempts to displace time. Seghers situates Transit within a long history of forced migration and exile, in which the categories that are often used to define and divide populations—such as nationality, ethnicity, and religion—are in flux. By emphasizing the role of mistaken identity, Seghers destabilizes the concept of immutable identities in a period of upheaval and transition.


Author(s):  
М. М. Barna ◽  
L. S. Barna

In 2021, the Chernivtsi publishing house «Bukrek» published a book of memoirs of a famous Ukrainian scientist, physiologist, plant biochemist and ecologist, academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, doctor of biological sciences, professor, honoured worker of science and technology of Ukraine, honorary doctor of law of the University of Saskatchewan (Canada, 2010), former rector of Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University – Stepan Stepanovych Kostyshyn – «Stepan Kostyshyn. The melody of the old physharmonica. Life at the turn of centuries.». The book of memoirs is dedicated to the life and creative career of its author, his ups and downs, losses and victories. Stepan Kostyshyn wrote his book to parents, fellow villagers from the village of Zvyniach, Ternopil region, and graduates of Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. Young Stepan Kostyshyn dreamed of becoming a geologist, but fate decided otherwise and in 1950 he became a student of the Agrobiology Department of the Faculty of Biology of Chernivtsi University. Work in a student research group, qualified lecturers instilled in the gifted student a thirst for knowledge and scientific research, and six years after graduation from the university Stepan Kostyshyn became a post-graduate student of the Department of Plant Physiology. The scientific supervisor of the young post-graduate student was a well-known scientist, Professor Molotkovskyi H. Kh. After defending his Candidate's dissertation, Stepan Stepanovych began his teaching and research activities at the university, firstly at the Department of Botany, later – Plant Physiology; he headed the problematic research laboratory of plant heterosis, and he worked as Vice Rector for Research for 15 years. In 1987, for the first time on a competitive basis, Kostyshyn S. S. was elected as a rector of Chernivtsi University and headed this famous university for 18 years. The life of two world geniuses of genetic science – Erwin Chargaff and Mykola Vavilov – is connected with the city of Chernivtsi. The world-famous discoverer of the DNA structure – the most outstanding discovery of the twentieth century – Erwin Chargaff was born on August 11, 1905 in the city of Chernivtsi and lived there until the First World War. And Mykola Vavilov, who gave the world the concept of centres of origin of cultivated plants and the law of homologous series of hereditary variability, ended his life in our city. This was his last expedition devoted to the search for relict spelt. From there he was taken directly to the NKVD cell in Lubianka. The author of the book was directly involved in perpetuating the memory of these world-famous scientists. The reviewed book will be extremely interesting for young people as life and the creative career of S. S. Kostyshyn is an example of how one’s hard work can bring great success in science and professional activity. It is of great interest to biologists, lecturers of higher educational establishments, as it contains invaluable information about the development of biological science in Bukovyna, the main milestones of the leading university of Ukraine – Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. In the book of memoirs, the author successfully interweaves events from his own biography in the outline of the development of Bukovyna University.


Author(s):  
Надежда Степановна Коровина

В данной статье предпринята попытка на основе конкретного сказочного сюжета о Безручке (СУС 706) исследовать особенности взаимодействия фольклорных произведений народов, не родственных этнически, но тесно общаюшихся на протяжении длительного времени и имеющих близкие культурные традиции. При рассмотрении данного вопроса использовалась методика сравнительного анализа, позволяющая установить, каким образом международный сказочный сюжет становится культурным достоянием народа коми, т. е. прояснить историю национального сказочного репертуара. В процессе анализа коми сказок о Безручке выявлено сходство с русскими вариантами в области содержания, в типах героев и способах их создания, развитии действия и последовательности эпизодов. В результате автор приходит к выводу о том, что сюжет о Безручке (СУС 706) заимствован у русских. Одновременно в статье отмечен тот факт, что рассмотренные варианты коми сказок имеют свою специфику и не создают впечатления однообразия. Это происходит за счет того, что постоянные элементы, представляющие композиционный стержень сюжета, во-первых, обрастают своеобразными деталями, которые придают повествованию национальный колорит. Именно в них отражается быт, привычки, обычаи народа коми. Во-вторых, своеобразие каждого варианта во многом зависят от индивидуального стиля, степени исполнительского мастерства, творческой манеры, отношения к данному сюжету того или другого исполнителя. В-третьих, именно в отдельных его вариантах сказываются социальные, временные различия, в совокупности своей отражающие исторические изменения сказки In this article an attempt is made on the basis of a specific fairy-tale story about «The Maiden without Hand» (CIP 706) to explore the features of the interaction of folk works of peoples who are not related ethnically, but who closely communicated for a long time and have close cultural traditions. When regarding this issue, we consider it appropriate to use the methodology of comparative analysis, since it is the comparative study of Russian and Komi variants of the fairy-tale plot that allows us to establish how the international fairy-tale plot becomes the cultural heritage of the Komi people, to clarify the history of the national fairy-tale repertoire. In all analyzed Komi tales about the Maiden without hand there is a similarity with the Russian variants in the development of the action, the sequence of episodes, the type of characters, their characteristics, the common ideological content. The structural and typological analysis allows us to conclude that the plot about «The Maiden without hand» (CIP 706) was borrowed from the Russians. However, the considered variants of Komi fairy tales do not create the impression of monotony because the constant elements that represent the compositional core, firstly, acquire peculiar details that give the narrative a national flavor. They reflect the life, habits and customs of the Komi people. Secondly, the originality of each option depends largely on the individual style, the degree of performing skills, creative manner, attitude to the story of a particular artist. Thirdly, it is in its individual options where the impact of class, time differences manifest themselves reflecting the historical changes of the tale.


Author(s):  
Ovkhad A. Dzhambekov ◽  
◽  
Vakha S. Rasumov ◽  

In the article reveals the characteristic features of the Chechen literary tale. There is considered the question of the legality of distinguishing a fairy tale as a literary genre. Analyzing the history of the formation of the Chechen literary fairy tale, the authors note the structural similarity between folk and literary fairy tales, as well as the nature of the use of folklore motives by writers, which expand the genre palette of literary fairy tales.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-166
Author(s):  
Yana V. Nagornaya ◽  

The article presents a critical review of research works on the topic “Folklore-literary interaction in the creative activity of A.M. Remizov” published in Russian. The study of the topic has been conducted mainly within the framework of literary criticism. Meanwhile, for a writer known for his commitment to preservation and innovative approach to traditional literary genres, folklore is one of the dominant sources of creativity. Currently, Remizov studies cannot boast of generalizing works on folklorism in the writer’s creative activity and on the influence of oral folk art genres on his artistic system, so one of the aims of the article is to attract scholarly interest to the issue and stimulate further research in this area. The publication gives a brief description of the current state of research on the problem, identifies the main vectors of its consideration and reveals the academic lacunae. The author analyzes the works, which deal with the creative heritage from the point of view of folklore studies and address the problems of the typology of folklorism and mythologism of the writer, clarify the range of folklore sources and the specificity of working with them, as well as the role and function of the author’s comments on the miniatures of Posoloni. These notes to the texts were created under the influence of a literary scandal related to the accusation of the writer of plagiarism. The assessment of the events around this incident by specialists in Remisov studies and folklorists does not coincide, the article outlines prospects for further research. The author undertakes a detailed description of the influence of the texts of calendar rite, spiritual verses, fairy tale, conspiracy-spell tradition, folk drama, children’s folklore and Russian folk pictures on the writer’s creative activity. For the first time, the author poses a hypothesis about the possible influence of the aesthetics of rayok (“World Cosmorama”) on the work of A. M. Remizov by the example of the fairy-tale novella “What is Tobacco”, which which depicts the reformatting of the apocryphal model by artistic means of lubok and rayok. The analysis of numerous studies made it possible for the author of the article to conclude that the writer’s creative activity does not only reflect the real diversity of folklore genres but also such specific features of them as oral format and variability. The results of the study can be used in the design of the course of the history of Russian literature and folklore studies of the beginning of the early 20th century, in the studies dealing with folklore-literary interaction, and in popularization and publication of folklore texts.


Author(s):  
Pauline Greenhill

Films incorporating fairy-tale narratives, characters, titles, images, plots, motifs, and themes date from the earliest history of the cinema, beginning with director Georges Méliès’s Le manoir du diable made in 1896, the year after Auguste and Louis Lumière’s first public showing of their “cinematograph” in Paris in 1895. Fairy tales can be oral (told by people in different geographical locations and at various historical times up to the present) and/or literary (created by known authors) in origin, but they manifest in numerous media, including film. While the Disney formula of innocent persecuted heroines, handsome princes, and happy-ever-afters has dominated popular understandings of such narratives (at least in the English-speaking world), fairy tales need not contain these elements. They concern the fantastic, the magical, the dark, the dreamy, the wishful, and the wonderful. Short and feature length, animated and live action, produced in film stock, video, and digital formats, fairy-tale films have appeared in movie theaters and more recently on television and computer screens. Using Kevin Paul Smith’s classification for literary fairy tales, fairy-tale filmic intertexts can include explicit reference in the title—for example, Duane Journey’s Hansel & Gretel Get Baked (2013); implicit reference in the title—for example, Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s Mirror Mirror (2012); explicit incorporation into the text—as when Micheline Lanctôt’s Le piège d’Issoudun (2003) includes a play of “The Juniper Tree”; implicit incorporation into the text—as when Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) has the mechanical child David’s human mother abandon him in the woods, as do Hansel and Gretel’s parents; discussing fairy tales, as in the “Once Upon a Crime” episode of the American television show Castle (2009–2016), when the writer and police talk about what fairy tales really mean; and invoking fairy-tale chronotopes (settings and/or environments)—as in the portions of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) set in the heroine Ofelia’s father’s magical kingdom. Alternatively, filmmakers may re-vision a story, sometimes with new spin, as when Matthew Bright’s Freeway 2 (1999) relocates “Hansel and Gretel” to 1990s America, with two delinquent teen girls fleeing to Mexico, or may create an entirely new tale—like Pan’s Labyrinth, not based on any specific previous literary or traditional fairy tale. This article focuses on the cinema—movies made for theatrical and/or video release—but draws on television and Internet films when they offer telling illustrations. Most examples are from English-language media. Although classic works like director Jean Cocteau’s La belle et la bête (1946) have received considerable attention from cinema studies and the fairy-tale structural analysis of Vladimir Propp (1968) has greatly influenced film analysis, only since the beginning of the 21st century has fairy-tale scholarship merged with film scholarship. Scholars of fairy-tale film often consider adaptation and intermediality in cinematic versions of tales. This article uses the example of director Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s The Fall (2007), which draws on and references fairy-tale magic to collapse, expand, and generally fictionalize time and space to invoke the postmodern and postcolonial as well as the transnational and transcultural.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lykissas

Fairy tales have a long history of providing educational morals for young women, particularly children. The lessons from older fairy tales have long influenced the metanarratives regarding how women should act in our culture and contemporary versions are no different. Contemporary adaptations of these fairy tales, however, have moved the genre beyond restrictive metanarratives and are now offering new solutions to 21st-century problems like authoritarian rulers. In Marissa Meyers’ Lunar Chronicle series (2012–2015), the characters interact and work together to overcome the villain. This collaborative fairy tale is a new type of fairy tale adaptation in which the characters work together instead of focusing on their individual happily-ever-afters. My article uses postmodern and feminist literary theories along with close-reading literary analysis to examine how this young adult series shows how young adult literature has become political and is able to address adult problems in ways that are easier to process for younger readers. I focus on how the series uses the character of Levana to examine how authoritarian rulers maintain control over the populace, in order to show how the characters then work together to overthrow Levana to free the people from her oppression. This series uses collaboration to show the reader how to resolve possible problems within their own lives. Working in community then becomes as a solution for young adults who may feel disenfranchised or lonely in our increasingly divisive world. Cooperation also becomes a transgressive move against the tendency to become segregated from those around us.


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