The plan of the research
Our topic is devoted to study of special features of national culture of British and Russian people through folk- tales. It's rather interesting to find the similarity and difference in them in order to understand the spiritual relations between our countries.
Reading English tales we began understanding that we had some common plots in that genre. So we started finding out the similar moments and as the saying goes our discoveries were not a long time waiting.
The urgency of our work is explained with the fact that we don't pay attention to the exceptional role of folklore and its sources with the purpose of mutual understanding of people of different nations.
The object of study is folk - tales which give us the idea about the culture of Russian and British people.
The aim of our work is the description of national, specific peculiarities of folk - tales. What is common in Russian and British tales? What is the difference?
We use the research method in our work in order to put the idea about the peculiarities of national culture through folk - tales into practice.
We have compared works of folk art and found a lot of common details and this fact gives us evidence about the common cultural roots.
The information touched upon in this research work can be used at the lessons English, Literature by the teachers of our school, as well as at the lessons of primary school. We think that the information obtained to this work could be very useful for our class.
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT FAIRY TALES
A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants and talking animals, and usually enchants, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events. Fairy tales are found in oral folktales and in literary form. The history of the fairy is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre.
. The genre itself was first marked out by writers of the Renaissance, who began to define a genre of tales, and became stabilized through the works of many writers, becoming an unquestioned genre in the works of the Brothers Grimm. In this evolution, the name was coined when the precieuses took up writing literary stories; Madame d' Aulnoy invented the term contes de fee, or fairy tales. Prior to the definition of the genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales", including Tolkien's " The Hobbit", George Orwell's " Animal Farm" and L.Frank Baum's " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although fantasy, particularly in sub-genre fairytales fantasy, draws heavily on fairy tale motifs, the genres are now regarded as distinct.
It's rather interesting that the oral tradition of fairy tale came long before the written page. Tales were told or enacted dramatically, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this, the history of their development is necessarily obscure. The oldest known written fairy tales stem from ancient Egypt, c.1300 BC, and fairy tales appear, now and again, in written literature throughout literature cultures, as in "The Golden Ass, or the Panchatantra, but it is unknown to what extent these reflect the actual folk tales even of their own time. The stylistic evidence indicates that these, and many later collections, reworked folk tales into literature forms. What they do show is that the fairy tale has ancient roots, older than the "Arabian Nights" collection of magical tales.
In contemporary literature, many authors have used the form of fairy tales for various reasons, such as examining the human condition from the simple framework a fairytale provides. Some authors seek to recreate a sense of the fantastic in a contemporary discourse. Some writers use fairy tale forms for modern issues; this can include using the psychological dramas implicit in the story, as when Robin McKinley retold" Donkeyskin" as the novel" Deerskin", with emphasis on the abusive treatment the father of the tale dealt to his daughter. Sometimes, especially in children's literature, fairy tales are retold with a twist simply for comic effect, such as "The Stinky Cheese Man "by Jon Scieszka. A common comic motif is a world where all the fairy tales take place, and the characters are aware of their role in the story, such as in the film series "Shrek"
One interesting use of the genre occurred in a military technology journal named "Defense AT and L, which published an article in the form of a fairytale titled "Optimizing Bi- Modal Signal\ Noise Ratios. Written by Maj. Dan Ward (USAF), the story uses a fairy named Garble to represent breakdowns in communication between operators and technology developers. Ward's article was heavily influenced by George MacDona
Fairy tales have been enacted dramatically; records exist of this in commedia dell'arte, and later in pantomime. The advent of cinema has meant that such stories could be presented in a more plausible manner, with the use of special effects and animation; the Disney movie "Snow White and Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 was a ground- breaking film for fairy tales and, indeed, fantasy in general. Disney's influence helped establish this genre as children's movies, despite the fact that "Snow White", as well as the company's other early feature-length films, were originally intented for adults as well, and has been blamed for simplification of fairy tales ending in situations where everything goes right, as opposed to the pain and suffering and sometimes unhappy endings of many folk fairy tales.
Many filmed fairy tales have been made primarily for children, from Disney's later works to Aleksandr Rou's retelling of "Vasilissa the Beatiful", the first Soviet film to use Russian folk tales in a big-budget feature. Others have used the conventions of fairy tales to create new stories with sentiments more relevant to contemporary life, as in "Labyrinth" and the films by Michel Ocelot.
Other works are retold familiar fairy tales in a darker, more horrific or psychological variant aimed primarily at adults. Notable examples are Jean Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Company of Wolves, based on an Angela Carter's retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood". Likewise, "Princess Mononoke" and "Pan's Labyrinth" create new stories in this genre from fairy tale and folklore motifs.
ENGLISH FAIRY - TALES
English fairy - tales give us a chance to get to know about the traditions, culture of this country.
They differ from the tales of other countries as they seem rather simple but they hide some serious problems. Englishmen try to solve these problems with the help of their mythology. Their fairy world is thought thoroughly and looks highly real. It's a distinctive feature of English tales. Their main characters live near them.
One of the most popular characters is a child. This child fights with difficulties and withstands adults who prevent him. There are a lot of fairies about Jack, the son of a poor widow. Sometimes he is lucky and bright ("Jack is a giants' conqueror"), sometimes he is lazy and fool ("Lazy Jack")
Of course, there are well - known plots with animals or birds in tales. They teach people to distinguish kindness from evil, to help weak persons. The representatives of evil are wolves and foxes and the representatives of kindness are cats or hens. Anticharecters are made fun as sometimes they get into some comic situations.
One of the distinctive features of English fairies is appending one episode on another and repeating them many times. This method increases actions and leads to the culmination and denouement.
The absolute consistency of events creates a fairy time where characters overcome difficulties to be happy. There is one special feature as their denouement is often sad. Unlike Russian tales "they lived happily and long" their fairies describe the parting or their ordinary life.
The beginning of tales is different too. Unlike Russian fairies "zhili byli; ya tam byl" English ones describe real situation.
RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES
Russian fairy - tales are a product of a very ancient, pagan time. The talkers of this genre who lived in the 11th, 12th or even in the 17th centuries were persecuted by the clergy. These talkers were called "bayunami", "bayanami, "bakharaymi" The plot, the characters were not the result of people's imagination. The tales reflected the life and manners of that ancient period.
When people went shooting and were busy with cattle - farms to survive there were tales about animals. The struggle with wild animals was very dangerous and a man felt weak himself because of his bad weaponry. So, people imagined those animals very strong and powerful. They believed that a man could turn into a wolf or a bear. To change the position when a man was weaker than an animal, people began composing fairies. The main characters were a fox, a wolf, a bear, a dog, a goat, a bull, a hare, a horse, a cock as people knew them very well. The fox and the wolf were the most popular characters. The fox was cunning, treacherous and these features helped her to be stronger than other animals. People called her" kuma - Lisa, Lisichka- sistrichka,Lisa - Patrikeevna" and so on. As for the wolf, this character was greedy, cruel and foolish.
People of that time could not explain the alternation of night and day, seasons; they could not explain natural phenomenon and they composed tales. For example, in the tale about Ivan Veter, Dozhd, Grom got married to three sisters. Grom taught Ivan to thunder, Dozhd taught him to rain and Veter taught to blow. The changing of seasons (autumn/winter) was represented by monsters such as Zmeya, Moroz, Kashchei, Baba - Yaga. The positive heroes reanimated their girls and it meant that our nature came to life (spring/summer)/ Baba Yaga was a witch who knew the past and the future. She knew where the beauty had been hidden. Sometimes she helped with advice or she gave her magic ball. Kashchei Bessmertny was a monster who kidnapped girls.
There were tales about people's way of life. They were about the marriage of relatives, a stepdaughter and her stepmother, the younger brother and his older ones, the tale about the truth or "krivda".
RUSSIAN TALES IN COMPARISON WITH ENGLISH ONES
As our aim is to compare Russian and English fairy - tales and the subject of my research is to find common and distinctive features in them we have prepared a table to demonstrate these facts.
I took two tales:"Volk and semero kozlyat" in Russian and" Three pigs" in English to establish the similarity and distinction in them.
|
Elements of tales |
Russian tales |
English tales |
|
Characters |
|
|
|
Characters |
A wolf( a wild animal)
|
A wolf( a wild animal)
|
|
Antithesis (strong - weak) |
The wolf - kids |
The wolf - pigs |
|
Animals |
Speak and think |
Speak and think |
|
Help |
A blackswith helps the wolf to change his voice |
Build houses themselves |
|
Problems |
The wolf wants to eat the kids.
|
The wolf wants to eat pigs.
|
|
Speech |
_ |
_ |
|
Address |
Mummy, kiddies |
Mummy, children |
|
Exclamation sentences |
The goat's song; kids' speech |
The wolf's and pigs' speech |
|
The place of actions |
|
|
|
Forest for strong character |
The wolf |
The bad wolf |
|
House for weak character |
The kids and his mother |
Pigs |
|
Composition |
|
|
|
The beginning of the tale (зачин) |
Жила-была коза с козлятами |
- |
|
Сulmination |
The kids are eaten |
The wolf could not eat the pigs |
|
Denouement |
The weak kids won the wolf with their mother's help. Their mother was ready to be killed. Self - sacrifice is very important for Russian. It's our value. |
The weak pigs won the wolf themselves. It's the western value. |
|
Dialogue |
The goat associated with her kids; the goat - the wolf;
|
The wolf associated with the pigs; pigs - pigs;
|
|
Language |
|
|
|
Epithet |
Silky grass, icy water, thick/ thin
|
The definition of pigs/wolf |
|
Colloquialisms |
Брюхо, отпиралися, отворялися, достовалися |
- |
|
Inversion |
Дверь не отворяйте, никого не впускайте |
- |
Our conclusion: we agree the characters, the plots are similar but our tale is more lively, imagery.
It can be explained with the fact that we use more epithets, songs, poems in our tales. It's our tradition. So, Russian people are more emotional and Englishmen are more reserved. Our value is self - sacrifice and their value is to do everything themselves. Of course, this knowledge helps us to understand each other.
COMPARISON OF RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH FAIRY TALES
The plots and main characters of different Russian and British fairy tales are similar. "Letuchy Korabl", "Likho Odnoglazoye", "Kon', Skatert' I Rozhok", "Chudesnaya Rubashka", "Volshebnaya Dudochka", "Gorshok" are the most popular Russian fairy tales. It's amazing that in every fairy tale of different nations a miracle or magic happens. In early centuries people lived in the world of fantasy. They made up different legends, in which some supernatural powers were mentioned. What purpose did they do that for? Perhaps it will be right to say that the humanity was looking for simpler ways of achieving their aims, even in those times. However, they managed to realize their dreams. In order to illustrate this point we can give some examples: Kover-Samolyot from the fairy tale became TU-134, Kolesnitsa- a car, the Hamper of Garanhir became the microwave oven; Mech Kladenets turned into a simple penknife. Magic things from the folklore of different countries are frequently similar. The British Dyrnwyn, sword of Rhydderch the Generous is the same as the Russian Mech Kladenets, Skatert'- Samobranka from the Russian folklore is similar to the British Hamper of Gwyddno Garanhir. The Horn of Bran corresponds to Volshebnaya Dudochka. The British Chariot of Morgan the Wealthy is the same Russian Letuchy Korabl. The Cauldron of Diwrnach the Gian corresponds to Chudo- Gorshok. We can meet Chudo- Rubashka and Shapka- Nevidimka in Russian fairy tales very often, but in the British folklore they are joined together in the Mantle of Arthur. There are some magic things, which characterize the folklore of only one country. As an example of this, we can't find the Halter of Clyno Eiddyn, the Knife of Llawfronedd the Horseman, the Whetstone of Tudglyd, the Coat of Padarn Red- Coat, the Crock and Dish of Rhygenydd, the Chessboard of Gwenddolau in fairy tales of other countries. They are typical only of British culture. That is to say, such Russian magic things, as Volshebnoye Koltso, Zolotoy Bashmachok and such fairy - tale heroes as Koshchey Bessmertny, Baba- Yaga, Leshy, Shchuka, Zolotaya Rybka, Tsarevna-Lyagushka, Sery Volk are specific for only our country.
Comparison of Russian and British Treasures
|
Britain |
|
|
Russia |
|
Treasure |
Function |
Treasure |
Function |
|
Dyrnwyn, sword of Rhydderch the Generous |
In the hands of a nobleman it would burst into flame from hilt to tip |
Mech Kladenets |
Helps a kind man with noble aims to defeat an immortal mean monster |
|
The Hamper of Gwyddno Garanhir |
Food for one could be put into it and food for a hundred would be found when next opened |
Skatert'- Samobranka |
With words "Unroll!" it gives food and drink to a poor person |
|
The Horn of Bran |
This dispensed whatever drink one wanted |
Volshebnaya Dudochka |
Tells only truth in all cases, forces a deceitful and mean man to come clean |
| Volshebny Rozhok | With words "Iz rozhka!" two warrior heroes (bogatyri) appear from it and punish bad people, beating them with a club (dubinka) | ||
|
The Chariot of Morgan the Wealthy |
Transported its owner wherever he wished to go quickly |
Letuchy Korabl' |
Transports people to a necessary place by air, inspite of the fact, that it is a water transport |
|
The Cauldron of Diwrnach the Giant |
Would not boil a coward's food but only that of a brave man |
Volshebny Gorshok |
With words "Gorshok vari!" it cooks very tasty food |
|
The Mantle of Arthur |
Whoever wore it was invisible |
Chudo-Rubashka Shapka-Nevidimka |
Protects a noble man from the sword blows and bullets
|
We want to conclude that the British and Russian folklores have a lot of common traits. In spite of the fact that the cultures of our countries are different in many ways, they are similar in spiritual values. We can hope that in future our countries will join and develop their cultures together.
CONCLUSION
We have just finished writing about Russian and English fairy - tales. We tried to compare, to find common and distinctive features in them to give evidence about the common cultural roots. We can hope that in future our countries will join and develop their cultures together in spite of the fact that our cultures are different in many ways; they are similar in spiritual values.
For nearly three months we lived in the magic world, which was created by people and by famous writers. We were very happy.
It sounds strange but we wish to tell you our impressions about" The Lord of the Rings" by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. The action takes place in the Middle-earth, a magic country, populated by wizards, Elves, Hobbits, Dwarfs and other little folk. All these images were taken by Tolkien from old Welsh legends, Irish sagas and German myths. This book seems to be a fairy - tale for us. The reason why we have written about it is the following: it is filled with true philosophy. In the book the author managed to express the ideas of cultural union of peoples, humanness, and readiness for self - sacrifice and heroic deeds for one's Motherland and friends. These are the main ideas of all tales. That is the answer to our question: "What do Russian and English tales have in common?"
So, our conclusion is fairy - tales have to do a lot more thinking in order to understand the ideas of our world better. We have to remember that our life starts as a fairy - tale.
The information touched upon in this work can be used at the lessons of English when we learn the topic about Great Britain or Russia, their culture, their traditions.
Literature
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- Афанасьев А.Н., Народные сказки, М., 1992.
- Гура А.В., Символика животных в славянской традиции, М., 1997.
- Лейан, Брендон Колдуны и ведьмы, М., 1996.
- Померанцева Э.В., Мифологические персонажи в русском фольклоре, М., 1975.
- Славянская мифология, энциклопедический словарь, М.,1995.
- Briggs K.A. Dictionary of fairies, Hobgoblings, Brownies, Boggies and other supermatural creatures, London, 1977.
- O'Sullivan P., V., Irish superstations and Legends of animals and birds, Dublin, 1991.
- Ross, A., The folklore of Scottish highlands, London, 1990.