For all its seeming simplicity, the genre of fictionraises many questions. Why so attractive fables for children? Why is this genre universal for many cultures? Why is this genre of folklore remains "alive" and in demand in literature? In a word, what is the essence of fiction and why does it remain so consistently in demand?
Fiction Genre Definition
Concisely speaking, fiction isa short narration about what cannot be obviously, and this impossibility is exaggeratedly emphasized, and therefore a comic effect is created. “The village was driving past a peasant ...”, “There was a giant of short stature in the world ...” - these and many other “meaningless” images are created according to various, quite transparent, schemes, but they invariably cause laughter and interest.
Russian and English roots of fiction
Russian folk tales are also known in Russia, andtales of other nations. First of all, fiction, nonsense, absurdity is associated with English folklore and English literature. In the twentieth century in Russia, this genre was significantly revived by the emergence of translations of English folklore and English nonsense (literally: “nonsense”). English children's songs, mainly based on the principle of nonsense, were translated as fiction for children by Samuel Marshak and Korney Chukovsky. The Russian readers of many generations love the images from the translated songs “Barabek”, “Crooked Song” and other poems, where the world is obviously “turned upside down”, is absurd. The literary examples of English fiction are, first and foremost, Edward Liere's limericks, which are mostly known in the translations of Grigory Kruzhkov.
Easy adoption of the English version of the genreFirst of all, it is explained by the familiarity of fiction for the Russian consciousness, because fiction is a genre that existed in Russia long before the “vaccination” of Russian culture of English nonsense.
Literary fiction
Fiction remains a living genre in both folklore andliterature. Russian kids are known as folk tales, and copyright. Perhaps the most famous literary examples of the genre were created by Korney Chukovsky and Heinrich Sapgir. First of all, it is, of course, “Confusion” by K. Chukovsky.
However, his other tales and poems at the nearConsideration is very close to nonsense in the genre sense of the word. “Miracle Tree”, “Joy”, “Cockroach” - the basis of these well-known children's poems is fiction. This is, in fact, the author's options for the development of this genre.
As for the creativity of Heinrich Sapgir, it is not enoughwho in Russia are unknown to his famous "Nebylitsy in faces." The unexpectedness of combining incompatible images and the lightness of the lines, creating the illusion of naturalness and thus further emphasizing "unprecedentedness", is all remembered for a long time as a very talented and expressive work.
Small stories as an accessible aesthetic experience
Korney Chukovsky in his book "From two to five"He suggested that nonsense for children is an opportunity to enjoy his own ability to see the deviation from the norm. The child, according to Chukovsky, is strengthened through fable in his understanding of the norm, in his orientation in the outside world.
However, apparently, everything is not quite so simple.Non-fiction is also one of the first available aesthetic experiences. It is when meeting a child with nonsense that a child forms a perception of artistic conventionality, because “nonsense” is the most primitive artistic shift available to a child that underlies any artistic work. Fiction, therefore, lay the foundation for the perception of artistic metaphors, artistic image, prepare the child to the formation of literary taste.
