Philology
T.A. Zolotova, E.A. Plotnikova
Mari State
University, Russia
“Folklorisation of the reality”
as the way to create a fictional world in modern literature
Annotation In this article we attempt
to study a special
kind of relationship between
popular culture, literature and
folklore that is the phenomenon of folklorisation
of the reality in the broadest sense of the
word. The decisive factor is in the
application of it in the
tales of L.S. Petrushevskaya in
so-called recognizable reality
or routine. We
observe the creativity of a really admirable professional
who is also fluent in methods of mass
literature.
Keywords are the following: folklorism,
traditional culture, popular culture, the poetics of
everyday life.
I. Introduction Nowadays the modern research
practice is experiencing a boom to absorb the problems of “nasty and daily” [1,
p. 284]. However, how specify sociologists and ethnologists the routine is
complex, heterogeneous and varies in content and value [2] Thus, in a study of
M. Cherniak, it is recognized as a “social fabric of society”, it
“converge field lines of various social institutions and processes” [1,
p. 284]. In the monograph by S. Boym “Common places: the mythology of
everyday life” [3] the key idea is that “the everyday life of society can be
described by means of short stories, stories, jokes”, myths of everyday life
“through which people conceptualize their existence” [3, p. 21]. The study
of everyday life underlies the understanding of “the importance of
event-driven, mobile, changing time, random events that affect privacy and
change it” [1, p. 284].
In one of the most fundamental, and also for this article, researches
(“Everyday life and mythology: A study on the semantics of the folklore of
reality”) the author K.A. Bogdanov emphasizes that “social daily life
shows the relevance of the cultural objects and contemporary everyday life
phenomena, the ideological function of which is more or less indifferent to
their "authors" origin” [4, p. 6]. On the other hand it is not
“all or almost all represented outside the influence of the media, television,
advertising, etc.” [4, p. 61].
II. Statement of the problem In the native literary studies
the theoretical awareness
of everyday life are also formed as a complex aesthetic phenomenon, which is
usually seen in the form of binary oppositions: the external world / inner
world, the everyday world / world sublime, authentic World / inauthentic world,
life / creativity [5], although writers sometimes tend to understand it only as
a set of household, ethnographic, regional details, especially fashion,
clothing, interior design, etc.
The most striking observations and theoretical conclusions of the study
which reflect the specifics of everyday life are primarily related to the
so-called books for “easy-reading”, which was now “closer to the heart, to the
concerns, the weaknesses of the “little man” of the XX th century than
high literature” [6, p. 194]. After all, mass literature is very sensitive
to change values, it reflects the needs of society, helping to adapt in a
complex world, allows a person to relax and escape from everyday problems [7].
Maybe that’s why in the works of some modern writers who have applied to
the poetics of everyday life we find a conscious focus on techniques and principles
of popular literature.
III. Results The book “The True Fairy-Tales” by L.S. Petrushevskaya is a clear
evidence of this. We can see a really admirable professional, who
at the same time is very good at receiving
massive literature. She
uses the same markers of modern daily
life as the acknowledged masters of the
popular literature. Her tales show that
“exact fixation of
every day distinct marks, trivial events of daily
routine” [8, p. 701], which,
according to M.N. Epstein
usually helps to create the effect of
recognition and thus provokes the
success of a work of popular
literature. [8]
The action of her tales correlates with
topographical realities of the modern city
(“The New Adventures of Helen of Troy”, “Silly
Princess”, “Willow-whipping”, etc.). Restaurants
and cafes, asylums and
hospitals for the poor,
orphanages and homes for the elderly are all close and
familiar to modern readers of the fairy tales by L.S. Petrushevskaya.
The characters of fairy-tales by L.S. Petrushevskaya lead a lifestyle
that is familiar to the Russians of the last decades of the XX century. In the
fairy tale “The Two Sisters” in a monologue of one of the characters the writer
lists the main components of the lifestyle: the “illnesses, childbirths, washings, cleanings, shopping. Work” [9,
p. 177]. In “The True Fairy-Tales” the author consistently reveals one or
several of them.
The readers see a series of easily recognizable characters from popular
literature that replace one another,
remain in memory, or immediately disappear. So, in the pages of her works
L.S. Petrushevskaya reproduces several types of modern social reality.
They can be found in “The True Tale” both socially disadvantaged people
(“Girl-Nose”, “History of the painter”, “Tale about hours”, “Two Sisters” and
others), and secured characters (“Queen Lear”, “Behind the Wall”, “Silly
Princess”, “Adventure in space kingdom”, etc). Among the first group are
homeless (eg, “tearful boy of ten years
old” in the tale “Behind the wall”), a prostitutes (girlfriends of a sorcerer
from “New Adventures of Helen”), as well as many nurses (“Behind the Wall”).
The world of the wealthy billionaires and significant business leaders (“The
New Adventures of Helen”, “Behind the Wall”, etc.), kings and queens (“The
Prince and the golden hair”, “Queen Lear”, “Willow-whipping”, etc.), princes
and princesses (“Princess Little Forktail”, “Silly Princess”, “Adventure in
outer kingdom”, etc).
In “The True Tale”
family relationships and related domestic
issues such as finding families and child
care (“Father”,
etc.) and at the same reluctance
of some women to have
children (“Willow-whipping”) are widely
reported. In writer’s fairy tales the issue of adultery, the
possible creation of a child by another man is
put quite categorically: “the royal relatives were not red, maternal
line was not taken into account, while there was
once a kingdom red servant, who was attributed the fatherhood
to” [9,
p. 139-140] (“The Prince with the golden hair”).
Demonstrated the prevailing attitude of people
to a single woman with a
child – a nuisance and not bright
prospects for the future: “the mother <...> did not
want his son to marry peasant woman with a baby – we know
that your son can not grow as a bandit. Such cases happened” [9,
p. 142] (“The Prince with the
golden hair”).
In these works by L.S. Petrushevskaya familiar to
every citizen objects
and signs of life (television,
urban transport, cellular, etc.) appear. Characters, including
the inhabitants of the kingdoms,
the owners of the castles, in
case of need to give each other important information use
modern mobile communication (“Tales
of the hour”, “Nettle
and Raspberry”, “Willow-whipping”, “Little
Fairy”). In its turn the magician Amati uses
another oddity of modern
civilization that is the answering machine: “And for a long time that was not he who answered the phone but his voice which could
cleverly adjust to any
question and post with two phrases: “No way” And “What can I say?”. Moreover
the first phrase was used for the message and the
second – for the question” [9, p. 341].
The characters of the fairy world by L.S. Petrushevskaya as
vehicles use modern transportation:
trains, helicopters, buses (“Girl-Nose”, “Nettle
and Raspberry”, “Queen Lear”). Whereas for
walking persons of such
level special conditions are usually
created: the whole escort, “consisting of a limousine accompanied by <...> Motorcycle <...> under siren <...> to Clear the street suddenly” [9, p. 87] (“Willow-whipping”). Along with the
above, the characters and stories of the writer use a new
invention that is an environmentally friendly form of transport. Such is the “multi-seat bicycle, on which
they <members of the International Commission for Europe> went from country to
country, no one is dependent, the bicycle was also provided with a field kitchen and the canopy of the rain” [9, p. 82] (“Willow-whipping”).
In their judgments and
estimates the heroes of L.S. Petrushevskaya guided by “maxims
learned from advertising” [1,
p. 288]. TV in a modern
society is becoming popular “analogue mirror in
the traditional lifestyle” [10,
p. 21]. And in “The
True Tale” the TV-set and more precisely a process of “switching
from channel to channel” acquires “the
intrinsic value of an universal substitute activities
aimed at the acquisition of wealth” [10,
p. 21]. Thus, in the “New adventures of Helen” daily view of
Mexican soap-opera compensates
the heroine the lack of
personal experiences and events
causing her to empathize with the
characters on-screen (rejoice
and weep with them) [9,
p. 20, p. 23]. In the
fairy tale “Willow-whipping”
in the live-motion are solved without exaggeration the
problems of life and death of the citizens of the fairy land “The executions took place regularly on Sundays, there was live TV, the bets were played. <...> Everybody were living from Sunday to
Sunday. The people finally got what they wanted without coming off a TV” (emphasis
added by us – T.Z., E.P.) [9,
p. 78].
The writer very often
appeals to reproduction of everyday consciousness. The
manifestation of its stereotypes in fairy
tales may include an
attitude to extraordinary things (beauty, ugliness,
talent, wealth, and so on).
It’s very important that these problems have already
been put in the tale “The
New Adventures of Helen” which opens the book “The
True Fairy-Tales”. Thus,
the beauty is presented as a destructive force,
and therefore should be “an antidote to the beauty” [9,
p. 11]. Even the
powers of that world such as a
magician “feared the influence of monstrous beauty of Helen” [9, p. 12], it was disarming and subordinated surrounding his power: he simply
“was afraid of losing the ability to cast spells and did not want to leave home place and run for a beauty wherever his feet
happen to take him” [9, p. 12].
Popular in modern life the passionate desire of
some short-sighted people to get
rid of all beautiful things on the
ground is recognizable (“The Island of Pilots”).
Thus, the taskmaster who
learned about the wonderful “mysterious island because discipline is violated”
[9, p. 202] decides by all
means to get to it. The “situation was complicated by the fact that the
chief demanded for his trip vintage bomber and it was suspiciously” [9,
p. 202]. Later, the old pilot explains
the young pilot the
actual purpose of the chief who
ordered to fly to the
island: “I blew up the island, you hear?” [9, p. 204].
And also the author reflects very faithfully the relation to others through
the folly in all its manifestations. People
usually shun foolish
people, assuming their inadequacy
and aggression, “a fool, too, was not weak and
repeatedly beating a dozen old aunt, <...> and no one interfered”
[9, p. 10]. And at the same time not averse to profit at their expense, “a poor fool burned house, <...> while some neighbors fought the fire, the other on the sly for vegetable gardens harvested from apple <...> and brought baskets to their cages cribs and closets” [9,
p. 10] (“The New Adventures of Helen”).
In this case, as in real life,
any deviation from the norm is seen in fairy
tales by Petrushevskaya as ambiguous. Some of
them such as a magician and
the same people (fools) are annoying, “he <...> yelled, stamping his feet and waving his hands <...> when a poor fool burned house” [9,
p. 10]. But there are those who feel compassion
for them (“in the morning to the house of my aunt people went in single
file with old blouses, silk dresses and grandmother's winter coats
without fur collars” [9, p. 11] <the writer,
not without irony, describes “generous gifts of good neighbors for fire victims” [9,
p. 11]>), and even, though
very rare, genuine: “the evening of one good woman came to her senses and called her to eat” [9,
p. 10].
On a specific example of the life of a
millionaire in the “New adventures of Helen” is
shown the ratio of conventional
relation in the society to financially successful people in
general: “All, of course,
in the world has long considered him an idiot who was
lucky to find some way to make money fast” [9,
p. 21]. At the same
time, it was noted in the “Tale about watches” that many
poor people would be in places of the
rich people to gain financial independence
and well-being (purely
external, as it turns out in fact):
the daughter of the protagonist “noticed all around her: what everybody was dressed in” [9,
p. 58], “puts on a dress and a hat and spins but not all of it turns
out, and she is not dressed like her girlfriends”
[9, p. 38], “all have shoes, clothes, bicycles, and it does not
have anything” [9, p. 60]. Accordingly,
the idea of happiness and well-being
of the girl confined
to material wealth. No coincidence
that it asks the old
woman as a husband is not only a secured
man but he is a Prince: “– I’ll give you everything you want – said < the old
lady>. – Happiness, rich husband, all! <...> – I need a prince, – said the girl” [9,
p. 61].
In addition
to material objects that of course “act in the function of symbolic landmarks
of modern reality” [4, p. 66], in the tales of L.S. Petrushevskaya
there are numerous texts “inticular relating to those objects themselves” and
performing above the designated function [4, p. 66]. This can be an
anecdote or a propaganda slogan, banal classic quote, a phrase from a popular
song or movie, etc. “Reality of a collective understanding can not be
represented outside the tacit knowledge of such texts “precedent” to the extent
that as it were the very fact of their “notoriety” they represent some actual
collectivity” [4, p. 48]. In some cases Petrushevskaya just drops the
phrase to recreate an entourage as the reader instantly arises associative
parallel with the classics [11]. This we can see in the “New adventures of
Helen”: a proposed lane by author (“resort,
perfumes, mists, feathered hats, elastic silk, gave charmed”) [9,
p. 19] clearly indicates a “Stranger” by A. Blok. Examples of verbal
stereotypes can be found in the puppet novel “Little fairy”. So, all of a
sudden out of the mouth of the insidious witch Valkyrie, who seems to be
deduced from the equilibrium by nobody, we hear: “I’ll choke everybody for <...> the tear of <my> child”
[9, p. 370]. We see a slightly modified phrase from a famous monologue of
Ivan Karamazov the hero of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. In
another chapter of the puppet novel at the decisive moment of heated debate
suddenly enriched with the consumer provisions spouses the husband retreats to
become winged with the phrase from a play by Alexander Ostrovsky “Dowerless”: “So do not belong to anyone” [9,
p. 345].
The writer
includes in her works verbal stereotypes which exist in the everyday life of a
modern man and she emphasizes the “social identity” [4, p. 47] of her
characters with modern humans. However, the inclusion of the high points from a
literary classic prevents media and mass of today with its provocative claim to
sweep them all in particular and literary space.
In the writer’s prose as well as in a number of popular works of popular
literature “can be found sketches of public morals, life in the city. This literature is addressed to the
present, contains the most catchy, newsreels marks of this day” [1,
p. 286].
In “The True Fairy-Tales” Petrushevskaya listed evils prevailing in modern
society: the lies, hypocrisy, hatred of others, jealousy, quarrels and abuse
from relatives, the envy of your friends, if they're really lucky, theft and
murder. For example, in the story “Willow-whipping” it is explicitly stated
that in the modern world the person with the money can do whatever he wants “all stop is just for the money, girls!”
[1, p. 71]. This thought has been developed in the work “Island of
Pilots”: as something quite ordinary in it served facts obtaining prestigious
posts through personal friendships and relationships: “this chief had never sat at the controls of the plane and he got his
position thanks to acquaintances, it happens so: his cousin married the
daughter of the deputy minister, and, off we go, all relatives were soon
settled” [9, p. 202].
L.S. Petrushevskaya reflects the indifference of our contemporaries to
vulnerable people and the elderly in her fairy tales. To joyless life of
elderly women in the work “Two Sisters” more severe mental anguishes associated
with occasional visits of their grandchildren and children are added. Their last meeting was so long ago that it is difficult
to remember immediately: “some kind of a
nasty apartment, the poverty of some sort, you can not invite anyone to visit.
And where are the dolls?
– And do you remember that three
years ago our granddaughter...
– Oh yes, it was the last time
she came and threw them away” [9, p. 177].
The fairy tales stress the defenseless of elderly people in front of the
adolescents: “the youth is the most
dangerous and it was raised at night for decisive affairs <...>:
<...> the neighborhood kids were watching the old ladies and occasionally
broke into their apartment” [9, p. 178] (“Two Sisters”). And in total
the lifestyle of today’s youth is recognized there. Their night sat in the
porches, cruel jokes: “Behind the door on
the stairs until midnight sounded exuberant laughter of a big company and
clinked the glass. At seven in the morning carefully opening the door
<...> Rita made a lot of noise. To the handle of her doors were tied by
the neck two empty bottles that blurted out loudly against the wall. This was a
completely normal thing. It was a greeting from walking young people” [9,
p. 189], and their parents: “The
neighbors were very active people. All the time they were listening to the
music, swearing, dropping the dishes, <...> than they talked loudly in a
language of which old women had the ears laid, their eyes darkened and any
understanding stopped” [9, p. 178].
IV. Conclusion Thus, in the tales by
Petrushevskaya the features of contemporary Russia are clearly and convincingly
presented: topographical realities of cities and towns, recognizable social
types, their way of life and speech culture, the world of objects, a powerful
influence on the minds of the mass-media, especially television, advertising
and fashion. But at this level that is identified today by the term “poetics of
everyday life” according to modern scholars there is a particular kind of
relationship between popular culture and literature and folklore.
In this case the mass culture is seen as a “modern equivalent of folklore,
urban epic and myth, <...> its heroes are recognizable in social
situations and standard setting when they face problems familiar to general
readers” [1, p. 286].
According to K.A. Bogdanov “exactly the stereotypes of mass and
popular culture shape the preferences that are folklorized (the emphasis is added by us – T.Z.,
E.P.) in the rhetorical and thematic innovations of the
everyday discourse” [4, p. 61]. In this context the observations of
scientists about the nature of modern folklore are interesting. Modern folklore
is nothing but the procedure of “arbitrary collage of installation images,
stereotypes and formulas that come from a range of written, oral and visual
sources of information” [4, p. 63-64]. This phenomenon (folklorisation of
the reality in the broadest sense of the word) as the analysis has shown is
observed in tales by L.S. Petrushevskaya.
At the same time in its quest to capture the pages of works of various
pictures of everyday life, understanding the importance and necessity of such
work, in some cases, the writer is trying to destroy some formed by processes
of “making life mass” (the term by J. Ortega-y-Gasset) negative behavior
patterns of her compatriots. In this case she receives the help from her folk
paradigm. The prose by L.S. Petrushevskaya opposes the popular literature
by introducing universal motifs (of life and death, disaster and apocalypse,
etc.), as well as impossible in real life a type of a miracle (really fabulous,
not the Cinderella effect, as in the popular literature). In the works of the
writer, as opposed to the glossy world, recreated by the popular literature and
contemporary magazines, are not excluded “key existential category for any
individual” [1, p. 287].
Exactly the elements of a traditional culture, especially fairy tales and
legends (the “miracle” as a major component of the peasant legends, fairy and
mythological motifs of “innocently persecuted”, “paradise forests”, a metaphor
for the shadows, the figure of a holy fool, votive gifts, etc.) allowed
L.S. Petrushevskaya to show in several of her works a serious risk of
so-called ordinary stereotypes and raise seemingly unpretentious lyrics to the
level of significant social and artistic generalizations.
References
1. Chernyak
M.A. Mass Literature XX century. M. Flinta, Nauka, 2009. 432 p.
2. Pushkareva
N.L. “The history of everyday life” as the direction of historical research.
[Electronic resource]. Mode of access: URL: http:// www. perspektivy. info /
history / istorija_ povsednevnosti.
3. Boym S.
Common places: the mythology of everyday life. New York: The New Literary
Review, 2002. 320 p.
4. Bogdanov
K.A. Everyday life and mythology: Studies in Semiotics folk reality. SPb.:
Arts, 2001. 438 p.
5. Strukova
T.G. Daily life and literature [Electron. resource] // Humanitarian aspects of
everyday life: problems and prospects for development in the XXI Century: Materials
II All-Russia Scientific-practical Internet conference. Voronezh, 2011. Mode of
access: URL: http://www.vspu.ac.ru/text/povsednevnost.
6. Adventure,
science fiction, detective: the phenomenon of fiction. Teacher’s Book / Ed.
T.G. Strukova, S.N. Filyushkina. Voronezh: Univ of Voronezh. State.
University Press, 1996. 210 p.
7. Astafieva
T.A. Everyday issues in the novel M. Semenova “Wolfhound” [Electron.
resource] // Humanitarian aspects of everyday life: problems and prospects for
development in the XXI Century: Materials II All-Russia Scientific-practical
Internet conference. Voronezh, 2011. Mode of access: URL:
http://www.vspu.ac.ru/text/povsednevnost.
8. Epstein
M.N. Sign space: the future of the humanities. New York: The New Literary
Review, 2004. 864 p.
9.
Petrushevskaya L.S. The True Fairy-Tales. Moscow: Vagrius, 1997. 399 p.
10.
Cherednichenko T.V. Russia 90: in slogans, ratings, image: the current lexicon
of culture. New York: The New Literary Review, 1999. 416 p.