Ломова Елена Александровна

Ученая степень, звание: Кандидат филологических наук

Место работы, должность: Доцент кафедры русской и мировой литературы

Казахского государственного национального педагогического университета имени Абая (КазНПУ им.Абая), Казахстан, г.Алматы

THE DEATH’S PROBLEM IN THE RUSSIAN LITERATURE FAIRY TALE

Аннотация

В данной статье рассматривается проблема смерти в русской литературной сказке на примере творчества К.Чуковского.

Ключевые слова: мотифема, трагическое мировоззрение, мастер парадокса, романтизм, романтизация смерти.

Annotation

This article observes the death’s problem in the Russian literature fairy tale basically in the works of Korney Chukovsky.

Keywords: motifeme, tragic world-outlook, master of paradox, romanticism of the death.

In the fairy tales of Korney Chukovsky the motifeme of death predominates even in his most popular works. A threat to the lives and health of the protagonists is typical of Chukovsky's fairy tales, which originate from the traditional horror story genre. This is incidentally children's favorite folklore genre. Correspondingly, this gives rise to a distinctive composition. The fairy stories start with a public holiday and end with a celebration following victory over a terrible foe. For example, in the fairy tale "The Buzzer-Fly" the birthday of the main female character permanently becomes the wedding of the Fly and the Mosquito, which is victorious over the murderous spider; the latter represents a threat not only to the Fly, but to all the other characters as well. In Chukovsky's fairy tales it is the universal nature of the threat which gives rise to the subsequent celebration of victory over the villains that present a danger to everyone.

The protagonists in Chukovsky's fairy stories experience their joys and sorrows together with the other characters. For them everything is shared, it is a collective experience, and this creates a particular atmosphere in these amazing fairy tales with the breadth of the events encompassed by them, with the overall shared emotions and through the global experiences. The fact that a sense of individualism is absent is perhaps an educational element for children, to develop a sense of collectivism, which is very important for children who are undergoing education and development.

Moreover, Chukovsky's protagonists exhibitanother peculiar characteristic. They are unprepossessing in their appearance, but their courageous- ness makes them strong and significant and the victory over a more powerful foe generally puts them on the pedestal of fame and success. The protagonists remind one of little children. They are direct, active,, small in height, and appear to be defenseless and helpless. So, the success of victory over a cruel, strong enemy that is feared by absolutely all the other characters and from whom they hide whenever they can, appears all the more stunning.

Chukovsky's protagonists scorn fear of death; they do not understand the cowardly feelings of the other characters. They throw down a challenge to death and are always victorious. Chukovsky perpetuates the traditions of Russian folklore, and therefore good is always victorious over evil in his stories. For this reason, the overall mood in Chukovsky's tales is optimistic, life-asserting, in spite of the constant presence of the threat of death in them. It always retreats, turning out to be weaker than life, joy and cheerfulness. In spite of all its efforts, Death always suffers a fiasco in Chukovsky's stories. The portrayal of death as a failure in Chukovsky's tales only serves to emphasize its weakness and the strength of life, love, loyalty and courageousness.

Chukovsky relates to his readers, both children and adults. He knows how to frighten them. But at the same time he confirms the triumph of life over death, of joy over sorrow, of bravery over cowardice, and so forth. This is possibly why Chukovsky's tales enjoy everlasting success with children. They like the fact that he does not use children's language when addressing them, does not spare their feelings (is open about feelings of fear and horror in the face of death) but at the same time he provides them with a lesson in fearlessness, teaches them how to combat difficulties. Therefore, it can be stated that Chukovsky's stories present a distinctive type of training for children, a preparation of their emotions for adult life.

Chukovsky loved life, he never felt miserable. And this was reflected in his works. His contemporaries assert that he remained a child even in old age, retaining children's characteristics such as the freshness of his perception of the world, his joie de vivre and an ability to be cheerful and only see the positive aspects of everything.

Chukovsky's stories have stood the test of time, which is the most exacting of critics, and he is rightly regarded as a children's classic. Unfortunately, it is true that he is only known to Russian readers. The poet complained about the poor quality of translations of his works into English and regarded himself as victimized in this context. He cited his couplet as an example: "The poor crocodile swallowed the toad", was translated into English as "The poor crocodile had forgotten how to smile". So, as you can see, it was not the crocodile, but me who had to swallow the toad [the author wrote - tr.] [1].

In his opinion, the translators had distorted the fairy tale "Giant Roach" to the point of impossibility: "In short, the text of "Giant Roach" which is attributed to me has nothing in common with the original text. I am hastening to announce this not so much in my own interests, but in the interests of our common cause, that of the mutual exchange of good quality works of literary" [2].

In this respect, he did not perceive the difficulties of translation as being linked with the language itself, but with the quality of the translators' work. "All this goes to show that the English language is excellently adapted for literary translations of Russian prose. But as soon as we get anywhere near poetry for children, it immediately becomes weak and lacking in imagination when penned by unskillful dabblers. I do not recall a single translation of Soviet children's poetry which would not automatically belittle the original" [3].

In this connection, he rightly demanded worthy translations, speaking out against unconscientious translators. "Isn't it time to come to an agreement with fans of our children's literature abroad regarding the principles by which they should be governed, so that their translations should not exhibit such glaring discrepancies with the original, no matter what their personal intentions might be" [4]

But Chukovsky is not the only one who had a problem in getting his works known by a wider audience. All the other Russian writers of classics are still waiting to be translated. For example, Aleksandr Pushkin [1799-1837 - tr.] and Mikhail; Zoshchenko [1894-1958 - tr.] were said to be "untranslatable". Oscar Wilde's works had better) luck. Thanks to good literary translations, they are well known to a wide circle of Russian readers. So, even the most talented of authors are dependent on translators, who do in any case distort the literary text of the originals for better or for worse. It is of course desirable that a translation of fiction is like a distinctive act of donating, giving literary works a life in another language and another country, so that the largest possible number of people can enjoy outstanding works of literature. This will help: cultures to integrate and promote better cultural contacts among people worldwide.

Chukovsky's fairy tales deserve to be known throughout the world. They are particularly important because they are written for children, and everyone knows from what we have learnt from psychoanalysis that everything starts in childhood. Chukovsky's fairy stories help to form a healthy state of mind in children. The assertion that a happy childhood forms the basis for a future happy life as an adult is a scientific fact. Memories of a happy childhood will always comfort people in difficult times and will stop them from feeling degraded, from losing heart and giving up the struggle for justice and a better life. In people's consciousness a happy childhood is associated with the books that they read in their childhood. Chukovsky's fairy tales are' those memories of a happy childhood, where trouble and death always sidelined because an Everlasting celebration of the triumph of happiness and love prevails.

Korney Chukovsky wrote of Oscar Wilde: "But the works of Oscar Wilde were more impressive than he himself”. [4] With this he stressed the uniqueness of Wilde's talent, the contradictory nature of his world outlook. Of course, he gave him his-due for the nobleness reflected in his fairy tales, which preach kindness and love.

Chukovsky examined the distinctive literary quality of Wilde's works in detail in a long article entitled "O. Wilde". In it he paid tribute to the well-deserved world fame of this writer, who suffered so much in England, who was imprisoned on an accusation of immorality and anti-social behavior.

All researchers into Chukovsky's works stress the melodiousness of his fairy tales in verse, the internal and external rhythms, the alliteration and assonance, and the absolute symmetry of the lines. All this helped to make his stories in verse easier to remember.

Chukovsky generalized his own experience of poetry, as well as the experience of the best Russian children's poets, in his "Manual for Children's Poets". This is therefore the best manual for those who write poetry for children, where he reveals the secrets of his own skill. One of the most important Pieces of advice that he gives is that the verses should lend themselves to being performed.

In general, Chukovsky's fairy tales can be acted out, presented on the stage. They are not only educational and cognitive, but entertaining, i.e. they all the functions expected of works intended to develop children and farm artistic taste in children. But the main requirement is naturally the talent of the poet and his love for children, which Chukovsky exhibited in excess.

At the same time, he creatively mastered and developed the traditions of folklore, for example, by using such minor genres of children's folklore as riddles and fables, using spoonerisms. The fairy tale "The Muddle" is written in the spoonerism-type riddle genre and serves to promote and develop in children an understanding of the cause and effect of what happens in life. The wealth of ideas combined with the perfect style in Chukovsky's fairy stories create unique works of literature for children.

Frequently in Chukovsky's fairy stories just the threat of death is sufficient for the negative characters to change for the better. Moreover, this metamorphosis is completely convincing. For example, in "Stolen Sun", the Crocodile swallowed the sun, but the Bear, demanding that he should return it, threatened: "I'm telling you, you villain, spit it out quickly. If you don't, I shall catch you and break you in two”.

In “Wash'em Clean” just one threat of death is sufficient for the dirty boy to be frightened of the Crocodile and have a wash: "Go on now, go home, he says. Get your face washed, he says. If you don 't, I shall fall upon you, he says. I shall crush you and swallow you".

But death awaits those who do not take the threats seriously, like the spider in "The Buzzer- Fly", the Giant Roach in the story of the same name, which was pecked to pieces by the Sparrow, and [evil robber - tr.] Barmaley in the story "Barmaley".

Their deaths, however, are not regarded as a tragedy, but as a necessary measure, a punishment, which brings relief and the joy of release from a terrible villain, from a killer, to all those who are suffering, while the villain himself has become the victim. This is possibly why their death is not regarded as a terrible event.

On the contrary, it is precisely the death of villains in Chukovsky's fairy stories that becomes the reason for extensive merry-making and universal happiness. The paradox is that death in the stories does not frighten people, but it makes them glad. It is the natural outcome for those who themselves previously wanted to kill the innocent and the weak.

In Chukovsky's fairy stories it is a great feat to kill a scoundrel, to take a murderer's life. Here death merely acts as part of the fairy-tale play, as an element in the chain of events. No-one can play and joke with death like Chukovsky does, no-one can make fun of death and escape from it with his positive protagonists like Chukovsky does.

It is only their own death which frightens the protagonists in Chukovsky's fairy tales and not the death of the enemy, which does not matter. This is what they are striving to achieve as fearlessly and persistently asthey can. So, in many of Chukovsky's stories the threat of death faced by some people is ultimately expressed in the actual death of other characters, who deserve to die, according to the poet, because there is no other way out.

Children cannot fully comprehend the real meaning of death, all the horrors of it. In Chukovsky's tales they perceive the death of negative characters as the realization of the wish never to encounter these bad characters again. Chukovsky's good characters are "all-rounders" who wander from one story to another like, for example, Doctor Aybolit and the Crocodile. Moreover, in the tale "Barmaley" Doctor Aybolit acts as a rescuer and not a doctor, since his character is associated solely with nobleness and the lives he has saved.

Thus, the motifeme of death in the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde and Korney Chukovsky are completely different in their significance. Wilde takes a particularly serious attitude to death, it frightens him. But Chukovsky plays with death. For him it is the beginning of a great festive celebration to mark getting rid of the villains who have tried to kill the innocent and the defenseless. Wilde takes a philosophical attitude to death, but Chukovsky regards it as a game, the punishment of the bad characters in order to save the good characters. Chukovsky made an in-depth study of Wilde's works. He admired the latter's talent, although Chukovsky himself was not very well known to English readers because of the poor translations of his works in English.

In their stories the two very different writers each realized the various aspects of the motif of death in their own way, in accordance with ther own world outlook, their attitude to the problem of life and death, love and hatred.

Literature.

1. Chukovsky K.I. Collected Works.Vol. 3.–M., 1966, p. 505.

2. Chukovsky K.I. Collected Works. Vol. 3.– M. 1966, p. 507.

3. Chukovsky K.I. Collected Works.Vol. 3.– M., 1966, p. 507.

4. Chukovsky K.I. Collected Works. Vol. 3.-M., 1966, p. 714.