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3.2 - Folk Genres

from History 3 - Forms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 December 2024

By
Jessica Merrill
Edited by
Simon Franklin ,
Rebecca Reich  and
Emma Widdis
Simon Franklin
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Rebecca Reich
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Emma Widdis
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter provides a short history of folklore collection and an overview of the genres privileged by Russian folklorists. In the early 1800s, folklorists began writing down, editing, and publishing creative oral performance, primarily that of peasants, because it was thought that these performances reflected ancient traditions that had been passed down for centuries. In the course of transforming oral culture into print collections, genres were identified and codified. The epic (bylina) and the fairytale (skazka) were among the genres most prioritised. Their particular formal features served to anchor a diverse genre system that included historical songs, religious verses, legends, and mythological stories. The chapter identifies characteristic events and stock characters, as well as features of style, structure, and performance typical of these genres of narrative folklore. It concludes by commenting on the reciprocal relationship between folklore and literature.

Keywords

folklorefairytaleskazkaepicbylinaspiritual songsgenrelegendmyth
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge History of Russian Literature , pp. 482 - 497
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Afanas'ev, Alexander, Russian Fairy Tales, trans. Norbert Guterman (New York: Random House, 1973).Google Scholar
Bailey, James, and Ivanova, Tatyana (eds.), An Anthology of Russian Folk Epics (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998).Google Scholar
Haney, Jack, An Anthology of Russian Folktales (London: Routledge, 2015).Google Scholar
Ivanits, Linda, Russian Folk Belief (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1989).Google Scholar
Kononenko, Natalie, Slavic Folklore: A Handbook (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Panchenko, Alexander, ‘Russia’, in Bendix, Regina F. and Hasan-Rokem, Galit (eds.), A Companion to Folklore (Chichester: Blackwell, 2012).Google Scholar
Propp, Vladimir, Morphology of the Folktale, trans. Laurence Scott (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968).Google Scholar
Reeder, Roberta, Russian Folk Lyrics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Sokolov, Yuri, Russian Folklore, trans. Catherine Smith (New York: Macmillan, 1950).Google Scholar
Warner, Elizabeth, Russian Myths (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002).Google Scholar

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