The term “ballad” comes from a Provençal word and means “dance song.” Ballads arose in the Middle Ages. By origin, ballads are associated with traditions, folk legends, and combine the features of a story and a song. Many ballads about folk hero named Robin Hood existed in England in the 14th-15th centuries.
The ballad is one of the main genres in the poetry of sentimentalism and romanticism. The world in ballads appears mysterious and enigmatic. They feature bright heroes with clearly defined characters.
The creator of the literary ballad genre was Robert Burns (1759-1796). The basis of his poetry was oral folk art.
There is always a person at the center of literary ballads, but poets of the 19th century centuries who chose this genre knew that human strength does not always provide the opportunity to answer all questions, to become the absolute master of one’s destiny. Therefore, often literary ballads are a plot poem about fate, for example, the ballad “The Forest King” by the German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe.
The Russian ballad tradition was created by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, who wrote both original ballads ("Svetlana", "Aeolian Harp", "Achilles" and others), and translated Burger, Schiller, Goethe, Uhland, Southey, Walter Scott. In total, Zhukovsky wrote more than 40 ballads.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin created such ballads as “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, “The Groom”, “The Drowned Man”, “The Raven Flies to the Raven”, “Once upon a time there lived a poor knight...”. His cycle of “Songs of the Western Slavs” can also be classified as a ballad genre.
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov has some ballads. This is the "Airship" from Seydlitz, "The Sea Princess".
Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy also used the ballad genre in his work. He calls his ballads on themes from his native antiquity epics ("Alyosha Popovich", "Ilya Muromets", "Sadko" and others).
Entire sections of their poems were called ballads, using this term more freely by A.A. Fet, K.K. Sluchevsky, V.Ya. Bryusov. In his “Experiments,” Bryusov, speaking about the ballad, points to only two of his ballads of the traditional lyric-epic type: “The Abduction of Bertha” and “Divination.”
A number of comic ballad parodies were left by Vl. Soloviev (“The Mysterious Sexton”, “ Autumn Walk Knight Ralph" and others)
The events of the turbulent 20th century once again brought to life the genre of literary ballads. E. Bagritsky's ballad "Watermelon", although it does not tell the story of the turbulent events of the revolution, was born precisely of the revolution, the romance of that time.
Features of the ballad as a genre:
presence of a plot (there is a climax, beginning and denouement)
combination of the real and the fantastic
romantic (unusual) landscape
mystery motive
the plot can be replaced by dialogue
brevity
combination of lyrical and epic principles
38 Artistic originality of the ballad genre.
Folk ballads - These are lyrical-epic songs about tragic events in family and everyday life. At the center of ballads is always a person with his moral problems, feelings, and experiences. The hero of the ballads differs from the heroes-heroes who perform a feat, from fairy tale characters. This is a nameless person who worries, suffers and sometimes dies in difficult life circumstances. If in epics there are heroic principles, in fairy tales there are optimistic principles, then the ballads express tragic pathos.
“The ballad puts individual human destiny in the center of attention. Events of national significance, ethical, social, and philosophical problems are reflected in ballads in the form of specific destinies of individuals and private family human relations.” Russian ballads depict the Middle Ages , The genre flourished in the 14th–17th centuries. The plots of ballads are varied, but ballads on family and everyday themes have become more widespread. In these ballads, the main characters, as in fairy tales, are the “good fellow” and the “fair maiden.” They often tell about unhappy love and tragic events.
Exist two points of view on the origin of ballad songs. Some researchers (A.N. Veselovsky, N.P. Andreev) believed that ballads originated in "prehistoric" times. As evidence, they cited the fact that ballad songs preserved the most ancient motifs of incest, cannibalism, transportation across the river as a symbol of the transition from one state of life to another, the conversion of a person into a plant and animal, etc. Others (for example, V.M. Zhirmunsky) claimed that ballads originated in the Middle Ages. The second point of view in relation to Russian ballad songs seems more acceptable. The content of ballad songs speaks for itself. As for the most ancient motifs, they testify to the connection of medieval song folklore with previous ideological and historical traditions.
Poetics. Ballads belong to the epic type of poetry. The story in them is told from a third person, as if from the outside, from the narrator. The main sign of the epic nature of a ballad is the presence of a plot in them, but the plot does not appear the same as in other genres: in ballads, as a rule, only the climax and denouement are presented within the figurative image; the rest is discussed only in general view. In a ballad, we are always talking about an event, which in itself is a continuation of the previous ones, but one can only guess about them. This makes the ballad story mysterious and at the same time contributes to the fact that it highlights what is most necessary for the implementation of the plan. The ballad avoids multi-episode production. Ballads have long been noted for their plot dynamism. They often employ the technique of unexpected development of action.
Poem. The verse of the ballad is closely connected with the melodic structure of the singing, and the melodies include the properties of the solemn chant inherent in the epic and a piercing tonality. The intonations of misfortune and grief from such a combination are majestic sadness. The verse of the ballad is more mobile than that of the epic; it is closer to the verse of historical songs and differs from it only in strong emotional impulses as a result of a sharp emotional and intonation movement. The verse becomes especially expressive in the most dramatic moments of singing. In these cases, he takes properties from bitter crying. In the genre, which arose at the stage of transition from the “classical” epic to the new, there is a noticeable transition from archaic song forms to new ones, which already have lyrical qualities.
Between the world recreated in the ballad and its creator (and, consequently, the reader) there arises space-time distance. Ballad space, emphatically “otherworldly”, fundamentally different from everyday reality, is not simply removed from the perceiving individual. It is qualitatively designated as belonging to another aesthetic and ethical system associated with folklore ideas, as V.G. wrote about. Belinsky, pointing to the "fantastic and folk legend", which is the basis of the ballad plot . Closed space(!)
Ballad lyricism is the result of the influence of a certain epic event on the subject, the reaction of the soul experiencing its discovery of the ballad world.
Lack of motivation for evil(ignoring the need for motivation). “A tragic fate hangs over the lives of ballad heroes and their feelings” (V.M. Zhirmunsky). That is why the hero of the ballad often seems to even voluntarily go to his death, accepting death without complaint.
Specifics of the conflict: behind the characteristically ballad situations of family drama, social inequality, captivity-unfreedom, etc. truly conditioned by the specific circumstances of the Middle Ages, a higher and eternal plan emerges, to which the folk ballad gravitates, seeking to reduce various conflicts and collisions to the most general, generic, unchanging confrontations: love-hate, good-evil, life-death. The main conflict in the ballad Man and Rock, Fate, Man before the court of Higher powers. Conflict is always tragic and inexplicable.
Ballad function: the need to master the tragic sphere of existence. The ballad genre responded to the individual’s need to experience feelings and states that were deprived of them in everyday reality.
As a genre, the ballad of ancient formation has remained a unique phenomenon in the history of folklore, and many properties of the genre influenced the formation of song genres of a time closer to ours.
Addition
Russian folk ballads are works of rich life content, high artistic perfection, and wonderful art of words. This is manifested primarily in the mastery of the plot: on the one hand, in the selection of situations of great emotional power, and on the other, in the precise characterization of the characters in their actions. In ballads, in a brief summary of an episode limited in time and place of action, the tragedy of the situation of an innocent person, usually a woman, is skillfully revealed. The tragic in a ballad is usually terrible. This is often a crime, an atrocity committed against a person close or dear, which creates particularly acute tension. Prince Roman deals with his wife with terrible cruelty; the sister recognizes the bloody shirts of her brother, who was killed by her robber husband. A significant role in the course of the action is played by the unexpected, for example, the sister’s recognition of her brother’s shirts, the mother’s involuntary poisoning of her son. The episode that serves as the plot center of the ballad has no exposition, but sometimes receives a brief motivation in denunciation or slander, which then drive the actions of the characters. Motivation is sometimes combined with mystery, which arises as a result of prediction (prophetic dream, omen) or prediction of events. The tragic in the plots of ballads is manifested not only in the actions of the characters (murder, torture), but also in the peculiarities of their mental states. The tragic fate of a person in a feudal society, the suffering and death of victims of despotism, as well as a tragic mistake, deception, slander, which "lead to the death of people. The tragic consists in the late repentance of a mother or husband who killed an innocent son or wife, in the late recognition by a brother of a dishonored sister. The ballad differs from other folklore genres in the depth of its psychological depiction, the ability to reveal complex and intense experiences, including the killer’s state of mind, his repentance and remorse. Characters in ballads are characterized by strong passions and desires. Avdotya Ryazanochka goes to the enemy’s camp to free the captives; a girl escapes from captivity: freedom is dearer to her than life; unable to escape her pursuers, she throws herself into the river; defending the right to love, the girl prefers to die rather than be forcibly married off. In reckless anger, a husband can destroy his beloved wife. The characters are possessed by such feelings as horror, despair, severe suffering, unbearable grief. Their experiences are most often expressed in action, in actions. In the ballad “Well done and the princess,” the king’s anger at the young man and the servants is expressively conveyed, and the change in the king’s state of mind is peculiarly motivated. Feelings are transmitted to them externally. In the ballad “Prince Roman was losing his wife,” the daughter learns about the death of her mother: As the princess struggled on the damp ground, She cried in a loud voice. And further: She beat her hands on the oak table. Experiences are expressed in the speech of the characters, in monologues and dialogues. This often takes a peculiar form. Loving Vasily Sophia stands on the choir in the church. She wanted to say: “Lord forgive me,” Meanwhile she said: “Vasilyushko, Vasily, my friend, touch me, Touch me, move, Let’s hold each other and kiss.” Works of the ballad type are more realistic than other poetic genres, since in the latter there is neither such a detailed psychological development of images, nor so many opportunities for showing everyday details. The realism of ballads lies in the vitality of conflicts, in the everyday typification of characters, in the verisimilitude of events and their motivation, in everyday details, in the objectivity of the narration, in the absence of fantastic fiction. The latter is present only sometimes in the denouement of events and is used for moral condemnation of villains. This is the motif of intertwined trees on the graves of the destroyed, which serves as a symbol of true love. The motive of turning a girl into a tree is also usually at the denouement of events. The originality of the ballad is manifested primarily in its difference from other genres. The ballad is a poetic genre, but its verse, although sometimes close to the epic, is distinguished by the fact that it is shorter, usually two-beat, while the epic verse is usually three-beat. The similarity with the epic verse is manifested in the presence of a pause approximately in the middle of the line. I rode//Mitry Vasilyevich In an open field, // on a good horse, Sitting // Domna Alexandrovna In a new little house, // under a sagging window, Under a crystal // under a piece of glass. She thought, // thought, Blasphemed him, // blasphemed him. In epics, and often in historical songs, the positive hero triumphs, but in ballads he dies, and the villain does not receive direct punishment, although sometimes he grieves and repents. Heroes in ballads are not heroes, not historical figures, and usually simple people; if these are princes, then they are derived in their personal, family relationships, and not in state activities. In their epicness, narrative, and plot, ballads are close to epics and historical songs, but their plots are less developed and are usually reduced to one episode. They reveal the relationships of the characters in more detail than the plot situation in lyrical songs. Ballads differ from them in the lack of lyricism, which appears only in later works and indicates the destruction of the genre. At the same time, ballads interact with other genres. They contain epic formulas and epithets: They lead the cross in a written way, They bow in a learned way. In early ballads, epithets are not uncommon: a good horse, a feast of honor, oak tables, a damask sword. But the structure of a ballad is different from the structure of an epic. There are fairy-tale motifs in ballads: predictions, transformations. In the ballad “The Prince and the Elders,” the princess is revived by living water; in the version of the ballad “The Slandered Wife,” the snake, which the young man wanted to kill, promises to help him in gratitude for his salvation, but her words turn out to be slander. Unlike epics and historical songs, the meaning of which lies in patriotic and historical ideas, the meaning of ballads is in expressing moral assessments of the characters’ behavior, in deep humanism, in protecting the free expression of feelings and aspirations of the individual.
Scientists note the difficulty of genre classification folk ballads, since it does not have a clear form of performance, does not have a stable everyday use (ballads are performed mainly from time to time, sometimes on well-known holidays), and “the rhythmic structure of the ballad opens up space for the most unique musical possibilities”19. Apparently, the ballad is defined by its own genre specifics, and researchers establish common features of the ballad genre. The ballad aims to depict the world of private people, “the world of human passions interpreted tragically”20. “The world of the ballad is a world of individuals and families, scattered, disintegrating in a hostile or indifferent environment”21. The ballad focuses on revealing the conflict. “For centuries, typical conflict situations have been selected and cast in ballad form”22. The ballads contain “acute, irreconcilable conflicts, contrasting good and evil, truth and untruth, love and hatred, positive characters and negative, with the main place given to the negative character. Unlike fairy tales, in ballads it is not good that wins, but evil, although the negative characters suffer moral defeat: they are condemned and often repent of their actions, but not because they realized their inadmissibility, but because at the same time as those whom they wanted to destroy , the people they love are also dying.”23 The conflict is revealed dramatically, and, it should be noted, drama literally permeates the entire ballad genre. “The artistic specificity of a ballad is determined by its drama. The composition, the method of depicting a person, and the very principle of typing life phenomena are subordinated to the needs of dramatic expressiveness. The most characteristic features of the composition of the ballad: single-conflict and conciseness, intermittent presentation, abundance of dialogues, repetition with increasing drama... The action of the ballad is reduced to one conflict, to one central episode, and all the events preceding the conflict are either presented extremely briefly... or not at all. are missing...” The images of ballad characters are also revealed according to a dramatic principle: through speech and actions. It is the attitude towards action, towards revealing a personal position in conflictual relationships that determines the type of hero of the ballad. “The creators and listeners of ballads are not interested in personalities. They are primarily concerned with the relationships of the characters with each other, transferred, epically copying the world of consanguineous and family relations". The actions of the heroes of ballads have a universal meaning: they determine the entire plot basis of the ballad and have a dramatically intense character, preparing the ground for a tragic denouement. “Events are conveyed in the ballad in their most intense, most effective moments; there is nothing in it that does not relate to action.” “The action in a ballad, as a rule, develops rapidly, in leaps and bounds, from one peak scene to another, without connecting explanations, without introductory characteristics. The characters' speeches alternate with narrative lines. The number of scenes and characters is kept to a minimum...The entire ballad often represents a kind of preparation for the denouement.”
Scientists note the plot incompleteness of the ballad genre; almost any ballad can be continued or expanded into a whole novel. “Mystery or understatement arising from the compositional properties of the ballad is inherent in the ballads of all nations.” As a rule, a ballad has an unexpected and cruel ending. The heroes commit actions that are impossible in ordinary, everyday life, and they are pushed to commit such actions by an artistically constructed chain of accidents, usually leading to a tragic ending. “Motifs of unexpected misfortune, irreparable accidents, terrible coincidences are common in ballads.” The presence of these features allows us to assert that “ballads have such a specific character that we can talk about them as a genre.” Currently, four theories for determining the ballad genre can be distinguished. 1. A ballad is an epic or epico-dramatic genre. Supporters of this position include N. Andreev, D. Balashov, A. Kulagina, N. Kravtsov, V. Propp, Yu. Smirnov. "Ballad is an epic (narrative) song of a dramatic nature". The source of the emotionality of the narrative is the dramatic beginning; the author's presence in the ballad is not expressed, which means that lyrics as a generic feature of the genre are absent. The lyrical beginning is understood as a direct expression of the author's attitude to reality, the author's mood. 2. Ballad is a lyrical type of poetry. At the moment in the development of science, such a point of view should be considered abandoned. Its origin dates back to the 19th century. It was believed that the ballad in literary form reflects the folk form and is easily correlated with such lyrical genres as romance and elegy. Pavel Yakushkin, one of the famous collectors of folk poetry, wrote: “The ballad so easily turns into elegy and, conversely, elegy into ballad, that it is impossible to strictly distinguish between them”33. They differ only in the number of options, presented more in the ballad34. This theory does not stand up to serious criticism; much earlier, V.G. Belinsky wrote about the ballad, which emerged in the Middle Ages, belonging to epic works, although in general it should be considered, according to the critic, in the section of lyric poetry35. 3. Ballad - lyric-epic genre. This point of view is shared by A. Veselovsky, M. Gasparov, O. Tumilevich, N. Elina, P. Lintur, L. Arinshtein, V. Erofeev, G. Kalandadze, A. Kozin. Until recently, this theory was considered classical. There is every reason to believe that it arises from the assumption of the lyrical structure of the ballad, which was widespread in the 19th century. Scientists note the peculiar lyricization of the folk ballad: “If for epics the main path of transformation is the transition to prose, in the form of a wide range of prose forms... then for the ballad the main path of transformation is the transition to lyrics, in the form of, perhaps, a wider set of lyric -epic and lyrical forms"36. Considering such lyrical-epic ballads of the 18th - 19th centuries, researchers come to the rightful conclusion that leading start in the structure of the genre is precisely the lyrical. Unfortunately, in defining the specific manifestation of the lyrical principle, the term lyricism itself, general, mostly non-genre, grounds are given. We are talking about a special emotional perception, the listeners’ lyrical feeling for the content of the ballads, their sympathy for the suffering and death of the heroes. Also, as a drawback of this concept, one should point out the lack of works devoted to the genre evolution of the ballad: perhaps the ancient form of ballad songs is not constant, changes over time and does not fully correspond to the modern form of ballads. 4. Ballad is an epic-lyric-dramatic genre. This approach to defining a ballad is now taking leading positions. Proponents of this concept are M. Alekseev, V. Zhirmunsky, B. Putilov, A. Gugnin, R. Wright-Kovaleva, A. Mikeshin, V. Gusev, E. Tudorovskaya. “A folk ballad is an epic-lyrical song with pronounced dramatic elements”37. In principle, Russian folkloristics took a long time to achieve this definition independently, but connections can be made with the analytical works of German poets and folk collectors. poetry XVIII - XIX centuries, which created the type of romantic ballad. I.V. Goethe believed that “the singer uses all three main types of poetry... he can begin lyrically, epically, dramatically and, changing forms at will, continue...”. In defining the ballad as a symbiosis of three poetic genera I.G. Herder also added a mythological element. The dramatic beginning is one of the leading elements that shape the ballad genre. A dramatic presentation of a series of events, a dramatic conflict and a tragic denouement determine not the lyrical, but the dramatic type of emotionality of the ballad genre. If lyrics in folklore mean the author’s subjective attitude to the events depicted, then the dramatic beginning is the attitude of the heroes to the events taking place, and the ballad genre is formed in accordance with precisely this approach39. The last group of scientists believes that the dramatic beginning is an indispensable feature of the genre and has an equal role with the epic and lyrical. In a specific song of the epic-lyric-dramatic type, they can be involved to varying degrees, depending on the needs of the historical time and the ideological and artistic setting of the work. This position, in our opinion, seems to be the most promising and fruitful in relation to the study of the folk ballad genre. Unfortunately, we have to admit that there are only a few works devoted to the origin and development of the Russian folk ballad genre. V.M. Zhirmunsky, in his article “English Folk Ballad” in 1916, proposed dividing ballads into genre varieties (epic, lyrical-dramatic or lyrical)40, thereby removing the question of the problem of the evolution of the ballad genre as such. In 1966, the study “The History of the Development of the Russian Folk Ballad Genre” by D.M. was published. Balashov, in which the author, using specific material, shows the thematic nature of the changes in the ballad in the 16th - 17th centuries, and in the 18th century notes signs of the destruction of the genre as a result of the development of non-ritual lyrical lingering songs and “absorption of the epic fabric of the ballad by lyrical elements”41. N.I. Kravtsov summarized all the existing experience and proposed to approve four groups or cycles of ballads in educational literature: family and everyday, love, historical, social42. In 1976, in the scientific work “Slavic Folklore,” the scientist noted the evolutionary nature of these groups43. In 1988 Yu.I. Smirnov, analyzing East Slavic ballads and forms close to them, presented the experience of an index of plots and versions, where he justifiably criticized the artificiality and convention of dividing ballads into fantastic, historical, social and everyday, etc. “Such an artificial division breaks the natural connections and typological relationships between subjects, as a result of which related or similar forms are separated and considered in isolation”44. The scientist clarifies the rules for constructing an evolutionary chain45 in relation to ballad material, identifying five derivatives of the genre (from a drawn-out or “provocal” song intended for choral performance to literary ballad songs popular among the people)46. In general, a general picture emerges of the evolution of the folk ballad genre from the epic to the lyrical form. In this work, particular and practical questions are resolved about the ways and reasons for modifying the genre elements of the ballad, connections are established between disparate plots and the genre specificity of specific texts is determined. In our work, we use the method of text reconstruction, the foundations of which were laid in the works of the historical and typological school of V.Ya. Propp and B.N. Putilova. In relation to the ballad genre, it has its own specifics and is realized in the following aspects. It is assumed that the ballad genre is organized into certain cycles that contribute to the maximum disclosure of all genre features of the ballad. The cyclization of the ballad genre represents, first of all, a plot-variant implementation of one conflict. In ballad cyclization, the fundamental element will be the dramatic element, which in practice consists of creating a) variants of the dramatic situation (early cycles), then the resolution of the conflict; b) versions of a dramatic situation, conflict. A variant of the ballad cycle is a song that repeats a given model of the conflict, but aims to reveal it as fully as possible. The version is qualitative change text, the creation of a new conflict based on a developed cycle or a separate ancient ballad (“Omelfa Timofeevna helps out her relatives” and “Avdotya-Ryazanochka”, “Tatar full” and the cycle about Polonyanka girls). Cycles are studied in their direct interaction, internal evolutionary connections, and it is also traced how the very principles of folk cyclization change over time. The study of the composition of the cycle involves a genre analysis of the plot-variant series of songs. Particular attention is paid to the study of the main components of the genre specificity of the ballad. The type of cyclization and formulaicity, the type of hero and the level of conflict, the nature of folk/author's assessment and dialogical/monologue speech of the characters, the use of folklore and intra-genre traditions, the type of convention and reflection of the aesthetics of artistic/ direct case, the role of formal plot logic, the category of the miraculous and symbolic is established. Features are being explored poetic language and artistic techniques of ballad style. Particular attention is paid to the impact on specific subjects of the tradition of related ballad forms and ritual, epic, lyrical, historical songs, as well as spiritual poems. All results of analytical work are brought into line with the requirements of historical time, which is how the approximate time of demand for ballad cycles is determined. Ultimately, the typological features of the ballad genre are established at each historical stage. The nature and features of genre changes in the ballad in its generic and artistic aspects are revealed, general principles its evolution. Ballad cycles are considered in their direct connection and are more or less accurately dated. As a result of the analysis of ballad material in the Russian region, it is established that the ballad is a flexible, moving unit of an epic-lyro-dramatic nature, which has certain stable typological features at each historical stage of its development from the end of the 13th - beginning of the XIV centuries to the XVIII - XIX centuries. Initially, lyrics are involved in the form of tradition and do not have a significant role in the genre structure of the ballad. Gradually, the lyrical beginning changes the genre appearance of the ballad, which ultimately leads to the lyricization of the genre or its transformation into literary analogues. The ballad worldview, as it were, prepares the ground and contributes to the emergence of personal and historical artistic consciousness, which determined the development of forms of non-ritual lyrical and historical poetry. Subsequently, the ballad genre cannot fully reflect the conflicts of the new era. Competing with historical and lyrical songs in the 16th - 17th centuries, strengthening the role of the lyrical element in its genre structure, the ballad gradually dissolves into the lyrical element, which is more consistent with reflecting the entire depth and inconsistency of the era that has come. IN best case scenario, what remains of a genuine ballad is its external form, a kind of ballad style of presentation or ballad plot (a type of bourgeois ballads). The true genre of folk ballad was preserved in the 19th - 20th centuries. The most famous ballad stories relevant to a particular area are preserved. They are given a lyrical form, they are lyrically processed, but certain stable typological features remain unchanged (cf. a similar process that began earlier in epic creativity). Such ballad songs gradually disappear as the population's literacy increases, books spread, and the ballad narrators and performers themselves disappear.
Features of the ballad genre
V. A. Zhukovsky introduced the Russian reader to one of the most beloved genres of Western European romantics - the ballad. And although the ballad genre appeared in Russian literature long before Zhukovsky, it was he who gave it poetic charm and made it popular. Moreover, he merged the poetics of the ballad genre with the aesthetics of romanticism, and as a result, the ballad genre turned into the most characteristic sign of romanticism.
What is a ballad? And why exactly did this genre attract Zhukovsky? A ballad is a short poetic story of predominantly heroic-historical or fantastic character. The presentation of a pronounced plot in the ballad is lyrically colored. Zhukovsky wrote 39 ballads, of which only five are original, the rest are translations and adaptations.
Early XIX century. Zhukovsky is disappointed in life, his soul suffers from unfulfilled happiness with his beloved girl, with early years he constantly feels the bitterness of social inequality. WITH social issues he faces it all the time. This Decembrist movement, which he is forced to perceive from two points of view: both as a friend of many Decembrists and people from their circle, and as a court person close to royal family. All this prompted Zhukovsky to take the path of ethical decision acute problems. From the very beginning of his ballad work, Zhukovsky fought for a morally pure personality.
The main theme of his ballads is crime and punishment, good and evil. Constant hero of ballads - strong personality who has thrown off moral restrictions and fulfills her personal will aimed at achieving a purely selfish goal. Let us remember the ballad “Warwick” - the original translation of the ballad of the same name by Sau-ti. Warwick seized the throne, killing his nephew, the rightful heir to the throne. And all because Warwick wants to reign.
According to Zhukovsky, crime is caused by individualistic passions: ambition, greed, jealousy, selfish self-affirmation. The man failed to control himself, succumbed to passions, and his moral consciousness turned out to be weakened. Under the influence of passions, a person forgets his moral duty. But the main thing in ballads is not the act of crime, but its consequences - the punishment of a person. The criminal in Zhukovsky’s ballads is, as a rule, not punished by people. Punishment comes from a person's conscience. Thus, in the ballad “Castle Smalholm,” no one punished the murderer of the baron and his wife; they voluntarily go to monasteries because their conscience torments them. But monastic life does not bring them moral relief and consolation: the wife is sad, the world is not dear to her, and the baron “is shy of people and is silent.” By committing a crime, they deprive themselves of the happiness and joys of life.
But even when a criminal’s conscience does not awaken, punishment still comes to him. According to Zhukovsky, it comes as if from the very depths of life. The conscience is silent in the greedy Bishop Gatton, who burned a barn with hungry poor people and thought with cynical satisfaction that he had rid the hungry region of greedy mice (ballad " God's judgment over the bishop").
“Nature in Zhukovsky’s ballads is fair, and she herself takes on the function of revenge - for a crime: the Avon River, in which the little heir to the throne was drowned, overflowed its banks, overflowed, and the criminal Warwick drowned in the furious waves. Mice started a war against Bishop Gatton and killed him.
In the ballad world, nature does not want to absorb evil into itself, to preserve it, it destroys it, takes it away forever from the world of existence. The ballad world of Zhukovsky asserts: in life there is often a duel between good and evil. In the end, goodness, a high moral principle, always wins), Zhukovsky’s JjbcV pp is fair retribution. The poet firmly believes that a vicious act will definitely be punished. And the main thing in Zhukovsky’s ballads is the triumph of the moral law.
Special place Among Zhukovsky’s works there are ballads dedicated to love: “Lyudmila”, “Svetlana”, “Aeolian Harp” and others. The main thing here for the poet is to calm down and guide a person in love who has experienced a tragedy in love on the true path. Zhukovsky here also demands the curbing of selfish desires and passions.
But unfortunate Lyudmila is cruelly condemned because she indulges in passion, the desire to be happy at all costs with her beloved. The passion of love and the bitterness of losing her fiancé blind her so much that she forgets about her moral duties towards other people. Zhukovsky, using romantic means, seeks to prove how unreasonable and even dangerous for a person this selfish desire for his own happiness in spite of everything:
Coffin, open;
live fully;
Twice to the heart
not to love.
This is how Lyudmila, distraught with grief, exclaims. The coffin opens and the dead man takes Lyudmila into his arms. The heroine’s horror is terrible: her eyes turn to stone, her eyes fade, her blood runs cold. And it is no longer possible to regain the life that she so unreasonably rejected. But Zhukovsky’s terrible ballad is life-loving. The poet gives preference real life, despite the fact that it sends severe trials to a person.
The ballad "Svetlana" is close in plot to "Lyudmila", but also deeply different. This ballad is a free arrangement of the ballad of the German poet G. A. Burger “Lenora”. It tells how a girl wonders about her groom: he has gone far away and has not sent news for a long time. And suddenly he appears in a charming dream inspired by fortune telling. The darling calls the bride to get married, they gallop through the blizzard on mad horses. But the groom suddenly turns into a dead man and almost drags the bride to the grave. However, everything ends well: awakening occurs, the groom appears in reality, alive, and the desired, joyful wedding takes place. Zhukovsky goes far from the original, introducing national Russian flavor into the ballad: he includes a description of fortune-telling in the “Epiphany evening”, signs and customs:
Once on Epiphany evening
The girls wondered:
A shoe behind the gate.
They took it off their feet and threw it,
Snow was shoveled under the window
Listened, fed
Counting chicken grains,
Ardent wax was melted,
Into a bowl with clean water
They laid a gold ring,
Emerald earrings,
White boards spread out
And over the bowl they sang in harmony
The songs are amazing.
The poet reproduces an attractive and graceful girl’s world, in which a shoe, emerald earrings, and a gold ring are significant.
The ballad not only told about an episode from the life of a young creature, but presented her inner world. The whole ballad is full of life, movement, both internal and external, some kind of girlish bustle. Svetlana's spiritual world is also full of movement. She either refuses the baptismal games, or agrees to join the fortune-tellers; she is both afraid and hopes to receive the desired news, and in a dream she is overcome by the same feelings: fear, hope, anxiety, trust... in the groom. Her feelings are extremely intense, her sensations are heightened, her heart responds to everything. The ballad is written in a rapid rhythm: the ballad horses are racing, the girl and her groom are rushing towards them, and her heart is breaking.
The color scheme in the ballad “Svetlana” is also interesting. The entire text is permeated with white color: it is, first of all, snow, the image of which appears immediately, from the first lines, the snow that Svetlana dreams about, the blizzard over the sleigh, the blizzard all around. Next is a white scarf used during fortune telling, a table covered with a white tablecloth, a snow-white dove and even a snow sheet with which the dead man is covered. The color white is associated with the name of the heroine: Svetlana, light, and: to the like - white light. Zhukovsky here White color, undoubtedly, a symbol of purity and innocence.
The second contrasting color in the ballad is not black, but rather dark: dark in the mirror, dark is the distance of the road along which the horses are racing. The black color of the terrible ballad night, the night of crimes and punishments, is softened and brightened in this ballad.
Thus, White snow, dark night And bright dots candle lights or eyes - this is a kind of romantic background in the ballad “Svetlana”.
And yet the charm of the ballad is in the image of the young lover Svetlana. Her fears were dispelled; she was not guilty of anything. But the poet, true to his ethical principles, warned the young creature about the vice of the sagas of molyubia. Faith in providence turns into faith in life:
Smile, my beauty,
To my ballad
There are great miracles in it,
Very little stock.
Here are my sense of ballads:
« Best friend to us in this life -
The blessing of the creator of the backwater:
Here misfortune is a false dream;
Happiness is awakening.”
So, using the example of the best and main ballads of V. A. Zhukovsky, we tried to analyze the basic principles of the ballad genre. It must be said that, after Zhukovsky, Russian writers actively turned to this genre: this is A. S. Pushkin’s “Song of prophetic Oleg"(1822), and M. Yu. Lermontov "Airship" (1828), "Mermaid" (1836), and A. Tolstoy "Vasily Shibanem" (1840).
Over time, the genre became overgrown with cliches, which gave rise to numerous parodies: “The German Ballad” by Kozma Prutkov (1854) is a parody of Schiller’s ballad in Zhukovsky’s translation “The Knight of Togenvurg.” In 1886, several parodies and ballads were written by Vl. Soloviev: “Vision”, “Mysterious Sexton”.
Goals (for the teacher):
1. Create conditions for identifying, through analytical reading, the features of the ballad as a lyric-epic genre;
2. Teach children to use metalanguage when analyzing text;
3. Continue working on expressive reading techniques;
Goals (for children):
1. Through analytical reading, understand what a ballad is as a lyrical genre;
2. Master the features and types of ballads;
3. Repeat theoretical and literary concepts: epic, lyrics, epigraph, score and others;
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Preview:
Literature lesson in 6th grade on the topic “Ballad as a lyric-epic genre and its features.”
Goals (for the teacher):
- To create conditions for identifying, through analytical reading, the features of the ballad as a lyric-epic genre;
- Teach children to use metalanguage when analyzing text;
- Continue working on expressive reading techniques;
- Develop learning independence, active reading position;
Goals (for children):
- Through analytical reading, understand what a ballad is as a lyrical genre;
- Master the features and types of ballads;
- Review theoretical and literary concepts: epic, lyrics, epigraph, score and others;
During the classes.
- Goal setting.
Teacher's word:
Dear guys! Today in the lesson we will get acquainted with an amazing, unique and very interesting genre in literature called the ballad.
What is known? (Nothing). The more interesting the conversation will be.
So, let's see what goals we have to achieve today?
II. Pre-communicative.
Working with an epigraph.
Pay attention to the board, these are the epigraphs I prepared for the lesson today.
(Student reads) Treasured legends from dark antiquity...
M.Yu. Lermontov.
And fatal passions are everywhere...
A.S. Pushkin.
What is an epigraph? What is it for? How do these epigraphs help us understand the ballad?
What can we say about this genre, relying only on the epigraph, without knowing anything about the ballad?
(Ancient genre; emotional.)
Teacher's word
The term “ballad” itself is very ancient, and it arose along with the first lyrical works V tough times Middle Ages. Translated, this term meant “dance song.” Ballads were created by folk storytellers based on legends and myths, works of ancient authors, and true events.
Which epigraph reflects what you just heard? (First)
And second? (Mystery)
Well, today you have to solve this riddle yourself.
III. Communicative.
Conversation
Read the topic carefully. Do you think it will be easy for us to start a conversation?
Are all terms clear? Find those words (words) that may be at least somehow understandable or familiar to you? (Lyroepic)
What familiar words does the entire term consist of?
lyro epic
What does this remind you of?
(two literary genders)
lyrics epic
(emotions, feelings) (plot, hero)
Is it possible now, knowing the meaning of the two words, to say what lyroepic means? Work in pairs to independently formulate the concept.
Who's ready to draw a conclusion? (Answers of some students with additions and corrections from other children)
The first result.
So: Lyric-epic genres are works that combine the characteristics of lyricism (emotionality) and epic (plot content).
Let's open the notebooks, write down the topic, vocabulary: lyric-epic genres.
Students write down the definition on their own, 2 people again voice it out for control, then check themselves against the teacher’s note that appears on the board or on the computer.
Let's move on. Now I will read you the folk lyrical ballad “The Raven Flies to the Raven...” After reading, we will discuss the work together, highlight the features, but now (during my reading) your task is to arrange the score of the ballad.
Let's remember what needs to be done for this, what should we remember?
b) logical stresses;
c) pauses, absence of pauses;
d) punctuation marks.
Revealing perception.
Liked?
What emotions did the poem evoke? What feelings and associations did you have? What one word would you use to describe this work? (Sadness, pity.)
Are all the words clear?
Vocabulary work on slide. Children read.
Rakita - a tree or shrub of the willow family, usually growing along the banks of rivers.
Visit
1. Visit someone you haven’t seen for a long time, about whom you don’t know anything for a long time. For example: to visit relatives.
2. Find out by rumors.
For example: Check on a friend’s arrival?
In what sense is the word “to visit” used here?
Pay attention to what style this word belongs to (colloquial)
Let's remember this, then we'll come back to it.
What did we see in this ballad from the epic and from the lyrics (emotions in perception)
Is there a plot (event)? Which?
What is the ballad about? (The hero is killed.)
How do we know about this?
(Raven to crow in dialogue.)
What is dialogue?
What place does dialogue occupy in a ballad?
How many quatrains are there in the work?
How many of them are allocated for dialogue?
So what do you think is the meaning of dialogue?
Students draw conclusions:
In the dialogue we learn about the event, it is the basis of the plot, from it
we find out what happened to the heroes.
Let’s draw a conclusion (Dialogue is the basis of a ballad; the plot develops in it)
Indeed, guys, the dialogue in a ballad is the basis of the plot! The plot, in essence, seems to be replaced by dialogue, which develops it. That is why characteristic feature we recognize the ballad.
6) - So, the main event is known.
Who knows about this event? (Filly, falcon, mistress)
Nothing bothers you?
A strange series of witnesses, it seems to me?
Why do I have this feeling?
Re-read the last quatrain! (The hostess knows.)
Where? Who are we waiting for then?
Discussion. Who disagrees, who thinks differently?
Who does he sympathize with? Is he judging someone?
How does he convey his emotions to us?
What means artistic expression He
Does he use it? For what purpose? (Anaphora, syntactic parallelism, inversion, dialogue (and here is the word colloquial style)).
What is the idea of the work?
Discussion. Conclusion.
Idea:
The idea is, guys, that in life there is tragedy at every turn.
What is the tragedy of heroes?
A). A murder has been committed, a person has been killed. People have broken the law of God “thou shalt not kill.”
B). The owner is probably to blame, but her tragedy also lies in the fact that she, having succumbed to her passions, is forced to do this, otherwise she will not be able to be with her beloved!
IN). The tragedy is that both sides are right (and the mistress has the right to happiness, and the one who married her has the right to life, and sometimes there is no way out).
But let's return to our features.
Can you name another feature of the ballad?
Remember what made you discuss this so heatedly? small piece(obscurity, mystery)
Can we say that we fully understand everything? Did you understand the events?
What is this connected with? (with a secret)
So Indeed, in a ballad there is always a certain secret, therefore the plot is structured as a revelation, recognition of a certain secret, which, even if it remains outside the work, always intrigues the reader, keeps him in suspense, makes him worry, worry, think.
And this is another feature of the ballad.
Did you guys know that the ballad as a genre has several varieties.
Where and when did we already talk about the variety of the genre? (story, short story, 5th grade)
Remember what genre varieties you know? (Love, humorous, fantasy, adventure, historical, social, everyday, etc.)
Now let's find out what types of genres a ballad has.
Performance by trained children.
After reading the work proposed by the teacher, analyzing the title, plot, and actions of the characters, we came to the conclusion that the ballad comes in the following types:
Heroic
Historical
Love
Magic
Comic
And this is the 4th feature of the ballad. I didn’t make a reservation about which ones are 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Who remembers? Let's summarizeLet's check your attention.
Formulate all the features of the ballad!
Who is more attentive? And who will add, argue, clarify?
So, write down all 4 features in your notebook.
A). The features of epic and lyricism are combined.
B). Dialogue is the basis of a ballad; it develops the plot.
IN). Mystery is the basis of the plot.
G). There are different types.
Write everything down in your notebook and check it on the slide..
III.Post-communicative
Concluding our conversation, let's return to the epigraphs. Do you now think which of them most accurately reflects your idea of a ballad? (Second; both)
Now let’s read it expressively, remember the score, our entire conversation.
What type of reading is better to choose? (By roles.)
How many readers will be needed? (Three.)
Which passage is the most difficult? What you need to remember when reading it.
Are there anyone interested?
Reading by roles.
Happened? Who managed to better convey the drama of the situation in their reading? What advice would you give to readers?
Reflection.
Well, let's summarize the lesson. What were they talking about? What new did you learn? Have we achieved the objectives of our lesson? Have you found out everything? Or maybe you still have questions for me? Maybe something is unclear?
(What is a ballad?)
Homework.
Of course, I did this on purpose, precisely because I am confident after today. In this lesson you can define the term ballad yourself.
This will be your homework.
a) Open your diaries and write them down!