Alexander Afanasev and his collection of fairy tales Plan: Introduction

Alexander Afanasev and his collection of fairy tales
Plan:
Introduction
Chapter I.An introduction to the tales of Alexander Afanasev
1.1.About the tales of Alexander Afanasev
1.2.The role of Alexander Afanasev's fairy tales in children's lives
Charter II.The significance of Alexander Afanasev's fairy tales in children's literature
2.1.The role of Alexander Afanasev's fairy tales in world literature
2.2.Alexander Afanasev's fairy tales in children's literature
Conclusion
Reference
Applications

Chapter I.An introduction to the tales of Alexander Afanasev
1.1.About the tales of Alexander Afanasev
Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev has been called the Russian version of the Grimm Brothers, because the author published almost 600 Russian folk tales and fairy tales. He was a historian and scholar who was deeply interested in folklore before there was even a term for the body of work. Born in 1826, he studied law as Moscow University, but was drawn to write about folklore. He published the articles “The Wizards and Witches, Sorcery in the Ancient Rus, Pagan Legends about the Buyan Island,” and these were aligned with the Mythological school of thought. Eventually the Russian Geographic Society asked him to publish the folk tale archives that the organization had maintained. The first collection consisted of 74 tales, then the collection grew after he added more tales. Known as ” Narodnye russkie skazki” (Russian fairy tales), the entire collection was published between 1855 and 1863. Although a prolific author, he denied penniless, at age 45 in 1871. It’s thanks to Afanasyev that we have such rich archives of Russian folklore.Afanasyev became interested in old Russian and Slav traditions and stories in the 1850s ("folklore" as an area of study did not exist at the time). His early scholarly articles, including – "Ведун и ведьма" ("Wizard and Witch", published in "Комета", 1851); "Языческие предания об острове Буяне" ("Pagan legends of Buyan Island", published in "Временнике общ. ист. и древ. росс." of 1858 No. 9) – drew upon the so-called Mythological school that treated legends and tales as a mine of information for the study of more ancient pagan mythology (see his definitive work on the subject "Поэтические воззрения славян на природу" ("The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs [ru]", 1865–1869). In such an interpretation, he regarded the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful as depicting the conflict between the sunlight (Vasilisa), the storm (her stepmother), and dark clouds (her stepsisters). A great archivist, his works provide copious information, evidence, documents, and passages of the old chronicles relating to Old Russian culture, history and tradition, as well as other Indo-European languages, folklore and legends, in particular German traditions (he knew to perfection German as well as all Slav languages and ancient ones). In the early 1850s, being already known for his articles, Afanasyev began to think about a collection of folk tales. He was then asked by the Russian Geographical Society (ethnography section) of Saint Petersburg to publish the folktales archives that the Society had been in possession of for about ten years. These archives are at the start of his Collection. Afanasyev chose 74 tales out of these. He added to them the enormous collection of Vladimir Dal (about 1000 texts), from which he kept 148 numbers, finding the other ones too distorted, his own collection (of about 10 folktales from the Voronezh region), and a few other collections. He added already published tales (such as Maria Marievna, The Firebird, The Grey Wolf, etc.), a few tales coming from epic songs, stories about the dead, a few medieval satirical texts (such as The Shemiaka Sentence), and anecdotes.
He owes his prominent place in the history of Slavonic philology chiefly to these Russian Fairy Tales (Народные русские сказки), published between 1855 and 1863, and inspired by the famous collection of the Brothers Grimm. From the scientific point of view, his collection goes further. He had at his disposal a lot of contributors, he tried to give the source and place where the tale was told, he never tried to give any definitive version of a folktale: so, if he gathered seven versions of one folk type, he edited them all (this is the case for The Firebird for instance).
In 1860 a scandal was provoked following the publication of the "Русские народные легенды" ("Russian Folk Legends", 1860), a collection of folk tales from all over the country based on the lives of Jesus and Christian saints. The result was a unique blend of Christianity with paganism and social undertones. Some of them were labeled unorthodox by the Most Holy Synod and the book was officially banned.[7] He also prepared Заветные сказки ("Treasured Tales"), an assortment of redacted tales from "Русские народные легенды" plus other potential controversial stories – published as Russian Forbidden Tales in Switzerland anonymously because of their obscene and anticlerical subject matter. A great lover of antiquity, Afanasiev explores everything connected with the history of Russia, acquires old handwritten books. He owns numerous works on the history of Russia, he publishes them in the journal Sovremennik (State Economy under Peter the Great, Pskov Judicial Charter, etc.). He writes reviews of historical literature in the publications of the "Society of History and Antiquities" at the university. He is a member of the Society of Lovers of Literature, researches archives, speaks and publishes articles about the word creation of the people. Under the most difficult and unfavorable conditions for him, Afanasiev completed and published the main work of his life - "The Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature." The Russian literary critic and ethnographer A. N. Pypin wrote about Afanasyev’s passion for fairy tales. In a review of the first edition of fairy tales, he noted that Afanasyev’s comparisons of fairy tale motifs are successful and very apt. Nevertheless, he immediately condemned him for the fact that the author is trying to give a mythical explanation to the smallest events. Chernyshevsky N. G. also pointed out this, but added that one cannot but agree with Afanasyev's explanations.
Alexander Afanasyev answered numerous critics that mythology is the same science, and only if it is possible to recreate a complete picture of antiquity if the slightest detail is explored. He argued that legends, folklore, mythology are inseparable from the history of the people. Many legends are somehow connected with natural phenomena that have no explanation, which once again confirms their mythical meaning. The lack of understanding by critics of the scientific value of his research on mythology was painful for Afanasiev.The publication of fairy tales by Afanasiev in those conditions is a kind of feat. He writes a letter to the editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski and asks for a place in the publication for folk tales. Explains, using the example of the Brothers Grimm, that this is a valuable material that deserves interest. But the material never appeared in the journal, since the volume that Afanasiev had at that time far exceeded the capabilities of the journal.
In 1952, the Russian Geographical Society gave Afanasyev a collection of fairy tales that he had in the archives. By that time, the writer already had about 1,000 fairy tales at his disposal, handed over to him by Dal V.I. Both those and other materials required careful processing, as they were collected by different people, the records differed in both quality and style. In 1855, the first edition of Russian Folk Tales was published.
There is a lot of mystery in the life of the famous publisher of Russian folk tales - and, no doubt, for the reason that he was judged mainly on the basis of censored publications and the few biographical facts that got into print. They knew what articles and where he published, what collections he compiled, what archival materials he published in the Bibliographic Notes he edited. Less, although it is also known that Afanasiev traveled abroad, visited Germany, Switzerland, Italy, England, rejoiced at Garibaldi's victories in Naples, was in Londonby A. I. Herzen. Many are aware that Afanasiev's three-volume study "The Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature" (M., 1865-1869) was accepted by his contemporaries with significant reservations. Few of those who wrote about Afanasiev did not consider it necessary to note that his work bears the stamp of a past time, especially in delusions and one-sidedness. However, it's strange! - these judgments did not in the least interfere with the glory of Afanasiev.Afanasiev was born in 1826 in the county town of Boguchar, Voronezh province, in the family of a county lawyer. My father valued education in people and, although he was brought up “on copper money”, he was known as the smartest person in the Bobrovsky district, where the Afanasyev family eventually moved. From the seven years of study at the Voronezh gymnasium, as well as from his residence in Bobrov, according to Afanasyev himself, he "carried out few encouraging impressions." Dumb cramming, pedantic teachers, corporal punishment, rude pranks of peers, district gossip, mutual hostility, empty quarrels, petty pride - could forever turn away from lofty aspirations, but Afanasiev found the strength to overcome the inertia of the environment in which, as he later said , there was no "public". In 1844, at the end of the course at the gymnasium, the eighteen-year-old Afanasyev arrived in Moscow and entered the law faculty of the university. The four years spent within its walls became the time when the foundations of Afanasiev's advanced convictions were laid down. In the life of every person, events happen that determine its further course for a long time. About what happened on September 21, 1848, Afanasiev said in a letter to his father: “Minister Uvarov was in Moscow, and at the university candidates and students read in the presence of professors, the minister and various lovers of the lecture, I gave a short lecture on the influence of the state (autocratic) principle on the development of criminal law in the 16th and 17th centuries in Russia ... This lecture caused several remarks from the minister, with which, however, I did not immediately think to agree . Shevyrev and his colleague found in her something which it did not and could not have.” The son spared his father's feelings: the scandal was loud enough.Afanasiev was considered one who should not continue to study ancient Russian laws. The tsarist minister, the author of the famous formula "Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality", was irritated. Meet disagreement - and whose? The minister did not stand on ceremony even in dealing with scientists. Professor N. V. Kalachev, who occupied the chair of the history of Russian jurisprudence, he said: “Read your lectures without any speculation, take acts in one hand, Karamzin’s History in the other and, relying on these manuals, carry out mainly the thought that autocracy is the basis of Russian history and began from the most ancient times. “I heard this from Kalachev himself,” Afanasiev testifies.A year later, thanks to the mediation of N. V. Kalachev, Afanasiev nevertheless took a place in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served here until 1862 - for thirteen years. What his leisure time was doing at that time can be judged from the numerous works published in journals and special scientific collections. But far from everything, and not in the form in which he wanted to see his work, appeared before readers. The pages of his diary are filled with information, facts, judgments that under no circumstances could get into print. This is a secret secret, secret history of modern life, to which Afanasiev is involved and to which all his thoughts go back - the ideas of the articles written, the ideas of the collected collections. From the diary entries, the eminently sympathetic appearance of their author is outlined.The diary is supplemented by meaningful letters from Afanasiev , especially those that he sent to E. I. Yakushkin, the son of a famous Decembrist. Long-term sincere friendship connected Afaiasyev with Yakushkin Jr., and the friends did not hide their feelings and thoughts from each other. After the promulgation of the tsar's manifesto and the provision on the abolition of serfdom, Afanasyev wrote to a friend in Yaroslavl: "The peasant businessand in our country, as everywhere, the muddy swamp of landlordism has stirred and agitated, and, looking around, listening to opinions, I see that the question has only just arrived at a decision, and has not yet been decided at all by the manifesto and regulations. There will be an abyss of dirty tricks, and already the beginning of them is obvious to everyone. Moscow was filled with letters of serfs against the landowners, a very natural fruit of an absurd article that left the serfs dependent on the bar for another two years, who are embittered and ready for any trick: if only they had someone to rip off! <...> Rumors are heard from all over the provinces about the unwillingness of the peasants to send corvee. In the Chernigov province it was everywhere; in the Kazan province, the self-styled Konstantin Nikolaevich appeared with his headquarters, but after several shots the peasants were forced to hand him over; the impostor turned out to be a retired soldier and was shot. In the Voronezh province, the peasants of our friend Alexander Stankevich and also Baron Schlichting refused to work at all in favor of the landowners and expressed a desire to buy out all the land. Two companies of the Azov regiment were sent, and the peasants were pacified. The adjutant general sent there (with a German surname), they say, raged strongly at the same time ”(letter dated April 30, 1861).Afanasiev lived by the political events of the time, passionately sympathized with the oppressed peasants, harbored enmity towards the omnipotence of the landlords, was a critic of the tsarist reform, despised the clergy, understanding * what role it plays in protecting the existing order. This alone gives Afanasiev the right to the honorary name of a democrat - a supporter of decisive liberation reforms in Russia.