What is a ballad? Presentation for a literature lesson on the topic "ballad as a literary genre."

In this article we will talk about such a literary genre as a ballad. What is a ballad? This is a literary work written in the form of poetry or prose, which always has a pronounced plot. Most often, ballads have a historical connotation and in them you can learn about certain historical or mythical characters. Sometimes ballads are written to be sung in theatrical performances. People fell in love with this genre, first of all, because of the interesting plot, which always has a certain intrigue.

When creating a ballad, the author is guided either historical event, which inspires him, or folklore. In this genre, specially fictional characters are rarely present. People like to recognize the characters they liked before.

ballad like literary genre has the following features:

• The presence of the composition: introduction, main part, climax, denouement.
• Having a storyline.
• The attitude of the author to the characters is conveyed.
• The emotions and feelings of the characters are shown.
• A harmonious combination of real and fantastic moments of the plot.
• Description of landscapes.
• The presence of mystery, riddles in the plot.
• Character dialogues.
• A harmonious combination of lyrics and epic.

Thus, we figured out the specifics of this literary genre and gave a definition of what a ballad is.

From the history of the term

For the first time, the term "ballad" was used in ancient Provençal manuscripts as early as the 13th century. In these manuscripts, the word "ballad" was used to describe dance movements. In those days, this word did not mean any genre in literature or other forms of art.

As a poetic literary form, the ballad began to be understood in medieval France only at the end of the 13th century. One of the first poets who tried to write in this genre was a Frenchman named Jeannot de Lecurel. But, for those times, the ballad genre was not purely poetic. Such poems were written for musical performances. The musicians danced to the ballad, thus amusing the audience.

In the 14th century, a poet named Guillaume fe Machaux wrote more than two hundred ballads and quickly became famous as a result. He wrote love lyrics, completely depriving the genre of "dancing". After his work, the ballad became a purely literary genre.

With the advent printing press, in France, the first ballads printed in newspapers began to appear. People really liked them. The French loved to gather with the whole family at the end of a hard day's work in order to enjoy the interesting plot of the ballad together.

In classical ballads, from the time of Machaux, in one stanza of the text, the number of verses did not exceed ten. A century later, the trend changed and ballads began to be written in square stanzas.

One of the most famous balladists of that time was Christina Pisanskaya, who, like Masho, wrote ballads for print, and not for dances and dances. She became famous for her work The Book of a Hundred Ballads.

After some time, this genre found its place in the work of other European poets and writers. As for Russian literature, the ballad appeared in it only in the 19th century. This happened due to the fact that Russian poets were inspired by German romanticism, and since the Germans of that time described their lyrical experiences in ballads, this genre quickly spread here as well. Among the most famous Russian ballad poets are Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Belinsky and others.

Among the most famous world writers, whose ballads, no doubt, went down in history, one can name Goethe, Kamenev, Victor Hugo, Burger, Walter Scott and other outstanding writers.

IN modern world, in addition to the classical literary genre, the ballad also found its primary musical roots. In the West, there is a whole musical direction in rock music, which is called "rock ballad". The songs of this genre sing mainly about love.

The word "ballad" comes from the French "ballade", and then, in turn, from the late Latin "ballo" - "I dance." The ballad genre developed in the Middle Ages. Initially, this was the name of the folk dance song; then ballads about crimes, bloody feuds, unhappy love and orphanhood became widespread. The development of ballad plots went in two main directions: plots of a heroic-historical nature turned out to be extremely productive; in parallel, they developed plots related to love themes. In fact, there was no clear line between these two groups. Heroic and love stories were often intertwined, absorbed fabulous folklore motifs, sometimes interpreted in a comic way, acquiring some specific features associated with the place of origin or existence of a particular ballad.

Heroic ballads were formed when the times of myths, legends, epic heroes receded into the distant past. Heroic ballads are based on specific historical events that can be traced to a greater or lesser extent in each of them, which gives the right to call them heroic-historical.

Ballads of love made up the largest group. Are they only about love? Rather, about love sorrows, innumerable dangers and obstacles that lay in wait for lovers at every step in those distant times.

Such was the ballad in the Middle Ages. With the development of other literary genres, the ballad faded into the background and was not widely popular.

In the 18th century there is a revival of this genre. The reason for this was the amazing lyricism and plasticity of the ballad: it combines the historical, legendary, terrible, mysterious, fantastic, funny. Perhaps that is why S. Coleridge, G. Burger, F. Schiller, I.V. Goethe, R. Burns, W. Scott, A. Mickiewicz. These writers not only revived this genre, but also found new sources for it, proposed new themes, and outlined new trends. What they were, we have to consider on the example of I.V. Goethe, F. Schiller, R. Burns and W. Scott.

The great German writer and scientist, classic of German and world literature, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) was a great master in lyrics. Here the diversity of the poet's genius was especially clearly manifested. He mastered the most diverse forms of verse and poetic style: philosophical lyrics, folk songs; he has an ancient cycle "Roman Elegies", an eastern cycle "West-Eastern Divan". Often Goethe turned to the ballad, was the initiator of its revival.

The early Goethe ballads of the era of storm and onslaught (“Rose of the Steppe”, 1771, “King of Ful”, 1774, etc.) are close in style and manner to a folk song with its predominantly emotional impact and lyrical, love themes. The ballads of the transitional period (“The Fisherman”, 1778, “The Forest King”, 1782) are already somewhat moving away from the simplicity of the composition of the folk song style, but retain a common lyrical character: their themes are drawn from folklore, but used to express a modern, romantically colored sense of nature. . Ballads of a later period (“The Corinthian Bride”, “God and Bayadere”, etc. 1797) are extensive and complex narrative compositions, small poems in which a specific narrative plot becomes a typical case, embodies a general moral and philosophical idea; such classical typification and objectivity are facilitated by a high style, devoid of subjective emotional coloring, and the use of complex strophic forms as a method of metrical stylization.

In Goethe's ballads there is certainly something mysterious, instructive, scary, less often funny. Many of them are written in the tradition of a terrible gloomy ballad (for example, “The Pied Piper”, “The Forest King”, “The Corinthian Bride” permeate the sensations of night fears). But there are also works whose motive is the affirmation of earthly joys; neither divination nor treasure hunting will bring happiness, it is in love, in friendship, in the person himself.

Goethe's ballads combine the fantastic and the improbable, the terrible and the funny, but all this is always permeated by a clear thought, everything logically follows one from the other - and suddenly an often unexpected tragic ending. The nakedness of feelings, so characteristic of folklore works, is another important feature of Goethe's ballads.

For a long time Goethe was fond of ancient art. That is why the main sources of his ballads are ancient myths, legends and traditions. But Goethe humanizes reality, he even endows nature with real properties using the injection technique. Thus, a complete dramatic work is obtained, in which everything is important, and even the smallest detail plays its role.

We are familiar with Goethe's ballads from V.A. Zhukovsky, F.I. Tyutcheva, B.L. Pasternak, who managed to clearly convey the emotional mood, and the unique atmosphere, and color created by the genius of Goethe. Later, his works were translated by romantics (Venevitinov), poets of "pure art", symbolist poets.

One of the leading places is occupied by the ballad genre in the work of another German writer, Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805). Schiller turned to this genre at the same time as Goethe, in a number of cases his influence is felt. The writers were friendly, together they published the Ory magazine. In the process of creating ballads, constant creative communication was maintained, and in 1797 a friendly competition was arranged in writing them.

The first cycle of Schiller's ballads - "The Cup", "The Glove", "Polycrates' Ring", "Ivikov's Cranes" - was published in 1798 in the "Almanac of the Muses", following the epigrams.

The writer's interest in this genre turned out to be very long. And subsequently, he repeatedly expressed his innermost thoughts in ballads. Until the end of the 90s, “Knight Togenburg”, “Walking for the Iron Hammer”, “Bail”, “Battle with the Dragon”, etc. were written.

Just like Goethe, Schiller was interested in ancient art, which was reflected in a number of poems (“Gods of Greece”, 1788, “Artists”, 1789) and ballads. The best of them in terms of ideological orientation and style are closely connected with his philosophical position and historical dramaturgy. They are dramatic in the development of the plot, the historical or legendary conflict reflected in them is significant. Schiller widely used in ballads such means of dramaturgy as monologue and dialogue (“The Glove”, “Polycrates' Ring”, “Cassandra”). All this gives grounds to call them “little dramas” or “dramatic episodes”.

Schiller's ballads reflected his reflections on the meaning of human existence, the power of moral duty, through which he still hoped to improve social relations.

Schiller uses ancient Greek legends and stories, ancient folk legends and myths as sources.

Thus, the ballad “The Cup” (“The Diver”) is based on a German legend of the 12th century. But it is devoid of romantic motives: the reason for the death of the swimmer was supposedly his greed. Schiller, on the other hand, has a tragic theme of the struggle of a person with unequal forces.

The ballad “The Complaint of Ceres” is an adaptation of the ancient myth about the marriage of Proserpina (Greek – Persephone), the daughter of the goddess of fertility Ceres (Demeter) with Pluto, the god of the underworld (Greek – Hades). According to the myth, Proserpina leaves Pluto's domain in the spring and visits her mother: the time of her stay on earth is marked by the awakening of nature, flowering and fertility. Schiller psychologizes the myth, endows the gods with human feelings and traits, emphasizes the humanity of the motherly feeling of the goddess.

Schiller also creates ballads on the plot of medieval feudal life (“The Glove”).

New - social - motives appear in Schiller's work, he seeks to solve global, universal problems: relations between people, the connection of man with nature, with art, with outside world. There is nothing terrible and inexplicable in his ballads. However, some of them show romantic tendencies: the idea of ​​two worlds (dream world better than the world real), the appearance of symbols, the dynamism of the development of events, and later - the departure from reality.

Among German writers, Gottfried August Bürger (1747–1794) also turned to the ballad genre. His "Lenora", "The Wild Hunter", "The Song of an Honest Man" and other ballads brought him European fame. Burger's main source is German folklore. So in "Lenora" he skillfully uses his lyrical and fantastic motives.

The most famous are the ballads of Schiller and Burger in the translations of V.A. Zhukovsky. He managed to preserve the "stately - epic architectonics" of Schiller's ballads and the "vulgarity" of Burger's style.

The oldest Anglo-Scottish ballads have been preserved genetic connection with legends and tales of the tribal system. Their distinguishing feature is their focus on a single event, usually tragic and bloody. The reasons that led to this event, the circumstances that preceded it, are given only as a hint, giving the plot a touch of mystery. Robert Burns (1759-1796) borrowed this plot structure, as well as many other things, from English and Scottish ballads. His passion for old folklore began with a book by Robert Ferguson, who published a small volume of poetry in the Scottish dialect. Then Burns realized for the first time that his native language exists not only as the language of old half-forgotten ballads, but also as a real literary language. Subsequently, Burns devoted all his free time to collecting old songs and ballads. For years he participated in the creation of the multi-volume “Music Museum”, restoring the most undistorted texts from a variety of oral versions and composing new words to old melodies if the texts were lost or replaced by vulgar and illiterate verses.

So Burns became one of the direct participants in the revival of rich folklore, not only as the best poet of Scotland, but also as a scientist, as a great connoisseur of her life, legends. That is why most of his works are deeply original reworkings of old songs; Burns used the plot, melody, rhythm, meter of old poems. But under his pen, weak, half-forgotten ancient stanzas and plots acquired a modern edge and were filled with new content.

So, for example, the ballad “John Barleycorn” was born, in which the idea of ​​the immortality of the people is expressed in an allegorical form.

The ballad Tam O'Shanter is based on an anecdote about farmer Douglas Graham O'Shanter, a desperate drunk who feared his grumpy wife more than anything in the world. Once, while Douglas was sitting in a tavern, the boys tore the tail off his horse. He noticed it only after returning home. To justify himself in the eyes of his wife, Douglas composed a story about devils and witches. This episode prompted Burns the plot of the ballad, which he himself was very fond of.

And here is an adaptation of the old Scottish folk ballad “Lord Gregory”, which tells a simple story about how a handsome young lord deceived a gullible peasant woman and then left her. The ancient text of this song contains only endless sad complaints and describes the bitter tears that a deceived girl sheds. There is no action, no plot. Burns altered the old text beyond recognition: he put a passionate monologue into the mouth of the heroine - now she does not cry, but accuses. As a result of this reworking, the ballad acquired a modern sound, and the stingy, passionate and exciting speech gave it a genuine artistry.

The composition and style of Burns' works is dominated by elements of folk poetry: repetitions, refrains, beginnings ("The Tree of Freedom", "Honest Poverty"). Syncretism is taken from folklore, a mixture of various genres, poetic sizes, and various metric lengths. At the same time, elements of dramatic poetry are more inherent in Burns's ballads: he uses dialogues and monologues, skillfully uses impersonal direct speech.

As his poetic skills improved, Burns, without abandoning folklore traditions, also turned to the creation of realistic pictures of morals: the detail begins to play an increasingly important role in his work, the analysis of the feelings of the characters is combined with the image and analysis of the social environment in which they live and act. The desire to show the characters in dynamics, in development, made me carefully think over the construction of the narrative: some ballads develop into a miniature story with a well-developed plot, well-aimed, vivid characteristics of the characters (“Tam O'Shanter”).

The main theme of Burns' ballads is love, friendship, human freedom, the theme of pride of the “honest commoner”. The poet most often finds true friendship, love, cordiality and sincere participation among the poor. This theme becomes a leitmotif in Burns's later ballads.

The first translations and reports about R. Burns appeared in Russian journals at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The lyrics of Burns were translated by I. Kozlov, M. Mikhailov, T. Shchepkina - Kupernik, E. Bagritsky, S. Marshak.

With the realization that the era of creating folk ballads has passed, and their existence among the people is about to stop, in England and Scotland, an intensive collection of songs and ballads began, no longer for further processing, but as independent values. However, the right to interfere in the text of a folk ballad, be it the publication of an old manuscript or a recording of an oral performance, was recognized for a long time as a principle that was quite acceptable and even desirable. Ballads were collected by scholars - literary critics, folklorists, poets and writers: Percy, Hurd, Ritson.

Walter Scott (1771–1831) also published folk ballads. More than once he was tempted to enhance their poetic sound. In any case, he repeatedly mentions the adjustment and combination of options in the explanations to his publications.

In addition to collecting ballads, V. Scott was also involved in their creation. But Scott's ballads are not a processing of old material, they are most interesting works, written in the tradition of medieval chivalric romance. Often their plot and themes overlap with prose works Scott, especially with Ivanhoe. The basis of W. Scott's ballads is not only historical facts or legends, but also national Scottish folklore. Such organic compound formed the basis of such ballads as “The Song of the Last Minstrel”, “Gray Brother” (i.e. “Gray Monk”). In many of Scott’s ballads, themes of duty, love, honor, moral and ethical themes can be traced. Thus, in "The Gray Brother" the author poses the problem of atonement for sin, earthly and heavenly.

In Scott's ballads, romanticism manifests itself quite clearly: gloomy landscapes, haunted castles appear in them, and there is romantic symbolism. According to such works, in the minds of most people, the ballad is supernatural events that pile up one on top of the other: coffins are torn off their chains, ghosts scurry through castles, forests and meadows are inhabited by goblin and fairies, the waters are teeming with mermaids. But these performances are inspired by a romantic ballad, and in the 18th century romanticism had not yet taken shape. Scott's work is at the turn of the century, and it is quite reasonable that it has absorbed "the current century and the past century."

The ballad genre is a traditional genre in English and Scottish literature. Later, S. Coleridge, R. Southey and others addressed him.

Obviously, the 18th century was the century of the revival of the old ballad genre. This was facilitated by the formation of national self-consciousness, and consequently the awakening of interest in folk art, its history. The revival of the ballad went through three stages:

1. recording and collecting ballads;
2. creation of their own poetic variants on their basis;
3. creation of author's ballads.

The third stage is the most interesting, since it contributed not only to the revival, but also to the development of the ballad genre. A new, broader and more relevant topic appeared, the ballad became more problematic. The ever-increasing role of the plot, the ever more complete disclosure of its potential possibilities, was precisely the path along which the development of the ballad proceeded. “Subjectivity” gradually becomes that special feature that distinguishes the ballad from other genres. It is in this sense that it is customary to speak of the ballad as a lyrical-epic form of poetry.

As the ballad genre develops, it becomes psychologized, concrete, particular, and not abstract concepts of good and evil, as among the Enlighteners, come to the fore, but the main source (antiquity) remains.

During further development ballads, especially with the formation of the genre of the literary ballad, the lyrical principle, now reinforced by psychologism, again begins to prevail over the plot. The mixture of genres, the penetration of epic and dramatic elements into lyrical poetry unusually enriched the ballad, made it more flexible, made it possible to show the world of feelings deeper and more truthfully, which contributed to the fact that the ballad became one of the main genres of sentimentalism and romanticism.

English and German ballads become known in Russia at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At this time, the mythological images of antiquity (which would adorn Russian poetry many years later) were subjected to a powerful onslaught of the “northern muse”. Through the efforts of Karamzin and Andrei Turgenev, who died early, and then Batyushkov about Zhukovsky, the Russian reader first became acquainted with Shakespeare, and then with the pre-romantic and romantic literature of England and Germany. The motifs of German, English, Scottish ballads and legends have flowed into Russian literature like a wide river. Thanks to the translations of Pushkin, Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Lermontov, the ballad genre adapted and developed on Russian soil.

Literature.

1. Alekseev M.P. Folk ballads of England and Scotland // History English Literature. M.; L., 1943. T. 1. Issue. I.
2. Balashov D. M. Russian folk ballad//Folk ballads. M.; L., 1963.
3. Gasparov M.L. Ballad // Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1987.
4. Levin Yu.D.“Poems of Ossian” by James Macpherson // Macpherson D. Poems of Ossian. L., 1983.
5. Literary manifestos of Western European romantics / Comp. and before. A.S. Dmitriev. M., 1980.
6. Smirnov Yu.I. East Slavic ballads and related forms. Experience index plots and versions. M., 1988.
7. Aeolian harp. Ballad Anthology: Language Student's Library. M., high school. 1989.

January 8, 2018

Among the genres of world literature, ballads stand out, which romantic poets loved to turn to. Initially, the genre originated in the poetry of the Middle Ages, but was later rethought and acquired a new sound and meaning. We offer you to get acquainted with the key features of the ballad, which will help distinguish it from other poetic works.

Distinctive features

The creator of the literary ballad is considered to be Robert Burns, who actively turned to folk stories, but clothed them in a more correct poetic form. In his works, the features of the song itself and a fascinating story with a plot are harmoniously intertwined. What are the main features of a ballad distinguished by literary critics?

• Author's feelings or sensations of characters are expressed brightly and expressively.
• A plot is required, but in some cases it can be replaced by a dialogue in which there is some action.
• An element of mystery, mysticism, something unknown is often used, this gives the text a special sound. Examples of such a construction of the text can be found in Zhukovsky (for example, "Svetlana", "Lenora" - the author's translation of the work of the same name by Burger).
• Often the action takes place against the backdrop of a striking landscape: incredibly beautiful or fantastic.

It is equally important to note that hallmark ballads as a literary genre are a combination in a single text, often small in volume, of epic and lyrical principles.

Difference from other genres

Consider how a ballad differs from similar genres, epics and fairy tales. For convenience, the material is presented in the form of a table.

Distinctive features ballad genre

Compare parameter	Ballad	Bylina	Fairy tale
Authorship	There are folk and literary texts	There is no author, the texts belong to oral folk art	There are folk and literary texts
Presentation feature	Written in verse form. A ballad line was used: even and odd verses had different number stop	Written in tonic verse, most often the number of stresses is from 2 to 4	Both prose and verse form could be used, depending on the desire of the author.
Plot	The presence of the plot is required
Heroes	A hero could be any person with whom an event worthy of mention happened.	A positive hero - the embodiment of courage and justice in the minds of the people - a hero or a prince. He always does his deeds for the sake of the people. The negative hero - the embodiment of evil qualities, was often a fictional creature (The Nightingale the Robber)	Fairy tale: the heroes were kings, princes, fictional creatures, sorcerers. About animals: there are representatives of wildlife, endowed with human qualities. Household: ordinary people (peasants, priests, soldiers)
Scene	Against the backdrop of a mysterious or beautiful landscape	Be sure to clearly indicate (Kyiv-grad)	The text may not mention the location
Topic	An unusual event in the life of any person, not necessarily a hero. Although there is a separate layer of heroic ballads (for example, about Robin Hood)	An event of all-Russian significance, with patriotic pathos, something great, a grandiose victory	Absolutely any event at the behest of the narrator

Using the table, you can understand the signs of a ballad and quickly distinguish works of this genre from any others.

Related videos

Texts by Zhukovsky

This romantic poet was so fond of the genre in question that he was jokingly nicknamed the "ballade". He wrote a huge number of translations and his own texts, which are still interesting to the reader due to their uncomplicated style and fascinating plot. What are the main features of Zhukovsky's ballads?

• In many tests, the motif of the struggle between evil and good sounds, and the author's sympathies are on the side of the latter, but the victory often goes to negative characters (the girl Lyudmila in the work of the same name died only because she wanted to stay with her lover forever).
• Availability otherworldly force, a mystical component (fortune-telling, ghosts, fantastic creatures - all this makes the texts interesting for the modern reader).
• A large number of dialogues that make the perception of the text even easier.
• A special role is played by the description of nature, sometimes the landscape becomes a kind of character.

sign of ballads love theme- deep penetration and expression in a poetic text the finest shades feelings.

Here is an example from Svetlana:

How can I, girlfriends, sing?

Dear friend far away;

I am destined to die

In lonely sadness.

The year has flown by - there is no news;

He does not write to me;

Oh! and they only have a red light,

They only breathe in the heart ...

Will you not remember me?

Where, which side are you?

Where is your abode?

I pray and shed tears!

Assuage my sadness

Comforting angel.

The text conveys all the experiences of Svetlana, her longing, doubts and the hope that her beloved will still return to her.

"Forest King"

Let us consider the features of a ballad in Zhukovsky's The Forest Tsar, a short work built in the form of a dialogue. What features make it possible to attribute the text to ballads?

• The presence of a plot that has a certain dynamics.
• Big role of dialogues.
• Expression of feelings: reading a ballad, one begins to experience the horror that a child and his father feel from the presence of the Forest King.
• The mystical component is the king himself, the death of a baby.

Finally, despite the fact that the work is complete in meaning, it retains an element of mystery. Such signs of a ballad can be found in Zhukovsky's The Forest Tsar.

The ballad is an amazing genre that has now undeservedly lost its popularity. These poetic texts allow both to tell about an unusual event and to express one's attitude towards the heroes of the story.

38 Artistic originality of the ballad genre.

Folk ballads - these are lyrical-epic songs about tragic events in family and everyday life. In the center of ballads there is always a person with his moral problems, feelings, experiences. The hero of ballads differs from heroes-heroes who perform a feat, from fairy tale characters. This is a nameless person, experiencing, suffering and sometimes dying in difficult life circumstances. If the epics are present heroic beginnings, in optimistic fairy tales, then tragic pathos expressed in ballads.

"The ballad puts the focus on individual human destiny. Events of national significance, ethical, social, philosophical problems are reflected in ballads in the form of specific destinies of individuals and private family human relations." Russian ballads depict the era of the Middle Ages , the heyday of the genre falls on the XIV-XVII centuries. The plots of ballads are diverse, but ballads on family and everyday topics are more widespread. In these ballads, the main characters, as in fairy tales, are the "good fellow" and the "beautiful maiden." Often they 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 referred to the fact that the ballad songs preserved the most ancient motifs of incest, cannibalism, transportation across the river as symbols 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 to be more acceptable. The content of the ballad songs speaks for itself. As for the most ancient motifs, they testify to the connection between medieval song folklore and previous ideological and historical traditions.

Poetics. Ballads belong to the epic genre of poetry. The story in them is conducted from the 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 only mentioned 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 the most necessary for the realization of the plan. The ballad avoids multiple episodes. Ballads have long been noticed plot dynamism. In them, the reception of an unexpected development of the action is frequent.

Verse. The verse of the ballad is closely connected with the melodic structure of singing, and the melodies include the features of the solemn chant inherent in the epic, and a piercing tonality. The intonation of misfortune and grief from such a combination of majestic sadness. The verse of a ballad is more mobile than that of an 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-intonational movement. The verse becomes especially expressive in the most dramatic moments of singing. In these cases, he takes properties from bitter weeping. In the genre that arose at the stage of transition from the "classic" epic epic to the new one, the transition of archaic song forms to new ones, in which there are already lyrical qualities, is noticeable.

Between the world recreated in the ballad and its creator (and, consequently, the reader) arises space-time distance. The ballad space, emphatically "otherworldly", fundamentally different from everyday reality, is not just removed from the perceiving individual. It is qualitatively designated as belonging to another aesthetic and ethical system associated with folklore ideas, as V.G. Belinsky, pointing to the "fantastic and folk legend" underlying the ballad plot . Closed space(!)

Ballad lyricism is the result of the impact on the subject of some epic event, the reaction of the soul, experiencing its discovery of the ballad world.

Unmotivated Evil(ignoring the need for motivation). Over the life of ballad heroes, their feelings "a tragic fate weighs" (V.M. Zhirmunsky). That is why the hero of the ballad often seems to even voluntarily go to his death, resignedly accepts death.

The specifics of the conflict: behind the characteristically ballad situations of family drama, social inequality, captivity, captivity, etc. really determined by the specific circumstances of the Middle Ages, a higher and eternal plan emerges, to which the folk ballad gravitates, striving to reduce various conflicts and conflicts to the most general, generic, unchanging oppositions: love-hate, good-evil, life-death. The main conflict in the ballad Man and Fate, Fate, Man before the court of Higher powers. Conflict is always tragic and inexplicable.

Ballad Function: the need to master the tragic sphere of being. The ballad genre responded to the needs of the individual to experience feelings and states that she was deprived of in everyday reality.

As a genre, the ballad of the old formation remained a unique phenomenon in the history of folklore, and many features of the genre influenced the formation of song genres of a time closer to us.

Addition

Russian folk ballads are works of rich vital content, high artistic perfection, and wonderful art of the word. 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 the ballads, in a summary of the episode, limited in time and place of action, the tragedy of the position of an innocently dying person, usually a woman, is skillfully revealed. The tragic in a ballad is, as a rule, terrible. This is often a crime, an atrocity committed against a close or dear person, which creates a 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 involuntary poisoning of her son's mother. The episode, which serves as the plot center of the ballad, does not have an exposition, but sometimes receives a brief motivation in denunciation or slander, which then drive the actions of the characters.Motivation is sometimes combined with the mystery that arises as a result of a 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, deceit, slander, which "lead to the death of people. The tragic thing is the late repentance of a mother or husband who killed an innocent son or wife, in the late recognition of a dishonored sister by a brother. The ballad differs from other folklore genres by the depth of the psychological image, the ability to reveal complex and intense experiences, including the state of mind of the killer, his remorse and remorse. Ballad characters are characterized by strong passions and desires. Avdotya Ryazanochka goes to the camp to the enemies in order to free the captives; the girl flees from captivity: freedom is dearer to her than life; unable to escape from her pursuers, she throws herself into the river; defending the right to love, the girl prefers to die, but not to be forcibly married. In reckless anger, a husband can destroy his beloved wife. Characters are possessed by such feelings as horror, despair, severe suffering, unbearable grief. Their experiences are most often expressed in action, in deeds. In the ballad “Well Done and the Princess,” the king’s anger at the young man, at the servants, is expressively conveyed, and the change in the king’s state of mind is motivated in a peculiar way. Feelings are transmitted in their external expression. In the ballad “Prince Roman Lost His Wife,” the daughter learns about the death of her mother: As the princess fought on the damp ground, She cried in a loud voice. And further: She beat her hands on the oak table. Experiences are also expressed in the speech of the characters, in monologues and dialogues. It often takes a peculiar form. Sophia, who loves Vasily, stands on the kliros in the church. She wanted to say: "Lord, forgive me." Meanwhile, she said: "Vasilyushko, Vasily, my friend, touch me, Touch me, move over, Let's hug 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 consists in the vitality of conflicts, in the everyday typification of characters, in the plausibility of events and their motivation, in everyday details, in the objectivity of the narrative, in the absence of fantastic fiction. The latter is present only occasionally in the denouement of events and is used to morally condemn the villains. This is the motif of intertwining trees on the grave of the perished, which serves as a symbol of true love. The motive of turning a girl into a tree is also usually in 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, differs in that it is shorter, usually two-strike, while the epic verse is usually three-strike. The similarity with the epic verse is manifested in the presence of a pause approximately in the middle of the line. Traveled // Mitriy Vasilyevich In the open field, // on a good horse, Sat // Domna Aleksandrovna In a new hill, // under a slanted window, Under a crystal // under a glass. She thought, // thought, She 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 ordinary people; if these are princes, then they are bred in their personal, family relationships, and not in state activities. The ballads are close to epics and historical songs in epic, narrative, plot, but their plots are less developed and usually come down to one episode. They reveal the relationship of characters in more detail than the plot situation in lyrical songs. Ballads differ from them in the absence of lyricism, which appears only in later works and testifies to the destruction of the genre. However, ballads interact with other genres. They contain epic formulas, epithets: They lead the cross in a written way, Bow in a learned way In the early ballads, epithets are not uncommon: a good horse, a feast of honors, oak tables, a damask sword. But the structure of a ballad is different from that of an epic. There are fabulous motifs in the ballads: predictions, transformations. In the ballad "The Prince and the Old Women" the princess is revived with living water; in the variant of the ballad "Slandered Wife", the snake that the young man wanted to kill promises to help him in gratitude for the rescue, but her words turn out to be slander. Unlike epics and historical songs, the meaning of which is patriotic and historical ideas, the meaning of ballads is in expressing moral assessments of the behavior of characters, in deep humanism, in protecting the free expression of feelings and aspirations of the individual.

Scientists note the difficulty of classifying the folk ballad genre, 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 famous holidays), and "the rhythmic structure of the ballad opens up scope for the most peculiar musical possibilities" 19 . Apparently, the ballad is determined by its own genre specificity, and the researchers establish common features of the ballad genre. The ballad is set to depict the world of private people, "the world of human passions interpreted tragically"20. "The world of the ballad is the world of individuals and families, scattered, disintegrating in a hostile or indifferent environment"21. The ballad focuses on the disclosure of the conflict. “For centuries, typical conflict situations have been selected and cast in ballad form”22. The ballads contain "sharp, irreconcilable conflicts, good and evil, truth and untruth, love and hate, positive and negative characters are opposed, and the main place is given to the negative character. Unlike fairy tales, it is not good that wins in ballads, but evil, although negative characters suffer a 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 and the people they love are dying.”23 The conflict is revealed dramatically, and, it should be noted, the drama literally permeates the entire ballad genre. “The artistic specificity of the ballad is determined by its dramatic nature. The composition, the way of depicting a person, and the very principle of typification of life phenomena are subject to the needs of dramatic expressiveness. The most characteristic features of the composition of the ballad are: one-conflict and conciseness, discontinuity of presentation, an abundance of dialogues, repetitions with an increase in drama ... The action of the ballad is reduced to one conflict, to one central episode, and all the events preceding the conflict are either set out extremely briefly .. or completely absent...” The images of ballad characters are also revealed according to the dramatic principle: through speech and actions. It is the attitude to action, to the disclosure of a personal position in conflict relations that determines the type of the 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 among themselves, transferred, epically copying the world of consanguinity and family relations. The actions of the heroes of the ballads have a universal meaning: they determine the entire plot basis of the ballad and have a dramatic tense character, setting the stage for a tragic denouement. "Events are conveyed in the ballad in their most intense, most effective moments, there is nothing in it that would 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 speeches of the characters alternate with narrative lines. The number of scenes and characters is reduced to a minimum ... The whole ballad often represents, as it were, a preparation for the denouement.

Scientists note the incompleteness of the ballad genre, almost any ballad can be continued or expanded into a whole novel. "Mysteriousness or innuendo, arising from the compositional properties of the ballad, is inherent in the ballads of all peoples". As a rule, the ballad has an unexpected and cruel denouement. The heroes do things that are impossible in ordinary, everyday life, and they are prompted to do such actions by an artistically constructed chain of accidents, usually leading to a tragic ending. "Motives of unexpected misfortune, irreparable accidents, terrible coincidences are common for a ballad". The presence of these features allows us to assert that "ballads have such a specific character that one can speak of them as a genre." Currently, there are four theories for defining the genre of the ballad. 1. Ballad is an epic or epic-dramatic genre. The 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 narration is the dramatic beginning, the author's presence in the ballad is not expressed, which means that the 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 - a lyrical form of poetry. At the moment of 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 its literary form reflects the folk form and easily correlates with such lyrical genres as romance and elegy. Pavel Yakushkin, one of the well-known collectors of folk poetry, wrote: “The ballad so easily turns into an elegy and, conversely, an elegy into a ballad, that it is impossible to strictly distinguish between them”33. They differ only in the number of options presented more in the ballad34. Such a theory does not withstand serious criticism, much earlier V.G. Belinsky wrote about the belonging of the ballad, which arises in the Middle Ages, to epic works, although in general it should be considered, according to the critic, in the section of lyric poetry35. 3. Ballad - lyrical-epic genre. This point of view is shared by A. Veselovsky, M. Gasparov, O. Tumilevich, N. Elina, P. Lintur, L. Arinstein, 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 about the lyrical warehouse 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 the leading principle in the structure of the genre is precisely the lyric. Unfortunately, in the definition of a specific manifestation of the lyrical beginning, the term lyricism itself, general, mostly non-genre grounds are given. We are talking about a special emotional perception, lyrical empathy of listeners to the content of ballads, their sympathy for the suffering and death of 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 quite correspond to the modern form of ballads. 4. Ballad - epic-lyrical-dramatic genre. This approach to the definition of a ballad is now entering the leading positions. Supporters 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 folklore studies have been moving towards such a definition for a long time and independently, but it is possible to establish connections with the analytical works of German poets and collectors of folk poetry of the 18th-19th centuries, who created the type of romantic ballad. I.V. Goethe believed that "the singer uses all three main types of poetry, ... he can start lyrically, epicly, dramatically, and, changing forms at will, continue ...". In the definition of a ballad as a symbiosis of three poetic genera, I.G. Herder added another mythological element. The dramatic beginning is one of the leading elements that form the ballad genre. The dramatic presentation of the series of events, the dramatic conflict and the tragic denouement determine not the lyrical, but the dramatic type of emotionality of the ballad genre. If the lyrics in folklore mean the subjective attitude of the author to the events depicted, then the dramatic beginning is the attitude of the characters to the events taking place, and the ballad genre is formed in accordance with 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 particular 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. Such a 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 "The 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. Balashov, in which the author, using specific material, shows the thematic nature of the change 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 an extra-ceremonial lyrical lingering song and "the absorption of the epic fabric of the ballad by lyrical elements"41. N.I. Kravtsov summarized all the available experience and proposed to approve four groups or cycles of ballads in the educational literature: family, domestic, 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 similar to them, presented the experience of an index of plots and versions, where he subjected reasonable criticism to the artificiality, conventionality of dividing ballads into fantastic, historical, social, etc. “Such an artificial division breaks the natural connections and typological relationships between the plots, as a result of which forms related or close to them are separated and are considered in isolation”44. The scientist clarifies the rules for constructing an evolutionary chain45 in relation to ballad material, highlighting five derivatives of the genre (from a drawn-out or “vocal” song intended for choral performance to literary ballad songs common among the people)46. In general, there is a general picture of the evolution of the folk ballad genre from epic to lyrical form. In this work, private and practical questions about the ways and reasons for modifying the genre elements of the ballad are solved, connections between disparate plots are established, and the genre specificity of specific texts is determined. In our work, we use the text reconstruction method, the foundations of which were laid in the works of the historical-typological school of V. J. Propp and B.N. Putilov. With regard 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 in certain cycles that contribute to the maximum disclosure of all genre features of the ballad. The cyclization of the ballad genre is primarily a plot-variative realization of one conflict. In the ballad cyclization, the dramatic element will be fundamental, which in practice consists in creating a) variants of a dramatic situation (early cycles), then ending the conflict; b) versions of a dramatic situation, conflict. A variant of the ballad cycle is a song that repeats a given conflict model, but aims to reveal it as fully as possible in the plot. The version is a qualitative change in the text, the creation of a new conflict on the basis of a developed cycle or a separate ancient ballad (“Omelfa Timofeevna rescues her relatives” and “Avdotya the Ryazanochka”, “Tatar full” and a cycle about Polonian girls). Cycles are studied in their direct interaction, internal evolutionary connections, 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-variative 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 formulary, the type of hero and the level of conflict, the nature of the folk / author's assessment and the dialogic / monologue speech of the characters, the use of folklore and intra-genre traditions, the type of conventionality and the reflection of the aesthetics of the artistic / direct case are analyzed, the role of formal plot logic, the category of miraculous and symbolic is established. . The features of the poetic language and artistic techniques of the style of ballads are studied. The impact on specific plots of the tradition of adjacent ballad forms and ritual, epic, lyrical, historical songs, as well as spiritual poems is especially noted. All results of analytical work are brought into line with the requirements of historical time, so 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 the genre changes of the ballad in its generic and artistic aspects are revealed, general principles her evolution. The ballad cycles are considered in their direct connection and are more or less accurately dated. As a result of the analysis of the ballad material in the Russian region, it is established that the ballad is a flexible, mobile unit of epico-lyrical-dramatic character, which has certain stable typological features at each historical stage of its development from the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries. to the 18th - 19th centuries Initially, the 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 led to the development of forms of extra-ceremonial 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, as it were, dissolves into the lyrical element, which is more in line with the reflection of all the depth and inconsistency of the new era. IN best case, the external form, a kind of ballad style of presentation or ballad plot (a type of philistine ballads) remains from a genuine ballad. The original genre of the folk ballad was conserved in the 19th and 20th centuries. The most famous, topical ballad plots for a particular locality 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 are gradually disappearing as the literacy of the population grows, the distribution of books and the disappearance of the ballad narrators and performers themselves.

- 155.50 Kb

Department of Education of the Administration of Khabarovsk

Municipal educational institution

gymnasium №3 named after M.F. Pankova

FEATURES OF THE GENRE BALLAD

IN THE WORKS OF V. A. ZHUKOVSKY

Literature examination paper

Completed:

Pesotsky Alexander,

student 9 "B" class

Scientific adviser:

Fadeeva T.V.

Khabarovsk

Introduction

Several times the name of Columbus as a symbol of the discoverer of new worlds is added by V.G. Belinsky to the name of V. A. Zhukovsky: “The appearance of Zhukovsky amazed Russia, and not without reason. He was the Columbus of our fatherland." 1 Indeed, in the pre-Pushkin period of the development of Russian literature, Zhukovsky occupies the first place; he stood out for the strength of artistic talent, innovative undertakings, the scale of creativity, and literary authority.

“Zhukovsky was the first poet in Russia, whose poetry came out of life,” V.G. Belinsky. Zhukovsky made a great contribution to Russian literature. Today we cannot imagine not only Russian, but also world literature without V. A. Zhukovsky, just as we cannot imagine it without A. S. Pushkin.

Zhukovsky can be safely called the founder of romanticism in Russian literature. A.S. Pushkin enthusiastically exclaimed in one of his letters: “What a charm of his damn heavenly soul! He is a saint, although he was born a romantic, not a Greek, and a man, and what else! Contemporaries noted the extraordinary sincerity of Zhukovsky's poetry.

V.G. Belinsky, defining the essence and originality of Zhukovsky’s poetry and its significance for Russian literature of the early 19th century, noted: “Only the romanticism of the Middle Ages could spiritualize our literature ... Zhukovsky was a translator into Russian of the romanticism of the Middle Ages, resurrected at the beginning of the 19th century by German and English poets, mostly by Schiller. Here is the significance of Zhukovsky and his merit in Russian literature. 2 It was Zhukovsky who introduced the Russian reader to one of the most beloved genres of Western European romantics - the ballad. The ballad becomes the poet's favorite genre, in which his romantic aspirations were expressed to the greatest extent.

Creativity V.A. Zhukovsky is devoted to a significant number of literary studies, although for the most part these are introductory articles to collections of the poet's works.

In the course of work on the abstract, the works of R.V. Jezuitova "Zhukovsky and his time", V.N. Kasatkina “Poetry of V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Yanushkevich "In the world of Zhukovsky", I.M. Semenko "Life and Poetry of Zhukovsky" and others. The works of I.M. Semenko. 3 The researcher claims that Zhukovsky can rightly be called a translation genius. After all, the poet wrote 39 ballads, including 34 translated ones. He translated not only ballads, but also many other works, among which the most famous is Homer's Odyssey. An attentive researcher of Zhukovsky’s art of translation, V. Cheshikhin, noted in his best translations “verbatimity in conveying the author’s thoughts, accurate reproduction of the poetic form of the original, and self-restraint in the sense of boundless respect for the original ...” 4 Zhukovsky always chose for translation only works that were internally consonant with him.

Significant assistance in writing the abstract was provided by the work of V.N. Kasatkina, in which the literary critic analyzes Zhukovsky's ballads, reveals their main themes and reveals the artistic originality of Zhukovsky's poetry.

Good and evil, in sharp contrast, appear in all Zhukovsky's ballads. The poet was also deeply occupied with the problems of fate, personal responsibility and retribution. The atmosphere in Zhukovsky's ballads is purely romantic. It has nothing to do with conventionality. It creates the impression of romantic inspiration, the participation of the poet and the reader in the mysterious and sublime life of the world.

In the school literature course, ballads by V.A. Zhukovsky is studied very little, although the themes of his ballads are relevant and interesting because the criterion of humanity is decisive for all Zhukovsky's works. In them, the poet, as it were, puts an equal sign between "eternal" and "modern".

The purpose of this essay is to reveal the features of the ballad genre in the work of V. A. Zhukovsky.

In accordance with the goal in the abstract, the following tasks were solved:

1. reveal characteristics ballads as a genre of literature;
2. consider the significance of Zhukovsky's work as a translator of famous Western European ballads;
3. reveal the main themes of Zhukovsky's ballads;
4. analyze the cycle of ballads about love;
5. to show the artistic originality of Zhukovsky's ballads.

1. Ballad as a literary genre

The ballad is a lyrical-epic genre in which historical, fantastic and love-dramatic plots are depicted.

Folk ballads were created by nameless narrators, transmitted orally, and in the process of oral transmission they were greatly modified, thus becoming the fruit of not individual, but collective creativity. The sources of ballad plots were Christian legends, chivalric romances, ancient myths or works of Greek and Roman authors in medieval retelling, the so-called “eternal” or “wandering” plots, as well as genuine historical events stylized on the basis of ready-made song schemes. The first editions of folk ballads appeared in the 18th century. and were associated with the revival of the interest of writers, philologists and poets in the national past and folk sources of literary creativity.

The literary ballad genre, having revived to life several decades before the beginning of the 19th century, reached its peak and peak popularity in the era of romanticism, when for some time it took almost the leading place in poetry. The popularity and timeliness of this genre in the Romantic era is primarily due to its multifunctionality, the ability to serve the most diverse (and sometimes multidirectional) social and literary goals. A popular ballad (knightly, heroic, historical) could satisfy the interest in the national past, in the Middle Ages, in general, in antiquity, awakened among wide circles of readers. The mythological or miraculous element, natural for a ballad, fully corresponded to the romantics' desire for everything unusual, mysterious, mysterious, and often mystical or otherworldly. The ballad's primordial inclination towards the synthesis of epic, lyrical and dramatic elements was well combined with the attempts of the romantics to create "universal poetry", "mix artificial poetry and natural poetry", update it, convey human experiences, dramatic intensity of feelings. The ballad provided great opportunities for the search for new expressive means of poetic language.

Basically, romantic ballads are built around one, often tragic event. The expositions in some ballads are information on behalf of the author, introducing the reader to the course of events, but most often the ballads have a sharp beginning that does not give the reader any explanation. Very often, obscurity and incomprehensibility accompany the ballad from beginning to end. Although the generalizing reflection of the author sometimes acts as a conclusion in some ballads, for the most part, the authors do not impose ready-made conclusions on the reader, leaving him alone with himself, giving him the opportunity to draw his own conclusions.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, the ballad genre was not perceived in Russian literature as an independent lyrical-epic genre. Classicism was still in force and imposed certain obligations on poets in their work. However, the need for development and the acquisition of something new was already felt at the beginning of the 19th century, this led to the emergence of creative searches for Russian poets. Relations between genres at the turn of the century became more mobile, the interaction of different genres gave rise to something new in the genre system. Ballads appear in the work of many poets, but these experiments are not yet perfect, their genre structure is not clear. Against their background, Zhukovsky's ballad appears, which brought popularity to the poet and established the demand for the ballad as a genre.

It was the ballad that helped Zhukovsky, according to Belinsky, bring into Russian literature "the revelation of the secrets of romanticism" 5: the romance of the fantastic and the terrible, the interest in folk art characteristic of romantics.

2. Features of the ballad genre in the work of V. A. Zhukovsky

2.1. Zhukovsky - translator of famous Western European ballads

Almost all of Zhukovsky's thirty-nine ballads are translations. V. A. Zhukovsky translated Schiller’s ballads: “Cassandra”, “Ivikov’s Cranes”, “The Triumph of the Winners”, Goethe: “The Forest King”, “Fisherman”, Southey: “Warwick”, “Adelstan”, “Donika”, Walter Scott: "Castle Smalholm, or Ivan's Evening", "Repentance", Burger's "Lenora", etc. Among them there are many free translations, where the poet recreates the meaning and plot, does not aim to literally follow the text. IN accurate translations the text of the original is reproduced, but even here there are discrepancies, since an adequate literary translation from one language to another is impossible.

Zhukovsky was rightly called a translation genius. He always chose for translation only works that were internally consonant with him, set off and emphasized in them the motives that are closest to the translator, but not secondary, but related to the very essence of the translated work. The translated ballads give Zhukovsky the impression of being original, because the poet, by the power of his imagination, recreates the inner essence of the phenomena depicted, deeply experiencing with the author of the original.

Here are the poet's own statements about the essence of poetic translation: “A translator in prose is a slave, a translator in verse is a rival”; "This is generally the nature of my author's work: almost everything I have is either someone else's, or about someone else's - and everything, however, is mine." 6

Zhukovsky's translation style is based on a deep synthesis of thematic, figurative, linguistic means. So the poet reaches the heights of translation skills. In his best ballads, while preserving the most important features of the original, Zhukovsky enhances them, slightly pushing into the shadows the accompanying moments, which are not paramount for the ideological essence. So, in Schiller's ballads, the desire for unattainable beauty is accentuated. In accordance with the general structure of his poetry, Zhukovsky conveys the plot in ballads in a somewhat generalized way, precisely because he prefers to recreate the essence, rather than the detail. However, this does not mean at all that Zhukovsky did not convey details: in such a case, it would be impossible to speak of the accuracy of the translation at all.

Among the ballads of Zhukovsky, one can single out a group of genuine masterpieces of accurate poetic translation. First of all, these are Schiller's translations: "Cassandra", "Ivikov Cranes", "Knight Togenburg", "Count Gapsburg", "The Triumph of the Winners", "The Cup", "Polycrates' Ring", "Eleusinian Feast". Also remarkable is the ballad, which describes how one old woman rode a black horse together, and who was sitting in front, “The Queen of Uraka and the Five Martyrs” (from R. Southey), “Smalholm Castle, or Midsummer Evening” (from Walter Scott), "Forest King" and "Fisherman" (from Goethe). It is significant that the group of the most accurate translations includes the most significant works in a foreign original.

All thirty-nine ballads, despite the thematic differences, are a monolithic whole, an artistic cycle, fastened not only by genre, but also by semantic unity. Zhukovsky was attracted by samples that dealt with the issues of human behavior and the choice between good and evil with particular urgency.

2.2. Crime and punishment - the main theme of the ballads of V. A. Zhukovsky

The main theme of ballads by V.A. Zhukovsky - crime and punishment. The ballad poet denounced various manifestations of egocentrism. The constant hero of his ballads is a strong personality who has cast aside moral restrictions and fulfills his personal will, aimed at achieving a purely selfish goal. Warwick (from the ballad of the same name) seized the throne, killing his nephew, the rightful heir to the throne, because Warwick wants to reign, such is his will. The greedy Bishop Gatton ("God's Judgment on the Bishop") does not share bread with the starving people, believing that he, the owner of the bread, has the right to do so. Knight Adelstan (ballad "Adelstan"), like a new Faust, contacted the devil, bought his personal beauty, knightly prowess and beauty's love at a terrible price. The robbers kill the unarmed poet Ivik in the forest, asserting the right of the physically strong over the weak and defenseless (the ballad "Ivik's Cranes"). The poet also pointed to immorality in family relations: while the husband-baron is participating in battles, his wife is cheating on him with someone who is also called a knight. But the baron kills his rival not in a fair duel, not like a knight, but from behind a corner, secretly, cowardly, protecting himself from danger. Everyone thinks only of himself and his own good. The egoistic will, egoistic self-consciousness turns out to be so short-sighted, morally miserable, blind before retribution!

According to Zhukovsky, crime is caused by individualistic passions - ambition, greed, greed, jealousy, selfish self-affirmation. The man failed to curb 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 the ballads is still not the crime itself, but its consequences - the punishment of a person. How is punishment done? In Zhukovsky's ballads, as a rule, it is not people who punish the criminal. In the Ivikov Cranes, which speaks of the massacre of citizens with robbers, the behavior of people is still a secondary act, because they fulfill the will of the furies, avenging goddesses. The exception is "Three Songs", here the son takes revenge on the mighty Oswald for the murder of his father. Punishment often comes from a person's conscience - it does not withstand the yoke of a crime and torments. No one punished the murderer-baron and his unfaithful wife ("Castle Smalholm, or Ivan's Evening"), they voluntarily went to the monastery, but the monastic life did not bring them moral relief and consolation: she is "sad and does not look at the world," he gloomy, "and shy of people and is silent." By committing crimes, they have deprived themselves of both happiness and the joys of life, excluded themselves from a harmoniously bright being. Warwick's conscience, Adelstan's, is not calm. P. Florensky said: "Sin is the moment of discord, disintegration and disintegration of the spiritual life" 7 . He also revealed the moral and psychological mechanism of sin: “Wishing only for itself, in its “here” and “now” the evil self-affirmation is inhospitably locked away from everything that is not it; but, striving for self-deity, it does not even remain similar to itself and crumbles. and decomposes and fragments in the internal struggle.Evil by its very essence is a kingdom divided into "sya".Similar thoughts about the alienation of the individual from the moral, arranged by God being, self-concentration of the individual, awareness of self-worth, the desire to satisfy one's own "I" in the end leads to the neglect of all "not-I", to a detrimental effect on him. And since the existence of one person, his happiness depends on another person and other people, they find themselves drawn into a vicious circle of self-affirmation of a strong personality that tramples them. Having destroyed the barriers that stand in the way of satisfying the will of his "I", the sinner in the ballad world of the poet kills both his soul and his life. He sows death not only around of himself, but also in himself. Sin "eats itself" (P. Florensky). Zhukovsky was aware of the idea of ​​the self-destructive nature of evil.

The plot motif of many ballads is the expectation of retribution. The crime is committed, but immediately the offender begins to feel on the eve of retribution. The freshness of valleys and forests, the transparency of rivers are dimming in his eyes: “Warwick alone was alien to the beauties of nature”, “but beauty is not noticeable to sinful eyes”, and he is now alien to the usual feasting fun, alienated from his beloved and native places, from his own home - " there is no shelter in the world." From the one who violated the humane principle of life, peace of mind, spiritual harmony depart. He rushes about in search of his place in life, a prosperous existence and does not find them. The psychological drawing of the poet is aimed at analyzing the experiences of fear. Warwick is afraid of retribution, and fear takes possession of his heart more and more, the sinful old woman is horrified by the expectation of retribution, fear is increasingly seizing the criminal Bishop Gatton (“he is stupefied; he is breathing a little with fear”), forcing him to panic seek shelter. The awakened conscience prompted the need to be afraid: "Tremble! (the voice of conscience tells him)." The offender is constantly "trembling", "confused", "fearful", "trembling". Fear is the result of "godforsakenness". Conscience does not allow the sinner to renounce what he has done, to forget it. He hears the groan of the murdered man, his voice, his prayers, he sees his shining eyes, his pale face - "like a terrible monster, conscience roams after him everywhere." The plot of the ballads "Warwick", "Adelstan", "Donika", "God's Judgment on the Bishop" is all built on the secret expectation of retribution, the horror of it covers the criminal more and more, changes the whole world in his eyes and transforms him. He has been turned into a renegade, into a living dead.

Description of work

“Zhukovsky was the first poet in Russia, whose poetry came out of life,” V.G. Belinsky. Zhukovsky made a great contribution to Russian literature. Today we cannot imagine not only Russian, but also world literature without V. A. Zhukovsky, just as we cannot imagine it without A. S. Pushkin. Zhukovsky can be safely called the founder of romanticism in Russian literature. A.S. Pushkin enthusiastically exclaimed in one of his letters: “What a charm of his damn heavenly soul! He is a saint, although he was born a romantic, not a Greek, and a man, and what else! Contemporaries noted the extraordinary sincerity of Zhukovsky's poetry.