For all its apparent simplicity, the genre of fiction raises many questions. Why are fables so attractive for children? Why is this genre universal for many cultures? Why does this particular genre of oral folk art remain “alive” and in demand in literature? In a word, what is the essence of fiction and why does it remain so invariably in demand?
Fiction genre definition
To put it simply, fiction is a short story about something that obviously cannot be, and this impossibility is exaggeratedly emphasized, and therefore a comic effect is created. “The village rode past a peasant ...”, “There lived a giant of short stature in the world ...” - these and many other “meaningless” images are created according to very different, quite transparent schemes, but they always cause laughter and interest.
Russian and English roots of fables
In Russia, both Russian folk fables and fables of other peoples are known. First of all, fiction, nonsense, absurdity is associated with English folklore and English literature. In the twentieth century in Russia, this genre was significantly revived by the appearance of translations of English folklore and works of English "nonsense" (literally: "nonsense"). English children's songs, mainly based on the principle of nonsense, were translated as fables for children by Samuel Marshak and Korney Chukovsky. Russian readers of many generations love the images from the translated songs “Barabek”, “Crouched Song” and other poems, where the world is obviously “turned upside down”, is absurd. The literary examples of English fables are, first of all, the Lymeriks of Edward Lear, which are mainly known in translations of Grigory Kruzhkov.
The simplicity of the adoption of the English version of the genre is explained, first of all, by the habit of fiction for the Russian consciousness, because fiction is a genre that existed in Russia long before the “vaccination” of Russian nonsense in Russian culture.
Literary fiction
Non-fiction remains a living genre in both folklore and literature. Russian kids know both folk tales and copyright. Perhaps the most famous literary examples of the genre were created by Korney Chukovsky and Heinrich Sapgir. First of all, this, of course, is “Confusion” by K. Chukovsky.
However, his other tales and poems, upon closer examination, are very close to nonsense in the genre sense of the word. “Miracle tree”, “Joy”, “Cockroach” - the basis of these widely known children's poems is fiction. These are, in fact, the author's options for developing this genre.
As for the work of Heinrich Sapgir, few people in Russia are not aware of his famous "Fiction in Faces." The unexpectedness of combining incompatible images and at the same time the lightness of the lines, creating the illusion of naturalness and thereby emphasizing the “unprecedentedness” - all this is remembered for a long time as a very talented and expressive work.
Non-fables as an affordable aesthetic experience
Korney Chukovsky in his book "From Two to Five" suggested that fables for children are an opportunity to enjoy their own ability to see a deviation from the norm. The child, according to Chukovsky, through fiction is strengthened in his understanding of the norm, in his orientation in the world around him.
However, apparently, everything is not so simple. Non-fiction is also one of the first aesthetic experiences available. It is during acquaintance with nonsense that a child forms a perception of artistic conventions, because “absurdity” is the most primitive, accessible to the child art bias that underlies any work of art. Non-fables therefore lay the foundation for the perception of an artistic metaphor, an artistic image, and prepare a child for the formation of a literary taste.