STYLISTIC ORIGINALITY OF M. E. SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN’S TALES

Aim. We study the peculiarities of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s individual style in his fairy tales.

 Methodology. The formation of a holistic view of the individual style of an artist is a strategic task of any philological research. Following famous philologists of the early XX century like A. F. Losev and P. N.Sakulin, by an individual style is traditionally meant an organic combination of form and content embodied in works of art. The genre and thematic originality of the texts, the peculiarities of the choice of characters and ways of their creation, the use of allusions, on the one hand, and the embodiment of the philosophical picture of the author’s world using these means, on the other, allow one to determine the stylistic uniqueness of the writer. The stylistic originality of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s tales is formed based on the folklore fairy tale tradition, as well as on the tradition of I. A. Krylov’s fables and the techniques of satirical depiction used by N. V. Gogol. The paper considers three groups of fairy tales, conditionally characterized depending on the figurative system and genre specifics of the works. The philological analysis of the text of fairy tales is based on the work with the inner form of the word. This basic principle of considering a work of art was formulated by A. A. Potebnya.

Results. In analyzing the most famous fairy tales by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, the semantic content of the characters’ images is considered, the means of their creation are revealed, the main motives of the works that form the writer’s position are described, and individual biblical allusions that expand the artistic content of the works are analyzed. The analysis made it possible to reveal the main features of the author’s style, manifested in the peculiarities of the fairy tale genre, in the use and transformation of the Russian satirical tradition, and in the writer’s expressed tragic worldview.

Research implications. The theoretical and practical significance consists, on the one hand, in identifying the features of the individual style in M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s tales, which are characterized by a special combination of fantastic and realistic ideas, as well as of an accusatory metaphor in creating images, a caricature in portraying the vices of society, an aphoristic form, and bitter irony reflecting the pain of the author for the contemporary reality. On the other hand, the research materials can be useful in the work of a literature teacher who reveals the world of the storyteller Shchedrin at literature lessons.

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