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Gurchenko Alesya Ivanovna, Candidate of History of Arts, doctoral candidate of Belorussian and World Art department, Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, the Republic of Belarus, Minsk E-mail: [email protected]
FOLKLORE TRADITIONS CONCEPTUALIZATION IN THE RUSSIAN ART OF THE LATE18TH - EARLY 20th CENTURY
Abstract. The article analyzes distinguishing features of folklore conceptualization in the art culture of Russia, which began with the rise of interest in traditional folk culture sparked by pre-romanticism and ended on the eve of the formation of Soviet aesthetics with its attitude to folklore, which determined the development of this artistic phenomenon for many decades to come.
Key words: folklore; history of art.
Public and science took interest in folklore in the art ofRus-sia in the second half of 18th century. The theoretical development of folk art concept was first undertaken by Russian prero-mantics. Its paradigm found its basis in sense of national identity and rise of patriotism, strife to realize the beauty of national life and to know the essence of Slavic-Russian spirituality. "National spirit" concept defined as "attachment to our uniqueness" by Nikolay Karamzin in his works, is viewed by modern researchers as an equivalently significant for Russian science and culture with the role of J. G. Herder in German philosophy and literature [1]. Furthermore, J. G. Herder quite naturally combines the talent of a philosopher and religious thinker, poet and cultural historian, ethnographer and folklorist, and, like N. Karamzin, had a great influence on many other Russian thinkers of this historical period (M. Derzhavin, A. Radishchev and others.).
The preromantics declared a special type of attitude towards the world, namely, an awareness of reality from the point ofview of historicism, sociality, nationality and national identity. It was they who sparked the public interest to national history, mythology and folklore. For example, researchers consider that first attempts at describing and studying Russian traditional folk culture were taken in the second half of 18th century. As I. Keldysh wrote, starting from the 1760s, the pages of popular magazines and almanacs for general public began to publish texts of Russian folk songs, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings [2, 219]. In addition, the first collections of Russian folk songs (M. Chulkov, V. Trutovsky, and others) were very popular with readers. However, as I. Keldysh says, publications of this period did not fully reflect the specific nature of Russian traditional folk art due to the fact that the materials were presented in processing and they were recorded not from authentic performers, but it was "second-hand". As for the study of folklore directly from the mouths of the traditions bearers, this method of research will become characteristic only in the mid - 19th century.
The development of the nationality idea was continued by the romantics, whose concept of nationality assumed special attention to all manifestations of national identity (history, character, life, folklore, language) and understanding of each nation as a carrier of a certain idea in the history of all mankind. The ideologists of Russian romanticism developed the nationality idea as an individual and original one proposed by J. G. Herder. At the same time, agreeing with the thesis about the transformability of aesthetic tastes under the influence of external factors, they did not support the idea put forward by them about the need to imitate certain exceptional samples (for example, antique ones) and defended the provision on the preference of turning to the national and authentic. As aptly noted by Russian researcher T. Kuznetsova, the views of Russian romantic thinkers at the nascent stage were characterized by special motives, which later developed outside of the Romantic Movement. Part of those motives is a critical attitude to the value of the foundations of European life, as a result of which a special interest has arisen in spirituality and the uniqueness of own national being [1]. Moreover, the author convincingly proves that the categories "national spirit" and "national character" expressing the national originality of culture were interpreted by Russian romantics with pronounced social concretization. For example, unlike the German romantics - for whom in the construction of their own theory, the fact of social stratification was not determinative - for the Russian thinkers of the 1820s - 1830s considered common people as the guardians of the national idea. As a result, the national idea formulated by the Russian romantics embodied by the lower, under-privileged people, found continuation in the positioning of traditional folk culture in Soviet aesthetics. In this manner, folklore as the oral folk art of peasants had become the main symbol of the national idea in the republics of the Soviet Union for many decades. The young state began to allocate financial means for studying folklore and for pro-
FOLKLORE TRADITIONS CONCEPTUALIZATION IN THE RUSSIAN ART OF THE LATE18TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURY
moting and developing professional and amateur art on its basis from the moment of its foundation. This cultural policy orientation of the USSR pursued a clear and definite goal: using the example of oral folk art, which for the first time in the world will be brought to the level of art, socialism will be positioned as a social system that has significant advantages over the capitalist [3, 172].
The holistic theory of nationality that was baswed on the russian ideas was first developed in the works of V. Be-linsky, one of the most authoritative representatives of the ideological and literary movement of the 1830s and 1850s. He reflected on the fundamentals of the identity of each nation and identified essential elements (customs and language) of ethnos identification, the destruction of which inevitably entails the destruction of the people themselves. He called the nationality idea the "alpha and omega" of aesthetics of his time. Nevertheless, he considered that the nationality should not assume an orientation to the manners and customs of only the common people ("rout", "gutter"), since they are not the only bearers of the spirit of the Russian people.
Interest in folklore was also present in the Slavophil movement, which formed after the rise of national self-consciousness as a result of the victory over Napoleon. Representatives of philosophical and social ideas of the first half of the 19th century (brothers N. Aksakov and K. Aksakov and P. Kireyevsky and I. Kireyevsky A. Koshelyov, A. Khomya-kov, and others) positioned themselves as supporters of the national identity of the Russian people. Under the influence of the European romanticism ideas, Slavophiles urged others to study the life of the common people (language, customs, rituals, etc.). For example, the Slavophil and the brother of one of the theorists of this trend I. Kireyevsky, P. Kireyevsky collected and published texts of Russian folk songs.
The theme of the people was central and semantic in the populistic doctrine as a socio-political movement of the last third of the 19th - early 20th century, which had a significant impact on strengthening the national identity of the Russian people. The supporters of this ideology among the intellectual class were focused on "finding their roots" - finding the lost historical and cultural identity, reviving the national culture, which stimulated the need for a so-called "bonding" with the common people. "Going to the people", the work "among the people" and "together with the people" became the basis of the creative activity of the Peredvizhniki and composers of the Balakirev's circle. It was "among the people" that they saw an inexhaustible source of inspiration for their works. V. Stasov -the ideologist and inspirer of the composers of the Mighty Handful - said that the history and culture of many civilized nations developed in such a way that over time their traditional folk art almost completely disappeared from its natu-
ral environment. As for the modern Russian art culture for V. Stasov, the folklore in it was still quite widespread. In this regard, the critic emphasized that many outstanding Russian composers were born or spent a significant part of their life in the province and were well aware of traditional folk culture, which later formed the basis of their creative method [4, 522]. As an example, he cited the names of M. Balakirev, M. Glinka, A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Mussorgsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov and many other composers. However, in addition to borrowing the material for their works in folklore, composers such as M. Balakirev, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, and others published folk song books, which contributed to folklore preservation (even though not in authentic, but in processed form), and on the other, it was made available to a wide range of progressive public. For example, "One Hundred Russian Folk Songs" anthology by N. Rimsky-Korsakov, consisted of musical adaptations of authentic songs for voice and piano (some of which were previously published by other authors), but had become a rarity by that time, and the other part was collected by members of the Balakirev's circle and experts on traditional folk culture, and also recorded by the composer himself from the mouth of folklore carriers (detailed comments are given in the notes on this subject) [5]. It should also be noted that in this collection of the poetic lyrics of songs presented in abbreviated form. Nevertheless, it does not diminish the scientific value of this publication.
The aesthetic program ofV Stasov as an ideologist of populism was based on the fact that only the deep knowledge of the life of a people, its history, character, beliefs, imagination can make the foundation of original national art [6]. The critic called the national roots and traditions the foundation of art, its "powerful food". In addition, V Stasov himself made a feasible contribution to the study and popularization of Russian traditional folk culture. In 1872 in St. Petersburg, the publishing house of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts initiated a cycle of publications on Russian folk ornament, the first issue of which was devoted to sewing, fabrics and lace. It is noteworthy that V. Stasov himself, an ardent lover of folklore and propagandist of the idea of its significance for a person to understand oneself as part of a nation, wrote a rather impressive analytical volume in this publication, in which he urged people to collect and study monuments of traditional folk culture and to note their unique originality, naivety and beauty [7].
In summary, the period from the second half of the 18th century until the early 20th century played a significant role in the history of folklore interpretation as a bright and original phenomenon in the art of Russia. Public and science took interest in the study of folklore during this period, which became a steady trend. The development of the theoretical foundations of the concept of folklore within the written tradition
culture started. The expeditionary work on the creation of a tive. It all this served as the foundation for the formation of collection of traditional folk art materials becomes more ac- the idea of nationality in Soviet art.
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