Made by the 1st Group, ICC-2

2010.

The roots of animal tales are very ancient indeed,

stretching back to the pre-Christian era and surviving in

local customs and taboos event today,the importance of

them and their messages being so high as to allow them

to find an audience even today. The topic “A Reflection of existential notions in the

Fairy Tales about Animals” could be divided into three

main parts:

1) The main features of Russian Tales about Animals

2) The main Heroes

3) Motives and possible meaning of Russian Fairy-Tales about

Animals

Animal tales have no discernible common structure

Animal tales are structured around a trick, verbal or physical.

One major difference between the animal tale and the wonder tale

is that, in the latter, the crucial episode tends to occur precisely in the

middle of the narrative while in the animal tale it is the final episode that is

decisive in determining the outcome.

is not a

dominant feature of animal

tales and plays little or no role in

structuring them.

The animals in Russian tales

behave in many ways as real

animals do. Wild animals are

dangerous. They

may attack or

even eat a person.

Animal tales are differentiated by

the specific actions of the

characters:

■ dissembling or shamming;

■ imitation and copying;

■ falsifying the voice; and failing to

recognize the antagonist,

■ a kind of disguising of the

character

There is a predominance of wild animals in Russian tales. Domestic

animals are not so popular. Most of the time, they appear in tales as

secondary characters and helpers or enemies of the wild ones.

●

Among the wild beasts, the bear, the wolf, the hare and the fox

are the principal ones.

It must be said that this is one of the

most ancient folklore types.

Some of the Russian animal tales are

so archaic that their relationship to

myths seems obvious.

of the people who

composed stories.

The tightness of life spaces of humans and

animals and

their frequent

contacts.

Among ancient people, nature

in general was believed to be

something animated.

being

represented by animals is

treated as something you can

make a dialogue with.

Russian fairy tales are very different from other types of tales due to

a number of peculiarities in their structure and character list that

enable them to pass on from generation to generation old ideas of

the nature and its workings, of the development of the world,

reflecting totemism and mythical idea of the world, and also to

convey basic ideas of good and evil and of human relations.