Samodelova E. A.

Bobyl and Druzhok by S. A. Yesenin: to the discussion of its genre identity and folklore roots in text poetics. Pp. 70–79.

UDC 821.161.1-32.09″19″

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2023.81.4.007

 

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to identify the genre of Sergei Yesenin’s Bobyl and Druzhok (The villager and his dog) (probably written in 1915) and compare it with the author’s own statement of the genre in the subtitle. According to our hypothesis, there sometimes appears a certain discrepancy between the theoretical interpretation of a genre in philology and the author’s choice of genre denotation in their artistic works. Yesenin defined Bobyl and Druzhok as a story, but its genre is closer to a literary fairy tale, which, in turn, developed from
folklore. Researchers have also noted features of folk songs and parables in this work, and specified the genre as a story for children. We can trace poetics of calendar rituals in Bobyl and Druzhok, noticeable when compared with the folk customs that existed in Yesenin’s homeland, the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan Province. The rituals have survived to this day (they were recorded by the author of the present article and introduced into scholarly discourse). Before our research, there had been published two others suggesting that Bobyl and Druzhok is a literary fairy tale. Yesenin assimilated this genre canon along with the traditional folk fairy tales that he heard in his childhood. The study provides textual and historical-comparative arguments in favor of this opinion, confirming and developing similar points of view of previous researchers. We draw
a conclusion about a multi-layered genre of Bobyl and Druzhok, as the features of a literary or folk fairy tale dominate in its plot and style.

 

Keywords: The Bachelor and Druzhok, Yesenin’s fairy tales, fairy-tale poetics, Yesenin’s folklore roots.

 

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