Politicizing Magic: An Anthology of Russian and Soviet Fairy Tales
Search in google:
A compendium of folkloric, literary, and critical texts that show how the Russian fairy tale acquired political and historical meanings during the Soviet eraWe were born to make fairy tales come true. As one of Stalinism's more memorable slogans, this one suggests that the fairy tale figured in Soviet culture as far more than a category of children's literature. How much more-and how cannily Russian fairy tales reflect and interpret Soviet culture, especially in its utopian ambitions-becomes clear for the first time in Politicizing Magic, a compendium of folkloric, literary, and critical texts that demonstrate the degree to which ancient fairy-tale fantasies acquired political and historical meanings during the catastrophic twentieth century. Introducing Western readers to the most representative texts of Russian folkloric and literary tales, this book documents a rich exploration of this colorful genre through all periods of Soviet literary production (1920-1985) by authors with varied political and aesthetic allegiances. Here are traditional Russian folkloric tales and transformations of these tales that, adopting the didacticism of Soviet ideology, proved significant for the official discourse of Socialist Realism. Here, too, are narratives produced during the same era that use the fairy-tale paradigm as a deconstructive device aimed at the very underpinnings of the Soviet system. The editors' introductory essays acquaint readers with the fairy-tale paradigm and the permutations it underwent within the utopian dream of Soviet culture, deftly placing each-from traditional folklore to fairy tales of Socialist Realism, to real-life events recast as fairy tales for ironiceffect-in its literary, historical, and political context.
Pt. IFolkloric fairy talesIntroduction5The frog princess23The three kingdoms28Baba Yaga32Vasilisa the beautiful34Maria Morevna42Tale of Prince Ivan, the firebird, and the gray wolf51The feather of Finist the bright falcon62The magic mirror69Danilo the luckless79Ilya Muromets and the dragon85The maiden tsar91The magic ring96Pt. IIFairy tales of socialist realismIntroduction105Tale of the military secret, Malchish-Kibalchish and his solemn word123The golden key, or the adventures of Buratino131The old genie Khottabych : a story of make-believe165The Malachite casket197The flower of seven colors222Pt. IIIFairy tales in critique of Soviet cultureIntroduction233Fairy tales for grown-up children251The dragon : a satiric fable in three acts267Tale of the Troika316Before the cock crows thrice345That very Munchausen381
