TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE GENRE OF BYLINA IN THE RUSSIAN LITERATURE OF THE 18TH CENTURY (the Plot of “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber”)

Abstract

In the 18th century, Russian literature was actively exploring folklore genres and characters. Th e bylina was one of the forms of interaction between folklore and literary genres. Some bogatyrs became literary characters. The 18th century epic tradition is known due to the collection of Kirsha Danilov (1804) and the publication of “Byliny v zapisiakh i pereskazakh XVII–XVIII vekov” (Bylinas in the Records and Retellings of the 17th–18th centuries) edited by A. M. Astakhova (1960). This fact gives an opportunity for raising the issue of the correlation of written and printed texts with the oral tradition recorded by collectors and folklorists. The article presents a comparative analysis of oral and written prosaic adaptations of the “Chernigov” version of the plot “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber” that remained similar to the oral tradition. Handwritten and printed publications of the records of the 18th century bylinas show that there was an active appropriation of epic plots, characters, themes, topics, formulas and concepts in Russian literature. This became apparent in the genre transformations of the bylina, development of its genre content in short novels, folk tales, fairy tales, operas and poems as well as in written and oral prosaic retellings and adaptations.

Keywords

• folklore
• Russian literature
• genre
• Transformations
• bylina
• fairy tale
• lubok
• plot
• bogatyr
• Ilya Muromets
• Nightingale the Robber