E-mail: sorokinasp@mail.ru
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25a, Povarskaya str., Moscow, 121069, Russian Federation
PhD (Philology), senior researcher, folklore department, Institute of World Literature named after A. Gorkiy, Russian Academy of Sciences
The article is devoted to the usage of Petrushka the character of Russian folk
theatre in Soviet mass art for children. Soon after October revolution, in the 1920s, attempts appeared to apply this popular image for new ideology. Authors of these plays and scenes used Petrushka in two ways. On the one hand, they wanted the well-known figure to get recognizable visually. They were not interested in the essence of the personage’s character and its traditional features. On the other hand, they wanted to make Petrushka’s character fascinating for young spectators, but its essence would be changed in order to suit soviet ideology and morale. Such aspiration contradicted to the entire structure of the puppet’s image, inherent for street theatre. Distinct features of semantic contradictions caused by Soviet didactic and entertaining usage are considered in the article.
One more attempt to use Petruhska in mass literature for children was manifested by “Veselye kartinky” the magazine, that exemplifies how difficult it is to transform puppet theatre personage into a character of fiction.
From the point of view of the author of article, the most successful probe of transforming Petrushka into literature hero belongs to A. N. Tolstoy. The origin of the Soviet author’s Buratino is traced. It is argued that interaction between A. N. Tolstoy’s Buratino and Petrushka the puppet of the street theatre. Borrowing of Petrushka’s features helped Tolstoy the writer to create an expressive image of hero of fiction book for children which remains interesting and attractive up to now.
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Uvarova I. P. (2012) «Zolotoy klyuchik» i Serebryanyy vek (Mif i mistifikatsiya) [The Golden Little Key and the Silver Age (Myth and Mystification]. Kul’turologicheskie zapiski. Iskusstvo i sovremennaya mifologiya [Culturological Notes. Arts and Modern Mythology]. Vol. 13. Moscow. Pp. 238–267. In Russian.
Veselye kartinki (1956) [Hilarious Pictures]. 1956. No. 4. In Russian.