Leskov N. Levsha, Folklore traditions in the work of one of the Russian writers of the XIX century. ). Folklore traditions in the work of one of the 19th century Russian writers. (NS Leskov. "Lefty".) Lefty Leskov N. S The main characters and their characteristics

The story of N.S. Leskov's "Lefty" is one of the most popular works of the writer. It attracts a combination of folk, folklore origins with deep thoughts and the author about the essence of Russian national character, about the role of Russia and Russians in the world. It is no coincidence that this work has the subtitle "The Tale of the Tula oblique left-hander and the steel flea." "Lefty" was imitated under the folk legend, although later Leskov admitted: "I composed this whole story ... and the left-hander is a face I invented." To stylize the story like folklore, a narrator was chosen who is very different from the original author both in terms of speech and biography. The readers get the impression that the narrator is the same Tula artisan as the Levsha craftsman-gunsmith. He speaks quite differently than Leskov, and gives actors unusual for their real prototypes speech characteristics... For example, the Don Ataman Count Platov, being with the Emperor Alexander Pavlovich in England, “ordered the orderly to bring in a flask of Caucasian vodka-kizlyarka from the cellar, pulled a good glass, prayed to God on a travel fold, took cover with a burka and snored so that no one could sleep in the whole house for the English it was impossible ”. And the same Platov says just like a peasant or a workman: “Oh, they are rascals of the dog! Now I understand why they didn't want to tell me anything there. It's good that I took one of their fools with me. " The emperor himself is no better expressed in the narrator's view: “No, am I still a jelly? to see other news ... ”The same is the narrator's own speech, which we have already seen when describing Platov. The author of "Lefty", having entrusted the narration to him, immediately left behind only footnotes, thanks to which the readers get an impression of the reliability of the facts underlying the story. The language of the notes is literary correct, almost scientific. Here you can already hear Leskov's own voice: "Pop Fedot" was not taken from the wind: before his death in Taganrog, Emperor Alexander Pavlovich confessed to the priest Alexei Fedotov-Chekhovsky, who after that was called "the confessor of his majesty" and liked to make everyone see this completely random circumstance. This one Fedotov - Chekhovsky, obviously, is the legendary “Pop Fedot”. But the voice of Lefty in the story is almost indistinguishable in style from the speech of other characters and the narrator. We add that Leskov deliberately gives the popular vocalization of the names of famous nobles. For example, the Chancellor Count K.V., Nesselrode became Count Kisselvrode. In this way, the writer conveyed his negative attitude towards the activities of Nesselrode as foreign minister.

Main character story - an uneducated person, not devoid of inherent Russian shortcomings, including friendship with the "green serpent." However, the main property of Lefty is extraordinary, wonderful skill. He wiped his nose with the "English craftsmen", shod a flea with such small nails that you couldn't even see it through the strongest "small scope". In the image of Levsha, Leskov argued that the opinion put into the mouth of Emperor Alexander Pavlovich was wrong: foreigners have such a nature of perfection that as you look, you will no longer argue that we Russians are worthless with our meaning. The left-hander does not succumb to any temptations and refuses to betray the Motherland, sacrificing his life in order to convey: "Tell the sovereign that the British do not clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean them here either, otherwise, God bless, wars are not good for shooting." But the officials never conveyed this warning to either the then emperor or his successor, c. as a result, the Russian army allegedly lost the Crimean War. And when Levsha's friend, "an English half-skipper" in a wonderful broken language, asserts: "Although he has an Ovechkin's fur coat, so is the soul of a little man," the author of the story is already talking to us. And in the final chapter of "Lefty" Leskov throws off the mask of an ingenuous and illiterate narrator, immediately transferring readers from the time of Lefty to the present (the story was created in 1881): "Now all this is already" deeds of bygone days "and" legends of antiquity ", although and not deep, but there is no need to rush to forget these legends, despite the fabulous makeup of the legend and the epic character of its protagonist. Lefty's proper name, like the names of many greatest geniuses, forever lost to posterity; but as a myth personified by the folk fantasy; interesting, and his adventures can serve as a memory of an era, the general spirit of which is captured accurately and correctly. " The image of Lefty, according to the writer, reminds of those times when “the inequality of talents and talents” mattered, and makes us look with sadness at the present, when “favoring the rise of earnings, machines do not favor artistic prowess, which sometimes exceeded the measure, inspiring the people fantasy for the composition of such fabulous legends today. "

List of references

For the preparation of this work were used materials from the site http://www.litra.ru/

HISTORY OF CREATION. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe story “Levsha” (The Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea) ”arose in Leskov, probably by 1878. According to the testimony of his son, A.N. Leskov, father spent this summer in Sestroretsk, in the house of a gunsmith. Being familiar with the assistant to the head of the local arms factory, Colonel N.E. Bolonin, Leskov discussed with him the source of the joke about how "the British made a flea from steel, and our Tula shod it, and sent it back to them." Having never learned anything about the origin of this proverb, Leskov in May 1881 wrote the story "Lefty", the plot of which is based on the "proverb" that attracted his attention.

Initially, the writer conceived to combine three "ready-made small sketches" under the general title "Historical characters in fabulous legends of a new addition", which, according to the definition of the writer himself, would represent "pictures of folk art about the emperors: Nicholas I, Alexander II and Alexander III ( economic) ”(from a letter to IS Aksakov, May 1881).

However, in October 1881, Leskov published in the magazine "Rus" one story entitled "The Tale of the Tula braid Lefty and the steel flea (shop legend)". The following year, the story was published in a separate edition, to which the writer made some changes. They were aimed at enhancing the satirical sound of the story (for example, in chapter 7, the writer added that money for the needs of churches is collected “even where there is nothing to take”). In addition, in the text of the 1882 edition, quotation marks have been removed from a number of specific words and expressions typical of folk speech.

The appearance of "Lefty" almost immediately caused a response in the press. In October 1881, Leskov, in a letter to Aksakov, emphasized that "Bloch was very much noticed here even by literary men." However, criticism did not understand the artistic value of the story; Leskov's genre searches were alien to her. He was accused of “Slavophil chauvinism,” and of the desire to ascribe qualities that were not inherent to the people, to show how “a Russian man puts a foreigner in his belt”, and of belittling the Russian people.

GENRE PERSONALITY. Critics, being almost unanimous in their belief that Leskov only artistically processed the legend prevailing among the people, called the story “simple shorthand”, “retelling”. This assessment was due to the too literal understanding of the preface, with which Leskov preceded the first editions of the story. Introducing the subtitle “guild legend” into the title, the writer continued to “deceive” the reader in the preface itself, claiming that he had recorded this legend in Sestroretsk from the words “an old gunsmith, native of Tula,” and it “expresses the pride of Russian gunmakers”.

Leskov probably did not expect that critics, based on his own assertion about the existence of the legend, would speak so caustically about his literary abilities. As a result, the writer was forced to “expose” himself and in June 1882 in the newspaper “Novoye Vremya” to publish an article “On the Russian Lefty (Literary Explanation)”. In it, Leskov calls this work a story, insists on his authorship, and calls Lefty "a person ... invented." Later, in 1889, when preparing the collected works, the writer removed the preface from the text of the story.

Why does Leskov give "Lefty" the genre definition of "story"? After all, strictly speaking, this work is more like a story. It has a fairly large volume, which is not typical of a story, it is divided into 20 chapters, covers a long period of time (about 10-12 years). In addition, it is characterized by a consistent deployment of action with the introduction of new characters, depictions of the heroes' wanderings and new impressions (all this is also largely characteristic of the story). However, the writer calls “Lefty” a “story” for a reason. First, the word “story” itself is largely associated with the root word “skaz”, which emphasizes the oral nature of the story. Secondly, the main character and the main subject of the image is Lefty. The description of Alexander I's stay in England, the conversation between Nicholas I and Platov, the latter's trip to Tula, and even the work of Tula masters only prepares the reader for the story of Lefty's journey (in a letter to Aksakov in October 1881, Leskov said that “the best part is still at the end - Lefty in England and his tragic death ").

Thus, in the center of the story is only one stage in the hero's life - his stay in England, which Lefty sincerely tried to use for the good of the Fatherland. Combining the features of a story and a story in his work, focusing the reader's attention on several episodes from the hero's life and at the same time examining them in the context of Russian life and, in general, correlating the actions of the common man Lefty and the behavior of the “fathers of the Fatherland”, Leskov expresses his attitude to what is happening ... The combination of features of different genres helps the author to solve certain creative problems (associated with the approval of one hero and the debunking of others), becomes one of the forms of revealing the author's position.

But “Levsha” also combines the features of folklore genres: past, traditions, legends. Accumulation, or reality, is a small oral story about an unusual event that took place in reality, while the main character often becomes a simple person. Tradition tells about real faces and events in the past. But the stories of eyewitnesses in the legend are processed and subsequently modified. In this case, we have a combination of features of the past, telling about three Tula masters and setting out the story of Lefty (only the narrator knows about the reality of whose existence), and a legend telling about people who really existed: Alexander I, Nicholas I, ataman Platov, etc.

The narrator always strives to emphasize the reliability of what is happening, citing historical realities and listing the names of historical figures. This creates a sense of documentary narrative, and, consequently, the seriousness of those assessments that the author gives to the actions of the emperors and their entourage. Hyperbolization (a description of the wonders shown by the British, the image of the extraordinary work of the masters, and then the shod flea) reminds us of the genre of the legend, which is always based on a miracle, and the strength and mind of the main characters are often exaggerated. Basically legendary is the depiction of Lefty's journey and his stay in England. Thus, the synthesis of elements of history and legend allows us to show Lefty not only as a simple person, in whose life an extraordinary incident occurred, but also as a hero, to whom special abilities are attributed.

However, none of the three named folklore genres presupposes the expression of the narrator's personal attitude to the heroes, their actions, to the events themselves. Leskov, on the other hand, deliberately seeks to express the author's position, his inherent ironic attitude towards representatives of power. That is why he uses the opportunities that the fairy tale gives with its condescending attitude to kings and nobles. To enhance the effect of the unreality, the fabulousness of what is happening, Leskov deliberately distorts the chronology, hiding errors in the text that the reader should discover. For example, it is known that Alexander I was in London in June 1814, while the Congress of Vienna (in the text of "Lefty" it is called "Council") began in August 1814. After the end of the Congress, the emperor did not travel across England.

The use of Platov's image seems even more fantastic. Making him the interlocutor of Nicholas I, who ascended the throne at the end of 1825, Leskov seems to “forget” that Platov died in 1818. Therefore, all further actions of Platov are nothing more than fantasy.

The fabulous effect is enhanced by the very nature of the story. For example, describing how Alexander hides a flea, the author notes that he “put the flea in a nut ... and in order not to lose the nut itself, he put it in his golden snuffbox, and ordered the snuffbox to be put in his travel box”. (Remember the fabulous descriptions of the hidden Kashcheeva death: a needle in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a chest, etc.) It is the fabulous nature of the narrative that explains the appearance in imperial palace “A chemist from a nasty pharmacy from Anichkov bridge”, who behaves easily and like a neighbor, and Lefty himself. The ironic description of the tsars and their entourage, characteristic of the tale, helps Leskov to solve a number of artistic problems.

PROBLEM, Plot and Composition. One of the central problems in the story "Lefty" is the problem of the creative talent of the Russian person, which has become a subject more than once. artistic comprehension in the works of Leskov (stories "The Dumb Artist", "The Captured Angel"). Talent, in the mind of the writer, cannot exist if it is not supported by a person's spiritual strength, his moral core. Lefty - an unprepossessing peasant with his hair torn out "during training", dressed like a beggar, is not afraid to go to the sovereign, as he is confident in his righteousness, in the quality of his work. Once in England, he seeks to understand the military cunning of the British and serve the Fatherland.

The image of Lefty continues the gallery of images of the righteous created by Leskov. A left-hander who travels to England without documents, hastily dressed, hungry to demonstrate Russian ingenuity and skill, is for the writer the embodiment of the idea of \u200b\u200bself-denial in the name of the Cause, self-sacrifice for the glory of the Fatherland. It is no coincidence that the narrator conveys his conversations with the British, who are stubbornly trying to persuade Lefty to stay in England. The intransigence of the hero earns the respect of the British.

The left-hander has absorbed many of the qualities inherent in the Leskov righteous: patriotism, the presence of clear moral guidelines, character resilience, natural endowments, a keen interest in the life around him (“charm”), the foundations of Christian morality. (Remember what Lefty tells the British about faith and where the Tula craftsmen went before starting work.)

A lot of trials fall to the lot of Lefty, but even in the hour of death the hero remembers only one thing - about a military secret, ignorance of which is fatal for the Russian army. Leskov shows the tragic paradox of Russian life. A simple Tula master Lefty is more concerned with the problem of Russia's military power than the Minister of War Count Chernyshev or the emperor himself.

Leskov's critical attitude towards representatives of the authorities largely determines the problems of the story. It is in the image of Alexander, Nikolai, Platov that Leskov's irony becomes most evident. Platov's attempt to convince Alexander of the superiority of Russian weapons "upset the emperor," and the reminder of the special sugar of the Bobrin plant completely upset the sovereign ("Please, do not spoil my politics," he asks Platov).

Platov himself becomes a patriot only outside the Fatherland. In Russia, he behaves like a typical serf owner, rude and cruel. He does not believe the Tula masters, he demands that english work they did not spoil and the diamond was not replaced. It is he who is to blame for the fact that Lefty left the country without a "tugament" (later this played a fatal role in his fate). Nikolay, having given the order to send Lefty to England, soon forgets about him. It is no coincidence that the narrator bitterly notes that on the way to the hungry Lefty "at each station, the belts were pulled by one badge, so that the intestines and lungs would not get confused." If Alexander is confident in the superiority of English masters, then Nikolai believes in the possibilities of Russian talents. However, for him it is a matter of personal prestige, and people are only a means of achieving victory in a dispute with another power.

According to critics, the plot of the story is based on the motive of the struggle, the competition of representatives of the two peoples, characteristic of folk art (it is no coincidence that the Tula masters ask for God's blessing). Antithesis is the main compositional device in the story. However, it is not so much Russian and English craftsmanship that is opposed, as the masters themselves and the power that despises them. Remember that the English "half-skipper" who tried to "break through" to Count Kleinmichel with reminders of Lefty, was kicked out so that "he would not dare to remember the soul of little man."

The reasons for the cultural and economic backwardness of Russia (this problem is also touched upon by Leskov) should, according to the writer, be sought in the ignorance of the Russian people, in the authorities' inattention to the fate of national talents, which develop not thanks to, but in spite of its activities. In the story, the episodes of the conversation between Nicholas and Lefty, to whom the emperor graciously condescends, and the meeting of the hero with the British, for whom he is simply a naturally gifted person, a master, are contrasted compositionally. The culminating episode of the Emperor's dialogue with Lefty and the description of the training camp that follows it predetermines the denouement. The “podshipper” delivered to the English house and thrown on the floor in the “common” hospital Levsha - this is the antithesis that determines the uniqueness of the attitude to the person on the part of the tsarist government. Leskov sees this as one of the reasons for the social disorder in Russia.

THE PERSONALITY OF NARRATION. FEATURES OF LANGUAGE. Talking about genre originality story, we did not say anything about such a definition of the genre as “skaz”. And this is no coincidence. Tale as a genre of oral prose implies an orientation towards oral speech, narration on behalf of a participant in an event. In this sense, "Levsha" is not a traditional tale. At the same time, a skaz can also be called a narrative method that presupposes the “separation” of the narrative from the participant in the events. In “Lefty”, just such a process takes place, especially since the word “fable” (chapter 20) is used in the story, which presupposes the narrative character of the story. The narrator, being neither a witness nor a participant in the events, is actively in different forms expresses his attitude to what is happening. At the same time, in the tale itself, one can find the originality of the position of both the narrator and the author.

Throughout the story, the manner of the story changes. If at the beginning of the first chapter the narrator outwardly outrightly outlines the circumstances of the emperor's arrival in England, then consistently talks about the events taking place, using vernaculars, obsolete and distorted forms of words, different types of neologisms, etc., then already in the sixth chapter (in the story of the Tula masters), the narrative becomes different. It does not completely lose its colloquial character, however, it becomes more neutral, distorted forms of words, neologisms are practically not used. By changing the narrative manner, the author wants to show the seriousness of the situation described. It is no coincidence that even a high vocabulary is encountered when the narrator characterizes “skillful people on whom the nation's hope now rested”. The same kind of narration can be found in the last, 20th chapter, which, obviously, summing up, contains the author's point of view, therefore its style differs from that of most of the chapters.

Expressively colored words are often introduced into the calm and outwardly dispassionate speech of the narrator (for example, Alexander Pavlovich decided to “travel around Europe”), which becomes one of the forms of expressing the author's position, deeply hidden in the text.

In the narration itself, the intonational features of the characters' speech are skillfully emphasized (compare, for example, the statements of Alexander I and Platov).

According to I.V. Stolyarova, Leskov “directs the readers' interest to the events themselves”, which is facilitated by a special logical structure of the text: most of the chapters have an ending, and some have a kind of beginning, which makes it possible to clearly separate one event from another. This principle creates the effect of a fantastic manner. It can also be noted that in a number of chapters it is in the ending that the narrator expresses the author's position: “And the courtiers who stand on the steps, all turn away from him, think:“ Platov got caught and now they will drive him out of the palace - that's why they couldn't stand him for courage ”” (end of the 12th chapter).

It should be noted the use of various techniques that characterize the features not only of oral speech, but also of folk poetry in general: tautologies (“shod with horseshoes”, etc.), peculiar forms of verbs with a prefix (“admired”, “spy”, “slap” and others), words with diminutive-affectionate suffixes (“palm”, “belly”, etc.). It is interesting to pay attention to the sayings introduced into the text (“morning is wiser than night”, “snow on your head”). Sometimes Leskov can modify them.

The nature of the neologisms testifies to the mixing of different narrative styles. They can describe in more detail the object and its function (two-seated carriage), the place of action (busters - combining the words busts and chandeliers, the writer gives a more complete description of the room in one word), action (whistling - whistles and messengers accompanying Platov), \u200b\u200bdesignate foreign curiosities (. merblyusy mantons - camel cloaks, etc.), the state of the heroes (expectation - expectation and agitation, an annoying bite on which long years lay Platov, characterizing not only the inaction of the hero, but also his wounded pride). The appearance of neologisms in Leskov is in many cases due to literary play.

“Thus, Leskov's tale as a type of narration not only transformed, enriched, but also served to create a new genre variety: a fairy tale. The fairy tale is distinguished by a great depth of coverage of reality, approaching in this sense to the novel form. It was Leskov's fairy tale that contributed to the emergence of a new type of truth-seeker, who can be put on a par with the heroes of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky ”(Muschenko E.G., Skobelev V.P., Kroychik L.E. S. 115). Artistic originality “Lefties” are conditioned by the task of finding special forms of expression of the author's position in order to assert the strength of the national character.

The theme of patriotism was often raised in the works of Russian literature of the late 19th century. But only in the story "Lefty" is it connected with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe need to respect the talents that ennoble the face of Russia in the eyes of other countries.

History of creation

The story "Levsha" first began to be published in the magazine "Rus" Nos. 49, 50 and 51 from October 1881 under the title "The Tale of the Tula Lefty and the Steel Flea (Guild Legend)." The idea for the creation of the work by Leskov was a popular joke that the British made a flea, and the Russians "shod it, but sent it back." According to the writer's son, his father spent the summer of 1878 in Sestroretsk, visiting a gunsmith. There, in a conversation with Colonel N. Ye. Bolonin, one of the employees of a local arms factory, he found out the origin of the joke.

In the preface, the author wrote that he was only retelling a legend known among gunsmiths. This well-known technique, once used by Gogol and Pushkin to give special credibility to the narrative, in this case did Leskov a disservice. Critics and the reading public literally took the words of the writer, and later he had to especially explain that he was still the author, and not the retelling of the work.

Description of the work

Leskov's story in genre would be most accurately called a story: it presents a large temporal layer of narration, there is a development of the plot, its beginning and completion. The writer called his work a story, apparently in order to emphasize a special "fabulous" form of narration used in it.

(The Emperor examines the shod flea with difficulty and interest)

The story begins in 1815 with the trip of Emperor Alexander I with General Platov to England. There, the Russian tsar is presented with a gift from local craftsmen - a miniature steel flea that can "drive" with its antennae and "touch" with its legs. The gift was intended to show the superiority of the English masters over the Russians. After the death of Alexander I, his successor Nicholas I became interested in the gift and demanded to find masters who would be "no worse". So Platov called in three masters in Tula, among them Levsha, who managed to shoe a flea and put the name of the master on each horseshoe. The left-hander did not leave his name, because he forged carnations, and "there is no small scope to take."

(But the guns at court were cleaned in the old fashioned way)

The left-hander was sent to England with a "savvy nymphosoria" so that they would understand that "this is not surprising to us." The British were amazed at the jewelry work and invited the master to stay, showed him everything they had taught him. Lefty himself knew how to do everything. He was amazed only by the state of the rifle barrels - they were not cleaned with crushed bricks, so the accuracy of shooting from such rifles was high. The left-hander began to get ready to go home, he had to urgently tell the Emperor about the guns, otherwise "God bless the war, they are not good for shooting." From melancholy Lefty drank all the way with english friend "Half-skipper", fell ill and on arrival in Russia was dying. But until the last minute of his life he tried to convey to the generals the secret of cleaning guns. And if they brought the words of Lefty to the Tsar, then, as he writes

main characters

Among the heroes of the story there are fictitious and there are personalities who really existed in history, including: two Russian emperors, Alexander I and Nicholas I, ataman of the Don Army MI Platov, prince, agent of Russian intelligence A.I. Chernyshev, M.D. Solsky, Doctor of Medicine (in the story - Martyn-Solsky), Count K.V. Nesselrode (in the story - Kiselvrode).

(Lefty "nameless" master at work)

The main character is a left-handed weapons-maker. He has no name, only an artisan peculiarity - he worked with his left hand. Leskovsky Lefty had a prototype - Alexei Mikhailovich Surnin, who worked as a gunsmith, who was studying in England and passed on the secrets of the case to Russian craftsmen after his return. It is no coincidence that the author did not give the hero his own name, leaving the common noun - Lefty is one of the type of righteous person depicted in various works, with their selflessness and sacrifice. The personality of the hero has pronounced national features, but the type is deduced to be universal, international.

It is not for nothing that the only friend of the hero, about whom I have been told, is a representative of another nationality. This is a sailor from the English ship Polskiper, who served his "comrade" Lefty a disservice. To dispel the longing of his Russian friend for his homeland, Polshiper made a bet with him that he would drink Lefty. A large amount of vodka drunk and became the cause of the illness, and then the death of the yearning hero.

Lefty's patriotism is contrasted with the false adherence to the interests of the Fatherland of other heroes of the story. Emperor Alexander I is embarrassed before the British when Platov points out to him that Russian craftsmen can do things just as well. In Nicholas I, the feeling of patriotism is based on personal vanity. And the brightest "patriot" in Platov's story is such only abroad, and having arrived at his homeland, he becomes a cruel and rude serf-owner. He does not trust Russian craftsmen and is afraid that they would spoil the English work and replace the diamond.

Analysis of the work

(Left-handed flea)

The work differs in genre and narrative originality... It resembles a Russian tale based on a legend in genre. There is a lot of fantasy and fabulousness in it. There are also direct references to the plots of Russian fairy tales. So, the emperor hides the gift first in a nut, which he then puts in a golden snuffbox, and the latter, in turn, hides it in a travel box, in much the same way as the fabulous Kashchei igloo hides. In Russian fairy tales, tsars are traditionally described with irony, as in Leskov's story both emperors are presented.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe story becomes the fate and place in the state of a talented master. The entire work is permeated with the idea that talent in Russia is defenseless and not in demand. It is in the interests of the state to support it, but it grossly ruins talent, as if it is an unnecessary, ubiquitous weed.

Another ideological theme of the work was the opposition of the true patriotism of the national hero to the vanity of characters from the upper strata of society and the rulers of the country themselves. The left-hander loves his homeland selflessly and ardently. Representatives of the nobility are looking for a reason to be proud, but do not take the trouble to make the life of the country better. This consumer attitude leads to the fact that at the end of the work the state loses one more talent, which was sacrificed to the vanity of first the general, then the emperor.

The story "Levsha" gave literature the image of yet another righteous man, now on the martyr's path of serving the Russian state. The originality of the language of the work, its aphorism, brightness and accuracy of the wording made it possible to disassemble the story into quotations that were spread among the people.

Literature lesson in grade 6 on the topic:

N. S. Leskov. "Lefty".

Lesson topic : Life experienceN. S. Leskova - the basis of his work. "Lefty".

Tale as a form of storytelling. Reading chapters I - III.

The purpose of the lesson :

Subject: show the historical and cultural context of the time, familiarize students with fragments of biography and creativity

N. S. Leskov, tell about the history of the creation of the work, draw

attention to the genre of the work; to give an initial idea of \u200b\u200bthe genre of the tale;

identify the features of the language of the work;

Metasubject : be able to accept and save a learning task.

Lesson objectives:

Developing:

Develop individual and group work skills.

Develop written and spoken language; monologue speech skills.

Develop the ability to highlight the main thing in fiction, extract the necessary information from the text, artistic retelling of a separate episode;

Ability to reason your answer.

Educational:

Briefly acquaint with the biography and work of N.S. Leskov

Develop students' skills to see the work in the unity of content and form

To form the ability to analyze text, find genre features and determine genre originality

Educational:

To generate interest in the work of the writer.

Foster self-esteem.

Form a respectful attitude towards others.

To educate students' feelings of civic and patriotism through reading and analyzing a literary text;

Lesson type: learning new material;

Lesson equipment - textbook, diagram, illustrations; presentation.

During the classes

Organizational moment.

Motivation for learning activities.

Name the types of literature.

What does the genre of the work mean?

Is the story a genre or genre of the work? Genre, and genre is epic.

Stage of actualization.

Do you like fairy tales? What types are they?

How can a tale differ from a fairy tale?

Formulate the topic.

Lesson topic ...

Teacher's story .

Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov belongs to best writers XIX century.

The writer himself in his "Autobiographical Note" writes about himself:

“By origin, I belong to the hereditary nobility, but young and insignificant. Our family comes from the clergy: my grandfather and his father and grandfather and great-grandfather - all were priests. My father “did not go to the priests,” cut off his spiritual career, was kicked out of the house by my grandfather, and with 40 kopecks of copper came to Oryol, where he became a teacher in the houses of local landowners.

I was born on February 4, 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, where my grandmother lived. We lived in a tiny house, which consisted of one large peasant log house, covered with thatch.

In the village, I lived in complete freedom. With my peasant children of the same age, I lived and got along in perfect harmony. I knew the everyday life of the common people to the smallest detail and to the smallest nuances I understood how the landowners from the large manor house treated it.

I was undoubtedly gifted with great ability, was polite, did not shy away from people, had decent manners, and talked in French early. I studied well in the gymnasium ... "

As time went on ... In 1847 he entered the service of the Oryol Criminal Chamber, in 1749 he was transferred to the Kiev Treasury Chamber, in 1857 he transferred to a private commercial company and traveled all over Russia on official business. In 1860, he was briefly an investigator in the Kiev police, but Leskov's articles in the weekly "Modern Medicine", exposing the corruption of police doctors, led to a conflict with colleagues. As a result of the provocation organized by them, Leskov, who was conducting an official investigation, was accused of bribery and was forced to leave the service. In January 1861 he moved to St. Petersburg.

He saw life in all its disorder, listened to stories about joys, but more about the troubles of people of different classes, both rich and poor.

IN 1860, BEGINS TO WRITE AND PUBLISH IN THE PERIODIC ESSAYS ABOUT LIFE.

Later, answering a newspaper reporter's question: "Where do you get the material for your works?" - Leskov pointed to his forehead: “From this chest. Here are the impressions of my commercial service, when I had to wander around Russia on business, this is the best time of my life, when I saw a lot and lived easily ”.

Working with the class.

Read on page 225 about how Nikolai Leskov wrote and who was the hero of his works?

Read on page 226 what Leskov is grieving about?

Work in notebooks.

Write it down.

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov (1831, Oryol province - 1895, St. Petersburg)

Heroes of his works - representatives of different estates, and they say everything in the writer's own way, and not in a literary way; theytalk about their life .

And today we will be convinced of this, because we will get acquainted with a work that is unusual in its genre.

This is "The Tale of the Tula oblique left-hander and the steel flea"

Write it down.

"Lefty" or " The tale about the Tula oblique left-hander and about the steel flea " written in 1881,

the idea arose in 1878, when Leskov was visiting the house of a gunsmith in Sestroretsk.

The work is based on the joke "how the British made a flea from steel, and our Tula shod it, and sent it back to them."

Tale is an epic genre based on folk legends and legends; Tale - "to tell", that is, to tell

The narrator in the tale is a person from the people with his own special speech.

The narrator changes the words so that it is "clearer" to an illiterate person.

The tale is like a fairy tale:

extraordinary events take place with the heroes; there are "wonderful" objects;

there is a beginning and an ending; repetitions; dialogues like in a fairy tale.

A tale differs from a fairy tale in that it is based on real people, places and events:

empress Elizabeth, Emperor Nicholas I,

Few of the writers of the nineteenth century used folklore and folk traditions so widely in their work. Deeply believing in the spiritual strength of the people, he is, nevertheless, far from idealizing it, from creating idols, from “an idol liturgy for the peasant,” using Gorky's expression. The writer explained his position by the fact that he “studied the people not by talking to Petersburg cabbies”, but “grew up among the people” and that “it was not proper for him to either raise the people on stilts or put them under his feet”. Confirmation of the writer's objectivity can be the "Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea", assessed at one time by critics as "a set of clownish expressions in the style of hideous foolishness" (A. Volynsky). Unlike other fairy-tale works of Leskov, the narrator from the folk environment does not have specific features. This anonym acts on behalf of an indefinite multitude, as his kind of mouthpiece. There are always various rumors among the people, passed from mouth to mouth and overgrown in the process of such a transfer with all kinds of speculations, assumptions, new details. The legend is created by the people, and so freely created, embodying the “popular voice”, it appears in “Lefty”. It is interesting that Leskov in the first printed editions prefaced the story with the following preface: “I wrote this legend in Sestroretsk based on a tale there from an old gunsmith, a native of Tula, who moved to the Sister River during the reign of Emperor Alexander I. The narrator two years ago was still in good spirits and in fresh memory; he willingly recalled the old days, greatly honored Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich, lived "according to the old faith," read divine books and raised canaries. " The abundance of “reliable” details left no room for doubt, but everything turned out to be ... a literary hoax, which was soon exposed by the author himself: “... I composed this whole story in May last year, and Lefty is a face I invented ... "Leskov will return to the question of the inventedness of Levsha more than once, and in his lifetime collected works he will completely remove the" preface ". This hoax itself was necessary for Leskov to create the illusion that the author was not involved in the content of the tale. However, with all the outward simplicity of the narrative, this story by Leskov also has a “double bottom”. Embodying popular ideas about Russian autocrats, military leaders, people of another nation, about themselves, the simple-minded narrator knows nothing of what the author who created it thinks about the same. But Leskov's "secret writing" allows you to clearly hear the author's voice. And this voice will tell that the rulers are alienated from the people, neglecting their duty to them, that these rulers are accustomed to power, which should not be justified by the presence of their own merits, that not the supreme power is concerned about the honor and fate of the nation, but simple Tula peasants. It is they who cherish the honor and glory of Russia and constitute her hope. However, the author will not hide the fact that the Tula masters who managed to shoe an English flea, in fact, spoiled the mechanical toy, because “they didn’t go into the sciences”, that they, “deprived of the opportunity to make history, created anecdotes”. England and Russia (Orlovshchina, Tula, Petersburg, Penza), Revel and Merrekul, the Ukrainian village of Peregudy - such is the “geography” of Leskov's stories and novellas in just one book. People of different nations here enter into the most unexpected connections and relationships. "A truly Russian person" either puts the foreigners to shame, sometimes turns out to be dependent on their "system". Finding the universal in life different nations and striving to capture the present and future of Russia in connection with the course of historical processes in Europe, Leskov, at the same time, was clearly aware of the originality of his country. At the same time, he did not fall into the extremes of Westernism and Slavophilism, but held on to the position of objective artistic research. How did a “thoroughly Russian” writer and a person who passionately loved Russia and his people manage to find a measure of such objectivity? The answer lies in Leskov's work itself.