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European Journal of Arts 3(2021) ' №hi!!'ER Section 1. Visual, decorrative and applied arts
- ISSN 2310-5666 -
УДК 75.056:087.5](477) "193" DOI: 10.29013/EJA-21-3-10-14
V. Е. PITENINA, 1 O. A. LAGUTENKO, 1
1 National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine
THE FAIRY TALE AND THE REALITY IN UKRAINIAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF THE FIRST SOVIET DECADE
Abstract. The article aims at describing the features of children's fairy tale illustration in Ukraine in the 1920s and early 1930 s. During this period, the fairy tale, which constituted the genre basis of children's literature, was rethought and soon came under a ban. The mid-1920 s saw the formation of new principles, aims and objectives for children's books and, consequently, their design. The aesthetics of Art Nouveau and World of Art were replaced by the romanticism of building a new society. In Ukrainian children's books, this was reflected in the works of artists B. Ermolenko, B. Kryukov, I. Nizhnik, E. Rachev, and in the creation of images of new professions, phenomena, and ideals. Artistic principles of constructivism, clearly manifested in the magazine and book graphics in Ukraine, were transformed for the creation of children's book illustrations.
At the same time, in some publications, contrary to the official doctrine, the aesthetics of a bygone era manifested itself with a new force, though on an unusual material. This was seen in close to modernist illustrations of "October Fairy Tale" by O. Sudomora, in boychukist forms of graphics by S. Kononchuk, in anthropomorphic animalism by P. Lapin, animalistics by V. Averin. The period of struggle for and against the fairy tale was short-lived; it was "rehabilitated" in the early 1930 s.
Considering book illustration in the context of socio-political rethinking of fairy tale, allows us to take a new look at the creative experiments of 1920 s in Ukraine.
Keywords: Children's book, illustration, B. Ermolenko, P. Lapin, S. Kononchuk, O. Sudomora, book graphics.
For citation : V. Е. Pitenina, O. A. Lagutenko. The fairy tale and the reality in Ukrainian children's books of the first soviet decade // European Journal of Arts, 2021, №3. - P. 10-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29013/ EJA-21-3-10-14
Introduction
The domain of children's literature in Ukraine in the pre-revolutionary period was a patchwork of trends and schools. Among them were cheap pocketbooks, large-sized illustrated coloured books, inspired by the World of Ar" and European Art Nouveau heritage, futuristic experiments of the Kultur Lige graphic artists. Ornamental books decorated with patterns and vignettes, with ornamental lettering and illustrations, which were based on the traditions of a bygone era, were highly esteemed. Literary range of pre-revolutionary children's books was based on translations of children's classics, folk tales, works for children by I. Franko, L. Hlibov. The favourite, most published authors, whose books are found in the collections of virtually all publishing
houses, were E. de Amicis, J. Verne, H. C. Andersen, D. Defoe, M. Twain. The artistic diversity of children's books was provided by the efforts of numerous small private publishers who had an individual view of the needs of children and the market. In many ways due to this, fairly stable publisher-artist alliances were formed between 1914 and 1918. For instance, O. Sudomora mostly co-operated with "Chas" and "Dzvin", M. Zhuk with "Vernigora", I. Padalka with "Krynitsa".
During the period of 1918-1919 educational literature was of particular demand, and in this area the main literary and artistic forces were concentrated. Such masters ofbook illustration as H. Narbut, V. Krychevsky, M. Zhuk, O. Sudomora, M. Boychuk, I. Buryachok were involved in the process of textbook design.
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European Journal of Arts 3 (2021)
Section 1. Visual, decorrative and applied arts
Main body
In the early 1920s, the controversy over the content and design of children's books escalated. The main issue with children's book was its unrealistic, fantastical content. There was an active attack on fairy tale literature and, as a result, a purge of editorial portfolios. A prominent stage of this struggle unfolded around K. Chukovsky's Crocodile, about which M. Petrovsky writes in detail [7]. One of the ideologists of the persecution of the fairy tale was N. Krupskaya, whose role is described in detail by M. Balina [1] and S. Maslinskaya [6]. "Krupskaya, who was head of the State Academic Council Commission on Children's Books in 1928, accused Chukovsky of spreading "bourgeois nonsense" among children. Krupskaya's articles were followed by scathing articles by K. T. Sverdlova, D. Kalm and E. L. Flerina, directed not only against Chukovshchina but also against fairy tales as a genre acceptable to the Soviet child" [1; 7]. Although, as M. Balina notes, as early as 1918, the leaders of the proletarian culture were already against including folktales in the children's reading list on the grounds that these tales "glorified kings and princes, corrected children's consciousness and developed a sick imagination, kulak attitudes, and advocated bourgeois ideals" [1; 7].
Soon the searing controversy over children's books that had been going on in Petersburg and Moscow was echoed in Kyiv and Kharkiv. In 1923 E. Yanovskaya's article about class objectives of children's fairy tale was published in Kharkiv, outlining the directions of children's literature development. "We do not need a fairy tale, which plunges us into a world of nonexistent, fantastic - we need a real world with the disclosure of real forces and social relations. Children's literature of our time must reflect the ideals of the struggling class leading humanity to the transformation of all life" [10; 85].
Problematics of children's books and their illustration was developed in Ukraine as part ofthe methodological innovations ofthe Cabinet ofStudies ofChildren's Creativity of Bulletin of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, as described by I. Hodak [9]. The focus ofattention ofF. Schmit and B. Butnik-Siversky was the development ofthe concept ofchildren's book illustration for different age groups using the techniques of children's drawing. This concept was expressed in a series ofreports and the program text by B. But-nik-Siversky, "Principles of Children's Book Illustration" [3]. In the late 1920 s and early 1920s it was consistently implemented in books illustrated by the innovative artists E. Rachev and B. Kryukov at the publishing house Kultura.
As the literary genre of the fairy tale was ousted, children's books were filled with the realities of new times: stories about new objects, phenomena, and forms. Illustrations by B. Ermolenko to "Special Clothes" (Kyiv, 1930), "Chair, Chair and Stool" (Kyiv, 1930); B. Kryukov to "Bus No. 6" (Kyiv, 1928), "The Railway" (Kyiv, 1928), "Firemen" (Kyiv, 1929), "Potters" (Kyiv, 1930); L. Gamburger's "Radio-Newspaper to the Children of the World" (Kharkiv, 1928), and B. Nizhnik's "Our Enemies" (Kyiv, 1931), showed children the aesthetics of building communism in forms inspired by constructivism. They also told tales of the new world, in which the role of heroes was played by construction workers and firemen, tram drivers and policemen.
Yet it cannot be said that fairy tale and fantasy disappear from children's books completely. Books were also published whose illustrators looked for a fairy tale way of dealing with changed realities.
In 1922 "The War of Mushrooms and Bugs" [4], one of the most stylistically sustained and illustrated books of the 1910s, was republished. The animated mushrooms with bright expressive characters, which are one of the main characters in this book, are an embodiment of the fairy tale and fantasy spirit that the author of O. Sudo-mora illustrations tried to achieve. And it was followed in 1924 by a play for school theatres "October Fairy Tale" [2] with his illustrations. The author of the play, Yu. Budyak, belonged to the assemblage of pre-revolu-tionary educator authors. His "October Fairy Tale" fully met the characteristics of a "proletarian fairy tale". It had everything - social dualism, the triumph of good over evil, and the destruction of the past for the sake of a bright future. A certain fantasy world of the book was inhabited by benevolent dwarfs and the ghosts of darkness: the Voice of the Afterlife Spirit, the Whistling Storm, the Voices of the Downtrodden, and the Squealer Hag. An honest and insightful hero was born to free people from suffering - October, under whose guidance the dwarves forged the sickle and hammer to defeat the forces of evil. O. Su-domora's illustrations turned the tale from a politicized compromise into a real benefit of Ukrainian Art Nouveau: fantastic characters, mysterious thickets, staves, hats and capes - everything breathed with the fairy tale spirit of the past decade with unique Sudomora's ornamentalism. The book was not illustrated in a structured way, with freeranging strips of text with illustrations, manipulating the size and arrangement of the characters. Despite having the correct literary attributes, or perhaps because of the
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illustrations, in early 1925 "October Fairy Tale" was put on the list of books to be withdrawn.
In the twenties the animalistic fairy tale genre flourished, which, to some extent, filled an empty niche. The anthropomorphic nature of the animal characters also turns the animalistic genre into a fairy tale setting, where the animals talk, laugh, trick, etc. Therefore, through illustration, the children's book moves away from direct representationalism and realism. The range of animalistic illustration is very wide, from conditional decorativeness in the spirit of S. Kononchuk ("Kolobok", "The Alphabet", "The Red Hen") to the vivid plasticity of V. Averin's fairy tales ("Mitten", "Zoo animals"). In the first case, we witness the transformation of anthropomorphic characters into shapes-symbols, almost graphic signs, which would be further developed in the 1930 s. In Averin's illustrations, a profound understanding of animal plasticity and a high level of generalisation were used to convey lively characters and fairy tale drama, which grabbed a child's attention.
In 1926, Rukh publishing house published a small book of I. Franko's story "The Crows and the Owls" [8] with illustrations by P. Lapin. Here, the artist, with his usual almost caricatured humour, depicts heroes of fairy tale animals with their vivid characters. The tale itself, as presented by Frank, gave room for fabulous variations. Here there was neither social conflict nor the triumph of the unconditional good. And P. Lapin's characters, crows and owls, engaged in battle, appear to us as fully humanised characters.
By the end ofthe 1920 s, thanks to the efforts of, among others, M. Gorky, the fairy tale was gradually rehabilitated. "Personally I must admit that fairy tales had a quite positive influence on my intellectual growth when I listened to them from the lips of my grandmother and the village
fairy talesmen", M. Gorky wrote in his introductory article to the 1929 edition of "One Thousand and One Nights" [5; 9]. The recognition of the significance of the fairy tale from the mouth of an acknowledged classicist was one of the first public endorsements of fairy tale literature.
Conclusion
The period of the 1920 s in Soviet and Ukrainian children's literature was marked by the persecution of fairy tale and fantasy themes. This led to the need to reform the artistic processes ofbook illustration, which had traditionally been tied specifically to fairy tale themes. Ukrainian children's book has long maintained a commitment to decoration. Changes in the concepts of children's book illustration and the emergence of new themes in it are associated with the studies of F. Schmit and B. Butnik-Siversky. They were realized in the works of artists E. Rachev, B. Krukov, B. Ermo-lenko, L. Hamburger, B. Nizhnik, illustrating books about new professions, subjects and processes, in fact - about new times. The aesthetics of constructivism, dominant in this period, forms the artistic structure of these books.
At the same time, the artistic and literary dimension of Ukrainian children's books in the 1920 s did not acquire homogeneity. And it is in the years of fierce criticism of fairy tale, O. Sudomora's books are published, where the illustration emphasizes the prevalence of fantastic images and fictional spaces. The popularity of animalistic fairy tale illustrated by S. Kononchuk, P. Lapin, V. Averin, where the characters become more and more anthropomorphic.
The struggle between the realistic and the fairy tale faded away in the early 1930 s, but created a uniquely rich field of ideas and images that were developed in the following decades.
References:
1. Balina M. Proletarian fairy tale in children's literature of the Weimar Republic: on the question of genre specificity // Children's readings.- Ekaterinburg: Cabinet scientist, 2017.- P. 6-19.
2. Budyak Y. The October Tale.- Kyiv: Chas, 1924.- 24 p.
3. Butnik-Siversky B. Principles of illustrating children's books.- Kyiv: Culture, 1929.- 66 p.
4. The war of mushrooms and lips with beetles / Drawings by O. Sudomory.- Odessa: State Publishing House. 3rd State Printing House-Lithograph, 1922.- 10 p.
5. The book of a thousand and one nights. In 8 vols.- Vol. 5.: Nights 1-38.- Leningrad: ACADEMIA, 1933.- 574 p.
6. Maslinskaya S. G. Indefatigable fighter with a fairy tale (criticism of children's literature in the works of N. Krup-skaya) // Historical and pedagogical journal. 2017.- No. 1.- P. 172-186.
7. Petrovsky M. Books of our childhood. SPb.: - Izd-vo Ivana Limbaha, 2006.- 424 p.
8. Franco I. Crows and owls.- Kharkiv: Rukh, 1926.- 48 p.
9. Khodak I. Office of research of children's creativity of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences: problem field of activity / I. Khodak // Art Studies. 2015.- No. 2.- P. 67-78.
Section 1. Visual, decorrative and applied arts ' European Journal of Arts 3 (2021) - ISSN 2310-5666 -
10. Yanovskaya E. "Do you need a fairy tale?" (1927). Children's readings,- Vol. 19.- Issue 1. 2021.- P. 77-91.
Information about the authors
Valeria Evgenievna Pitenina, graduate student, of the Department of Theory and History of Art at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine Информация об авторах
Address: 04053, Ukraine, Kiev, Voznesensky descent, 20 E-mail: [email protected]; tel.: 0505489253 ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6303-051X
Olga Andreevna Lagutenko, Doctor in Art History, Professor of the Department of Theory and History of Art,
National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, Kyiv, Ukraine
Address: 04053, Ukraine, Kiev, Voznesensky descent, 20.
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-5934-2943
ШТЕН1НА В. е., 1 ЛАГУТЕНКО О. А., 1
1 Нащональног академп образотворчого мистецтва i архтектури, Кшв, Украша
КАЗКОВЕ I РЕАЛЬНЕ В УКРА1НСЬК1Й ДИТЯЧ1 КНИЗ1 ПЕРШОГО РАДЯНСЬКОГО ДЕСЯТИЛ1ТТЯ
Анотаця
Мета статт - охарактеризувати особливосл Глюстрування дитячо! казки в Укра!ш у 1920-т - на початку 1930-х рокГв. У цей перюд казка, яка становить жанрову основу дитячо! лГтератури, зазнала переосмислення i незабаром опинилася шд забороною. У середин 1920-х рокГв було сформовано новi принципи, цш i завдання дитячо! книги Г, вГдповГдно, 11 оформления. Естетику модерну i «Мира искусства» заступила романтика «бу-дiвництва нового суспГльства». В украшськш дитячiй книзi вона вiдображена у творчостi художникГв Б. Срмо-ленка, Б. Крюкова, I. Нижник, С. Рачева i створенш образiв нових професiй, явищ, iдеалiв. Художнi принципи конструктивiзму, як яскраво проявилися у журнальнiй та книжковш графiцi Укра!ни, було трансформовано для створення iлюстрацiй дитячо! книги.
Водночас, в окремих виданнях, всупереч офщшнш доктринi естетика епохи, яка вже проминула, проявилася з новою силою, хоч i на невластивому для не! матерiалi. Це були близью до модерну ГлюстрацГ! «Жовтнево! казки» О. Судомори, 6ойчукГстськГ форми графГки С. Конончука, антропоморфний анiмалiзм П. Лапiна, ашма-лiстика В. Аверша. Перiод боротьби за казку г проти не! був недовгим,- на початку 1930-х !! «реабштували».
Розгляд художнього глюстрування книги у контекстГ соцГально-полГтичного переосмислення казки дозволяе по-новому поглянути на творчГ експерименти 1920-х в Укра!ш.
Ключовi слова: дитяча книга, ГлюстрацГя, Б. Срмоленко, П. Латн, С. Конончук, О. Судомора, книжкова графГка.
1нформац1я об авторах
Штешна Валерiя евгенЁвна, викладач Нащонально! академГ! образотворчого мистецтва Г архГтектури, Ки!в, Укра!на
Адреса: 04053, Укра!на, Ки!в, Вознесенський узвГз, 20
- ISSN 2310-5666 -
E-mail: [email protected]; тел.: 0505489253 ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6303-051X
Лагутенко Ольга Андрйвна, доктор мистецтвознавства, професор кафедри теорп та юторп мистецтва Нащ-
онально! академп образотворчого мистецтва i архггектури, Кшв, Укра'на
Адреса: 04053, Украша, Ки!в, Вознесенський y3Bi3, 20
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-5934-2943
П1ТЕН1НА В. ЛАГУТЕНКО О. А. КАЗКОВЕ I РЕАЛЬНЕ В УКРАШСЬШ ДИТЯЧ1КНИЗ1ПЕРШОГО РАДЯНСЬКОГОДЕСЯТИЛ1ТТЯ
