THE FOLK SPIRIT IN THE VERSE TALE «THE FOX AND CHAG-CHAG-BEY»

Abstract

The formation of Azerbaijani children's literature in the last quarter of the 19th century and its establishment as a distinct branch within a short period of time are largely due to folklore and classical literature, which act as the historical roots of this kind of literature. In this sense it can be safely said that Azerbaijani children's literature owes its upbringing and development first of all to folklore. Such a wide scope of the threshold of usefulness is a feature that manifests itself not only in our country, but also in the process of the formation of the children's literature of various peoples in general. "Folk art, with its high idealism and aesthetic richness, was one of the main sources of children's literature." (3, p. 9) The direction of using folklore in children's literature began to develop further from the end of the 19th century. The only work written on the theme of folklore in those years was the verse tale "The Fox and Chag-chag-bey" by S. M. Ganizade, the plot of which was based on the folk tale "The Fox with the Pear". In 1893 he wrote a short narrative poem entitled "O cruel, cruel man" (1921). The author took the theme of both works from folk folklore. Both of these works cultivate in children strong friendship, kindness, the striving for knowledge and other feelings. From the first decades of the 20th century these folklore themes became among the most notable in children's creative work, and the tendency to create new children's works in this vein took an important place even in the work of the most talented children's poets of the era (or of outstanding artists who also wrote children's works). S. A. Shirvani, M. A. Sabir, A. Sahhat, A. Shaig, S. S. Akhundov, M. Dilbazi, T. Elchin, I. Tapdyg and others used in their works examples of children's folklore, such as lullabies, counting rhymes, ditties and so on, and also created original works in this genre.