Abstract: The subject of this research is the symbolism in the English and Russian fairytale tradition. The object is the texts of the Russian and English fairy tales. Analysis of the texts reveals the typical functions performed by symbols in both folklore traditions. The author provides the examples of symbols and offers the interpretation of objects-symbols, symbols-zoonyms, color and number symbols, time and space symbols. Comparative study of folklore heritage of non-cognate languages reveals the fundamental commonness of a particular folk genre of different peoples in their perspective upon reality, methods of depiction, and ideological interpretations. The scientific novelty consists in conclusions obtained in the comparative study of the symbolism of fairy tale texts in the Russian and British folklore, which is important for determination of linguistic, semiological and cultural universals. The comparative study of folklore material of two traditions in the sphere of the poetics of folklore reveals the traditional universals and unique features on the level of symbolism of the fairy tale genre. Within the framework of the article, the author analyzes the functionality of thematic, animalistic, color, spatial-temporal, and numerical symbols. The acquired results are underpinned by a large number of text examples.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the symbols characteristic to the genre of folk ballade. The object of this research is lyrics of the Russian folk ballads. The following compilations of ballads served as the material for this research: “Russian Ballad” (edited By V. I. Chernyshev, N. p. Andreev, 1936), “Folk Ballads” (edited by D. M. Balashov, A. M. Astakhova, 1963), “Russian Folk Ballad” (edited by D. M. Balashov, 1983), “Ballads” (edited by B. P. Kirdan, 2001), “Epics. Historical Song. Ballads” (edited by A. V. Kulagina, V. A. Kovpaka, 2008). The author carefully examines the peculiarities of ballad symbolism and its functions. In the course of research, the following conclusions were formulated: consistency of the genre order depends on the presence of the system of artistic visual means; central in the poetics of ballad belongs to symbolism, parallelism, antithesis, epithets, and metaphors; symbolism in the romantic ballads is presented quite extensively; often a symbolic situation becomes a part of psychological parallelism presented in many ballad concepts; syntactic parallelism can be placed in any thematic link and amplifies by antithesis. In certain instances, antithesis appears an important technique for creating a tragic effect. Ballad poetics is subordinated to explication of the overall genre trend, including the reflection of fundamental universals and principles. The novelty of this work consists in the attempt of textual analysis of the major compilations of ballads, as well as in selection of the symbols for their further analysis within the framework of implementation of genre characteristics.

Abstract:  
The subject of this research is the symbols common to the folk genre of British ballad. The object of this research is the text of English and Scottish folk ballads. Review of the main studies dedicated to the texts of ballads is presented. In the course of analysis of the ballad genre, the author attempts to determine its key features. Special attention is given to the analysis of artistic expressive means of the medieval ballad texts. Among the poetic means, the paramount function is assigned to symbols; therefore, the author explores namely the semantics of symbols and their lexical representation. The five-volume collection by Francis James Child “The English and Scottish Popular Ballads” served as the textological framework for this research. The scientific novelty consists in the attempt to analyze the ballad poetics of the English and Scottish folk ballads. The article draws a number of conclusions on the identification of genre, describes its characteristic features, and analyzes the role of ballads within the system of folklore genres. The conducted research of the texts of British folk songs allows concluding that the central place in introduction of the main genre features is defined by the lexical means, among which an important place belongs to symbolism. Thus, ballad was not able to fully realize its genre categories and universalities without special tools that would allow formulating particular ideas. Ballads certainly represent a set of artistic expressive means, which attains a special function namely within the genre.