“A Fairy Tale Is A Lie, But It Has ...”–Axiological Potential

Abstract

In folklore/fairy tale “all the knots of national existence are tied”, therefore folklore/fairy tales are carriers/exponents of the “spirit of the people” and an axiological “drug”. Composing folklore, the peoples embody in it their mindsets and mental ideas about the way of life; therefore, the images-concepts of the folklore array are the generation of axiological meanings that are relevant for understanding the features of sociocultural history and socialization algorithms for transforming-sociality into-sociality. Being "the size of a nut" fairy-tale texts contain multidimensional value-semantic configurations of social life, therefore the immersion of nature/a Child in the figurative-conceptual depths of folklore/fairy tales with the direct participation of "significant others" – culture/a Parent – is a permanently necessary process for the transmission of values to an individual: “If a fairy tale tells, then both here and there everything goes well”. Fairy-tale legends are the most stable form of transmission of sociocultural experience, since they appeal to imagination and rationality at the same time; the “magical thinking” of folklore/fairy tales makes axiological suggestion softer and more flexible, satisfying the society's need for the demand for values by new generations: “It is remarkable that the whole spectrum of desires is developed in the Russian fairy tale – from the highest to the lowest”. The article attempts to substantiate the figurative-conceptual content of folklore/a fairy tale as the axiological potential of pro-sociality; the idea that folklore/a fairy tale can serve as universal axiological matrices in the formation of the main formats of life scenarios.

Keywords:

Introduction

sociality (Childishness) is the natural state of the individual (nature/Child), his irregularity, lack of ennobling, spontaneity, bad manners, arbitrariness. Value content is potential. “Topos” Childishness refers to “prescribed”/”assigned” statuses and determines the starting uncertainty of the individual.-sociality (Adulthood) is a complex of norms and values adopted and assimilated by an individual in the process of de-objectification of the essential forces of a social community (culture/Parent) in order to further objectify their own essential forces. The value content is real as a genuine existential foundation of the Human in a person. “Topos” Adulthood – the “attainable” status – presupposes a long-term socialization work of the Parent on the consciousness of the Child. Socialization aims to give an individual certainty, since only when he is socially involved and determined can social responsibility be established, and his-sociality has no chance to transform into-sociality: disregard for the norms of human society, ignoring the boundaries of socially permissible. The axiological potential of folklore/fairy tales is actualized by their participation as an agent of primary socialization in the formation of the value core of the Child's worldview. It is obvious that the accentuation of the axiological potential of folklore/fairy tale seems to be especially significant in the context of the crisis of the value foundations of subjective being caused by the commercialization and vulgarization of social life, and can be transformed into a search and understanding of the possibilities of mitigating the crisis and axiological “gathering” of the Human in a person.

Problem Statement

The existing research interest in folklore/fairy tales is concentrated in the linguistic and cultural areas. It seems to us that socio-humanitarian knowledge does not pay proper cognitive attention to the analysis of the axiological potential of folklore/fairy tales and the degree of their participation in the propedeutic prevention of-sociality; in the transformation of-sociality (Childishness) into-sociality (Adulthood). In this regard, it is legitimate to problematize, firstly, the status of folklore/fairy tale as a keeper and translator of value content, and secondly, the attitude to folklore/fairy tale not as “reading for entertainment” (“Do not think that a fairy tale is a child's play, a frivolous matter for an intelligent person ..." Ilyin, 2004, p. 22), but as an actual agent of primary socialization, playing a priority role in determining the axiological “matrix” of-social behavior of an individual.

Research Questions

Features and significance of the axiological resources of folklore/fairy tales that determine the formation of-social behavior.

• Specific “some character of universality” (Hegel, 1969, p. 72) of folklore/fairy tales as a basic factor of its value content.
• The degree of influence of the axiological potential of folklore/fairy tale on the formation of pro-sociality.

Purpose of the Study

Conceptually determine the condition for the actualization of the axiological potential of folklore/fairy tale; substantiate the priority contribution of folklore/fairy tales to ensuring the achievement of a state of-sociality (“topos” Adulthood) through axiological reference and vicarious teaching of pre-sociality (“topos” Childishness).

Research Methods

The theoretical and methodological content of the article is provided by the cognitive principles of Feyerabend (2008) “everything is allowed”, which draws research interest into the methodological pluralism of methods of cognizing sociality (mythology, folklore, art are considered as content-semantic space), and Saussure (1977) “social as semiological”, which allows us to conceptualize images and form concepts; the mental-folklore approach to the comprehension of socio-ontological meanings Mullar (2009); concepts of special socio-mental meanings of a fairy tale by Ilyin (2004), Sinyavsky (2001), Trubetskoy (1999), Vysheslavtsev (1995); the theories of “life scenario” by Bern (2003) and “vicarious learning” by Bandura (2005); the dialectical method in the aspect of the ratio of-sociality/Childishness and-sociality/Adulthood; hermeneutic method; principles of cognition, determinism, consistency.

Findings

In the conditions of socio-cultural metamorphoses taking place in the modern world, a globalized space of increasing dynamism and hypertrophied relevance of information has been formed. Such an ontological situation undoubtedly provokes an increase in axiological relativity, while at the same time creating a threat of leveling the positive stereotypes that are filled with traditional values. In such conditions, many cultural works become fragmentary and temporary, but folklore/fairy tales remain integral and permanently in demand. It seems to us that the involvement of folklore/fairy tales in the value sphere of the socio-cultural existence of mankind and involvement in determining the axiological “vector” of the individual's development is possible and natural because they have a high degree of figurative-conceptual generalization and socialization activity.

1. "... that's how things go in the world."

Realization of the universal life wisdom of the fairy tale is enabled by its axiological conceptuality "spilled" in the plot and the ability to depict the plural in the generalized singular. Evaluating the folklore epic of medieval Germany, Hegel (1969) wrote that:

It does not seem to us just an isolated case – it is raised above this singularity and receives a certain character of universality, thanks to which it becomes obvious to us: this is how things generally go in the world. (p. 34)

In fact, limitless possibilities to generalize/typologize raise the folklore/fairy tale above the concrete objectivity of a direct “single” image, and the conventionality of fairy fiction ensures the scale of artistic abstraction: each fairy tale carries a “certain character of universality”, strong in its analogies and aimed at arranging the harmony of the social and individual being through the transmission of value preferences.

The figurative-conceptual generalization of a fairy tale ensures its ascent above reality into the axiological “Other kingdom” of good, beauty and harmony:

It is precisely the rise above the mundane that makes a fairy tale necessary for all stages of culture ... an attraction to undying goodness, to eternal beauty, to that bright transcendental strip where the sun does not go down. (Trubetskoy, 1999, p. 62)

Folklore/fairy tale realizes the axiological relationship of the human spirit to the world: the fairytale humanistic utopia acts as a special matrix of social being, which, on the one hand, metaphorically reproduces the confrontation between sociocultural reality and the moral dream, and, on the other hand, softens this contradiction through the realization of axiological diversity of existence, thus creating an “imaginary” fairytale situation as an integral and “whole science of life!” (Ilyin, 2004, p. 24).

In our opinion, a precedent for the fabulous ability to generalize life phenomena to a universal axiological standard is the phenomenon of a “generalized other”, formalized in a fairy tale as “total personification” (Meletinsky, 2005): a character-type translates the collective wisdom and value preferences of a certain society, which are involved in the formation of-sociality. An individual, in the process of mastering a folklore/fairytale text, evaluates himself in relation to the actions of the “generalized other”: the axiological content of the “total personification” of folklore/fairy tale initiates “entry” and “getting used to” the sociocultural space – the socialization of-sociality. The effectiveness of socialization procedures is implied by the child's uncritical perception and his desire to imitate and copy the behavior of the “generalized other”, to correspond to it as an exemplary axiological standard: the influence of the “generalized other” is realized through the “acceptance and performance of the role” of the model (“vicarious learning” occurs) when the child “Puts on” the armor of a fabulous hero, Cinderella's shoe or fits on Emelya's stove” (Mullar, 2009). In the process of" vicarious learning ", the child not only imitates, but also acquires the ability to compare his own behavior with the actions of other individuals. Through awareness of the role activity of precedent “others”, focusing on the reactions and value preferences of “others” in the inner space of a-social child, the ability to compare their positioning with mental stereotypes and value standards of society is born and matured. Reproducing the copied model of being of the “generalized other”, the child makes the first important efforts to form his own model of “I-concept”.

The presence of value potential allows folklore/fairy tale to carry out transcendental soaring over the monotonous reality in which a person is forced to arrive. The metaphorical breakthrough of folklore/fairy tale from the chronotope of everyday life opens up the space of eternal values to the individual. A fairy tale, through a value relationship to the world, helps to overcome the individual's alienation from the life process. It is known that a person enters the social world as a-sociality. After some time, the nature/Child, thanks to the acquisition of knowledge and skills, the de-objectification of various components of the experience of the culture/Parent, becomes a-social being with a complex of attitudes, goals and intentions, with a certain vision of the world. The “folded”-sociality begins its “unfolding” with the help of, among other things, folklore/fairy tales: basic value orientations are mastered, the motivation of behavior is formed, the individual from the initial point of his existence –-sociality – moves into the normative field of society in this way, that further manifestation of the uniqueness of a given individual as "I" becomes possible only if he assimilates these values and patterns of behavior necessary for his successful functioning in a given society. Folklore/fairy tale, thus, meaningfully fill the primary socialization.

2. The degree of influence of the axiological potential of folklore/fairy tale on the formation of pro-sociality.

Folklore/fairy tale is actively involved in the formation of the child's-social contour. It is the Transcendental and Timeless axiological potential that turns the folklore/fairy tale into an actual agent of primary socialization that determines the vectors of the individual's life aspirations:

A person asks a fairy tale about what is important and necessary for all of us, without which it is difficult to live life and without which we are still in labor and we live it through suffering and leave life without understanding and comprehending much. A person asks for a fairy tale, and it answers him about the meaning of earthly life (Ilyin, 2004, p. 27).

The efforts of folklore/fairy tale are associated with the embodiment of a meaning-generating mission, which involves helping a-social child in mastering-social spiritual regulations that contain and broadcast universal value formulas: in folklore/fairy tale positive values are represented when good triumphs, evil is shamed and defeated. The action of a fairy tale usually begins with the fact that the hero finds himself in a dangerous situation, and he always wins. The unjustly despised and humiliated character is given prosperity and high social status, a clear line is drawn between good and evil. Therefore, folklore/fairy tale carries out the mission of figurative-conceptual optimization of the axiological contradictions of personal life, allows the individual to streamline his complex feelings, determine his moral preferences and establish the main parameters of-sociality

It is legitimate, in our opinion, to emphasize the particular relevance of the question of what and how the characters-types of folklore/fairy tales do, since in the circle of interests of a-social child it is they who occupy a priority place and act as precedents for imitation and copying. Propp's key work “The Morphology of a Tale” (Propp, 1998) contains a detailed and thorough analysis of the functional content of the characters-types of fairy-tale heroes, depending on their significance for the development of the plot and the course of action. The value orientations found in the behavior of a character-type of folklore/fairy tale have a prolonged educational effect: let us assume that the fairytale Emelya becomes an example for the child to follow, then it is natural to expect that the “emeleization” of the child's worldview will occur, which, in turn, will predetermine the folding and adherence to a dependent model of behavior, since the main function of the character-type “Emelya” is social passivity, and the acquisition of the desired welfare of life occurs without his efforts: “This is how the utopia of a lazy and a bum was realized before our eyes” (Trubetskoy, 1999, p. 67) Being a “generalized other”, the character-type “Emelya” can have a significant impact – vicarious learning, according to the concept of Bandura (2005) – on the formation of an individual's value system, since the power of influence of the “generalized other” lies in his ability evoke a deep emotional response in a person. Thus, a gradual “deployment” of-sociality with certain internal qualities is set.

It is appropriate to emphasize the axiological meaningfulness of folklore/fairy tales by updating their functional meanings:

• axiological representation, that is, the preservation and presentation of national value content;
• axiological socialization, that is, the instilling of certain values and the introduction of the individual to them;
• axiological optimization, that is, a figurative-conceptual embodiment of social dreams about the victory of values/pro-sociality over anti-values/a-sociality.

Thus, folklore/fairy tale plays a priority role in the formation of the axiological segment of the spiritual sphere of society, largely determining the axiological standards of the individual's behavior, latently influencing his pro-social positioning.

Conclusion

The implementation and consideration of the stated goals and subject matter of the article naturally presupposes the systematization and generalization of the main results of the analysis. The significant findings of this study include the following:

• Nietzsche in his book "Human, All Too Human" (Nietzsche, 2005) formulated the most important idea that human life is determined in its main features in childhood. This idea was supported and developed by Adler (1998), Bern (2003), Freud (1989). The modern researcher of Nietzsche's creativity prof. Pertsev in the book “Nietzsche at home” writes: “... any adult person just completes the unfinished affairs of his childhood; the content of his entire adult life, all plans and affairs were determined even in preschool age” (Pertsev, 2009, p. 62). We fully share this position and, proceeding from this, we believe that the immersion of pre-sociality in the value space, which “is told”, allows us to begin the implementation of the “starting” efforts of pre-sociality to advance to the level of pro-sociality. Folklore/fairy tale acts as an agent of socialization as a process of familiarizing and familiarizing an individual with social normativity in general, with the axiological array of social world order, in particular;
• folklore/fairy tale offers pre-sociality metaphorical arsenalaxiological “supporting formulas” as regulations of behavior, transmitting undoubtedly axiologically relevant information in images-concepts: “A person asks a fairy tale about which all people from century to century will always ask their parents, pastors and God about what is important and necessary for us, about the meaning of earthly life, what is happiness, does it come by itself or should it be obtained? Do you really need labors, trials, dangers, suffering and deeds to get it? What is destiny? And is it really impossible to overcome fate or every person is a blacksmith for his happiness?.. And all these questions are about happiness, about fate, about the meaning and ways of life” (Ilyin, 2004, p. 25);
• the generation and transmission of socially significant values that determine the moral component in the worldview system, motivating the construction of an individual's line of behavior, are provided by the actions or inaction of the characters-types of fairy-tale heroes. It is legitimate to consider that folklore/fairy tale represents the axiological equipment of pro-sociality;
• the axiological semantic intensity of folklore / fairy tales is objectified in the characters-types by generalized ideas about world dimension, maximally expands the cultural space, generates axiological semiologemes, which “the soul begins to understand ... before it there are representations that are inaccessible to pure mind” (Jung, 1994). The state of modern society is characterized by the all-pervading process of informatization of social life and the all-encompassing massization of culture, which naturally leads to an increase in dehumanizing tendencies in the development of the individual, up to spiritual degradation, and hence to a socio-cultural recession. In such complex anthropo- and socio-ontological conditions, the axiological resource of folklore/fairy tale seems all the more relevant. In the process of the meaningful deployment of the tale, moral values are constituted, and through their contextual-latent translation – the formation of a moral imperative of behavior (Jung, 1994), which can mitigate and reduce the threats of the implementation of negative trends in individual and social development;
• a certain society, guided by its "collective ideas" about values, creates axiological samples that are maximally consistent with its mentality, therefore folklore/fairy tale is distinguished by a large volume of traditional values, which directly affects the socialization process; analysis of the complex of value factors of national folklore/fairy tale allows us to understand the latent mechanisms of transformation of pre-sociality in the direction of pro-sociality: for example, national folklore/fairy tale very peculiarly solve the problem of socialization/cultivation/”growing up” of pre-sociality, elevating it to the rank of the main (heroized) and the beloved (idealized) character-type of social outsider: “Among those offended by fate there are unfortunate ones for various reasons: literally poor, oppressed and offended, victims of the hatred of an evil stepmother, victims of envy of sisters and brothers. There are also diverse representatives of spiritual poverty, and among them the people's favorite is a fool, a type that is especially common” (Trubetskoy, 1999, p. 65);
• folklore/fairy tale is the keeper and translator of the axiological "code" of social experience; the characters-types of the tale occupy an "honorable place" of samples for passing it on to children: “A fairy tale populates the child's soul with a national myth, that chorus of images in which people contemplate themselves and their destiny looking historically into the past and looking prophetically into the future” (Ilyin, 1994, p. 72);
• axiological “mentoring” of folklore/fairy tale is devoid of obsession, but at the same time it can be an expression of moral and psychological preferences. This is especially important, since the fairy tale does not prescribe strict regulations “how to live”, but offers ideas about what options are possible for arranging life. Demonstrating the axiological aspects of being, folklore/fairy tale become manifestations of the existential confrontation between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, love and hate, leaving the individual the right of axiological choice;
• in folklore/fairy tale there are and “work” metaphorical technologies of “imaginary situation” (Vygotsky) and “total personification” (Meletinsky), used for figurative conceptualization of the socially preferable and plural in the generalized singular. This enhances the ability of folklore/fairy tales to create universal value systems of society; folklore/fairy tale are positioned as the source material for the development of pre-sociality, they painstakingly and permanently form pro-sociality;
• folklore/fairy tales already in early childhood take responsibility for protecting the inner world of the pre-social individual from the “bad infinity” of permissiveness and the axiological relativism of a-sociality. “Lessons for good fellows” stored in folklore/fairy tale can provide many keys to understanding the features of socio-cultural life and understanding by a person the main meaningful situations; The “axiological filler” of folklore/fairy tales is deep and serious because the spiritual traditions that the fairy tale keeps are models of relationships and value preferences that are fused into a systematic whole, which are offered to the individual as a figurative-conceptual method of cognizing sociocultural reality and self-determination in it;
• folklore/fairy tale act as an arsenal of socio-axiological meanings: “A fairy tale ... behind images ... understands artistically and symbolically deep spiritual conditions” (Ilyin, 2004); folklore/fairy tale culture is the axiological space of “collective representations” – axiological meanings – , into which the individual is immersed in early childhood, where his worldview is formed as the basis for subsequent actions. Folklore/fairy tale have undoubted axiological resources, while a certain socio-cultural community, in accordance with its mental priorities, emphasizes certain value resources of the fairy tale, which it includes in socialization procedures: expected social behavior. Fairy tales as folklore works therefore have lived for many centuries, since they contained the main examples of successful and supported life scenarios, on which more than one generation of children was brought up” (Pushkareva, 2006);
• the technology of transformation of pre-sociality can be vicarious learning (A. Bandura (Bandura, 2005): “observing the behavior” of another subject, for example, a fairy-tale character, identifying oneself with this character and imitating the algorithms of his behavior as a standard, possessing an inspiring-receptive influence Subject to the child's uncritical acceptance of reality and full trust in “significant” adults, the technology of vicarious learning is capable of providing a purposeful formation of value preferences.

Thus, from the metaphorical arsenal of images-concepts of folklore/fairy tale, the individual selects the values and meanings of existence. Axiological material is processed and stored in consciousness as a carrier of values and meanings of personal and social life. The society can and should use folklore/fairy tale for purposeful socially significant upbringing/influence on the individual, since they unobtrusively, in the format of thinking “about”, carry out important spiritual work – the representation of the value content of life's reality. The task is to provide-sociality with access to the fabulous arsenal, while preserving the status of the priority agent of primary socialization for the folklore/fairy tale.

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