HORROR STORY

HORROR STORY is a mythologized prose story about something horrible that happens as a result of demons' or other anthropomorphic creatures' activities or due to ordinary objects and things endowed with magical, sorcery powers. The collection and studying of H.s. in Bashkortostan was in late 20th c. – early 21st c. It is widely represented in children’s folklore, Russian and partly non­Russian folklore of Bashkortostan. The stories are based on the conflict of good and evil. In contrast to fairytales, evil wins in H.s. Fairytales and bylichkas appeared earlier than H.s. They borrowed the images of witches and sorcerers, the ideas of transformations and plausibility from bylichkas; and traditional beginnings, triple structure of the episodes, the violation of a prohibition that determines the development of the plot and some motifs from fairytales. The origins of H.s. can be found in the most ancient oral stories.

The world of H.s. is specific: dark evil power is represented by anthropomorphic creatures (vampires, witches, ghosts, etc.), by people (a step­ mother, a gipsy­woman, an old woman drinking one's blood, etc.), by parts of the human body) green eyes, a hand with a knife, red nails, skinny arms) or by usual objects that become killers (curtains, a lamp on a hook, a piano etc.) In this regard, the colors are very important for H.s., the color gamma mostly consists of black and red colors. The events happen simultaneously and are shortened up to one episode (case, moment), the plot is tense and dynamic, it does not have many motifs or spacious descriptions, the tragic climax is closer to the end. H.s. helps children to overcome their fears, teaches to form the skills to analyze and synthesize the perceived information, to keep clarity of mind, self­control and ability to act.

So­called “underground folklore” of children contains (according to S.V. Tikhomirov) the sa­ distic poems that appeared in the late 20th c. – early 21st c. together with the H.s. They are common for modern children folklore. The first stories were created by adults. Their emergence was caused by the social, economic and political circumstances, which took place in the 1980’s–1990’s, that led to the USSR’s demise and construction of a new life order. The sadistic poems are based on chastushkas. Children call them modern chastushkas, horror poems, black humor, rhymed horror stories. E.g.: “A little boy was playing on an ice floe. / The icebreaker was coming from the back. / The children on board were laughing for a long time: /A half of Petya was on the right and a half was on the left”. (rhyme is omitted) Artistic location of this kind of poem is diversive: a house, an entrance, an attic, a window, a balcony, a well etc. The themes of the poems are wider than of the H.s. as they include different parts of relationships: parents and children, grandparents and their grandchildren, relatives of different generations, students and teachers or school authorities, etc. The clash of interests between “fathers and children” is usually accompanied by a sarcastic laugh.

I.Ye. Karpukhin