История литературы / 33. Just so stories

Rudyard Kipling told his children gloriously fanciful tales of how things in the world came to be as they are. He wrote them down for publication as the Just So Stories in 1902, just three years after the tragic death of the daughter for whom they had first been invented. During the 20th century, generations of children were tucked into bed with readings of highly imaginative and wildly improbably explanations such as how the elephant got his trunk. "How the Whale Got His Throat" — why the big whale eats such small prey. "How the Camel Got His Hump" — how the idle camel was punished and given a hump. "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" — why rhinos have folds in their skin and bad tempers. "How the Leopard Got His Spots" - why leopards have spots. "The Elephant's Child/How the Elephant got his Trunk" — how the elephant's trunk became long. The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo — how the kangaroo turned from a grey, woolly animal with short, stubby legs, to one with long legs and tail "The Beginning of the Armadillos" — how the hedgehog and the turtle transformed into the first armadillos. "How the First Letter Was Written" — introduces the only characters who appear in more than one story, a family of cave-people, called Tegumai Bopsulai (the father), Teshumai Tewindrow (the mother), and Taffimai Metallumai, (the daughter). Explains how Taffimai delivered a picture message to her mother. "How the Alphabet Was Made" — Taffy and her father invent the earliest form of the alphabet. "The Crab That Played with the Sea" — explains the ebb and flow of the tides "The Cat That Walked by Himself" — the longest story, explains how man domesticated all the wild animals except for the cat. "The Butterfly That Stamped" — how Solomon rid himself of troublesome wives, and saved the pride of a butterfly. "The Tabu Tale" (missing from most British editions; first appeared in the Scribner edition in the U.S. in 1903) Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay, during the ‘British Raj’, the era when the subcontinent of India was part of the British Empire. His father was an artist, who also taught at the city’s School of Art. When he was only five, Kipling and his sister, Alice, were taken back to England and left with foster parents in Southsea, where he attended a small private school. The colourful sights and sounds – and freedoms- of India were sorely missed. Kipling hated his foster home, which he later referred to as the “House of Desolation”. At 12 he was sent to boarding school in Devon. The headmaster there was a friend of the family and encouraged Kipling’s interest in writing. Four years later he was back in India and working in Lahore as a journalist on two newspapers. In his spare time he penned poems and short stories. These were first printed in the newspapers, and then published as books. Through his travels all over in India, he absorbed knowledge of Hindu customs and ways of thinking, though his experience of British colonial life remained central to his disposition. By the time Kipling returned to England in 1889, he was already a successful author, specialising in stories of heroism and masculine fellowship. Three years later he married the sister of an American friend and moved to Vermont, where his two daughters were born. There he wrote his first books for children: the two Jungle Books. After a few happy years in America, a legal dispute with his wife’s brother led Kipling to bring his family back to England. Tragedy struck early in 1899 when his beloved first daughter, Josephine died of fever. At the same time Kipling moved to a secluded 17th-century house called Batemans in the Sussex village of Burwash, where he lived until his death in 1936. Kipling entertained his own children and those of his friends by inventing ingenious explanations of such questions as ‘How the Camel Got His Hump’ and ‘How the Leopard Got his Spots’. In 1902, he wrote them down for publication as the Just So Stories. They are written in an amusing grand style, peppered with long, and delightfully unlikely, invented words - a comical exaggeration perhaps of the formal ways of speaking Kipling heard in India. Each story includes a short poem, and the first edition features Kipling’s own illustrations. Throughout the book he addresses the reader as “Best Beloved”, reinforcing the intimacy of story-telling and recalling the first ‘best beloved: his lost daughter, Josephine. Though his writing for adults fell from favour, Kipling’s children’s book were popular for much of the 20th century and the Just So Stories became a favourite across the English-speaking world. Why is it a metatext? 1) four parts – a story itself, a verse that is given after the story, an illustration (draw by Kipling), and commentary to the picture wrote be the author. All the four parts are connected thematically and by the imagery. And the reader will lack much in understanding of the story without one of its components. It is said that stories are written for children when verses are meant for adults, bec the author’s main message is in the poems. 2) The author employs the same techniques throughout the whole collection: - stories are organized in the form of songs with refrains and alliteration, certain rhythm and rhyme. В следующем примере из сказки Р. Киплинга “How the Whale got his Throat” в качестве основного фонетического средства при создании перечисления используются рифмованные группы однородных членов, которые в сочетании с многосоюзием задают ритм всей сказке: But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the Whale’s warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped… С помощью однородных сказуемых описывается не только самодействие, но и его характер (быстрота или неторопливость, сопровождающие действие эмоции). Даже в тех случаях, когда однородные сказуемые выражают простую последовательность действий, их сочетание обычно несет в себе дополнительную информацию. Ещё один тип произведений с абсолютной развязкой – сказки о животных, объясняющие особенности их внешности, характера и поведения. Часто кульминацией в таких сказках является ответ на вопрос, поставленный в заглавии: “How the Whale Got His throat”, “How the Camel Got His Hump”, “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin” и др. В ряде сказок этой группы кульминация является завершающим элементом произведения, в иных случаях после кульминационной диктемы следуют слова автора, в которых подводится общий итог всей сказки: And from that day to this the Camel always wears a humph (we call it ‘hump’ now, not to hurt his feelings); but he has never yet caught up with the three days that he missed at the beginning of the world, and he has never yet learned how to behave [7]. В любом случае, ответ на вопрос сказки, объясняющий особенности внешности, поведения или характера животного, делает сюжет сказки логически завершённым, в результате чего напряжённость также снижается до нулевого уровня.