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THE CHILD-BEASTIN THE CONTEXT OF THE MILITARY SATIRE OF S. MARSHAK («YONG FRITZ, OR EXAM FOR THE “BEASTNESS” CERTIFICATE») // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2021. Issue 3 (215). P. 128-134

Introduction. The article examines the problems of the formation of Soviet children’s literature of the 1920s-1940s using the example of the satirical works of S. Marshak of the war years. The relevance of the research is determined by the development of the problem of «beastness» as a key metaphor for the ideological impact on a person. The content of the article is an analysis of the poetic means of creating the image of hero, the study of its genesis and the specifics of expressive means. The aim is to study the techniques of satirical depiction of a fascist child in the works of Marshak during the Great Patriotic War. Material and methods. The research material is a complex of texts by Marshak about «Young Fritz». The mentioned texts and the question of the genesis of their poetics have not attracted special attention of literary critics until now. Analytical-descriptive, cultural-historical, hermeneutic methods are used. Comparison of texts with video sequences of cartoons and films is based on the methodology of intermedia analysis. Results and discussion. The study of Marshak’s 1941 poem «Young Fritz, or the exam for the “beastness” certificate» shows that the «bad upbringing» clearly demonstrated in the text becomes the main object of the writer’s satire, realized not only in this poem, but also in works of other types of art created on its basis. Traditions of a negative image of a German child in the book of M. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Zarubezhom”, a number of texts by German authors of the second half of the 19th century are noted. Conclusion. The satirical strategy of depicting the enemy chosen by Marshak turns out to be multidirectional: the poet showed how dangerous pedagogical achievements in modeling a person of a certain type are.

Keywords: S. Marshak, satire, Germany, children’s literature, image of a child beast