EXISTENTIALS IN THE WORLD OF RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES

Fetisova Evgenia Nikolaevna, Pashchenko Nikolay Alekseevich

This article analyzes the existential themes of fairytale characters within the Russian folk tale. The authors draw a parallel between the key characteristics that define the uniqueness of human existence in the real world and those of characters in the fairytale world. It is concluded that the existential themes woven into the algorithms of how a subject experiences powerful, fateful events are the same in both worlds. This fact opens a new dimension in understanding the role of Russian folk tales in the process of human development. This process, through the playing out of magical stories, helps to form value nodes and meanings that facilitate acceptance of the world's absurdity and the search for meaning in life through the very process of existence, filled with choice and responsibility.

Keywords:existential, Russian fairy tale, existentialism, human existence, absurdity, freedom, hero.