From a story for adults to a fairy-tale for children: The case of f. M. Dostoevsky’s story “The beggar boy at christ’s christmas tree”

Abstract

The article deals with some methodological, textual and critical-pedagogical issues related to the transformation of a story for adults into a fairy-tale for children. Dostoevsky’s story “The beggar boy at Christ’s Christmas tree” is a particularly significant example that allows to trace, on one hand, the attitude of Russian pedagogical criticism to the fantastic elements in the last quarter of 19 th century, and on the other, the variability of social forces affecting the entry of a work into children’s literary canon. The story was first published in January issue of Diary of a Writer (1876), and in the
following year was included in the collection Thirty Best New Tales by V. P. Avenarius, and in 1882 in the collection Exemplary Russian Tales for Children. In the 1880s and 1890s, the story appeared in various children’s publications, provoking controversial reactions among pedagogical critics and in institutions responsible f

Keywords: F. M. Dostoevsky, A. G. Dostoevskaya, V. P. Avenarius, children’s literature, adaptation, Russian pedagogical criticism, recommendatory bibliography, reading control, Ministry of Public Education of Russian Empire