Umbrella Blow to the Head instead of a Kiss: Transformation of Sleeping Beauty Image in B. Shaw’s Plays

The article considers the question of the relevance of fairy-tale poetics in the works of the Irish playwright Bernard Shaw. The subject of the analysis is the transformation of the image of Sleeping beauty in the dramas “Heartbreak House”, 1913-1917 and “Too True to Be Good”, 1931. Attention is drawn to a wide historical and literary context, which determined the relevance of folklore and fairy tales for the era of the turn of the XIX^th-XX^th centuries. The author provides a brief history of the dramatic transformation of the plot in musical theatre. The question is raised about other sources of influence on the interpretation of the motif of the dream and the image of the sleeping princess by Shaw; the article considers the Scandinavian mythological tradition represented in R. Wagner’s operas and the material of Russian epic stories. Particular attention is paid to the comparison of the drama “Too True to Be Good” with the early fairy-tale play by M. Maeterlinck “Seven Princesses” (Les sept princesses, 1891). The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the question of the presence of fairy-tale poetics in the work of the playwright has so far been little studied by Western researchers and is not at all covered in Russian literary studies. The article establishes previously undetected links between the works of Shaw and Maeterlinck. It proves the possibility of the existence of continuity between Shaw’s characters and the heroes of the Russian epics. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the problem of the presence and modification of folklore and mythological imagery is important for literature not only at the turn of the XIX^th-XX^th centuries, but also in the XXI^st century.

Bernard Shaw, Sleeping Beauty, Heartbreak House, Too True to Be Good, Maurice Maeterlinck, Seven Princesses, fairy tale, extravaganza, image transformation

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