Description:
The genre of a ‘spring fairy tale’ stands out against other genres used by A.N. Ostrovsky. The playwright drew his inspiration for his oeuvres from Russian folklore creating a fusion of drama, narration and lyrical poetry, which became Ostrovsky’s peculiarity. The author depicts the scenes which he borrowed from folk fairy tales, peasant festivals and includes folk songs in his plays. Ostrovsky also reflects the reality of life which coexists with myths. That is how the author makes his contribution to the genre of a literary fairy tale. The aim of the article is to try to reconsider the assumptions of the origin of the genre of the play ‘The Snow Maiden’ as well as to analyze the peculiarities of his new genre of a fairy tale inside the play which could be singled out as an independent genre.