What does the expression aesops mean? Aesopian (Aesopian) language. Aesopian language: the meaning of the term

Aesopian language(named after the fabulist Aesop) - secret writing in literature, an allegory that deliberately masks the thought (idea) of the author. He resorts to a system of “deceptive means”: traditional allegorical techniques (allegory, irony, periphrasis, allusion), fable “characters”, translucent contextual pseudonyms. Slave Aesop could not directly point out the vices of his masters in his fables, so he replaced their images with animals with the appropriate characteristics. Since then, the language of allegory has been called Aesopian.

In Russian literature, the tradition of using this technique has been formed since the end of the 18th century to bypass censorship. The satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin widely used this technique. Subsequently, Aesopian language in satire became part of the individual style of many writers and was also used outside censorship pressure.

The use of Aesopian language was studied by literary critic Lev Losev. He defined Aesopian language as a literary system of interaction between the author and the reader, in which the meaning remains hidden from the censor.

What is Aesopian language and what is its significance in modern literature

We have repeatedly heard the expression “Aesopian language.” What does this term mean and where does it come from? It is not known for certain whether such a person lived, or whether this is a collective image. There are many legends about him, and in the Middle Ages his biography was compiled. According to legend, he was born in the 6th century BC. e. in Asia Minor and was a slave of the Lydian king Croesus, however, his resourceful mind, ingenuity and cunning helped him gain freedom and glorified him for many generations.

Naturally, it was the founding father of this technique who first used Aesopian language. Examples of this are given to us by a legend that says that Croesus, having drunk too much, began to claim that he could drink the sea, and made a bet, putting his entire kingdom at stake. The next morning, having sobered up, the king turned to his slave for help and promised to grant him freedom if he helped him out. The wise slave advised him to say: “I promised to drink only the sea, without the rivers and streams that flow into it. Block them and I will fulfill my promise." And since no one could fulfill this condition, Croesus won the bet.

As a slave and then a freedman, the sage wrote fables in which he ridiculed the stupidity, greed, lies and other vices of the people he knew - mainly his former master and his slave-owning friends. But since he was a forced man, he clothed his narrative in allegories, periphrases, resorted to allegories, and depicted his heroes under the names of animals - fox, wolf, crow, etc. This is Aesopian language. The characters in the funny stories were easily recognizable, but the “prototypes” could do nothing but rage silently. In the end, ill-wishers planted a vessel stolen from the temple on Aesop, and the priests of Delphi accused him of theft and sacrilege. The sage was given the choice to declare himself a slave - in this case, his master only had to pay a fine. But Aesop chose to remain free and accept execution. According to legend, he was thrown from a cliff at Delphi.

Thus, thanks to his ironic but allegorical style, Aesop became the founder of such a literary genre as the fable. In subsequent eras of dictatorships and infringement of freedom of expression, the fable genre enjoyed great popularity, and its creator remained a real hero in the memory of generations. We can say that the Aesopian language has long outlived its creator. Thus, the Vatican Museum houses an antique bowl with a drawing of a hunchback (according to legend, Aesop had an ugly appearance and was a hunchback) and a fox that tells something - art historians believe that the founder of the fable is depicted on the bowl. Historians claim that in the sculpture row of the “Seven Sages” in Athens there once stood a statue of Aesop by the chisel of Lysippos. At the same time, a collection of the writer’s fables appeared, compiled by an anonymous person.

In the Middle Ages, the Aesopian language was extremely popular: the famous “Tale of the Fox” is composed in precisely this allegorical style, and in the images of the fox, wolf, rooster, donkey and other animals, the entire ruling elite and clergy of the Roman Church are ridiculed. This manner of speaking vaguely, but aptly and caustically, was used by La Fontaine, Saltykov-Shchedrin, the famous composer of fables Krylov, and the Ukrainian fabulist Glibov. Aesop's parables were translated into many languages, they were composed in rhyme. Many of us probably know the fable about the raven and the fox, the fox and the grapes from school - the plots of these short moralizing stories were invented by an ancient sage.

It cannot be said that the Aesopian language, the meaning of which during regimes where censorship ruled the roost, is irrelevant today. The allegorical style, which does not directly name the target of satire, seems to be addressed in its “letter” to a harsh censor, and in its “spirit” - to the reader. Since the latter lives in realities that are subject to veiled criticism, he easily recognizes it. And even more than that: a quirky manner of ridicule, full of secret hints that require guessing, hidden symbols and images, is much more interesting to readers than a direct and undisguised accusation of the authorities of any offenses, so even those writers and journalists who have nothing to do with it resort to elements of Aesopian language afraid. We see its use in journalism, journalism, and pamphlets on current political and social topics.

Explain the meanings of phraseological units. Aesop's tongue, tongue loosened, tongue swallowed, bite tongue, find common ground, holding

Svetlana

Aesopian language - speak allegorically, express your thoughts in parables, fables (Aesop was a slave and could not speak openly)
The tongue was loosened, it usually loosens the tongue of drunk people, that is, what a sober person was thinking about, he said while drunk. The tongue became silent and stopped speaking. Or they also say this about deliciously prepared food, for example, a roast, you will swallow your tongue. Bite your tongue - this is when a person begins to say too much in a certain situation - they tell him to bite your tongue, that is, keep quiet. Finding a common language is when people meet and find a common topic for conversation; they enjoy communicating with each other. Keep your mouth shut and don't talk too much. Scratching your tongue - gossiping or talking just like that, about nothing

Ingrid

Aesopian language - hints, when it is impossible to speak in plain text, so that only the one who needs to guess, and the rest do not understand.
The tongue has become loose - chattering, talking incessantly.
I swallowed my tongue - be silent.
Bite your tongue - suddenly fall silent mid-sentence
Find a common language - find a common topic in a conversation

Explain the meaning of phraseological units: thirty pieces of silver, terra incognita, Aesopian language, cross the Rubicon, burn the bridge

Vladimir

Well, not all. Only some thirty pieces of silver are the price of betrayal: it was this amount that the Jewish high priests gave to Judas so that he would betray Christ to them.
Terra incognita - unknown land
Aesop's language is an allegory: Aesop is an ancient Greek fabulist, and a fable uses all sorts of examples to speak allegorically about something.
Crossing the Rubicon (generally the same as burning bridges) is taking a decisive step, after which there is no turning back: the Rubicon is the border river between the Roman Empire and the German lands, which Julius Caesar crossed, capturing the Germans.

terra incognita - unknown, unexplored things, something unknown, an undeveloped area of ​​​​knowledge.
Crossing the Rubicon means committing an act that can no longer be undone, making a dangerous and irrevocable decision.
AESOPIC LANGUAGE - named after the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop - a disguised style of a literary work in which, behind the direct meaning of what is said, there is a second level of understanding that reveals the true thoughts and intentions of the author.
burn ships, bridges - cut off any possibility of retreat.

Eorlenko

Thirty pieces of silver are very small coins for which Judas betrayed Jesus. This term comes from the Gospel. “Aesopian language” means allegorical, intricate utterance, the language of fables. Aesop is an ancient Greek poet and fabulist. “Burn bridges behind you” - make final and irrevocable decisions, without giving yourself the opportunity to return to the past.

Daria Shadrina

1, “Crossing the Rubicon” now means: to commit an act that can no longer be undone, to make a dangerous and irrevocable decision. “The die is cast” is said to mean: “the hesitation is over, I began to act, and it’s too late to change anything”
2, About the silver coins: The most despicable traitor in history is the legendary Judas Iscariot, one of Christ’s disciples. He betrayed his teacher for thirty pieces of silver, that is, for thirty silver coins. That is why the expression “thirty pieces of silver” has long been understood as “the price of betrayal,” “the price of blood.” The legend also gave us many allegorical words and expressions. The name "Judas" is synonymous with the word "traitor". The combination of words “kiss of Judas” expresses the concept of insidious, hypocritical flattery, of treacherous affection.
3, “terra incognita” began to be used in a figurative sense: unknown, unexplored things, something unknown, an undeveloped area of ​​​​knowledge due to the fact that one ancient astronomer said so when he discovered new parts of the world. “Terra incognito literally means “unknown land.”
4, Aesop was a slave. He could not openly condemn human vices, so he turned to fables, in which he expressed his thoughts not directly, but with the help of intricate allegories. It is this kind of indirect, mysterious language, the ability to speak in roundabout terms, in parables, that is called Aesopian language.

Thirty-three pieces of silver is the selling price of I. Kh., or the price of betrayal. Terra Incognita is a common noun in relation to the unknown, translated as “Unknown Land.” Aesopian language is the language of allegory, through analogies, for example, animals. Cross the Rubicon - in a figurative sense, a certain line that separates two different opposites. Burning bridges is a concept that defines a radical revision of one’s views in the past.

What does Aesopian language mean?

Jaann Fogel

Aesopian language (named after the fabulist Aesop) is a secret writing in literature, an allegory that deliberately masks the thought (idea) of the author. He resorts to a system of “deceptive means”: traditional allegorical techniques (allegory, irony, periphrasis, allusion), fable “characters”, translucent contextual pseudonyms. Slave Aesop could not directly point out the vices of his masters in his fables, so he replaced their images with animals with the appropriate characteristics. Since then, the language of allegory has been called Aesopian.

~Fox~eyes green~

AESOP'S LANGUAGE literally: a compositional technique of the ancient fabulist Aesop (VI century BC), who hid the characters and relationships of people under the names of animals. Since Aesop (his surviving notes are spoiled) was reluctant to resort to the so-called. moral teaching ("morality"), revealing the "secret" of the fable, he, perhaps, can be considered the founder of that special secret writing, to which the word had to resort subsequently for self-defense.
Aesop, according to legend, was a slave, and since then, as if in fulfillment of an ancient tradition, only literature “deprived of rights,” slave literature, has always resorted to the help of “Aesop’s language.”

Aesopian language

AESOP'S LANGUAGE (named after the fabulist Aesop) is a secret writing in literature, an allegory that deliberately disguises the thought (idea) of the author. He resorts to a system of “deceptive means”: traditional allegorical techniques (allegory, irony, periphrasis, allusion), fable “characters”, translucent contextual pseudonyms (fairy tales by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin).

Aesopian language

(named after the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop), a special type of secret writing, censored allegory, which was used by fiction, criticism and journalism, deprived of freedom of expression under censorship (see Censorship). As a reaction to the ban on touching certain ideas, topics, events, names of E. I. developed, for example, in the Russian press of the late 18th - early 20th centuries, a system of “deceptive means”, techniques for encrypting (and decrypting) free thought. A specific role was played in it by fable images, allegorical “fairy-tale descriptions” (especially by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, who introduced the expression “E. Ya.”), translucent periphrases and pseudonyms (pamphlet by A. V. Amphitheater's "Lords of Deception" about the royal family), hidden allusions and more direct hints, irony(“full of tact”, she was immune to censorship), etc. The denunciations of domestic reality were veiled by “foreign” themes, the everyday phrase became a mockery (“What do you want?” about the newspaper “Novoe Vremya” by A.S. Suvorin). The reader knew that the “great work” was the revolution, the “realist” was K. Marx, the “disappeared from the textbooks” was V. G. Belinsky or N. G. Chernyshevsky. In this sense, E. I. was publicly accessible and served as a means of not only political struggle, but also realistic art of speech. Master E. I. A. Rochefort was in France. Over time, the style of satire has subjugated the techniques characteristic of E. Ya., and now the writer resorts to them regardless of any pressure from censorship. Separately and collectively interacting with other methods of aesthetic word usage, they became features of specific individual styles (for example, “Island of the Penguins” by A. France, the work of M. A. Bulgakov, “The War with the Newts” by K. Capek, various genres of science fiction and humorous literature).

Lit.: Chukovsky K., Nekrasov’s Mastery, 4th ed., M., 1962; Bushmin A.S., Satire Saltykova-Shchedrin, M.≈L., 1959, ch. 6; Efimov A.I., The language of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s satire, M., 1953, ch. 8; Paklina L. Ya., The art of allegorical speech. The Aesopian word in fiction and journalism, Saratov, 1971.

V. P. Grigoriev.

Wikipedia

Aesopian language

Aesopian language(named after the fabulist Aesop) - secret writing in literature, allegory, deliberately masking the thought (idea) of the author. Resorts to a system of “deceptive means”: traditional allegorical techniques ( allegory , irony , paraphrase , allusion), fable “characters”, translucent contextual pseudonyms. Slave Aesop could not directly point out the vices of his masters in his fables, so he replaced their images with animals with the appropriate characteristics. Since then, the language of allegory has been called Aesopian.

In Russian literature, the tradition of using this technique has been formed since the end of the 18th century to bypass censorship. The satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin widely used this technique. Subsequently, Aesopian language in satire became part of the individual style of many writers and was also used outside censorship pressure.

The use of Aesopian language was studied by literary critic Lev Losev. He defined Aesopian language as a literary system of interaction between the author and the reader, in which the meaning remains hidden from the censor.

Allegorical expression of thoughts, allusions and allegories.

Do you remember the fable about the raven and the fox? The purpose of the fable is to tell not about animals, but about people.

It’s just that this story is encrypted: people with their vices are depicted as animals. This allegorical manner, full of hints, omissions and secret meanings, is called Aesopian language.

The expression is associated with the name of the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop, who lived in the 6th century BC.

Aesopian language is actively used in literature and journalism during the reign of censorship, when direct expression becomes impossible or dangerous.

Phraseologism preserves the memory of Aesop, the legendary ancient Greek fabulist. He was a slave, so he could not speak openly and had to clothe his stories about human weaknesses and vices in an allegorical form.

The plots of Aesop's fables formed the basis of European fable creativity; we will meet them in Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769 - 1844) and in Jean de La Fontaine.

- You certainly wanted accuracy when the entire directive was written in some kind of Aesopian language! - Brusilov waved it off irritably.

Sergey Nikolaevich Sergeev-Tsensky. "Brusilovsky breakthrough"

AESOPIC LANGUAGE

Allegorical expression of thoughts, allusions and allegories.

1 The various expressions and figures of speech that we use in our everyday speech have interesting origins about which we usually know nothing. Most people simply don't care, but some inquisitive citizens want to know." what, where and when". Therefore, an additional category has been opened on the website resource in which we add decodings of popular expressions and proverbs. Be sure to add us to your bookmarks, because we have a lot of useful information. Today we will talk about a rather strange phrase, this Aesopian language, you can read the meaning a little lower.
However, before I continue, I would like to recommend you some more interesting news on the topic of phraseological units. For example, what does Evening in the hut mean? which means Like two fingers on the asphalt; the meaning of the expression Run headlong; how to understand Add in the first number, etc.
So let's continue What does Aesopian language mean??

Aesopian language- this is a manner of presentation based on hints, allegory and other similar techniques that mask the idea, the thought of the author

Aesopian language- this is a literary basis that allows the author to convey certain information, while at the same time hiding it from the censor

Using special techniques and means, the writer creates a kind of “secret writing” designed to mask uncensored information. In order for the reader to understand the play of thought and reveal the creator’s intention, certain markers are usually added to the text.

The century before last became the heyday Aesopian language in Russia. Censorship, oddly enough, played a huge role, forcing authors to use different artistic methods in order to convey to their readers what was frankly unthinkable. In our time, the Aesopian language has lost its relevance, but when reading Soltykov-Shchedrin, for example, we admire his ways of escaping the censor’s gaze.

After reading this article, you learned Aesopian language meaning phraseology, and now you will be aware of this tricky expression.