Epic (epos) translated from Greek is the word. It is a narrative form of literature. Plato believed that an era combines lyrical elements (the author's statements) and dramatic elements (imitation). According to Aristotle, the author of the epic tells the story “about events as something extraneous, as Homer does, or from himself, without replacing himself with another and displaying all the depicted persons in action.” According to Goethe and Schiller, the author talks about an event, transferring it to the past, and in drama he portrays it as what is happening now. According to Hegel, epic reproduces objectivity in an objectivizing form. V. Kozhinov attributes epic, like drama, to fine views art.
In epic works, life is depicted as something external to the author and characters. It seems that the author stands on the side and talks about what he knows and saw. By the way the writer describes events and characters, we can conclude how he relates to what he portrays.
Events in the era are depicted as those that have already taken place, therefore they are told in the past tense. Present and future tenses are used to provide dynamism and vividness to the narrative. Epic works are written primarily in prose. All of them are narrative in nature.
The forms of narration in epic works are different. The most common form is the third-person narrative. Sometimes the narrator can be a character in the work (Maksim Maksimovich in the story “Bela” from “A Hero of Our Time” by M. Lermontov). In their worldview, narrator-characters can be close to the writer. The first-person narrative gives the work authenticity and introduces a lyrical element into it. There are works in which the characters themselves talk about what they saw and experienced. This is evidenced by the ancient novels - "Metamorphoses" ("The Golden Ass") by Apulsya and "Satyricon" by Petronius, and Lepky's memoirs "The Tale of My Life".
In addition to the story, epic works contain descriptions objective world, nature, everyday life. Sometimes the author's reflections are “connected” to the story. The story about events can be accompanied by statements of characters, their monologues, and dialogues. The author can characterize some moments from the character’s life, report on what happened at different times and in different places.
In epic works, characters are revealed in actions, deeds, gestures, facial expressions, and speech.
Epic has three types artistic form: poetic, prose and syncretic.
Types, genres of epic
The origin of the epic dates back to primitive times. In folk poetry, there are such types of epic as fairy tale, epic, folk duma, legend, translation.
A fairy tale is an epic work that tells about fantastic events and the adventures of heroes. There are fairy tales, heroic, social, fantastic, satirical, humorous, tales about animals and the like.
In addition to folk ones, there are literary tales. Famous fairy tales by I. Franko, A. Pushkin, brothers J. and V. Grimm, Andersen and others.
The epic is an epic recitative song that was performed by folk singers and musicians in princely times. The characters of the epics are folk heroes - the hero Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich. Epics arose in the 11th-12th centuries. V Kievan Rus, subsequently spread to the northern regions of Russia. The features of epic heroes were preserved in Ukrainian fairy tales, such as “The Tale of Kotigoroshko” and “The Tale of Kozhemyak”.
Legend (lat. Legenda - what should be read). This is a folklore or literary work in which the story is based on fantastic theme. Legends have different meanings. Legends include the “lives” of the first Christians, “holy” ascetics and princes, common in the Middle Ages. they were read in churches and monasteries on holidays in honor of saints. Subsequently, apocryphal legends with atheistic motives appeared. These legends were banned by the church. There are known legends about historical events and folk heroes, about the leader of the liberation war of Khmelnitsky, Fastovsky colonel Semyon Paliy. In the legends about Alexei Dovbush,
Maxim Zaliznyak, Ustim Karmalyuk, Lukyan Kobylitsa reveals the struggle of peasants against feudal oppression.
Peace (mime) (Greek Mythos - word, translation). Myths appeared at a time when people had a naive, direct understanding of the world around them. M. Moklitsa calls myth an alternative reality. According to her, myth is “the objectification of the initial perception, which over time becomes synonymous with fiction, an inadequate vision of something that actually does not exist in life. Myth concentrates in itself the multi-aspect nature of the human worldview. It is equally deceptive and true: it denotes our infinite the process of searching for true knowledge. Myth is the antithesis of the scientific worldview - adequate, justified, conveyed as true." Myths differed from fairy tales because fairy tales were considered fantasy, and from legends because legends contained real historical events and heroes. The myth was perceived as something probable. Modern literary scholars consider myth to be a generalized and holistic perception of reality, characterized by a synthesis of the real and the ideal and appears at the subconscious level. Myth is understood as a stable archetype model, which is framed in certain plots and images.
Ancient Greek, ancient Roman, and German-Scandinavian mythology left a noticeable mark in literature. Plots from ancient mythology were used by Dante (" The Divine Comedy"), G. Boccaccio ("Fiesolan Myths"), P. Corneille ("Medea", "Oedipus"). J. Racine ("Andromache", "Iphigenia in Aulis").
Folk jokes (anecdotes) are satirical or humorous stories that ridicule certain human vices.
A parable is an allegorical story about human life of a moralizing nature. The parable genre appeared in folklore; it comes from apologia (fairy tales about animals). From the apology the story also developed. Yu. Klimyuk, comparing parable and fable, notes that the close genre form of parable and fable is due to the commonality of their origin: from myth to fairy tale, from fairy tale to apology, from which the fable and parable themselves developed. “Instructiveness, allegorical, philosophical, external similarity of construction,” writes Yu. Klimyuk, “these are the features that connect a parable with a fable. At the same time, a parable has a number of differences: if a fable depicts a person’s character, exposes its features, then in a parable it Little attention is paid to the characters' characters; they are often non-specific, one might even say abstract, completely dependent on a predetermined thought...
And one more significant difference: a fable is a comic work, a parable is, in principle, a serious work (although there can be humorous and satirical parables) ... "
“A parable,” continues Yu. Klimyuk, “is often called a parabola. A parabola is a group of allegorical, moralizing and educational genres (parable, fable, short tale, anecdote, story, etc.), in which, through the collected example and its interpretation certain thoughts were affirmed...
According to the content and ideological orientation, the parable is divided into religious and secular, philosophical and moral, as well as folklore. A parable can have various modifications: a short instructive expression (proverb, saying, maxim), a plot parable (prose and poetic), a parable with and without explanation, a parable with and without allegory, a parable - a parabola, a parable - a detailed comparison ".1 In Ukrainian literature, the parable was used as the basis of a plot or as a separate genre by I. Franko, D. Pavlychko, Lina Kostenko, B. Oliynyk.
Yu. Klimyuk argues that not every parabola is a parable, but every parable can be considered a parabola. It is difficult to distinguish a parable from a parabola. Some literary scholars identify them.
In the “literary dictionary-reference book” we read: (Greek parabole - comparison, juxtaposition, similarity) - “an instructive allegory, a genre variety close to a parable, in which, in a compressed story about a certain event, several other levels of content are hidden. Inside the structure of the parabola there is a different image , which gravitates toward a symbol rather than an allegory (sometimes a parabola is called a “symbolic parable”), but it does not suppress objectivity, situationality, and remains isomorphic in relation.” A. Potebnya considered a parable to be a type of fable.
Epic (Greek Eroroiia from epos - word and roieo - - to create) is a narrative type that was popular before the advent of the novel. The epic originates in mythology and folklore. IN Ancient Greece epic was a cycle of folk tales, legends and songs about significant historical events, legendary and historical heroes. On the basis of folk epics, author's ones were formed - Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", Vsrgil's "Aeneid". "The Knight in the Tiger's Skin" by Sh. Rustaveli, "The Tale of Igor's Host", "Jerusalem Liberated" by T. Tasso, "The Lusiads" by L. di Camoes.
The famous Russian literary critic Bakhtin wrote that the epic has three design features:
1) the subject of the epic is the national epic past, the “absolute past”, in the words of Goethe and Schiller;
2) the source of the epic is the national spoken word, and not personal experience;
3) the epic world is removed from modernity, that is, from the time of its singer (the author and his listeners), by absolute distance... “The world of epic,” M. Bakhtin specifies, “the national heroic past, the world of “beginnings” and “peaks” national history, the world of parents and family founders, the world of the “first” and “best”. The point is not that the past serves as the content of the epic. the relationship of the depicted world to the past, its belonging to the past is ... a formal sign of the epic as a genre. The epic was never a poem about the present (it turned into a poem about the past only for posterity). Epic as we know it specific genre was originally a poem about the past..., and the author’s attitude (that is, the attitude of the speaker of the epic word) is the attitude of a person, speaks of a past unattainable for her, the reverent attitude of the offspring. The epic word in its style, tone, and character of imagery is fundamentally incompatible with the word of a contemporary about a contemporary, addressed to his contemporaries (“Onegin, my good friend, was born on the banks of the Neva, where, perhaps, you were born, or shone, my reader...” )". The epic comprehensively describes the socio-political life, customs, culture, life of the people, family relationships. Its style is solemn, the presentation is leisurely. A special place in epic poems is occupied by the speeches of the heroes, monologues, and dialogues.
In the 18th century the epic was replaced by the novel. The big ones began to be called epics epic works- novels, novel cycles. Such Ukrainian epic novels as “Human Blood is Not Water,” “Big Relatives” by M. Stelmakh, “Volyn” by U. Samchuk, epic poems “Cursed Years,” “Ashes of Empires” by Yuri Klen are known.
A novel (French Roman, German Roman, English Novel) is a large epic work in which personal life the person is depicted in connection with the public. There are many heroes in the novel and their characters and multifaceted connections between themselves and society are described in detail.
At first, the term “novel” was used to describe poetic works written in the Romance language (Italian, French, Portuguese...). The word "novel" appeared in the Middle Ages. As V. Dombrovsky notes, a novel was called “a story about fantastic, wonderful knightly adventures, composed in a non-poetic, common language, which, to distinguish it from Latin, the language of the church and spiritual literature (linqua latina), was called Romanesque (linqua romana). Those stories from" appear first in France, where they create continuations of ancient knightly poems (chanson de gesture - songs about true stories, that is, the Old French epic, in which the famous "Song of Roland" comes first), and then... cycles of medieval traditions and legends about Arthur, the Holy Grail and the Knights" Round table".
In the 13th century two "Romances of the Rose" by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meen appear in Old French. The term "novel" was first used by the English literary critic George Patenham in a study
"The Art of English Poetry" (1589). French literary critic of the 17th century. Pierre-Daniel Huet gave the following definition of a novel: “These are fictional love stories, skillfully laid out in prose for the satisfaction and edification of the readers "1.
The novel is a multifaceted epic work in which reality is revealed in many ways. There are several in the novel storylines, many characters that are portrayed in public relations and in everyday life.
The novel has a complex composition; it uses stories, descriptions, author's digressions, monologues, dialogues, etc.
As a great epic form, the novel has evolved over many centuries. It appeared in Ancient Greece during the late Hellenistic era. The ancient novel was entertaining. He depicted obstacles on the path to love for lovers. In the II-VI centuries. n. e. the novels “Aethiopica” by Heliodorus, “Daphnis and Chloe” by Long, “The Golden Ass” by Apuleius, and “Satyricon” by Petronius appeared.
In the Middle Ages, romances of chivalry became popular. There are known cycles of novels about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. These novels told about the legendary adventures of heroic knights, in particular extraordinary adventures Alexander the Great. During this era, popular novels about the love of Tristan and Isolde appeared, novels that promoted the Christian religion, and the famous novel about Barlaam and Jehoshaphat.
During the Renaissance, writers use realistic principles of depiction, as evidenced by the novels “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by Rabelais and “Don Quixote” by Cervantes. Cervantes's novel is a parody of a chivalric romance. In the 18th century the adventure novel (“Gilles Blas” by Lesage) and the novel of education (“Wilhelm Meister” by Goethe) are gaining popularity, psychological novel("Pamela" by Richardson). In the 19th century a historical novel appears (Ivanhoe by Walter Scott). Development of the 19th century novel associated with the names of Stsdal, Balzac, Dickens, Thackeray, Flaubert, Zola, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Panas Mirny.
The Ukrainian novel originated in the 19th century. The first novels were “Mister Khalyavsky” by G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, “Tchaikovsky” by E. Grebenki. A significant contribution to the development of the romantic form in Ukrainian literature was made by Marko Vovchok (“ Alive soul"), P. Kulish ("Black Rada"), I. Nechuy-Levitsky ("Clouds"), Panas Mirny and Ivan Bilyk ("Do oxen roar when the manger is full?"), V. Vinnichenko ("Solar Machine" Talented novelists of the 20th century are Andrei Golovko ("Weed"), Y. Yanovsky ("Riders"), V. Vo-Mogilny ("City"), S. Sklyarenko ("Svyatoslav", "Modern"). Ukrainian novels are represented by such genres as philosophical (“New Commandment” by V. Vinnychenko), erotic (“Fornication” by E. Gutsalo), historical (“Roksolana” by P. Po Grebelny), detective (“Deposits of Gold” by V. Vinnychenko) socially -psychological (“Whirlpool” by G. Tyutyunnik, “Cathedral” by O. Gonchar), adventure (“Tigrocat” by Ivan Bagryany), gothic (“Marko the Damned” by A. Storozhenko), satirical (“Aristocrat from Vapnyarka” by A. Aist), autobiographical (“Thought about you” by M. Stelmakh), fantastic (“The Chalice of L Mrita” by A. Berdnik), biographical (“The Adventure of Gogol” by G. Kolesnik), memoir (“The Third Company” by V. Sosyura), adventurous (“Imitation "E. Kononenko). Ukrainian writers use various forms of history - a confessional novel ("I am Bogdan" by P. Po Grebelny), whimsical ("The Borrowed Man" by E. Gutsalo, "The Swan Flock" by Vasily Zemlyak), a chronicle novel ("Chronicle of the City of Yaropol" by Yu . Shcherbak), a novel in short stories ("Tronka" by O. Gonchar), a raman ballad ("Wild Honey" by Leonid Pervomaisky).
IN literary practice There are such genres as an essay novel, a memoir novel, a feuilleton novel, a pamphlet novel, an epistolary novel, a reportage novel, a montage novel, a parable novel, a parody novel, and an essay novel.
Bakhtin classifies the novel according to the principle of constructing the image of the main character: a novel of wandering, a novel of testing, a biographical novel, a novel of education. “Not a single historical type,” according to the scientist, “stands up to the principle in its pure form, but is characterized by the advantage of one or another principle of the hero’s design. Since all elements are mutually significant, a certain principle of the hero’s design is associated with a certain type of plot, a concept of the world according to a certain composition of the novel." In a travelogue, the hero has no essential characteristics. His movement in space, adventures make it possible to show the spatial and socio-static diversity of the world (country, nationality, culture). This type of hero and construction of the novel is characteristic of ancient naturalism, in particular, for the works of Petronius, Apuleius and Tormes, “Gilles Blas” by Alain Rene Lesage.
M. Bakhtin notes that the wandering novel is characterized by a “spatial and static concept of the diversity of the world,” life is depicted as an alternation of contrasts: successes - failures, victories - defeats, happiness - misfortune. Time has no historical definition, there is no development of the hero from youth to maturity and adventurous time in the novel, including moments, hours, days, temporal characteristics dominate: the next day, after a battle, a duel. Due to the lack of historical time, there are no such socio-cultural phenomena as a city, a country, etc. social group, nationality. The image of a person in a wandering novel is static.
The novel of trials is constructed as a series of situations, tests of loyalty, nobility, courage, and valor. For the heroes of this novel, the world is an arena of struggle. An example of such a novel is the work of the Greek writer of the era of antiquity Heliodorus "Ethiopica". A type of trial novel is the medieval knightly novel “The Romance of Tristan and Isolde.”
At the heart of the novel are trials - exceptional polyps and situations that cannot exist in an ordinary, typical human biography, adventures are strung together. In a chivalric romance, a fairy-tale time appears, which is not associated with historical events and conditions. The world, minor characters Tests are a decoration, a background for the heroes of the novel. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. the novel of testing, according to M. Bakhtin, “has lost its purity, but the type of constructing a novel on the idea of testing a hero continues to exist, of course, becoming more complicated by what was created by the biographical novel and the novel of education.” The novels of Stendhal, Balzac, Dostoevsky, according to the observations of M. Bakhtin, are novels of testing.
The biographical novel has existed since the 18th century. Its plot is based on the main points life path: birth, childhood, years of study, marriage, structure of life, death. In a biographical novel, biographical time and events are localized. The development of a hero is the result of changes in his life. Biographical novels may be historical, biographical or autobiographical in nature. Historical and biographical novels include “Petersburg Autumn” by A. Ilchenko and “The Mistake of Honore de Balzac” by Nathan Rybak.
Autobiographical novels differ from historical-biographical novels primarily in that they represent a kind of family history in which the author is a participant. These are “The Knight of Our Time” by M. Karamzin, “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy, “Our Secrets”, “Eighteen Years” by Yu. Smolich.
The basis of the novel of education is the pedagogical idea. The formation of a hero occurs in connection with real historical time. TO best novels education belongs to "Gargaitua and Pantagruel" by F. Rabelais, "The History of Tom Jones, Foundling" by G. Fielding, "The Life and Reflections of Tristan Shandy" by Stern, "Taras of the Way" by Oksana Ivanenko, "The City" by V. Pidmogilny.
Since the boundaries between a novel and a story are vague, the same works are classified as both novels and stories ("Borislav Laughs" by I. Franko, "Maria" by U. Samchuk, "The Senior Boyar" by T. Osmachka).
Literary historians count up to hundreds of novel genres.
In the 20th century, a “new novel” or “anti-novel” appeared in the West. Its creators Nathalie Sarraute, A. Rob-Grillet, M. Butor stated that the traditional novel has exhausted itself. They believe that a new novel should be plotless and heroless.
Literary scholars turned to theories of the novel in the 19th century. Schelling noted that a novelist can depict all of reality, various manifestations of human nature, the tragic and the comic. According to Schelling, the characters in a novel are symbols that embody human characters.
Hegel made a significant contribution to the theory of the novel. He believed that the novel arose during a day of social crisis, the novel is the end of the development of society. At the heart of the novel is the conflict between the poetry of the heart and the prose of the relationship between the personal and the public. In the conflict of the novel, the characters are contrasted with their surroundings.
V. Kozhinov expressed the opinion that “the beginning of the novel generally subjugates all genres.” V. Dneprov believes that the novel synthesizes all types of literature, it is the leading form of the art of words (Features of the 20th century novel. - M.; Leningrad, 1965) .
Sometimes writers combine their novels into dilogy ("Mother", "Artem Garmash" by Andrei Golovko), trilogy ("Alps", "Blue Danube", "Golden Prague" by O. Gonchar), tetralogy ("Childhood of Theme", "Gymnasium Students" "Students," Engineers "M. Garin-Mikhailovsky). There are known cycles of novels ("The Human Comedy" by O. Balzac, "Extraordinary Journeys" by Jules Verne).
The story (from poviduvata) is an epic work of medium form. It occupies an intermediate place between a novel and a short story. The story is based on one or more conflicts, few events, one or several episodes, slow development of events, and a relatively simple composition. V. Kozhinov believes that the story “does not have a tense and complete plot unit”; it lacks “unity of end-to-end action *”.
The works of M. Berkovsky, V. Kozhinov and other literary scholars note that the story is closer to the epic of the ancient world than to the epic of modern times. its subject is the calm flow of life, which can be talked about. There are no gostrodramatic situations in the story that attract a novelist. M. Gulyaev notes in this regard that epicness and slowness are not a sign of all stories. Some of the stories are dramatic, intensely conflicting, that is, close to a novel. These, in particular, are “Nevsky Prospekt” and “Notes of a Madman” by Gogol.
There is an opinion that the story is lyrical, close to music. But other epic works are also marked by lyricism. The stories include the works "Nikolai Dzherya", "Kaidashev's Family" by I. Nechuy-Levitsky, "Evil People" by Panas Mirny, "The Earth is Humming" by O. Gonchar, "Poem about the Sea" by A. Dovzhenko. Comparing the novel and the story, Yu. Kuznetsov notes: “The novel tends to master action, and the story - to record being... its ending is mainly open, follows from the logic of the events depicted, and not from oppositions, as in a short story, descriptions are carried out according to the principle stringing."
In ancient times, stories were considered works that told about something. In the literature of Kievan Rus, stories were called chronicles ("The Tale of Bygone Years") or the lives of saints ("The Tale of Akira the Wise"). The story as a type of epic acquired its characteristics in the 19th century. The first stories in Ukrainian literature were "Marusya", "Poor Oksana » G. Kvitki-Osnovyanenko. The development of the story is associated with the work of Mark Vovchka ("The Institute"), T. Shevchenko ("Artist", "Musician"), I. Nechuy-Levitsky ("Nikolai Dzherya"), I. Franko ("Zakhar Berkut"), M. Kotsyubinsky (“Fata morgana”).
This type of epic is used by Gonchar, V. Shevchuk, E. Gutsalo, V. Yavorivsky, I. Chendei.
Genres of the story: historical, social and everyday life, historical and biographical, fantastic, detective.
A story is an epic work of small form. It is usually based on one event, one problem. A story within a story has a beginning and an end. The story requires the writer to be able to draw in a small area a bright picture, to create a situation in which the hero reveals himself clearly, in relief. The characters in the story are formed, there is no broad motivation for actions and events, the descriptions are compressed, there are few of them.
The story gains popularity during the Renaissance. Then J. Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" appears. This type of epic flourished in the 19th century. Famous Ukrainian masters of short stories were M. Kotsyubinsky, V. Stefanik, Marko Cheremshina, S. Vasilchenko, O. Kobylyanskaya, I. Franko, Nikolai Khvylevoy, Grigory Kosynka.
There are stories of social and everyday life, socio-political, socio-psychological, satirical, humorous, tragic, comic.
The boundaries between a story and a story are not always clear, so the works “I dug a potion early on Sunday” by O. Kobylyanskaya and “Debut” by M. Kotsyubinsky are classified by some as stories, and by others as short stories.
Novella (Italian Novella - news) is a small type of epic. It appeared in Ancient Greece, had an oral form, entertaining or didactic character. it was used as inserted episodes by Herodotus (the story about Arion, the ring of Polycrates), Petrova (the story about Matryona of Ephesus). In the Hellenistic era, the short story had an erotic character. As a type of epic, the short story took shape during the Renaissance in Italy (“Decameron” by Boccaccio, “Heptameron” by Margaret of Navarre). Greatest development reached in the 19th century. In Ukrainian literature, such genres of short stories as psychological (V. Stefanik), socio-psychological, lyrical-psychological (M. Kotsyubinsky), lyrical (B. Lepky), philosophical, historical (V. Petrov), political (Yu. linden), dramatic (Grigory Kosynka).
Whose difference is a novella from a short story? In the novella fewer characters than in the story, the characters are formed, the novelist does not comment on the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Every detail is polished in the novella; for microanalysis, it uses one moment from life and reveals significant psychological experiences on it. The short story has a single-line, tense, dynamic plot, unexpected turns of action, a sudden ending, an asymmetrical composition, and, as a rule, a dramatic collision. In foreign literature, they generally do not distinguish between a story and a novella.
Essay (French Essai - attempt, sketch) is a genre that is at the intersection of fiction and journalism. It raises a partial question. The essay is characterized by great subjectivity. Essays include various works: philosophical, historical, critical, biographical, journalistic, moral and ethical, and even poetic.
A classic example of an essay is the book “Essays” by the French humanist philosopher Michel Montaigne. This book contains opinions, observations, impressions from what I read and experienced. Problems of education, upbringing, fame, dignity, wealth, death are violated. Montaigne wrote that the book was created by him, and he was created by a book that is part of his life. He freely expresses his thoughts on subjects that go beyond his understanding and horizons in order to give an idea of his beliefs. The author does not go directly to the subject, but seems to walk around it. Therefore, the essay is always "about". In almost every phrase of "Experiments" there is a pronoun "I" ("I believe", "I agree", "for me").
Revealing the specifics of the essay, M. Epstein in the article “Laws of the Free Genre” (Questions of Literature - 1987. - No. 7) emphasizes that an essayist does not have to be a good storyteller, a deep philosopher, or a sincere interlocutor. He may be inferior to the power of thought of a philosopher, the brilliance of imagination to a novelist and artist, and the sincerity and frankness to the authors of confessions and diaries. The main thing for an essayist is cultural comprehensiveness. Montaigne was the first to talk about what he felt as a person. The essayist tries himself in everything. Better definition genre - universality, several about everything. An essayist, according to M. Epstein, is “a master of works on a free topic,” “a professional in the amateurish genre.” M. Bakhtin believed that in the 20th century. All genres of literature are being sensitized. Yesseization also affected the literary works of A. Losev, S. Averintsev, G. Gachev, O. Gonchar, Yu. Smolich, D. Pavlychko, I. Drach. Short stories and essays, novel-essays, and novel-essays appeared ("Kulish's Novels" by Petrov, "At Twilight" by R. Gorak).
An essay is a type of journalism on the verge of the art of words and journalism. As an independent type of epic, it has existed since the 18th century. The essay appeared in England and was popular in the works of writers educational realism(Addison, Voltaire, Diderot). The essay occupied a significant place in the literature of the 40s of the 19th century. Physiological essays appeared in Russian literature, in which writers showed the life of ordinary workers.
The essays of Ukrainian writers, in particular I. Nechuy-Levytsky (“On the Dnieper”), Panas Mirny (“Journey from Poltava to Gadyach”), M. Kotsyubinsky (“How we went to Krinitsa”) had significant success among readers. These essays are original travel notes, the origins of which are in Homer’s “Odyssey” and Lukian’s “True History”. A famous author of travel notes was V. Grigorovich-Barsky (1701-1747 pp.). His works combine the characteristics of different genres: stories, essays, walks, legends, hagiographies. A synthesis of autobiographical, traveler and essayistic are the works of Natalena Koroleva “Without Roots”, “Roads and Paths of Life”, collections of essays by Evdokia Gumennaya “Many Skies”, “Eternal Lights of Alberta”, memoirs of V. Samchuk “On a White Horse”, “On a Horse raven, P. Tychyna's Travels with the K. Stetsenko Chapel.
What is specific about the essay? Some researchers see it in documentation (factography), others - in journalistic wit. But these signs are not present in every essay; there are essays with fictional characters and plots (G. Uspensky - “The Power of the Earth”). The essays violate social, economic, political, moral and ethical problems at a certain stage of the development of society. The essays depict portraits politicians, scientists, writers, ordinary workers are interested in. social life in all its manifestations. Hence the excitement of the narrative, journalistic passion in assessing what is depicted, and openness in the affirmation of ideas. The purpose of the essay is to give an objective picture of reality, to focus attention on the phenomena of life, to criticize everything that hinders progress. The author's beginning in the essay is stronger and brighter than in the novel; The essay can be concise; or it can take hundreds of pages ("Letters of a Russian Traveler" by Karamzin). It does not have a single storyline, a completed plot.
In literary criticism there is no single genre classification of essays. There are documentary and non-documentary essays. And also - wandering, portrait, everyday, socio-political, historical, problematic, zoological, foreign, essays about nature. A type of essay is biographical sketches about life and creativity outstanding people. This type of essay appeared in antiquity ("Comparative Lives" of Plutarch, "Biography of Agricola" by Tacitus).
A feuilleton (French Feuilleton from feuille - letter, sheet) is a work of an artistic and journalistic nature on a current topic, revealed in a satirical or humorous form. A feuilleton is an intermediate link between an essay, a short story and a short story.
In France, a feuilleton was a newspaper supplement containing a political pamphlet. Subsequently, the feuilleton became an organic part of a newspaper sheet (“basement”), separated by a thick line. Later, they began to call an article written in the “basement” a feuilleton. The first feuilletonist was Abbot Geoffroy, who published a theatrical review in the newspaper "Journal de Debas". Fine-expressive means of feuilleton are irony, hyperbole, grotesque, pun, comic situation, satirical detail.
There are documentary and non-documentary (problematic) feuilletons. Famous literary; feuilletons (Yu. Ivakin - collection "Hyperboles"). The founder of the Ukrainian feuilleton is V. Samoilenko. The development of this type of epic is associated with the work of K. Kotka, Ostap Vishnya, S. Oleynik, A. Aist, E. Dudar. Ostap Cherry his feuilletons called smiles. Varieties of feuilletons are radio feuilletons, telefeuilletons. Pamphlet (English Pamphlet from the Greek Pan - everything, phlego - I smoke) - a journalistic work on a topical topic L. Ershov characterizes the pamphlet as follows: “It’s like a feuilleton, but not on an insignificant level. ", but on a central theme. It is based on a large social object, this largely explains the specifics of the pamphlet, the peculiarities of its construction and style... the pamphlet is closer in structure to a journalistic article. It is based on objects of enormous weight, which often do not need to be converted into social aspect. They are already connected with it: the socio-political structure of the state, moral and ethical foundations..., individual large state and politicians etc. That is why the development of a topic in a pamphlet often occurs in the manner of an article, and not through emotional-figurative associations."
A pamphlet can use the forms of an interview, report, or letter. In the pamphlet, the author does not hide his position, the style of the pamphlet is passionate, the language is expressive, it is characterized by aphorism, irony, and sarcasm.
The pamphlet appeared in the era of antiquity. The philippics of Demosthenes and Lucian’s pamphlet “Praise of the Fly” have reached our time. In the 16th century In Germany, Ulrich von Hutten's pamphlets "Letters of Dark People" appeared at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 17th century. XVIII century - Swift's pamphlets "A Modest Proposal", "Letters from a Clothmaker". The masters of the pamphlet were Diderot ("Jacques the Fatalist"), Courier ("Pamphlet on Pamphlets"), Mark Twain ("To My Missionary Critics").
In Ukrainian literature, the founder of the pamphlet was Ivan Vyshensky. His pamphlets take the form of dialogue. The history of the Ukrainian pamphlet knows the names of such writers as I. Franko (“Doctor Besservisser”), Lesya Ukrainka (“Shameless Patriotism”), Les Martovich (“The Invented Manuscript”), Nikolai Volnovoy (“Apologists for Clericalism”). This genre was used by Yu Melnychuk, R. Bratun, F. Makivchuk, R. Fedorov, D. Tsmokalenko.
Parody (Greek Parodia - reworking in a funny way from para - against, ode - song) is a genre of folklore and satirical literature, the object of which is the composition, vocabulary, insults, style, direction, work of the writer. Parody - form literary struggle. She uses irony, sarcasm, and jokes. "Parody - according to Yu. Ivakin - is a crooked mirror into which a writer looks, laughing bitterly and crying joyfully. Let us remember that a crooked mirror distorts. However, parody is the only case when distortion does not distort, but clarifies the truth. Parody is paradoxical: she is more like her object than he is like himself. It is not difficult to give examples of the opposite phenomenon, when the object of parody is more like the parody than it is like him... To be funnier, a parody has to pretend to be serious. A truly funny parody is not funny. ... "Parody is a type of criticism and polemic. It becomes relevant in literary discussions. There are elements of parody in the novels “Don Quixote” by Cervantes, “The Golden Calf” by I. Ilf and E. Petrov, and the poem “The Maid of Orleans” by Voltaire. It originated in ancient Greek literature. The poem "Batrachomyomachy" ("War of Mice and Frogs") is a parody of heroic epic. Aristophanes' comedy "Clouds" is a parody of Socrates and the Sophists, "Frogs" is a parody of Euripides' tragedy.
Parody appeared in Ukrainian literature in the 16th century. Parodies of sacred scripture and church and religious literature are known. Kotlyarevsky's Aeneid is imbued with elements of parody. Ostap Vishnya, V. Chechvyansky, Yu. Vukhnal, S. Voskrekasenko, S. Oleynik, B. Chaly, A. Zholdak, Yu. Kruglyak, V. Lagoda, Yu. Ivakin successfully worked in the parody genre. Neo-avant-garde artists, in particular the Bu-Ba-Boo group, turn to parody.
Humoresque is a short essay, poetic, prose or dramatic, about a funny person or incident. Humoresques can take a poetic or prose form. S. Rudansky called his humoresques humoresques. Ostap Vishnya, A. Klyuka, S. Voskrekasenko, D. Belous, S. Oleinik, E. Dudar performed in the humoresque genre. Folklore is often used in literary humoresques. Famous humorous songs are “Sell, dear, gray bulls”, “Oh, what kind of noise was that made”, “If I were a Poltava centurion”.
In humoresque, laughter takes the form of benevolent criticism in a folk, witty, ironic, oxymoronic form.
The tale (English, French Fable, Latin Fabula) is a popular epic work of world literature. The story has a plot allegorical images, teachings, originates in folklore. The basis for many fables was folk tales about animals.
The development of the fable is associated with the name of Aesop (VI century BC). Up to 400 texts are attributed to him. Before the new era, Indian fables appeared, which were included in the collection "Panchatantra" (Pentateuch). The fables of Phaedrus, Lafontaine, Sumarokov, and Krylov gained worldwide fame. The first Ukrainian fabulist was G. Skovoroda. The works of P. Gulak-Artemovsky, E. Grebenka, L. Glebov, S. Rudansky are associated with the fable.
Basically bikes have two parts. The first reveals an event, fact, phenomenon, person, the second reveals the moral, which can be at the beginning or end of the fable. Most fables are in poetic form, written in free verse.
A number of researchers classify the fable as a lyrical-epic work, M. Gulyaev ("Theory of Literature", M., 1977) - as a lyrical one. A. Tkachenko considers it among epic and among lyrical-epic works.
In creative practice there are such small epic works as sketch, sketch, watercolor, arabesque, miniature, sketch, icon, thorn, crumbs. Watercolor, sketch, icon, sketch, etude are named by association with painting. The term “arabesque” was introduced by A. Schlegel to designate small texts with elements of fantasy, “ironic pathos,” and the grotesque. Gogol called a series of stories and articles arabesques, A. Bely called a collection of literary critical articles ("Arabesques", 1911), Nikolai Khvylovy called the short story "Arabesques".
Also included in the epic are folklore genres: fairy tale, epic, epic, historical song.
In the epic genre of literature (Old Greek epos - word, speech), the organizing principle of the work is the narrative about the characters (actors), their destinies, actions, mentalities, and the events in their lives that make up the plot. This is a chain of verbal messages or, more simply, a story about what happened earlier. Narration is characterized by a temporary distance between the conduct of speech and the subject of verbal designations.
An epic work can “absorb” such a number of characters, circumstances, events, destinies, and details that are inaccessible to either other types of literature or any other type of art.
An epic work that has no limitations in its scope. According to V.E. Khalisev, “Epic as a type of literature includes both short stories (...) and works designed for long-term listening or reading: epics, novels (...).”
A significant role for the epic genres is played by the image of the narrator (storyteller), who talks about the events themselves, about the characters, but at the same time demarcates himself from what is happening. The epic, in turn, reproduces and captures not only what is being told, but also the narrator (his manner of speaking, his mentality).
An epic work can use almost any artistic media known in literature. The narrative form of an epic work “promotes the deepest penetration into the inner world of man.”
Until the 18th century, the leading genre of epic literature was the epic poem. The source of its plot is folk legend, the images are idealized and generalized, the speech reflects a relatively monolithic popular consciousness, the form is poetic (Homer's Iliad). In the XVIII-XIX centuries. The leading genre is the novel. The plots are borrowed mainly from modern times, the images are individualized, the speech reflects a sharply differentiated multilingual social consciousness, and the form is prosaic.
Lyrics- one of the three main types of literature, highlighting the subjective image of reality: individual states, thoughts, feelings, impressions of the author, caused by certain circumstances, impressions. In lyric poetry, life is reflected in the experiences of the poet (or lyrical hero): it is not narrated about it, but an image-experience is created. The most important property lyricism is the ability to convey the individual (feeling, state) as universal. Characteristic features of the lyrics: poetic form, rhythm, lack of plot, small size.
In the lyrics (Old Greek lyra - musical instrument, to the sounds of which poems were sung) in the foreground are individual states of human consciousness1: emotionally charged reflections, volitional impulses, impressions, non-rational sensations and aspirations. If any series of events is indicated in a lyrical work (which is not always the case), then it is very sparingly
Lyrics are by no means confined to the sphere of people’s inner life, their psychology as such. She is invariably attracted to states of mind that signify a person’s concentration on external reality. Therefore, lyric poetry turns out to be the artistic mastery of states not only of consciousness (which, as G.N. Pospelov insistently says, is the primary, main, dominant one in it), but also of being. Such are philosophical, landscape and civic poems.
Speech expression in the lyrical genre of poetry is often taken to its maximum limit. So many bold and unexpected allegories
Elegy is a genre of lyric poetry: a poem of meditative (from the Latin meditatio - in-depth reflection) or emotional content, conveying deeply personal, intimate experiences of a person, usually imbued with moods of sadness and light sadness. Most often written in the first person. The most common themes of elegy are contemplation of nature, accompanied by philosophical thoughts, love, usually unrequited, life and death, etc. This genre, which arose in the ancient era, enjoyed the greatest popularity in the poetry of sentimentalism and romanticism, the elegies of V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkova, A.A. Pushkina, E.A. Baratynsky, N.M. Yazykova.
Message is a poetic genre: a poetic letter, a work written in the form of an appeal to someone and containing appeals, requests, wishes, etc. (“To Chaadaev”
Lyric-epic
Poem is a lyric-epic genre: a large or medium-sized poetic work (a poetic story, a novel in verse), the main features of which are the presence of a plot (as in an epic) and an image of a lyrical hero (as in lyric poetry)
Ballad is a genre of lyric-epic poetry: a narrative song or poem of a relatively small volume, with a dynamic development of the plot, the basis of which is an extraordinary incident. Often in a ballad there is an element of the mysterious, fantastic, inexplicable, unspoken, even tragically insoluble. By origin, ballads are associated with legends, folk legends, combine the features of a story and a song. Ballads are one of the main genres in the poetry of sentimentalism and romanticism. For example: ballads by V.A. Zhukovsky, M.Yu. Lermontov.
essays. Here the authors' attention is focused on external reality, which gives literary scholars some reason to place them among the epic genres. However, in essays, sequences of events and the narrative itself do not play an organizing role: descriptions dominate, often accompanied by reasoning. These are “Khor and Kalinich” from Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter”
“stream of consciousness” literature, where it is not the narrative presentation of events that predominates, but endless chains of impressions, memories, emotional movements speaker of speech. Here consciousness, which most often appears disordered and chaotic, seems to appropriate and absorb the world: reality turns out to be “covered” by the chaos of its contemplations, the world placed in consciousness. The works of M. Proust, J. Joyce, and Andrei Bely have similar properties. Later, representatives of the “new novel” in France (M. Butor, N. Sarraute) turned to this form.
essays. a casually free combination of summative messages about individual facts, descriptions of reality and (most importantly) reflections on it. Thoughts expressed in essayistic form, as a rule, do not pretend to be an exhaustive interpretation of the subject; they allow for the possibility of completely different judgments.
Epic- a type of literature (along with lyrics and drama), a narrative about events supposed in the past (as if they had happened and are remembered by the narrator). The epic embraces existence in its plastic volume, spatio-temporal extension and event intensity (plot content). According to Aristotle's Poetics, epic, unlike lyric poetry and drama, is impartial and objective at the time of narration.
▪ Large - epic, novel, epic poem (poem-epic);
▪ Middle - story,
▪ Small - story, short story, essay.
Epic also includes folklore genres: fairy tale, epic, epic, historical song.
Meaning:
An epic work that has no limitations in its scope. According to V.E. Khalisev, “Epic as a type of literature includes both short stories (...) and works designed for long-term listening or reading: epics, novels (...).”
A significant role for the epic genres is played by the image of the narrator (storyteller), who talks about the events themselves, about the characters, but at the same time demarcates himself from what is happening. The epic, in turn, reproduces and captures not only what is being told, but also the narrator (his manner of speaking, his mentality).
An epic work can use almost any artistic means known to literature. The narrative form of an epic work “promotes the deepest penetration into the inner world of man.”
Until the 18th century, the leading genre of epic literature was the epic poem. The source of its plot is folk legend, the images are idealized and generalized, the speech reflects a relatively monolithic popular consciousness, the form is poetic (Homer's Iliad). In the XVIII-XIX centuries. The leading genre is the novel. The plots are borrowed mainly from modern times, the images are individualized, the speech reflects a sharply differentiated multilingual social consciousness, the form is prosaic (L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky).
Other genres of epic are tale, short story, short story. Striving for a complete reflection of life, epic works tend to be combined into cycles. Based on the same trend, an epic novel is emerging (“The Forsyte Saga” by J. Galsworthy).
One of the founders of Russian literary criticism was V.G. Belinsky. And although serious steps were taken in antiquity in developing the concept of literary gender (Aristotle), it was Belinsky who owned the scientifically based theory of three literary genera, which you can get acquainted with in detail by reading Belinsky’s article “The Division of Poetry into Genera and Types.”
There are three types of fiction: epic(from Greek Epos, narrative), lyrical(a lyre was a musical instrument, accompanied by chanting poems) and dramatic(from Greek Drama, action).
When presenting this or that subject to the reader (meaning the subject of conversation), the author chooses different approaches to it:
The first approach: you can talk in detail about the subject, the events associated with it, the circumstances of the existence of this subject, etc.; in this case, the author’s position will be more or less detached, the author will act as a kind of chronicler, narrator, or choose one of the characters as the narrator; The main thing in such a work will be the story, the narration about the subject, the leading type of speech will be the narration; this kind of literature is called epic;
The second approach: you can tell not so much about the events, but about the impression they made on the author, about the feelings they aroused; image inner world, experiences, impressions and will relate to the lyrical genre of literature; it is the experience that becomes the main event of the lyrics;
Third approach: you can depict an object in action, show it on stage; present it to the reader and viewer surrounded by other phenomena; this kind of literature is dramatic; In a drama, the author's voice will be heard least often - in stage directions, that is, the author's explanations of the actions and remarks of the characters.
Look at the table and try to remember its contents:
Types of fiction
EPOS
DRAMA
LYRICS
(Greek - narrative)
story about events, the fate of the heroes, their actions and adventures, a depiction of the external side of what is happening (even feelings are shown from their external manifestation). The author can directly express his attitude to what is happening.
(Greek - action)
image events and relationships between characters on the stage(a special way of writing text). The direct expression of the author's point of view in the text is contained in the stage directions.
(from the name of the musical instrument)
experience events; depiction of feelings, inner world, emotional state; the feeling becomes the main event.
Each type of literature in turn includes a number of genres.
GENRE is a historically established group of works united by common features of content and form. Such groups include novels, stories, poems, elegies, short stories, feuilletons, comedies, etc. In literary studies, the concept of literary type is often introduced; this is a broader concept than genre. In this case, the novel will be considered a type of fiction, and genres will be various types of novels, for example, adventure, detective, psychological, parable novel, dystopian novel, etc.
Examples of genus-species relationships in the literature:
Genus: dramatic; view: comedy; genre: sitcom.
Genus: epic; view: story; genre: fantastic story, etc.
Genres, being historical categories, appear, develop and eventually “leave” from the “active stock” of artists depending on the historical era: ancient lyricists did not know the sonnet; in our time, the ode, born in antiquity and popular in the 17th-18th centuries, has become an archaic genre; Romanticism of the 19th century gave rise to detective literature, etc.
Consider the following table, which presents the types and genres related to the various types of word art:
Genera, types and genres of artistic literature
EPOS
DRAMA
Poem (epic):
Heroic
Strogovoinskaya
Fabulous-
legendary
Historical...
Fairy tale
Bylina
Thought
Legend
Tradition
Ballad
Parable
Minor genres:
proverbs
sayings
nursery rhymes...
EpicNovel:
Historical
Fantastic.
Adventurous
Psychological
R.-parable
Utopian
Social...
Minor genres:
Lit. fairy tale...
A game
Ritual
Folk drama
Raek
Nativity scene...
Tragedy
Comedy:
provisions,
characters,
Drama:
philosophical
social
historical
social-philosophical
Vaudeville
Farce
Tragifarce...
Song
Hymn
Elegy
Sonnet
Message
Madrigal
Romance
Rondo
Epigram...
Modern literary criticism also highlights fourth, a related genre of literature that combines the features of the epic and lyrical genres: lyric-epic, which refers to poem. And indeed, by telling the reader a story, the poem manifests itself as an epic; Revealing to the reader the depth of feelings, the inner world of the person telling this story, the poem manifests itself as lyricism.
In the table you came across the expression “small genres”. Epic and lyrical works are divided into large and small genres in to a greater extent by volume. Large ones include an epic, novel, poem, and small ones include a story, short story, fable, song, sonnet, etc.
Read V. Belinsky’s statement about the genre of the story:
“Our modern life is too diverse, complex, fragmented (...) There are events, there are cases that, so to speak, would not be enough for a drama, would not be enough for a novel, but which are deep, which concentrate so much life in one moment, no matter how much it can be eliminated in centuries: the story catches them and encloses them in its narrow framework (...) Brief and quick, light and deep at the same time, it flies from subject to subject, splits life into little things and tears out leaves from the great book of this life." .
If a story, according to Belinsky, is “a leaf from the book of life,” then, using his metaphor, one can figuratively define a novel from a genre point of view as “a chapter from the book of life,” and a story as “a line from the book of life.”
Small epic genres , to which the story belongs, is prose that is “intensive” in content: the writer, due to its small volume, does not have the opportunity to “spread his thoughts along the tree”, to get carried away detailed descriptions, enumerations, reproduce a large number of events in detail, but the reader often needs to tell a lot.
The story is characterized by the following features:
Small volume;
The plot is most often based on one event, the rest are only plotted by the author;
Small number of characters: usually one or two central characters;
One is being decided main question, the remaining questions are “derived” from the main one.
So,
STORY is a small prose work with one or two main characters, dedicated to depicting a single event. Somewhat more voluminous story, but the difference between a story and a story is not always possible to catch: some people call A. Chekhov’s work “Duel” a short story, and some - a big story. The following is important: as the critic E. Anichkov wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century, “at the center of the stories is the individual’s personality, and not a whole group of people.”
The heyday of Russian short prose begins in the 20s of the 19th century, which gave excellent examples of short epic prose, including the absolute masterpieces of Pushkin (“Belkin’s Tales”, “ Queen of Spades") and Gogol ("Evenings on a farm near Dikanka", St. Petersburg stories), romantic short stories by A. Pogorelsky, A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, V. Odoevsky and others. In the second half of the 19th century, short epic works by F. Dostoevsky were created ("Dream funny man", "Notes from the Underground", N. Leskova ("Lefty", "The Stupid Artist", "Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district"), I. Turgenev ("Hamlet of Shchigrovsky District", "King of the Steppes Lear", "Ghosts", "Notes of a Hunter"), L. Tolstoy ("Prisoner of the Caucasus", "Hadji Murat", "Cossacks", Sevastopol stories) , A. Chekhov as the greatest master short story, works by V. Garshin, D. Grigorovich, G. Uspensky and many others.
The twentieth century also did not remain in debt - and stories by I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, M. Zoshchenko, Teffi, A. Averchenko, M. Bulgakov appear... Even such recognized lyricists as A. Blok, N. Gumilyov, M. Tsvetaeva “they stooped to despicable prose,” in the words of Pushkin. It can be argued that at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the small genre of epic took a leading position in Russian literature.
And for this reason alone, one should not think that the story raises some minor problems and touches on shallow topics. The form of the story is laconic, and the plot is sometimes uncomplicated and concerns, at first glance, simple, as L. Tolstoy said, “natural” relationships: the complex chain of events in the story simply has nowhere to unfold. But this is precisely the task of the writer, to enclose a serious and often inexhaustible subject of conversation in a small space of text.
If the plot of the miniature I. Bunin "Muravsky Way", consisting of only 64 words, captures only a few moments of the conversation between the traveler and the coachman in the middle of the endless steppe, then the plot of the story A. Chekhov "Ionych" would be enough for a whole novel: the artistic time of the story covers almost a decade and a half. But it doesn’t matter to the author what happened to the hero at each stage of this time: it is enough for him to “snatch” from the hero’s life chain several “links” - episodes, similar to each other, like drops of water, and the whole life of Doctor Startsev becomes extremely clear to the author, and to the reader. “As you live one day of your life, you will live your whole life,” Chekhov seems to be saying. At the same time, a writer, reproducing the situation in the house of the most “cultured” family in the provincial town of S., can focus all his attention on the knock of knives from the kitchen and the smell of fried onions (artistic details!), but speak about several years of a person’s life as if they and it wasn’t at all, or it was a “passing”, uninteresting time: “Four years have passed”, “Several more years have passed”, as if it was not worth wasting time and paper on depicting such a trifle...
The depiction of a person’s daily life, devoid of external storms and shocks, but in a routine that forces a person to forever wait for happiness that never comes, became the cross-cutting theme of A. Chekhov’s stories, which determined further development Russian short prose.
Historical upheavals, of course, dictate other themes and subjects to the artist. M. Sholokhov in the cycle of Don stories he talks about terrible and wonderful human destinies during the time of revolutionary upheaval. But the point here is not so much in the revolution itself, but in the eternal problem of man’s struggle with himself, in the eternal tragedy of the collapse of the old familiar world, which humanity has experienced many times. And therefore Sholokhov turns to plots that have long been rooted in world literature, depicting private human life as if in the context of legendary world history. Thus, in the story “The Birthmark,” Sholokhov uses a plot as ancient as the world about a duel between a father and son, unrecognized by each other, which we encounter in Russian epics, in the epics of ancient Persia and medieval Germany... But if the ancient epic is the tragedy of a father who killed son in battle, explains by the laws of fate, not subject to man, then Sholokhov talks about the problem of a person’s choice of his life path, a choice that determines all further events and ultimately makes one a beast in human form, and the other equal to the greatest heroes of the past.
Art style used in fiction. It influences the imagination and feelings of the reader, conveys the thoughts and feelings of the author, uses all the wealth of vocabulary, the possibilities of different styles, and is characterized by imagery and emotionality of speech.
The emotionality of an artistic style differs from the emotionality of colloquial and journalistic styles. Emotionality artistic speech performs an aesthetic function. Artistic style presupposes a preliminary selection of linguistic means; All language means are used to create images.
Genre as a concept appeared a long time ago, back in the ancient world. At the same time, a typology of genres appeared. Today, text typologies are more strict and have clear boundaries. Moreover, they are used in all spheres of life - in government activities, in professional fields, theater, medicine and even everyday life.
Genres in fiction are a special complex issue. As you know, all literary works, depending on the nature of what is depicted, belong to one of three genres: epic, lyric or drama. A literary genre is a generalized name for a group of works depending on the nature of the reflection of reality.
EPOS(from the Greek “narration”) is a generalized name for works depicting events external to the author.
LYRICS(from the Greek “performed to the lyre”) is a generalized name for works in which there is no plot, but the feelings, thoughts, experiences of the author or his lyrical hero are depicted.
DRAMA(from the Greek “action”) - a generalized name for works intended for production on stage; The drama is dominated by character dialogues, and the author's input is kept to a minimum.
Varieties of epic, lyrical and dramatic works are called types of literary works .
Type and genre - concepts in literary criticism very close .
Genres are called variations of a type of literary work. For example, the genre variety of a story can be fantastic or historical story, and the genre variety of comedy is vaudeville, etc. Strictly speaking, a literary genre is a historically established type of artistic work that contains certain structural features and aesthetic quality characteristic of a given group of works.
TYPES (GENRES) OF EPIC WORKS:
epic, novel, tale, story, fairy tale, fable, legend.
EPIC- a major work of fiction telling about significant historical events. In ancient times - a narrative poem of heroic content. In the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, the genre of the epic novel appeared - this is a work in which the formation of the characters of the main characters occurs during their participation in historical events.
NOVEL- a large narrative work of art with a complex plot, in the center of which is the fate of the individual.
STORY- a work of fiction that occupies a middle position between a novel and a short story in terms of volume and complexity of the plot. In ancient times, any narrative work was called a story.
STORY- a work of art of small size, based on an episode, an incident from the life of the hero.
FAIRY TALE- a work about fictional events and characters, usually involving magical, fantastic forces.
FABLE(from “bayat” - to tell) is a narrative work in poetic form, small in size, of a moralizing or satirical nature.
TYPES (GENRES) OF LYRIC WORKS:
ode, hymn, song, elegy, sonnet, epigram, message.
OH YEAH(from Greek “song”) – a choral, solemn song.
HYMN(from Greek “praise”) is a solemn song based on programmatic verses.
EPIGRAM(from Greek “inscription”) is a short satirical poem of a mocking nature that arose in the 3rd century BC. e.
ELEGY- a genre of lyrics dedicated to sad thoughts or a lyric poem imbued with sadness. Belinsky called elegy “a song of sad content.” The word "elegy" is translated as "reed flute" or "plaintive song." Elegy originated in Ancient Greece in the 7th century BC. e.
MESSAGE– a poetic letter, an appeal to a specific person, a request, a wish, a confession.
SONNET(from the Provencal sonette - “song”) is a poem of 14 lines, which has a certain rhyme system and strict stylistic laws. The sonnet originated in Italy in the 13th century (the creator was the poet Jacopo da Lentini), in England it appeared in the first half of the 16th century (G. Sarri), and in Russia in the 18th century. The main types of sonnet are Italian (from 2 quatrains and 2 tercets) and English (from 3 quatrains and a final couplet).
LYROEPIC TYPES (GENRES):
poem, ballad.
POEM(from Greek poieio - “I do, I create”) is a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot, usually on a historical or legendary theme.
BALLAD- a plot song with dramatic content, a story in verse.
TYPES (GENRES) OF DRAMATIC WORKS:
tragedy, comedy, drama (in the narrow sense).
TRAGEDY(from Greek tragos ode - “goat song”) - a dramatic work depicting an intense struggle strong characters and passions, which usually ends in the death of the hero.
COMEDY(from Greek komos ode - “cheerful song”) - a dramatic work with a cheerful, funny plot, usually ridiculing social or everyday vices.
DRAMA(“action”) is a literary work in the form of a dialogue with a serious plot, depicting an individual in his dramatic relationship with society. Varieties of drama can be tragicomedy or melodrama.
VAUDEVILLE- a genre variety of comedy, this is a light comedy with singing couplets and dancing.
FARCE- a genre variety of comedy, it is a theatrical play of a light, playful nature with external comic effects, designed for coarse taste.
Epic
An epic (from epic and Greek poieo - I create) is an extensive work of art in verse or prose, telling about significant historical events. Typically describes a number of major events within a specific historical era. Initially it was aimed at describing heroic events.
Well-known epics: “Iliad”, “Mahabharata”.
Novel
A novel is a large narrative work of art, in the events of which many characters usually take part (their destinies are intertwined).
A novel can be philosophical, historical, adventure, family, social, adventure, fantasy, etc. There is also an epic novel that describes the fate of people at turning points historical eras(“War and Peace”, “Quiet Don”, “Gone with the Wind”).
A novel can be in prose or verse, contain several plot lines, and include works of small genres (short story, fable, poem, etc.).
The novel is characterized by the formulation of socially significant problems, psychologism, and the disclosure of a person’s inner world through conflicts.
Periodically, the decline of the novel genre is predicted, but its wide possibilities in depicting reality and human nature allow it to have its attentive reader in the next new times.
Many books and scientific works are devoted to the principles of constructing and creating a novel.
Tale
A story is a work of art that occupies a middle position between a novel and a short story in terms of volume and complexity of plot, constructed in the form of a narrative about the events of the main character in their natural sequence. As a rule, the story does not pretend to pose global problems.
Widely known stories: “The Overcoat” by N. Gogol, “The Steppe” by A. Chekhov, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A. Solzhenitsyn.
Story
A story is a short work of fiction with a limited number of characters and events. A story may contain only one episode from the life of one character.
Short story and novella are the genres with which they usually begin their literary creativity young prose writers.
Novella
A short story, like a short story, is a small work of art characterized by brevity, lack of descriptiveness, and an unexpected ending.
The short stories by G. Boccaccio, Pr. Merimee, S. Maughema.
Vision
A vision is a narration of events that were revealed in a (supposedly) dream, hallucination or lethargic sleep. This genre is characteristic of medieval literature, but is still used today, usually in satirical and fantastic works.
Fable
A fable (from “bayat” - to tell) is a small work of art in poetic form of a moralizing or satirical nature. At the end of the fable there is usually a short moralizing conclusion (the so-called moral).
The fable ridicules the vices of people. In this case, the characters, as a rule, are animals, plants or various things.
Parable
A parable, like a fable, contains a moral message in an allegorical form. However, the parable chooses people as heroes. It is also presented in prose form.
Perhaps the most famous parable is the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” from the Gospel of Luke.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a work of fiction about fictional events and characters, in which magical, fantastic forces appear. A fairy tale is a form of teaching children correct behavior, compliance with social norms. It also transmits important information for humanity from generation to generation.
Modern look fairy tales - fantasy - are a kind of historical adventure novel, the action of which takes place in a fictional world close to the real one.
Joke
An anecdote (French anecdote - tale, fable) is a small prose form, characterized by brevity, an unexpected, absurd and funny ending. An anecdote is characterized by a play on words.
Although many jokes have specific authors, as a rule, their names are forgotten or initially remain “behind the curtain.”
A widely known collection of literary anecdotes about the writers N. Dobrokhotova and Vl. Pyatnitsky, erroneously attributed to D. Kharms.
More detailed information on this topic can be found in the books of A. Nazaikin
