novel literary narrative genre

The term “novel,” which arose in the 12th century, has undergone a number of semantic changes over the nine centuries of its existence and covers an extremely diverse range of literary phenomena. Moreover, the forms called novels today appeared much earlier than the concept itself. The first forms of the novel genre go back to antiquity, but neither the Greeks nor the Romans left a special name for this genre. Using later terminology, it is usually called a novel. Bishop Yue at the end of the 17th century, in search of the predecessors of the novel, first applied this term to a number of phenomena of ancient narrative prose. This name is based on the fact that the ancient genre that interests us, having as its content the struggle of isolated individuals for their personal, private goals, represents a very significant thematic and compositional similarity with certain types of later European novels, in the formation of which the ancient novel played a significant role. The name “novel” arose later, in the Middle Ages, and initially referred only to the language in which the work was written.

The most common language of medieval Western European writing was, as is known, the literary language of the ancient Romans - Latin. In the XII-XIII centuries. AD, along with plays, tales, stories written in Latin and existing mainly among the privileged classes of society, the nobility and clergy, stories and stories began to appear written in Romance languages ​​and distributed among democratic strata of society who did not know the Latin language, among trading bourgeoisie, artisans, villans (the so-called third estate). These works, unlike the Latin ones, began to be called: conte roman - a Romanesque story, a story. Then the adjective acquired an independent meaning. This is how a special name arose for narrative works, which later became established in the language and over time lost its original meaning. A novel began to be called a work in any language, but not just any one, but only one that is large in size, distinguished by certain features of the theme, compositional structure, plot development, etc.

We can conclude that if this term, closest to its modern meaning, appeared in the era of the bourgeoisie - the 17th and 18th centuries, then the origin of the theory of the novel can logically be attributed to the same time. And although already in the 16th - 17th centuries. certain “theories” of the novel appear (Antonio Minturno “Poetic Art”, 1563; Pierre Nicole “Letter on the Heresy of Writing”, 1665), only together with classical German philosophy did the first attempts appear to create a general aesthetic theory of the novel, to include it in the system of artistic forms. “At the same time, the statements of great novelists about their own writing practice acquire greater breadth and depth of generalization (Walter Scott, Goethe, Balzac). The principles of the bourgeois theory of the novel in its classical form were formulated precisely during this period. But more extensive literature on the theory of the novel appeared only in the second half of the 19th century. Now the novel has finally established its dominance as a typical form of expression of bourgeois consciousness in literature.”

From a historical and literary point of view, it is impossible to talk about the emergence of the novel as a genre, since essentially “novel” is “an inclusive term, overloaded with philosophical and ideological connotations and indicating a whole complex of relatively autonomous phenomena that are not always genetically related to each other.” The “emergence of the novel” in this sense occupies entire eras, starting from antiquity and ending with the 17th or even 18th century.

The emergence and justification of this term was undoubtedly influenced by the history of the development of the genre as a whole. An equally important role in the theory of the novel is played by its formation in various countries.

LITERARY-HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOVEL

The historical development of the novel in different European countries reveals quite large differences caused by the unevenness of socio-economic development and the individual uniqueness of the history of each country. But along with this, the history of the European novel also contains some common, recurring features that should be emphasized. In all major European literatures, although each time in its own way, the novel goes through certain logical stages. In the history of the European novel of the Middle Ages and Modern times, priority belongs to the French novel. The representative of the French Renaissance in the field of the novel was Rabelais (the first half of the 16th century), who revealed in his “Gargantua and Pantagruel” the entire breadth of bourgeois freethinking and denial of the old society. “The novel originates in the fiction of the bourgeoisie in the era of the gradual disintegration of the feudal system and the rise of the commercial bourgeoisie. According to its artistic principle, this is a naturalistic novel, according to thematic-compositional one, it is an adventurous one, in the center of which “a hero who experiences all sorts of adventures, amuses readers with his clever tricks, a hero-adventurer, a rogue”; he experiences random and external adventures (a love affair, a meeting with robbers, a successful career, a clever money scam, etc.), without being interested in either deep social and everyday characteristics or complex psychological motivations. These adventures are interspersed with everyday scenes, expressing a penchant for crude jokes, a sense of humor, hostility towards the ruling classes, and an ironic attitude towards their morals and manifestations. At the same time, the authors failed to capture life in its deep social perspective, limiting themselves to external characteristics, showing a tendency to detail, to savoring everyday details. Its typical examples are “Lazarillo from Tormes” (XVI century) and “Gilles Blas” by the French writer Lesage (first half of the 18th century). From a small and middle bourgeoisie by the middle of the 18th century. an advanced petty-bourgeois intelligentsia is emerging, beginning an ideological struggle against the old order and using artistic creativity for this. On this basis, a psychological petty-bourgeois novel arises, in which the central place is no longer occupied by the adventure, but by the deep contradictions and contrasts in the minds of the heroes fighting for their happiness, for their moral ideals. The clearest example of this can be called “ New Eloise» Rousseau (1761). In the same era as Rousseau, Voltaire appeared with his philosophical and journalistic novel “Candide”. In Germany at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. There is a whole group of romantic writers who have created very vivid examples of psychological novels in different literary styles. Such are Novalis (“Heinrich von Ofterdingen”), Friedrich Schlegel (“Lucinda”), Tieck (“William Lovel”) and finally the famous Hoffmann. “Along with this, we find a psychological novel in the style of the patriarchal noble aristocracy, perishing along with the entire old regime and realizing its death in the plane of the deepest moral and ideological conflicts.” Such is Chateaubriand with his “Rene” and “Atala”. Other layers of the feudal nobility were characterized by a cult of graceful sensuality and boundless, sometimes unbridled epicureanism. From here they come out and noble novels Rococo with its cult of sensuality. For example, Couvray’s novel “The Love Affairs of the Chevalier de Fauble.”

English novel in the first half of the 18th century. puts forward such major representatives as J. Swift with his famous satirical novel “Gulliver’s Travels” and D. Defoe, author of the no less famous “Robinson Crusoe,” as well as a number of other novelists expressing the social worldview of the bourgeoisie.

In the era of the emergence and development of industrial capitalism, the adventurous, naturalistic novel is gradually losing its significance.” It is being replaced by the social novel, which arises and develops in the literature of those strata of capitalist society that turn out to be the most advanced, and in the conditions of a given country. In a number of countries (France, Germany, Russia), during the period of replacement of the adventurous novel with the social and everyday one, i.e., during the period of replacement of the feudal system with the capitalist one, the psychological novel with a romantic or sentimental orientation temporarily acquires great importance, reflecting the social imbalance of the transition period (Jean- Paul, Chateaubriand, etc.). The heyday of the social-everyday novel coincides with the period of growth and prosperity of industrial-capitalist society (Balzac, Dickens, Flaubert, Zola, etc.). A novel is created according to an artistic principle - realistic. In the middle of the 19th century. The English realistic novel is making significant progress. The pinnacle of the realistic novel are the novels of Dickens - “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist” and “Nicholas Nickleby”, as well as Thackeray with his “Vanity Fair”, which provides a more embittered and powerful criticism of the noble-bourgeois society. “The realistic novel of the 19th century is distinguished by its extremely acute formulation of moral problems, which now occupy a central place in artistic culture. This is due to the experience of a break with traditional ideas and the task of finding new moral guidelines for the individual in a situation of isolation, to develop moral regulators that do not ignore, but morally streamline the interests of the real practical activity of an isolated individual.”

A special line is represented by the novel of “mysteries and horrors” (the so-called “Gothic novel”), the plots of which, as a rule, are chosen in the sphere of the supernatural and the heroes of which are endowed with features of gloomy demonism. The largest representatives of the Gothic novel are A. Radcliffe and C. Maturin.

The gradual transition of capitalist society into the era of imperialism with its growing social conflicts leads to the degradation of bourgeois ideology. The cognitive level of bourgeois novelists is declining. In this regard, in the history of the novel there is a return to naturalism, to psychologism (Joyce, Proust). In the process of its development, the novel, however, not only repeats a certain logical line, but also retains some genre characteristics. The novel is historically repeated in different literary styles, and in different styles it expresses different artistic principles. And with all this, the novel still remains a novel: a huge number of the most diverse works of this genre have something in common, some repeating features of content and form, which turn out to be signs of the genre, which receives its classical expression in the bourgeois novel. “No matter how different the characteristics of historical class consciousness, those social sentiments, those specific artistic ideas that are reflected in the novel, the novel expresses a certain type of self-awareness, certain ideological demands and interests. The bourgeois novel lives and develops as long as the individualistic self-consciousness of the capitalist era is alive, as long as interest in individual destiny, in personal life, in the struggle of individuality for their personal needs, for the right to life continues to exist.” These features of the novel’s content also lead to the formal characteristics of this genre. Thematically, a bourgeois novel depicts private, personal, everyday life and, against the background of it, the clash and struggle of personal interests. The composition of the novel is characterized by a more or less complex, straight or broken line of a single personal intrigue, a single causal-temporal chain of events, a single course of the narrative, to which all and every descriptive moments are subordinated. In all other respects, the novel is "historically infinitely varied."

Any genre, on the one hand, is always individual, on the other, it is always based on literary tradition. The genre category is a historical category: each era is characterized not only by a genre system as a whole, but also by genre modifications or variations in particular in relation to a particular genre. Today, literary scholars distinguish varieties of the genre on the basis of a set of stable properties (for example, the general nature of the theme, properties of imagery, type of composition, etc.).

Based on the above, the typology of the modern novel can be roughly represented as follows:

Themes vary between autobiographical, documentary, political, social; philosophical, intellectual; erotic, female, family and everyday life; historical; adventurous, fantastic; satirical; sentimental, etc.

According to structural characteristics: a novel in verse, a travel novel, a pamphlet novel, a parable novel, a feuilleton novel, etc.

Often the definition correlates a novel with an era in which one or another type of novel dominated: ancient, chivalric, enlightenment, Victorian, Gothic, modernist, etc.

In addition, the epic novel stands out - a work in which the center of artistic attention is the fate of the people, and not the individual (L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”, M.A. Sholokhov “Quiet Don”).

A special type is the polyphonic novel (according to M. M. Bakhtin), which involves such a construction when the main idea of ​​the work is formed by the simultaneous sound of “many voices”, since none of the characters or the author has a monopoly on the truth and is not its carrier.

To summarize all of the above, we note once again that despite the long history of this term and the even older genre form, in modern literary criticism there is no unambiguous view of the problems associated with the concept of “novel”. It is known that it appeared in the Middle Ages, the first examples of novels were more than five centuries ago; in the history of the development of Western European literature, the novel had many forms and modifications.

Finishing the conversation about the novel as a whole, we cannot help but draw attention to the fact that, like any genre, it must have some features. Here we will remain in solidarity with the adherent of “dialogism” in literature – M.M. Bakhtin, who identifies three main features of the genre model of the novel, which fundamentally distinguish it from other genres:

“1) the stylistic three-dimensionality of the novel, associated with the multilingual consciousness realized in it; 2) a radical change in the time coordinates of the literary image in the novel; 3) a new zone for constructing a literary image in a novel, namely the zone of maximum contact with the present (modernity) in its incompleteness.”

DEFINITIONUTOPIA

Utopia is an idea of ​​an ideal society, uncritical confidence in the possibility of direct implementation of traditional, mythological, possibly modernized, ideological expectations and ideals. For example, U. are the desire to bring to life the ideals of building a large society by analogy with a rural community, the concept of socialism, the implementation of which cannot take place in the corresponding period of time, either due to the complete impossibility of acceptance of the corresponding ideas by broad layers of the population as real values ​​of their own activities, or as a result of the fact that the adoption of these values ​​leads to a dysfunctional system, violate the prohibitions of sociocultural law. W. Mora, Campanella, etc. give pictures of highly regulated societies, industries, personal life in cities and houses. They represent modernized traditional ideals that correspond neither to the past due to elements of modernization, nor to the future due to the burden of traditionalism. U. is an element of a certain stage in the development of any solution, since everything begins with the reproduction of some previously established need, which may turn out to be U. in a changed situation. The effectiveness of a decision depends on a person’s ability to critically rethink all its premises and elements on the basis of changed conditions, the emergence of new means, the maturation of new goals, i.e. it is necessary to overcome the element U in the decision. Any ideas, projects, their implementation must pass the test for the presumption of utopia . An attempt to realize control, that is, first of all, to translate it into social relations, to obtain a result from it can be considered as the result of a miracle of inversion; if realized, it is replaced by a reverse inversion. For example, socialism as a society that immediately saves people from death, from labor, embodies universal equality, ultimately ends in the growth of a discomforting state, a reverse inversion. The death of the boy means that there is no communism in “Chevengur” (Platonov A., Chevengur).

The term “miniature” first appeared in Russia in 1925. Thanks to their small form, grace and careful execution, many works began to be called miniatures.

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Types of miniatures

Short stories, laconic in volume, but extremely capacious in content, are called literary miniatures. Often in miniatures there is practically no action, but there is only a sketch, a picture. But, using the capacity of images, comparisons, epithets, the author creates an entire human destiny in a few phrases. The miniature genre began to develop a long time ago, but its clear boundaries have not yet been identified. A miniature is understood as a novella, essay, story or story that is highly “compressed”. The term is essentially still arbitrary. Miniatures in prose are often called “pictures” or “scenes”. The miniature can be lyrical (poetic). In dramaturgy, a miniature was a monodrama and a one-act or multi-act play, the performance of which occupied only part of the theatrical evening.

Specific signs

Having no clear boundaries, the miniature gives free rein to the authors, and this is one of its main differences from other small prose genres, and also allows you to address various aspects of life and put everyday, social, and philosophical issues at the center. The small volume of the work (5-10 pages) helps to avoid repetition, while the idea is clearly visible: the miniature is characterized by a clear transmission of any author’s intention. The moment recorded by the author in miniature most corresponds to the truthfulness of the depiction of existence, the artistic material is presented subjectively, and the author is most often the narrator.

How specific features of a miniature stand out: small text size; mandatory presence of a plot beginning; clear author's meaning; subjectivism; clear and vibrant dynamics; a clearly defined task; at the core, both a global problem and a particular issue are equally accepted; the organization of the text necessarily includes completeness and proportionality; Symbolism and allegory are allowed; the miniature is one in its nature and indivisible; its form is graceful, rhythmic and melodic (desirable); lyricism and epic interact in miniature.

Yu.B. Orlitsky characterizes miniature as a genre with a pronounced rhythmic organization.

In the works of the miniature genre, a clearly expressed subjective principle runs through everything. In most miniatures it is the subject, i.e. a specific personality represents the center around which all actions take place and the composition develops; subjective perception, a certain experience, is realized in them.

However, there are miniatures with a clearly defined plot, in which the mood that permeates the work carries significant meaning. They often use a “hidden plot”, when external intrigue recedes into the background and change takes on a dominant role. psychological state hero, his moral self-knowledge.

The miniature is distinguished by brevity, clarity and precision of the plot, and a special semantic load that is embedded in some words and details.

An internal monologue can freely exist in miniatures simultaneously with a figurative and logical series. At the same time, the author may be interested in philosophical and ethical problems, which, despite their small volume, can be revealed in the genre of miniatures, while the works contain a high degree of artistry.

Subjectivism distinguishes a miniature from a simple essay, although some miniatures are written in an essayistic form, however, the essay genre presupposes somewhat greater rigor and logic in reasoning and argumentation, and a fairly developed chain of conclusions.

Such a broad and somewhat contradictory definition of the genre is explained by the fact that miniatures allow authors to experiment and express themselves. The absence of rigid frameworks and established canons is the main difference between miniatures and other small prose genres.

The genre began to actively develop in the 90s of the twentieth century. Yu. Orlitsky notes the following features of modern prose miniatures: a miniature can be narrative, lyrical, dramatic, essayistic, philosophical, and humorous, and not just lyrical, as it was before, and these qualities can form a certain synthesis. In modern Russian literature, this is most often “the poet’s prose”; this is evidenced by the refusal of titles (as in lyrics) and the publication of miniatures as part of poetry books and magazine collections of poems. The stanza of the miniature gradually changed - the tendency towards one equal sentence.

Thus, in the process of its development, the miniature genre actively interacted with other small genres (short story, novella, essay), as a result of which the above-mentioned genre varieties appeared, so it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a miniature and a short story, novella or essay. .

The miniature genre is still being formed, and therefore is not recognized as canonical by many researchers.

The emergence of the genre in Russia

It is believed that this genre was first introduced in Russia by Turgenev (“Poems in Prose”). But similar analogies can be found in Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Teplyakov, Somov, Glinka, who, with his works in 1826, presented 25 prose miniatures for the first time in Russia (“Experiments in allegories, or allegorical descriptions, in verse and prose”).

At the turn of the century and during the Silver Age in literature, the genre was especially popular, but during Soviet times it fell into the shadows. Interest in it began to return only in the 70s of the twentieth century.

Authors

At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, Bunin, Sluchevsky and Turgenev created their works in the genre of miniatures.

In general, at the beginning of the twentieth century, not a single magazine could do without prose miniatures; they were written by many authors, for example, Solovyova,

In the sixteenth century, pastorals became fashionable and featured choral performances of motets or madrigals (musical and poetic plays). At the end of the sixteenth century, solo vocal numbers appeared in pastorals. This was the beginning of the emergence of opera in the form familiar to modern people. This genre was called drama in musica, and “opera” appeared only in the first half of the seventeenth century. It should be noted that a number of people continued to call their works musical dramas even after the appearance and consolidation of “opera”.

There are several types of opera. The main thing is rightfully considered “ Grand opera"or lyrical tragedy. It arose after the Great French Revolution and in fact became the main musical movement of the nineteenth century.

History of opera houses

Opera has gained great popularity, becoming the favorite art form. Literary subjects operas make them an accessible and understandable form of musical art, since it is much easier to perceive than traditional ones without a plot.

Nowadays, about twenty thousand opera performances are given per year. This means that more than fifty operas are performed around the world every day.

From Italy, opera quickly spread to other European countries. Over the years, it became publicly available, ceasing to serve exclusively as entertainment for aristocrats. IN opera houses“galleries” began to appear, from which ordinary townspeople could sing delightfully.

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Tip 2: The history of the “herring under a fur coat” salad

Few people know that the traditional “herring under a fur coat” salad, beloved by thousands of people, has political overtones. This dish was invented back in 1918, which, as you know, was a turning point for Russia. If you believe the folk legend, “fur coat” is not the name of a type of clothing, but an abbreviation.

The ingenious invention of an ordinary chef

Since the mid-19th century, taverns have been a favorite vacation spot for city residents. Here they drank, swore, talked and sought the truth in every way. Visitors often broke dishes, started fights, accused each other of harboring revolutionary ideas, and sang “The Internationale” in discordant chorus. One day, Anastas Bogomilov, a merchant and owner of several very popular eateries, decided that it was necessary to calm down the visitors and make the atmosphere in his establishments more relaxed. This happened in 1918. One of Anastas’s employees, cook Aristarkh Prokoptsev, decided that the easiest way to calm the rebels was to satiate their stomachs. But not just like that, but with hidden subtext.

According to legend, it was Prokoptsev who came up with the idea of ​​​​creating the “herring” dish. Herring was a symbol of the proletariat (a widely distributed, affordable and popular product among the people), vegetables (potatoes, onions and carrots) personified the peasantry, and beets represented the red revolutionary banner. The popular French cold sauce "mayonnaise" served as a binder. It is not known exactly why he was chosen. According to one version, this was a sign of respect for those who committed the Great French Revolution. bourgeois revolution, on the other - a reminder of the Entente.

The Entente, which included France, was considered the main external enemy of Bolshevism.

Why a fur coat? SHUBA is an abbreviation that stands for: “Chauvinism and Decadence – Boycott and Anathema.”
Tavern visitors quickly appreciated the revolutionary salad. First of all, it was delicious. Secondly, inexpensive. And thirdly, it was an excellent snack for strong alcoholic drinks. Due to the large amount of mayonnaise, people became less drunk, which meant there were fewer fights. For the first time, salad appeared on the menu of Bogomilov’s taverns before the New Year of 1919. Maybe that’s why “herring under a fur coat” has become a traditional dish for the New Year’s table.

The history of the salad is beautiful. How true it is, no one will ever know.

Classic salad recipe

To prepare the traditional “herring under a fur coat” salad, you will need boiled vegetables (except onions), a fresh apple, herring and mayonnaise.

It is advisable that the mayonnaise be homemade. If you have to use store-bought, then it is better to take the one with a higher fat content.

You will need:
- 200 g herring fillet;
- 200 g apples;
- 200 g beets;
- 200 g boiled potatoes;
- 200 g;
- 100 g of onion;
- mayonnaise.

After the vegetables are cooked, they need to be cooled, peeled and grated one by one on a coarse grater. The onion is cut as finely as possible. Herring fillets should be cut into small cubes: no more than 1x1 cm. The apple must be peeled and grated on a fine grater. It is better to place the dish on a flat salad bowl. The first layer in classic recipe comes potatoes, then herring, onions, carrots, apples and beets. Each layer is smeared with fatty mayonnaise.

The classic one is known to many, but each housewife still makes “herring under a fur coat” in her own way. Some people put a cucumber instead of an apple, others exclude onions from the ingredients, and still others put cheese in one of the layers. Some chefs try to “ennoble” the dish and instead of herring they put salmon, salmon and even seafood like shrimp. Housewives also enjoy experimenting. On the Internet you can find many original recipes based on the classic ones: “Herring in a sheepskin coat”, “Fur coat without herring”, “Herring in a new fur coat”, “Herring in a cloak”.

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How to prepare salad "Herring under a fur coat"

Matryoshka dolls are considered an original Russian souvenir and therefore are so popular among tourists coming to the Russian Federation from different countries. All the more interesting is the fact that these wooden painted figurines of elegant beauties, nested inside each other, have far from Russian roots.

The first Russian nesting doll

The prototype of a cheerful, round-faced Russian girl, embodied in classic nesting dolls, was brought to Russia from Japan at the beginning XIX century. The souvenir from the land of the sun consisted of wooden figurines of the Japanese old sage Fukuruma, nested inside each other. They were beautifully painted and stylized in the spirit of the traditions of the ancestor country of the modern nesting doll.

Once in the Moscow Toy Workshop, the Japanese souvenir inspired local turner Vasily Zvezdochkin and artist Sergei Malyutin to create similar toys. The craftsmen carved and painted similar figures nested inside one another. The first analogue of a Japanese souvenir was a girl in a headscarf and sundress; subsequent nesting dolls depicted cute funny children - boys and girls; on the last, eighth nesting doll, a swaddled baby was drawn. Most likely, it got its name in honor of the widespread at that time female name Matryona.

Sergiev Posad nesting dolls

After the closure of the workshop in Moscow, in 1900 craftsmen in Sergiev Posad, in a training and demonstration workshop, began making nesting dolls. This type of folk craft became widespread; workshops of the Bogoyavlenskys, Ivanovs, and Vasily Zvezdochkin, who moved to Posad from Moscow, appeared not far from the capital.

Over time, this souvenir toy gained such popularity that foreigners began to order it from Russian craftsmen: the French, Germans, etc. Such nesting dolls were not cheap, but there was something to admire! The painting of these wooden toys became colorful, ornate, and varied. Artists depicted Russian beautiful girls in long sundresses and painted scarves, with bouquets of flowers, baskets and bundles. At the beginning of the twentieth century, mass production of nesting dolls for foreign countries was established.

Later, masculine nesting dolls appeared, for example, depicting shepherds with a pipe, mustachioed grooms, bearded old men with sticks, etc. Wooden toys were assembled according to a variety of principles, but, as a rule, a pattern was always visible - for example, matryoshka dolls-grooms were paired with dolls-brides and relatives.

Matryoshka dolls of Nizhny Novgorod province

Towards the middle of the 20th century, the nesting doll spread far beyond the borders of Sergiev Posad. Thus, in the Nizhny Novgorod province craftsmen appeared who made nesting dolls in the form of slender, tall girls in bright shawls. And Sergiev Posad craftsmen made these toys in the form of squat and curvaceous young ladies.

Modern nesting dolls

The matryoshka doll is still considered one of the symbols of Russian culture. Modern nesting dolls are made in a variety of genres: in addition to classical drawings, they contain portraits of famous political figures, TV presenters, movie and pop stars.

In Sergiev Posad, in the Toy Museum, there are collections of nesting dolls from various masters of the early and mid-20th century, as well as the first nesting doll painted by the famous artist Sergei Malyutin.

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Introduction

1. The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles of poetics

1.1 From science fiction to fantasy

1.2 Features of the fantastic in fantasy (general principles of poetics)

2. Critics about the fantasy genre: philosophical and literary interpretation

2.1 Marking the boundary “rational - irrational”: the problem of identifying one’s world

2.2 Main characters of fantasy

2.3 The influence of fantasy theory on the development of the literary process

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

IN modern literary criticism There is currently no generally accepted definition of the fantasy genre. Almost everyone who writes about fantasy tries to give own definition this concept. As a result, a significant number of definitions appeared, sometimes contradicting one another.

Definitions of genre can be grouped around several trends. Most often, fantasy is defined as a special direction of science fiction. “In the modern literary lexicon, the definition of fantasy (from “fantasy”) is increasingly encountered, which is an entire literature where the boundaries of the real, fantastic and surreal, mystical are blurred.”

The word "fantasy" is firmly entrenched in the mind modern man. It is often used as a designation for the mass literature and film industry of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. IN domestic literary criticism this phenomenon of modern culture is at the stage of comprehension. fantasy genre poetics

The fantasy genre is currently causing a lot of controversy, which concerns the history of the genre, genre-species and functional nature, genre modifications (classification), poetics, etc. This situation is explained by the comparative youth of the genre: fantasy literature has existed for just over 100 years, the term appeared in the 70s -ies of the twentieth century. abroad, in the 80s - in Russia.

The subject of research in the course work is the fantasy genre. The object of the study is the works of Russian, Western European and American writers and critics working in the fantasy genre.

The purpose of the study is to identify genre originality fantasy literature, consider its theory emerging in modern literary criticism. To achieve this goal, the study needs to solve a number of problems:

Job objectives:

1. Consider the main trends in the development of the genre and its connections with other genres.

2. Consider the ways of formation of the fantasy genre.

3. Analyze the images of the main characters of the fantasy genre.

4. Consider the influence of the fantasy genre on the modern literary process.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the course work is the fundamental works of the largest representatives of domestic and foreign literary studies, among which we can highlight works on the theory of myth and folklore by V.Ya. Proppa, E.M. Meletinsky, Ya.E. Golosovkera, A.K. Bayburina, V.V. Ivanova, V.N. Toporova, Yu.M. Lotman, G.V. Maltseva, E.M. Neelova, L.G. Nevskoy, S.Yu. Neklyudova, E.S. Novik, Ts. Todorova, T. Chernyshova and others.

Research methods - descriptive-analytical with elements of system analysis, elements of cultural-historical and comparative-historical methods.

The work consists of an introduction, main part, conclusion and a list of sources used. The introduction formulates the goals and objectives of the research, substantiates the relevance of the scientific problem posed and practical significance research.

1. The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles of poetics

1.1 From science fiction to fantasy

"Fantasy is a type of fantastic literature, or literature about the extraordinary, based on a plot assumption of an irrational nature. This assumption has no logical motivation in the text, suggesting the existence of facts and phenomena that, unlike science fiction, cannot be rationally explained ".

“In the most general case, fantasy is a work where the fantastic element is incompatible with the scientific picture of the world.”

"Fantasy is a description of worlds like ours, worlds with magic working in them, worlds with a clear boundary between Darkness and Light. These worlds can be some kind of variation of the Earth in the distant past, the distant future, an alternative present, as well as parallel worlds that exist out of touch with the Earth."

A number of researchers are inclined to define fantasy as a type of literary fairy tale. "According to external parameters, fantasy is a type of fantastic fairy tale." Fantasy writer E. Gevorkyan calls fantasy “a fairy-tale phantasmagoria of imaginary worlds.”

“Fairy tale. This genre differs from science fiction in the absence of moral teaching and attempts at messianism. From the traditional fairy tale - in the absence of division into good and bad,” says Nik Perumov’s article.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in his essay “On Fairy Tales,” discusses the role of fantasy in the creation of wonderful secondary worlds. Tolkien extols fantasy, like the romantics of the early 19th century. But, unlike them, the writer considers fantasy not an irrational, but a rational activity. In his opinion, the author of a work of fiction must consciously strive to establish an orientation towards reality. It is necessary to give the fictional internal “logic of the real,” starting with the fact that the author himself must believe in the existence of Fairy (in tune with fantasy), “a secondary world based on the mythological imagination.” Another trend is defining fantasy through myth. This is quite natural, since fantastic literature always has a mythological basis.

“This genre arose on the basis of the authors’ rethinking of the traditional mythological and folklore heritage. And in the best examples of this genre one can find a number of parallels between the author’s fiction and the mythological and ritual ideas that formed its basis.”

“The world of fantasy is ancient myths, legends, tales passed through modern consciousness and revived by the will of the author.” The most clear definition of fantasy is offered by the reference book “Russian fiction of the 20th century in names and faces”: “Fantasy is a kind of fusion of fairy tales, science fiction and adventure novels into a single (“parallel”, “secondary”) artistic reality with a tendency to recreate and rethink the mythical archetype and the formation of a new world within its borders.

Fiction presupposes the content of an element of the extraordinary, i.e. a narrative about what does not happen, did not exist and cannot exist. The main meaning of the terms fantasy and fantastic is a special way of displaying reality in forms that are unusual for it. Features of fiction: 1) the premise of the extraordinary, i.e. a plot-shaping assumption about the reality of extraordinary events; 2) motivation for the extraordinary; 3) a form of expression of the extraordinary.

Fantasy is secondary to imagination, it is a product of imagination, it changes the appearance of reality, reflected in consciousness. In this case, we are also talking about a subjective beginning, a kind of substitution. The modern understanding of fantasy is also based on the teachings of K.G. Jung, and then fantasy is the self-image of the unconscious; fantasy is most active when the intensity of the conscious decreases, as a result the barrier of the unconscious is broken.

Fantasy is a concept used to designate a category of works of art that depict phenomena that are distinctly different from the phenomena of reality. The imagery of fantastic literature is characterized by a high degree of convention, which can manifest itself in violation of logic, accepted patterns, natural proportions and forms of what is depicted. The basis of any work of fiction is the opposition “real - fantastic”. The main feature of the poetics of the fantastic is the so-called “doubling” of reality, achieved either through the creation of another reality, completely different from the actual reality, or through the formation of “two worlds”, which consists in the parallel coexistence of the real and unreal worlds. There are such types of fiction as explicit and implicit.

The origins of the fantastic lie in the mythopoetic consciousness of humanity. The era of the heyday of the fantastic is traditionally considered to be romanticism and neo-romanticism. Fantasy gives rise to a special character in works of art that are directly opposed to realism. Fiction does not recreate reality in its laws and foundations, but freely violates them; it forms its unity and integrity not by analogy with how it happens in the real world. By its nature, the pattern of the fantastic world is completely different from the pattern of reality. Science fiction creatively reproduces not reality, but dreams and daydreams in all the uniqueness of their qualities. This is the essential basis of fantasy or its pure form.

There are three types of fantasy works. Works of fantasy of the first type - completely detached from reality - are pure dreams, in which no direct insight into the real reasons or reasons for them is given. Fantastic works of the second type, in which a secret basis is given for everyday phenomena, are dreams when we directly perceive real reasons for wonderful images and events or, in general, their connection with reality, i.e. when in the dream itself we contemplate not only fantastic pictures, but also the real causative agents of them or, in general, elements of the real world directly related to them - and the real turns out to be subordinate to the fantastic. Finally, fantastic works of the third type, in which we directly contemplate not the real causative agents or companions of mysterious phenomena, but precisely their real consequences. These are those sleepy states when, in the first moments of awakening, while still in the power of sleepy visions, we see them introduced one way or another into the real world - descended into waking life. All three types of fiction are equally often found in works of art, but they are not equivalent.

The fantasy genre is a type of fantastic literature. In terms of volume of publications and popularity among the average reader, fantasy has left all other areas of science fiction far behind. Among all literary movements, it is fantasy that is developing most rapidly, exploring new territories and attracting more and more readers.

Fantasy as a technique has been known to art since time immemorial. Actually, to one degree or another it is inherent in any type of art. In literature, it has come a very long way: from primitive myth to fairy tales, from fairy tales and legends to the literature of the Middle Ages, and then romanticism. Finally, in modern literature It's the turn of science fiction and fantasy. These genres developed in parallel, sometimes touching in some way.

The issue of the relationship between science fiction and fantasy has not yet been resolved. On the one hand, both are united in the same concept of “science fiction” and are perceived as its modifications. On the other hand, fantasy is clearly opposed to the literature that is conventionally designated by the term “science fiction.”

1.2 Features of the fantastic in fantasy (general principles of poetics)

The concepts of imagination, fantasy and the fantastic are discussed in detail in modern science, mainly in psychology. In fantasy literature, these concepts are associated with the article by J.R.R. Tolkien's "On Magic Stories", in which they have an interpretation that differs in many ways from the generally accepted one. The heyday of fantasy (neo-myth) occurs in the postmodern era, the era of experimentation and the search for new forms."

In descriptive concepts of fantasy, in total, a number of features of the genre are defined, among which the following come to the fore: a fantastic picture of the world, a fairy-tale-mythological basis and genre synthesis. Researchers find in fantasy elements of the heroic epic, legend, chivalric romance, literary fairy tale, romantic story, Gothic novel, occult-mystical literature of the Symbolists, postmodern novel, etc. (probably different for each specific work). It can be noted that all of the listed genres and trends are in one way or another connected with myth.

So, “fantasy is always based on either a revised canonical system of myths, or an original author’s mythopoetic concept, the most important feature of which is the creation of a secondary world (a holistic picture of the world and man), where man is a microcosm in the macrocosm system.”

In Russian fiction there are a number of excellent fantastic works by N.V. Gogol, V.F. Odoevsky, I.S. Turgeneva, V.M. Garshina, F.K. Sologuba and many others. etc. In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky's fiction plays a very important role.

One of the features of the fantasy genre is that it is based on ancient mythological ideas, in particular, German-Scandinavian tales that retain traces of pre-Christian pagan ideas. The attachment to the mythical, heroic and magical, characteristic of English culture for a long time, increases at the end of the 19th century and reaches its apogee in the 20th century. Christian ideas began to be revealed in magical stories; the images of the main characters reflect both the heroic traits of the characters in the epic and the virtues inherent only in the Christian ideal. And the imaginary worlds themselves are justified in cosmogony and have their own history, which is in many ways similar to the real situation.

The holistic genre language of foreign fantasy was so recognizable that the Polish science fiction writer A. Sapkowski at the end of the 1980s wrote a model of the plot of a typical fantasy novel, based on the plot of Cinderella. Based on the changes made to the known plot, we have assumed that the relevant components of a recognizable genre language are the following:

1. The type of hero changes. The semantic core on which the magical plot has been based for centuries is the change in the status of the main character. Cinderella in A. Sapkowski’s model is a heroine with the right to the throne, “a hero doomed to heroism.”

2. The role of the antagonist’s image is strengthening (this is no longer the image of the stepmother, but the image of the pest prince “who is assigned a separate space). This entailed a number of consistent changes in the new plot: fairy tale plot about Cinderella is replaced by the stylization of another type of plot, the content of which is the search (quest) and the fight against the antagonist-pest; the need for search and fight has actualized the importance of the typology of spaces in fantasy. The image of the secondary world in modern fantasy criticism stands out as fundamental).

2. The “other” world, which has become very important, is divided axiologically (the prince is a demonic creature, and his mentor is an evil sorcerer) and its negative part is opposed to the positive world (Cinderella and the fairy godmother). A struggle between the higher forces of the secondary world arises, which “shapes the appearance of being”).

3. The importance of the type of hero-protagonist increases, which is enhanced by the introduction of a prediction function (prophecy).

The playful nature of fantasy manifests itself not only at the level of image creation, i.e. games with a standard image, but also at the level of plot formation. Considering the problem of plot formation in Russian fantasy, we have identified two basic principles for organizing literary text in works of Russian and foreign fantasy:

1) the artistic material for combining and reconstructing the secondary world can be an idea of ​​historical reality. 2) any foreign text can serve as artistic material for combining and reconstructing the secondary world. The first principle organizes the text in such a way that recognizable reality is played out, and the combination of elements is built into new story, which is nevertheless familiar to readers. The second principle is the playful use of someone else’s text, which, in turn, can be: 1) a well-known mythological plot (or a separate mythology); 2) someone else's original story.

The mythological image-plot basis as a secondary world is the most easily perceived fantasy picture: almost everything is already known. The writer faces two sets of tasks: 1) the body logical explanations those irrational events and plot twists that make up the dominant fantasy; 2) a body of original ideas introduced by the author into the mythological picture of the fantasy world.

Mysticism has always been present in Russian literature, especially in the 19th century, when Russian fiction was strongly influenced by German romanticism. This Hoffmannian tradition of Russian literature continued at the beginning of the twentieth century - just remember the prose of the Serapion Brothers, A. Green, V. Bryusov, V. Kaverin and M. Bulgakov.

If we consider only the narrow subgenre of fantasy - “swords and magic”, then we must admit that in the Russian literary tradition there is more “magic” than “swords”. But, on the other hand, if “Taras Bulba” N.V. Gogol add mysticism from his own “The Enchanted Place”, “Viy” and “Terrible Vengeance”, we get a work of heroic fantasy. This synthesis did not happen due to the weakness of the adventurous genre in Russian literature generally. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, this genre already began to take shape and grow stronger. A. Green and V. Bryusov came closest to creating heroic fantasy. In Green's stories, in Bryusov's story "Mountain of Stars", in the poetry of N. Gumilyov, a typical hero of "swords and magic" is already encountered - a wandering loner, a strong and self-confident person who knows how not only to reflect. But also to act, able to stand up for oneself and look into the eyes of death.

In later times, elements of heroic fantasy can be found in “Aelita” by A. Tolstoy, “The Last Man from Atlantis” by A. Belyaev and in such works by I. Efremov as “On the Edge of the Oikumene”, “The Journey of Baurjet”, “Thais of Athens” . Full-fledged works, which can without hesitation be attributed to the genre of “swords and magic,” began to appear in Russia only in the last decade of the twentieth century.

In the 1980s, the first fantasy publishing houses began to appear. However, it was almost impossible for Soviet fantasy writers to publish their books. The only publishing houses that tried to somehow help them were “Text” in Moscow and “Terra Fantastika” in St. Petersburg. Publishing houses were afraid that readers would not be attracted to Soviet authors, so they were asked to create a “foreign pseudonym” for themselves and publish under it. So, for example, Svyatoslav Loginov was offered to write some work under the pseudonym “Harry Harrison”. At the same time, Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky began to sign their works with the pseudonym “Henry Lion Oldie”. By 1993, the only Russian fantasy author published under his own name was Nik Perumov, due to his independent sequel to The Lord of the Rings. In the same year, it became obvious that the circulation of books was much greater than the number of potential readers. Then the circulation of books fell twenty to thirty times. Large publishing houses have found a solution to this by increasing the number of book titles they publish.

In St. Petersburg, the publication "Azbuka", among other books, published "Slavic fantasy" - the novel "Wolfhound" by Maria Semyonova, thereby consolidating the presence of Russian authors in the book market. The preference for foreign science fiction writers over Russian authors finally ceased in 1997. The leading Moscow publications Eksmo and AST have launched several series of Russian science fiction and fantasy. That's when it started rapid growth and the rise of fantasy and science fiction written in former countries THE USSR.

Russian fantasy is strongly influenced by its English-speaking "ancestor". But it was American stereotypes that incredibly narrowed the range of problems, images and plots developed by fantasy. Medieval surroundings, a traditional quest, a standard set of heroes, all this came to us along with Tolkien and Zelazny. The traditions of Gogol and Bulgakov are forgotten; many do not even consider these works to be fantasy. Few worthy works of Russian fantasy so far decisively destroy stereotypes. In Russian literature there are examples of Chinese, Indian, ancient Greek fantasy, fantasy of the Stone Age; modern fantasy, alternative fantasy, and even science fiction future fantasy exist and have been used by followers. We consider the most striking examples of Russian fantasy role-playing, such as "The Black Book of Arda" by N.E. Vasilyeva, N.V. Nekrasova, “The Last Ring Bearer” by K. Eskov, “Spear of Darkness” by N. Perumov. Analysis of their updated artistic system is based on the result of an analysis of the dynamics of the positive Tolkien image in subcultural-role folklore.

In Russia, his most significant representative of the epic fantasy genre is Nik Perumov. From the very beginning and until now they are considered the “king” of Russian epic fantasy. The Ring of Darkness trilogy, which marked the beginning of the writer’s popularity, is, by and large, an imitation of Tolkien. However, this imitation is very detailed, carefully worked out and poses an ideological challenge to the author of the original text - Tolkien. Perumov consolidated his success with the cycle “The Chronicles of Hjervard”. The writer has written both TV series and individual novels. Among them, in addition to epic, there are also heroics and techno-fantasy.

The world of fantasy initially arose as a parallel to the everyday life of humanity. This is how Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Clive Lewis’s Narnia, Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea and other worlds appeared. The inhabitants of these worlds or the person entering them find themselves in extreme difficult situations, requiring not only the performance of courageous actions and heroic deeds, but, above all, a tough moral choice. In these books, everything was possible - wizards, dragons, magic rings, werewolves and witches, corridors in time and space, i.e. the entire arsenal of fairy tales and ancient legends. However, with all the flight of imagination in this transformed myth, one thing remained unchanged - a person must remain himself. Moreover, the moral situation always required the hero to use his best spiritual qualities. She was a kind of exam for the title of a person. As in traditional fairy tales, good prevailed, but it prevailed precisely as good, without the slightest concessions or compromises. Even the most noble goal here did not justify immoral means. The main task of “fantasy” was to establish harmony within a person, to conquer oneself. Judging by the popularity of the fantasy genre among readers of different levels of training, then the set goal was largely achieved.

Modern genre fantasy has its origins in the European chivalric romance, Scandinavian sagas, myths and legends such as the Arthurian cycle, the so-called Gothic novel, and the works of mystics and romantics of the 19th century. In Europe, among the progenitors of fantasy one can name the names of Hoffmann and Walpoll, i.e. representatives of German romanticism and the English Gothic novel. There is probably not a single writer in Great Britain who has not written at least one ghost story. Even such a realist and writer of everyday life as Charles Dickens wrote the story “A Christmas Carol”, where one bad character is guided on the true path by a ghost. S. Maugham wrote an entire novel called “The Magician,” and its content fully corresponds to the title.

America also could not escape this trend. In the 19th century, first of all, two names should be mentioned - Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce. In American science fiction at the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a clear division into three streams. Science fiction of the Jules Verne style, which described the technical wonders of the future. The leader of this trend was Hugo Gernsbeck. Then there was a stream that continued the traditions of the adventure, colonial novel. The leader of this trend was Edgar Burroughs. There was also a group of authors who published in the magazine "WEIRD TALES" - "Fatal Stories". What was published in this magazine, according to the modern classification, belongs to fantasy.

In general, plot formation in fantasy occurs as a result of a multi-step game: both with the interpretation and aftereffect (role-playing game) of someone else's author's text, and with the interpretation of a well-known mythological plot, placed within the framework of a game overcoming a ban.

Category of plausibility in fantasy

Following psychological verisimilitude in fantasy is the same immutable law as in literature in general: “The more difficult it is to create the illusion of truth, the more you have to worry about authenticity.” In its methods of creating authenticity, the fantasy genre follows the general literary tradition begun by the romantics - attention to plausible details in the description of implausible creatures and phenomena. The tradition of fantastic folklore prose is also used - a reference to a witness. Some extra-textual and extra-plot reality acts as a “witness”. In the first case, this is the plausible association of fictional events with historical events or events accepted as reality. An example is the novel by A. Lazarchuk and M. Uspensky “Look into the Eyes of Monsters,” where the events of the novel take place in the context of the history of the world (and Russia) of the twentieth century. The creation of an extra-plot reality consists of a detailed description of a fantasy world with pseudo-documentary fragments of secondary historical chronicles, excerpts of secondary literary works, secondary linguistic, ethnographic, geographical and cartographic and other reference materials.

The requirement of psychological verisimilitude in fantasy actualizes the literal understanding of the fantastic image, completely rejecting allegorical, allegorical ambiguity. It is precisely this requirement literary game in poetics, fantasy is kept from completely transforming into philosophical allegory. So, in the existence of Russian fantasy of the 90s and its poetics, the prerequisites are ripening for the use of such an artistic technique as the creation of fantastic conditions (world) as a result of a holistic game (role-playing) action. Also, to create a pure verisimilitude of an implausible world, the general literary technique of “text within a text” is used. Russian fantasy, which emerged in the wake of 1994-1996, not only adopted the invariant genre language given by the foreign version, but also supplemented it.

The ancestors of fantasy were classic fairy-tale quest stories: from the tales of “The Thousand and One Nights” to Russian fairy tales-travels like “Go there, I don’t know where” or “Tales of rejuvenating apples and living water.” In turn, stories of this type structurally go back to the actions of the heroes of antiquity. At the heart of a fantasy novel is always the story of a magical journey. The hero travels beyond the horizon of familiar reality. Along the way, the hero has a chance to undergo initiation and gain new knowledge. And if the hero manages to return to his reality and bring knowledge to his world, then this world changes, sometimes catastrophically. At the same time, reality is recreated by the hero anew. Actually, “recreating reality anew” is the main work performed by a fantasy novel.

Fantasy is genetically related simultaneously with folk tale and myth. From myth, fantasy inherited the epic nature of the narrative and the original tragedy. These trends are especially clearly visible in the novels by Nika Perumov “Death of the Gods”, G.L. Oldie "The Many-Armed God of Dalaina". The hero is obliged to do what is intended, even if it threatens him with death. The problem of struggle in a hopeless situation colors the entire heroic epic of the peoples of Europe in tragic colors. Modern fantasy adds to this situation the idea of ​​moral choice. The fantasy hero is not as determined as the character of mythological tales, and therefore the fantasy genre opens up space for creating contradictory, living human images. The fairy tale brings a lyricism to fantasy that is often missing science fiction.

Ideally, a work written in the fantasy genre should combine both trends - the epicness of myth and the lyricism of a fairy tale. The fairy tale is the oldest and immortal genre of literature. Fairy tales gave the world of fantasy veiled edification. However, fantasy has taken a step forward, abandoning the division of heroes into good and bad.

Fantasy can be characterized as modern fairy-tale literature written in modern times for modern reader. These are novels and stories about wizards and heroes, gnomes, goblins, dragons, elves, demons, magic rings and buried treasures, drowned continents and forgotten civilizations using real or fictional mythology. Andrzej Sapkowski in the article “Pirug, or “No Gold in the Gray Mountains”” writes: “Fairy tale and fantasy are identical, because they are implausible.” Let’s consider what the main difference between these genres is.

Chernysheva, calling fantasy “game fiction,” connects its birth with the tradition of fairy tales and carnival restructuring of the world: “The new tradition of literary fairy tales is combined with the tradition of carnival game reconstruction of the world, going back to ancient times. Together they form what we call gaming fiction.”

Romantics also took part in the formation of the genre. Of course, back then it wasn’t fantasy as we know it. For example, Hoffmann already has all the features of fantasy, except for the world of fantasy itself in the modern sense. There is a fairy-tale world, there are magical creatures, something unreal, unknowable and obviously impossible in everyday life. But in romantic literature the fabulousness is still emphasized. Hoffmann's magical world remains a fairy tale, it is not equal to the real world, it is not presented as a self-sufficient, completely possible world, while the fantasy world should be equivalent to the real one, there is absolutely no subordination between them.

T. Stepnovska, discussing the origin of fantasy, states: “The main source of the emergence of fantasy as a special type of fiction, where the free play of imagination is capable of breaking any law of the real world, introducing any miracle and magic as a component of content and form, are myth and fairy tale.” . The basic law of myth is fate, the highest power. In a fairy tale, the principle is different. It is good by definition stronger than evil, And main character Evil always wins simply because it has to be so. His victory is inevitable. Evil in a fairy tale exists only so that good can defeat it. “Fantasy models a world that loses its fairy-tale conditionality at the existential level.” A fairy tale creates its own, completely closed world, in which the laws of nature can be ignored. Fantasy introduces into the empirical world laws that contradict knowledge. Magic and non-magic in fantasy resist each other. This is well stated in E. Ratkevich’s novel “The Sword Without a Handle”: “the world resists magical intervention. Even mountain range, even coastal sand, even dust on an old cobweb - and they do not obey without resistance."

A literary fairy tale is closer to fantasy precisely in that everyday life already penetrates into it, but it is not yet fantasy, since it retains the conventions of fairy tales. The world of a fairy tale always remains the world of a fairy tale, and its laws do not apply externally.

Thus, by comparing realistic prose, science fiction and fantasy, we can conclude that

1) realistic prose describes events that did not happen, but which could well have happened;

2) science fiction describes events that are impossible from the point of view of today, but assumes that under certain assumptions such events are possible as a consequence of some scientific discoveries or technological developments;

3) fantasy does not appeal to rationalism, but, on the contrary, puts the mystical, occult, irrational at the forefront, which remains fundamentally inexplicable.

Consequently, in the text there is a flying carpet, it comes from nowhere, and after use it disappears to somewhere unknown, and all this does not cause the slightest surprise in the heroes, then this is a fairy tale. If the characters view the magic carpet as something unusual, but still use it to achieve their goals in a very realistic way, then it is fantasy. If you install a large-caliber machine gun on a flying carpet and a squadron of such carpets flies to storm Satan’s castle, then this is “science fantasy”. And if a carpet flies because it has anti-gravity chips woven into its fabric, then this is science fiction.

Conclusions from the first chapter:

1. Fantasy is a literary genre that was formed in the twentieth century as a dream of a person’s personal freedom from economics, laws and other aspects of everyday life, incorporating the edification and humanity of a fairy tale, the epic and tragic nature of a myth, and the nobility of a knightly romance. Authors working in this genre create worlds located parallel to reality or not connected with it at all.

2. Of the literary genres, science fiction and mysticism are closest to fantasy. It is difficult to separate science fiction from fantasy. Science fiction pays great attention to progress and everything that it describes seems possible to humanity in the future.

3. Fantasy initially states that it describes an unreal world, and that this is impossible in our real world. In fantasy, manifestations of the supernatural and what we are accustomed to calling the real world exist on equal terms.

2. Critics about the fantasy genre: philosophical and literary interpretation

2.1 Marking the boundary “rational - irrational”: the problem of identifying one’s world

Despite various points of view regarding the origin of fantasy, the undeniable fact is that it was the British professor of linguistics J.R.R. Tolkien at one time created a sample or canon of a fantasy novel, which became a classic and the starting point for the development literary genre fantasy. The Celtic-British complex of legends and myths that forms the basis of J. Tolkien's trilogy has thus become a traditional basis for the creation of subsequent fantasy novels.

The worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings pushed publishers to pay serious attention to fairy-tale and magical fiction.

The genre is developing like an avalanche, more and more milestones are appearing in it, and the Hall of Fame is quickly filling with portraits. In 1961, the Elric and Hawkmoon sagas by Michael Moorcock appeared. In 1963, the first “World of Witches” by Endre Norton (in Russian translation - “Witch World”) was born. "Fafrd and the Gray Cat" by Fritz Leiber appears in the pocket edition. And finally, with enormous fanfare - “Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin and at the same time, “The Last Unicorn” by P. Biggle, two books of an absolutely cult nature. In the 1970s, Stephen King's books appeared and broke all sales records. True, these are more likely horror stories than fantasy. Coming soon are "Doubting Thomas" by Stephen Donaldson, "Amber" by Zelazny, "Xanth" by Piers Anthony, "Derini" by Katherine Kurtz, "Born of the Grave" by Tanith Lee, "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, "Belgariad" by David Eddings and many others.

Faith in science and technical progress, fearlessness in the face of any futurological forecasts, conviction in the boundlessness of the prospects for the development of mankind - all these conceptual pillars of science fiction determine the popularity of this deeply rational (and rationalistic) genre of literature in eras of increased social optimism. Such a time of technocratic euphoria and social progressivism, for example, was the 50-60s of the last century, when science fiction “turned into the sphere of almost everyday thinking of the average American,” and a brilliant galaxy of science fiction writers came to literature: A. Azimov, R.E. Heinlein, K.D. Simak, R.D. Bradbury; created in Great Britain best works Arthur Clarke, in Poland - Stanislaw Lem; in the USSR - Ivan Efremov, and later the Strugatsky brothers, Kir Bulychev.

Thus, in 1969, Katharina R. Simpson wrote: "Tolkien is unoriginal, boring and sentimental. His glorification of the past is a comic for adults, he systematizes the despair of the modernists. The Waste Land with comments, without tears."

In the 70s, fantasy experienced its highest rise, it was a period of experimentation and, as one little-known character said, “the age of great innovation.” It is logical that it was then that the need for a thematic award became evident. This became the “World Fantasy Award” or WFA (World Fantasy Award) in 1975; it is awarded at the “World Fantasy Convention”, which is held mainly in the USA, but has been held several times in Canada and the UK. WFA is today the most prestigious award in the field of fantasy.

The essentially irrationalistic genre of fantasy, on the contrary, flourishes in eras of social breakdown, reduced passionarity as - in the apt words of Tsvetan Todorov - “the restless conscience of the positivist age”, pushing the imagination into the compensatory spaces of neo-mythology. Special role science fiction in the culture of the twentieth century, moving away from the canon of modern European classics and establishing its own mode of interaction between the rational and the irrational, the individual and the mass, turns it into a generally accepted “way of destroying taboo topics,” because “if in the age of positivism a breakthrough into the reality of the unconscious could happen, then only in the form of fiction." It is not without reason that the system of genre forms of fantasy, since the time of Gernsback, along with classical fantasy (narratives about heroes and wizards, as a rule, of some kind of conventional Middle Ages), sometimes includes the genres “mystery” and “horror”, which open the door wide to the subconscious.

Fantasy is the future as the past; a world with a rigid hierarchy, inequality, cultural and moral decline, and the archaization of consciousness. Science fiction in its classic form demonstrated “the bright future of victorious communism in the Strugatskys / the triumph of democracy and individual freedom in Star Trek.” Even in such a classic work by Heinlein as Starship Troopers, humanity built its own utopia, which was already attacked by Bugs ).

In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of fantasy gave rise to role playing games. In them, a party of one/multiple players travels through a fantasy world in search of various adventures. Moreover, each player has various characteristics that change with increasing experience. Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most successful gaming systems.

HELL. Gusarova highlights the formulaic principle of a fantasy hero, which is “tied” to an irrational gift and its obligatory implementation in a conventionally fantastic world. “In addition,” she writes, “in connection with the existence of the irrational Gift and its necessary implementation in the “crucible of trials” the principle of the world is defined as magical and divided dichotomously. In this regard, the magical world is the focus of an eternal battle. The hero, drawn by his gift, returns to this world...”

The world of fantasy, in contrast to the positivist rationality of science fiction, is recognized by the reader as a space that obeys other, illogical, magical laws; in fantasy terminology this is designated by the word “magic” or “witchcraft.” Fantasy uses traditional artistic images witchcraft. This power, initially present in the hero, manifesting itself as a specific talent, is bestowed upon him by some irrational being who is immanently present in the fantasy world. This strength can also be determined by the nature of the hero.

2.2 Main characters of fantasy

Gusarova proposes to consider the principle of the hero and the principle of the world as the substantive principles of fantasy. One cannot but agree with this, but with a small clarification. Determining the content of the secondary world must be put in first place, since the creation of any work of fiction, according to modern science fiction researchers, begins with the “creation” of the world: “... first of all, it is necessary to create a certain world, arranging it as best as possible and thinking through it in detail” .

The main process that occurs with the main character is his heroic identification. The hero has five comparative analytical qualities: “Getting a magical quality or means”, “Hero identification - the second stage”, “Magic assistant, zoomorphic transfiguration, types of transfiguration”, “Hero identification - the last stage”, “Motive have a wonderful birth fantasy hero."

Analyzing the process of identifying the main character as a hero, we distinguish two stages of this identification. The first stage is the identification of the hero of Russian fantasy of the late twentieth century. associated with the initial manifestation in him of special forces of a witchcraft nature. The presence of an initial witchcraft nature in the hero determines his first stage of initiation as a change in social status from low, “invisible” to high – in demand, “visible”. A symbol of social change can be the acquisition of a symbolic weapon with which the hero is connected in a magical, supernatural way. The acquisition of high status is confirmed both by a social change (title, high position) and by the attitude of others. The change in status also indicates that the “alien” world for the hero becomes his own.

The second stage of the process of identifying a character as a protagonist occurs on several levels. The first level is when, following a traditional change in social status, the hero becomes visible to the personified irrational force of the “alien” world. The identification of the hero by the irrational forces of the “alien” world can occur through a system of imposing and violating prohibitions (the heritage of folk fairy tale), which in the context of fantasy represent the game rules of the plot (violation of the prohibition is the goal, and the method of violation is a surreal plan, a fantastic conjecture). The second level of the second stage of identification is strongly associated with the communication of the prophecy to the hero, where he is identified as the expected messiah. The main function of prophecy in fantasy poetics, as in a fairy tale, is to convey to the hero a message about the main sabotage and ways to eliminate it. The importance of the hero's mission and the prophecy about him is directly related to the degree of danger of the antagonist.

The presence of a special gift in the nature of the hero also depends on the degree of danger coming from the antagonist. The image of an antagonist in fantasy contains sacred signs that are expressed obviously or detected during analysis. Antagonist in figurative system Russian fantasy of the late 1990s often has pronounced signs of a sacred cosmic essence; its most important and fundamental function is to disrupt the balance and order of the secondary fantasy world. This has its consequence in the image of the hero, who, in the process of his heroic identification, must manifest himself as a person who also has signs of sacredness.

In Russian fantasy, the last stage of hero identification partially occurs in the figurative system of two fairy-tale functions of “transfiguration” (sign T) - “the hero is given a new look” and one of the constituent components of the function “a magical means is at the hero’s disposal” (designation Zoomorphic transfiguration Z). The hero of Russian fantasy can experience two types of transfiguration: of the zoomorphic type - turning into a messiah monster, or acquiring the characteristics of an anthropomorphic divine being - anthropomorphic transfiguration.

A typological dependence of the form of the hero's transfiguration on the appearance of the enemy is built: the more monstrous the enemy, the more fantastic the metamorphosis the hero undergoes. Obviously, fantasy poetics, persistent in its desire for integration, is not limited to one traditional way of depicting the hero’s identification. She uses the entire possible range of fantastic transformation of the main character

It is quite obvious that the actions of the fantasy hero take his image beyond the framework of the system of symbols that came from the spheres of both funeral and initiation rituals. It seems that here we are dealing with figurative structures whose roots go back to mystical initiation. In the context of mystical initiation, there are three constants that are consistently and rhythmically repeated in the image of the main character of Russian fantasy: the salvation of the world/person, unity with the highest deity, the vertical nature of the path.

So, we can conclude that in the structure of the image of the hero of the late twentieth century. systems of ideas are traced that go back, in addition to heroic initiation, to the archaic practice of initiatory shamanic ritual.

As reasons determining the specificity of the poetics of Russian fantasy of the late twentieth century, we name:

Firstly, the emergence mystical image in modern Russian fantasy may be connected with the emerging science fiction of the twentieth century. a trend in alien depictions where the cosmos can easily be populated with “beings of increasingly greater perfection until we achieve something virtually indistinguishable from omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience.” Secondly, the psychological justification for the emergence of a sacred image in fantasy poetics can come, according to Yu.M. Lotman, from the tendency towards reversibility of plots.

If there is a plot about a hero moving from internal space to external space, acquiring something there and returning, “then there must also be a reverse plot: the hero comes from external space, suffers damage and returns.”

These are stories about the incarnation of God, his death here and his return. The third reason for the special tendency to create a consistent mystical image of a fantasy hero lies, it seems to us, in the special interaction of elements of folklore plots and folklore picture of the world, which is reflected with a certain degree of completeness in fantastic works. This interaction is such that any “element that falls into this system must “adjust” to it, it evolves until it takes on the form that the system requires, and one of the main requirements of folklore plots is the requirement of meaningfulness.”

HELL. Gusarova highlights the formulaic principle of a fantasy hero, which is “tied” to an irrational gift and its obligatory implementation in a conventionally fantastic world. “In addition,” she writes, “in connection with the existence of the irrational Gift and its necessary implementation in the “crucible of trials,” the principle of the world is defined as magical and divided dichotomously. In this regard, the magical world is the focus of an eternal battle. The hero, drawn by his gift , returns to this world...” Gusarova proposes to consider the principle of the hero and the principle of the world as the substantive principles of fantasy. One cannot but agree with this, but with a small clarification. Determining the content of the secondary world must be put in first place, since the creation of any work of fiction, according to modern science fiction researchers, begins with the “creation” of the world: “... first of all, it is necessary to create a certain world, arranging it as best as possible and thinking through it in detail.”

In addition to various races, fantasy also contains fantastic animals. They represent an image of the response of the surrounding world to the actions and worldview of the main characters in books. Let's try to understand the diversity of fantasy fauna:

The unicorn is the personification of purity, chastity and innocence, which are revealed only to those who themselves are also sinless and innocent. Represented in the form of a snow-white horse with a sparkling horn on its head;

Ent - a living tree that protects the elf race in case of attack. They are an example of loyalty and willpower;

chimera is a terrible and dangerous creature assembled from parts of animal bodies. Most often he appears before the reader with a huge snake head on a lion body. Represents an image of cunning and resourcefulness;

gargoyle is a giant marble bat that is obliged to protect its creator and serves as a messenger and scout for him. Represents devotion and sense of duty;

Modeus is a fire demon summoned by sorcerers for their own protection in dangerous situations. They are dutiful and obedient, but through deceit and duplicity they want to kill the one who disturbed them with his call and enslave his soul;

dragons are giant flying lizards, differing in the elements that gave birth to them, but united in their greed and love of money;

Wyverns are dead dragons brought back to life by dark magic and serve as guardians of undead necropolises. Doomed to the suffering of the afterlife, they are the focus of anger and thirst for revenge;

hypogryphs are akin to chimeras, since they have a winged lion's body with a bird's head. They serve as an example of loyalty and pride, deny betrayal and are devoted to their owners until death;

Gnols are cunning and cunning creatures born of experiments with magic. They look like humans, but with the head of a hyena. They often engage in robbery, but not knowing the value of money, they only store it without using it;

Taamag is a huge demoness, guardian of the other world. Thus, creatures from the fantasy world help the reader imagine the most likely reaction of others to any of his actions or opinions. This undoubtedly allows a person to determine his own course in life.

Let's look at the most popular fantasy races:

Elves - (alfe, elaf) Pointy-eared “children of the forest”, magnificent archers. They are divided into forest (Bosmer), high (Altmer), dark (danmer) and ghostly (Scaimer). Their “true” names, invented by science fiction writers, are given in parentheses.

Orcs are a race of green-skinned monsters who are still very stupid, but already very warlike.

Undead - (undead) are also known as "not dead". They represent the dead revived by the will of dark magicians-necromancers. They are perhaps the most beloved creatures of both authors and readers.

Vampires - everyone knows the legends about night hunters with white faces and black souls. Vampires can be classified as undead, but due to their popularity and antiquity, they have long become a separate species in fantasy.

Dwarves are a short people who live underground. They love gold more than anything in the world and are the best blacksmiths in the world.

Demons - (daimonium) a formidable race generated by the hatred of fallen angels and hellfire. They are cunning and two-faced, but at the same time they have their own code of honor, and they strictly follow it.

Elementals are a race created through experiments with the elements of fire, earth and water. Subsequently, the elements of these three principles created the air elemental. They serve as an example of friendship and mutual understanding, which is evident in their group work.

These and many other inhabitants of fantasy worlds can have a significant impact on a person’s worldview. They personify certain qualities of people and show them to the reader.

2.3 The influence of fantasy theory on the development of the literary process

The period of romantic fantasy remained in the second half of the past century. Fantasy is becoming more and more pragmatic. Authors who have chosen the following primitive scheme are incredibly popular: a) A non-stop “spinning” main character. b) Unlimited appearance of more and more formidable opponents, capable of resisting the overly “cool” protagonist for several pages or even volumes. Accordingly, the entire narrative boils down to non-stop “fights”. c) Minimizing the number of “beautiful” global and side quests, simplizing them, in order to enable the hero to move straightforwardly towards his main task - the next salvation of the dying World.

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Russian literature is enriched by a unique work, known in two versions - “The Word” and “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik. “The Lay” (second half of the 12th century) contains the author’s plea, addressed, apparently, to the Novgorod prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich (great-grandson of Vladimir Monomakh) so that the prince would rescue the author from the beggarly state in which he, an educated man, for some reason found himself .

The “Prayer,” compiled on the basis of the “Word” in the second quarter of the 13th century, makes a similar request to Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (father of Alexander Nevsky), who reigned in Pereyaslav of Suzdal, and then received “eldership” over the Russian princes from Batu Khan.

With the help of skillfully selected authoritative quotes and aphorisms, both versions of the monument strive to create the ideal image of a prince who would become a reliable protection for his subjects. The prince revives “all people with his mercy,” he is the protector of orphans and widows, he is an energetic master and commander, he is sharply different from his “tivun” assistants, who ruin the people.

The author of “Prayer” condemns the boyars; he agrees to wear “lychnitsy” (bast shoes) in the princely house rather than walk “in a black boot in the boyar’s courtyard.” Here, the image of the prince largely preserves the ideas about the ideal ruler that Vladimir Monomakh created in his “Instruction” to children.

In contrast to the literary traditions of Kievan Rus, where vassal relations were usually considered in the sphere of military activity and were interpreted as a princely-squad search for “honor and glory,” Daniil Zatochnik did not even hesitate to tell the prince about himself that he was not brave “in the army.” But he was strong in “words” and “strong in thought,” and therefore opened up to him new way princely service.

Skillfully using the sayings of biblical books, “The Physiologist”, “The Tale of Akira the Wise”, “The Tale of Bygone Years”, “Izbornik” of Svyatoslav (1076), “Bees” and other monuments, the author proved to the prince his education. His witty speech was sprinkled with sayings (“To whom is Pereslavl, and to me is Goreslavl”; “To whom is Bogolyubovo, and to me is fierce grief”).

Offering himself to the prince as a wise adviser, the humble and poor author laid claim to the high place occupied by the senior squad, like, for example, the boyars - interpreters of the “muddy” dream of Prince Svyatoslav of Kyiv in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Thus, for the first time in Russian literature, the idea of ​​“mind” appears as a decisive sign of personal dignity and professional activity.

The author of the “Prayer” considered himself a “nobleman” (employee at the prince’s “court”), he wanted the prince to protect him from the boyars with the fear of “his thunderstorm.” The sharpener looked at the prince as the main defender of the fatherland and prayed to God to strengthen his strength in order to repel the conquerors, and this revealed the features of the new patriotic concept of North-Eastern Rus'.

The literary genre of prayers spread mainly in those eras of the Developed Middle Ages, when the principles of monarchical statehood, based not on old feudal-tribal traditions, but on the personal service of subjects, began to strengthen in the public consciousness again.

The new position of the writer, a minor vassal, in relation to his first reader - the autocratic overlord - was not to epically glorify his exploits, as happened before, or, on the contrary, to publicly condemn his mistakes from the standpoint of the common good of the Russian land, but in order to contrast the prince with his largest vassals (boyars) and offer him his devoted service, while catering to his political views and personal tastes.

Appearance in ancient Russian literature The genre of such political words and prayers indicates that it has entered a new period of its development, determined by serious changes in the field of social thought. This genre was well known in the European Middle Ages.

It included the petitionary elegy of the monk Ermold, sent from prison to the French prince, the son of King Louis the Pious (IX century), and “Proverbs” (XIII century), the composition of a certain Italian “sharpener”. More significant were the Byzantine prayers - literary petitions for pardon and release from prison.

Byzantine poets paid much attention to the ironic depiction of the troubles of family life and the quarrelsomeness of women. The Russian Sharpener cited the traditional word about “evil wives” on the same occasion.

Against the background of such typological correspondences in the genre structure, theme and style of prayers of the Middle Ages, the originality of the ancient Russian writer - the first pamphleteer - clearly stands out.

Daniil Zatochnik was far from the historical experience and education of the Byzantine writers of his time, therefore, unlike them, with the naivety of a neophyte, he was filled with the deepest respect for the authorities of ancient wisdom, admiration for the “mind” in general and for his own in particular.

It seemed to him that, having mastered ancient Christian books, he had already put on “the robe of the wise.” Although he was “poor in clothing, he was abundant in mind.” There were significant shifts in the worldview of the ancient Russian writer.

If in the old literary tradition of Byzantium and Bulgaria it was only fitting for a true Christian ascetic to “fly the mountain with your mind,” if Metropolitan Nikephoros in the Greek letter to Vladimir Monomakh could say to such a high addressee “your mind flies quickly,” and in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” it was fitting sing about Boyan the Prophet, “flying with his mind under the clouds,” then Daniil the Sharpener without any hesitation assigned himself the same sublime characteristics; he himself was already able to “soar with his thoughts” like an eagle through the air. He even rhetorically invited his readers to “blow a trumpet,” like a golden trumpet, “into the mind of your mind.”

This rational self-confidence of the writer, clothed in archaic literary forms, was based on such new features of feudal self-awareness that were associated with the emerging prospects for the political role of the humble “service” person in the historical stage reviving ancient Russian statehood. Zatochnik’s “Prayer” was a literary harbinger of the noble journalism of the Moscow state.

History of world literature: in 9 volumes / Edited by I.S. Braginsky and others - M., 1983-1984.