Subject of literary theory - the most general patterns literature and literary process. This aspect of the study of literary and artistic consciousness, specific to the theory of literature, determines its special methodological significance for literary science as a whole. Relying on the experience of the history of literature and literary criticism, accumulating its own experience of generalizing the development of literature of many eras, the theory of literature forms the philosophical foundations of literary criticism, clarifies and sharpens its categorical and terminological apparatus, develops the principles of analysis and criteria for evaluating works of art. Determining the level of development of the science of literature as a whole and contributing to the growth of its professionalism, the theory of literature appears as a “science of sciences” for all literary disciplines. Being aimed at the most general literary laws, literary theory turns out to be, accordingly, the most rigorous and accurate among other literary sciences, equipping the history of literature and literary criticism with the necessary measure of research accuracy and correctness in their approaches to a work, to certain aspects of its content and form , to the work of a writer, to the literature of a certain era, to the literary process, etc. The theory of literature thus determines the improvement of specific methods for analyzing a literary text, determined by historical-literary or literary-critical tasks.

The theory of literature actualizes the most significant problems of literary science at each stage of its development. Focusing on issues that are fundamental to the artistic consciousness of the literature of the era and its scientific understanding, it thereby promotes intensive contact between literary and philosophical thought, reveals and strengthens the special, aesthetic-ideological character of literary science.

Finally, the active contacts of literary theory with many humanities and natural scientific disciplines (art history, linguistics, aesthetics, philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, physiology, computer science, etc.) allow it not to lose connections with the movement of scientific thought of the time, including in problems that are relevant to him by solving his own special issues.

Mastering the theory of literature requires knowledge of the process of movement of aesthetic and literary thought of the past and present. The theoretical preparedness of a literary critic presupposes the mastery and critical processing of many, often debating, concepts of art and interpretations of specific artistic problems (positivist, formalist, intuitionist, structuralist, etc.).

Literature as a science and its connection with other sciences.

Literary theory- the theoretical part of literary criticism, included in literary criticism along with the history of literature and literary criticism, based on these areas of literary criticism and at the same time giving them a fundamental justification.

Diverse connections between L. and other humanities, some of which serve as its methodological basis (philosophy, aesthetics), others are close to it in terms of tasks and subject of research ( folkloristics, general art history), others with a general humanitarian orientation (history, psychology, sociology). L.'s multifaceted connections with linguistics, based not only on the commonality of the material (language as a means of communication and as a building material of literature), but also on some contact between the epistemological functions of word and image and some similarity of their structures.

Literary criticism- a multidimensional science, which includes many special disciplines:

1. poetics - the study of the composition and structure of works of art

Types of poetics:

Theoretical - about the general laws of structure and functioning

Historical - studies the work based on its historical evolution

2. stylistics - theory of artistic speech

3. theory of composition - studies the functioning of artistic production.

4. poetry - studies the functions of verse

5. eidology - theory of artistic image

6. literary criticism - associated with the assessment of literature (divided into professional and amateur)

7. practical poetics - associated with the art of interpretation and evaluation of literary works.

Philosophy is related to (studies the spiritual world)

8. epistemological function (general) - cognition, comprehension of human existence

9. aesthetics is the main faculty of literature, the science of beauty, aesthetic philosophy is connected with the experience of beauty, connected with the concept of catharsis, cat. was defined by Aristotle, the product must be

10.linguistics - the science of comparative study of languages; linguistics, linguistics

11.rhetoric - the science of oratory; about the function, creation of prose text

12. hermeneutics - the science that explains scripture

The most important part of L. is poetics - the science of the structure of works and their complexes: the work of writers in general, a literary movement, a literary era, etc. Poetics correlates with the main branches of literature: in the plane of literary theory, it gives general poetics, i.e., the science of the structure of any work ; in the plane of literary history, there is historical poetics, which studies the development of entire artistic structures and their individual elements (genres, plots, stylistic images, etc.)

Modern literature is a very complex and flexible system of disciplines. There are three main branches of Leningrad: literary theory, history of literature and literary criticism. Literary theory studies the general laws of the structure and development of literature. The subject of literary history is the past of literature as a process or as one of the moments of this process. Literary criticism is interested in the relatively simultaneous, recent, “today’s” state of literature; it is also characterized by the interpretation of the literature of the past from the point of view of modern social and artistic tasks. The affiliation of criticism to literature as a science is not generally recognized

Methodology of science- the science of science, each specific science must have basic methods

structuralism (formal method)

semiotic method (the science of signs and sign systems)

hermeneutics method (interpretation based on knowledge of the cultural context)

receptive - a method based on human perception of the text

interpretation of the myth or symbol underlying the work

psychoanalytic principles, formulated the theory of the collective unconscious (archetypes) by K. G. Jung

deconstruction (Jean Bereda)

Literary criticism - the science of literature. Originated in Ancient Greece. Founder – Aristotle. 1st book – "Poetics", 4th century BC

18th century - literary criticism became an independent science.

Literary studies combines 3 literary disciplines:

Theory of literature (studies the specifics, social nature, social role and patterns of development of fiction;

History of Literature (examines the process of literary development in chronological order);

Literary criticism (responds to the most important literary events of the time).

Auxiliary Sciences:

Historiography (collects and develops achievements in the development of literary disciplines);

Bibliography (index, guide to books).

Literary criticism is a science that studies the specifics of literature, the development of verbal artistic creativity, artistic literary works in the unity of its content and form, and the laws of the literary process. This is one of the branches of philology. The profession of philologist appeared to process ancient texts - to decipher them and adapt them for reading. During the Renaissance, a huge interest in antiquity appeared - philologists turned to the texts of the Renaissance for help. An example when philology is needed: to decipher historical realities and names in “Eugene Onegin”. The need for commentary, for example, on military literature. Literary critics help to understand what the text is about and why it was created.

A text becomes a work when it has some task.

Now literature is considered as the above system, where everything is interconnected. We are interested in someone else's assessment. We often start reading a text already knowing something about it. The author always writes for the reader. There are different types of readers, as Chernyshevsky talks about. An example is Mayakovsky, who addressed his descendants through his contemporaries. The literary critic also turns to the personality of the author, his opinion, and biography. He is also interested in the reader's opinion.

There are many disciplines in literary studies. They are main and auxiliary. Basics: literary theory, literary history and literary criticism. Literary criticism is addressed to the modern literary process. She responds to new works. The main task of criticism is to evaluate the work. It arises when the connection between the artist and society is clearly visible. Critics are often called skilled readers. Russian criticism begins with Belinsky. Criticism manipulates the reader's opinion. She is often biased. Example: reactions to “Belkin’s Stories” and the persecution of Boris Pasternak, when those who did not even read him spoke badly about him.

Theory and history are not addressed to topicality. Neither the historian nor the theorist cares about topicality; he studies the work against the background of the entire literary process. Very often literary processes manifest themselves more clearly in secondary literature. The theorist identifies general patterns, constants, and the core. He doesn't care about the details. A historian, on the contrary, studies particulars and specifics.

“Theory presupposes, and art destroys these assumptions, of course, most often unconsciously” - Jerzy Farino.

Theory shapes the model. But the model is bad in practice. The best writing almost always breaks these patterns. Example: The Inspector, Woe from Wit. They don't fit the pattern, so we look at them from the point of view of breaking the model.

There is a different quality of literary criticism. Sometimes the text of a scientific research I myself looks like a work of art.

Science must have a subject of research, research methods and terminology.

Research methods: dialectical and structural. Structural – method of formal analysis (Tynyanov, Shklovsky, Tomashevsky, Yakobson), method of structural analysis (Lotman, Toporov). Dialectical - the method of dialectical analysis (Losev, Bakhtin), receptive aesthetics (Gadamer, Jauss). There is also motive structuralism, comparative historical analysis, Freudian theory.

A term is good when it is unambiguous. In literary criticism, terms are ambiguous, and their understanding is ambiguous.

2. EPITHET (from the gr. epitheton - application) is a figurative definition of an object or action (The moon makes its way through the wavy fogs, it pours a sad light onto the sad meadows. - Pushkin).

Intensifying epithets that indicate a feature contained in the word being defined (mirror surface, cold indifference, slate darkness); Intensifying epithets also include tautological ones (grief is bitter).

Specific epithets naming the distinctive features of an object (size, shape, color, etc.) (The Russian people have created a huge oral literature: wise proverbs and cunning riddles, funny and sad ritual songs, solemn epics. The expressive power of such epithets is often supported by other tropes , especially with comparisons [With a wondrous script he (the people)) weaved an invisible network of the Russian language: bright, like a rainbow, following a spring shower, accurate, like arrows, sincere, like a song over a cradle, melodious and rich]. It is not always possible to draw a clear line between intensifying and clarifying epithets.

Contrasting epithets that form combinations of words with opposite meanings with the defined nouns - oxymorons [living corpse; joyful sadness; hateful love].

Most epithets characterize objects, but there are also those that figuratively describe actions.

The epithet fixes the constant (the wise Odysseus). Homeric epithet is a difficult word. Lyrically, he was considered heavy. Archaic. Exception - Tyutchev (loudly boiling, all-consuming – conceptuality). Tyutchev's epithet is individualized. The structure of the epithet depends on the worldview: the charmless Circe, the grave Aphrodite in Baratynsky. Paradoxical epithets are eschatological motives. When a person falls away, he loses his main properties. Antiquity is the beginning of discord, when reason conquers spirit. Zhukovsky depicts humility before fate, additional meanings of the word. The ballad “Fisherman” is analyzed by Orest Somov line by line. The artistic effect is born because there is a violation of the norm, but within the framework of meaning. Nothing in fiction is read literally. The word initially has the ability to create words.

METAPHOR (gr. metaphorá - transfer) is the transfer of a name from one object to another based on their similarity. However, linguists define metaphor as a semantic phenomenon; caused by the imposition of an additional meaning on the direct meaning of a word, which for this word becomes the main one in the context of a work of art. In this case, the direct meaning of the word serves only as the basis for the author’s associations. Among other tropes, metaphor occupies the main place; it allows you to create a capacious image based on vivid, often unexpected, bold associations.: For exampleThe east is burning with a new dawn- wordlit , acting as a metaphor, paints the bright colors of the sky, illuminated by the rays of the rising sun. Example:

“The East is burning...” There must be a similarity. “A bee from a wax cell, flies for a field tribute” - there are no designated words anywhere. A type of metaphor is personification (anthropomorphism) - the transfer of the properties of a living organism to a nonliving one. There are frozen personifications. Sometimes an abstract concept is expressed by a concrete phrase. Such personifications easily become symbols - the sound of an ax in Chekhov. A metaphor can be expressed by two nouns, a verb, an adjective (then it is a metaphorical epithet). has as its subject the fundamental properties of artistic literature: the constants of literary creativity and writing, as well as the patterns of changes in literature in historical time. Literary theory is concerned with both the synchrony of literary life (on the widest possible global scale) and the universal principles of diachrony. Unlike the field of specific literary studies, it is focused on discussing and resolving issues of a general nature. Literary theory includes, firstly, a set of judgments about fiction as an art form: about its general artistic properties (aesthetic, worldview, cognitive) and specific features determined by the nature and possibilities of speech activity. Secondly, theoretical (general) poetics: the doctrine of the composition and structure of literary works. Theoretical poetics, the basic concepts of which are form and content, as well as style and genre, includes the theory of artistic speech (stylistics), adjacent poetry, and the theory of imagery, called eidology in the 1920s, which examines the objective world of a literary work. In the doctrine of artistic imagery, the central concepts are character (the image of a person in literature), artistic time and space, as well as plot. Theoretical poetics also includes the doctrine of composition. Adjacent to theoretical poetics is the theory of interpretation of literary works, which clarifies the prospects, possibilities and boundaries of comprehending their meaning. Thirdly, the theory of literature turns to the dynamic and evolutionary aspects of literary life: it considers the patterns of the genesis of literary creativity (the literary studies of the 19th century were occupied with them), the functioning of literature (this aspect of the science of literature sharply intensified during the last quarter of the 20th century), as well as its movements in historical time (the theory of the literary process, in which the most significant are the general questions of historical poetics). Fourthly, textual criticism has its own theoretical aspect, providing (together with paleography) the comprehension of literary works as an empirical reality.

Origins of literary theory

At the origins of theoretical poetics is Aristotle’s work “On the Art of Poetry”(4th century BC) and the numerous treatises on poetics and rhetoric that followed. In the 19th century, this scientific discipline was strengthened and developed thanks to the works of V. Scherer in Germany, A. A. Potebnya and A. N. Veselovsky in Russia. The intensive development of theoretical poetics in the first decades of the 20th century was a kind of revolution in literary criticism, which had previously focused mainly on the origins and background of writers' creativity. Theoretical and literary studios invariably rely on data from the history of literature (both world and individual national literatures), as well as on studies of individual phenomena of literary life, be they individual works or their groups (the work of a writer, literature of a certain era or movement, a separate literary genre and so on.). At the same time, the provisions of literary theory are actively used in specific literary studies, they are stimulated and directed. In the direction of creating a theoretical history of literature, following Veselovsky, historical poetics is being developed.

Comprehensive first of all the unique, specific properties of its subject, The theory of literature, at the same time, invariably relies on data from scientific disciplines related to literary studies, as well as on the principles of philosophy. Since fiction has linguistic signs as its material, being a form of art, the closest neighbors of literary theory are linguistics and semiotics, art criticism, aesthetics, and axiology. Due to the fact that literary life is a component of the historical process, the science of it requires data from civil history, cultural studies, sociology, the history of social thought and religious consciousness. Being involved in the constants of human existence, fiction encourages its analysts to turn to the provisions of scientific psychology and anthropology, as well as personology (the study of personality), the theory of interpersonal communication and hermeneutics.

As part of the theory of literature, concepts that clarify one of the facets of literary life are very significant and almost predominate. It is right to call them local theories. Such concepts are essentially complementary, although sometimes they argue with each other. Among them are the teachings on the three factors of I. Ten’s literary creativity (race, environment, moment); about the subconscious as the fundamental basis of artistic creativity (psychoanalytic criticism and literary criticism, following the paths of Z. Freud and C. Jung); about the reader with his “horizon of expectations” as the central figure of literary life (receptive aesthetics of the 1970s in Germany); about intertextuality as the most important attribute of any text, incl. and artistic (initially - Y. Kristeva and R. Barth). In Russian literary criticism of the 20th century, theoretical ideas about the psychology of a social group as a decisive stimulus for writing (the school of V.F. Pereverzev) were formed and turned out to be influential; about artistic technique as the essence of art and poetry (V.B. Shklovsky); about symbolism in literature as its dominant property (Tartu-Moscow semiotic school led by Yu.MLotman); about carnivalism as a non-genre and supra-epochal phenomenon (M.M. Bakhtin); about the rhythmic alternation of primary and secondary artistic styles (Dm. Chizhevsky, D. S. Likhachev); about the three stages of the literary process on a worldwide scale (S.S. Averintsev). Along with concepts devoted to one of the aspects of fiction, the theory of literature includes final works that are experiments in a summative and systematic consideration of literary art as an integrity. These are the very multidirectional works of B.V. Tomashevsky, G.N. Pospelov, L.I. Timofeev, the authors of the three-volume monograph IMLI (1962-65), V. Kaiser, R. Welleck and O. Warren, E. Faryno, called “ theories of literature"or "introductions to literary criticism."

The multidirectionality and mutual inconsistency of theoretical and literary constructions are natural and, apparently, irremovable. Understanding the essence of literary creativity largely depends on the cultural and historical situation in which it arose and received justification, and, of course, on the ideological position of literary scholars (this includes pragmatism, the philosophy of life that gravitates towards aestheticism, and the atheistic branch of existentialism, and moral philosophy inheriting from Christianity, coupled with personalism). Scientists are further divided by their orientation towards various related scientific disciplines: psychology (Freudian and Jungian literary criticism), sociology (Marxist literary criticism), semiotics (literary structuralism). The multidirectionality of theoretical constructions is also due to the fact that literary theory often acts as a programmatic justification for the practice of a certain literary school (direction), defending and manifesting a certain creative innovation. These are the connections of the formal school in its early stages with futurism, a number of works of the 1930-50s with socialist realism, French structuralism (partly post-structuralism) with the “new rotn”, postmodernism. The name literary concepts are directional in nature and are predominantly monistic, because tend to focus on some bottom aspect of literary creativity. They constitute an integral facet of the science of literature and have undoubted advantages (in-depth consideration of a certain facet of literature, boldness of hypotheses, pathos of renewal of literary thought). At the same time, when developing monistic concepts, the tendency of scientists to unreasonably rigid schemes and inattention to the diversity and “multicolor” of verbal art make themselves felt. Here there is often an overestimation of one’s own scientific method, a sectarian idea of ​​it as the only fruitful and correct one. Managerial literary criticism often neglects scientific (and sometimes general cultural) traditions. In some cases, modern scientists who do not accept traditions come to reject the theory as such. I.P. Smirnov, taking post-modernist attitudes to the extreme, argues that now we live after the end of theory” (News from the theoretical front. 1997. No. 23).

Theoretical literary criticism also has another, “supradirectional” tradition, which is alien to monistic rigidity and is now very relevant. In Russian science it is clearly represented by the works of Veselovsky. Rejecting all dogmatism, the scientist persistently refused to proclaim any scientific method as the only acceptable one. He spoke within the limits of the use of each of them. Veselovsky’s theoretical and methodological impartiality, non-dogmatism and breadth of thinking are valuable and vital today as a counterbalance to theoretical apriorism. The unobtrusive, cautious tonality of the scientist’s works, which is optimal for literary criticism, is far from accidental. Veselovsky did not like rigid declarations and sharply proclaimed theses. Perhaps the main form of his generalizing thought is a conjectural narrowing, often formulated in the form of a question. What was characteristic of the “non-directional” works of A.N. Veselovsky is in many ways akin to the theoretical works of scientists of the 20th century - V.M. Zhirmunsky, A.P. Skafimov, Bakhtin, Likhachev, who synthesized the heterogeneous theoretical and literary experience of both past eras, as well as modern. The Russian science of literature has now freed itself from the forced pressure of Marxist sociology and the concept of socialist realism as the highest stage of literature, from the methodological rigidity that was decreed from above. But she faced the danger of falling into captivity of a different kind of monistic constructions, be it the cult of pure form, faceless structure, post-Freudian “pansexualism,” the absolutization of mythopoetics and Jungian archetypes, or the reduction of literature and its comprehension (in the spirit of postmodernism) to ironic games. This danger is overcome by inheriting the traditions of “non-directional” literary criticism.

The methodology of literary criticism comes into contact with the theory of literature , the subject of which studies the ways and means (methods) of understanding fiction. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, literary scholars called the scientific method the principles and guidelines associated with the study of a certain area of ​​literary life and literary and artistic creativity. Thus, V.N. Peretz counted 11 equal literary methods (aesthetic, ethical, historical, evolutionary, philological, etc.): “There is no universal method, there are various methods by which we study, examine the material, in accordance with its qualities and assigned tasks "(Peretz V.N. A brief outline of the methodology of the history of Russian literature. 1922). Throughout the 20th century, experiments were repeatedly undertaken to substantiate the advantages of any one scientific method; however, they were not crowned with long-term success: as a rule, “single-saving” attitudes did not linger long in the scientific consciousness. And over time (in Russian literary criticism - thanks to Skaftymov, Bakhtin, Likhachev, Averintsev, A.V. Mikhailov, S.G. Bocharov) a new, broader, free from directional dogmatism understanding of the methodology of literary criticism as focused primarily on the specifics of humanitarian knowledge. Literary studies combines general scientific principles, clearly represented in mathematical and natural science disciplines, with specific features of humanitarian knowledge: an orientation towards comprehending the individual-personal sphere; wide involvement in the cognitive activity of its subject: the value orientations of the scientist himself. Even in such a “strict” field of literary science as poetry, the data of the analyst’s living aesthetic sense are vital. Following V. Windelband, G. Rickert, and V. Dilthey, Bakhtin wrote about the special kind of activity of humanities scholars. According to him, the humanities deal not with “voiceless things” (this is the area of ​​natural science knowledge), but with “speaking being” and personal meanings, which are revealed and enriched in the processes of dialogical communication with works and their authors. The destiny of a humanist is, first of all, understanding as the transformation of someone else’s into “friend or foe.” The humanitarian specificity of literary criticism is most clearly manifested in the field of interpretation by scientists of individual works and their groups. A number of theoretical concepts emphasize the uniqueness of the science of literature to the detriment of its general scientific aspects. E. Steiger’s characterization of literary criticism as a “enjoying science” and Barth’s judgment about the philologist’s consideration of a literary work as a free “walk through the text” are significant. In such cases, there is a danger of replacing scientific knowledge itself with essayistic arbitrariness. There is also another orientation, also fraught with extremes: experiments are being undertaken to build literary studies on the model of the non-humanities. This is the structuralist methodology. The dominant attitude here is towards the radical elimination of the scientist’s subjectivity from his activities, towards the unconditional and absolute objectivity of the acquired knowledge.

An essential aspect of literary theory is the discussion of the problems of the language of literary science. Literary criticism in its dominant branches (especially when referring to specific works) resorts primarily to “ordinary,” non-terminological language, living and figurative. At the same time, like any other science, literary criticism needs its own conceptual and terminological apparatus, which has clarity and rigor. Serious problems arise here that have not yet found a clear solution. And there are also undesirable extremes. On the one hand, these are programs for unifying, and sometimes even decreeing, terms, building their system on the model of mathematical, natural and technical sciences, where the supporting words are strictly unambiguous, as well as an orientation towards the development of unprecedented new terminological complexes. “Directional” literary criticism often shows a tendency towards this kind of terminological hyperbolism. On the other hand, for literary studies, semantic confusion in theorizing experiments and apology for “vague” concepts that cannot have a definition are far from optimal. “Basic”, “key” words of the science of literature (expressions by A.V. Mikhailov) are not terms, but at the same time (within the framework of a particular cultural tradition, artistic movement, scientific school) they have greater or lesser semantic certainty, which and is designed to strengthen the theory of literature, bringing clarity to the phenomena it comprehends.

Theory of literature. Reading as creativity [textbook] Krementsov Leonid Pavlovich

5. General literary concepts and terms

ADEQUATE – equal, identical.

ALLUSION is the use of a word (combination, phrase, quotation, etc.) as a hint that activates the reader’s attention and allows one to see the connection of what is depicted with some known fact of literary, everyday or socio-political life.

ALMANAC is a non-periodic collection of works selected according to thematic, genre, territorial, etc. characteristics: “Northern Flowers”, “Physiology of St. Petersburg”, “Poetry Day”, “Tarusa Pages”, “Prometheus”, “Metropol”, etc.

“ALTER EGO” – second “I”; reflection of a part of the author’s consciousness in a literary hero.

ANACREONTICA POETRY - poems celebrating the joy of life. Anacreon is an ancient Greek lyricist who wrote poems about love, drinking songs, etc. Translations into Russian by G. Derzhavin, K. Batyushkov, A. Delvig, A. Pushkin and others.

ANNOTATION (Latin “annotatio” – note) is a brief note explaining the contents of the book. The abstract is usually given on the back of the title page of the book, after the bibliographic description of the work.

ANONYMOUS (Greek “anonymos” - nameless) is the author of a published literary work who did not give his name and did not use a pseudonym. The first edition of “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was published in 1790 without indicating the author’s surname on the title page of the book.

DYSTOPIA is a genre of epic work, most often a novel, that creates a picture of the life of a society deceived by utopian illusions. – J. Orwell “1984”, Eug. Zamyatin “We”, O. Huxley “O Brave New World”, V. Voinovich “Moscow 2042”, etc.

ANTHOLOGY – 1. A collection of selected works by one author or group of poets of a certain direction and content. – Petersburg in Russian poetry (XVIII – early XX century): Poetic anthology. – L., 1988; Rainbow: Children's Anthology / Comp. Sasha Cherny. – Berlin, 1922, etc.; 2. In the 19th century. Anthological poems were those written in the spirit of ancient lyric poetry: A. Pushkin “The Tsarskoye Selo Statue”, A. Fet “Diana”, etc.

APOCRYPH (Greek “anokryhos” - secret) - 1. A work with a biblical plot, the content of which does not completely coincide with the text of the holy books. For example, “Limonar, that is, Dukhovny Meadow” by A. Remizov and others. 2. An essay attributed with a low degree of reliability to any author. In ancient Russian literature, for example, “Tales of Tsar Constantine”, “Tales of Books” and some others were supposed to have been written by Ivan Peresvetov.

ASSOCIATION (literary) is a psychological phenomenon when, when reading a literary work, one idea (image) by similarity or contrast evokes another.

ATTRIBUTION (Latin “attributio” - attribution) is a textual problem: identifying the author of a work as a whole or its parts.

APHORISM - a laconic saying that expresses a capacious generalized thought: “I would be glad to serve, but it’s sickening to be served” (A.S. Griboyedov).

BALLAD - a lyric-epic poem with a historical or heroic plot, with the obligatory presence of a fantastic (or mystical) element. In the 19th century the ballad was developed in the works of V. Zhukovsky (“Svetlana”), A. Pushkin (“Song of the Prophetic Oleg”), A. Tolstoy (“Vasily Shibanov”). In the 20th century the ballad was revived in the works of N. Tikhonov, A. Tvardovsky, E. Yevtushenko and others.

A FABLE is an epic work of an allegorical and moralizing nature. The narrative in the fable is colored with irony and in the conclusion contains the so-called moral - an instructive conclusion. The fable traces its history back to the legendary ancient Greek poet Aesop (VI–V centuries BC). The greatest masters of the fable were the Frenchman Lafontaine (XVII century), the German Lessing (XVIII century) and our I. Krylov (XVIII-XIX centuries). In the 20th century the fable was presented in the works of D. Bedny, S. Mikhalkov, F. Krivin and others.

BIBLIOGRAPHY is a section of literary criticism that provides a targeted, systematic description of books and articles under various headings. Reference bibliographic manuals on fiction prepared by N. Rubakin, I. Vladislavlev, K. Muratova, N. Matsuev and others are widely known. The multi-volume bibliographic reference book in two series: “Russian Soviet prose writers” and “Russian Soviet poets” provides detailed information on how about publications of literary texts, as well as about scientific and critical literature for each of the authors included in this manual. There are other types of bibliographic publications. Such are, for example, the five-volume bibliographic dictionary “Russian Writers 1800–1917,” “Lexicon of Russian Literature of the 20th Century,” compiled by V. Kazak, or “Russian Writers of the 20th Century.” and etc.

Current information about new products is provided by a special monthly newsletter “Literary Studies”, published by the RAI Institute of Scientific Information. The newspaper “Book Review”, the magazines “Questions of Literature”, “Russian Literature”, “Literary Review”, “New Literary Review”, etc. are also systematically reported on new works of fiction, scientific and critical literature.

BUFF (Italian “buffo” - buffoonish) is a comic, mainly circus genre.

WREATH OF SONNETS - a poem of 15 sonnets, forming a kind of chain: each of the 14 sonnets begins with the last line of the previous one. The fifteenth sonnet consists of these fourteen repeated lines and is called the "key" or "turnpike." A wreath of sonnets is presented in the works of V. Bryusov (“Lamp of Thought”), M. Voloshin (“Sogopa astralis”), Vyach. Ivanov (“Wreath of Sonnets”). It is also found in modern poetry.

VAUDEVILLE is a type of situation comedy. A light entertaining play of everyday content, built on an entertaining, most often love affair with music, songs, and dances. Vaudeville is represented in the works of D. Lensky, N. Nekrasov, V. Sologub, A. Chekhov, V. Kataev and others.

VOLYAPYUK (Volapyuk) – 1. An artificial language that they tried to use as an international language; 2. Gibberish, meaningless set of words, abracadabra.

DEMIURG – creator, creator.

DETERMINISM is a materialistic philosophical concept about objective laws and cause-and-effect relationships of all phenomena of nature and society.

DRAMA – 1. A type of art that has a synthetic nature (a combination of lyrical and epic principles) and belongs equally to literature and theater (cinema, television, circus, etc.); 2. Drama itself is a type of literary work that depicts acute conflict relations between man and society. – A. Chekhov “Three Sisters”, “Uncle Vanya”, M. Gorky “At the Depth”, “Children of the Sun”, etc.

DUMA – 1. Ukrainian folk song or poem on a historical theme; 2. Lyric genre; meditative poems dedicated to philosophical and social problems. – See “Dumas” by K. Ryleev, A. Koltsov, M. Lermontov.

SPIRITUAL POETRY - poetic works of different types and genres containing religious motifs: Y. Kublanovsky, S. Averintsev, Z. Mirkina, etc.

GENRE is a type of literary work, the features of which, although they have developed historically, are in the process of constant change. The concept of genre is used at three levels: generic - the genre of epic, lyric or drama; specific – the genre of novel, elegy, comedy; genre itself - historical novel, philosophical elegy, comedy of manners, etc.

IDYLL - a type of lyric or lyric poetry. An idyll, as a rule, depicts the peaceful, serene life of people in the lap of beautiful nature. – Ancient idylls, as well as Russian idylls of the 18th – early 19th centuries. A. Sumarokov, V. Zhukovsky, N. Gnedich and others.

HIERARCHY is the arrangement of elements or parts of a whole according to the criteria from highest to lowest and vice versa.

INVECTIVE - angry denunciation.

HYPOSTASE (Greek “hipostasis” - person, essence) - 1. The name of each person of the Holy Trinity: The One God appears in three hypostases - God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit; 2. Two or more sides of one phenomenon or object.

HISTORIOGRAPHY is a branch of literary studies that studies the history of its development.

HISTORY OF LITERATURE is a branch of literary criticism that studies the features of the development of the literary process and determines the place of a literary movement, a writer, a literary work in this process.

TALKING - a copy, an exact translation from one language to another.

CANONICAL TEXT (correlates with the Greek “kapop” - rule) - is established in the process of textual verification of publishing and handwritten versions of the work and corresponds to the last “author’s will”.

CANZONA is a type of lyric poetry, mainly love. The heyday of the canzone was the Middle Ages (the work of the troubadours). It is rare in Russian poetry (V. Bryusov “To the Lady”).

CATharsis is the purification of the soul of the viewer or reader, experienced by him in the process of empathizing with literary characters. According to Aristotle, catharsis is the goal of tragedy, which ennobles the viewer and reader.

COMEDY is one of the types of literary creativity that belongs to the dramatic genre. Action and characters In comedy, the goal is to ridicule the ugly in life. Comedy originated in ancient literature and is actively developing right up to our time. There is a distinction between sitcoms and character comedies. Hence the genre diversity of comedy: social, psychological, everyday, satirical.

COMMENTS – notes, interpretation; explanatory notes to the text of a work of art. Comments can be biographical, historical-literary, textual, etc. in nature.

CONTAMINATION (Latin “contaminatio” – mixing) – 1. Formation of a word or expression by connecting parts of words or expressions associated with each other associatively; 2. Combining texts from different editions of one work.

CONTEXT (Latin “contextus” – connection, connection) – 1. A semantically complete passage of text in which the word acquires the meaning necessary for the author. Taken out of context it may have a different meaning; 2. The amount of information necessary to understand the meaning of the work in the historical and aesthetic circumstances of its Appearance and functioning.

CONJUNCTURE (Latin “conjungere” - to bind, connect) is a set of conditions that influence the development of the situation and are considered in their interrelation.

LITERARY CRITICISM is a type of fiction, the art of analyzing both individual works of art and the entire work of the Writer with the aim of interpreting and evaluating them in connection with modern problems of life and literature. It is carried out in the process of co-creation.

LYRICS is a type of literature that recreates the subjective experiences of the author and character, their relationship to what is depicted. The speech form of lyrics is usually an internal monologue, mainly in poetry. Types of lyrics are sonnet, ode, elegy, song, epigram, etc., genres are civil, love, landscape, philosophical, etc.

LYRO-EPIC TYPES - a ballad, a poem, a novel in verse combine the features of depicting reality inherent in epic and lyric poetry, and represent their organic, qualitatively new unity:

LITERARY STUDIES - a cycle of scientific disciplines that study the essence, specificity, functions of fiction, features of literary works; patterns of the literary process, etc.

MADRIGAL – a type of lyrics; a short poem of complimentary content, usually addressed to a woman. Being a type of salon, album poetry, the madrigal has not been widely used lately.

MEDITATIVE LYRICS is a genre containing philosophical reflections on the main problems of existence:

We can't predict

How will our word respond?

And we are given sympathy,

How grace is given to us.

F. Tyutchev

MELODRAMA is a genre of drama devoted primarily to love themes and characterized by intense intrigue, sentimentality, and instructive intonation.

MEMOIRS (Memoirs) – autobiographical works about persons and events in which the author was a participant or witness. - “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by himself,” “People, Years, Life” by I. Ehrenburg, “Epilogue” by V. Kaverin, etc.

METHOD (Greek “meta” - through; “hodos” - path; literally “path through material”) – 1. A way of knowing, researching, depicting life; 2. Reception, principle.

METHODS OF LITERATURE – studies a set of methods and techniques for the most appropriate teaching of literature at school, gymnasium, lyceum, university, etc.

METHODOLOGY – a set of research methods and techniques.

MYTH (Greek “mithos” - word, legend) - legends about the structure of the world, natural phenomena, gods and heroes. These are, for example, the myths of Ancient Greece. Myths can be reinterpreted in a unique way in literary creativity, performing different functions at different stages of the literary process.

NOVELLA (Italian “novella” - news) is a prose (less often poetic) genre of epic with a sharp plot, a laconic narration and an unexpected ending. – Novels by Maupassant, O. Henry, A. Chekhov, L. Andreev, I. Bunin, V. Shukshin, Y. Kazakov and others.

ODA – type of lyrics; a work of a solemn, pathetic nature, containing praise for a person or event. The subject of the ode is the sublime in human life. In Russian literature, the ode appeared in XVIII V. (In: Trediakovsky, M. Lomonosov, V. Maikov, G. Derzhavin and others), in the 19th century. ode acquires a civil character (A. Pushkin “Liberty”).

ESSAY - a type of epic work that belongs mainly to journalism. The essay is distinguished by the authenticity of its depiction of real life facts and mainly touches on topical social problems. – Essays G. Uspensky, V. Ovechkin, Y. Chernichenko and others.

PAMPHLET is a genre of journalism, an accusatory polemical work of socio-political content: M. Gorky “The City of the Yellow Devil”, “Belle France”, etc.

PARODY is a comic reproduction of the features of the content and form of a work or the artist’s work as a whole. A parody can be an independent work or part of a major work - “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by F. Rabelais, “The History of a City” by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, “New Moscow Philosophy” by V. Pietsukh, etc. The goals of the parody are different. It can act as a form of criticism, ridicule of some stylistic or thematic preferences of the author, discrepancy between content and form - burlesque, travesty - using the comic effect that arises from the movement of the hero of some famous literary work to other space-time coordinates. This is E. Khazin’s parody:

Our Evgeniy gets on the tram.

Oh, poor, dear man!

I didn’t know such movements

His unenlightened age.

Fate kept Evgeniy

His leg was only crushed,

And just once, with a push in the stomach,

They told him: “Idiot!”

He, remembering the ancient customs,

I decided to end the dispute with a duel,

He reached into his pocket... But someone stole

It's been a long time since his gloves have been worn.

In the absence of such

Onegin remained silent and became silent.

High examples of various parodies can be found in the book “Parnassus Standing on End” (M., 1990).

PATHOS (Greek “pathos” - feeling, passion) - the emotional coloring of a literary work, its spiritual content, purposefulness. Types of pathos: heroic, tragic, romantic, etc.

CHARACTER (Latin “persona” - personality) is a character in a work of art.

PERSONIFICATION – attribution of thoughts, feelings of a character or author to another person.

SONG – 1. Type of lyrical kind; a short poem, usually with a quatrain and a refrain; 2. A special type of creativity created by the efforts of a poet, composer, singer. Type of song - original song: V. Vysotsky, A. Galich, Y. Vizbor, etc.

PLAGIARISM is literary theft.

STORY is a type of epic work in which the narrative principle predominates. The story reveals the life of the main character within a few episodes. The author of the story values ​​​​the authenticity of what is described and instills in the reader the idea of ​​its reality. (A. Pushkin “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin”, I. Turgenev “Spring Waters”, A. Chekhov “Steppe”, etc.).

SUBTEXT is the internal, not verbally expressed meaning of the text. The subtext is hidden and can be restored by the reader taking into account the specific historical situation. Most often present in psychological genres.

MESSAGE – type of lyrics; a poem in the form of a letter or address to a person or group of people: A. Pushkin “In the depths of Siberian ores”, F. Tyutchev “K.B. (“I met you...”), S. Yesenin “Letter to Mother”, etc.

POETRY -1. The art of words; 2. Fiction in poetic form.

POEM is a type of lyric-epic work that “captures life in its highest moments” (V. G. Belinsky) with a laconic plot. The genres of the poem are heroic and satirical, romantic and realistic, etc. In the 20th century. Poems of an unusual, non-traditional form appear in Russian literature - A. Akhmatov’s “Poem without a Hero”.

POETICS – 1. The general name of aesthetic treatises devoted to the study of the specifics of literary creativity (“Poetics” by Aristotle, “Poetic Art” by Boileau, etc.) and serving as instruction for novice writers; 2. A system of artistic means or techniques (artistic method, genres, plot, composition, verse, language, etc.) used by a writer to create an artistic world in a single work or creativity as a whole.

PRESENTATION - mannerism, deliberateness; desire to make an impression.

PARABLE (one of the meanings) is a genre of story containing teaching in an allegorical, allegorical form. Parables are possible in verse (parables by A. Sumarokov and others).

PSEUDONY - a fictitious signature hiding the name of the writer: Sasha Cherny - A. M. Glikberg; Maxim Gorky - A. M. Peshkov, etc.; or a group of writers, this was the collective pseudonym Kozma Prutkov, under which A.K. Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers - Alexey, Vladimir and Alexander Mikhailovich - were hiding.

PUBLISHING (Latin “publicus” - public) - a type of literature; a journalistic work is created at the intersection of fiction and journalism and examines current problems of society - political, economic, etc. In a journalistic work, an artistic image performs an auxiliary illustrative function and serves to help the reader understand the author’s main idea: L. N. Tolstoy “I Can’t Be Silent” ", M. Gorky "Untimely Thoughts", etc.

PLAY is the general name for dramatic works.

STORY - a type of epic; the work is small in volume, containing a description of some brief episode from the personal life of the hero (or narrator), which, as a rule, has universal significance. The story is characterized by the presence of one storyline and a small number of characters. A variation is a mood story that conveys a certain state of mind (events do not play a significant role).

REMINISTENCE is a special type of association that arises from the reader’s personal feelings, forcing him to remember a similar image or picture.

RECIPIENT (Latin “recipientis” – recipient) – a person who perceives art.

GENUS LITERARY – type of literary works. The division of works into types is based on the purpose and method of their creation: an objective narration of events (see. Epic); subjective story about the inner world of a person (see. Lyrics); a method that combines objective and subjective display of Reality, a dialogical depiction of events (see. Drama).

NOVEL – a type of epic; a work based on a comprehensive analysis of a person’s private life throughout its entire length and in numerous connections with the surrounding reality. Mandatory features of a novel are the presence of several parallel storylines and polyphony. The genres of the novel are social, philosophical, psychological, fantasy, detective, etc.

A NOVEL IN VERSE is a lyric-epic type of literary creativity; a form that combines the epic scope of depicting reality with the lyrical self-expression of the author. – A. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”, B. Pasternak “Spektorsky”.

ROMANCE is a short lyric poem, either set to music or designed for such a set. Romance has a long past. Its history goes back to the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Time of greatest popularity: the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century. Among the masters of romance are V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, Evg. Baratynsky and others:

Don't say: love will pass,

Your friend wants to forget about that;

He trusts in her for eternity,

He sacrifices happiness to her.

Why extinguish my soul

Barely sparkling desires?

Just for a moment allow me without grumbling

Surrender to your tenderness.

Why suffer? What's in love for me

Got it from cruel skies

Without bitter tears, without deep wounds,

Without tedious melancholy?

Love's days are short,

But I can’t bear to ripen it cold;

I'll die with her, like a dull sound

A suddenly broken string.

A. Delvig

SAGA – 1. A type of Old Irish and Old Norse epic; 2. Epic narrative - “The Forsyte Saga” by D. Galsworthy.

SATIRE – 1. A unique way of depicting reality, with the goal of identifying, punishing and ridiculing vices, shortcomings, shortcomings of society and the individual. This goal is achieved, as a rule, through exaggeration, grotesque, caricature, and absurdity. Genres of satire - fable, comedy, satirical novel, epigram, pamphlet, etc.; 2. Lyric genre; a work containing an exposure of a person or vice. – K. Ryleev “To a temporary worker.”

SERVILE - servile, obsequious.

SKAZ is a method of storytelling focused on the monologue of the character-narrator. It is most often conducted in the first person. The work can either be entirely based on a tale (“Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” by N. Gogol, some stories by N. Leskov, M. Zoshchenko), or include it as a separate part.

STANCES - in Russian poetry of the 18th–19th centuries. a short poem of a meditative nature. The stanza is usually a quatrain, the meter is most often iambic tetrameter (A. Pushkin. Stanzas (“In the hope of glory and goodness...”); M. Lermontov. Stanzas (“Instantly running through the mind...”), etc.).

TAUTOGRAM - a poem in which all words begin with the same sound. A tautogram is sometimes called poetry “with alliteration taken to the extreme” (N. Shulgovsky):

Lazy years are easy to caress

I love lilac meadows

I love the glee of the glee

I catch fragile legends.

Radiant flax lovingly sculpts

The azure of caressing forests.

I love the crafty lily babble,

Flying incense of petals.

V. Smirensky

TANKA is a genre of Japanese poetry; a five-line stanza of a meditative nature using blank verse:

Oh don't forget

Like in my garden

You broke a white azalea branch...

It shone a little

Thin crescent moon.

TEXTOLOGY – a branch of literary criticism; a scientific discipline that studies a literary text by comparing different versions of the work.

THEORY OF LITERATURE is a branch of literary criticism that studies the types, forms and laws of artistic creativity, its social functions. Literary theory has three main objects of study: the nature of fiction, the literary work, and the literary process. Literary theory determines the methodology and technique for analyzing literary works.

LITERARY TYPE – artistic embodiment of the characteristic stable characteristics of a person at a specific historical stage in the development of society. The literary type is psychologically motivated and conditioned by the socio-historical situation. V. Belinsky called the literary type a “familiar stranger,” meaning the embodiment of the general in the individual.

TRAGEDY is a type of drama. At the heart of the tragedy is an insoluble conflict that ends in the death of the hero. The main goal of tragedy, according to Aristotle, is catharsis, the purification of the soul of the viewer-reader through compassion for the hero, who is a toy in the hands of Fate. – Ancient tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides; tragedies by W. Shakespeare, P. Corneille, J.-B. Racine, F. Schiller, etc. In Russian literature, tragedy is a rare genre that existed mainly in the 18th century. in the works of M. Kheraskov, A. Sumarokov and others.

UNIQUE – inimitable, one of a kind, exceptional.

UTOPIA is a genre of fiction containing a description of an ideal social structure: “City of the Sun” by T. Campanella, “Red Star” by A. Bogdanov, etc.

Farce is a light comedy, vaudeville of rough content.

FEULUETON – journalistic genre; a small work on a current topic, usually of a satirical nature, usually published in newspapers and magazines.

PHILOLOGY (Greek “phileo” - love; “logos” - word) is a set of humanities that study written texts and, based on their analysis, the history and essence of the spiritual culture of society. Philology includes literary criticism and linguistics in their modern and historical aspects.

FANTASY is a genre of non-scientific fiction that traces its ancestry to various types of myth-making, legends, fairy tales, and utopias. Fantasy, as a rule, is built on antithesis: good and evil, order and chaos, harmony and dissonance; the hero embarks on a journey, fighting for truth and justice. The book by J. R. R. Tolkien “The Lord of the Rings” (1954) is recognized as a classic work in the fantasy genre. Such fantasy masters as Ursula K. Le Guin, M. Moorcock, and R. Zelazny are widely known. In Russian literature, the genre is represented in the works of M. Semenova, N. Perumov.

HOKKU is a genre of Japanese poetry; a lyric poem of one tercet (17 syllables) without rhyme.

From branch to branch

The drops are quietly running down...

Spring rain.

On a bare branch

Raven sits alone.

Autumn evening.

ARTISTIC METHOD – 1. General principles of working on a text, based on which the writer organizes his creative process. The components of the artistic method are: the writer's worldview; depicted reality; writer's talent; 2. The principle of artistic depiction of reality in art. At a specific historical stage, the artistic method appears in the form of a literary movement and can represent the features of three different options: realistic, romantic and modernist.

AESOP'S LANGUAGE is a way of expressing thoughts through allegories, hints, and omissions. The traditions of the Aesopian language were founded in the works of the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop. In literature it was most often used during the years of censorship persecution.

ELEGY is a short poem colored with sad reflections, melancholy, and sorrow:

The people's thunderstorm is still silent,

The Russian mind is still shackled.

And oppressed freedom

Conceals impulses of bold thoughts.

Oh, long chains of centuries

The ramen of the fatherland will not fall off,

The centuries will pass menacingly, -

And Russia will not awaken!

N. Yazykov

Shocking - a scandalous prank, a challenge to generally accepted norms.

EPIGON - a follower of any direction, deprived of originality, the ability to think and write independently, originally; an imitator repeating the master's motifs.

EPIGRAM (literally from Greek “inscription”) is a small poem of ironic content. E. Baratynsky wrote:

The consummate flyer

Epigram - laughing,

Epigram Egoza,

Rubbing and weaving among the people,

And only the freak is envious,

At once he will grab your eyes.

The characteristic features of the epigram should be brevity, accuracy, and wit:

Viktor Shklovsky about Tolstoy

He composed a substantial volume.

It's good that this volume

It did not come out into the world under Tolstoy.

A. Ivanov

EPISTOLARY FORM OF LITERATURE (Greek “epistola” - letter, message) - is used both in documentary, journalistic and artistic genres (A. Pushkin “A Novel in Letters”; N. Gogol “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”; F . Dostoevsky “Poor People”; I. Bunin “Unknown Friend”; V. Kaverin “Before the Mirror”, etc.).

EPITHALAMA – a genre of ancient lyric poetry; wedding song with wishes to the newlyweds. It is rare in the poetry of modern times - V. Trediakovsky, I. Severyanin.

EPITAPH - a gravestone inscription, sometimes in verse:

EPIC – a type of epic; a large-scale work reflecting the central problems of the life of the people, depicting the main strata of society in detail, down to the details of everyday life. The epic describes both the turning points in the life of the nation and the little things in the everyday existence of the characters. – O. Balzac “Human Comedy”, L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”, etc.

EPOS – 1. A type of art; way of depicting reality - an objective showing by the artist of the surrounding world and the people in it. An epic presupposes a narrative beginning; 2. Type of folk art; a large-scale work containing myths, legends, tales: the ancient Indian epic “Ramayana”, the Finnish “Kalevala”, the Indian “Song of Hiawatha”, etc.