Over thousands of years of cultural development, humanity has created countless literary works, among which we can distinguish some basic types that are similar in the way and form of reflecting human ideas about the world around us. These are three types (or types) of literature: epic, drama, lyric.

What is different about each type of literature?

Epic as a type of literature

Epic(epos - Greek, narrative, story) is a depiction of events, phenomena, processes external to the author. Epic works reflect the objective course of life, human existence as a whole. Using various artistic media, the authors of epic works express their understanding of historical, socio-political, moral, psychological and many other problems that live with human society in general and each of its representatives in particular. Epic works have significant visual potential, thereby helping the reader to understand the world, to comprehend the deep problems of human existence.

Drama as a genre of literature

Drama(drama - Greek, action, performance) is a type of literature, the main feature of which is the stage nature of the works. Plays, i.e. dramatic works, are created specifically for the theater, for production on stage, which, of course, does not exclude their existence in the form of independent literary texts intended for reading. Like the epic, drama reproduces the relationships between people, their actions, and the conflicts that arise between them. But unlike epic, which is narrative in nature, drama has a dialogical form.

Related to this features of dramatic works :

2) the text of the play consists of conversations between the characters: their monologues (the speech of one character), dialogues (a conversation between two characters), polylogues (simultaneous exchange of remarks by several participants in the action). That is why speech characterization turns out to be one of the most important means of creating a memorable character of a hero;

3) the action of the play, as a rule, develops quite dynamically, intensively, as a rule, it is allocated 2-3 hours of stage time.

Lyrics as a type of literature

Lyrics(lyra - Greek, musical instrument, to the accompaniment of which poetic works and songs were performed) is distinguished by a special type of construction artistic image- this is an image-experience in which the individual emotional and spiritual experience of the author is embodied. Lyrics can be called the most mysterious type of literature, because it is addressed to the inner world of a person, his subjective feelings, ideas, and ideas. In other words, a lyrical work serves primarily the individual self-expression of the author. The question arises: why do readers, i.e. other people turn to such works? The whole point is that the lyricist, speaking on his own behalf and about himself, miraculously embodies universal human emotions, ideas, hopes, and the more significant the author’s personality, the more important his individual experience is for the reader.

Each type of literature also has its own system of genres.

Genre(genre - French genus, species) - a historically established type of literary work that has similar typological features. Genre names help the reader navigate the vast sea of ​​literature: some people love detective stories, others prefer fantasy, and still others are a fan of memoirs.

How to determine What genre does a particular work belong to? Most often, the authors themselves help us in this, calling their creation a novel, story, poem, etc. However, some author’s definitions seem unexpected to us: let us remember that A.P. Chekhov emphasized that “The Cherry Orchard” is a comedy, and not a drama at all, but A.I. Solzhenitsyn considered One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich to be a story, not a novella. Some literary scholars call Russian literature a collection of genre paradoxes: the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”, the prose poem “Dead Souls”, the satirical chronicle “The History of a City”. There was a lot of controversy regarding “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy. The writer himself said only about what his book is not: “What is War and Peace? This is not a novel, still less a poem, still less a historical chronicle. “War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” And only in the 20th century did literary scholars agree to call the brilliant creation of L.N. Tolstoy's epic novel.

Each literary genre has a number of stable characteristics, knowledge of which allows us to classify a specific work into one group or another. Genres develop, change, die out and are born, for example, literally before our eyes arose new genre blog (web loq English online journal) - personal online diary.

However, for several centuries there have been stable (also called canonical) genres.

Literature of literary works - see table 1).

Table 1.

Genres of literary works

Epic genres of literature

Epic genres are primarily distinguished by their volume; on this basis they are divided into small ones ( essay, story, short story, fairy tale, parable ), average ( story ), large ( novel, epic novel ).

Feature article- a small sketch from life, the genre is both descriptive and narrative. Many essays are created on a documentary, life basis; they are often combined into cycles: a classic example is “A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” (1768) English writer Laurence Stern, in Russian literature - this is “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1790) by A. Radishchev, “Frigate Pallada” (1858) by I. Goncharov” “Italy” (1922) by B. Zaitsev and others.

Story- a small narrative genre, which usually depicts one episode, incident, human character or an important incident in the life of the hero that influenced him future fate(“After the Ball” by L. Tolstoy). Stories are created both on a documentary, often autobiographical basis (“Matryonin’s Dvor” by A. Solzhenitsyn) and through pure fiction (“The Gentleman from San Francisco” by I. Bunin).

The intonation and content of stories can be very different - from comic, funny ( early stories A.P. Chekhov") to the deeply tragic ("Kolyma Tales" by V. Shalamov). Stories, like essays, are often combined into cycles (“Notes of a Hunter” by I. Turgenev).

Novella(novella Italian news) is in many ways akin to a short story and is considered its variety, but is distinguished by the special dynamism of the narrative, sharp and often unexpected turns in the development of events. Often the narrative in a short story begins with the ending and is built according to the law of inversion, i.e. reverse order, when the denouement precedes the main events (“Terrible Revenge” by N. Gogol). This feature of the construction of the novella will later be borrowed by the detective genre.

The word “novella” has another meaning that future lawyers need to know. In Ancient Rome, the phrase “novellae leges” (new laws) referred to laws introduced after the official codification of law (after the Code of Theodosius II in 438). The novellas of Justinian and his successors, published after the second edition of the Justinian Code, later formed part of the code of Roman laws ( Corpus iuris civillis). IN modern era a novel is a law submitted to parliament (in other words, a draft law).

Fairy tale- the most ancient of the small epic genres, one of the main ones in the oral creativity of any people. This is a small work of a magical, adventurous or everyday nature, where fiction is clearly emphasized. Another important feature folk tale- her edifying character: “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows.” Folk tales are usually divided into fairy tales (“The Tale of the Frog Princess”), everyday ones (“Porridge from an Ax”) and tales about animals (“Zayushkina’s Hut”).

With development written literature literary tales arise that use traditional motifs and symbolic possibilities folk tale. The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is rightfully considered a classic of the genre of literary fairy tales, his wonderful “The Little Mermaid”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “ The Snow Queen", "Persistent tin soldier", "Shadow", "Thumbelina" are loved by many generations of readers, both very young and quite mature. And this is far from accidental, because Andersen’s fairy tales are not only extraordinary and sometimes strange adventures of heroes, they contain deep philosophical and moral meaning, enclosed in beautiful symbolic images.

From European literary fairy tales XX century became a classic " A little prince"(1942) by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. And the famous “Chronicles of Narnia” (1950 - 1956) by the English writer Cl. Lewis and “The Lord of the Rings” (1954-1955), also by the Englishman J.R. Tolkien, are written in the fantasy genre, which can be called a modern transformation of an ancient folk tale.

In Russian literature, the fairy tales of A.S., of course, remain unsurpassed. Pushkin: “About the dead princess and seven heroes”, “About the fisherman and the fish”, “About Tsar Saltan...”, “About the golden cockerel”, “About the priest and his worker Balda”. An excellent storyteller was P. Ershov, the author of “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” E. Schwartz in the 20th century creates the form of fairy tale plays, one of them “The Bear” (another name is “An Ordinary Miracle”) is well known to many thanks to the wonderful film directed by M. Zakharov.

Parable- also very ancient folk genre, but, unlike fairy tales, parables contained written monuments: Talmud, Bible, Koran, monument of Syriac literature “Teachings of Akahara”. A parable is a work of instructive, symbolic nature, distinguished by its sublimity and seriousness of content. Ancient parables, as a rule, are small in volume, they do not contain detailed story about events or psychological characteristics character of the hero.

The purpose of the parable is edification or, as they once said, teaching wisdom. IN European culture The most famous are the parables from the Gospels: about the prodigal son, about the rich man and Lazarus, about the unjust judge, about the crazy rich man and others. Christ often spoke to his disciples allegorically, and if they did not understand the meaning of the parable, he explained it.

Many writers turned to the genre of parables, not always, of course, investing in it a high religious meaning, but rather trying to express in an allegorical form some kind of moralistic edification, such as, for example, L. Tolstoy in his late work. Carry it. V. Rasputin - Farewell to Matera" can also be called a detailed parable, in which the writer speaks with anxiety and sorrow about the destruction of the "ecology of conscience" of man. Many critics also consider the story “The Old Man and the Sea” by E. Hemingway to be part of the tradition of literary parables. The famous contemporary Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho also uses the parable form in his novels and stories (the novel “The Alchemist”).

Tale- a medium literary genre, widely represented in world literature. The story depicts several important episodes from the hero's life, usually one storyline and a small number of characters. The stories are characterized by great psychological intensity; the author focuses on the experiences and changes in mood of the characters. Often main theme The love of the protagonist becomes the story, for example, “White Nights” by F. Dostoevsky, “Asya” by I. Turgenev, “Mitya’s Love” by I. Bunin. Stories can also be combined into cycles, especially those written on autobiographical material: “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy, “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities” by A. Gorky. The intonations and themes of the stories are extremely diverse: tragic, addressed to acute social and moral issues(“Everything Flows” by V. Grossman, “The House on the Embankment” by Y. Trifonov), romantic, heroic (“Taras Bulba” by N. Gogol), philosophical, parable (“The Pit” by A. Platonov), mischievous, comic (“Three in a boat, except for a dog" by the English writer Jerome K. Jerome).

Novel(gotap French originally, in the late Middle Ages, any work written in a Romance language, as opposed to those written in Latin) is a major epic work in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual. The novel is the most complex epic genre, which is distinguished by an incredible number of themes and plots: love, historical, detective, psychological, fantasy, historical, autobiographical, social, philosophical, satirical, etc. All these forms and types of the novel are united by its central idea - the idea of ​​personality, human individuality.

The novel is called an epic privacy, because it depicts the diverse connections between the world and man, society and the individual. The reality surrounding a person is presented in the novel in different contexts: historical, political, social, cultural, national, etc. The author of the novel is interested in how the environment influences a person’s character, how he is formed, how his life develops, whether he managed to find his purpose and realize himself.

Many attribute the origin of the genre to antiquity, such as Long's Daphnis and Chloe, Apuleius's The Golden Ass, and the knightly romance Tristan and Isolde.

In the works of classics of world literature, the novel is represented by numerous masterpieces:

Table 2. Examples of classic novels by foreign and Russian writers (XIX, XX centuries)

Famous novels of Russian writers of the 19th century .:

In the 20th century, Russian writers develop and enhance the traditions of their great predecessors and create no less wonderful novels:

Of course, none of these listings can claim completeness and exhaustive objectivity, this especially applies to modern prose. In this case, the most famous works that glorified both the country’s literature and the name of the writer are named.

Epic novel. In ancient times there were forms heroic epic: folklore sagas, runes, epics, songs. These are the Indian “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata”, the Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf”, the French “Song of Roland”, the German “Song of the Nibelungs”, etc. In these works, the hero’s exploits were exalted in an idealized, often hyperbolic form. The later epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Homer, “Shah-name” by Ferdowsi, while retaining the mythological character of the early epic, nevertheless had a pronounced connection with real history, and the theme of interweaving human destiny and the life of the people becomes one of the main things in them. The experience of the ancients will be in demand in XIX-XX centuries, when writers try to comprehend the dramatic relationship between the era and the individual personality, talk about what tests morality, and sometimes the human psyche, are subjected to at the time of the greatest historical upheavals. Let us remember the lines of F. Tyutchev: “Blessed is he who visited this world in its fatal moments.” The poet's romantic formula in reality meant the destruction of all familiar forms of life, tragic losses and unfulfilled dreams.

The complex form of the epic novel allows writers to artistically explore these problems in all their completeness and inconsistency.

When we talk about the genre of the epic novel, of course, we immediately remember “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy. Other examples can be mentioned: “ Quiet Don"M. Sholokhov, "Life and Fate" by V. Grossman, "The Forsyte Saga" by the English writer Galsworthy; the book of the American writer Margaret Mitchell “Gone with the Wind” can also with good reason be classified as this genre.

The very name of the genre indicates a synthesis, a combination of two main principles in it: novel and epic, i.e. related to the theme of the life of an individual and the theme of the history of the people. In other words, the epic novel tells about the destinies of the heroes (as a rule, the heroes themselves and their destinies are fictitious, invented by the author) against the backdrop of and in close connection with epoch-making historical events. So, in “War and Peace” - these are the fates of individual families (Rostov, Bolkonsky), beloved heroes (Prince Andrei, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha and Princess Marya) at a turning point for Russia and all of Europe historical period early XIX century, Patriotic War of 1812. In Sholokhov's book, the events of the First World War, two revolutions and a bloody civil war tragically invade the life of the Cossack farm, the Melekhov family, and the fate of the main characters: Grigory, Aksinya, Natalya. V. Grossman talks about the Great Patriotic War and its main event - the Battle of Stalingrad, about the tragedy of the Holocaust. “Life and Fate” also intertwines historical and family theme: the author traces the history of the Shaposhnikovs, trying to understand why the destinies of the members of this family turned out so differently. Galsworthy describes the life of the Forsyte family during the legendary Victorian era in England. Margaret Mitchell - a central event in US history, Civil War between North and South, which radically changed the lives of many families and the fate of the famous heroine American literature - Scarlett O'Hara.

Dramatic genres of literature

Tragedy(tragodia Greek goat song) - dramatic genre, which originated in Ancient Greece. Emergence ancient theater and tragedies are associated with the worship of the cult of the god of fertility and wine Dionysus. A number of holidays were dedicated to him, during which ritual magical games were played with mummers and satyrs, whom the ancient Greeks imagined as two-legged goat-like creatures. It is assumed that it was precisely this appearance of the satyrs singing hymns to the glory of Dionysus that gave such a strange name in translation to this serious genre. Theatrical performance in Ancient Greece was given magical religious significance, and theaters built in the form of large arenas under open air, have always been located in the very center of cities and were one of the main public places. Spectators sometimes spent the whole day here: eating, drinking, loudly expressing their approval or censure of the spectacle being presented. The heyday of ancient Greek tragedy is associated with the names of three great tragedians: Aeschylus (525-456 BC) - author of the tragedies “Chained Prometheus”, “Oresteia”, etc.; Sophocles (496-406 BC) - author of “Oedipus the King”, “Antigone”, etc.; and Euripides (480-406 BC) - the creator of “Medea”, “Troyanok”, etc. Their creations will remain examples of the genre for centuries; people will try to imitate them, but they will remain unsurpassed. Some of them (“Antigone”, “Medea”) are still staged today.

What are the main features of the tragedy? The main one is the presence of an insoluble global conflict: in ancient tragedy this is the confrontation between rock, fate, on the one hand, and man, his will, free choice- with another. In the tragedies of later eras, this conflict acquired a moral and philosophical character, as a confrontation between good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, love and hatred. It has an absolute character; the heroes who embody the opposing forces are not ready for reconciliation or compromise, and therefore the ending of the tragedy often involves a lot of death. This is how the tragedies of the great English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were constructed; let us remember the most famous of them: “Hamlet”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Othello”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Julius Caesar”, etc.

In tragedies French playwrights In the 17th century, Corneille (“Horace”, “Polyeuctus”) and Racine (“Andromache”, “Britannicus”) this conflict received a different interpretation - as a conflict of duty and feeling, rational and emotional in the souls of the main characters, i.e. acquired a psychological interpretation.

The most famous in Russian literature is the romantic tragedy “Boris Godunov” by A.S. Pushkin, created on historical material. In one of his best works, the poet acutely raised the problem of the “real trouble” of the Moscow state - a chain reaction of impostures and “terrible atrocities” that people are ready for for the sake of power. Another problem is the attitude of the people to everything that happens in the country. The image of the “silent” people in the finale of “Boris Godunov” is symbolic; discussions continue to this day about what Pushkin wanted to say by this. Based on the tragedy, the opera of the same name by M. P. Mussorgsky was written, which became a masterpiece of Russian opera classics.

Comedy(Greek komos - cheerful crowd, oda - song) - a genre that originated in Ancient Greece a little later than tragedy (5th century BC). The most famous comedian of that time was Aristophanes (“Clouds”, “Frogs”, etc.).

In comedy with the help of satire and humor, i.e. comic, moral vices are ridiculed: hypocrisy, stupidity, greed, envy, cowardice, complacency. Comedies, as a rule, are topical, i.e. addressed to social issues, exposing the shortcomings of the authorities. There are sitcoms and character comedies. In the first, a cunning intrigue, a chain of events (Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors) are important; in the second, the characters of the heroes, their absurdity, one-sidedness, as in the comedies “The Minor” by D. Fonvizin, “The Tradesman in the Nobility”, “Tartuffe”, written by the classic genre, the 17th century French comedian Jean Baptiste Moliere. In Russian drama, it turned out to be especially popular satirical comedy with its sharp social criticism, such as “The Inspector General” by N. Gogol, “The Crimson Island” by M. Bulgakov. A. Ostrovsky created many wonderful comedies (“Wolves and Sheep”, “Forest”, “Mad Money”, etc.).

The comedy genre invariably enjoys success with the public, perhaps because it affirms the triumph of justice: in the finale, vice must certainly be punished and virtue must triumph.

Drama- a relatively “young” genre that appeared in Germany in the 18th century as lesedrama (German) - a play for reading. The drama is addressed to the everyday life of man and society, everyday life, family relationships. I'm interested in drama first and foremost. inner world human, this is the most psychological of all dramatic genres. At the same time, this is also the most literary of stage genres, for example, the plays of A. Chekhov are largely perceived more as texts for reading, rather than as theatrical performances.

Lyrical genres of literature

The division into genres in lyrics is not absolute, because the differences between genres in this case are conditional and not as obvious as in epic and drama. More often we distinguish lyrical works by their thematic features: landscape, love, philosophical, friendly, intimate lyrics, etc. However, we can name some genres that have pronounced individual characteristics: elegy, sonnet, epigram, epistle, epitaph.

Elegy(elegos Greek plaintive song) - a poem of medium length, usually of moral, philosophical, love, confessional content.

The genre arose in antiquity, and its main feature was considered to be the elegiac distich, i.e. dividing a poem into couplets, for example:

The longed-for moment has arrived: my long-term work is over. Why is this incomprehensible sadness secretly disturbing me?

A. Pushkin

In the poetry of the 19th-20th centuries, the division into couplets is no longer such a strict requirement; now the semantic features that are associated with the origin of the genre are more significant. In terms of content, the elegy goes back to the form of the Ancient funeral “laments”, in which, while mourning the deceased, they simultaneously remembered his extraordinary virtues. This origin predetermined the main feature of the elegy - the combination of grief with faith, regret with hope, acceptance of existence through sadness. The lyrical hero of the elegy is aware of the imperfection of the world and people, his own sinfulness and weakness, but does not reject life, but accepts it in all its tragic beauty. A striking example- “Elegy” by A.S. Pushkin:

Crazy years of faded fun

It's hard for me, like a vague hangover.

But like wine - the sadness of days gone by

In my soul, the older I get, the stronger it is.

My path is sad. Promises me work and grief

The coming troubled sea.

But I don’t want, O friends, to die;

I want to live so that I can think and suffer;

And I know I will have pleasure

Between sorrows, worries and worries:

Sometimes I’ll get drunk again with harmony,

I will shed tears over the fiction,

And maybe - at my sad sunset

Love will flash with a farewell smile.

Sonnet(sonetto Italian song) - the so-called “solid” poetic form, which has strict rules of construction. The sonnet has 14 lines, divided into two quatrains and two tercets. In quatrains only two rhymes are repeated, in terzettos two or three. The methods of rhyming also had their own requirements, which, however, varied.

The birthplace of the sonnet is Italy; this genre is also represented in English and French poetry. The 14th century Italian poet Petrarch is considered the luminary of the genre. He dedicated all his sonnets to his beloved Donna Laura.

In Russian literature, the sonnets of A.S. Pushkin remain unsurpassed; poets of the Silver Age also created beautiful sonnets.

Epigram(epigramma Greek, inscription) - a short mocking poem, usually addressed to a specific person. Many poets write epigrams, sometimes increasing the number of their ill-wishers and even enemies. The epigram on Count Vorontsov turned out to be bad for A.S. Pushkin by the hatred of this nobleman and, ultimately, expulsion from Odessa to Mikhailovskoye:

Popu, my lord, half-merchant,

Half-sage, half-ignorant,

Semi-scoundrel, but there is hope

Which will be complete at last.

Mocking poems can be dedicated not only to a specific person, but also to a general addressee, as, for example, in the epigram of A. Akhmatova:

Could Biche, like Dante, create?

Did Laura go to praise the heat of love?

I taught women to speak...

But, God, how to silence them!

There are even known cases of a kind of duel of epigrams. When the famous Russian lawyer A.F. Kony was appointed to the Senate, his ill-wishers spread an evil epigram about him:

Caligula brought his horse to the Senate,

It stands, dressed in both velvet and gold.

But I will say, we have the same arbitrariness:

I read in the newspapers that Kony is in the Senate.

To which A.F. Kony, who was distinguished by his extraordinary literary talent, replied:

(epitafia Greek, funerary) - a farewell poem to a deceased person, intended for a tombstone. Initially, this word was used in the literal sense, but later received to a greater extent figurative meaning. For example, I. Bunin has a lyrical miniature in prose “Epitaph”, dedicated to farewell to the Russian estate that was dear to the writer, but forever a thing of the past. Gradually, the epitaph is transformed into a dedication poem, a farewell poem (“Wreath to the Dead” by A. Akhmatova). Perhaps the most famous poem of this kind in Russian poetry is “The Death of a Poet” by M. Lermontov. Another example is “Epitaph” by M. Lermontov, dedicated to the memory of Dmitry Venevitinov, a poet and philosopher who died at the age of twenty-two.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. The question of genre as a variety of one or another is quite complex. This term is found in music, painting, architecture, theater, cinema, and literature.

Determining the genre of a work is a task that not every student can cope with. Why is genre division necessary at all? Where are the boundaries separating a novel from a poem, and a short story from a story? Let's try to figure it out together.

Genre in literature - what is it?

The word "genre" comes from the Latin genus ( species, genus). Literary reference books report that:

A genre is a historically established variety of literary works, united by a certain set of formal and substantive features.

From the definition it is clear that in the process of genre evolution it is important to highlight three points:

1. each genre of literature is formed over a long period of time (each of them has its own history);
2. the main reason for its appearance is the need to express new ideas in an original way (substantive criterion);
3. distinguish one type of work is distinguished from another by external features: volume, plot, structure, composition (formal criterion).

All genres of literature can be represented this way:

These are three typology options that help classify a work into a particular genre.

The history of the emergence of literary genres in Rus'

The literature of European countries was formed according to the principle of movement from the general to the particular, from the anonymous to the author. Artistic creativity both abroad and in Russia, it was fed from two sources:

1. spiritual culture, the center of which was monasteries;
2. in folk speech.

If you look closely at the history of literature in Ancient Rus', you will notice how chronicles, patericons, lives of saints and patristic works are gradually being replaced by new forms of storytelling.

At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries such genres of ancient Russian literature, as a word, walking (ancestor of the travel novel), (everyday “splinter” moral parable), heroic poem, spiritual verse. Based on oral traditions, which emerged separately during the period of collapse ancient myth to a fairy-tale epic and a realistic military story.

By interacting with foreign written traditions, Russian literature is enriched new genre forms : a novel, a secular philosophical story, an author's fairy tale, and in the era of romanticism - a poem, a lyric poem, a ballad.

The realistic canon brings to life a problematic novel, story, story. On turn of XIX-XX centuries, genres with blurred boundaries have become popular again: essay (), essay, short poem, symbolist. Old forms are filled with original meaning, transform into each other, and destroy given standards.

Dramatic art has a powerful influence on the formation of the genre system. Setting for theatricality changes the appearance of such genres familiar to the average reader as a poem, a story, a short story, and even a small lyric poem (in the era of the “sixties” poets).

In modern literature, the genre canon remains open. There is a prospect of interaction not only within individual genres, but also within various types of art. Every year a new genre appears in literature.

Literature by genus and species

The most popular classification breaks down works “by type” (all of its components are shown in the third column in the figure shown at the beginning of this publication).

To understand this genre classification, it is necessary to remember that literature, like music, is worth on "three pillars". These whales, called genera, are in turn divided into species. For clarity, let's present this structure in the form of a diagram:

1. The oldest “whale” is considered epic. Its progenitor, who split into legend and tale.
2. appeared when humanity stepped beyond the stage of collective thinking and turned to the individual experiences of each member of the community. The nature of lyrics - personal experience author.
3. older than epic and lyric poetry. Its appearance is associated with the era of antiquity and the emergence of religious cults - mysteries. Drama became the art of the streets, a means of releasing collective energy and influencing masses of people.

Epic genres and examples of such works

The largest epic forms known to modern times are the epic and the epic novel. The ancestors of the epic can be considered a saga, widespread in the past among the peoples of Scandinavia, and a legend (for example, the Indian “The Tale of Gilgamesh”).

Epic is a multi-volume narrative about the fate of several generations of heroes in historically established circumstances and fixed by cultural tradition.

A rich socio-historical background is required against which the events of the characters’ private lives unfold. For an epic, such features as a multicomponent plot, connections between generations, and the presence of heroes and antiheroes are important.

Because it depicts large-scale events over the course of centuries, it rarely features careful psychological portrayal, but the epics created in the last few centuries combine these attitudes with achievements contemporary art. “The Forsyte Saga” by J. Galsworthy not only describes the history of several generations of the Forsyte family, but also gives subtle, vivid images of individual characters.

Unlike the epic epic novel covers a shorter period of time (no more than a hundred years) and tells the story of 2-3 generations of heroes.

In Russia, this genre is represented by the novels “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, “Quiet Don” by M.A. Sholokhov, “Walking through torment” by A.N. Tolstoy.

To medium forms Epic includes novel and story.

The term " novel" comes from the word "Roman" and is reminiscent of the ancient prose narrative that gave birth to this genre.

The Satyricon of Petronius is considered an example of an ancient novel. In medieval Europe, the picaresque novel became widespread. The era of sentimentalism gives the world a travel novel. Realists develop the genre and fill it with classical content.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the following appeared types of novels:

1. philosophical;
2. psychological;
3. social;
4. intellectual;
5. historical;
6. love;
7. detective;
8. adventure novel.

IN school curriculum many novels. Giving examples, name the books by I.A. Goncharova " An ordinary story", "Oblomov", "Cliff", works by I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”, “Noble Nest”, “On the Eve”, “Smoke”, “New”. The genre of “Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “The Brothers Karamazov” by F. M. Dostoevsky is also a novel.

Tale does not affect the fate of generations, but has several storylines developing against the backdrop of one historical event.

« The captain's daughter» A. S. Pushkin and “The Overcoat” by N.V. Gogol. V.G. Belinsky spoke about the primacy of narrative literature in XIX culture century.

Small epic forms(story, sketch, novella, essay) have one storyline, a limited number of characters and are characterized by a compressed volume.

Examples include stories by A. Gaidar or Y. Kazakov, short stories by E. Poe, essays by V.G. Korolenko or essay by W. Wulf. Let’s make a reservation, sometimes it “works” as a genre scientific style or journalism, but has artistic imagery.

Lyrical genres

Large lyrical forms represented by a poem and a wreath of sonnets. The first is more plot-driven, which makes it similar to the epic. The second one is static. The wreath of sonnets, consisting of 15 14-verse lines, describes a topic and the author’s impressions of it.

In Russia, poems have a socio-historical character. " Bronze Horseman" and "Poltava" A.S. Pushkin, “Mtsyri” by M.Yu. Lermontov, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” N.A. Nekrasov, “Requiem” by A.A. Akhmatova - all these poems lyrically describe Russian life and national characters.

Small forms of lyrics numerous. This is a poem, ode, canzone, sonnet, epitaph, fable, madrigal, rondo, triolet. Some forms originated in medieval Europe (the sonnet genre was especially loved by lyricists in Russia), some (for example, the ballad) became the legacy of the German romantics.

Traditionally small Poetic works are usually divided into 3 types:

1. philosophical lyrics;
2. love lyrics;
3. landscape lyrics.

IN Lately Urban lyrics also stood out as a separate subtype.

Dramatic genres

Drama gives us three classic genres:

1. comedy;
2. tragedy;
3. actual drama.

All three types of performing arts originated in Ancient Greece.

Comedy was initially associated with religious cults of purification, mysteries, during which carnival action unfolded on the streets. The sacrificial goat “comos”, which was later called the “scapegoat”, walking through the streets along with the artists, symbolized all human vices. According to the canon, they are what comedy should make fun of.

Comedy is the genre of “Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboyedov and “Nedoroslya” D.I. Fonvizina.

In the era of classicism, 2 types of comedy developed: comedy provisions and comedy characters. The first played with circumstances, passed off one hero as another, and had an unexpected ending. The second pitted the characters against each other in the face of an idea or task, generating a theatrical conflict on which the intrigue rested.

If during a comedy the playwright expected the healing laughter of the crowd, then tragedy I set out to bring tears to my eyes. It was bound to end with the death of the hero. Empathizing with the characters, the viewer or purification.

"Romeo and Juliet" and also "Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare were written in the tragedy genre.

Actually drama- This is a later invention of dramaturgy, removing therapeutic tasks and focusing on subtle psychologism, objectivity, and play.

Determining the genre of a literary work

How was the poem "Eugene Onegin" called a novel? Why did Gogol define the novel “Dead Souls” as a poem? And why Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard"Is it a comedy? Genre designations are clues that remind you that in the world of art there are right directions, but, fortunately, there are no forever beaten paths.

Just above is a video that helps determine the genre of a particular literary work.

The concept of genre. Principles of genre classification

Literary genres (French genre - genus, type) are types of works that have developed in the process of development of artistic literature. Obviously, the problem of genre in its most general form can be formulated as a problem of classifying works, identifying common - genre - features in them. The main difficulties of classification are related to the historical changes in literature and the evolution of genres.

The number and nature of genre features (the volume of a genre) is a variable quantity in the history of literature, which is reflected in the variety of successive genre theories, as well as the prevailing ideas about genres in writing and reading practice. So, for tragedy in realistic drama of the 19th-20th centuries. Many signs of a classic tragedy are not necessary. In the era of realism, a tragedy is considered to be any dramatic work that reveals a tragic conflict and expresses corresponding pathos. Thus, we can talk about a decrease in the genre volume of tragedy from classicism to realism.

Most genres arose in ancient times. Evolving into lit. process, they nevertheless retain some stable substantive and formal features that allow us to talk about a genre tradition. The genre designations themselves, often included in the text of the work, in its title (“Eugene Onegin. A Novel in Verse”), are signs of literature. traditions; they evoke a certain genre expectation in the reader.

When studying genres, one should distinguish between their most stable and transient features. Within the framework of the theoretical and literary course, the main attention is paid to the characteristics of the most stable genre characteristics. However, it is important to remember that lit. In the process, genre always appears as an element of a genre system, the principles of which depend on the specific historical characteristics of artistic thinking. Thus, in ancient literatures, the development of authorial self-awareness was slow, determined by the stability of traditions and the general pace of national life. Therefore, the genre systems of ancient literatures, distinguished by their complexity and ramifications, are characterized by greater stability compared to the literature of modern times.

True liberation from cruel genre regulations became possible only with the development of realism; it was associated with overcoming subjective one-sidedness in creativity itself. And in realistic literature, which correlates the development of characters with circumstances in their historical concreteness, following the tradition of genres could be carried out much more freely, which generally led to a decrease in their volumes. In all European literature of the 19th century. There is a sharp restructuring of the genre system. Genres began to be perceived as aesthetically equivalent types of works that were open to creative exploration. This approach to genres is typical of our time.

Basic principles of genre classification of literary works. Genre features that have the most stable, historically repeatable character are the basis for the literary classification of works. Traditional genre designations are mainly used as literary terms - fable, ballad, poem, etc. - which spontaneously arose in literature and acquired a wide range of associations in the process of genre evolution.

The most important genre feature of a work is its belonging to one or another literary genre: epic, dramatic, lyrical, lyric-epic genres are distinguished. Within genera, there are different types - stable formal, compositional and stylistic structures, which it is advisable to call generic forms. They are differentiated depending on the organization of speech in the work - poetic or prose, and on the volume of the text. In addition, the basis for identifying generic forms in the epic can be the principles of plot composition, in poetic lyricism - solid strophic forms (sonnet, rondo, triolet), in drama - some or other relation to the theater (drama for reading, for puppet theater), etc. . P.

Epic genres. Due to the breadth and versatility of the depiction of characters in epic works, in comparison with drama and lyric poetry, their genre issues are especially clear and vivid. It reveals itself in a variety of generic forms. Thus, a song, a fairy tale, and a story can be national-historical in their problematics.

In the classification of generic forms, differences in the volume of texts of works are important. Along with the small (story) and medium (story) prose forms, there is a large epic form, which is often called novels. The volume of the text of a work in an epic is determined by the completeness of the recreation of characters and relationships, and hence by the scale of the plot. Unlike a story, a short story is not characterized by a developed system of characters, there is no complex evolution of characters and detailed individualization.

Heroic folk song.

Novels, short stories (short stories, essays)

Satirical, everyday tales, fables

Dramatic genres. With their characteristic short performance time on stage and the resulting unity and concentration of the conflict, they create fertile ground for the expression of certain types of pathos in the actions and experiences of the characters. Therefore, the division of drama into genres is associated with the pathos of the play. But pathos comes from conflict.

An additional substantive criterion for division in drama is the peculiarities of genre issues.

1) Tragedy - a conflict between personal aspirations and super-personal “laws” of life occurs in the minds of the main character (heroes) and the entire plot of the play is created to develop and resolve this conflict. The hero of the tragedy is in a state of conflict not only with other characters, he struggles primarily with himself. The tragedy ends with the death of the usual hero, although, as Belinsky wrote, “The essence of the tragic is not in the bloody ending.”

A) moral descriptive - in the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the characters act as bearers of certain moral and civil norms, reflect the clashes of old and new, more humane, moral norms.

B) national-historical (“Persians” by Aeschylus, “Boris Godunov” by Pushkin)

2) Drama is the most diverse in subject matter, characterized by a wide range of life conflicts depicted. The pathos of drama is generated by the characters’ clashes with the forces of life that oppose them from the outside. However, conflict in drama can also be very serious and acute and can lead to suffering and sometimes even death of the hero.

A) national-historical conflict (“Voevoda” by Ostrovsky, “Enemies” by Gorky)

B) socially everyday (romantic) (“The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare, “Vassa Zheleznova” by Gorky).

3) Comedy - a play filled with humorous or satirical pathos. Such pathos is generated by the comic contradictions of the characters being recreated. The comedy of the characters is revealed through plot conflicts, often based on chance. At the same time, the characters themselves do not change due to the course of events. There is no character development in comedy. The depiction of the internal inconsistency, absurdity, inferiority of comic characters, their satirical or humorous negation - this is the main ideological orientation of comedy.

Lyrical genres. The originality of the lyrics is that it brings to the fore the inner world lyrical hero, his experiences. This is clearly visible not only in works that lack any visual images outside world, but also in descriptive, narrative lyrics, here the experience is conveyed through the emotional expression of speech, the nature of tropes, etc. Therefore, the basis for the meaningful genre division in the lyrics is the very nature of the experience. But experience in lyrics can be subjects of typology in a different way. As in epic and drama, in lyric poetry one can trace differences in genre issues - national-historical, moral-descriptive, romantic, which are manifested here through the typification of the very experience of the lyrical hero.

The genres of literary lyrics were formed on the basis of folk lyrical song, in its various varieties.

1) Ode is a poem expressing the enthusiastic feelings that some significant object arouses in the poet. In the ode, the poet connects primarily with collective feelings - patriotic, civil. Genre issues in an ode can be national-historical or morally descriptive.

2) Satire is a poem expressing indignation, the poet’s indignation at the negative aspects of society. Satire is morally descriptive in terms of genre issues; the poet in it is like the mouthpiece of the advanced part of society, concerned about its negative state.

3) Elegy is a poem filled with sadness and dissatisfaction with life. Sadness can be caused by some reason (“Sorrowful Elegies” by Ovid). But an elegy is possible in which the recreated experience does not have a specific motivation (“I experienced my desires...” by Pushkin).

4) Epigram, epitaph, madrigal - small forms of lyric poetry. In the history of literature, the broad (ancient Greek) and narrow (later) meanings of the epigram are known. The ancient Greek epigram (literally “inscription”) originates from inscriptions on religious objects. A type of epigram was an epitaph - an inscription on a tombstone. The content and emotional tone of the ancient Greek epigrams were different. The originality of thought and the laconicism of its expression are what have always been valued in the epigram. The second, narrow meaning of the epigram, which has been attached to it since the 1st century AD, is a short humorous or satirical poem, most often ridiculing a certain person. The antipode of an epigram (in the higher meaning of the word) is a madrigal - a short, half-joking poem of a complimentary nature (usually addressed to a lady).

Lyric-epic genres. The combination of lyrical meditation and epic narrative is often found in works of different genres (for example, in a romantic poem). But there are genres whose nature is always lyrical and epic.

1) Fable is a morally descriptive genre that contains a short allegorical narrative and a lesson (“moral”) arising from it. Even if the teaching is not “Formulated” in the text of the fable, it is implied; The relationship between the teaching and the plot of the fable constitutes its lyrical-epic basis.

2) A ballad is a small poetic work of plot in which the narrative itself is permeated with lyricism. Unlike a fable, where it is possible to distinguish lyrical ("moral") and epic (plot) parts, a ballad represents an indissoluble fusion of lyrical and epic beginning. Genre issues in a ballad can be national-historical and romantic.

Which are combined on the basis of formal and substantive characteristics. They develop historically, experiencing emergence, flourishing, and some, decline. These include novels, short stories, elegies, feuilletons, tales, comedies, etc. The concept of literary genres is narrower than literary genera. Each contains several genres. For example, a story, a short story, a novel are included in the author's epic kind literature.

The first attempt to systematize literary genres was made in his work. He presented them as something natural, established once and for all. The author only had to fit into the norms of the genre to which he turned. This understanding led to the emergence of a kind of textbooks on normative poetics. The most famous among them was the treatise “Poetic Art” by N. Boileau. Of course, since the time of Aristotle, literary types and genres have not remained absolutely unchanged, but theorists have preferred either not to notice innovations or to reject them. This lasted until it became impossible not to notice the processes taking place in literature. Some genres of literary works unexpectedly took off and died out just as quickly, only occasionally flaring up on the creative horizon (as was the case with the ballad). Others, on the contrary, emerged from an undeserved “imprisonment” (for example, an affair).

In Russian literary criticism, the theory that substantiates literary genres and genera belongs to V. G. Belinsky. He identified three types, depending on the author’s approach to the way of presenting the subject of conversation: epic, drama and lyric.

Assigning a work to a specific genre depends on what criterion is taken as a basis. If the literary genre (drama, lyric, epic) is taken into account, then all genres are divided, respectively, into dramatic, lyrical and epic.

Works representing dramatic gender literature is comedy, drama and tragedy.

Comedy is designed to reflect something incongruous in life, to ridicule an everyday or social phenomenon, human character traits, and sometimes absurd behavior.

Drama is a work that depicts a complex conflict that has arisen between several characters, a serious opposition between them.

Tragedy is a work in which the character of the character is revealed in a struggle leading to his death, or in conditions from which he sees absolutely no way out.

Literary works, representing the epic genre of literature, are divided into three groups:

Large (novel and epic);

Middle (story);

Small (short story, essay, short story).

This genre also includes fairy tale, epic, ballad, fable, historical song and myth.

Works representing the lyrical genre of literature are stanzas, odes, elegy and epistle.

An elegy is a short poem completely imbued with slight sadness. The most famous are the elegies of the classics of the 19th century.

An epistle is a work written in the form of a poetic appeal to one person or several persons.

An ode is a poem in honor of a past or upcoming celebration, in honor of a person, characterized by enthusiasm.

In addition, at the present stage, literary scholars identify another, lyric-epic type of literature. It combines the features of the lyrical and epic and is represented by a poem. This work really shows itself ambiguously. On the one hand, it tells in detail about some event or character (like an epic), and on the other hand, it conveys the feelings, moods, experiences of the hero or the narrator himself, the inner world, thereby approaching the lyrics.

Recently, new genres have not appeared in literature.

Genres of literature

Literary genres- historically emerging groups of literary works, united by a set of formal and substantive properties (in contrast to literary forms, the identification of which is based only on formal characteristics). The term is often incorrectly identified with the term “type of literature.”

Kinds, types and genres of literature do not exist as something unchangeable, given from time to time and eternally existing. They are born, theoretically realized, historically develop, change, dominate, freeze or retreat to the periphery depending on the evolution of artistic thinking as such. The most stable, fundamental thing is, of course, the utmost general concept“genus”, the most dynamic and changeable is the much more specific concept of “genre”.

The first attempts to theoretically substantiate gender make themselves felt in the ancient doctrine of mimesis (imitation). Plato in the Republic, and then Aristotle in the Poetics, came to the conclusion that poetry is of three types, depending on what, how and by what means it imitates. In other words, the generic division of fiction is based on the subject, means and methods of imitation.

Separate remarks on the methods of organizing artistic time and space (chronotope), scattered throughout Poetics, constitute the prerequisites for further division into types and genres of literature.

Aristotle's idea of ​​generic characteristics is traditionally called formal. His successors are representatives of German aesthetics of the 18th-19th centuries. Goethe, Schiller, Aug. Schlegel, Schelling. Around the same time, the principles of the opposite - a substantive approach to the generic division of fiction - were laid down. Its initiator was Hegel, who proceeded from the epistemological principle: the object of artistic knowledge in the epic is the object, in the lyrics - the subject, in drama - their synthesis. Accordingly, the content of an epic work is being in its entirety, dominating the will of people, therefore the event plan predominates in it; the content of a lyrical work is the state of mind, the mood of the lyrical hero, therefore the eventfulness in it recedes into the background; the content of a dramatic work is aspiration towards a goal, the volitional activity of a person, manifested in action.

Derived from the category of genus, or rather, concepts that clarify and concretize it, are the concepts of “type” and “genre”. By tradition, we call stable structural formations within a literary genus, grouping even smaller genre modifications, by type. For example, an epic consists of small, medium and large types, such as a story, an essay, a short story, a story, a novel, a poem, an epic. However, they are often called genres, which in a strict terminological sense specify types either in a historical, or thematic, or structural aspect: an ancient novel, a Renaissance short story, a psychological or industrial essay or novel, a lyrical story, an epic story (“Fate person" by M. Sholokhov). Some structural forms combine specific and genre characteristics, i.e. types do not have genre varieties (such, for example, are the types and at the same time genres of the medieval theater soti and morality). However, along with synonymous word usage, the hierarchical differentiation of both terms is relevant. Accordingly, types are divided into genres according to a number of different characteristics: thematic, stylistic, structural, volume, in relation to the aesthetic ideal, reality or fiction, basic aesthetic categories, etc.

Genres of literature

Comedy- type of dramatic work. Displays everything ugly and absurd, funny and absurd, ridicules the vices of society.

Lyric poem (in prose)- a type of fiction that emotionally and poetically expresses the author’s feelings.

Melodrama- a type of drama whose characters are sharply divided into positive and negative.

Fantasy- a subgenre of fantastic literature. Works of this subgenre are written in an epic fairy-tale style, using motifs from ancient myths and legends. The plot is usually built around magic, heroic adventures and journeys; the plot usually involves magical creatures; The action takes place in a fairy-tale world reminiscent of the Middle Ages.

Feature article- the most reliable type of narrative, epic literature, reflecting facts from real life.

Song or chant- the most ancient type of lyric poetry; a poem consisting of several verses and a chorus. Songs are divided into folk, heroic, historical, lyrical, etc.

Tale- medium shape; a work that highlights a number of events in the life of the main character.

Poem- type of lyric epic work; poetic story telling.

Story- small form, a work about one event in the life of a character.

Novel- large shape; a work in the events of which many characters usually take part, whose destinies are intertwined. Novels can be philosophical, adventure, historical, family, social.

Tragedy- a type of dramatic work telling about the unfortunate fate of the main character, often doomed to death.

Utopia- a genre of fiction close to science fiction, describing a model of an ideal, from the author’s point of view, society. Unlike dystopia, it is characterized by the author’s faith in the impeccability of the model.

Epic- a work or a series of works depicting a significant historical era or a major historical event.

Drama– (in the narrow sense) one of the leading genres of drama; a literary work written in the form of a dialogue between characters. Intended for performance on stage. Focused on spectacular expressiveness. The relationships between people and the conflicts that arise between them are revealed through the actions of the heroes and are embodied in a monologue-dialogue form. Unlike tragedy, drama does not end in catharsis.