All books are divided into two categories - fiction and non-fiction. Fiction refers to all works that have a fictional plot and fictional characters. Fiction is novels, short stories, novellas, plays and poetry (for both children and adults)...
Usually non-fiction called non-fiction (from the English non-fiction - non-fiction, non-fictional literature) - these are textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, monographs, biographies, memoirs, journalism, etc.
Fiction is divided into genre literature, mainstream and intellectual prose.
IN genre literature the main thing is the development of the plot, which fits into certain, pre-known frameworks. For example, any detective story develops according to the scheme “crime - investigation - exposing the criminal”; any romance novel - “heroes meet - fall in love - fight for love - connect hearts.” This does not mean that everything genre novels must have a predictable plot. The skill of a writer lies precisely in creating his own unique world within a given framework.
Genre literature is all about action and quick changes of scenery. All the reader cares about is: “What’s next?”
Genres fiction:
Avant-garde literature is characterized by violation of canons and language and plot experiments. As a rule, avant-garde works are published in very small editions. Closely intertwined with intellectual prose.
Action film - aimed primarily at a male audience. The basis of the plot is fights, chases, saving beauties, etc.
Detective - main story line- solving a crime.
Historical novel - time of action - past. The plot is usually tied to significant historical events.
Romance novel - characters find love.
Mysticism - the basis of the plot is supernatural events.
Adventures - heroes get involved in an adventure or go on a risky journey.
Thriller/Horror - the heroes are in mortal danger, from which they are trying to get rid of.
Fantasy - the plot revolves in a hypothetical future or parallel world. One type of science fiction is alternative history.
Fantasy/Fairy Tales - the main features of the genre are fairy-tale worlds, magic, unseen creatures, talking animals, etc. Often based on folklore.
What is mainstream (from English mainstream - main stream)? There is no place for canons and templates in books of this genre. Readers expect unexpected solutions from them. The most important thing in the mainstream is moral development heroes, philosophy and ideology. Because professional requirements the author of the mainstream is much higher: he must be not only an excellent storyteller, but also a good psychologist and a serious thinker. If a writer sets his sights on the mainstream but falls short or falls into cliches, the reader will be disappointed.
The term "mainstream" arose thanks to American writer and criticism to William Dean Howells (1866-1920). As the editor of one of the most popular and influential literary magazines of his time, The Atlantic Monthly, he gave a clear preference to works written in a realistic vein and emphasizing moral and philosophical problems. Thanks to Howells realistic literature became fashionable, and for some time it was called “mainstream”.
What is fiction? We will learn about it with early childhood when mom reads a bedtime story. If we ask this question seriously and talk about literature in general, about its types and genres, then, of course, we will remember about scientific literature, and about documentary prose. Anyone, even without a philological education, will be able to distinguish fiction from other genres. How?
Fiction: Definition
First, let's define what fiction is. As textbooks and reference books say, this is a type of art that, with the help of the written word, expresses the consciousness of society, its essence, views, mood. It is thanks to books that we learn what people thought about at one time or another, how they lived, what they felt, how they talked, what they were afraid of, what values they had. You can read a history textbook and know the dates, but it is fiction that will describe in detail the way of life and life of people.
Fiction: features
To answer the question of what fiction is, you need to know that all books are divided into fiction and non-fiction. What is the difference? Here are examples of sentences from fiction.
“At the very moment when I decided to myself that I didn’t want to be here to death, the lock rattled on the door behind me and Fred appeared, tired after an all-night shift, staring at the strangers who filled his house with a terrible stench and unraveled paper napkins everywhere ". This is an excerpt from Danny King's first book, Diary of a Robber. He shows us the main features of fiction - description and action. In fiction there is always a hero - even if it is a story written in the first person, where it is as if the author himself falls in love, robs or travels. Well, there’s no way without descriptions either, otherwise how can we understand exactly in what environment the heroes operate, what surrounds them, where they are going. The description gives us the opportunity to imagine what the hero looks like, his clothes, his voice. And we form our own idea of the hero: we see him the way our imagination, combined with the desire of the author, helps us see him. We draw a portrait, the author helps us. That's what fiction is.
Fiction or truth?
What conclusion do we come to? Fiction is fiction, it is characters invented by the author, invented events, and sometimes non-existent places. The writer is given complete freedom of action - he can do whatever he wants with his characters: send them to the past or the future, to the ends of the earth, kill, resurrect, take offense, steal a million from the bank. If you dig deeper, then, of course, everyone understands that heroes have prototypes. But often they are so far from book people that it is almost impossible to draw a parallel. The author can only borrow a way of speaking, walking, or describing a habit. It happens that a real man pushes the writer to create a hero and a book. Thus, Alice Lindell inspired Lewis Carroll to write the favorite book of many children, “Alice in Wonderland,” and the prototype of Peter Pan was one of the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Davis, friends of Barry James. Even in historical novels The boundaries of fiction and truth are always blurred, so what can we say about science fiction? If we take an excerpt from a news feed, from a newspaper, we will know that these are facts. But if we read the same passage on the first page of the novel, it would never even occur to us to believe in the reality of what is happening.
What goals does fiction serve?
Literature teaches us. Since childhood, poems about Moidodyr teach us to maintain hygiene, and the story about Tom Sawyer teaches us that punishment follows an offense. What does literature teach adults? For example, courage. Read secret story Vasil Bykov about two partisans - Sotnikov and Rybak. Sotnikov, sick, exhausted by the hard road, crippled during interrogations, holds on steadfastly to the last and even for fear of death does not betray his comrades. And there is something to learn from Rybak’s example. Having betrayed his comrade and himself, he goes over to the side of the enemy, which he regrets later, but the way back is cut off, the way back is only through death. And perhaps he is punished more than his hanged comrade. Everything is like from childhood: without punishment there is no crime.
So, the goals of fiction are clearly defined: to show, using the example of heroes, what one should do and what one should not do; talk about the time and place where the events take place, and pass on the accumulated experience to the next generation.
De gustibus non est disputandum, or There is no arguing about tastes
Remember, at the end of each class before summer holidays did the teacher give us a list of fiction books from which we needed to read by September? And many suffered all summer, barely moving through this list. Indeed, reading something you don’t like is simply not interesting. Everyone chooses for themselves - “one loves watermelon, the other loves pork cartilage,” as Saltykov-Shchedrin said. If a person says that he does not like to read, he simply has not found his book. Some people like to travel through time with science fiction writers, some like to solve crimes in detective novels, some are enraptured by love scenes in novels. There is no single recipe, just as there is no author that everyone would like and perceive equally, because we perceive fiction subjectively, based on our age, social status, emotional and moral components.
How many people - so many opinions?
The question of what fiction is can be answered this way: it is literature that transcends time and place. It does not have clearly limited functions, like a dictionary or instructions for washing machine, but it has a more important function: it educates, criticizes, and gives us a break from reality. Fiction books are ambiguous, they cannot be interpreted in the same way - this is not a recipe carrot cake, when a dozen people following the instructions step by step will end up with the same baked goods. Everything here is purely individual. The book “Schindler's Ark” by author Keneally Thomas Michael cannot be assessed equally: someone will condemn the German who saved people, someone will keep this image in their hearts as an example of dignity and philanthropy.
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He's a knight. Man of honor. He speaks only the truth. The worst sin considers it a betrayal. Protector of the weak, terror of scoundrels. He is a samurai of the concrete jungle. An experienced and brutal fighter. Ruthless to enemies, rational to the point of cynicism. He is a poet. Connoisseur true beauty. And a skilled participant in the “gallant hunt”. He is a biker, a hand-to-hand fighter, a programmer... He is someone who has never shied away from Fate's offers. He himself was Fate for many... He fearlessly looks into the distance. He sees the Edge...
In the middle of the hall, they, his classmates and others from 9th grade were grimacing (sorry, dancing). We have graduation together with them. Many girls stood near the walls, in groups of two or three, several glances from there glanced at me, after all, there were a little more women in our two classes. In 9 “a”, of course, more than half are boys, but two-thirds of us are girls. In general, there weren’t enough pairs for everyone.....
Download the book Confession strange man(SI) from the author Alexey Leonidovich Samylov in Russian in FB2 formats on our website is completely free.
The collector Sergei Kostikov has a wonderful ability to “revive” plasticine figures the size of a little finger, which he sculpts with his own hands. From now on everything free time the sculptor devotes himself to creating new miniature live creatures and observing their lives. But it is not for nothing that his profession is considered dangerous - Sergei’s cash-in-transit route is under attack. Valuables have been stolen, there are victims... To prove his non-involvement in the crime, the sculptor resorts to the help of living creatures.
Seryoga Kostikov was always interested in something. I collected a decent library - mostly science fiction; stored and constantly listened to hundreds of three music discs - rock; loved gluing plastic models - military equipment times Patriotic War; was a member of the society of numismatists; I collected badges, postcards, stamps on the topic of hunting and fishing. He loved to hunt and fish, he even took part in skeet shooting competitions, and won medals in fishing several times...
Olga Werner, a doctor from a Black Sea resort town, no longer has a shadow. But she still had courage - the courage of despair. She needs to save herself and her children, defeat a powerful opponent and remember what it’s like to truly be happy. She only has forty days left, and then... There is nowhere to retreat. “Be determined and act – this is the choice of the noble.” This is what it says in the book that Olga has never read, but for some reason knows by heart. You can see the world as it is only through your fingers.
I brushed my bangs away from my forehead and looked through my fingers at the corner where the former Antinous’ gaze remained fixed. Polina was sitting there in a chair and, resting her head on her hand, looked at him just as steadily. So, this is what inspires such animal horror in him? Or a memory of an angry werewolf? Or both?..
The action takes place in the 1580s AD in North America. In 2018 main character, Peter Hassoun, an ordinary Native American who survived the hell of Vietnam, returned to his homeland and took a full sip of “glory and honor” from his fellow citizens, ekes out a miserable existence. Life worked out... life didn’t work out. As of 2018, he is a drunken, lonely Indian with no fixed place of residence, not expecting anything from life, and, it seemed, she was not expecting anything from him... In general, progress and beating of pale-faced people.
Peter Hassoun, a “proud American citizen,” sat next to his sun lounger in the park and drank cheap whiskey, which he earned honestly by unloading a truck of vegetables for Mance's Cafe. In general, Mance was a good guy, thanks to him Peter had a place to earn some money for a drink, and sometimes even a snack. Although it didn’t always work out with the appetizer. Recent years ten Peter had an alcoholic diet. How did he get to this life? His biography could tell about this if someone undertook to write it...
Baroness Arley is fed up with court intrigue. She would like to go home to her native castle, but would you really disobey the king? So you have to avoid balls and gentlemen by hook or by crook. But the more cunning the game, the more tempting it is. A patient and careful hunter will think through the siege, choose a weapon and will certainly catch it... unless, of course, he turns into game himself.
The servant turned out to be right - the beech wood burned hot and long. It’s good that the baroness only put in a few logs. But for whom was it worth trying?
When she was just about to go to bed, a quiet knock was heard. Her heart was beating very quickly, and her arms and legs seemed numb. But the knock was repeated, and she realized that the sound was coming from the mirror.
It's me, honorable Baroness! - came barely audible from behind the wall panel....
Weapon Selection is a complex book. This is not only a novel about Malaya, although the situation of the colony is depicted in all its ugliness. This is a book about the class struggle and its laws in modern world. This is a book about the problem of “commitment”, which is relevant for the English intelligentsia. highest form which Ash considers serving revolutionary ideas. From a genre point of view, this is, first of all, a novel of views. Through the contours of the adventurous plot emerge the refined features of a novel-pamphlet, written in the form of an argument-dialogue. And the debate here is especially interesting because its participants are not ethereal shadows, but people who are written powerfully and psychologically convincingly. Their views are tested in the novel by life in extremely dramatic circumstances.
...“Weapon choice” is not quite ordinary work for modern English literature. This is first of all anti-colonial novel, a genre that is poorly represented in England today, which is not so paradoxical for a country in which the preservation of empire is a matter of life and death. In addition, the struggle against colonialism is shown in the novel in close connection with the problem of serving progressive social ideals in general, with the so-called “commitment”. This word does not leave the pages of periodicals, and every now and then discussions arise about the role individual person, and especially the artist, in public life. However, the theme of active public service, and especially participation in the class struggle, hardly penetrates literature and most often in mediated form, while in Ash it becomes the main content of the book...
When the sleeper wakes up
ἔπος - “word”, “narration”) - a narration about events supposed in the past (as if they had happened and are remembered by the narrator). Epic works describe objective reality external to the author. The description of the characters is focused on their behavior and actions, and not on the inner world, as in the lyrics. Biography novels, very popular in the 19th century, belong to epic works. Examples include “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy, “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal, “The Forsyte Saga” by Galsworthy and many others. This type of literature received its name from folk poems and songs composed in ancient times, also called epics.Lyrics
Lyrics are a type of literature that is based on an appeal to the internal sphere - to states of human consciousness, emotions, impressions, experiences. Even if there is a narrative element in the works, the lyrical work is always subjective and focused on the hero. The characteristics of a lyrical work are “conciseness”, “monologue”, “unity of the lyrical plot” and “instantaneity” (“precision”, “modernity”). Majority lyrical works refers to poetry.
Drama
Drama is a type of literature that primarily reproduces the world external to the author - actions, relationships between people, conflicts, but unlike the epic, it has not a narrative, but a dialogical form. In dramatic works, the text on behalf of the author is episodic in nature, for the most part limited to stage directions and explanations of the plot. Majority dramatic works is being written for subsequent production in the theatre.
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Structural text types
Prose
This is considered prosaic literary text, in which a separate rhythm, independent of speech, does not invade the linguistic fabric and does not affect the content. However, a number of borderline phenomena are known: many prose writers deliberately give their works some signs of poetry (one can mention the highly rhythmic prose of Andrei Bely or the rhymed fragments in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “The Gift”). Literary scholars continue to argue about the exact boundaries between prose and poetry. different countries over the last century.
Prose is widely used in fiction - in the creation of novels, short stories etc. Selected examples Such works have been known for many centuries, but in an independent form literary works they developed relatively recently.
For the Russian ear, the familiar appearance of a poem is associated with a syllabic-tonic rhythm and the presence of rhyme in the poem, but neither one nor the other is actually a necessary feature of poetry that distinguishes it from prose. In general, the role of rhythm in a poem is not only to give the text a kind of musicality, but also to the impact that this rhythm has on the meaning: thanks to the rhythm, some words and expressions (for example, those that appear at the end of a poetic line, rhymed) are highlighted in the poetic speech , accented.
Poetic speech, earlier than prosaic speech, was recognized as a special phenomenon characteristic of a literary text and distinguishing it from ordinary everyday speech. The first known literary works - for the most part, ancient epics (for example, the Sumerian "Tale of Gilgamesh", dating back to about 2200-3000 BC) - are poetic texts. At the same time, the poetic form is not necessarily associated with artistry: the formal features of poetry help it perform a mnemonic function, and therefore different time V different cultures Scientific, legal, genealogical, and pedagogical works in verse were distributed.
Fiction by period
Ancient literature
The first period of the appearance of fiction as an art form is considered to be antiquity - the Mediterranean civilization of the 1st millennium BC. e. Ancient literature is the literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans, consisting of two national literatures: ancient Greek and ancient Roman. Historically Greek literature preceded the Roman one.
At the same time with ancient culture in a swimming pool Mediterranean Sea others developed cultural areas, among which ancient Judea occupied a prominent place. Ancient and Jewish culture became the basis of all Western civilization and art.
In parallel with the ancient one, other ancient cultures and, accordingly, literatures developed: ancient Chinese, ancient Indian, ancient Iranian, and Hebrew. Ancient Egyptian literature was experiencing a period of prosperity at that time.
IN ancient literature main genres formed European literature in their archaic forms and Foundations of the Science of Literature. The aesthetic science of antiquity identified three main literary genres: epic, lyric and drama (Aristotle), this classification retains its basic meaning to this day.
Literature of the Middle Ages
Medieval art reached its culmination in the XII-XIII centuries. Currently, medieval literature is usually divided into Latin literature and literature in vernacular languages (Romance and Germanic). Genre division Latin literature generally reproduced the antique. Animal epic was popular.
Renaissance Literature
If medieval literature was predominantly Christian, then during the Renaissance, against the background general interest By the time of antiquity, interest in ancient literature was also being revived, fiction was increasingly focused on secular subjects, and humanistic tendencies appeared. Initial stage Renaissance literature is traditionally considered to be the work of Dante, his “Divine Comedy” combines elements of both medieval literature (form - vision of the afterlife, allegorical content) and those not typical medieval literature elements of mysticism, pantheism, the image of a simple girl Beatrice. Blooms during the Renaissance dramatic art(Shakespeare, Lope de Vega school), humanistic utopias appear (Thomas More, Tomaso Campanella), as well as sharp satire, for example “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by Rabelais. Gutenberg's invention of printing in 1455 made fiction much more accessible during this period.
Literature of the Enlightenment
19th century literature
Literature of the 19th century developed in two main directions, the literature of romanticism and the literature of realism. Romanticism as literary direction developed from sentimentalism and is characterized by an interest in mysticism (Meyrink, M. Shelley, Hoffmann), folklore (the Brothers Grimm), to the common man(Hugo), other cultures (Byron, F. Cooper). Within the framework of romanticism, fantasy, detective, and adventure literature were formed.
Realism was well characterized by Balzac, who is considered a classic of realism. He said: “I describe men, women and things.” Works of realism do not teach, do not idealize, or give moral assessments. They describe life and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. An important element of realism is a comprehensive, impartial description inner world heroes. Most characteristic writers realism are Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others.
Literature of modernism
Chronologically, modernism fits into the framework of the first half of the twentieth century, thematically connected with industrialization, urbanization, and the horrors of the First World War. Modernists turn to the description of the intricacies of the human psyche (W. Wolfe), the theme of sexuality (D. H. Lawrence), they are characterized by apoliticality and pacifism (E. Hemingway).
Classic example modernist literature considered to be the novel by J. Joyce “Ulysses”, the works of T. S. Eliot, M. Proust.
Postmodern literature
Postmodernism gradually replaced modernism in the mid-20th century. It is difficult to characterize it unambiguously, since within the framework of postmodernism there are many different approaches. This is hypertext, when the reading order is not dictated by the author, but is chosen by the reader, intertextuality, characterized by allusions to other works, and sometimes conscious borrowing, the absence of a plot resolution or the presence of several alternative endings, a mixture of styles, irony, play and black humor.
Postmodernism can also include magical realism, a genre that originated in South America and characterized by the inclusion of magical elements in a realistic narrative. The novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by G. G. Marquez is a shining example magical realism. In Russia, Chingiz Aitmatov is included in this direction.
The Beat generation is also classified as postmodernism.
Artistic methods and directions
- Baroque is a movement characterized by a combination of realistic descriptions with their allegorical image. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, richness were widely used rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons. Baroque literature is characterized by a desire for diversity, a summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedicism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, a desire to study existence in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity).
- Classicism is a movement whose main subject of creativity was the conflict between public duty and personal passions. “Low” genres - fable (
Fiction on childbirth
Structural text types
Prose
Prose is considered to be a literary text in which a separate rhythm, independent of speech, does not invade the linguistic fabric and does not affect the content. However, a number of borderline phenomena are known: many prose writers deliberately give their works some signs of poetry (one can mention the highly rhythmic prose of Andrei Bely or the rhymed fragments in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “The Gift”). The exact boundaries between prose and poetry have been an ongoing debate among literary scholars from different countries over the last century.
Prose is widely used in fiction - in the creation of novels, short stories, etc. Individual examples of such works have been known for many centuries, but they have developed into an independent form of literary works relatively recently.
Medieval art reached its culmination in the XII-XIII centuries. Currently, medieval literature is usually divided into Latin literature and literature on vernacular languages(Roman and Germanic). The genre division of Latin literature as a whole reproduced the ancient one. Written prose first appeared in medieval literature.
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2010.:Synonyms
See what “Fiction” is in other dictionaries: Literature; fine literature, (graceful) literature (obsolete) / for easy reading: fiction Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011. fiction noun, count... ...
Synonym dictionary Publishing house, Moscow (branch in St. Petersburg ). Founded in 1930 as the State Publishing House of Fiction, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of Russian and foreign classics , modern... ... Big
encyclopedic Dictionary - “FICTION”, publishing house, Moscow (branch in St. Petersburg). Founded in 1930 as the State Publishing House of Fiction, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of Russian and... ...
encyclopedic Dictionary fiction - (from Latin littera letter, writing) a type of art in which the word is the main means of figurative reflection of life. Rubric: Literature and its functions in society Genus: Art Other associative connections: universal significance... ... Terminological dictionary-thesaurus
in literary studies - (“Fiction”), Soviet publishing house of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade. The State Publishing House of Fiction (GIHL) was founded in 1930 on ...
Great Soviet Encyclopedia - “FICTION”, publishing house, Moscow (branch in St. Petersburg). Founded in 1930 as the State Publishing House of Fiction, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of Russian and... ...
encyclopedic Dictionary State Publishing House, Moscow. Founded in 1930 as the State Publishing House of Fiction, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of domestic and foreign classics, modern foreign... ... - ▲ art literature literature. fine literature. subtext. stylistics. stylist. reading matter. song of songs. | calliope. imagism. see image, behavior...
Ideographic Dictionary of the Russian Language- “FICTION”, publishing house of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade. The State Publishing House of Fiction (GIHL) was founded in 1930 on the basis of literary... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary
encyclopedic Dictionary- in rhetoric: a type of literature that exists in three main forms - epic, lyric and drama; feature of H.L. – fiction; being a language laboratory, H.L. develops perfect and succinct methods of expression, makes it universal property... ... Dictionary linguistic terms T.V. Foal
