We all studied prose at school in literature lessons, and who can now answer the question of what prose is? Maybe you remember what prose is called oral or written speech, but you probably forgot that works in prose are not divided into commensurate segments (in other words, poetry). Unlike poetry, the rhythm of prose works is the ratio of syntactic constructions (sentences, periods).
Prose originated in the days of ancient literature. From the 19th century, prose began to lead in literature.
Let us explain what is related to prose. Prose is called ordinary speech, simple, not measured, without dimensions. However, there is a measured prose, similar in its sound to the old Russian songs.
Prose also has forms. So, journalistic, business, scientific, religious-preaching, memoir-confessional forms initially developed.
Stories, novels and novels belong to artistic prose and differ from lyrics in their emotional restraint, intellectuality, and philosophical principles.
From the definition at the beginning of the article, it is easy to understand that prose is the opposite of poetry. But then what is a poem in prose? This text is very coherent, but without rhyme, almost always romantic content. Many poems in prose were written by I.S. Turgenev.
Prose genres
Traditionally in number literary genres related to prose include:
- Novel. A novel is a narrative work, large in volume and with a complex, developed plot.
- Tale. This is a kind of epic poetry, similar to a novel, which tells about some episode from life. In the story, to a lesser extent than in the novel, it tells about the life and disposition of the characters, it is shorter and more restrained.
- Novella. A short story is called a small literary narrative genre. In terms of volume, it is comparable to the story, but hallmark is the presence of genesis, history and structure.
- epic. An epic work, monumental in form, affecting the nation's issues.
- Story. It is a small form of fiction. The volume of the text is small, since the story does not cover a large period of time and describes any specific event in a specific time period.
- Essay. This is a prose essay on any topic. The volume is small, the composition is not strictly marked. In the essay, the author expresses his individual impression and opinion on a particular issue.
- A biography is a well-known form of presenting the history of a person's life and activities.
Prose is around us. It is in life and in books. Prose is our everyday language.
Artistic prose- this is not having a size (a special form of organization of sounding speech), an unrhymed narrative.
A prose work is a work written without rhyme, which is its main difference from poetry. Prose works are both artistic and non-fiction, sometimes they are intertwined, as, for example, in biographies or memoirs.
How did the prose, or epic, work come about?
Prose came to the world of literature from Ancient Greece. It was there that poetry first appeared, and then prose as a term. The first prose works were myths, traditions, legends, fairy tales. These genres were defined by the Greeks as non-artistic, mundane. These were religious, everyday or historical narratives, which received the definition of "prose".
In the first place was highly artistic poetry, prose was in second place, as a kind of opposition. The situation began to change only in the second half. Prose genres began to develop and expand. Novels, short stories and short stories appeared.
In the 19th century, the prose writer pushed the poet into the background. Novel, short story became the main art forms in literature. Finally, the prose work took its rightful place.
Prose is classified by size: small and large. Consider the main artistic genres.
A work in prose of a large volume: types
A novel is a prose work that is distinguished by the length of the narrative and complex plot, fully developed in the work, and the novel may also have side storylines, in addition to the main one.
The novelists were Honoré de Balzac, Daniel Defoe, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Erich Maria Remarque and many others.
Examples of prose works by Russian novelists can make up a separate book-list. These are works that have become classics. For example, such as "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot" by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, "The Gift" and "Lolita" by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, "Doctor Zhivago" by Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, "A Hero of Our Time" Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov and so on.
An epic is larger in volume than a novel, and describes major historical events or responds to popular issues, more often both.
The most significant and famous epics in Russian literature are "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, " Quiet Don» Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov and «Peter the First» by Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Prose work of a small volume: types
Novella - short work, comparable to the story, but having a greater saturation of events. The history of the short story originates in oral folklore, in parables and legends.
The novelists were Edgar Allan Poe, Herbert Wells; Guy de Maupassant and Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin also wrote short stories.
The story is a short prose work, characterized by a small number of characters, one storyline and detailed description details.
Bunin and Paustovsky are rich in stories.
An essay is a prose work that is easily confused with a story. But still there are significant differences: the description is only real events, lack of fiction, a combination of fiction and non-fiction, as a rule, touching on social problems and the presence of more descriptiveness than in the story.
Essays are portrait and historical, problematic and travel. They can also mix with each other. For example, historical sketch may also contain portrait or problem.
Essays are some impressions or reasoning of the author in connection with a specific topic. It has free composition. This type of prose combines the functions of a literary essay and a journalistic article. It may also have something in common with a philosophical treatise.
Medium prose genre - short story
The story is on the border between the short story and the novel. In terms of volume, it cannot be attributed to either small or large prose works.
In Western literature, the story is called a "short novel". Unlike the novel, the story always has one storyline, but it also develops fully and fully, so it cannot be attributed to the genre of the story.
There are many examples of short stories in Russian literature. Here are just a few: Poor Lisa» Karamzin, Chekhov’s Steppe, Dostoyevsky’s Netochka Nezvanov, Zamyatin’s Uyezdnoye, Bunin’s Life of Arseniev, Pushkin’s Stationmaster.
AT foreign literature one can name, for example, Chateaubriand's René, Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, Suskind's The Tale of Monsieur Sommer.
Prose - Prose! The world of prose. The history of the emergence and development of prose. genres of prose.
Prose - Prose!
Prose!
Prose in its broadest sense surrounds us everywhere.
Prose- this is a simple, ordinary dimensionless speech, exactly the one that we use daily.
With the help of prose, we can confess our love, express any of our feelings.
The more we read fiction, the richer our experience will be and the more beautiful our speech will be.
Other articles in this section:
- Language systems of communication! Languages as the main factor in the system of knowledge development!
- Traditions. What is tradition? Tradition in the dialectical development of society.
- Space and time. Laws of space. Open space. Traffic. The space of worlds.
- Evolution and co-evolution. Evolution and co-evolution in the system of modern knowledge. Principles of evolution and co-evolution. Biological evolution and co-evolution of living nature.
- Synergetics and laws of nature. Synergetics as a science. Synergetics as a scientific approach and method. Universal theory of evolution - synergetics.
- May or may not! A kaleidoscope of events and actions through the prism is impossible and possible!
- World of Religion! Religion as a form of human consciousness in the awareness of the surrounding world!
- Art - Art! Art is a skill that can cause admiration!
- Realism! Realism in art! Realistic art!
- Abstract art! Abstraction in art! Abstract painting! Abstractionism!
- Unofficial art! Unofficial art of the USSR!
- Thrash - Thrash! Trash in art! Thrash in creativity! Trash in Literature! Cinema trash! Cyberthrash! Thrash metal! Telethrash!
SOURCE: materials from Wikipedia and literary encyclopedias
We offer you a brief overview of the prose genres of literature. Most of them have clear boundaries. Some genres, such as the essay or essay, have fluid boundaries that make them pervasive. The author, before starting work, usually decides in which genre his work will be created. For the first time, the systematization of literary genres was made by Aristotle. genre system- alive, because over time there is a death of some genres and the birth of others. This review presents the most significant and well-established genres of prose.
Story - a small form of epic prose, correlated with the story as a more detailed form of narration. It goes back to folklore genres (fairy tale, parable); How did the genre evolve into written literature; often indistinguishable from the novel, and from the 18th century. - and an essay. Sometimes the short story and the essay are considered as polar varieties of the story. A story is a work of small volume, containing a small number of characters, and also, most often, having one storyline.
Novella (Italian novella - news) is a narrative prose genre, which is characterized by brevity, a sharp plot, a neutral style of presentation, a lack of psychologism, and an unexpected denouement. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for a story or is called a variation of it.
Essay (from French essai "attempt, test, essay", from Latin exagium "weighing") - a literary genre of prose writing small volume and free composition. The essay expresses the author's individual impressions and thoughts on a particular occasion or subject and does not pretend to be an exhaustive or defining interpretation of the topic (in the parodic Russian tradition, "a look and something"). In terms of volume and function, it borders, on the one hand, on a scientific article and a literary essay (with which essays are often confused), on the other hand, on a philosophical treatise. The essayistic style is characterized by figurativeness, mobility of associations, aphorism, an attitude towards intimate frankness and colloquial intonation. Some theorists consider it as the fourth, along with the epic, lyrics and drama, kind of fiction.
The story is a prose genre that does not have a stable volume and occupies an intermediate position between the novel, on the one hand, and the story and short story, on the other, tending to newsreel reproducing the natural course of life. This definition genre is characteristic exclusively for the domestic literary tradition. In Western literary criticism, for prose works of this kind, the terms "novel" or "short novel" are used. AT domestic literary criticism the genre definition of "story" originates from the old Russian attitude of the narrator to the events described: the word "story" comes from the verb "tell". ancient meaning The term - “news of some event” - indicates that this genre has absorbed oral stories, events that the narrator personally saw or heard about. An important source of such "tales" are chronicles ("The Tale of Bygone Years", etc.). AT ancient Russian literature"Tale" was any narrative about any actual events ("The Tale of Batu's invasion of Ryazan", "The Tale of the Battle of Kalka", "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia", etc.), whose authenticity and actual significance (value dominant) did not raise doubts among contemporaries. Due to its versatility, the genre of the story is difficult to unambiguously define. The plot of the story is almost always centered around the protagonist, whose personality and fate are revealed within a few events. Side storylines in the story (unlike the novel) are usually absent, the narrative chronotope is concentrated on a narrow period of time and space. The plot of the story is often associated with the “topic of the day”, with what the narrator (and, at the same time, the reader) can observe in surrounding reality and what is perceived as a topical reality, revealed in the form of a sequence of events (this is the difference between a story and a short story or short story, in the center of which is usually only one event). The titles of the stories are often associated with the image of the protagonist (“Poor Liza” by N. M. Karamzin, “Dubrovsky”, “The Stationmaster” by A. S. Pushkin, “Netochka Nezvanova” by F. M. Dostoevsky, “The Life of Arseniev” by I. A. . Bunina, etc.) or with a key element of the plot ("The Hound of the Baskervilles" by A. Conan-Doyle, "The Steppe" by A. P. Chekhov, "County" by E. I. Zamyatin, etc.).
A novel is a literary genre, usually prose, which involves a detailed narrative about the life and development of the personality of the protagonist (heroes) in a crisis, non-standard period of his life. Work large form, may have multiple storylines.
Visions are a narrative and didactic genre. The plot is presented on behalf of the person to whom he allegedly revealed himself in a dream, hallucination or lethargic dream. Nucleus for the most part constitute real dreams or hallucinations, but already in ancient times fictitious stories appeared, clothed in the form of visions (Plato, Plutarch, Cicero). Genre receives special development in the Middle Ages and reaches its climax in " Divine Comedy» Dante, representing the most expanded vision in form. An authoritative sanction and a strong impetus to the development of the genre were given by the Dialogues of Miracles by Pope Gregory the Great (VI century), after which visions began to appear en masse in the church literature of all European countries.
Essay - one of the varieties of small form epic literature- a story that is different from its other form, a short story, by the absence of a single, acute and quickly resolved conflict and a greater development of a descriptive image. Both differences depend on the features of the problematics of the essay. Essay literature does not touch upon the problems of the formation of the personality's character in its conflicts with the established social environment, as is inherent in the short story (and the novel), but the problems of the civil and moral state of the "environment" (usually embodied in individuals) - "moral descriptive" problems; it has great educational diversity. Essay literature usually combines features of fiction and journalism.
Epic (from epic and other Greek - I create). An extensive narrative in verse or prose about outstanding national historical events ("Iliad", "Mahabharata"). The roots of the epic in mythology and folklore. In the 19th century an epic novel (“War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy) appears. A complex, long history of something, including a number of major events.
A fable is a poetic or prose literary work of a moralizing, satirical nature. At the end of the fable there is a brief moralizing conclusion - the so-called morality. Actors animals, plants, things usually act. In the fable, the vices of people are ridiculed. The fable is one of the oldest literary genres. In ancient Greece, Aesop (VI-V centuries BC) was famous for writing fables in prose. In Rome - Phaedrus (1st century AD). In India, the Panchatantra collection of fables dates back to the 3rd century. The most prominent fabulist of modern times was the French poet J. Lafontaine (XVII century).
A myth in literature is a legend that conveys people's ideas about the world, a person's place in it, about the origin of all things, about Gods and heroes; certain idea of the world. The specificity of myths appears most clearly in primitive culture, where myths are the equivalent of science, an integral system in terms of which the whole world is perceived and described. Later, when such forms are isolated from mythology public consciousness like art, literature, science, religion, political ideology, and the like, they hold a number of mythological models that are uniquely reinterpreted when included in new structures; myth is experiencing its second life. Special interest represents their transformation into literary creativity. Since mythology masters reality in the forms of figurative narration, it is close in its meaning to fiction; historically, it anticipated many possibilities of literature and influenced its early development all-round influence. Naturally, literature does not part with mythological foundations even later, which applies not only to works with mythological foundations of the plot, but also to realistic and naturalistic life writing of the 19th and 20th centuries (suffice it to name Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Nana by Emile Zola, "Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann).
Fairy tale literary - epic genre: a fiction-oriented work that is closely related to a folk tale, but, unlike it, belongs to a specific author, did not exist orally before publication and did not have variants. A literary fairy tale either imitates a folklore one ( literary tale, written in a folk poetic style), or creates a didactic work based on non-folklore stories. folk tale historically precedes the literary one. The word "fairy tale" is attested in written sources not earlier than the 17th century. A fairy tale with a purpose is needed for the subconscious or conscious teaching of a child in a family about the rules and purpose of life. There are also fairy tales for adults. It is noteworthy that both the saga and the fairy tale carry a colossal informational component, passed down from generation to generation, faith in which is based on respect for one's ancestors.
A lyric poem (in prose) is a type of fiction that emotionally and poetically expresses the feelings of the author.
In ancient Greek prose flourished reached prose genres: philosophical prose (Plato, Aristotle, etc.), oratorical prose (Demosthenes), historical prose(Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon), biographical prose (Plutarch). Artistic prose is represented by the adventurous-love novel genre that appeared in the first centuries of our era, or, as the Greeks called it, “love story”. The first known Greek novel is Chariton's The Love Tale of Kherei and Kaliroi (1st century AD), the most significant are Heliodor's Ethiopia, Long's Daphnis and Chloe.
Plato. In the literature of the 5th-4th centuries BC. e. philosophical prose occupies an outstanding place. The philosophical dialogues of Plato (427-347 BC) are especially significant in the literary sense. 41 works of Plato have come down to us, of which 13 were found to be unauthentic (some of them were written by his students as part of the activities of the Academy he created). The "Apology of Socrates" (a speech allegedly delivered by Socrates at the trial) is the only work written not in the form of a dialogue. 13 letters of Plato also came. In relation to the collection "Definitions", also included in the corpus of Platonic writings, the authorship of Plato is now rejected. Disputes about the authenticity and chronology of Plato's works gave rise to the so-called. Platonic question.
As a student of Socrates (c. 470-399 BC), who did not write down his philosophical thoughts and expounding them in skillfully constructed conversations with students, as if independently coming to the right conclusions (the method of the so-called Socratic conversation), Plato brought out in his works the image of Socrates, passing from one dialogue to another, striking with the power of the intellect in a conversation with any interlocutor .
In small “Socratic dialogues”, Plato considers certain issues: friendship (“Fox”), truthfulness and falsity (“Hippias the Small”), justice (“Alcibiades I”), etc. They depict the environment in which the conversation unfolds, the dialogues imitate colloquial speech with its interruptions, repetitions, etc. In the dialogues of the second type (“Phaedo”, “Phaedrus”, “Feast” and a number of others), the content becomes more generalized, here the doctrine of ideas, the material world as a reflection of ideas, the immortality of the soul is developed , about its three parts - rational, strong-willed (or passionate) and sensual (or lustful), about the transmigration of souls - metempsychosis, about knowledge as a recollection - anamnesis, etc. He widely uses artistic means by nature to present philosophical ideas. So, in order to explain the difference between ideas and things, Plato in the VII book of "States" draws the image of a cave, on the wall of which one can see shadows from objects outside it. He presents the emergence of love as the result of the division of a bisexual androgyne into two halves, which must look for each other in order to reunite (“Phaedrus”). Instead of a free conversation of dialogues of the first type in these works, Socrates' thought develops strictly logically, less attention is paid to the refutation of opponents and more to the very essence of philosophical doctrine. In dialogues of the third type (Theaetetus, Parmenides, Sophist, Politician), artistic figurativeness gives way to the interpretation of the main philosophical categories. Disappear household parts, an artistic depiction of the characters of the speakers. In dialogues of the fourth type, Plato, setting out a changed view of the main philosophical problems, again resorts to artistic means, to mythological imagery, etc. In the dialogue Critias, Plato is the first to present the legend of Atlantis in the form of a historical narrative, reminiscent of a fantastic utopian novel.
The genre of philosophical dialogue developed by Plato had a huge impact on the literature and philosophy of subsequent centuries (we can talk about Plato's "personal model").
LITERATURE OF ANCIENT ROME
Ancient Roman literature is the literature of Latin, the first monuments that have come down to us date back to the 3rd century BC. e. (earlier ones are known only from indirect evidence). At an early stage, decisive for the formation of culture ancient rome there was an influence Greek culture, although even during this period, some Romans (for example, Cato the Elder), in contrast to the individualization characteristic of the Greeks, the well-known hedonism, put forward the requirement of fidelity to the "morals of the ancestors", severe and heroic.
The development of the comedy genre
Although after the translations into Latin of Homer's poems on Roman soil, their own epic creativity arose (the poems of Nevius and Ennius), the first major achievement in the literature of Ancient Rome is associated with the activities of the comedians Plautus and Terentius.
Plaut. Titus MacciusPlavt (c. 250–184) was possibly a mime dancer in the atellan, an Italian folk comedy (Plavt means flat-footed, that is, dancing in flat shoes). Of the 21 comedies, which even in antiquity were recognized as indisputably belonging to Plautus, 20 have survived and one in fragments. The genre that Plautus developed was palliata (that is, a comedy from Greek life), which grew out of imitation of the middle and neo-Attic comedy, primarily Menander, in conjunction with the Italian atellana. Plautus wrote for the plebs, his task is to captivate and make the common people laugh, hence the rude humor, the source of the comic - many funny episodes related to dressing up (including a man with a woman in Kasina), peeping, brawls, etc. Plautus presents a slave more resourceful and successful than his master (in the spirit of popular comic culture), displays a whole gallery of characters endowed with vices: boasting (“Boastful Warrior”), stinginess (“Pot”), parasitism (“Curculion”). In his works, Plautus resorts to contamination to increase the tension of the intrigue (combines the plots of several Greek comedies), composes neologisms from Latin and Greek morphemes, makes extensive use of proverbs and sayings, instead of the 6-foot iambic and 8-foot trochaic used by Menander, introduces a variety meters, making the verse dependent on the content of a particular scene.
Terence. Publius Terence Afr(195-159) was a slave, then a freedman, wrote 6 comedies in the palliata genre. In four of them, the primary sources were the plays of Menander. In order to find new texts of this idol of his, Terentius went to Greece, but on the way back he died as a result of a shipwreck. Terence moved away from the public laughter of Plautus, his comedies are softer in tone, more psychological. His favorite motif is chance recognition ("Mother-in-Law"). The comedies of Terence are written in a simple and correct style, which is why they studied Latin in the Middle Ages.
The "golden age" of ancient Roman literature
So it is customary to call the 1st century BC. e., which includes the highest achievements in the field of poetry (Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, Horace) and prose (Cicero, Julius Caesar), the formation of the "Golden Latin".
Poetry. Neoteriki (lat. Youthful, young) - the most noticeable poetic group led by Gaius Valerius Catullus. Neoteriks, suspicious of the establishment of the sole power of Julius Caesar, went into the sphere of intimate feelings, from large epic genres they moved on to small forms of poetry - epillia (small epic poems), elegies, epigrams.
Catullus(c. 87-54 BC) in a collection of 116 poems appears primarily as a lyricist singing his beloved Clodia, sister of the tribune Clodius Palchra, under the name Lesbia, reminiscent of Sappho:
We will, Lesbia, live while we are alive,
And love as long as the soul loves;
The old gossipers murmur squeamishly
Let it not cost us a penny. (Translated by A. Fet)
Poems about Lesbia tell about all the ups and downs love feeling poet, about the rapprochement and quarrels of lovers. But in his epigrams directed against Julius Caesar and his supporters (especially against a certain Mamurra from the city of Formia), Catullus can show high citizenship, be exceptionally, indecently, harsh, use the invective technique (lat. "swear words").
Lucretius. To the same period belongs philosophical poem Lucretius (c. 94-55 BC) "On the Nature of Things", which outlines the materialistic philosophy of the Greek thinker Epicurus (4th-3rd century BC). Lucretius is sure that knowledge of the nature of things saves a person from superstition and fear of death. Therefore, in the first three books of the poem, he sets out the doctrine of the atoms that make up the world, according to the ideas of Democritus and Epicurus, and then tells in detail about astronomy, geology, the history of human culture (highlighting in it the stone, bronze, iron ages, which was confirmed by archaeologists of the XIX century, taking these names from Lucretius for the scientific designation of epochs in the development of mankind). The poem is written in hexameter, close to the poems of Hesiod, but shows a huge progress in human knowledge.
Caesar. Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) was an outstanding political figure and commander of Ancient Rome, the first to receive the title of emperor from the Senate, one of the founders of the Latin literary prose language. His "Notes on the Gallic War" (52/51 BC) in 7 books and "Notes on civil war"(44 BC) in 3 books - wonderful monuments of a simple and noble literary style. His tragedy "Oedipus" and a number of other works (pamphlets, the poem "The Way", letters, speeches, aphorisms, the treatise "On Analogy", dedicated to Cicero, etc.) have not reached us.
Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) - greatest speaker antiquities. 58 speeches of Cicero (and excerpts from another 17 speeches), treatises and dialogues of philosophical, didactic, political content (special meaning have his works on oratory, where the basics of rhetoric are systematically stated), about 900 letters.
Virgil. The highest achievement in the field of poetic creativity in the “age of Augustus” (second half of the 1st century BC) was the work of Publius Virgil Maro (70-19 BC). The collection "Bucoliki" includes eclogues (shepherd's poems, consisting of dialogues of shepherds, set out in hexameter, written under the influence ancient Greek poet Theocritus, the creator of this genre). Particularly significant later was the 4th eclogue, which in the Middle Ages was considered as a prediction of the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Virgil was considered as one of the forerunners of Christ (which is why in Dante's Divine Comedy Virgil accompanies the poet on his journey not only through hell, but also through purgatory and parted with him in earthly paradise). "Bukoliki" brought fame to Virgil, he became the head of a literary circle, which was patronized by Maecenas - a noble and wealthy supporter of Octavian - the future emperor Augustus.
"Georgics" is a didactic poem about the work of a farmer, written in the 30s. In its character and form (the use of the hexameter, etc.) it is reminiscent of Hesiod's Works and Days. The ideal of Virgil, embodied in the poem, is patriarchal, associated with rural rather than urban life.
"Aeneid" - greatest work Virgil and, in in a certain sense of all Roman literature. It was written over a number of years and was completed by the poet in the year of his death. Taking Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" as a model, Virgil chooses as a hero not one of the Greeks, but their opponent - the Trojan Aeneas, after the defeat, like Odysseus, making a journey and finding shelter in Italy. The use of this myth was political in nature: the emperor Augustus derived his family from the son of Aeneas Iulus. Despite all the similarities with the Homeric epic "Aeneid" - the author's work, which is reflected in the composition (the prudent introduction of inserted epillia, a kind of poetic short story), in demonstrating the author's high education, in the perfection of the hexameter, the emergence of a psychological motivation for the activities of the characters (especially in describing the love for Aeneas and the death of Dido, the Carthaginian queen). For centuries, the Aeneid has been a role model in the field of epic poetry.
Horace. The circle patronized by Maecenas included another great poet of Ancient Rome - Quintus Horace Flaccus (65-8 BC). For the first time, Horace drew attention to himself with his epods, written in imitation of Archilochus. Epod - a work written in an intermittent rhythm (for example, with alternating dactylic and iambic dimeters). In Horace, these are poems dedicated to modernity, in which one can find both praise (Maecenas, Augustus) and sharp criticism (for example, freedmen who penetrated into power thanks to cunning).
The collection of 17 epods was followed by two books of satires written in hexameter and in a number of ways approaching diatribe, a genre developed by cynic philosophers (live conversation on philosophical topics). Satires not only criticize the various vices that afflict Roman society(greed and envy, prodigality and lust for power), but a certain author’s ideal is also affirmed: leaving for privacy, communication with nature, which cannot be found in the city, a patriarchal way of life.
In 23 BC. e. three books of “Ods” by Horace are published (38 odes in the 1st, 20 in the 2nd, 30 in the 3rd), in 13 BC. e. Horace added to them the 4th book (15 odes), where, obeying the emperor Augustus, he sang the exploits of his stepsons - Tiberius and Drusus. The odes use 12 sizes, borrowed by Horace from Alcaeus, Sappho, Anacreon and other ancient Greek lyricists. The odes are built as an appeal (to a person, a muse, an object). The odes brought Horace the greatest fame in centuries, especially the 30th ode from the 3rd book "To Melpomene". Already Ovid, in the finale of the Metamorphoses, expresses the same thoughts very closely to the text of Horace. Pushkin chose the first words of this ode (“Exegi monument(um)” - “I erected a monument”) as an epigraph to his “Monument”. The source for Horace was the elegy of Theognis addressed to Kirn, but there is also a more ancient prototype of this ode - the ancient Egyptian poem "Praise to the Scribes", from where the image of the pyramids came to Horace: creativity preserves the memory of the poet stronger than the pyramids.
Of the letters of Horace, written in hexameter (20 messages in the 1st book, 3 in the 2nd), the last one is especially important - the "Epistle to the Pisons", otherwise called "On the Art of Poetry", which sets out normative poetics Horace, who played a significant role in the development of the poetics of classicism. Horace demands that the unity of form and content be observed, the simplicity and integrity of the chosen style, which cannot be mixed with other styles, demands high professionalism from the poet.
Ovid. Publius Ovid Nason (c. 43 BC - AD 18) became famous for his " Love elegies”, where he imitated the Roman poets Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius and others. The heroine of the elegies, named Corinne after the ancient Greek poetess, who won the poetry competitions of Pindar himself, whose mentor she was, differs from Lesbia Catullus in the complete absence of individual features. With his characteristic poetic brilliance, but coldly and sometimes ironically, Ovid describes "the science of tender passion", continuing this theme in the parody-didactic poems "The Science of Love" and "The Cure for Love". In a completely different, sincere tone, his last works written in exile (the city of Toma, now Constanta in Romania), where Emperor Augustus sent him, are noted - “Sorrowful Elegies” and “Letters from Pontus”.
The most outstanding work of Ovid is a poem in 15 books "Metamorphoses". Ovid chose the motif of transformations, which he traced in the myths about gods and heroes from the emergence of the cosmos from chaos to the transformation of Julius Caesar into a star, based on the idea of the transmigration of souls, metempsychosis, coming from Pythagoras. The songs of the poem, setting out the myths about the transformations of Narcissus into a flower, statues of Pygmalion Galatea in living woman etc., became a source of inspiration for many writers, artists, composers of subsequent eras. Ovid, who singled out the idea of variability from myths, as if predicted the onset of a new - transitional - phase in the development of culture, marked by a loss of stability both in reality and in people's feelings.
Roman Literature of the 1st-2nd Centuries A.D. e.
Of the works of this period, the tragedies of Lucius Annaeus are of particular importance. Seneca The Younger (4 BC - 64 AD) Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra and others, in which a new understanding of catharsis is realized (separation of fear and compassion, fixing the source of these feelings is not for one character, but for villains, on the one hand, and for innocent victims, on the other); his “Moral Letters to Lucilius”, which outlines a program of stoic acceptance of life, which is still relevant today; witty and evil "Epigrams" by Mark Valery Martial(c. 40 - between 101 and 104) in 12 books; 16 satyrs in hexameters by Decimus Junius Juvenal(c. 60 - c. 140), one of the most perfect in form and significant in terms of its critical attitude to the vices of the nobility, examples of the genre; novel Petronia Arbitra (d. 66) "Satyricon", extant in fragments; "History" and "Annals" of Cornelius Tacitus(c. 55 - c. 120) - one of the greatest historians of antiquity; Roman Lucius Apuleia(born c. 124) "Metamorphoses" ("Golden Ass"), in which a combination of entertaining form and esoteric (hidden) religious and philosophical content is found.
LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
The concept of "Middle Ages" arose in the 15th century, when the Italian humanists (L. Bruni and others), realizing the past as history divided into periods, singled out the era of antiquity (antiquity) and their era - "new time", and the millennium lying between these two eras, called "medium aevum" ( lat. Middle Ages, later they began to say "Middle Ages"). From the point of view of the humanists of the Renaissance, and later the enlighteners of the 18th century, the Middle Ages is a gloomy era of the death of high ancient culture, an era of barbarism and the dominance of the church, a real failure in European history. Only in late XVIII - early XIX century, largely under the influence of I. G. Herder and the Romantics, scientists saw in the Middle Ages a natural stage in the development of society, a peculiar depth and beauty was discovered in medieval literature and art.
It is traditionally believed that the Middle Ages began in 476, when the Western Roman Empire fell under the pressure of the barbarians. modern point view is completely different: the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages took several centuries, from about the 3rd to the 6th. In the light of the historical-theoretical approach, it became obvious that Late Antiquity should be considered as transition period in the development of literature.
Literature of Late Antiquity as a transitional period
In the first centuries of our era, there were descending and ascending lines in literature. The first was connected with the ancient tradition, based on pagan mythology and ancient philosophy, which experienced a severe crisis during this period. In the literature of late antiquity, this crisis is also evident, primarily in such manifestations as escapism (escape from socially important content), formalism (unconditional preference for formal experiments in the development of a new content of literature), rhetorism (subordination of literature to rhetorical rules, consideration of poetic activity as an educational work in the development of rhetoric), complementarity (reflection of the dependence of writers on rulers and wealthy patrons in compliments to the powerful of this world, with which the literature of this period is saturated, i.e., a departure from the actual aesthetic function of writing).
Ausonius. As confirmation of these characteristics, we will choose the famous poet of the 4th century, when literature reached a new take-off (the period of “silver Latin”, which reminded the Romans of the “golden Latin” of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Cicero and other writers of the 1st century BC), - Decima Magna Ausonius (c. 310 - 394). The most famous work of Ausonius is the poem "Mosella". The poet moves away from the places where “poor corpses lie on the plain, not mourned”, and sails on the ship along the Moselle River (Moselle, a tributary of the Rhine), describing with excellent hexameter (verse of Homeric poems) everything that he sees around: river turns, vineyards , belated settlers, beardless rowers. He devotes several pages to describing the fish swimming in the river, not forgetting to report on their gastronomic qualities. Before us is one of the first examples of the descriptive poem genre, which will be revived only in the 18th century, and from this point of view, Ausonius is an undoubted innovator and great master. But the lack of deep content in this famous poem, not only answers, but even raising questions about the most painful issues of our time is obvious. Ausonius was also fond of formalistic refinements. So, he sent to the proconsul Pakata, hoping to please this nobleman, the collection of "Technopegia" ("Jokes of the Craft") - "the useless fruit of my idleness", as he himself humbly wrote, which contains "Poems that begin and end with monosyllables, each time one and the same”, “Poems that only end in monosyllables”, “Ropal prayer” (in which the line consists of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-compound words in sequence, for example in Russian translation: “God the Father, giver of immortal existence , // Incline your ear to the purity of vigilant prayers"), "Wedding centon" (centon is a genre of formal poetry: compiling a new poem from the lines of another poet's work; Ausonius composes an unbridled narration of intercourse on the wedding night from the lines of the "Aeneid" of the chaste and highly moral Virgil ) are all examples of formalism in poetry.
Porfiry: the genre of the poetic square. Even greater sophistication was distinguished by the poet of the 4th century Porfiry Optatian, who wrote poetic squares. In poems of this genre, the number of lines corresponds to the number of letters in a line. The poetic squares used palindromes (texts that read equally in both directions). The earliest example of a poetic square dates back to the 4th century:
(Translated: "The sower Arepo holds the wheels with difficulty"). A palindrome is used here: the text is read equally in four directions (from the beginning and from the end horizontally, from the beginning and from the end vertically). This poetic square, obviously, seemed so amazing that it was considered as some kind of talisman, at least two centuries later it was still remembered and even painted on the walls of Christian churches. The poetic squares of Porphyry, presented by him to Emperor Constantine in 325, are much more complicated: the line is several times longer, so it was much more difficult to compose a palindrome. Porfiry painted some letters with red paint, drawing up a drawing (a peacock in the poem "Peacock", a fountain in the poem "Fountain", etc.), and if you read only the red letters, you get another poem, often in Greek. With such a formal complexity, the content, in fact, could not be serious at all.
Early Christian Literature. Along with the descending line in the transitional period between antiquity and the Middle Ages, ascending line literature that did not have these features of the crisis. This is the literature of early Christianity.
"New Testament" tells about the birth, death and resurrection of the son of God Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sins of the human race by his death on the cross and established a new alliance ("covenant") with the god of all mankind (and not just the Jewish people, as in the "Old Testament").
The "New Testament" in its canonical form, approved (like the canon of the "Old Testament") by Bishop Athanasius the Great of Alexandria (295-373), who thus played an outstanding role in world culture and literature, includes four gospels (gospels): from Matthew , from Mark, from Luke (synoptic - that is, similar in text) and from John, as well as the "Acts of the Apostles" (primarily Paul), 21 epistles (epistolary form of teaching): 14 from Paul, 2 from Peter, 3 from John, 1 from James, 1 from Judas (not to be confused with the traitor Judas); the final work of the canon is the Apocalypse (revelation) of John the Theologian. The "New Testament" was formed in the 2nd half of the 1st century - the first half of the 2nd century, mainly in Greek and came only in this language, although an artificial translation into the colloquial language of Palestine of the 1st century - Aramaic - revealed the disappeared in Greek translation rhythmic organization of the text, alliterations, assonances, rhymes, puns, other features that reveal the folklore nature of the original text of a number of sections.
Back in the 2nd century Bishop Irenaeus claimed divine origin Gospels. The text of the "New Testament", separated from the apocryphal gospels and other non-canonized sources, has become sacred to millions of Christians since the 4th century and remains so to this day. Sacred were perceived by different peoples and translations of the "New Testament" into Syriac (II-III centuries, the so-called Peshishta), Latin (collective, the so-called Itala, then St. Jerome, the end of the 4th century, the so-called Vulgate) , Armenian, Georgian (5th century), Old Church Slavonic (Cyril and Methodius, 9th century, and subsequent Slavonic translations), German (M. Luther and the Reformed "Zurich Bible", 16th century), English ("Bible of James I", 17th century ), Russian ( synodal translation, 1876) and other languages of the world. Biblical texts were memorized from early childhood and formed the very center of the thesaurus. Through the prism of the New Testament, the whole the world. Therefore, the influence of the Bible on literature is unprecedented. The "New Testament" gave the writers ideas (Christ's love for one's neighbor, non-resistance to evil by violence), a system of images (Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, the apostles, John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, Judas, the cross, Mary Magdalene, star of bethlehem, “animal number” 666, etc.), genre patterns (parable, life, vision, sermon, message), plots (birth, baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, appearances of Christ, the fate of the apostles, etc.), image thinking, a language that was imitated not only by religious but also by secular writers. The authors of the "New Testament" are Matthew, who included in his Gospel the "Sermon on the Mount" of Christ, Mark, Luke with his deep knowledge of Greek culture, John as the creator of the fourth Gospel and the "Apocalypse", the apostle Paul, and above all (judging by the above statements) himself Jesus Christ - possessed a great literary, oratorical gift.
Apologists. Tertullian. Apologists were called writers who defended Christianity during the period of persecution against it in the 2nd-3rd centuries. The most famous of them is Quintus Septimius Florence Tertullian, nicknamed Furious (160 - after 220). 31 of his works have been preserved, including "Protection from the Pagans", which denies all ancient philosophy, literature, and, in general, culture based on paganism. The treatise “Against the Gnostic Hermogenes” rejects the basic ideas of Gnosticism, which affirmed the dual unity of the world, the struggle of the forces of Good with the equally powerful forces of Evil. In the "Refutation of Heretics" the wrongness of the heresiarchs is justified by the fact that they are younger than the apostles and, therefore, further from Christ, the source of truth. This argument has played a huge role in the history of literature: to prove their case, many authors attributed their works to the contemporaries of Christ and the apostles.
In the treatise “On the body of Christ”, we read: “The son of God is crucified - it is not shameful, for it is shameful. And the son of God died - this is quite reliable, because it is absurd. And buried, he rose again - this is true, for it is impossible. In this fragment of Chapter V, which in the Middle Ages received the name "Credo", a special type of paradox is presented - an illogical paradox that cannot be resolved at the level of human thinking. This literary device used by Tertullian to prove the primacy of faith. In the Middle Ages, Tertullian was credited with a phrase expressing this thought with the utmost laconism: "I believe, because it is absurd."
Augustine the Blessed. Aurelius Augustine, nicknamed the Blessed (354-430) - the most authoritative of the Western Church Fathers. The transitional nature of the era in which he lived was reflected in his life in the most direct way. His father was a pagan, his mother was a Christian. In his youth, Augustine became interested in ancient rhetoric and philosophy, Cicero became his idol. For many years Augustine was a supporter of Manichaeism and studied astrology. Having moved to Mediolanum (Milan), in 387 he converted to Christianity. His godfather St. Ambrose of Milan became, uniting Christianity and Neoplatonism in his views. Under his influence, Augustine condemned Manichaeism, rejected the idea of Evil as an independent substance and considered it as the absence of Good. He also rejected astrology with its idea of predestination, spoke out against Pelagianism, one of the early Christian heresies. Pelagius believed that there was no original sin, that God endowed man with free will, and each person is free to choose the path he wants, but in the next world God will reward everyone fairly, while original sin was denied. In contrast to the Pelagians and astrologers, Augustine put forward the idea of grace: God arbitrarily exalts some (sends them grace) and overthrows others, regardless of good or evil human deeds. In a certain contradiction with this idea is Augustine's teaching on asceticism, which he outlined in his main treatise "On the City of God" in 22 books, where the earthly city (empire) and the heavenly city (the souls of people united christian church). In the human dual unity of the body (earthly) and the soul (heavenly), one must get rid of the body and soar to the heavenly city. In 397-401 Augustine wrote "Confessions" in 13 books - a story about his life, addressed to God. He writes this book for believers, showing by his own example that one can be a great sinner, break many commandments, but, sincerely surrendering to God, get rid of sinful thoughts. The way of salvation lies through repentance, hence character traits genre of confession, introduced into literature by Augustine. His work combines vivid descriptions of the events of his personal life and their philosophical and religious interpretation. Subsequently, the genre of confession was developed (including in secular literature) and gave the world such outstanding works, like "Confession" J.-J. Rousseau and "Confession" by L. N. Tolstoy. Augustine discovers the very principle of confession, which testifies to the strengthening of the author's principle in art and later, in connection with the development of the principle of psychologism, forms a whole system of well-developed artistic means for describing the inner world of a person. Augustine was recognized as one of the main authorities in Christianity, which explains the huge role of his ideas and style in the subsequent development of literature.
Medieval literature in Latin
The Latin language, having become a dead language, nevertheless became a connecting thread between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It was the language of the church, interstate relations, jurisprudence, science, education, one of the main languages of literature. The maxims of ancient authors were used as material studied in the medieval school.
In medieval literature in Latin, it is customary to distinguish three lines of development: the first (actually medieval, official, ecclesiastical) is represented in clerical literature, the second (associated with the appeal to the ancient heritage) was most clearly manifested in the Carolingian Renaissance, the third (which arose at the junction of Latin learning and folk laughter culture) was reflected in the poetry of the Vagants.
clerical literature. Significant layer medieval literature- clerical (church, religious, spiritual) literature. In a number of cases, it is represented by prominent names, such as: John Scot Eriugena, Abelard, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas. But often the names of writers have not been preserved, since the principle set forth by Tertullian, according to which the older the text, the closer it is to the truth, forced them to attribute their writings to authoritative figures from the times of the first Christians. So, for example, did the brilliant author of the 5th - early 6th century (possibly Peter Iver), in the treatise “On heavenly hierarchy"For the first time presenting the heavenly forces as located along the hierarchical ladder (and transferred this idea to the priests in the treatise "On the Church Hierarchy": hierarchy as the transmission of pure light by pure mirrors). In the treatises “On Divine Names” and “Mysterious Theology”, he developed the doctrine of the Great Analogy, of the symbol, laid the foundations for the doctrine of the Unified Chain of Being. In an effort to give authority to his writings, he passed them off as the works of the Greek Dionysius, baptized by the Apostle Paul himself. This author is now called Pseudo-Dionysius.
Medieval clerical literature in Latin developed new genres: vision (narration about the journey of the soul during sleep through afterlife), life (a story about the birth of a saint, the first exploits of holiness, miracles during life and after death), a religious hymn, a message, a commentary on Holy Scripture, confession, etc. They were based on samples of texts included in the New Testament. Clerical literature is distinguished by rhetoric, didacticism, parable, exaltation.
A typical example is the "Vision of Tnugdal" written in the 12th century in Ireland in Latin. The soul of the knight Tnugdal, who did not honor God's church, during a three-day sleep makes a journey through hell, where he sees the torment of sinners, and through the Silver City, where the souls of the righteous dwell. Having received good lesson, she returns to the body of the knight, and he becomes the most conscientious parishioner of the church. "Vision of Tnugdal" - the prototype of the "Divine Comedy" by Dante.
Carolingian Renaissance. The king of the Franks, and since 800 the emperor of the medieval Roman Empire, Charlemagne (768–814), set himself the goal of “renovatio Romani imperii” (“revival of the Roman Empire”), for which, in particular, he gathered at his court in Aachen the most educated people Europe and founded the Academy following the example of the ancients. The Academy was headed by the Anglo-Saxon from York Alcuin (730-804), the Visigoth from Spain Theodulf, Frank Einhard (the author of one of best biographies early medieval- "The Life of Charlemagne"), the Lombard Paul Deacon (the creator of the "History of the Lombards"), the Archbishop of Augustodunsky Muadvin and other prominent writers. They abandoned their "barbaric" names and named themselves after the great ancient authors: Alcuin became Horace, Angilbert - Homer, Muadvin - Nason (that is, Ovid), etc. They revived ancient meters (hexameter, elegiac distich, iambic dimeter, etc. . d.), stanzas (archilochic, sapphic, alkeyev, etc.), genres of eclogue (“Winter-Spring Controversy” by Alcuin), epitaphs (“Epitaph to Sophia’s niece” by Paul Deacon), panegyric, epistle (“Albinus to Corydon” by Alcuin, “To Liutger the Cleric” by Walachfried Strabo), fables (“About the Lost Horse” by Theodulf, attributed to Paul Deacon “The Fable of the Lion and the Fox”), etc., pagan imagery (Phoebus, Cupid, Bacchus, Acheron, etc.), literary characters (for example, Palemon and Daphnis from Virgil's Eclogue III and VIII in Alcuin's "Spring and Winter Dictionary"), descriptiveness in the spirit of Ausonius ("For the Glory of Lake Larskoe" by Paul Deacon, "On Care of Gardens" by Walachfried Strabo). But the content of their works is already purely medieval: questions of the Christian faith, the fight against the Arian heresy, loyalty to Christian rulers, the lives and deeds of the saints, etc. It is no coincidence that the theme of carnal love, so characteristic of antiquity, is replaced by the theme of friendship (for example, in the message of Alcuin "Albinus Corydon", Walachfried Strabo's message "To Liutger the Cleric"). The late representative of the Carolingian Renaissance, Walahfrid, educator of Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald, reworked the prose vision written by abbot Gaito, and his "Wettin's Vision" became the first example of the medieval genre of vision, the prototype of Dante's "Divine Comedy". The very short-lived Carolingian Renaissance became the first example of "small Renaissances" in the medieval culture of Europe.
Poetry of the Vagants. In Latin, the poetry of vagantes (vagantes - lat. vagabonds), or goliards, has developed - one of the few examples of written fixation of the comic culture of the Middle Ages. Initially, the songwriters were students who moved from university to university (teaching at all universities in Europe was conducted in Latin), fugitive monks, etc., but during the heyday of vagant poetry (XII-XIII centuries), major figures can be found among them churches. The most wonderful
