What is the genre of the story. How is a story different from a story?

Story

Story

STORY. - The term "R." in its genre meaning is usually applied to any small narrative prose. a literary work with a realistic coloring, containing a detailed and complete narrative about any individual event, case, everyday episode, etc. So. arr. This term (as well as any other genre term, by the way) denotes not one genre of any particular style, but a whole group of close, similar, but not identical genres that take place in the literature of various styles. At the same time, naturally, on the periphery of this group, we find a number of transitional, related forms, which do not make it possible to sharply distinguish the corresponding material from the material of other related genres. However, this cannot prevent distinguishing R. from others. literary types, establishing its typical features and the regularity of its addition in its classical form under certain historical conditions and in certain styles, on the one hand, and the regularity of its use and the emergence of modifications of R. forms in other styles, on the other.
In Western European literature, the corresponding genre group is denoted by the term "short story" (see), which is essentially a synonym for the term "R.". True, in us the presence of these synonymous terms aroused (among the Formalists especially) the desire to differentiate them. Thus, the short story was often defined as a variety of R., distinguished by a particular sharpness of the plot and denouement and tension in the development of the plot. However, this kind of terminological distinction is no more than arbitrary, since in its historical origin And further development Russian R. is quite similar to the Western European short story. As there is a short story, so here R. stood out from the whole narrative literature generally in similar historical moments, having determined, first of all, the nature of the content aimed at reality. We had it in the XVII-XVIII centuries. in connection with the growth of tendencies opposed to the old feudal order. During this period, R. developed most intensively in the styles of the “third estate”. The aggravation of social contradictions and the cultural and ideological growth of the classes that create literature determine the formation of the R genre at this stage. In contrast to the general character of the prevailing in previous centuries writing (church, religious) merchant or petty-bourgeois R. XVII-XVIII centuries. brought real, everyday, everyday content into literature, enclosed in clear compositional forms, distinguished by structural completeness, intense dynamism of the plot, and simplicity of language. In contrast to the genre amorphism of a medieval story, the plot structure of which basically follows the natural course of events and is limited by the natural boundaries of the latter (biography of the hero, history of a military campaign, etc.), R. is a form that shows the author's ability to distinguish from the general the flow of reality moments, the most significant, situations, the most conflicting, in which social contradictions appear with the greatest convexity and sharpness, converging in one event that serves as the plot of R. However, the connection of the story of the XVII-XVIII centuries. in the styles of the "third estate" with more traditional genres expressed in the stubborn preservation of the old terms - "tale", "fairy tale" - as applied to early R. ("Tales" about Karp Sutulov, about Shemyakin's court, etc., Chulkov's "fairy tale" "Annoying Awakening", etc.) . As a certain literary term "R." starts to come into use early XIX century, but even in Pushkin and Gogol, the term “story” combines works, some of which we would definitely refer to R. or a short story (“Shot”, “The Undertaker”, “Carriage”, etc.).
So. arr. R. was formed as a genre, put forward by the growth in the literature of bourgeois trends, bourgeois styles. Further R. wins its place in a variety of styles, in each of them being modified both in ideological significance and formally. The in-depth psychological story of Chekhov, the “simplified”, “folk” story of L. Tolstoy, the mystical-symbolist story of F. Sologub, the socially sharpened realistic story of M. Gorky - all these are different both in content and in R.
Genre forms of R., in the styles of the "third estate" that met the needs of a progressively realistic reflection of reality, are also used in the future for opposite purposes - for the purposes of mystical refraction real life writers of the reactionary classes. F. Sologub, for example, referring to the reflection of the everyday reality surrounding him, along with the large epic form - the novel - also gives R., in which there are a number of characteristic features of this narrative type: small size, restriction of the plot to one event taking place in the setting ordinary reality, prose form etc. However, due to the fact that this author refracts reality in a mystical, surreal way, his stories closely border on other genre groups of a small epic form - religious legend, a fairy tale, - absorbing the signs of these latter (for example, the introduction of elements of the miraculous into the depiction of characters, into the development of the plot), which, however, does not give grounds to identify all these different narrative types.
Hence - the deepest difference R. in different styles in the presence of some structural homogeneity of R. as a certain type of small epic form (a limited number of characters shown around one central event, the absence of a detailed life history of the characters, a limited size, etc.).
So. arr. the content of the term "R." even in its widest use - not only in application to its typical, so to speak, classical form, but also in its further transformations - it retains certain of the above features. They ch. arr. determined social conditions promoting realism as artistic method. These few signs, however, are sufficient to understand R.'s relationship with other close ones. genre forms. Story eg. in contrast, R. sets out not just one case, but unfolds a whole series of events that make up a single line of fate for a particular character or the development of a more or less long process. In accordance with this, if in R. we have an intensive construction of the plot, with a thread life fate characters are drawn together into one node of a given event (the so-called "totality" of a novelistic plot), then in the story we see its extensive deployment, with which the narrative tension is evenly distributed in a number of moments (events). Thus, the story presents a broader scope of material and usually (but not always) in size form than R. Cf. as examples of R. "Myatel" by Pushkin and the story "Notes of a Marker" by L. Tolstoy, Chekhov's stories "The Steppe", "Men", etc. with his own stories, etc. On the other hand, in the same plane, we delimit R., stating at least one case, but in a number of situations, indicating the circumstances of the case, describing the situation, etc., from an anecdote as the smallest (rudimentary) narrative form, giving only one acute, comic situation, the essence of which is concluded often in one apt phrase. It is clear that between R. and the story, R. and an anecdote, it is easy to find intermediate forms. Thus, in translated facetia we find samples of short anecdotal stories. The addition of a moralistically generalizing conclusion to such a short anecdote-story turns it into a fable, which, due to this, acquires a more or less allegorical character, which we see in a number of the same facetia. On a different plane lies the criterion for distinguishing R. from a fairy tale and legend, and R. from an essay: in terms of volume, plot dynamics, R., a fairy tale, a legend are similar forms. But the first differs from the last two in its realism (in typical forms) or at least the focus of the subject matter on reality (albeit fantastically refracted). However, in this respect, R. opposes only a literary tale, but not folklore, because, according to the accepted traditional terminology, the latter embraces works not only of a mythical and fantastic nature, but also of a realistic-everyday and historical one. The term "R." applies only to literary works, although among oral tales it is easy to find typical examples of a realistic novel. As has already been said more than once, transitional forms can be found for all the indicated relations. Even such a seemingly constant sign of a story as a prose form is relative - we know examples of R. in verse (Nekrasov - "Philanthropist", Maykov - "Mashenka", etc.). However, in all such cases, in the absence of any sign characteristic of R., others obviously remain, otherwise it would not be applicable to this work the very term "R." For all that, it must be emphasized that these features of rhyme by no means represent something immovable, unchanging, on the contrary, their concrete implementation in different styles is extremely diverse and significantly different. So, in some styles, the “totality” of the plot of R. is manifested in the extraordinary event that unexpectedly determines the fate of the characters (“Shot” by Pushkin), in others, on the contrary, in its everyday ordinaryness (Chekhov’s stories), in the third, in its broad social generalization (Gorky's stories). In accordance with this, other aspects of the poetic structure of R. are also modified: the always complete, integral plot of R. in some styles is driven by the power of individual psychological impulses, more or less exceptional (“The Shot”) or ordinary (Chekhov’s stories), in others - social contradictions(Gorky's stories). The function of the background, the situation, the action, etc., changes (a small share of the everyday background in "The Shot" and a large one in Chekhov's stories, a wide social background in Gorky, etc.). Hence - the variety of varieties of the story: R. everyday, satirical, adventurous, psychological, fantastic, etc. The story in general we find in many styles. But each of them gravitates towards a certain type (or a number of types) of R., again giving a peculiar concrete form of this type. It is easy to understand why eg. Saltykov-Shchedrin, a representative of the revolutionary peasant democracy, puts forward the genre of satirical R. - fairy tales with "Aesopian" language, the populist-liberal Korolenko - everyday R., the writer of the decadent petty bourgeoisie F. Sologub - mystical and fantastic, etc. In our Soviet Literature is dominated by R. with broad social themes. This theme is not always given in a truly realistic interpretation: there are frequent examples of superficial everydayism (for example, in the stories of Podyachev), one-sided "biological" psychologism ("The Secret of the Secret" by Vs. Ivanov), etc. And although Soviet literature has already put forward a number of fairly large masters of R. (Babel, Tikhonov, Vs. Ivanov, Zoshchenko, Erdberg, Gabrilovich, etc.), all the same R. style socialist realism is in the process of its development. Meanwhile, the specific artistic means of R. - conciseness, laconism, dynamism, intensity of perception, relative simplicity and accessibility, etc. - determine its special effectiveness. And if the large canvas of the novel reflects the broad lines of the social process of modernity in a single compositional scope, then in R. the artist focuses on individual moments, episodes, aspects of this process, which also contain the essential features of the changing reality. Therefore, the literature of socialist realism, as the richest and most diverse in genres, in common system R. also assigns a proper place to his genres, critically mastering the huge short story heritage of the past. Bibliography:
Novella.

Literary Encyclopedia. - In 11 tons; M.: publishing house of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Friche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

Story

small form epic kind literature; a small piece of prose. Unlike essay the story has plot And conflict and is less documentary, i.e. contains fiction. Novella differs from the story in the dynamism of the construction and, as a rule, in the unexpected denouement of the plot. Depending on the content, two types of stories are distinguished: short stories and essay types. The story of the novelistic type is based on a certain case that reveals the formation of the character of the protagonist. Such stories record either a moment that changed the hero’s worldview, or several events that led to this moment: “Belkin’s Tales” by A.S. Pushkin, "The Bride" and "Ionych" A.P. Chekhov, "tramp" stories by M. Gorky. This type of story goes back to literature. Renaissance, where many stories of the novelistic type were combined into a larger work: this is how Don Quixote by M. Cervantes, "Gille Blas" by A. R. Lesage, "Til Ulenspiegel" by S. de Costera. A story of an essay type captures a certain state of the world or society, its task is to show not a key moment, but the ordinary, normal life of a group of people or one person, choosing the most typical moment for this: “Notes of a hunter” by I.S. Turgenev, "Antonov apples" I. A. Bunin, Cavalry by I. E. Babel. Such stories are often part of a larger work that unfolds a moralistic picture, often with satirical pathos; for example, J. Swift, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The story can combine both tendencies: the author uses the novelistic form for moralistic content; for example, “Mumu” ​​by I. S. Turgenev, “The Death of an Official” by A. P. Chekhov, etc.
Among the stories are detective and fantastic. Detective stories describe a criminal incident, their plot is based on the search for a criminal. Often writers create cycles detective stories, united through hero: e.g., Sherlock Holmes in A.K. Doyle or Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple at A. Christie. Fantasy stories put the action in fictional world(the future or another planet), showing the life of heroes among technical innovations in conditions of almost unlimited possibilities, for example. fantastic stories R. bradbury.
In Russian literature, the short story is one of the most widespread genres of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 20th century a genre of the so-called. "female" story (V.S. Tokarev, D. Rubin), which is an episode from the life of the hero, revealing his psychology, and through it - the psychology of all modern people. In terms of content, it gravitates towards the novel, but in terms of volume and form it remains a story.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

Story

STORY. In Russian literature, the designation of a more or less definite narrative genre under the subtitle "story" is approved relatively late. N. Gogol and Pushkin prefer the name "story", where we could say "story", and only from the 50s does a clearer distinction begin. Tolstoy has the least hesitation and the greatest precision in his subtitles of the 1950s, which can be studied as an example of sensitivity to literary terminology. (Thus, "Snowstorm" is called a "story", "Marker's Notes" a "tale" - both in the highest degree exactly).

Of course, the main fluctuations can only be between two genres: a story and a short story, sometimes adjoining in their assignments and very indefinite in their own. terminological meaning. Indeed, while the Italian short story of the Renaissance is a completely concrete concept, which has become historical in its concreteness and formed a solid literary genre(hence the ease and explainability of stylization specifically for the Italian short story) - this cannot be said about the “story” at all. A variety of composition techniques, motives, interests, the very manner of presentation (Turgenev, for example, has a story in 9 letters - "Faust") - is associated with the story of the 19th century. To him belong both the works of E. Poe (one of the greatest masters of the story), honed in the spirit of the Italian short story, and the “stories” of early Chekhov that developed from the techniques of the so-called “scene”. All these considerations force us to begin the definition of the term "story" not from its theoretical and abstract established type, but rather in a general manner, which we will denote as special tone of the story giving it the features of a "story". This tonality, which is quite difficult to define in abstract terms, is sometimes given immediately in the efficiency of the message begun, in the fact that the story is very often conducted in the first person, in the fact that it is given the features of something really former (hence the characteristic technique for the story is the creation special illusion of chance, for example, a found manuscript, a meeting, episodes during a trip, etc.). So, the tone of the story is immediately caught in Tolstoy's exemplary construction of Master and Worker: “It was in the 70s, the day after the winter Nikola. There was a holiday in the parish, and the village janitor, merchant of the second guild, Vasily Andreevich Brekhunov, could not be absent. This factuality and efficiency of the started message immediately sets you up for waiting. story about some event (“It was”), underlined by a detailed mention of the time (70s). Further, according to the beginning, it is completely restrained tone specific story. It is not superfluous to add that the elements of the story permeate all of Tolstoy's work: certain parts of his novels, with an appropriate roundness, can be singled out as separate stories). Quite a different tone of the beginning of Faust. The very first letters create a feeling of narrative lyrics, with a very detailed transfer of feelings and various, rather vague, memories. The tone of the narration suggests something else - strict facticity, economy (sometimes consciously calculated) visual means, immediate preparation of the main essence of the narrated.

The story, on the contrary, uses the means of slow tonality - it is all filled with detailed motivation, secondary accessories, and its essence can be distributed at all points of the narrative itself with almost uniform tension. This is done in Marker's Notes, where tragic end book. Nekhlyudov is not perceived tragically, thanks to the uniform tension and uniform distribution. Thus, a special specific tone of the story is created quite certain means. A good storyteller knows that he must focus on a relatively easily observable case or event, quickly, i.e. immediately, explain all his motives and give appropriate permission (end). Concentration of attention, the center advanced by tension and the connectedness of motives by this center - features story. Its relatively small volume, which they tried to legitimize as one of the signs, is entirely due to these basic properties.

K. Loks. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925

a small form of epic literature; a small piece of prose. Unlike the essay, the story has a plot and conflict and is less documentary, that is, it contains fiction. A short story differs from a short story in its dynamism and, as a rule, in an unexpected denouement of the plot. Depending on the content, two types of stories are distinguished: short stories and essay types. The story of the novelistic type is based on a certain case that reveals the formation of the character of the protagonist. Such stories record either the moment that changed the hero’s worldview, or several events that led to this moment: Belkin’s Tale by A. S. Pushkin, The Bride and Ionych by A. P. Chekhov, and M. Gorky’s “barefoot” stories. A story of this type goes back to the literature of the Renaissance, where many short stories of the short story type were combined into a larger work: this is how Don Quixote by M. Cervantes, Gil Blas by A. R. Lesage, Til Ulenspiegel by C. de Coster. A story of an essay type captures a certain state of the world or society, its task is to show not a key moment, but the ordinary, normal life of a group of people or one person, choosing the most typical moment for this: “Notes of a hunter” by I. S. Turgenev, “ Antonov apples” by I. A. Bunin, “Cavalry” by I. E. Babel. Such stories are often part of a larger work that unfolds a moralistic picture, often with satirical pathos; for example, J. Swift, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The story can combine both tendencies: the author uses the novelistic form for moralistic content; for example, “Mumu” ​​by I. S. Turgenev, “The Death of an Official” by A. P. Chekhov, etc.

Among the stories are detective and fantastic. Detective stories describe a criminal incident, their plot is based on the search for a criminal. Often writers create cycles of detective stories united by a cross-cutting hero: for example, Sherlock Holmes in A. K. Doyle or Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple in A. Christie. Fantasy stories set the action in a fictional world (the future or another planet), showing the life of the characters among technological innovations in conditions of almost unlimited possibilities, for example. fantasy stories by R. Bradbury.

In Russian literature, the short story is one of the most widespread genres of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 20th century a genre of the so-called. "women's" story (V. S. Tokarev, D. Rubin), which is an episode from the life of the hero, revealing his psychology, and through it - the psychology of all modern people. In content, it gravitates toward the novel, but in volume and form it remains a story.

The short story genre is one of the most popular in literature. Many writers have turned to him and are turning to him. After reading this article, you will learn what are the features of the story genre, examples of the most famous works, as well as popular mistakes that authors make.

The story is one of the small literary forms. It is a small volume narrative work with few heroes. In this case, short-term events are displayed.

Brief history of the short story genre

V. G. Belinsky (his portrait is presented above) as early as 1840 distinguished the essay and the story as small prose genres from the story and the novel as larger ones. Already at this time in Russian literature the predominance of prose over verse was fully indicated.

A little later, in the 2nd half of the 19th century, the essay was widely developed in democratic literature our country. At this time, there was an opinion that it was documentary that distinguished this genre. The story, as it was believed then, is created using creative imagination. According to another opinion, the genre we are interested in differs from the essay in the conflict of the plot. After all, the essay is characterized by the fact that it is basically a descriptive work.

Unity of time

In order to more fully characterize the genre of the story, it is necessary to highlight the patterns inherent in it. The first of these is the unity of time. In a story, the action time is always limited. However, not necessarily only one day, as in the works of the classicists. Although this rule is not always observed, it is rare to find stories in which the plot spans the entire life of the protagonist. Even rarer are works in this genre, the action of which lasts for centuries. Usually the author depicts some episode from the life of his hero. Among the stories in which the whole fate of a character is revealed, one can note "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (author - Leo Tolstoy) and It also happens that not all life is represented, but its long period. For example, in Chekhov's "Jumping Girl" a row is depicted significant events in the fate of the heroes, their environment, the difficult development of relationships between them. However, this is given extremely compacted, compressed. It is the conciseness of the content, greater than in the story, that is common feature story and, perhaps, the only one.

Unity of action and place

There are other features of the short story genre that should be noted. The unity of time is closely connected and conditioned by another unity - action. A story is a genre of literature that should be limited to describing a single event. Sometimes one or two events become the main, meaning-forming, culminating events in it. Hence comes the unity of place. Usually the action takes place in one place. There may be not one, but several, but their number is strictly limited. For example, there may be 2-3 places, but 5 are already rare (they can only be mentioned).

character unity

Another feature of the story is the unity of the character. As a rule, in the space of a work of this genre there is one main character. Occasionally there may be two, and very rarely - several. As for the secondary characters, there can be quite a lot of them, but they are purely functional. A short story is a genre of literature in which the task secondary characters limited to creating a background. They can interfere or help the main character, but no more. In the story "Chelkash" by Gorky, for example, there are only two characters. And in Chekhov's "I want to sleep" there is only one at all, which is impossible either in the story or in the novel.

Unity of the center

Like the genres listed above, one way or another are reduced to the unity of the center. Indeed, a story cannot be imagined without some defining, central sign that "pulls together" all the others. It does not matter at all whether this center will be some static descriptive image, a climactic event, the development of the action itself, or meaningful gesture character. main image should be in any story. It is through him that the whole composition is kept. It sets the theme of the work, determines the meaning of the story told.

The basic principle of building a story

It is not difficult to draw a conclusion from reflections on "unities". The idea suggests itself that the main principle of constructing the composition of a story is the expediency and economy of motives. Tomashevsky called the motive the smallest element. It can be an action, a character or an event. This structure can no longer be decomposed into components. This means that the biggest sin of the author is excessive detail, oversaturation of the text, a heap of details that can be omitted when developing this genre of work. The story should not go into detail.

It is necessary to describe only the most significant in order to avoid a common mistake. It is very characteristic, oddly enough, for people who are very conscientious about their works. They have a desire to express themselves to the maximum in each text. Young directors often do the same when they stage diploma films and performances. This is especially true for films, since the author's fantasy in this case is not limited to the text of the play.

Imaginative authors love to fill the story with descriptive motifs. For example, they depict how a pack of cannibal wolves is chasing the main character of the work. However, if dawn breaks, they will necessarily stop at the description of long shadows, dimmed stars, reddened clouds. The author seemed to admire nature and only then decided to continue the pursuit. Genre fantasy story gives maximum scope to the imagination, so avoiding this mistake is not at all easy.

The role of motives in the story

It must be emphasized that in the genre of interest to us, all motives should reveal the theme, work for meaning. For example, the gun described at the beginning of the work must certainly fire in the finale. Motives that lead to the side should not be included in the story. Or you need to look for images that outline the situation, but do not overly detail it.

Composition features

It should be noted that it is not necessary to adhere to the traditional methods of building artistic text. Their violation can be effective. The story can be created almost on the same descriptions. But it is still impossible to do without action. The hero is simply obliged to at least raise his hand, take a step (in other words, make a significant gesture). Otherwise, it will turn out not a story, but a miniature, a sketch, a poem in prose. One more important feature of the genre we are interested in is a significant ending. For example, a novel can last forever, but the story is built differently.

Very often its ending is paradoxical and unexpected. It was with this that he associated the appearance of catharsis in the reader. Modern researchers (in particular, Patrice Pavie) consider catharsis as an emotional pulsation that appears as you read. However, the significance of the ending remains the same. The ending can radically change the meaning of the story, push to rethink what is stated in it. This must be remembered.

The place of the story in world literature

Story - which takes important place in world literature. Gorky and Tolstoy addressed him both in early and in mature period creativity. Chekhov's story is the main and favorite genre. Many stories have become classics and, along with major epic works(stories and novels) entered the treasury of literature. Such, for example, are Tolstoy's stories "Three Deaths" and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter", Chekhov's works "Darling" and "The Man in a Case", Gorky's stories "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash", etc.

Advantages of the short story over other genres

The genre we are interested in allows us to single out one or another typical case, one or another side of our life, with particular convexity. It makes it possible to depict them in such a way that the reader's attention is completely focused on them. For example, Chekhov, describing Vanka Zhukov with a letter "to the village of grandfather", full of childish despair, dwells in detail on the content of this letter. It will not reach its destination and because of this it becomes especially strong in terms of accusation. In the story "The Birth of a Man" by M. Gorky, the episode with the birth of a child that occurs on the road helps the author in revealing the main idea - affirming the value of life.

Literature today has a huge number of both lyrical and prose genres. All of them have their own characteristics and distinctive features. But this article is devoted to only one prose genre - the story. And to the question of what a story is, we will try to answer it.

Definition

Story - genre short prose, characterized by small volume and unity artistic events. The story usually has one storyline with a conflict situation and few characters. So, the answer to the question of what a story is is quite simple: this work in prose is less in volume than a story and a novel.

Story and novella

The question often arises: what is the difference between a short story and a short story? Both of them have the same characteristics. There is another name for the novel - short story. But how right is it?

Most Russian literary critics are of the opinion that short stories and short stories are different names for the same genre. So, once in Russia, the short story began to be called a story. A similar opinion is shared by researchers of small European genres B. Tomashevsky and E. Meletinsky. Therefore, in the future in the article, the concepts of short story and short story will be used as equivalent.

The emergence of the story

Answering the question of what a story is, it is necessary to turn to the history of the emergence of this genre. The story finds its origins in fable, fairy tale and anecdote. Although it differs significantly from them. With an anecdote, the genre distinguishes the possibility of not only a comic plot, but also a sentimental one with a tragic one. In a fable, unlike a story, there are always allegorical images and edifying elements. And a fairy tale is impossible without an element of magic, which is not typical for a short story.

Genre Development

The novella originated in Europe during the Renaissance. And even then its main features were determined: a dramatic conflict, unusual incidents, an event that changes the life of a hero. These are the works of Boccaccio, Hoffmann. Stories about animals were still unusual for this period, the main characters were people.

Each cultural epoch was reflected in literature and, consequently, in the genre of the short story. Therefore, in the romantic period, the story acquired mystical features. At the same time, there is no philosophical orientation, psychologism and appeal to inner world hero. The author remained aloof from what was happening, not giving assessments and not expressing his opinion.

After realism strengthened its position and invaded all literary genres, the short story, as it was originally, ceased to exist. The basic principles of realism - descriptiveness and psychologism - were absolutely alien to the short story. That is why the genre is beginning to transform. So, in the 19th century, it becomes a story. From this moment on, the question of what a story is becomes correct, since it is during this period that the literary term itself appears.

Essays and notes about the new genre appear in Russia. So, N.V. Gogol, in one of his works on literature, calls a story a kind of story, which describes an ordinary incident from life that can happen to every person.

It was only in 1940 that the story was singled out as a special literary genre, different from the short story, which has several storylines, and the physiological essay, which is always journalistic and aimed at description.

Genre features

As a rule, the story tells about some moment or event in a person's life. But the main thing in defining the genre is not the volume of the work and not the number of storylines, but the focus of the author himself on brevity.

For example, the story "Ionych" (A.P. Chekhov) in its content (description of the hero's whole life) is close to the novel. However, the brevity with which the author describes the events allows us to call the work a story. In addition, Chekhov's goal is the same - the image of the spiritual degradation of man. In this regard, the phrase "short story" is redundant, since genre specificity story requires the utmost brevity.

A characteristic feature of the story is the attention to detail. Due to the brevity of the narrative, any subject to which the author paid special attention becomes the key to understanding the meaning of the work. Sometimes even the hero of a story can matter less than a seemingly insignificant detail. So, in the story "Khor and Kalinych" by I. S. Turgenev, the gifts that friends presented to each other reveal the characters' characters: the economic Kalinych gives good boots, and the poetic Khor - a bunch of strawberries.

Due to the small volume, the story is always stylistically unified. Therefore, its main feature is the narration from one person (or the author, or the hero, or the narrator).

Conclusion

Thus, the genre of the story incorporates the features of all past cultural epochs. Today it continues to evolve and acquires more and more new features. Varieties of the story are also developing: psychological, everyday, fantastic, satirical.

Literary genre is a group literary works, which has common historical trends development and united by a set of properties in its content and form. Sometimes this term is confused with the concepts of "view" "form". To date, there is no single clear classification of genres. Literary works are subdivided according to a certain number of characteristic features.

The history of the formation of genres

The first systematization of literary genres was presented by Aristotle in his Poetics. Thanks to this work, the impression began to emerge that the literary genre is a natural stable system that requires the author to fully comply with the principles and canons a certain genre. Over time, this led to the formation of a number of poetics, strictly prescribing to the authors exactly how they should write a tragedy, ode or comedy. Long years these requirements remained unshakable.

Decisive changes in the system of literary genres began only towards the end of the 18th century.

At the same time, literary works aimed at artistic search, in their attempts to move as far as possible from genre divisions, gradually came to the emergence of new phenomena unique to literature.

What literary genres exist

To understand how to determine the genre of a work, you need to familiarize yourself with existing classifications and characteristics of each of them.

Below is a sample table to determine the type of existing literary genres

Separation of genres by content

Classification literary trends based on content includes comedy, tragedy and drama.

Comedy is a kind of literature which provides for a humorous approach. Varieties of the comic direction are:

There is also a comedy of characters and a comedy of situations. In the first case, the source of humorous content is internal features actors, their vices or shortcomings. In the second case, comedy is manifested in the circumstances and situations.

Tragedy - drama genre with the obligatory catastrophic denouement, the opposite of the comedy genre. Tragedy usually reflects the deepest conflicts and contradictions. The plot is extremely intense. In some cases, tragedies are written in verse form.

Drama is a special kind fiction , where the events that take place are transmitted not through their direct description, but through the monologues or dialogues of the characters. drama like literary phenomenon existed among many peoples even at the level of folklore. Originally in Greek, this term meant a sad event that affects one specific person. Subsequently, the drama began to represent a wider range of works.

The most famous prose genres

The category of prose genres includes literary works of various sizes, made in prose.

Novel

The novel is a prose literary genre that implies a detailed narrative about the fate of the heroes and certain critical periods of their lives. The name of this genre originates in the XII century, when chivalrous stories were born "in the folk Romance» as opposed to Latin historiography. A short story was considered a plot version of the novel. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, such concepts as a detective novel, female romance, fantasy novel.

Novella

Novella is a kind of prose genre. Her birth was served by the famous collection "Decameron" Giovanni Boccaccio . Subsequently, several collections based on the Decameron model were released.

The era of romanticism introduced elements of mysticism and phantasmagorism into the genre of the short story - examples are the works of Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe. On the other hand, the works of Prosper Mérimée bore the features of realistic stories.

novella like short story with a twist became characteristic genre for American Literature.

The salient features of the novel are:

1. Maximum brevity.
2. Sharpness and even paradoxicality of the plot.
3. Neutrality of style.
4. Lack of descriptiveness and psychologism in the presentation.
5. An unexpected denouement, always containing an extraordinary turn of events.

Tale

The story is called prose of a relatively small volume. The plot of the story, as a rule, is in the nature of reproducing the natural events of life. Usually the story reveals the fate and personality of the hero against the backdrop of ongoing events. A classic example is “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by A.S. Pushkin.

Story

A short form is called a story prose work, which originates from folklore genres - parables and fairy tales. Some Literary Specialists as a Kind of Genre consider essay, essay and short story. Usually the story is characterized by a small volume, one storyline and few characters. The stories are characteristic of literary works of the 20th century.

Play

The play is called dramatic work, which is created for the purpose of subsequent theatrical production.

The structure of the play usually includes the phrases of the characters and the author's remarks describing the environment or the actions of the characters. There is always a list of characters at the beginning of a play. With brief description their appearance, age, character, etc.

The whole play is divided into large parts - acts or actions. Each action, in turn, is divided into smaller elements - scenes, episodes, pictures.

The plays of J.B. Molière ("Tartuffe", "Imaginary Sick") B. Shaw ("Wait and see"), B. Brecht. ("The Good Man from Cesuan", "The Threepenny Opera").

Description and examples of individual genres

Consider the most common and significant examples of literary genres for world culture.

Poem

A poem is a large poetic work that has a lyrical plot or describes a sequence of events. Historically, the poem was "born" from the epic

In turn, a poem can have many genre varieties:

1. Didactic.
2. Heroic.
3. Burlesque,
4. satirical.
5. Ironic.
6. Romantic.
7. Lyric-dramatic.

Initially, the leading themes for creating poems were world-historical or important religious events and themes. Virgil's Aeneid is an example of such a poem., "The Divine Comedy" by Dante, "The Liberated Jerusalem" by T. Tasso, " Lost heaven» J. Milton, Voltaire's Henriad, etc.

At the same time, it developed romantic poem- "The Knight in a Leopard's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli, "Furious Roland" by L. Ariosto. This kind of poem to a certain extent echoes the tradition of medieval chivalric romances.

Over time, moral, philosophical and social topics began to come to the fore (“Childe Harold's Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov).

IN XIX-XX centuries the poem begins more and more become realistic(“Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N.A. Nekrasov, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky).

epic

An epic is usually understood as a set of works that are united common epoch, national identity, subject.

The emergence of each epic is due to certain historical circumstances. As a rule, the epic claims to be objective and reliable presentation of events.

visions

This peculiar narrative genre, When the story is told from the perspective of, allegedly experiencing a dream, lethargy or hallucination.

1. Already in the era of antiquity, under the guise of real visions, fictional events began to be described in the form of visions. The authors of the first visions were Cicero, Plutarch, Plato.
2. In the Middle Ages, the genre began to gain momentum in popularity, reaching its heights with Dante in his " Divine Comedy”, which in its form represents an unfolded vision.
3. For a while, visions were an integral part of church literature most European countries. The editors of such visions have always been representatives of the clergy, thus obtaining the opportunity to express their personal views, allegedly on behalf of higher powers.
4. Over time, a new sharply social satirical content was invested in the form of visions (“Visions of Peter the Ploughman” by Langland).

In more contemporary literature the genre of visions began to be used to introduce elements of fantasy.