Tragedy(from Gr. Tragos - goat and ode - song) - one of the types of drama, which is based on the irreconcilable conflict of an unusual personality with insurmountable external circumstances. Usually the hero dies (Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's Hamlet). The tragedy originated in ancient Greece, the name comes from a folk performance in honor of the god of winemaking Dionysus. Dances, songs and tales about his sufferings were performed, at the end of which a goat was sacrificed.

Comedy(from Gr. comoidia. Comos - a cheerful crowd and ode - a song) - a type of dramatic volition, which depicts the comic in social life, behavior and character of people. Distinguish between comedy of situations (intrigue) and comedy of characters.

Drama - a type of dramaturgy, intermediate between tragedy and comedy (Thunderstorm by A. Ostrovsky, Stolen Happiness by I. Franko). Drama depicts, mainly, privacy individual and his acute conflict with society. At the same time, the emphasis is often placed on universal human contradictions embodied in the behavior and actions of specific characters.

Mystery(from Gr. mysterion - sacrament, religious service, rite) - a genre of mass religious theater of the era late Middle Ages(XIV-XV centuries), common in the countries of Western Nvrotta.

Sideshow(from lat. intermedius - what is in the middle) - a small comic play or scene that was performed between the actions of the main drama. In modern pop art, it exists as an independent genre.

Vaudeville(from French vaudeville) a light comic play in which dramatic action is combined with music and dance.

Melodrama - a play with sharp intrigue, exaggerated emotionality and a moral and didactic tendency. Typical for melodrama is " a happy ending", celebration goodies. The genre of melodrama was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and later acquired a negative reputation.

Farce(from Latin farcio I start, I fill) is a Western European folk comedy of the 14th-16th centuries, which originated from funny ritual games and interludes. Farce has the main features folk performances mass character, satirical orientation, crude humor. In modern times, this genre has entered the repertoire of small theaters.

As noted, the methods of literary representation are often mixed within certain types and genres. This confusion is of two kinds: in some cases there is, as it were, an interspersing, when the main generic signs are saved; in others, the generic principles are balanced, and the work cannot be attributed either to the epic, or to the clergy, or to the drama, as a result of which they are called adjacent or mixed formations. Most often, epic and lyric are mixed.

Ballad(from Provence ballar - to dance) - a small poetic work with a sharp dramatic plot of love, legendary-historical, heroic-patriotic or fairy-tale content. The image of events is combined in it with a pronounced authorial feeling, the epic is combined with lyrics. The genre became widespread in the era of romanticism (V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, T. Shevchenko and others).

Lyric epic poem- a poetic work in which, according to V. Mayakovsky, the poet talks about time and about himself (poems by V. Mayakovsky, A. Tvardovsky, S. Yesenin, etc.).

dramatic poem- a work written in a dialogical form, but not intended for staging on stage. Examples of this genre: "Faust" by Goethe, "Cain" by Byron, "In the Catacombs" by L. Ukrainka and others.

Vaudeville ( from the French vaudeville by Vau de Vire - ref. in Normandy, where this genre originated), one of the genres of a dramatic work, a light play with entertaining intrigue, with couplet songs and dances. Initially, couplet songs in fairground comedies of the first half of the 18th century were called vaudeville. As an independent theatrical genre, it took shape during the years of the French Revolution, later, having lost its political topicality, vaudeville became an entertainment genre and gained pan-European distribution. French classics. vaudeville - O.E. Scribe, E. Labiche - retained many features of the genre "as a folk work of the French": perky fun, topical hints. In the second half of the 19th century, it was replaced by operetta. In Russia, vaudeville became widespread at the beginning of the 19th century, inheriting from the comic opera of the 18th century an interest in national subjects. Famous vaudeville N.I. Khmelnitsky, A.S. Griboedova, A.A. Shakhovsky, D.T. Lensky. One-act plays by A.P. Chekhov continued the tradition of vaudeville (without verses).

Drama(from Greek drama - lit. action) 1) one of the types of literature. Belongs to both literature and theater, being the fundamental principle of the performance, it is also perceived in reading. Intended for collective perception, drama has always gravitated towards the most acute social problems and, in the most striking examples, has become popular: its basis is socio-historical contradictions or eternal human antinomies (see Artistic Conflict); 2) One of the main genres of drama as a literary genre, along with tragedy and comedy. Like a comedy, it mainly reproduces the private life of people, but its main goal is not to ridicule mores, but to depict the individual in her dramatic relationship with society. Like tragedy, drama tends to recreate sharp contradictions; at the same time, her conflicts are not so inescapable and tense and, in principle, allow for the possibility of a successful resolution, and her characters are not so exceptional. As an independent genre, drama developed in the second half of the 18th century among the enlighteners (petty-bourgeois drama in France and Germany), its interest in the social structure and life, the moral ideals of a democratic environment, and the psychology of the average person contributed to the strengthening of realistic principles in European art. In the process of drama development, its inner drama thickens, a happy denouement is less common, the hero usually remains at odds with society and himself (The Storm, The Dowry by A.N. Ostrovsky, plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky).

Sideshow(from lat. intermedius - located in the middle), a small comic play or scene played out between acts of the main play. It arose in the 15th century as a household farce scene, which was part of the mystery, then the school drama (later tragedy and comedy). In England it was called interlude (from Latin inter - between and ludus - game). Received distribution in Zap. Europe of the 16th-17th centuries (in Spain as an independent genre folk theater), in the Russian theater of the XVII - XVIII centuries. The sideshow survives as an inserted comic or musical scene in the play.

Comedy ( lat. comedia, Greek komodia, from komos - a merry procession and ode - a song), a type of drama in which characters, situations and actions are presented in funny forms or imbued with the comic. Until classicism, comedy meant a work opposite to tragedy, with an obligatory happy ending; its heroes were, as a rule, from the lower class. In many poetics (including N. Boileau), comedy was defined as the lowest genre. In the literature of the Enlightenment, this ratio was violated by the recognition of the middle genre - the so-called philistine drama.

Comedy is aimed primarily at ridiculing the ugly (inappropriate, contrary to the social ideal or norm), the heroes of the comedy are internally untenable, inconsistent, do not correspond to their position, purpose, and this is given as a victim of laughter, which debunk them, thereby fulfilling their "ideal" mission. . The range of comedy is unusually wide - from political satire to light vaudeville humor. The "honest face" of any comedy is laughter. There is a comedy of characters, comedy of positions, everyday comedy, comedy of intrigue, lyrical comedy, satirical comedy.

The most important means of comic effect is speech comedy (alogism, inconsistency with the situation, parody, irony, in the latest comedy - wit and playing with paradoxes). The father of comedy is considered to be Aristophanes, the creator of the socio-political satirical comedy.

In Russia, comedy is represented in the works of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol, Ostrovsky.

Melodrama(from the Greek melos - song, drama - action), 1) the genre of dramaturgy, a play with sharp intrigue, exaggerated emotionality, a sharp opposition between good and evil, a moral and instructive trend. Melodrama originated in France in the 1890s (plays by J.M. Monvel). In Russia, melodrama appeared in the late 20s of the 19th century (plays by N.V. Kukolnik, N.A. Polevoy).

Tragedy(from the Greek tragodia, lit. goat song), a dramatic genre based on the tragic collision of heroic characters, its tragic outcome, full of pathos. The tragedy is marked by severe seriousness, depicts reality most pointedly, as a clot of internal contradictions, reveals the deepest conflicts of reality in an extremely intense and rich form, which acquires the meaning of an artistic symbol; It is no coincidence that most tragedies are written in verse. Historically, tragedy existed in various manifestations, but the very essence of tragedy, as well as the aesthetic category of the tragic, was given to European literatures by ancient Greek tragedy and poetics.

Greek tragedy arose from religious rituals, was a reproduction, stage performance of a myth; she introduced the audience to a single reality for the whole people and its historical destinies. Perfect examples of complete, organic works of tragic art were given by Aeschylus, Sophocles; With the unconditional reality of what is happening, it shocks the viewer, causing him the strongest internal conflicts and resolving them in higher harmony (through catharsis).

A new heyday of tragedy comes in an era of crisis Late Renaissance and baroque. Shakespeare's tragedy depicts an infinite reality, a deep crisis human world. The tragedy of Shakespeare does not fit into the framework of a separate (conflict or character of the hero), but embraces everything, like reality itself; the personality of the hero is internally open, not fully defined, capable of changes, even abrupt shifts.

Samples of the tragedy of classicism are represented by the works of P. Corneille, J. Racine. These are tragedies of high style, respecting the three unities; aesthetic perfection appears as a result of the poet's conscious self-restraint, as a virtuoso pure formula life conflict.

At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, F. Schiller creates tragedy, updating the "classical" style. In the era of romanticism, the tragedy is "reverse" to the ancient one - not the world, but the individual with his soul becomes the key to the substantial content.

Tragedy denotes the ability of a person to enter into a struggle with an unsatisfactory starting position.

As you know, all literary works, depending on the nature of the depicted, belong to one of the three genera: epic, lyric or drama .

1 ) Joke2) Apocrypha3) Ballad a4) Fable5) Bylina

6) Drama7) Life 8) Riddle9) Historical songs

10) Comedy11) Legend12) Lyric13) Novella

14) Ode 15) Essay16) Pamphlet17) Tale

18) Proverbs and sayings 19) Poems 20) Story21) Romance

22) Fairy tale23) Word 24) Tragedy25) Chastushka26) Elegy

27) Epigram 28) Epic29) Epic

Video lesson "Literary types and genres"

EPOS(from the Greek "narrative") is a generalized name for works depicting events external to the author.

LYRICS(from the Greek. "performed to the lyre") - this is a generalized name for works in which there is no plot, but the feelings, thoughts, experiences of the author or his lyrical hero are depicted.

DRAMA(from the Greek. "action") - a generalized name of works intended for staging on stage; the drama is dominated by the dialogue of the characters, the author's beginning is minimized.

Varieties of epic, lyrical and dramatic works are called types of literary works.

Type and genre - concepts in literary criticism very close.

Genres are variations in the type of literary work. For example, a genre version of a story can be a fantasy or historical story, and a genre version of a comedy can be a vaudeville, etc. Strictly speaking, a literary genre is a historically established type of work of art containing certain structural features and aesthetic quality characteristic of this group of works.

TYPES (GENRES) OF EPIC WORKS:

epic, novel, story, short story, fairy tale, fable, legend.

EPIC - large piece of art, telling about significant historical events. In ancient times - a narrative poem of heroic content. In the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, the epic novel genre appears - this is a work in which the formation of the characters of the main characters occurs in the course of their participation in historical events.

ROMAN is a large narrative work of fiction with complex plot, in the center of which is the fate of the individual.

A STORY is a work of art that occupies a middle position between a novel and a short story in terms of the volume and complexity of the plot. In ancient times, any narrative work was called a story.

STORY - a work of art of a small size, which is based on an episode, an incident from the life of a hero.

FAIRY TALE - a work about fictional events and heroes, usually with the participation of magical, fantastic forces.

FABLE (from “bayat” - to tell) is a narrative work in poetic form, of a small size, moralizing or satirical nature.

TYPES (GENRES) OF LYRICAL WORKS:

ode, hymn, song, elegy, sonnet, epigram, message.

ODA (from the Greek “song”) is a choral, solemn song.

HYMN (from Greek “praise”) is a solemn song based on programmatic verses.

EPIGRAM (from Greek “inscription”) is a short satirical poem of a mocking nature that arose in the 3rd century BC. e.

ELEGY - a genre of lyrics dedicated to sad thoughts or lyric poem filled with sadness. Belinsky called an elegy "a song of sad content." The word "elegy" is translated as "reed flute" or "mournful song". The elegy originated in ancient Greece in the 7th century BC. e.

MESSAGE - a poetic letter, an appeal to specific person, request, wish, recognition.

SONNET (from the Provencal sonette - "song") - a poem of 14 lines, which has a certain rhyming system and strict stylistic laws. The sonnet originated in Italy in the 13th century (the creator is the poet Jacopo da Lentini), appeared in England in the first half of the 16th century (G. Sarri), and in Russia in the 18th century. The main types of the sonnet are Italian (from 2 quatrains and 2 tercetes) and English (from 3 quatrains and the final couplet).

LYROEPIC TYPES (GENRES):

A literary genre is a group of literary works that have 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 classified according to a certain number 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 to late XVIII 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 the internal features of the characters, 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 of fiction, where the events that take place are transmitted not through their direct description, but through the monologues or dialogues of the characters. Drama as a 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. IN late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, such concepts as a detective novel appeared in literature, female romance, fantasy novel.

Novella

Novella - variety 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 sharp plot became a defining genre in American literature.

characteristic features novels 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 story is a small form of 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 a small number of characters. The stories are characteristic of literary works of the 20th century.

Play

A play is a dramatic work that 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, a romantic poem also developed - “The Knight in a Panther'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 kind of 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 some time, visions were an integral part of the church literature of 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 modern literature, the genre of visions has come to be used to introduce elements of fantasy.

dramatic genres - totality genres that emerged and developed within the drama as a literary genre.

Dramas specifically depict, as a rule, the private life of a person and his social conflicts. At the same time, the emphasis is often placed on universal human contradictions embodied in the behavior and actions of specific characters. Drama is a literary work that depicts a serious conflict, a struggle between actors

As a genre of dramaturgy, drama took shape in the middle of the 19th century. This is an intermediate genre between comedy and tragedy.

Types of drama (dramatic genres)

• Tragedy

  Tragedy is a dramatic work in which the protagonist (and sometimes other characters in side encounters), distinguished by the maximum strength of will, mind and feelings for a person, violates a certain obligatory (from the author's point of view) and invincible law; at the same time, the hero of the tragedy may either not be aware of his guilt at all - or not be aware of it for a long time- acting either according to the plans from above (for example, ancient tragedy), or being in the grip of a blinding passion (for example, Shakespeare). The struggle against an invincible law involves great suffering and inevitably ends in the death of the tragic hero; the struggle with an irresistible law - its reappraisal in the event of an inevitable triumph - causes in us spiritual enlightenment - catharsis.

  The hero of any dramatic work is steadily striving towards his goal: this aspiration, a single action, encounters a counter-action environment. It must not be forgotten that tragedy developed out of a religious cult; the original content of the tragedy is resistance to fate, its convincing and inevitable predestinations, which neither mortals nor gods can bypass. Such, for example, is the construction of Oedipus by Sophocles. in the Christian theater tragic action there is a struggle with God; such, for example, is Calderon's Adoration of the Cross. In some Shakespearean tragedies, for example, in Julius Caesar, ancient fate, fate, is revived in the form of cosmic forces that take a formidable part in the dramatic struggle. In German tragedies, as a rule, a violation of divine law is depicted, German tragedies are religious - and religious in a Christian way. Such is Schiller in most of his tragedies (in "The Robbers" - God very often takes on Jewish features, here the influence of the Bible affects), Kleist, Goebbel and others. The Christian worldview is also felt in Pushkin's tragic sketches, as, for example, in "Feast during plague." "Dramatic guilt" - violation of the norms of a certain way of life; “tragic guilt” is a violation of the absolute law. On the other hand, a tragedy is possible that develops on a social and state level, devoid of religious pathos in the narrow sense of the word; the hero of a tragedy may struggle not with God, but with "historical necessity", etc.

  The hero of a social tragedy encroaches on the basic foundations of social life. The protest of the hero of everyday drama is caused by living conditions; in another environment, he can calm down. In a society where a woman is equal with a man, Ibsen's Nora should show great calm, on the contrary, the hero of a social tragedy - like any tragedy - under any conditions - a rebel. He does not find a place for himself and the framework of sociality. Such, for example, is Shakespeare's Coriolanus; in any environment, his indomitable arrogance should manifest itself. He rebels against the immutable demands of citizenship. There is no tragedy if the hero is not strong enough.

  (That is why Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm is not a tragedy. Katerina is too weak; barely sensing her sin, her tragic religious guilt, she commits suicide; she is unable to fight God).

  The counter-action of other characters in the tragedy should also be maximal; all the main characters in a tragedy must be endowed with extraordinary energy and intellectual acuity. tragic hero operates without ill intention This is the third obligatory sign of tragedy. Oedipus his murder and incest is destined from above; Macbeth carries out the predictions of the witches. The hero of the tragedy is guilty without guilt, doomed. At the same time, he is human, he is capable of deep suffering, he acts in spite of his suffering. The heroes of the tragedy are richly gifted natures who are at the mercy of their passions. The themes of tragedy are mythological. The myth is an effective fundamental principle of human relations, not obscured by everyday stratifications. Tragedy uses historical images as images folk legend and not as scientific material. She is interested in history - legend, not history - science. The truth of tragedy is the truth of the passions, not the exact realistic image. Tragedy enlightens our spiritual consciousness; besides artistic imagery the pathos of philosophical penetration is inherent in it. The tragedy inevitably ends with the death of the hero. His passion is directed against fate itself and, moreover, indomitable; the death of the hero is the only possible outcome of the tragedy. However, the daring power of the hero arouses in us moments of sympathy, an insane hope for his victory.

• Drama (genre)

  drama appears at the end of the 18th century. This is a play with a modern everyday theme. The difference from melodrama is that drama does not seek to pity. The task is to outline the area modern life with all the details and show a certain flaw, defect. It can solve in a comedic way. Drama can mix with melodrama.

• crime drama
• existential drama
• drama in verse
• 
  Melodrama

  appeared in France. Melodrama is a play that directly appeals to the emotions of the audience, causing compassion, fear, and hatred of Ypres. Unhappiness is usually due to external causes: natural Disasters, sudden death, villains acting out of selfish motives. In tragedy, such a villain is bifurcated: he doubts and suffers. In melodrama, a person is whole and involved in a single emotional outburst. The stories come from life. ordinary people the ending is usually happy.

  Melodrama is a drama that captivates not so much with the seriousness of the dramatic struggle and the detailed depiction of the life in which this struggle develops, as with the acuteness of the scenic situations. The sharpness of the stage situations arises partly as a result of the complex and spectacular circumstances (dramatic knot) in which melodrama occurs, partly as a result of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of its characters. The heroes of the melodrama are put in isolation prison cell, sewn into a bag and thrown into the water (A. Dumas), and they still escape. Sometimes they are saved by a happy accident; the authors of melodramas, striving for more and more new effects, sometimes greatly abuse such random turns in the fate of their heroes. The main interest of melodrama is thus purely fabulous. This interest is often heightened in melodramas by sudden "recognitions" (Aristotle's term); many heroes of the melodrama act for a long time under an assumed name, a dramatic struggle is waged between close relatives who have not been aware of this for a long time, etc. Due to the superficial depiction of everyday life, the melodrama develops under the sign of "tragic guilt" (see "Tragedy") . However, the melodrama is far from a tragedy; there is no spiritual deepening in it; the characteristics of melodrama are more sketchy than in any other dramatic work. In the melodrama, there are often villains, noble adventurers, helplessly touching characters (“Two Orphans”), etc.

• hierodrama
• mystery
• Comedy

  Comedy developed from a ritual cult that had a serious and solemn character. Greek wordκω?μος of the same root with the word κω?μη - village. Therefore, it must be assumed that these cheerful songs - comedies - appeared in the village. Indeed, Greek writers have indications that the beginnings of this type of works, called mimes (μι?μος, imitation), arose in the villages. The etymological meaning of this word already indicates the source from which the content for memes was obtained. If tragedy borrowed its content from the tales of Dionysus, gods and heroes, that is, from the world of fantasy, then the mime took this content from everyday life. Memes were sung during festivities dedicated to a certain time of the year and associated with sowing, harvesting, grape harvesting, etc.

  All these everyday songs were improvisations of playful satirical content, with the nature of the topic of the day. The same diharic songs, i.e. with two singers, were known to the Romans under the name of atellan and festan. The content of these songs was changeable, but, despite this changeability, they took on a certain form and made up something whole, which sometimes was part of the Greek tetralogy, consisting of three tragedies about one hero (Aeschylus's Oresteia consisted of the tragedies "Agamemnon", Choephors, Eumenides) and the fourth satirical play. More or less definite form in the VI century. BC In the V century. BC, according to Aristotle, the comedian Chionides was famous, from which only the titles of some plays have survived. Aristophanes is thus. successor of this type of creativity. Although Aristophanes in his comedies ridicules Euripides, his contemporary, he builds his comedies according to the same plan that was developed by Euripides in his tragedies, and even the external construction of comedies is no different from tragedy. In the IV century. BC Menander comes to the fore among the Greeks. . We have already spoken about Plautus, since his comedies imitate the comedies of Menander. In addition to this, let us add that in Plautus the love affair plays an important role. The comedies of Plautus and Terrence lack a chorus; it was more important in Aristophanes than in the tragedy of Euripides and his predecessors. Chorus in their parabases, i.e. deviations from the development of the action, turned to the audience to interpret and understand the meaning of the dialogues of the characters. The next writer after Plautus was Terence. He, just like Plautus, imitates Menander and another Greek writer Apollodorus. Terence's comedies were not intended for the masses, but for a select aristocratic society, therefore he does not have that obscenity and rudeness that we find in abundance in Plautus. The comedies of Terence are notable for their moralizing character. If in Plautus the fathers are fooled by their sons, then in Terentius they are the leaders family life. The seduced girls of Terentius, in contrast to Plautus, marry their seducers. In pseudo-classical comedy, the moralizing element (vice is punished, virtue triumphs) comes from Terentius. In addition, the comedies of this comedian are distinguished by greater thoroughness in depicting the characters than those of Plautus and Menander, as well as by the elegance of the style. During the Renaissance in Italy, a special kind of comedy was developed:

  COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE all'improvviso- a comedy played out by professional Italian actors not according to a written text, but according to a script (Italian Scenario or soggetto) that outlines only milestones in the content of the plot, leaving the actor himself to clothe the role in those words that his stage experience, tact, resourcefulness, inspiration will tell him or education. This kind of game flourished in Italy around the middle of the 16th century. It is difficult to strictly distinguish between impromptu comedy and literary comedy (sostenuta erudita): both genres were in undoubted interaction and differed mainly in performance; written comedy sometimes turned into a script and vice versa, it was written according to the script literary comedy; There are clear similarities between the two characters. But in the improvised one, even more than in the written one, they froze into definite, fixed types. Such are the greedy, enamored and invariably fooled Pantalone; Dr. Gratiano, sometimes a lawyer, sometimes a physician, a scientist, a pedant who invents incredible etymologies of words (like pedante from pede ante, since the teacher makes the students go forward); captain, a hero in words and a coward in deeds, confident in his irresistibility for any woman; in addition, two types of servants (zanni): one is smart and cunning, a master of all sorts of intrigue (Pedrolino, Brighella, Scapino), the other is the silly Harlequin or even more stupid Medzetin, representatives of involuntary comedy. Somewhat apart from all these comic figures stand the lovers (innamorati). Each of the actors chose some one role for himself and often remained faithful to it all his life; thanks to this, he got used to his role and achieved perfection in it, leaving the imprint of his personality on it. This prevented the masks from finally freezing in immobility. Good actors had a large supply of their own or borrowed concetti, which they kept in mind, in order to use one or the other at the right time, according to circumstances and inspiration. The lovers had at the ready the concetti of supplications, jealousy, reproaches, raptures, etc.; they learned a lot from Petrarch. There were about 10-12 actors in each troupe and, accordingly, the same number of roles in each scenario. Various combinations of these almost unchanged elements create a variety of plots. The intrigue usually boils down to the fact that parents, out of greed or rivalry, prevent young people from loving by choice, but the first Zannt is on the side of the youth and, holding all the threads of intrigue in his hands, removes obstacles to marriage. The form is almost without exception three-act. Scene in C.d. arte, as in literary Italian and ancient Roman comedy, depicts a square with two or three houses of characters overlooking it, and on this amazing square without passers-by all conversations, meetings take place .. In the comedy of masks, there is nothing to look for a rich psychology of passions, in its conditional world has no place for a true reflection of life. Its advantage is in movement. The action develops easily and quickly, without lengthiness, with the help of the usual conditional methods of eavesdropping, dressing up, not recognizing each other in the dark, etc. This is exactly what Molière adopted from the Italians. The time of the highest flowering of the comedy of masks falls on the first half of the 17th century.

  By the 19th century, the comedy of characters was becoming more important.

  COMEDY. Comedy depicts a dramatic struggle that excites laughter, causing in us negative attitude to the aspirations, passions of the actors or to the methods of their struggle. The analysis of comedy is connected with the analysis of the nature of laughter. According to Bergson, every human manifestation is ridiculous, which, due to its inertness, contradicts social requirements. Ridiculous in a living person is the inertia of a machine, automatism; for life requires "tension" and "elasticity." Another sign of the funny: "The depicted vice should not greatly hurt our feelings, for laughter is incompatible with emotional excitement." Bergson points to the following moments of comedic "automatism" that causes laughter: 1) laugh "treating people like puppets"; 2) amusing mechanization of life, which is reflected in repeated stage positions; 3) the automatism of actors blindly following their idea is ridiculous. However, Bergson loses sight of the fact that any dramatic work, both comedy and tragedy, is formed by a single, integral desire of the main character (or the person leading the intrigue) - and that this desire in its continuous activity acquires the character of automatism. We also find signs indicated by Bergson in tragedy. Not only Figaro treats people like puppets, but also Iago; however, this appeal is not funny, but terrifying. To use Bergson's language, "tension" devoid of "elasticity," flexibility, can be tragic; strong passion is not "elastic". Defining the signs of comedy, it should be noted that the perception of the funny is changeable; What excites one may make another laugh. Then: there are quite a lot of plays where dramatic (tragic) scenes and lines alternate with comedic ones. Such, for example, are Woe from Wit, some of Ostrovsky's plays, etc. These considerations, however, should not interfere with the establishment of the signs of comedy—comedy style. This style is not determined by the goals towards which the clashing, struggling aspirations of the characters are directed: avarice can be depicted in comedic and tragic terms (“The Miser” by Molière and “ Miserly knight» Pushkin). Don Quixote is ridiculous, despite the loftiness of his aspirations. Dramatic wrestling is funny when it doesn't evoke compassion. In other words, comedy characters should not suffer so much that we are offended by it. Bergson rightly points out the incompatibility of laughter with emotional excitement. Comic wrestling should not be violent, pure style comedy should not have terrifying stage situations. As soon as the hero of the comedy begins to suffer, the comedy turns into drama. Since our capacity for compassion is related to our likes and dislikes, we can establish the following relative rule: the more disgusting the hero of a comedy, the more he can suffer without arousing pity in us, without leaving the comedic plan. The very nature of the heroes of comedy is not predisposed to suffering. The comedic hero is distinguished either by extreme resourcefulness, quick resourcefulness, which saves him in the most ambiguous situations - like, for example, Figaro - or by animal stupidity, which saves him from an excessively sharp awareness of his position (for example, Caliban). This category of comedy characters includes all the heroes of everyday satire. Another hallmark of comedy is that the comedic struggle is conducted by means that are awkward, ridiculous, or humiliating—or both ridiculous and humiliating. Comedy wrestling is characterized by: an erroneous assessment of the situation, inept recognition of persons and facts, leading to incredible and lengthy delusions (for example, Khlestakov is mistaken for an auditor), helpless, even stubborn resistance; inept cunning, not reaching the goal - moreover, devoid of any scrupulousness, means of petty deceit, flattery, bribery (for example, the tactics of officials in the "Inspector"); the struggle is pitiful, absurd, humiliating, buffoonish (and not cruel)—such is the pure type of comedic struggle. A strong effect is produced by a mixing remark when it is given by a funny face.

  The strength of Shakespeare in the portrayal of Falstaff is precisely in the combination: a funny joker. Comedy does not move deeply, however, we do not conceive of life without death and suffering; therefore, according to Bergson's subtle remark, the comedy gives the impression of being unreal. Moreover, it needs a convincing everyday coloring, in particular, a well-developed characteristic of the language. Comedy fiction is also distinguished, so to speak, by a rich everyday development: specific details of the legend appear here, so to speak, the life of mythological creatures (for example, the scenes of Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest). However, comedy characters are not types like everyday drama types. Since pure style comedy is characterized by unskillful and humiliating struggles, its characters are not types, but caricatures, and the more caricature they are, the brighter the comedy. Laughter is hostile to tears (Boileau). It should also be added that the outcome of the comedy struggle, in view of its non-violent nature, is not significant. The comedic victory of vulgarity, baseness, stupidity - since we ridiculed the winners - touches us a little. The defeat of Chatsky or Neschastvittsev does not cause bitterness in us; laughter in itself is a satisfaction for us. Therefore, in a comedy, an accidental denouement is also acceptable - at least through the intervention of the police. But where defeat threatens someone with real suffering (for example, Figaro and his beloved), such an ending, of course, is unacceptable. How insignificant the denouement in itself is in a comedy is evident from the fact that there are comedies where it can be foreseen in advance. Such are the innumerable comedies in which lovers are prevented from marrying by their cruel and ridiculous relatives; here the marriage denouement is predetermined. We are carried away in comedy by the process of ridicule; however, interest rises if the denouement is difficult to foresee. The denouement is positive, happy.

  Distinguish:
  1) satire, a high-style comedy directed against the vices most dangerous to society,
  2) household comedy ridiculing the characteristic shortcomings of a particular society,
  3) situation comedy, entertaining with amusing stage situations, devoid of serious social significance.

• Vaudeville

  Vaudeville is called a dramatic clash in a comedic way (see comedy). If in comedy dramatic combat is not supposed to be violent, then this applies even more so to vaudeville. Here, usually, a comedic violation of some very insignificant social norm is depicted, for example, the norm of hospitality, good neighborly relations, etc. Due to the insignificance of the violated norm, vaudeville usually comes down to a sharp short collision - sometimes to one scene.

  History of vaudeville. The etymology of this word (vaux-de-Vire, Vir Valley) indicates the initial origin of this type of dramatic creativity (the city of Vire is located in Normandy); later this word was interpreted through distortion voix de ville - a village voice. Vaudeville began to be understood as such works in which the phenomena of life are defined from the point of view of naive village views. Easy character content is the hallmark of vaudeville. The creator of vaudeville, characterizing these works in terms of its content, was the 15th-century French poet Le Goux, who was later mixed with another poet Olivier Basselin. Le Goux published a collection of poems, Vaux de vire nouveaux. These light humorous songs in the spirit of Le Goux and Basselin became the property of the broad urban masses in Paris, thanks to the fact that they were sung by wandering singers on the Pont Neuf. In the 18th century, Lesage, Fuselier, and Dorneval, in imitation of these vaudeville songs, began to compose plays of a similar content. The text of the vaudevilles has been accompanied by music since the beginning of the second half of the 18th century. The musical performance of the vaudevilles was facilitated by the fact that the entire text was written in verse (Ablesimov's Melnik). But soon, during the very performance of vaudeville, the artists began to make changes in the text in a prosaic form - improvisations on the current topics of the day. This made it possible for the authors themselves to alternate between verse and prose. Since that time, vaudeville began branching into two types: vaudeville proper and operetta. Vaudeville is dominated Speaking, and in the operetta - singing. However, the operetta began to differ in its content from the vaudeville. After this differentiation of vaudeville, what remains behind it is at first a playful depiction of the life of the urban class in general, and then of the middle and petty bureaucracy.
• Farce

  Farce is usually called a comedy in which the hero violates the social and physical norms of public life. Thus, in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the heroine seeks to force the men to end the war by encouraging the women to deny them lovemaking. Thus, Argan (Moliere's Imaginary Sick) sacrifices the interests of his family to the interests of his imaginary sick stomach. The area of ​​farce is predominantly erotica and digestion. Hence, on the one hand, the extreme danger for the farce - to fall into greasy vulgarity, on the other - the extreme sharpness of the farce, which directly affects our vital organs. In connection with the physical elements of the farce, it is naturally characterized by an abundance of outwardly effective movements, collisions, hugs, and fights. Farce is by nature peripheral, eccentric - it is an eccentric comedy.

  Farce history. Farces developed from domestic scenes, introduced as independent interludes in medieval plays of a religious or moralistic nature. Farces maintained the tradition of comic performances from the Greco-Roman stage and gradually developed into the comedy of the new ages, surviving as a special kind of light comedy. The performers of farces in former times were usually amateurs.

Dramaturgy has its advantages over the epic. There is no author's commentary here. This construction gives the illusion of objectivity. The reaction of the viewer is always more emotional than the reaction of the reader. The action is continuous, the pace of perception is dictated by the performance. The main impact of the dramatic kind is emotional. Since ancient times, there has been a concept cathersis - a kind of "purification" of fear and compassion.

A sign of the dramatic kind in general is conflict The on which the action is built. It can be defined as "oppositely directed human wills." In drama, the goal is never achieved calmly. Obstacles can be both material and psychological. The conflict depends not only on the will of the playwright, but also on social reality.

Late 19th century - European new drama . Representatives: Matherlinck, Hauptmann, Chekhov. Their innovation is that the plays eliminate external conflict. However, a persistent state of conflict remains.

Drama means "action", the sequence of events depicted depending on the actions of the characters. An action is any change on the scene, incl. and psychological. Action related to conflict

The words in the drama are not like epic ones, here they are part of the action, the image of actions. The word tends to become action. Performative - a special kind of statement in which the word coincides with the deed. ("I declare war", "I curse"). The word in the theater is always directed at someone = a replica. Either itself is a response to someone's speech. Continuous dialogue creates the effect of reality.

In a drama, unlike an epic, it is impossible to convey the thoughts and feelings of the characters on behalf of the author. We learn about them only from monologues and dialogues, or from autocharacteristics, or from the characteristics of other characters.

In the 20th century, drama tends to get closer to the epic. In Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre, at the end of the play there is a direct evaluation: the moment when the actors take off their masks. Thus, the actor does not merge with the hero. The viewer here should not empathize with the hero (as in a classic drama), but think.

The epic differs from the drama in its plot, work with heroes; epic tends to monologue, drama - to dialogue.

Article by V.E. Khalizeva:

Dramatic works, like epic ones, recreate the series of events, the actions of people and their relationships. The playwright is subject to the "law of developing action", but there is no narrative and descriptive image in the drama. (with the exception of rare cases when there is a prologue in the drama).

The author's speech is auxiliary and episodic. List of actors, sometimes with brief characteristics; designation of time and place of action; description of the stage setting; remarks. All this constitutes side text of a dramatic work. The main text is a chain of characters' statements, consisting of replicas and monologues => a limited set visual means compared to epic.

The time of action in a drama must fit within the strict limits of stage time. The chain of dialogues and monologues gives the illusion of present time. “All narrative forms,” Schiller wrote, “carry the present into the past; all dramatic forms make the past present.

The purpose of the drama, according to Pushkin, is “to act on the multitude, to occupy its curiosity”, and for this purpose to capture the “truth of passions”: “Drama was born on the square and constituted the entertainment of the people<…>the people demand strong sensations<…>laughter, pity and horror are the three strings of our imagination shaken by dramatic art.

Particularly close ties are connected dramatic kind with the sphere of laughter, for the theater is strengthened and developed within the framework of mass festivities in an atmosphere of play and fun.

Drama gravitates toward an outwardly spectacular presentation of what is depicted. Her figurativeness, as a rule, turns out to be hyperbolic, catchy, theatrically bright (for this, for example, Tolstoy reproached Shakespeare?).

In the 19th and 20th centuries, when the desire for worldly authenticity prevailed in literature, the conventions inherent in the drama became less vivid. At the origins of this phenomenon is the so-called "philistine drama", the creators of which were Diderot and Lessing. Works of the largest Russian playwrights of the 19th - 20th centuries. - Ostrovsky, Gorky, Chekhov - are distinguished by the reliability of the recreated life forms. And yet, psychological and verbal hyperbole are preserved in their work.

The most important role in dramatic works belongs to the conventions of speech self-disclosure of characters, dialogues and monologues. Conditional replicas "to the side" , which, as it were, for other characters who are not on the stage, but are clearly audible to the viewer, as well as monologues uttered by the characters in solitude, which are a purely stage technique for bringing out inner speech. Speech in a dramatic work often takes on a resemblance to artistic, lyrical or oratorical speech. Therefore, Hegel is partly right, considering drama as a synthesis of the epic beginning (eventfulness) and the lyric (speech expression).

Drama has, as it were, two lives in art: theatrical and literary. But a dramatic work was by no means always perceived by the reading public. The emancipation of the drama from the stage was carried out gradually, over a number of centuries, and ended quite recently: in the 18th - 19th centuries. World-wide significant examples of drama (from antiquity to the 18th century) at the time of their creation were practically not recognized as literary works: they existed only as part of the performing arts. Neither Shakespeare nor Molière were perceived by contemporaries as writers. The "discovery" in the 18th century of Shakespeare as a great dramatic poet played a decisive role in the purpose of the drama not only for staging, but also for reading. In the 19th century, the literary merits of a play were sometimes placed above those of the stage. The so-called Lesedrama (reading drama) became widespread. Such are Goethe's Faust, Byron's dramatic works, Pushkin's little tragedies. Dramas created for reading are often potentially stage dramas.

The creation of a performance based on a dramatic work is associated with its creative merits: the actors create intonation-plastic drawings of the roles they play, the artist designs stage space, the director develops mise-en-scenes. In this regard, the concept of the play changes somewhat, is often concretized and generalized: the stage production introduces new semantic shades into the drama. At the same time, the principle of faithful reading of literature is of paramount importance for the theater. The director and actors are called upon to convey the staged work to the viewer with the maximum possible completeness. The fidelity of stage reading takes place where the actors deeply comprehend the literary work in its main content, genre, style features and match it as people of their era with their own views and tastes.

In the classical aesthetics of the 18th - 19th centuries, in particular in Hegel, Belinsky, drama (especially tragedy) is considered as the highest form literary creativity: as "the crown of poetry." A number of epochs have in fact imprinted themselves predominantly in dramatic art. Aeschylus and Sophocles in the period of slave-owning democracy, Molière, Corneille and Racine in the time of classicism.

Until the 18th century, drama not only successfully competed with the epic, but often became the leading form of reproducing life in space and time. Causes:

And although in the 19th - 20th century the socio-psychological novel came to the fore - the genre of epic literature, dramatic works still holds a place of honor.