Over the millennia of cultural development, mankind has created countless literary works, among which there are some basic types that are similar in the way and form of reflection of human ideas about the world around. These are three types (or types) of literature: epic, drama, poetry.

How is each type of literature different?

Epos as a kind of literature

epic(epos - Greek, narration, story) is an image of events, phenomena, processes that are external to the author. Epic works reflect the objective course of life, human existence as a whole. Using various artistic means, the authors of epic works express their understanding of the historical, socio-political, moral, psychological and many other problems that human society as a whole and each of its representatives in particular live with. Epic works have significant pictorial possibilities, thereby helping the reader to learn about the world around him, to comprehend the deep problems of human existence.

Drama as a kind of literature

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

Related to this features of dramatic works :

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

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

Lyrics as a kind of literature

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

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

Genre(genre - French genus, species) - a historically established type of literary work that has similar typological features. The names of the genres help the reader navigate the boundless sea of ​​literature: someone loves detective stories, another prefers fantasy, and the third is a fan of memoirs.

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

Every literary genre has a number of stable features, the knowledge of which allows us to attribute a particular work to one or another group. Genres develop, change, die off and are born, for example, literally before our eyes, a new genre of blog (web loq English network magazine) - a personal Internet diary - has arisen.

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

Literature of literary works - see table 1).

Table 1.

Genres of literary works

Epic genres of literature

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

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

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

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

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

The word "novella" has another meaning that future lawyers need to know. In ancient Rome, the phrase "novellae leges" (new laws) was used to refer to laws introduced after the official codification of law (after the release of the Code of Theodosius II in 438). The short stories of Justinian and his successors, published after the second edition of the Code of Justinian, later formed part of the code of Roman laws ( Corpus iuris civillis). In the modern era, a novel is called a law submitted for consideration by parliament (in other words, a draft law).

Fairy tale- the most ancient of the small epic genres, one of the main in the oral art of any people. This is a small work of a magical, adventurous or everyday nature, where fiction is clearly emphasized. Another important feature of the folklore tale is its instructive character: "The tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows." Folk tales are usually divided into magical ("The Tale of the Frog Princess"), household ("Porridge from an ax") and fairy tales about animals ("Zayushkina's hut").

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

Of the European literary tales of the 20th century, the classic became " A little prince» (1942) French writer An-toine de Saint-Exupery. And the famous "Chronicles of Narnia" (1950 - 1956) by the English writer Kl. Lewis and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), also by the Englishman J. R. Tolkien, are written in the fantasy genre, which can be called a modern transformation of an ancient folk tale.

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

Parable- also a very ancient folklore genre, but, unlike a fairy tale, parables contained written monuments: the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, a monument of Syrian literature "Teaching Akahara". A parable is a work of an instructive, symbolic nature, distinguished by sublimity and seriousness of content. Ancient parables, as a rule, are small in volume, they do not contain a detailed account of events or psychological characteristics the character of the hero.

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

Many writers turned to the parable genre, not always, of course, putting a high religious meaning into it, rather trying to express some kind of moralistic edification in an allegorical form, as, for example, L. Tolstoy in his later work. Carry it. V. Rasputin - Farewell to Matera "can also be called a detailed parable in which the writer speaks with anxiety and sorrow about the destruction of the "ecology of conscience" of a person. The story "The Old Man and the Sea" by E. Hemingway is also considered by many critics to be in the tradition of a literary parable. The well-known modern Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho also uses the parable form in his novels and short stories (the novel The Alchemist).

Tale- an average literary genre, widely represented in world literature. The story depicts several important episodes from the life of the hero, as a rule, one storyline and a small number of characters. The stories are characterized by great psychological saturation, the author focuses on the experiences and mood changes of the characters. Very often, the main theme of the story is the love of the protagonist, for example, "White Nights" by F. Dostoevsky, "Asya" by I. Turgenev, "Mitina's Love" by I. Bunin. The stories can also be combined into cycles, especially those written on autobiographical material: “Childhood”, “Boyhood”, “Youth” by L. Tolstoy, “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities” by A. Gorky. The intonations and themes of the stories are very diverse: tragic, addressed to acute social and moral issues (“Everything flows” by V. Grossman, “House on the Embankment” by Y. Trifonov), romantic, heroic (“Taras Bulba” by N. Gogol), philosophical , parable ("Pit" by A. Platonov), mischievous, comic ("Three in a boat, not counting the dog" by the English writer Jerome K. Jerome).

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

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

Many attribute the emergence of the genre to antiquity, these are Long's Daphnis and Chloe, Apuleius' Golden Ass, the chivalrous novel Tristan and Isolde.

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

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

famous novels Russians writers of the 19th V .:

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

Of course, none of these enumerations can claim completeness and exhaustive objectivity, especially in modern prose. In this case, the most famous works who glorified both the literature of the country and the name of the writer.

epic novel. In ancient times there were forms heroic epic: folklore sagas, runes, epics, songs. These are the Indian "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata", the Anglo-Saxon "Beowulf", the French "Song of Roland", the German "Song of the Nibelungs", etc. In these works, the exploits of the hero were exalted in an idealized, often exaggerated form. The later epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by Homer, "Shah-name" by Ferdowsi, while retaining the mythological nature of the early epic, nevertheless, had a pronounced connection with real history, and the theme of interweaving human destiny and the life of the people becomes one of the main ones in them. The experience of the ancients will be in demand in the 19th-20th centuries, when writers will try to comprehend the dramatic relationship between the era and the individual personality, tell about the tests that morality, and sometimes the human psyche, are subjected to at the time of the greatest historical upheavals. Let us recall the lines of F. Tyutchev: "Blessed is he who visited this world in its fatal moments." The romantic formula of the poet in reality meant the destruction of all habitual forms of life, tragic losses and unfulfilled dreams.

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

When we talk about the genre of the epic novel, of course, we immediately recall Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Other examples can be mentioned: Quiet Flows the Don by M. Sholokhov, Life and Fate by V. Grossman, The Saga of the Forsytes by the English writer Galsworthy; Gone with the Wind by American writer Margaret Mitchell great reason can be included in this genre.

The very name of the genre indicates a synthesis, a combination of two main principles in it: the novel and the epic, i.e. related to the theme of the life of an individual and the theme of the history of the people. In other words, the epic novel tells about the fates of the heroes (as a rule, the heroes themselves and their fates are fictitious, invented by the author) against the background and in close connection with epoch-making historical events. So, in "War and Peace" - these are the fates of individual families (Rostovs, Bolkonskys), favorite heroes (Prince Andrei, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha and Princess Mary) in the turning point for Russia and all of Europe, the historical period of the beginning of the 19th century, the Patriotic War of 1812 . In Sholokhov's book, the events of the First World War, two revolutions and a bloody civil war tragically intrude into the life of the Cossack farm, the Melekhov family, the fate of the main characters: Grigory, Aksinya, Natalya. V. Grossman talks about the Great Patriotic War and its main event - the Battle of Stalingrad, about the tragedy of the Holocaust. In "Life and Fate" the historical and family theme is also intertwined: the author traces the history of the Shaposhnikovs, trying to understand why the fate of the members of this family developed so differently. Galsworthy describes the life of the Forsyte family during the legendary Victorian era in England. Margaret Mitchell - the central event in US history, the Civil War between North and South, which dramatically changed the lives of many families and the fate of herself famous heroine American Literature- Scarlett O'Hara.

Dramatic genres of literature

Tragedy(tragodia Greek goat song) is a dramatic genre that originated in ancient Greece. The emergence of the ancient theater and tragedy is associated with the worship of the god of fertility and wine, Dionysus. A number of holidays were dedicated to him, during which ritual magical games were played with mummers, satyrs, whom the ancient Greeks represented as bipedal goat-like creatures. It is assumed that it was this appearance of the satyrs, who sang hymns to the glory of Dionysus, that gave such a strange name in translation to this serious genre. Theatrical action in ancient Greece, magical religious significance was attached, and theaters built in the form of large arenas under open sky, have always been located in the very center of cities and have been one of the main public places. Spectators sometimes spent the whole day here: they ate, drank, loudly expressed their approval or condemnation of the spectacle presented. The heyday of ancient Greek tragedy is associated with the names of three great tragedians: Aeschylus (525-456 BC) - the author of the tragedies Chained Prometheus, Oresteia, etc.; Sophocles (496-406 BC) - author of "Oedipus Rex", "Antigone" and others; and Euripides (480-406 BC) - the creator of Medea, Troy Nok, etc. Their creations will remain examples of the genre for centuries, they will be tried to imitate, but they will remain unsurpassed. Some of them ("Antigone", "Medea") are staged even today.

What are the main features of the tragedy? The main one is the presence of an unresolvable global conflict: in ancient tragedy this is the opposition of fate, fate, on the one hand, and man, his will, free choice- with another. In the tragedies of later eras, this conflict took on a moral and philosophical character, as a confrontation between good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, love and hatred. It has an absolute character, the heroes, embodying the opposing forces, are not ready for reconciliation, compromise, and therefore there are often many deaths at the end of the tragedy. This is how the tragedies of the great English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were built, let us recall the most famous of them: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, etc.

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

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

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

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

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

Drama- a relatively "young" genre that appeared in Germany in the 18th century as a lesedrama (in German) - a play for reading. The drama is addressed to the everyday life of a person and society, everyday life, family relationships. Drama is first and foremost inner world man, it is the most psychological of all dramatic genres. At the same time, it is also the most literary of the stage genres, for example, the plays of A. Chekhov are largely perceived more as texts for reading, and not as theatrical performances.

Lyrical genres of literature

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

Elegy(elegos Greek mournful song) - a poem of medium length, as a rule, moral-philosophical, love, confessional content.

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

The longed-for moment has come: my long-term work is over, Why is an incomprehensible sadness secretly disturbing me?

A. Pushkin

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

Crazy years faded fun

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

But like wine - sadness past days

In my soul, the older, the stronger.

My path is sad. Promises me labor and sorrow

The coming turbulent sea.

But I do not want, oh friends, to die;

I want to live in order to think and suffer;

And I know I will enjoy

Between sorrows, worries and anxiety:

Sometimes I'll get drunk again with harmony,

I will shed tears over fiction,

And maybe - at my sad sunset

Love will shine with a farewell smile.

Sonnet(sonetto, ital. song) - the so-called "solid" poetic form, which has strict construction rules. There are 14 lines in the sonnet, divided into two quatrains (quatrains) and two three-line verses (tercet). In quatrains only two rhymes are repeated, in terzets two or three. The methods of rhyming also had their own requirements, which, however, varied.

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

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

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

Popu-my lord, half-merchant,

Half wise, half ignorant,

Semi-scoundrel, but there is hope

What will be complete at last.

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

Could Bice create like Dante,

Were Laura to glorify the heat of love?

I taught women to speak...

But, God, how to silence them!

There are even cases of a kind of duel of epigrams. When the famous Russian lawyer A.F. Horses were appointed to the Senate, ill-wishers extended an evil epigram to him:

Caligula brought the horse to the Senate,

He stands dressed in both velvet and gold.

But I will say, we have the same arbitrariness:

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

What A.F. Koni, who was distinguished by his extraordinary literary talent, replied:

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

One of the founders of Russian literary criticism was V. G. Belinsky. And although serious steps were taken in antiquity in the development of the concept of literary gender (Aristotle), it is Belinsky who owns the scientifically based theory of three literary genera, which you can get acquainted with in detail by reading Belinsky's article "Division of poetry into genera and types."

There are three types of fiction: epic(from the Greek. Epos, narration), lyrical(a lyre was a musical instrument, accompanied by which verses were chanted) and dramatic(from Greek Drama, action).

Presenting a particular subject to the reader (meaning the subject of conversation), the author chooses different approaches to it:

First approach: can be detailed tell about the subject, about the events associated with it, about the circumstances of the existence of this subject, etc.; at the same time, the position of the author will be more or less detached, the author will act as a kind of chronicler, narrator, or choose one of the characters as the narrator; the main thing in such a work will be precisely the story, narration about the subject, the leading type of speech will be exactly the narrative; this kind of literature is called epic;

The second approach: you can tell not so much about events, but about impression, which they produced on the author, about those feelings that they called; image inner world, experiences, impressions and will refer to the lyrical genre of literature; exactly experience becomes the main event of the lyrics;

Third approach: you can portray item in action, show him on stage; introduce to the reader and viewer of it, surrounded by other phenomena; this kind of literature is dramatic; in the drama itself, the voice of the author will be the least likely to sound - in remarks, that is, the author's explanations for the action and replicas of the characters.

Consider the following table and try to memorize its content:

Genres of fiction

Each type of literature in turn includes a number of genres.

GENRE- This is a historically established group of works, united by common features of content and form. These groups include novels, stories, poems, elegies, short stories, feuilletons, comedies, etc. In literary criticism, the concept is often introduced literary style, is a broader concept than genre. In this case, the novel will be considered a type of fiction, and genres - various varieties of the novel, for example, adventure, detective, psychological, parable novel, dystopian novel, etc.

Examples of genus-species relations in the literature:

• Genus: dramatic; view: comedy; genre: sitcom.
• Genus: epic; view: story; genre: fantasy story, etc.

Genres being categories historical, appear, develop and eventually "leave" from the "active reserve" of artists, depending on the historical era: the ancient lyric poets did not know the sonnet; in our time, an archaic genre has become born in antiquity and popular in XVII-XVIII centuries Oh yeah; nineteenth-century romanticism gave rise to detective literature, and so on.

Consider the following table, which lists the types and genres related to the different kinds of word art:

Genera, types and genres of fiction

Modern literary criticism also highlights fourth, an adjacent genre of literature, combining the features of the epic and lyrical genera: lyrical-epic to which it refers poem. Indeed, by telling the reader a story, the poem manifests itself as an epic; revealing to the reader the depth of feelings, the inner world of the person who tells this story, the poem manifests itself as a lyric.

DRAMA - special kind literary creativity. The drama, in addition to its verbal, textual form, also has a second "life" following the text - staging on stage in the form of a performance, a spectacle. In addition to the author, directors, actors, costume designers, artists, composers, decorators, make-up artists, illuminators, stage workers, etc. participate in the organization of the spectacle. Their common task falls into two stages:

2) give a director's interpretation, new interpretation the author's intention in the stage setting of the work.

Since a dramatic work is designed for the obligatory (albeit in most cases "posthumous in absentia") cooperation of the author with the theater, the text of a dramatic work in a special way organized.

Let's read fragments of the first pages of the text of A. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm":

You noticed that, unlike the author of an epic (narrative work), the author does not tell the lengthy history of the heroes, but indicates them in a “list”, giving brief necessary information about each, depending on his own plan: who is called, how old is who , who is who in that place and in that society where the action takes place, who belongs to whom, etc. This "list" of actors is called poster.

Ostrovsky further pointed out, Where action takes place how much time passes between certain moments of action, how they are dressed characters; in the notes to the first act it says, who is on the stage, what are you doing characters, what is he doing Each of them. In the following fragments of the text, the author briefly states, in parentheses, to whom heroes apply with a speech, what are they gestures and postures from which intonation they say. These explanations are made primarily for the artists and the director and are called remarks.

What is happening is divided into compositional parts - actions(or acts), which in turn are also subdivided into phenomena(or scenes, or paintings). This is explained by the fact that the stage action is strictly limited in time: the performance usually lasts 2-3 hours, and during this time the author and actors need to express everything for which the work was written and staged.

All phenomena, as you can see, are also divided into small (or sometimes large!) Fragments, which are words - monologues and dialogues - characters. At the same time, the author always indicates which of the heroes they belong to, calling the hero by name, as if giving him a "microphone". These words of the characters in the drama are called replicas. As you have already noticed, the words of the heroes are often accompanied by remarks.

So,
The organization of the text of a dramatic work and the necessary terms:

POSTER- this is a list of actors with author's explanations;

REPLICA- these are the words of the characters of a dramatic work; replicas organize stage dialogues of characters;

PHENOMENON(or a picture, or a scene) is a plot-complete fragment of the text of a dramatic work; each phenomenon (or scene, or picture) is a separate completed moment of stage action, in other words, an episode.

Since drama is a stage action, a theatrical spectacle, it is designed not so much for the communication of one reader with the author's text (like novels, stories, poems, poems, where the reader and the work "communicate" tete-a-tete, alone with each other ), how much for the mass contact of the work with the audience. Hundreds and thousands of people come to theaters. And keeping their attention is very, very difficult. Therefore, the foundation of any performance is the author's literary work- should be based on the audience's interest and tenaciously "keep" it. The dramatist helps the playwright in this intrigue.

INTRIGUE(from lat. Intricare, "to confuse") - 1) intrigues, hidden actions, usually unseemly, to achieve something; 2) the correlation of characters and circumstances, which ensures the development of action in a work of art. (Dictionary of foreign words, 1988.)

In other words, intrigue is a kind of mystery, a riddle, often organized by one of the characters in own purposes, the solution of which is the basis of dramatic action. Not a single play can do without intrigue, because otherwise it will not be interesting to readers and viewers.

Now let's turn to content dramatic works . It is first of all associated with the type and genre of drama. There are three types of dramatic works: tragedy, comedy and drama (do not get confused, the name of the type is the same as the name of the genre of literature, but these are different terms).

An important aspect of a dramatic work is composition. There are several types of composition of drama as a kind of literature. Let's consider some of them:

Story composition- This the totality of all character relationships, a system of their speech-gestures and deeds-actions, connected by a single authorial goal, that is, the main theme of a dramatic work. This set is aimed at revealing the characters' characters, the reasons for their dependence on everyday and psychological characteristics.

Dynamic composition - organized by the author linking all sharp points of dramatic action(exposure --> increase in action --> conflict --> resolution --> increase --> climax --> decline, etc.). Dynamic composition is characteristic both for the whole work and for its individual components: actions, acts, phenomena, scenes, paintings, etc.

• Each character leads his own theme and has his own emotional mood (a variety of topics);
• Topics change periodically: from cue to cue, from episode to episode, from action to action (topic change);
• The theme is developed in the dialogue by one character and picked up by another (theme pickup);
• The theme of one hero in the dialogue is interrupted by another, but does not leave the dialogue (interruption of the topic);
• Characters move away from the topic, and then return to it;
• A theme abandoned in one dialogue is revisited by the characters in another;
• The topic can be interrupted without completion (topic break).

Since a dramatic work is designed to be staged in a theater where hundreds of spectators come, the range of life phenomena considered by the author ( subject matter) must be relevant to the viewer - otherwise the viewer will leave the theater. Therefore, the playwright chooses for the play themes determined either by the era or by eternal human needs, primarily spiritual, Certainly. The same can be said about issues, that is, about those issues that bother the author and which he brings to the reader's and viewers' court.

A.N. Ostrovsky he turned to topics from the life of the Russian merchants, small and large officials, townspeople, creative, first of all, theatrical public - that is, those sections of Russian society that were well known to him and studied both from positive and negative sides. And the problems raised by the playwright also concerned public spheres:

• How can a young smart, talented person break through in life, but who, due to poverty and origin, does not have the strong support of a rich and influential relative or acquaintance? ("There is enough simplicity for every wise man")
• Where did the conscience of the Russian merchants go? How did it happen that in the pursuit of profit, both the daughter and the son-in-law are ready to rob the father-in-law and leave him in a debtor's prison, so as not to pay his debts? ("Own people - let's settle!")
• Why does a mother sell her daughter's beauty? ("Dowry")
• What should a beautiful, but poor and unprotected girl do, so that her love and honor are not ruined? ("Dowry")
• How can a person who feels, loves and longs for freedom live among the "dark kingdom" of ignoramuses and tyrants? ("Thunderstorm"), etc.

A. Chekhov dedicated his plays to people of other circles: the Russian intelligentsia, the last "fragments" of noble families and people of art. But Chekhov's intellectuals get too deeply entangled in "eternal" questions that deprive them of the ability to make decisions; his landlords, idolizing the cherry orchard as an all-Russian treasure, do nothing to save it and are preparing to leave just when the orchard is being cut down; and Chekhov's actors, artists and writers on the stage are completely different from the "stars", "idols" who are applauded by the public: they are petty, stingy, swear over the ruble, quarrel with loved ones, cowardly endure the already extinct and now not at all loving, but a boring and burdensome connection... And the problems of Chekhov's plays are also largely due to time:

• Is it possible to save the passing life and how to do it? ("Uncle Vanya", "The Cherry Orchard")
• But will it be so reverently expected by Chekhov's heroes "tomorrow", "later", "someday"? ("Three sisters")
• Why does time pass, but the person does not change? ("The Seagull", "Three Sisters", "Uncle Vanya")
• Will there ever be a happy end to that path, those wanderings that fall to the lot of a born person? ("The Cherry Orchard")
• What is happiness, glory, greatness? ("Gull")
• Why does a person have to suffer in order to free himself from delusions and reveal his own talent? ("Gull")
• Why does art require such terrible sacrifices from a person? ("Gull")
• Is a person able to get out of that routine rut into which he has driven himself? ("Three Sisters", "The Cherry Orchard", "The Seagull")
• How to preserve the beautiful "cherry garden" - our Russia - the way we love and remember it? ("The Cherry Orchard"), etc.

Chekhov's plays introduced a new specificity of stage action into Russian dramaturgy: no special events, "adventures" take place on the stage. Even out-of-the-ordinary events (for example, the suicide attempt and Treplev's suicide in The Seagull) occur only "behind the scenes". On the stage, the characters only talk: they quarrel over trifles, sort out relationships that are already clear to everyone, talk about meaningless things, get bored and discuss what happened "behind the scenes". But their dialogues are filled with a powerful energy of internal action: behind insignificant remarks lies a heavy human loneliness, awareness of one's own restlessness, something not done, but very important, without which life will never get better. This property of Chekhov's plays made it possible to consider them as plays of internal dynamics and became a new step in the development of Russian dramaturgy.

Many people often ask: why when posing such problems and developing the plots of the play "The Cherry Orchard" and "The Seagull" are comedies? Do not forget that they were not defined by critics, but by the author himself. Return to the table. What is creative task comedy?

That's right, ridicule vice. Chekhov, on the other hand, ridicules, or rather, chuckles - subtly, ironically, beautifully and sadly - not so much at the vices as at the incongruities, "irregularities" of the life of a contemporary person, be it a landowner, a writer, a doctor or someone else: great actress- greedy; famous writer - henpecked; "to Moscow, to Moscow" - and we will spend our whole lives in the provincial wilderness; a landowner from a noble and wealthy family - and is going to go to the bank as an ordinary employee, knowing nothing about banking; there is no money - and we give gold to a beggar rogue; we are going to transform the world - and we fall down the stairs ... This is exactly discrepancy that overwhelms Chekhov's plays (in fact, the fundamental basis of the comic), and makes them comedies in the highest, ancient sense of the word: these are real "comedies of life."

The milestone era (the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries) demanded from playwrights attention to new topics and, first of all, attention to the very phenomenon of "man". M. Gorky in the play "At the Bottom" he draws a terrible model of the "bottom" of human society, creating on the stage a kind of rooming house-cave, as if accommodating the whole world of contemporary human relations in it. But the "bottom" for Gorky is not only poverty and restlessness. The soul also has a “bottom”, and the revelation of the deaf dark secrets of this soul was embodied in the images of the Baron, Kleshch, Actor, Kostylev, Ash ... darkness, that negativity that has accumulated in their souls throughout their real, actual life. No one will make your life different, except for yourself - this is the result of the author's observations of the heroes of the drama. And therefore, Gorky's drama "At the Bottom" is defined by genre as socio-philosophical. The key problems for Gorky were:

• What is the real truth of life?
• To what extent is a person capable of taking control of his own destiny? What have you done to make your life different, the way you would like it to be?
• Who's to blame that trying to "jump off the tram" and start new life failed?
• How should one see a person today, contemporary author, moment?
• Pity or condemn? What really helps a person?
• How responsible is society and the environment for human life? And etc.

When analyzing a dramatic work, you will need the skills that you received when performing tasks on the analysis of an episode of a work.

Be careful, strictly adhere to the analysis plan.

Topics 15 and 16 are closely related to each other, so the successful completion of the work is possible only with a detailed study of theoretical materials on these topics.

• A.S.Griboyedov. Comedy "Woe from Wit"
• N. Gogol. Comedy "Inspector"
• A.N. Ostrovsky. Comedy "Own people - let's settle!"; dramas "Thunderstorm", "Dowry"
• A.P. Chekhov. The play "The Cherry Orchard"
• M. Gorky. The play "At the Bottom"

What is dramaturgy? The answer to this question will depend on the context in which the word was used. First of all, this is a kind of literature intended for stage productions, implying the interaction of characters with the outside world, which is accompanied by an explanation of the author.

Dramaturgy is also a work that is built according to a single principle and laws.

Features of dramaturgy

• The action should take place in the present tense and develop rapidly in the same place. The viewer becomes a witness and must be in suspense and empathize with what is happening.
• The production can cover a time period of several hours and even years. However, the action should not last more than a day on stage, as it is limited by the possibilities of spectator viewing.
• Depending on the chronology of the work, a drama may consist of one or more acts. Yes, literature French classicism usually represented by 5 acts, and 2 acts are typical for Spanish dramaturgy.
• All actors in the drama are divided into two groups - antagonists and protagonists (off-stage characters may also be present), and each act is a duel. But the author should not support anyone's side - the viewer can only guess from the hints from the context of the work.

Drama construction

Drama has a plot, plot, theme, and intrigue.

• The plot is a conflict, the relationship of characters with events, which, in turn, include several elements: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, decline in action, denouement and finale.
• The plot is the interconnected real or fictional events in time sequence. Both the plot and the plot are a narrative of events, but the plot is only a fact of what happened, and the plot is a causal relationship.
• A theme is a series of events that form the basis of a dramatic work, which are united by one problem, that is, what the author wanted the viewer or reader to think about.
• Dramatic intrigue is the interaction of characters that influences the expected course of events in a work.

Elements of drama

• Exposition - a statement of the current state of affairs, which gives rise to the conflict.
• The tie is the setting up of a conflict or a prerequisite for its development.
• The climax is the high point of the conflict.
• The denouement is the coup or collapse of the main character.
• Final - conflict resolution, which can end in three ways: the conflict is resolved and has happy ending, the conflict is not resolved or the conflict is resolved tragically - the death of the protagonist or any other withdrawal of the hero from the work in the finale.

The question “what is dramaturgy” can now be answered with another definition - it is the theory and art of constructing a dramatic work. It should rely on the rules for building a plot, have a plan and a main idea. But in the course of historical development, dramaturgy, genres (tragedy, comedy, drama), its elements and expressive means changed, which divided the history of dramaturgy into several cycles.

The birth of dramaturgy

For the first time, the origin of dramaturgy was evidenced by wall inscriptions and papyri in the era of Ancient Egypt, in which there was also a plot, a climax and a denouement. The priests, who had knowledge of the deities, influenced the consciousness of the Egyptian people precisely because of the myths.

The myth of Isis, Osiris and Horus represented a kind of Bible for the Egyptians. Dramaturgy was further developed in Ancient Greece in the 5-6th century BC. e. The genre of tragedy was born in ancient Greek dramaturgy. The plot of the tragedy was expressed in the opposition of a good and just hero to evil. The final ended with the tragic death of the protagonist and was supposed to strong feelings the viewer for a deep cleansing of his soul. This phenomenon has a definition - catharsis.

Myths were dominated by military and political themes, since the tragedians of that time themselves participated in wars more than once. The dramaturgy of Ancient Greece is represented by the following famous writers: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. In addition to tragedy, the genre of comedy was also revived, in which Aristophanes made the main theme of the world. People are tired of wars and the lawlessness of the authorities, therefore they demand a peaceful and calm life. Comedy originated from comic songs that were sometimes even frivolous. Humanism and democracy were the main ideas in the work of comedians. Most famous tragedies of that time, one can name the plays "Persians" and "Chained Prometheus" by Aeschylus, "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles and "Medea" by Euripides.

On the development of dramaturgy in the 2nd-3rd century BC. e. influenced by ancient Roman playwrights: Plautus, Terence and Seneca. Plautus sympathized with the lower strata of the slave-owning society, ridiculed greedy usurers and merchants, therefore, taking ancient Greek stories as a basis, he supplemented them with stories about the difficult life of ordinary citizens. There were many songs and jokes in his works, the author was popular with his contemporaries and subsequently influenced European dramaturgy. So, his famous comedy "The Treasure" was taken as a basis by Moliere when writing his work "The Miser".

Terence is a representative of a later generation. He does not focus on expressive means, but goes deeper into the description of the psychological component of the character of the characters, and domestic and family conflicts between fathers and children become themes for comedies. His famous play "Brothers" reflects this problem most vividly.

Another playwright who made a great contribution to the development of drama is Seneca. He was the tutor of Nero, the emperor of Rome, and occupied with him high position. The playwright's tragedies have always developed around the protagonist's revenge, which pushed him to terrible crimes. Historians explain this by the bloody atrocities that took place then in imperial palace. Seneca's work "Medea" later influenced the Western European theater, but, unlike Euripides' "Medea", the queen is presented as a negative character, thirsting for revenge and not experiencing any feelings.

Tragedies in the imperial era were replaced by another genre - pantomime. This is a dance accompanied by music and singing, which was usually performed by one actor with his mouth sealed. But even more popular were circus performances in the amphitheaters - gladiator fights and chariot competitions, which led to the decline of morals and the collapse of the Roman Empire. The playwrights for the first time most closely presented to the audience what dramaturgy is, but the theater was destroyed, and the drama was revived again only after a half-thousand-year break in development.

Liturgical drama

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, dramaturgy is revived again only in the 9th century in church rites and prayers. The church, in order to attract as many people as possible to worship and control the masses through the worship of God, introduces small spectacular performances, such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ or other biblical stories. This is how the liturgical drama developed.

However, people gathered for the performances and were distracted from the service itself, as a result of which a semi-liturgical drama arose - the performances were transferred to the porches and life stories based on biblical stories that were more understandable to the audience began to be taken as the basis.

Revival of dramaturgy in Europe

Dramaturgy further developed during the Renaissance in the 14-16th century, returning to the values ​​of ancient culture. Plots from ancient Greek and Roman myths inspire Renaissance authors

It was in Italy that the theater began to revive, a professional approach to stage productions appeared, such a musical kind of work as opera was formed, comedy, tragedy and pastoral were revived - a genre of dramaturgy, the main theme of which was rural life. Comedy in its development gave two directions:

• scientific comedy, designed for a circle of educated people;
• street comedy - improvisational theater of masks.

The most prominent representatives of Italian dramaturgy are Angelo Beolco ("Coquette", "Comedy without a title"), Giangiorgio Trissino ("Sofonisba") and Lodovico Ariosto ("Comedy about the chest", "Furious Orlando").

English drama strengthens the position of the theater of realism. Myths and mysteries are being replaced by a socio-philosophical understanding of life. The ancestor of the Renaissance drama is considered to be the English playwright Christopher Marlo ("Tamerlane", "The Tragic History of Doctor Faust"). The theater of realism was developed under William Shakespeare, who also supported humanistic ideas in his works - Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Othello, Hamlet. The authors of this time listened to the desires of the common people, and the favorite heroes of the plays were simpletons, usurers, warriors and courtesans, as well as modest self-sacrifice heroines. The characters adapt to the plot, which conveyed the realities of that time.

The period of the 17th-18th centuries is represented by the dramaturgy of the Baroque and Classicism eras. Humanism as a direction fades into the background, and the hero feels lost. Baroque ideas separate God and man, that is, now man himself is left to influence his own destiny. The main direction of Baroque dramaturgy is mannerism (the impermanence of the world and the precarious position of man), which is inherent in the dramas "Fuente Ovehuna" and "The Star of Seville" by Lope de Vega and the works of Tirso de Molina - "Seville Seducer", "Pious Martha".

Classicism is the opposite of baroque mainly because it is based on realism. Tragedy becomes the main genre. A favorite theme in the works of Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Jean-Baptiste Moliere is the conflict of personal and civic interests, feelings and duty. Service to the state is the highest noble goal for a person. The tragedy "The Sid" brought great success to Pierre Corneille, and two plays by Jean Racine "Alexander the Great", "Thebais, or the Brothers Enemies" were written and staged on the advice of Molière.

Moliere was the most popular playwright of that time and was under the patronage of the reigning person and left behind 32 plays written in various genres. The most significant of them are "Madcap", "Doctor in Love" and "Imaginary Sick".

During the Enlightenment, three trends were developed: classicism, sentimentalism and rococo, which influenced the dramaturgy of England, France, Germany and Italy in the 18th century. The injustice of the world towards ordinary people became a major theme for playwrights. The upper classes share places with the common people. The Enlightenment Theater frees people from established prejudices and becomes not only entertainment, but also a moral school for them. Philistine drama is gaining popularity (George Lilo "The London Merchant" and Edward Moore "The Gambler"), which highlights the problems of the bourgeoisie, considering them as important as the problems of royalty.

Gothic dramaturgy was presented for the first time by John Home in the tragedies "Douglas" and "Fatal Discovery", whose themes were of a family and everyday nature. French drama was represented to a greater extent by the poet, historian and publicist Francois Voltaire ("Oedipus", "The Death of Caesar", " Prodigal son"). John Gay ("The Beggar's Opera") and Bertolt Brecht ("The Threepenny Opera") opened up new directions for comedy - moralizing and realistic. And Henry Fielding almost always criticized the English political system through satirical comedies (Love in Various Disguises, The Coffeehouse Politician), theatrical parodies (Pasquin), farces and ballad operas (The Lottery, The Scheming Maid) , after which the law on theatrical censorship was introduced.

Since Germany is the ancestor of romanticism, German dramaturgy was most developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The protagonist of the works is an idealized creatively gifted person, opposed to the real world. F. Schelling had a great influence on the worldview of the romantics. Later, Gotthald Lessing publishes his work "Hamburg Dramaturgy", where he criticizes classicism and promotes ideas enlightenment realism Shakespeare. Johann Goethe and Friedrich Schiller create the Weimar theater and improve the acting school. Heinrich von Kleist ("The Schroffenstein Family", "Prince Friedrich of Homburg") and Johann Ludwig Tieck ("Puss in Boots", "The World Inside Out") are considered the brightest representatives of German dramaturgy.

The heyday of dramaturgy in Russia

Russian drama began to develop actively in the 18th century under the representative of classicism - A.P. Sumarokov, called the "father of the Russian theater", whose tragedies ("Monsters", "Narcissus", "Guardian", "Cuckold by imagination") were focused on the work of Molière. But it was in the 19th century that this direction played an outstanding role in the history of culture.

Several genres developed in Russian dramas. These are the tragedies of V. A. Ozerov (“Yaropolk and Oleg”, “Oedipus in Athens”, “Dimitri Donskoy”), which reflected the socio-political problems that were relevant during the Napoleonic Wars, satirical comedies by I. Krylov (“Mad Family”, "Coffee House") and educational dramas by A. Griboedov ("Woe from Wit"), N. Gogol ("The Government Inspector") and A. Pushkin ("Boris Godunov", "A Feast in the Time of Plague").

In the second half of the 19th century, realism firmly established its position in Russian dramas, and A. Ostrovsky became the most striking playwright in this direction. His work consisted of historical plays ("Voevoda"), dramas ("Thunderstorm"), satirical comedies ("Wolves and Sheep") and fairy tales. The main character of the works was a resourceful adventurer, merchant and provincial actor.

Features of the new direction

The period from the 19th to the 20th century introduces us to a new drama, which is naturalistic dramaturgy. The writers of this time sought to convey the "real" life, showing the most unsightly aspects of the life of the people of that time. A person's actions were determined not only by his inner convictions, but also by the surrounding circumstances that influenced them, so the main character of the work could be not one person, but even a whole family or a separate problem, event.

The new drama represents several literary currents. They are all united by the attention of playwrights to the state of mind of the character, the plausible transmission of reality and the explanation of all human actions from a natural science point of view. Henrik Ibsen is the founder new drama, and the influence of naturalism was most clearly manifested in his play "Ghosts".

In the theatrical culture of the 20th century, 4 main directions begin to develop - symbolism, expressionism, dadaism and surrealism. All the founders of these trends in dramaturgy were united by the rejection of traditional culture and the search for new expressive means. Maeterlinck (“The Blind”, “Joan of Arc”) and Hofmannsthal (“The Fool and Death”), as representatives of symbolism, use death and the role of man in society as the main theme in their plays, and Hugo Ball, a representative of Dadaist dramaturgy, emphasized senselessness human existence and total rejection of all beliefs. Surrealism is associated with the name of Andre Breton ("Please"), the heroes of whose works are characterized by incoherent dialogues and self-destruction. Expressionist drama inherits romanticism, where main character opposes the whole world. Representatives of this trend in dramaturgy were Gan Jost ("Young Man", "The Hermit"), Arnolt Bronnen ("Riot Against God") and Frank Wedekind ("Pandora's Box").

contemporary drama

At the turn of the 20th-21st century, modern dramaturgy lost its positions and moved into a state of search for new genres and expressive means. In Russia, the direction of existentialism was formed, and after that it developed in Germany and France.

Jean-Paul Sartre in his dramas (“Behind Closed Doors”, “Flies”) and other playwrights choose a person who is constantly thinking about the thoughtless living of life as the hero of their works. This fear makes him think about the imperfection of the world around him and change it.

Under the influence of Franz Kafka, the theater of the absurd arises, which denies realistic characters, and the works of playwrights are written in the form of repetitive dialogues, inconsistency of actions and the absence of causal relationships. Russian dramaturgy chooses universal human values ​​as the main theme. She defends the ideals of man and strives for beauty.

The development of drama in literature is directly related to the course of historical events in the world. playwrights different countries, constantly under the impression of socio-political problems, often themselves led the direction in art and thus influenced the masses. The heyday of dramaturgy fell on the era of the Roman Empire, Ancient Egypt and Greece, during the development of which the forms and elements of the drama changed, and the theme for the works either introduced new problems to the plot, or returned to the old problems of antiquity. And if the playwrights of the first millennia paid attention to the expressiveness of speech and the character of the hero, which is most clearly expressed in the work of the playwright of that time - Shakespeare, then the representatives of the modern direction strengthened the role of atmosphere and subtext in their works. Based on the foregoing, we can give a third answer to the question: what is dramaturgy? These are dramatic works united by one era, country or writer.