Fiction (prose) is one of the types of art that differs from the rest only in the material from which works are created - these are only words and artistic language. The result of creativity in fiction is works that reflect eras, have high artistic value and bring aesthetic pleasure.

Old Russian literature has 2 sources - church books (the Bible, the lives of the saints) and folklore. It existed from the moment of the introduction of writing in Cyrillic (XI century) until the appearance of individual author's works (XVII century). Original works: "The Tale of Bygone Years" (an example of chronicles), "The Word of Law and Grace", "Instructions for Children" (codes of laws), "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" (in genre it resembles a story, with a logical development of events and authenticity, with an artistic style ).
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Peter's transformations were reflected not only in scientific and technical achievements Russia XVIII century, but also made a huge contribution to the development national culture and art. Rather, they gave the latter a significant acceleration and radically changed the vector of development domestic art. Until the 18th century, the development of Russian culture took place in isolation, even in isolation, which led to the development of authentic trends and genres closely related to the national and church trends. In the countries of Europe at the same time, literature finally separated from the church and became secular. It is this secularism - creative freedom and breadth of genres inherent in European era Enlightenment was not enough in Rus'.

Russian literature throughout the 18th century developed under the influence of European literature, lagging behind it by about 100 years and passing through the following stages:

• early XVIII century- panegyric, hagiographic literature,
• ser. XVIII century- classicism, sentimentalism (Lomonosov, Karamzin, Radishchev),
• to. XVIII century- the dominance of sentimentalism, preparation for romanticism.

« Golden age» domestic literature. In the history of Russian literature XIX century, many names have been inscribed that have received world recognition: A. Pushkin, N. Gogol, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov. During this period, the formation of the Russian literary language, such literary trends as sentimentalism, romanticism, critical realism, writers and poets master new literary forms and tricks. Unprecedented heights reaches dramaturgy and the art of satire.

The development of romanticism (until the 1840s) and realism (from the 1850s to the end of the century), from the 1890s the directions of the Silver Age develop. The most important functions of literature are considered critical, moral-formative, socio-political, the most important genre is the novel. Romantics: Lermontov, Pushkin, realists: Gogol, Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov.

Russian literature of the 20th century is represented by three brightest periods: the era " silver age"with its contradictions and innovations, the military era, with its deep patriotism, and the huge period of the second half of the century, when socialist realism flourished.

• In the beginning. XX century romanticism is being revived - for the poeticization of revolutionary events.
• 30-40s of the XX century- the active intervention of the party in culture leads to the stratification of writers. Some in exile develop realistic genre, others create in social realism (a direction that draws working man on the road to communism).
• 40-50s of the middle of the XX century- "trench", lieutenant or military prose. realistic image war of 1941-45, where the author is an eyewitness to the events.
• 60-80s of XX century- the period of the "thaw", the development of "village" prose.
• 90s years of the end of the 20th century- avant-garde, post-Soviet realism, gravitation towards "darkness" - intentionally exaggerated cruelty, obsceneness.

Foreign literature

Foreign literature originates in Greece during the period of antiquity and becomes the basis for all existing types of literature. Formed the principles artistic creativity Aristotle.

With the advent of Christianity, church texts spread, all medieval literature of Europe (IV-XIII centuries) - the processing of church texts, and the Renaissance (from the XIV century, Dante, Shakespeare, Rabelais) - their rethinking and repulsion from the church, the creation of secular literature.

The literature of the Enlightenment is the chanting of the human mind. Sentimentalism, romanticism (Rousseau, Diderot, Defoe, Swift).

XX century - modernism and postmodernism. The chanting of the mental, sexual in man (Proust, Hemingway, Marquez).

Literary criticism

Criticism is an organic and inseparable part of everything literary art in general, and a critic must definitely have a bright talent as a writer and publicist. Truly well written critical articles can make the reader look at a previously read work from a completely new angle, make completely new conclusions and discoveries, and can even radically change their assessments and judgments on a particular topic.

Literary criticism has close links with modern life society, with its experiences, philosophical and aesthetic ideals of a certain era, contributes to the development of literary creative process, and has a powerful influence on the formation of public consciousness.

Literary directions

Unity creative features writers who create within a certain historical period, commonly called literary direction, a variation of which can be separate currents and movement. The use of identical artistic techniques, the similarity of worldview and life priorities, close aesthetic views allow us to attribute a number of masters to specific branches of literary Art XIX-XX centuries.

All books are divided into two categories - fiction and non-fiction. Fiction refers to all works that have a fictional plot and fictional characters. Fiction is novels, short stories, novellas, plays and poetry (both for children and adults)...

Usually non-fiction called non-fiction (from the English non-fiction - non-fiction, non-fictional literature) - these are textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, monographs, biographies, memoirs, journalism, etc.

Fiction works are divided into genre literature, mainstream and intellectual prose.

IN genre literature the main thing is the development of the plot, which fits into certain, previously known frameworks. For example, any detective story develops according to the scheme "crime - investigation - exposing the criminal"; any women's romance - "heroes meet - fall in love - fight for love - unite hearts." This does not mean that all genre novels should have a predictable plot. The skill of the writer lies precisely in creating his own unique world within the given framework.

Genre literature is action and a quick change of scenery. All the reader cares about is "What's next?".

Genres of fiction:

Avant-garde literature - characterized by violation of the canons and language and plot experiments. As a rule, the avant-garde comes out in very small editions. Closely intertwined with intellectual prose.

Action - focused primarily on the male audience. The basis of the plot is fights, chases, saving beauties, etc.

Detective - main story line- disclosure of a crime.

Historical novel - the time of action - the past. The plot, as a rule, is tied to significant historical events.

A love story - the characters find love.

Mysticism - the basis of the plot - supernatural events.

Adventures - the heroes get involved in an adventure or go on a risky journey.

Thriller / Horror - the heroes are in mortal danger, from which they are trying to get rid of.

Fantasy - the plot twists in a hypothetical future or in parallel world. One of the varieties of fantasy is alternative history.

Fantasy/Fairy Tales - the main features of the genre are fairy-tale worlds, magic, unseen creatures, talking animals, etc. Often based on folklore.

What is the mainstream (from the English mainstream - the main stream)? There is no place for canons and patterns in books of this genre. Readers expect unexpected solutions from them. The most important thing in the mainstream is moral development heroes, philosophy and ideology. Because professional requirements to the author of the mainstream is much higher: he must be not only an excellent storyteller, but also a good psychologist and a serious thinker. If a writer aims for the mainstream, but doesn't hold the bar, or falls into stereotypes, the reader will be disappointed.

The term "mainstream" originated from American writer and critic William Dean Howells (1866-1920). As editor of one of the most popular and influential literary magazines of his time, The Atlantic Monthly, he gave a clear preference to works written in a realistic vein and emphasizing moral and philosophical problems. Thanks Howells realistic literature became fashionable, and for some time it was called the "mainstream".

What is fiction? We learn about it from early childhood when mom reads a bedtime story. If we ask this question seriously and talk about literature in general, about its types and genres, then, of course, we will remember both scientific literature and documentary prose. Any person, even without a philological education, will be able to distinguish fiction from other genres. How?

Fiction: definition

First, let's define what fiction is. As textbooks and reference books say, this is a kind of art that, with the help of a written word, expresses the consciousness of society, its essence, views, mood. It is thanks to books that we learn what people thought about in a given time period, how they lived, what they felt, how they talked, what they were afraid of, what values ​​they had. You can read a history textbook and know the dates, but it is fiction that will describe in detail the life and life of people.

Fiction: features

To answer the question of what fiction is, you need to know that all books are divided into fiction and non-fiction. What is the difference? Let us give examples of sentences from fiction.

“The moment I decided for myself that I didn’t want to be here to death, a lock rattled on the door behind me and Fred appeared tired after a night shift. He stared at strangers who filled his house with a terrible stink and unwound paper napkins everywhere ". This is an excerpt from Danny King's first book, Diary of a Robber. He shows us the main features of fiction - description and action. In fiction, there is always a hero - even if it is a story written in the first person, where it is as if the author himself falls in love, robs or travels. Well, without descriptions, too, nowhere, otherwise how can we understand in what kind of environment the heroes operate, what surrounds them, where they go. The description gives us the opportunity to imagine what the hero looks like, his clothes, his voice. And we form our own idea of ​​the hero: we see him the way our imagination helps us to see him, together with the desire of the author. We draw a portrait, the author helps us. That's what fiction is.

Fiction or truth?

What conclusion do we come to? Fiction is fiction, these are heroes invented by the author, invented events, sometimes non-existent places. The writer is given complete freedom of action - he can do whatever he wants with his heroes: send him to the past or the future, to the ends of the earth, kill, resurrect, be offended, steal a million in a bank. If you dig deeper, then, of course, everyone understands that the heroes have prototypes. But often they are so far from book people that it is almost impossible to draw a parallel. The author can only borrow a manner of speaking, walking, describing a habit. It happens that a real man pushes the writer to create a hero and a book. So, Alice Lindell inspired Lewis Carroll to write the favorite book of many children "Alice in Wonderland", and one of the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Davis, friends of Barry James, became the prototype of Peter Pan. Even in historical novels the boundaries of fiction and truth are always blurred, what can we say about science fiction then? If we take an excerpt from a news feed, from a newspaper, we will know that these are facts. But if we read the same passage on the first page of the novel, it would never occur to us to believe in the reality of what is happening.

What is the purpose of fiction?

Literature teaches us. Ever since childhood, poems about Moidodyr teach us to observe hygiene, and the story about Tom Sawyer teaches us that a misdemeanor is followed by punishment. What does literature teach adults? For example, courage. Read secret story Vasily Bykov about two partisans - Sotnikov and Rybak. Sotnikov, sick, exhausted by a hard road, crippled during interrogations, steadfastly holds on to the last and even out of fear of death does not betray his comrades. And there is much to learn from the example of Rybak. Having betrayed his comrade and himself, he goes over to the side of the enemy, which he regrets later, but the way back is cut off, the way back is only through death. And, perhaps, he is more punished than the hanged comrade. Everything is like from childhood: without punishment there is no offense.

So, the goals of fiction are clearly defined: to show, using the example of heroes, how to act and how not to; tell about the time and place where events take place, and pass on the experience to the next generation.

De gustibus non est disputandum, or There is no dispute about tastes

Remember, at the end of each class before summer holidays did the teacher give us a list of fiction books from which we needed to read by September? And many suffered all summer, barely moving up this list. Indeed, reading what you do not like is simply not interesting. Everyone chooses for themselves - "one loves watermelon, the other pork cartilage," as Saltykov-Shchedrin said. If a person says that he does not like to read, he simply has not found his book. Someone likes to travel in time with science fiction writers, someone likes to solve crimes in detective novels, someone is thrilled by love scenes in novels. There is no single recipe, just as there is no author who would be liked by everyone and perceived equally by everyone, because we perceive fiction subjectively, based on our age, social status, emotional and moral component.

How many people - so many opinions?

The question of what fiction is can be answered in the following way: it is literature beyond time and place. It does not have clearly defined functions, like a dictionary or instruction manual. washing machine, but it has a more important function: it educates, criticizes, gives us a break from reality. Fiction books are ambiguous, they cannot be interpreted in the same way - this is not a recipe carrot cake when a dozen people follow the directions step by step and end up with the same cake. Everything here is purely individual. The book "Schindler's Ark" by author Keneally Thomas Michael cannot be assessed in the same way: someone will condemn the German who saved people, someone will keep this image in their hearts as an example of dignity and philanthropy.

Olga Nagornyuk

Why read fiction?

Should you read fiction? Perhaps this is a waste of time, because reading does not bring money and does not promote promotion career ladder? Or maybe even worse: books are evil, because they impose other people's thoughts and make you live other people's lives, forgetting about your own, real? So is it worth spending precious moments, measured to us by fate, on such a useless activity?

Before those who love to read, plunging headlong into the world created by the author and empathizing with his characters, the question of the importance and necessity of fiction is not worth it. For them, reading is as natural as breathing. However, everyone's motivation is different.

Someone wants to find in books the answers to the questions that poses before us real life, for some, reading is an opportunity to get away from the boring routine, and someone is looking for echoes of their own thoughts and feelings in works of art.

Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer fans of fiction. The 21st century is the era of rationalists who plan their time minute by minute, main goal lives see career building and enrichment and weigh the pros and cons before making any decision.

1. Reading builds literacy skills. Scientists have proven that sitting at a book, a person unconsciously fixes in his mind the correct spelling of words and punctuation, thereby reinforcing the knowledge of spelling rules acquired at school.

And why do I need the rules of spelling and punctuation, you say. After all, Word and LanguageTool will check and correct errors! True, but they will not come to your aid when you have to fill out a questionnaire at an interview or write an autobiography when applying for a job. And what if you happen to sketch out the concept of a future project with your own hand in the presence of your boss? It is unlikely that he will appreciate your author's approach to spelling.

2. Fiction enriches lexicon(vocabulary), teaches how to correctly formulate phrases, brings up a “sense of language”. Competent and correct speech has always been considered a sign of an intelligent and educated person. Don't you want to look like that in the eyes of others, including your leadership?

In the context of the general enthusiasm for the latest IT technologies and modern gadgets, the probability of being among educated people whose interests lie in the plane of literature and art is incredibly small. However, it is still there. be among you intelligent people art world - in the theater, on literary evening or the presentation of a new book - what will you talk about with them? About the latest iPad? And what will you use? Prepositions and interjections?

Knowledge of fiction inspires a sense of confidence: if you are surrounded by connoisseurs of literature, you are not in danger of looking like a black sheep there.

3. Fiction develops creative thinking, and in this neither cinema, nor theater, nor fine arts can be compared with it.

The picture leaves no room for imagination. art word, rich in allegory and author's turns of speech, sometimes admiring with their ambiguity, and sometimes leaving a taste of understatement, makes us think and fantasize ourselves, connecting our own imagination to this process.

Two people who have read the description of the meeting of Prince Bolkonsky with the oak in War and Peace will imagine the picture painted by Leo Tolstoy in completely different ways. Books are valuable for this: they do not impose a visual image, but only give impetus to the reader's imagination.

4. Fiction enriches the emotional experience. The vicissitudes of the plot and the torment of the characters teach us to empathize: to be upset when they fail, and to experience the joy of other people's victories.

Therefore, in childhood we take our breath away from the novels of Jules Verne and Jack London, in our youth we enthusiastically follow the heroes of Walter Scott and Mine Reed, and in adulthood We read the works of William Faulkner and Franz Kafka.

The world of a work of art is by no means a substitute for reality. He, rather, complements it, giving what the reader lacks in Everyday life: interesting adventures, deep feelings, vivid emotions, wisdom of generations.

5. Do not forget about the educational function of books. It is pointless to change the character of an adult, because it is impossible. But to form a behavioral base in childhood, using not instructive notations that pass by the child in transit, but examples from life literary heroes, is quite real.

"Dunno" by N. Nosov and "Treasure Island" by R. Stevenson, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by M. Twain and "The Last of the Mohicans" by F. Cooper, "The Adventures of Alice" by K. Bulychev and "The Wizard of Oz" by A. Volkov - timeless books that talk about friendship and loyalty, teach kindness and honesty.

6. Through works of art eras can be known. The process of learning about history through art books is much more interesting than with scientific literature, characterized by dry presentation, or films whose screenwriters often do not care about historical accuracy.

The reign of Louis XIII and the manners that reigned at the court of the French king are perfectly described by A. Dumas in his Three Musketeers, the background and course of the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 are reliably conveyed in Henryk Sienkiewicz's Crusaders, the revolution of 1917 and civil war in Russia, you can study the novels " Quiet Don» M. Sholokhov and A. Tolstoy's "Walking through the torments".

Value fiction novels lies in the fact that they convey the spirit of the era, which is sorely lacking in research historical literature. Written in a living language, telling about adventures fictional characters coexisting on the pages of books with real historical figures, these works make you take a completely different look at the history presented in school textbooks in the form of dry dates and facts.

Convincing you of the benefits of fiction, we deliberately did not mention modern romance novels, detective stories, science fiction and fantasy. Most of them represent no artistic value and, despite the attempts of the editors to make them readable, they are distinguished by the poverty of speech, the primitiveness of the plot and the presence of literary blunders that nullify the aesthetic value of these creations.

But it is not all that bad. Modern fiction has worthy representatives, whose works, perhaps in 30-40 years, will be ranked among the classics of world literature. These are Victor Pelevin and Venedikt Erofeev, Alexey Varlamov and Boris Akunin, Oleg Pavlov and Sergey Senchin, Sergey Dovlatov and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya. Youth should start getting to know modern literature from these authors.

Is it possible to replace fiction with something? You might as well try asking the coffee lover: "Will ersatz be a worthy alternative to coffee?" No matter how critics praise the screen productions of The Idiot, the directors will never be able to convey the versatility of Prince Myshkin's feelings, delicately described by Dostoevsky.

Anna Karenina went through more than thirty adaptations, but none of the films repeated the success immortal work Tolstoy. Will they be remembered in 10, 20, 30 years? Hardly. Time puts everything in its place.

You can find a lot of arguments convincingly proving that reading books brings practical benefit. But to force to love and read fiction, proving its necessity, importance and usefulness, in our opinion, is impossible. It's like with love: we either love a person or we don't - it's impossible to force someone to love.

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Fiction by birth

Structural text types

Prose

It is considered prosaic literary text, in which a separate, independent of speech rhythm does not invade the language fabric and does not affect the content. However, a number of borderline phenomena are known: many prose writers deliberately give their works some signs of poetry (we can mention the strongly rhythmic prose of Andrei Bely or rhymed fragments in Vladimir Nabokov's novel The Gift). Literary scholars continue to argue about the exact boundaries between prose and poetry different countries over the course of the last century.

Prose is widely used in fiction - when creating novels, short stories etc. Selected examples such works have been known for many centuries, but in an independent form literary works they have developed relatively recently.

Medieval art reached its culmination in the 12th-13th centuries. At present, medieval literature is usually divided into Latin literature and literature into vernacular languages(Romance and Germanic). genre division Latin literature as a whole reproduced the antique. IN medieval literature written prose first appeared.

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See what "Fiction" is in other dictionaries:

Literature; fine literature, (fine) literature (outdated) / for easy reading: fiction Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011. fiction n., count ... ... Synonym dictionary

Publishing house, Moscow (office in Saint Petersburg). Founded in 1930 as the State Fiction Publishing House, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of Russian and foreign classics, modern ... ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

- "ART LITERATURE", publishing house, Moscow (branch in St. Petersburg). Founded in 1930 as the State Fiction Publishing House, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of Russian and ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

fiction- (from lat. littera letter, writing) an art form in which the word is the main means of figurative reflection of life. Heading: Literature and its functions in society Genus: Art Other associative links: universal significance ... ... Terminological dictionary-thesaurus in Literary Studies

- (“Fiction”), the Soviet publishing house of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for publishing, printing and book trade. The State Publishing House of Fiction Literature (GIHL) was founded in 1930 on ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

State publishing house, Moscow. Founded in 1930 as the State Fiction Publishing House, in 1934 63 Goslitizdat. Collected works, selected works of domestic and foreign classics, modern foreign ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

fiction- ▲ art literature literature. elegant vocabulary. subtext. style. stylist. reading. song of songs. | calliope. imaginism. see image, behavior... Ideographic Dictionary of the Russian Language

"FICTION"- "ART LITERATURE", publishing house of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for publishing, printing and book trade. The State Publishing House of Fiction Literature (GIHL) was founded in 1930 on the basis of literary ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary

fiction- in rhetoric: a type of literature that exists in three main forms - epic, lyric and drama; feature of H.l. - fiction; being a laboratory of language, H.l. develops perfect and capacious methods of expression, makes it public ... ... Dictionary linguistic terms T.V. Foal