Instruction
This is also explained by the fact that the Slavic, created in the middle of the 9th century famous brothers Cyril and Methodius, was intended for the translation of sacred Christian texts. Church Slavonic, by definition, could not be the language in which secular fiction is created. For the same reason, in Old Russian, until the 17th century, there were neither fictional heroes and plots, nor descriptions of love experiences. Moreover, comic creations were completely absent (after all, laughter was considered a sinful occupation, distracting from prayers and pious reasoning).
The first surviving work is considered to be "The Word of Law and Grace", feathered Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kyiv. It was created, most likely, in the late 30s-40s of the 11th century (during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise). Beginning in the 12th century, a form of literature such as chronicle flourished. The most famous of them is The Tale of Bygone Years. According to most researchers, the first (edition) was compiled by the monk Nestor, the second edition by the monk Sylvester, and the author of the third edition remained unknown.
What is fiction? What are its features, why is literature considered an art? The sheer number of books in most people's home libraries suggests that reading and comprehension play a role in our lives. important role. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the definition of the concept of "fiction", learn about what genera, types and genres it is divided into, what is remarkable about its language. You will learn about all this and much more from the material presented below.
Definition of fiction
Almost all literary theorists define it as an art, comparing it with painting, music, theater. The bottom line is that in literature, as in any other art, there is an organization of meaningless material into new form with specific ideological content. The types of art differ only in material: in music - sounds, in painting - colors, in architecture - Construction Materials. In this vein, literature is special in that its material is only word and language.
Thus, literature is all written texts, which in turn are divided into groups. This is popular science, reference, educational, scientific, technical and, finally, fiction. We are faced with the latter from the first years of life, at school when getting acquainted with the classics of fiction, during adult life when a person consciously turns to a book of interest to him. Books are a mirror of society. In a broader interpretation, fiction is those written works that represent artistic value and have aesthetic value.
Interestingly, this view was finally formed in the 19th century thanks to the representatives of romanticism. They considered artistic reality as aesthetically unique, and writers as special people.
When and how did literature appear?
The answer to this question has been trying to find for quite a long time. How did it all start? In search of answers, people conducted a huge amount of research, refuted and proved a myriad of hypotheses, analyzed the material and the people who created it. As it turned out, classical - Roman and Greek - fiction is not the most ancient. There were also Sumerian, and Egyptian, and Babylonian - refined and developed literature. They play a very important role oral forms literature, the beliefs of ancient peoples, the mythology of entire civilizations. It is with myths or similar forms that the study of any literature begins.
Genres of fiction
There are three types: epic, lyrical and dramatic. This division is based on how the content of the work is presented to the reader. If the events are described in detail, the position of the author is removed, various characters are present, their appearance is described in detail, and the leading type of speech is narrative, then we are talking about epic literature. In other words, prose. It includes stories, novels, essays, novellas and other similar works.
If the author wants to tell not so much about events as about the feelings that they caused, he creates works related to lyrics. Within this kind of literature, there are many genres of different sizes and forms, most of which are characterized by the presence of rhyme, rhythm and other elements characteristic of lyrics. In simple words, lyrics - and their variations.
If the subject is depicted in action, it is possible to play it on stage, show it to the viewer and reader, we are talking about the dramatic kind of literature. Here the voice of the author sounds only in remarks - the author's explanations of the actions and replicas of the main characters. To dramatic kind include various plays, tragedies, comedies.
Division into genres
As mentioned above, the genres of literature in turn include various genres- historically established groups of works that are united by certain common features. These are, for example, novels, short stories, novellas, comedies, poems, poems. There is also such a thing as a view. For example, epic view The novel will be divided into the genres of the utopian novel, the parable novel, the historical novel, and so on. The number is very large. Interestingly, the combination of different genres is popular, and the bolder the combination, the more original the “creation” of the writer will be.
Language as the main feature of works of art
To better understand what fiction is and what its features are, one should consider the specifics of its language. To date, in literary criticism there is no clear distinction between the concepts of " artistic speech" and " art style". It's easier to just combine them into the concept of " artistic language».
Artistic speech is multi-styled. Exists different styles with their own characteristics and rules, which use different ones. Their choice depends on the author and his idea. Each style has its own "face" - a set of elements that are unique to it. Interestingly, in work of art words and phrases that are not included in the "literary language" can be used - slang, slang words, lexical units from various dialects. Some writers break the norm intentionally. Any perform aesthetic function. Words-concepts are translated by writers into words-images. Features of fiction also include vivid emotionality and expression. It should be noted that another important function of literature, in addition to aesthetic, is communicative. Words in not only provide information, but also affect readers emotionally.
What is the role of the author's main tool?
What is fiction? Let's try to answer this question in an accessible way. Fiction- this is a meeting the best images, ideas, thoughts, words. By the way, words are the main tool of the author. With their help, the author's idea, the content of the book is realized, an image is created and the impact on the addressee is carried out.
The Importance of Fiction
World fiction influences the formation of the personality and worldview of readers. It is very difficult to exaggerate the effect that it has on the mind of the reader. word art has long been a part of our lives. What role does she play? What is fiction? First of all, it's a story. It is passed down from generation to generation, carrying the experience and values of our predecessors. Great writers appealed to human consciousness and probably expected that this appeal would apply not only to their contemporaries, but also to people in the future.
The fact that literature is able to influence consciousness is supported by many examples. Often art word played the role of an ideological weapon. In the history of literature there are many cases when works were used for propaganda and the formation of a certain opinion. Fiction is a powerful tool with which a person can be conveyed to the norms, rules, principles, vision of the world, attitude to the information received.
Conclusion
Reading fiction is a must personal development each person. From books, be it novels, poems or plays, readers learn about life, learn lessons, draw inspiration. Fiction is a mine historical facts, experience previous generations, thoughts of the main philosophers of the past and present. No wonder literature is considered an art, which, with the help of simple words affects consciousness. In addition, love for books is instilled from birth also because reading develops imagination, teaches you to imagine situations and draw images. All books that are recognized as classics develop and teach, give knowledge, and Russian fiction is no exception.
Fiction (prose) is one of the types of art that differs from the rest only in the material from which works are created - it is 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 ).
To the section...
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 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.
AT 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 a parallel world. One of the varieties of fantasy is alternative history.
Fantasy / Fairy tales - the main features of the genre are fairy 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. That's why 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 also remember scientific literature, and about 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 real person 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. 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 later regrets, 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.
