Each literary genre is divided into genres, which are characterized by features common to a group of works. There are epic, lyrical, lyrical epic genres, genres of dramaturgy.
epic genres
Story(literary) - a work in prose or poetic form, based on the folklore traditions of a folk tale (one storyline, fiction, depiction of the struggle between good and evil, antithesis and repetition as the leading principles of composition). For example, satirical tales by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Parable(from the Greek parabole - "located (placed) behind") - a small epic genre, a small narrative work of an instructive nature, containing moral or religious teaching, based on a broad generalization and use of allegories. Russian writers often used the parable as an interstitial episode in their works in order to fill the narrative with deep meaning. Let us recall the Kalmyk fairy tale told by Pugachev to Pyotr Grinev (A. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter") - in fact, this is the culmination in the disclosure of the image of Emelyan Pugachev: "Than eating carrion for three hundred years, it is better to drink living blood once, and then what God will give!". The plot of the parable about the resurrection of Lazarus, which Sonechka Marmeladova read to Rodion Raskolnikov, suggests to the reader the idea of a possible spiritual revival of the protagonist of the novel, F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". In M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom", the wanderer Luka tells a parable "about the righteous land" to show how dangerous the truth can be for weak and desperate people.
Fable- a small genre of epic; plot-complete, having an allegorical meaning, the fable is an illustration of a well-known worldly or moral rule. A fable differs from a parable in the completeness of the plot; a fable is characterized by unity of action, brevity of presentation, the absence of detailed characteristics and other elements of a non-narrative nature that hinder the development of the plot. Usually a fable consists of 2 parts: 1) a story about an event, specific, but easily generalizable, 2) moralizing following or preceding the story.
Feature article- a genre, the hallmark of which is "writing from nature." In the essay, the role of the plot is weakened, because fiction is irrelevant here. The author of the essay, as a rule, narrates in the first person, which allows him to include his thoughts in the text, draw comparisons and analogies - i.e. use the means of journalism and science. An example of the use of the essay genre in literature is “Notes of a Hunter” by I.S. Turgenev.
Novella(Italian novella - news) is a kind of story, an epic action-packed work with an unexpected denouement, characterized by brevity, a neutral style of presentation, and a lack of psychologism. An important role in the development of the action of the novel is played by chance, the intervention of fate. A typical example of a Russian short story is the cycle of stories by I.A. Bunin "Dark Alleys": the author does not psychologically draw the characters of his heroes; a whim of fate, blind chance brings them together for a while and separates them forever.
Story- an epic genre of a small volume with a small number of heroes and the short duration of the events depicted. In the center of the narrative is an image of an event or life phenomenon. In Russian classical literature, the recognized masters of the story were A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, I.A. Bunin, M. Gorky, A.I. Kuprin and others.
Tale- a prose genre that does not have a stable volume and occupies an intermediate position between the novel, on the one hand, and the short story and short story, on the other, gravitating towards a chronicle plot that reproduces the natural course of life. The story differs from the story and the novel in the volume of text, the number of characters and issues raised, the complexity of the conflict, etc. In the story, it is not so much the movement of the plot that is important, but the descriptions: the characters, the place of action, the psychological state of a person. For example: "The Enchanted Wanderer" by N.S. Leskov, "Steppe" by A.P. Chekhov, "Village" by I.A. Bunin. In the story, episodes often follow one after another according to the principle of a chronicle, there is no internal connection between them, or it is weakened, therefore the story is often built as a biography or autobiography: "Childhood", "Boyhood", "Youth" L.N. Tolstoy, "The Life of Arseniev" by I.A. Bunin, etc. (Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia / edited by Prof. A.P. Gorkin. - M.: Rosmen, 2006.)
Novel(French roman - a work written in one of the "living" Romance languages, and not in "dead" Latin) - an epic genre, the subject of which is a certain period or a person's whole life; Roman what is it? - the novel is characterized by the duration of the events described, the presence of several storylines and a system of actors, which includes groups of equivalent characters (for example: main characters, secondary, episodic); a work of this genre covers a wide range of life phenomena and a wide range of socially significant problems. There are different approaches to the classification of novels: 1) according to structural features (novel-parable, novel-myth, novel-dystopia, novel-journey, novel in verse, etc.); 2) on issues (family, social, social, psychological, psychological, philosophical, historical, adventurous, fantastic, sentimental, satirical, etc.); 3) according to the era in which this or that type of novel dominated (knightly, enlightenment, Victorian, Gothic, modernist, etc.). It should be noted that the exact classification of genre varieties of the novel has not yet been established. There are works whose ideological and artistic originality does not fit into the framework of any one method of classification. For example, the work of M.A. Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" contains both acute social and philosophical problems, in it the events of biblical history (in the author's interpretation) and contemporary Moscow life of the 20-30s of the XX century develop in parallel, scenes full of drama are interspersed satirical. Based on these features of the work, it can be classified as a socio-philosophical satirical novel-myth.
epic novel- this is a work in which the subject of the image is not the history of private life, but the fate of the whole people or an entire social group; the plot is built on the basis of nodes - key, turning point historical events. At the same time, the fate of the people is reflected in the fate of the heroes, as in a drop of water, and, on the other hand, the picture of people's life is made up of individual destinies, private life stories. An integral part of the epic are mass scenes, thanks to which the author creates a generalized picture of the flow of people's life, the movement of history. When creating an epic, the artist is required to have the highest skill in linking episodes (scenes of private life and mass scenes), psychological authenticity in drawing characters, historicism of artistic thinking - all this makes the epic the pinnacle of literary creativity, which not every writer can climb. That is why in Russian literature only two works created in the epic genre are known: “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, "Quiet Flows the Don" by M.A. Sholokhov. Lyric genres
Song- a small poetic lyrical genre, characterized by the simplicity of musical and verbal construction.
Elegy(Greek elegeia, elegos - a mournful song) - a poem of meditative or emotional content, dedicated to philosophical reflections caused by the contemplation of nature or deeply personal feelings about life and death, about unrequited (usually) love; the prevailing moods of the elegy are sadness, light sadness. Elegy is a favorite genre of V.A. Zhukovsky ("Sea", "Evening", "Singer", etc.).
Sonnet(Italian sonetto, from Italian sonare - to sound) - a lyrical poem of 14 lines in the form of a complex stanza. The lines of a sonnet can be arranged in two ways: two quatrains and two tercetes, or three quatrains and distich. In quatrains there can be only two rhymes, and in terzets - two or three.
The Italian (Petrarchian) sonnet consists of two quatrains with the rhyme abba abba or abab abab and two tercetes with the rhyme cdc dcd or cde cde, less often cde edc. French sonnet form: abba abba ccd eed. English (Shakespearean) - with rhyming scheme abab cdcd efef gg.
The classical sonnet presupposes a certain sequence of thought development: thesis - antithesis - synthesis - denouement. Judging by the name of this genre, particular importance is attached to the sonnet's musicality, which is achieved by alternating male and female rhymes.
European poets developed many original types of sonnets, as well as the wreath of sonnets, one of the most difficult literary forms.
Russian poets turned to the sonnet genre: A.S. Pushkin (“Sonnet”, “To the Poet”, “Madonna”, etc.), A.A. Fet (“Sonnet”, “Date in the Forest”), poets of the Silver Age (V.Ya. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont, A.A. Blok, I.A. Bunin).
Message(Greek epistole - epistole) - a poetic letter, in the time of Horace - philosophical and didactic content, later - of any nature: narrative, satirical, love, friendship, etc. A mandatory feature of the message is the presence of an appeal to a specific addressee, motives for wishes, requests. For example: “My Penates” by K.N. Batyushkov, "Pushchin", "Message to the Censor" by A.S. Pushkin and others.
Epigram(Greek epgramma - inscription) - a short satirical poem, which is a lesson, as well as a direct response to topical events, often political. For example: epigrams of A.S. Pushkin on A.A. Arakcheeva, F.V. Bulgarin, Sasha Cherny's epigram "To Bryusov's album", etc.
Oh yeah(from Greek ōdḗ, Latin ode, oda - song) - a solemn, pathetic, glorifying lyrical work dedicated to the depiction of major historical events or persons, talking about significant topics of religious and philosophical content. The ode genre was widespread in Russian literature of the 18th - early 19th centuries. in the work of M.V. Lomonosov, G.R. Derzhavin, in the early works of V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin, F.I. Tyutchev, but in the late 20s of the XIX century. other genres have come to replace the ode. Separate attempts by some authors to create an ode do not correspond to the canons of this genre (“Ode to the Revolution” by V.V. Mayakovsky and others).
lyric poem- a small poetic work in which there is no plot; the author focuses on the inner world, intimate experiences, reflections, moods of the lyrical hero (the author of a lyric poem and the lyrical hero are not the same person). Lyric epic genres
Ballad(Provencal ballada, from ballar - to dance; Italian - ballata) - a plot poem, that is, a story of a historical, mythical or heroic nature, set out in poetic form. Usually a ballad is built on the basis of the dialogue of characters, while the plot does not have independent meaning - it is a means of creating a certain mood, subtext. So, “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg” by A.S. Pushkin has philosophical overtones, "Borodino" by M.Yu. Lermontov - socio-psychological.
Poem(Greek poiein - "to create", "creation") - a large or medium-sized poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot (for example, "The Bronze Horseman" by A.S. Pushkin, "Mtsyri" by M.Yu. Lermontov, "The Twelve" A .A. Blok, etc.), the system of images of the poem may include a lyrical hero (for example, "Requiem" by A.A. Akhmatova).
Poem in prose- a small lyrical work in prose form, characterized by increased emotionality, expressing subjective experiences, impressions. For example: "Russian language" I.S. Turgenev. Drama genres
Tragedy- a dramatic work, the main conflict of which is caused by exceptional circumstances and insoluble contradictions that lead the hero to death.
Drama- a play, the content of which is connected with the image of everyday life; despite the depth and seriousness, the conflict, as a rule, concerns private life and can be resolved without a tragic outcome.
Comedy- a dramatic work in which the action and characters are presented in funny forms; comedy is distinguished by the rapid development of action, the presence of complex, intricate plot moves, a happy ending and simplicity of style. There are sitcoms based on cunning intrigue, a special set of circumstances, and comedies of manners (characters), based on the ridicule of human vices and shortcomings, high comedy, everyday, satirical, etc. For example, "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov - high comedy, "Undergrowth" by D.I. Fonvizina is satirical.
The main genres of literature are groups of works that are identical formally and in style of presentation. Even in the time of Aristotle, there was a division of literature into genres, evidence of this is the "Poetics" of the Greek philosopher, a treatise on literary evolution, written three hundred years before the birth of Christ.
in literature?
Literature originates from biblical times, people have always written and read. containing at least some text - this is already literature, because what is written is the thoughts of a person, a reflection of his desires and aspirations. Reporting, petitions, church texts were written in a multitude, and thus the first literary genre appeared - birch bark. With the development of writing, the genre of chronicle arose. Most often, what was written already bore some literary features, elegant turns of speech, and figurative allegories.
The next genre of literature was epics, epic tales about heroes and other heroes of historical plots. Religious literature, descriptions of biblical events, lives of the higher clergy can be considered separate.
The advent of printing in the 16th century marked the beginning of the rapid development of literature. Throughout the 17th century, styles and genres were formed.
18th century literature
To the question of what genres are in one can answer unequivocally that the literature of that time is conditionally divided into three main areas: drama, narrative and poetic verses. Dramatic works often took the form of tragedy, when the heroes of the plot died, and the struggle between good and evil became more and more deadly. Alas, the conjuncture of the literary market dictated its conditions even then. The genre of calm narrative also found its reader. Novels, novellas and short stories were considered "middle", while tragedies, poems and odes belonged to the "high" genre of literature, and satirical works, fables and comedies - to the "low".
Verse is a primitive form of poetry that was in use at balls, social events and other events of the highest metropolitan nobility. Poems in the verse genre had signs of syllogistic, the verse was divided into rhythmic segments. The mechanical style, deadly for real poetry, dictated fashion for a long time.
Literature19-20 centuries
Literature of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th is distinguished by several genres, most in demand in the golden age of Pushkin and Gogol, and then in the silver age of Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin. Drama, epic and lyrics - that's what genres are in the literature of the past and the century before last.
The lyrics had to have an emotional coloring, be meaningful and purposeful. Its categories were ode and elegy, and ode - with enthusiastic surprise, chanting and elevation to the rank of heroes.
The lyrical elegy was built on the principle of the sad tone of the verse, sadness, as a result of the hero's experiences, regardless of what was the cause - or the disharmony of the universe.
What are genres in contemporary literature?
There are a lot of genres in modern literature, among them the most popular ones, in demand by a wide readership, can be distinguished:
- Tragedy is a kind of literary genre of drama, characterized by extreme emotional stress, with the obligatory death of heroes.
- Comedy is another variation of the drama genre, the opposite of tragedy, with a hilarious plot and a happy ending.
- The fairy tale genre is a literary direction for children, their creative development. There are many literary masterpieces in the genre.
- An epic is a literary genre of a historical nature that describes individual events of past times in the style of heroism, and is distinguished by a large number of characters.
- The genre of the novel is an extensive narrative, with several storylines, describing in detail the life of each character individually and all together, it is distinguished by a penchant for analyzing current events.
- The story is a genre of medium form, written according to the same scheme as the novel, but in a more concise context. In the story, one character is usually singled out as the main one, the rest are described in "binding" to him.
- Story - a genre of short-form narrative, a summary of one event. Its plot cannot be continued, it represents the quintessence of the author's thought, it always has a finished form.
- A short story is a genre similar to a short story, the difference is only in the sharpness of the plot. The novel has an unexpected, unpredictable ending. This genre is well suited to thrillers.
- The genre of the essay is the same story, but in a non-artistic manner of presentation. There are no flowery turns of speech, grandiloquent phrases and pathos in the essay.
- Satire as a literary genre is not common, its accusatory focus does not contribute to popularity, although satirical plays in theatrical production are well received.
- The detective genre is the most demanded literary trend of recent times. Millions of paperback books by popular authors such as Alexandra Marinina, Daria Dontsova, Polina Dashkova and dozens of others have become desktops for many Russian readers.
Conclusion
Diverse, each contains the potential for further creative development, which will certainly be used by modern writers and poets.
A literary genre is a group of literary works that has common historical development trends and is united by a set of properties in terms of its content and form. Sometimes this term is confused with the concepts of "view" "form". To date, there is no single clear classification of genres. Literary works are subdivided according to a certain number of characteristic features.
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The history of the formation of genres
The first systematization of literary genres was presented by Aristotle in his Poetics. Thanks to this work, the impression began to emerge that the literary genre is a natural stable system that requires the author to fully comply with the principles and canons a certain genre. Over time, this led to the formation of a number of poetics, strictly prescribing to the authors exactly how they should write a tragedy, ode or comedy. For many years these requirements remained unshakable.
Decisive changes in the system of literary genres began only towards the end of the 18th century.
At the same time, literary works aimed at artistic search, in their attempts to move as far as possible from genre divisions, gradually came to the emergence of new phenomena unique to literature.
What literary genres exist
To understand how to determine the genre of a work, you need to familiarize yourself with the existing classifications and the characteristic features of each of them.
Below is a sample table to determine the type of existing literary genres
| by birth | epic | fable, epic, ballad, myth, short story, story, story, novel, fairy tale, fantasy, epic |
| lyrical | ode, message, stanzas, elegy, epigram | |
| lyrical-epic | ballad, poem | |
| dramatic | drama, comedy, tragedy | |
| content | comedy | farce, vaudeville, sideshow, sketch, parody, sitcom, mystery comedy |
| tragedy | ||
| drama | ||
| in form | vision short story story epic story anecdote novel ode epic play essay sketch |
Separation of genres by content
Classification of literary movements based on content includes comedy, tragedy and drama.
Comedy is a kind of literature which provides for a humorous approach. Varieties of the comic direction are:
There is also a comedy of characters and a comedy of situations. In the first case, the source of humorous content is the internal features of the characters, their vices or shortcomings. In the second case, comedy is manifested in the circumstances and situations.
Tragedy - drama genre with the obligatory catastrophic denouement, the opposite of the comedy genre. Tragedy usually reflects the deepest conflicts and contradictions. The plot is extremely intense. In some cases, tragedies are written in verse form.
Drama is a special kind of fiction, where the events that take place are transmitted not through their direct description, but through the monologues or dialogues of the characters. Drama as a literary phenomenon existed among many peoples even at the level of folklore. Originally in Greek, this term meant a sad event that affects one particular person. Subsequently, the drama began to represent a wider range of works.
The most famous prose genres
The category of prose genres includes literary works of various sizes, made in prose.
Novel
The novel is a prose literary genre that implies a detailed narrative about the fate of the heroes and certain critical periods of their lives. The name of this genre originates in the XII century, when chivalric stories were born "in the folk Romance language" as opposed to Latin historiography. A short story was considered a plot version of the novel. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, such concepts as a detective novel, a women's novel, and a fantasy novel appeared in literature.
Novella
Novella is a kind of prose genre. Her birth was served by the famous The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. Subsequently, several collections based on the Decameron model were released.
The era of romanticism introduced elements of mysticism and phantasmagorism into the genre of the short story - examples are the works of Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe. On the other hand, the works of Prosper Mérimée bore the features of realistic stories.
novella like short story with a twist became a defining genre in American literature.
The salient features of the novel are:
- Maximum brevity.
- Sharpness and even paradoxicality of the plot.
- Neutrality of style.
- Lack of descriptiveness and psychologism in the presentation.
- An unexpected denouement, always containing an extraordinary turn of events.
Tale
The story is called prose of a relatively small volume. The plot of the story, as a rule, is in the nature of reproducing the natural events of life. Usually the story reveals the fate and personality of the hero against the backdrop of ongoing events. A classic example is “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by A.S. Pushkin.
Story
A story is a small form of prose work, which originates from folklore genres - parables and fairy tales. Some Literary Specialists as a Kind of Genre review essay, essay and novel. Usually the story is characterized by a small volume, one storyline and a small number of characters. The stories are characteristic of literary works of the 20th century.
Play
A play is a dramatic work that is created for the purpose of subsequent theatrical production.
The structure of the play usually includes the phrases of the characters and the author's remarks describing the environment or the actions of the characters. There is always a list of characters at the beginning of a play. with a brief description of their appearance, age, character, etc.
The whole play is divided into large parts - acts or actions. Each action, in turn, is divided into smaller elements - scenes, episodes, pictures.
The plays of J.B. Molière ("Tartuffe", "Imaginary Sick") B. Shaw ("Wait and see"), B. Brecht. ("The Good Man from Cesuan", "The Threepenny Opera").
Description and examples of individual genres
Consider the most common and significant examples of literary genres for world culture.
Poem
A poem is a large poetic work that has a lyrical plot or describes a sequence of events. Historically, the poem was "born" from the epic
In turn, a poem can have many genre varieties:
- Didactic.
- Heroic.
- Burlesque,
- satirical.
- Ironic.
- Romantic.
- Lyric-dramatic.
Initially, the leading themes for creating poems were world-historical or important religious events and themes. Virgil's Aeneid is an example of such a poem., "The Divine Comedy" by Dante, "The Liberated Jerusalem" by T. Tasso, "Paradise Lost" by J. Milton, "Henriad" by Voltaire, etc.
At the same time, a romantic poem also developed - “The Knight in a Panther's Skin” by Shota Rustaveli, “Furious Roland” by L. Ariosto. This kind of poem to a certain extent echoes the tradition of medieval chivalric romances.
Over time, moral, philosophical and social topics began to come to the fore (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov).
In the 19th-20th centuries, the poem began to become realistic(“Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Russia” by N.A. Nekrasov, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky).
epic
Under the epic it is customary to understand the totality of works that are united by a common era, national identity, theme.
The emergence of each epic is due to certain historical circumstances. As a rule, the epic claims to be objective and reliable presentation of events.
visions
This kind of narrative genre, when the story is told from the perspective of, allegedly experiencing a dream, lethargy or hallucination.
- Already in the era of antiquity, under the guise of real visions, fictional events began to be described in the form of visions. The authors of the first visions were Cicero, Plutarch, Plato.
- In the Middle Ages, the genre began to gain momentum in popularity, reaching its heights with Dante in his Divine Comedy, which in its form represents an expanded vision.
- For some time, visions were an integral part of the church literature of most European countries. The editors of such visions have always been representatives of the clergy, thus obtaining the opportunity to express their personal views, allegedly on behalf of higher powers.
- Over time, a new sharply social satirical content was invested in the form of visions (“Visions of Peter the Ploughman” by Langland).
In more modern literature, the genre of visions has come to be used to introduce elements of fantasy.
The above types of classification do not exclude each other, but demonstrate a different approach to the definition of genres. Therefore, the same book can refer to several of them at once.
Classification of genres of literature by gender
When classifying literary genres by gender, they start from the author's attitude to what is being stated. The basis of this classification was laid by Aristotle. According to this principle, four major genres are distinguished: epic, lyrical, dramatic and lyrical-epic. Each of them has its own "sub-genres".
In the epic genres, events that have already occurred are described, and the author writes them down according to his recollections, while he is maximally removed from the assessments of what was said. These include epic novels, short stories, fairy tales, myths, ballads, fables and epics.
The lyrical genre involves the transfer of feelings experienced by the author in the form of a literary work in poetic form. These include odes, elegies, epigrams, epistles and stanzas.
A classic example of stanzas is Byron's Childe Harold.
The lyrical-epic genre in literature combines the characteristics of epic and lyrical genres. These include ballads and poems, in which there is both a plot and the author's attitude to what is happening.
The dramatic genre exists at the intersection of literature and theater. Nominally, it includes dramas, comedies and tragedies with a list of participating characters at the beginning and author's comments in the main text. However, in fact, it can be any work written in the form of a dialogue.
Classification of genres of literature by content
If we define works by content, then they are combined into three large groups: comedies, tragedies and dramas. Tragedy and drama, which tell, respectively, about the tragic fate of the heroes and about the emergence and overcoming of the conflict, are quite homogeneous. Comedies are divided into several types, according to the action taking place: parody, farce, vaudeville, comedy of situations and characters, sketch and interlude.
Classification of genres of literature by form
When classifying genres by form, only such formal features as the structure and volume of a work are taken into account, regardless of their content.
Lyrical works are classified most clearly in this way; in prose, the boundaries are more blurred.
According to this principle, thirteen genres are distinguished: epic, epic, novel, story, short story, short story, sketch, play, essay, essay, opus, ode and vision.
Hello, dear readers of the blog site. The question of a genre as a variety of one or another is rather complicated. This term is found in music, painting, architecture, theater, cinema, and literature.
Determining the genre of a work is a task that not every student can handle. Why is genre division necessary? Where are the boundaries that separate the novel from the poem, and the story from the short story? Let's try to figure it out together.
Genre in literature - what is it
The word "genre" comes from the Latin genus ( kind, genus). Literary reference books report that:
a genre is a historically developed variety, united by a set of formal and meaningful features.
It can be seen from the definition that in the process of genre evolution it is important to highlight three points:
- each genre of literature is formed over a long period of time (each of them has its own history);
- the main reason for its appearance is the need to express new ideas in an original way (substantive criterion);
- distinguish one type of work from another is helped by external signs: volume, plot, structure, (formal criterion).
All genres of literature can be represented like this:
These are three typology options that help to attribute the work to a particular genre.
The history of the emergence of genres of literature in Russia
The literature of European countries was formed according to the principle of moving from the general to the particular, from the anonymous to the author's. Artistic creativity both abroad and in Russia was fed by two sources:
- spiritual culture, the center of which was monasteries;
- folk speech.
If you look closely at the history of literature in Ancient Russia, you can see how new chronicles, patericons, lives of saints and patristic writings are gradually being replaced by new ones.
At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, such genres of ancient Russian literature, as a word, walking (the ancestor of the travel novel), (everyday "splinter" of a moral parable), heroic poem, spiritual verse. On the material of oral traditions, which stood out separately during the period of the collapse of the ancient myth into a fairy tale epic and a realistic military story.
Interacting with foreign written traditions, Russian literature is enriched new genre forms: a novel, a secular philosophical story, an author's fairy tale, and in the era of romanticism - a lyric poem, a ballad.
The realistic canon brings to life a problematic novel, story, short story. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, genres with blurred boundaries again become popular: essay (), essay, short poem, symbolist. Old forms are filled with original meaning, they pass into each other, destroy the set standards.
Dramatic art has a powerful influence on the formation of the genre system. Set to theatricality changes the appearance of such genres familiar to the average reader as a poem, a story, a short story and even a small lyric poem (in the era of the “sixties” poets).
remains open in modern literature. There is a prospect of interaction not only within individual genres, but also within various types of art. Every year a new genre appears in literature.
Literature on genera and species
The most popular classification breaks down works “by gender” (all of its components are shown in the third column in the figure at the beginning of this publication).
To understand this genre classification, it is necessary to remember that literature, like music, is worth on the "three pillars". These whales, called genera, are in turn divided into species. For clarity, we present this structure in the form of a diagram:
- The most ancient "whale" is considered epic. Its progenitor, which broke up into legend and legend.
- appeared when humanity stepped over the stage of collective thinking and turned to the individual experiences of each member of the community. The nature of the lyrics is the personal experience of the author.
- older than epic and lyric. Its appearance is associated with the era of antiquity and the emergence of religious cults - mysteries. Drama has become the art of the streets, a means of releasing collective energy and influencing masses of people.
Epic genres and examples of such works
The largest the epic forms known to modern times are the epic and the epic novel. The ancestors of the epic can be considered a saga, common in the past among the peoples of Scandinavia, and a legend (for example, the Indian "Tale of Gilgamesh").
epic is a multi-volume narrative about the fate of several generations of heroes in historically established circumstances and enshrined in cultural tradition.
A rich socio-historical background is required, against which the events of the characters' private lives unfold. For the epic, such features as the multicomponent plot, the connection between generations, the presence of heroes and anti-heroes are important.
Since it depicts large-scale events over the centuries, it rarely has a thorough psychological portrayal, but the epics created in the last few centuries combine these installations with the achievements of modern art. The Forsyte Saga by J. Galsworthy not only describes the history of several generations of the Forsyte family, but also gives subtle vivid images of individual characters.
Unlike the epic epic novel covers a shorter period of time (no more than a hundred years) and tells about 2-3 generations of heroes.
In Russia, this genre is represented by the novels "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy, "Quiet Flows the Don" by M.A. Sholokhov, "Walking through the torments" by A.N. Tolstoy.
to medium forms epic include novel and short story.
The term " novel" comes from the word "Roman" (Roman) and is reminiscent of the antique that gave birth to this genre.
The Satyricon by Petronius is considered an example of an ancient novel. In medieval Europe, the picaresque novel becomes widespread. The era of sentimentalism gives the world a novel-journey. Realists develop the genre and fill it with classical content.
At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the following types of novels:
- philosophical;
- psychological;
- social;
- intellectual;
- historical;
- love;
- detective;
- adventure novel.
There are many novels in the school curriculum. Giving examples, name the books of I.A. Goncharov "Ordinary History", "Oblomov", "Cliff", works by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons", "Nest of Nobles", "On the Eve", "Smoke", "Nov". The genre of "Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot", "The Brothers Karamazov" by F. M. Dostoevsky is also a novel.
Tale does not affect the fate of generations, but has several storylines that develop against the backdrop of one historical event.
"The Captain's Daughter" A. S. Pushkin and "Overcoat" N.V. Gogol. V.G. Belinsky spoke about the primacy of narrative literature in the culture of the 19th century.
Small epic forms(story, essay, short story, essay) have one storyline, a limited number of characters and are distinguished by a compressed volume.
For example, stories by A. Gaidar or Yu. Kazakov, short stories by E. Poe, essays by V.G. Korolenko or an essay by V. Wolf. Let's make a reservation, sometimes it "works" as a genre of scientific style or journalism, but it has artistic imagery.
Lyric genres
Large lyric forms represented by a poem and a wreath of sonnets. The first is more plot-driven, which makes it related to the epic. The second is static. In a wreath of sonnets, consisting of 15 14-verses, a theme is described and the author's impressions of it.
In Russia, poems have a socio-historical character. "The Bronze Horseman" and "Poltava" A.S. Pushkin, "Mtsyri" M.Yu. Lermontov, “Who is it good to live in Russia” N.A. Nekrasov, "Requiem" by A.A. Akhmatova - all these poems lyrically describe Russian life and national characters.
Small forms of lyrics numerous. This is a poem, ode, canzone, sonnet, epitaph, fable, madrigal, rondo, triolet. Some forms originated in medieval Europe (lyric poetry in Russia especially fell in love with the sonnet genre), some (for example, the ballad) became the legacy of German romantics.
Traditionally small Poetry works are usually divided into 3 types:
- philosophical lyrics;
- love lyrics;
- landscape poetry.
Recently, urban lyrics have also emerged as a separate subspecies.
Dramatic genres
Drama gives us three classic genres:
- comedy;
- tragedy;
- actual drama.
All three varieties of performing arts originated in ancient Greece.
Comedy was originally associated with religious cults of purification, mysteries, during which a carnival action unfolded on the streets. The sacrificial goat "comos", later called the "scapegoat", walked along the streets along with the artists, symbolized all human vices. According to the canon, they should be ridiculed by comedy.
Comedy is the genre of "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboedov and "Undergrowth" D.I. Fonvizin.
In the era of classicism, there were 2 types of comedy: comedy provisions and comedy characters. The first played with circumstances, passed off one hero for another, had an unexpected denouement. The second pushed the actors in the face of an idea or task, giving rise to a theatrical conflict on which the intrigue rested.
If during a comedy the playwright expected the healing laughter of the crowd, then tragedy set out to evoke tears. It was bound to end in the death of the hero. Empathizing with the characters, the viewer or the cleansing.
Romeo and Juliet, as well as W. Shakespeare's Hamlet, were written in the tragedy genre.
Actually drama- this is the latest invention of dramaturgy, removing therapeutic tasks and making an installation for subtle psychologism, objectivity, play.
Definition of the genre of a literary work
How was the poem "Eugene Onegin" called a novel? Why did Gogol define the novel "Dead Souls" as a poem? And why is Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard a comedy? Genre designations are hints that there are right directions in the art world, but, fortunately, there are no forever beaten paths.
A little higher is a video that helps determine the genre of a literary work.
Good luck to you! See you soon on the blog pages site
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