Examples of literary works of different genres. Types of literary genres by form

Epic genre - what is it? The fact is that it is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. This is due to the fact that this genre contains several varieties. Let's see what is the epic genre, and what directions does it contain? And also in what connects the epic and the lyrics.

What is a literary genre?

It seems that at the beginning of the narrative about the genres of epic works, it would be appropriate to understand the concept of a literary genre as such. The word "genre" comes from the French genre, taken from the Latin, where there is a word genus, both of them mean "kind, genus."

As for the literary genre, they are such groups of works of literature that are formed historically and are united by a set of a number of properties. Such properties are both substantive and formal. In this they differ from literary forms, which are distinguished only on the basis of formal features. Often the genre is confused with the type of literature, which is wrong.

Now let's move on to a direct consideration of the question that this is an epic genre.

What is the essence of the concept?

An epic (as the genre we are considering is also called) is one (just like drama and lyrics) that tells about events that supposedly took place in the past. And the narrator remembers them. A characteristic feature of the epic is the coverage of being in such various aspects as:

• Plastic bulk.
• Extension in time and space.
• Plot, or richness of events.

Aristotle on the nature of the epic

Ancient Greek philosopher 4th century BC e. Aristotle in his work "Poetics" wrote that the epic genre is (unlike dramatic and lyrical works) the impartiality and objectivity of the author at the moment of narration. According to Aristotle, the features of the epic are the following:

1. A wide coverage of reality, which means the image of both the private life of individual characters and the phenomena occurring in public life.
2. Disclosure of the characters of people in the course of the plot.
3. Objectivity in the narrative, in which the author's attitude to his characters and the world depicted in the work occurs through the selection of artistic details.

Varieties of the epic

As mentioned above, there are several types of epic genres that can be grouped on the basis of their volume. These are large, medium and small. Each of these types includes the following varieties:

• The major ones include the epic, the novel, the epic poem (the epic poem).
• To the middle belongs such a kind as a story.
• Among the small ones they name a story, a short story and an essay.

A little more about the varieties of works that belong to the epic genres will be discussed below.

What else should be noted? There are also folklore, folk-epic genres, such as epic, fairy tale and historical song.

What else is the significance of the epic?

Features of this genre are also the following:

• An epic work is not limited in scope. As V. E. Khalizev, who was a Soviet and Russian literary critic, said, the epic refers to a kind of literature that includes not only short stories, but also works designed for long reading or listening - epics, novels.
• In the epic genre, an important role belongs to the image of the narrator (narrator). He, talking about the events themselves, about the characters, at the same time delimits himself from what is happening. But at the same time, in the narration itself, not only what is being told is reproduced, imprinted, but also the mindset of the narrator, his manner of presentation.
• In the epic genre, it is possible to use almost any artistic means known in literature. The narrative form inherent in it makes it possible to penetrate deeply into the inner world of an individual.

two large forms

The leading genre of epic literature until the 18th century was the source of its plot is folk tradition, the images of which are generalized and idealized. The speech reflects a relatively unified national consciousness, and the form, as a rule, is poetic. Examples are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

In the 18-19 centuries, it was replaced by the novel as the leading genre. The plots of the novels are mainly drawn from modern reality, and the images become more individualized. The speech of the heroes reflects the multilingual nature of the public consciousness, which is sharply differentiated. The form of the novel is prosaic. Examples are the novels written by Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Combining in cycles

Epic works strive for the fullest possible reflection of life's realities, so they tend to be combined into cycles. An illustration of this trend is the epic novel called The Forsyte Saga.

It is a monumental series of diverse works describing the life of the wealthy Forsyth family. In 1932, for the art of narration inherent in Galsworthy, in which the Forsyte Saga is the pinnacle, the writer was awarded Nobel Prize on literature.

Epic means "narrative"

An epic (from the ancient Greek ἔπος - “word, narrative” and ποιέω - “I create”) is an extensive narrative, which is set out either in verse or in prose, and is dedicated to outstanding historical events of a national scale. In a general sense, an epic is a complex, long story that includes a series of events on a large scale.

The forerunners of the epic were past songs, which were half lyrical, half narrative. They were caused by the exploits of a tribe or clan, timed to coincide with the heroes around whom they were grouped. Such songs formed into large-scale poetic units called epics.

In epics related to heroic-romantic, their main characters purposefully and actively participate in significant historical events, in the process of which the formation of their personality is carried out, as, for example, in the novel by A. N. Tolstoy "Peter I". There are also “moral-descriptive” epics that tell about the state of society in a comic way, such as, for example, Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais or Gogol’s Dead Souls.

Epic and lyrical genres

The two genres are interconnected and in some cases can form a kind of symbiosis. To understand this, let's define lyrics. This word comes from the Greek λυρικός, which means "performed to the sound of the lyre."

This kind of literature, also called lyric poetry, reproduces a person's personal feeling, his attitude to something, or the mood of the author himself. Works in this genre are characterized by emotionality, sincerity, excitement.

But there is also an intermediate option between poetry and the epic genre - this is the lyre-epic. In such works there are two sides. One of them is the observation and assessment by the reader from the side of the plot narrative, presented in the form of poetry. And the second, which, however, is closely related to the first, is the receipt by him of a certain lyrical (emotional) assessment of the narrator. Thus, lyric epic is characterized by both epic and lyrical principles in the reflection of the surrounding reality.

Lyro-epic genres include such genres as:

• Poem.
• Ballad.
• Stanzas.

Literary genera and literary genres are the most powerful means to ensure the unity and continuity of the literary process. They relate to the characteristic features of the narration, the plot, the author's position and the relationship of the narrator with the reader.

V. G. Belinsky is considered the founder of Russian literary criticism, but even in antiquity Aristotle made a serious contribution to the concept literary kind, which was later scientifically substantiated by Belinsky.

So, the types of literature are called numerous sets of works of art (texts), which differ in the type of relation of the speaker to the artistic whole. There are 3 genera:

• epic;
• Lyrics;
• Drama.

The epic as a kind of literature aims to tell in as much detail as possible about an object, phenomenon or event, about the circumstances associated with them, the conditions of existence. The author, as it were, is removed from what is happening and acts as a narrator-narrator. The main thing in the text is the story itself.

The lyrics aim to tell not so much about the events, but about the impressions and feelings that the author has experienced and is experiencing. The main image will be the image of the inner world and the human soul. Impression and experience are the main events of the lyrics. This kind of literature is dominated by poetry..

Drama tries to depict the object in action and show it on the stage, to present what is described in the environment of other phenomena. The author's text is visible here only in remarks - brief explanations of the actions and remarks of the characters. Sometimes the author's position is reflected by a special reasoning hero.

Epos (from Greek - "narration")	Lyrics (derived from "lyre", a musical instrument, the sound of which accompanied the reading of poetry)	Drama (from Greek - "action")
A story about events, phenomena, the fate of heroes, adventures, deeds. The external side of what is happening is depicted. Feelings are also shown from the side of their external manifestation. The author can be either a detached narrator or directly express his position (in digressions).	Experience of phenomena and events, reflection of inner emotions and feelings, detailed image of the inner world. The main event is the feeling and how it affected the hero.	Shows the event and the relationship of the characters on the stage. It implies a special type of writing text. The author's point of view is contained in the remarks or remarks of the reasoning hero.

Each type of literature includes several genres.

Literary genres

A genre is a group of works united by historically characteristic common features of form and content. Genres include novel, poem, short story, epigram and many others.

However, between the concept of "genre" and "genus" there is an intermediate - type. This is a less broad concept than a genus, but wider than a genre. Although sometimes the term "kind" is identified with the term "genre". If these concepts are distinguished, then the novel will be considered a type of fiction, and its varieties (dystopian novel, adventure novel, fantasy novel) - genres.

Example: genus - epic, type - story, genre - Christmas story.

Types of literature and their genres, table.

epic		Lyrics		Drama
Folk	Author's	Folk	Author's	Folk	Author's
Epic poem: Heroic; Military; Fairy-tale legendary; Historical. Fairy tale, epic, thought, tradition, legend, song. Small genres: proverbs; sayings; riddles and fun.	Epic Romance: historical; fantastic; adventurous; novel-parable; Utopian; social, etc. Small genres: story; story; short story; fable; parable; ballad; literary tale.	Song.	Ode, hymn, elegy, sonnet, madrigal, epistle, romance, epigram.	Game, ritual, nativity scene, rayok.	Tragedy and comedy: provisions; characters; masks; philosophical; social; historical. Vaudeville Farce

Modern literary critics single out 4 kinds of literature - lyroepic (lyroepos). A poem is attributed to him. On the one hand, the poem tells about the feelings and experiences of the protagonist, and on the other hand, it describes the history, events, circumstances in which the hero lives.

The poem has a plot-narrative organization, it describes many experiences of the protagonist. The main feature is the presence, along with a clearly structured storyline, of multiple lyrical digressions or paying attention to the inner world of the character.

The lyric-epic genres include the ballad. It has an unusual, dynamic and extremely tense plot. It is characterized by a poetic form, it is a story in verse. May be historical, heroic, or mythical. The plot is often borrowed from folklore.

The text of an epic work is strictly plot-driven, focused on events, characters and circumstances. It is based on storytelling, not on experience. The events described by the author are separated from him, as a rule, by a long period of time, which allows him to be impartial and objective. The author's position can manifest itself in lyrical digressions. However, they are absent in purely epic works.

Events are described in the past tense. The story is unhurried, unhurried, measured. The world appears complete and fully known. Many detailed details, great thoroughness.

Major epic genres

An epic novel can be called a work covering a long period in history, describing many heroes, with intertwining storylines. Has a large volume. The novel is the most popular genre these days. Most of the books on the shelves bookstores belong to the genre of the novel.

The story is either classified as a small or medium genre, it concentrates on one storyline, on the fate of a particular hero.

Small genres of epic

The story embodies small literary genres. This is the so-called intensive prose, in which, due to the small volume, there are no detailed descriptions, enumerations and an abundance of details. The author is trying to convey a specific idea to the reader, and the entire text is aimed at revealing this idea.

The stories are characterized by the following features:

• Small volume.
• In the center of the plot is a specific event.
• A small number of heroes - 1, a maximum of 2-3 central characters.
• It has a specific theme, which is devoted to the entire text.
• It aims to answer a specific question, the rest are secondary and, as a rule, are not disclosed.

Nowadays, it is practically impossible to determine where the story is and where the short story is, even though these genres have completely different origins. At the dawn of its appearance, the short story was a short dynamic work with an entertaining plot, accompanied by anecdotal situations. It lacked psychology.

Essay is a genre of non-fiction based on real facts. However, very often an essay can be called a story and vice versa. There won't be a big mistake here.

In a literary fairy tale, a fairy tale narrative is stylized, it often reflects the mood of the whole society, some political ideas sound.

Lyrics are subjective. Addressed to inner world the hero or the author himself. This kind of literature is characterized by emotional interest, psychologism. The plot fades into the background. It is not the events and phenomena that are happening themselves that are important, but the attitude of the hero towards them, how they affect him. Events often reflect the state of the character's inner world. The lyrics have a completely different attitude to time, it seems as if it does not exist, and all events take place exclusively in the present.

Lyric genres

The main genres of poems, the list of which can be continued:

• Ode is a solemn poem intended to praise and exalt
• hero (historical figure).
• Elegy is a poetic work with sadness as the dominant mood, which is a reflection on the meaning of life against the backdrop of a landscape.
• Satire is a caustic and accusatory work; epigrams are classified as poetic satirical genres.
• An epitaph is a piece of poetry written on the occasion of the death of someone. Often becomes an inscription on a tombstone.
• Madrigal - a small message to a friend, usually containing a hymn.
• Epithalama is a wedding hymn.
• The message is a verse written in the form of a letter, implying openness.
• A sonnet is a strict poetic genre that requires strict observance of the form. Consists of 14 lines: 2 quatrains, and 2 tertiary.

To understand the drama, it is important to understand the source and nature of its conflict. Drama is always aimed at a direct portrayal; dramatic works are written to be staged. The only means of revealing the character of the hero in the drama is his speech. The hero, as it were, lives in the spoken word, which reflects his entire inner world.

The action in a drama (play) develops from the present to the future. Although events take place in the present, they are not completed, they are directed to the future. Since dramatic works are aimed at staging them on the stage, each of them implies spectacle.

Dramatic works

Tragedy, comedy and farce are genres of drama.

At the center of the classical tragedy is an irreconcilable eternal conflict, which is inevitable. Often the tragedy ends with the death of the heroes who failed to resolve this conflict, but death is not a genre-defining factor, since it can be present in both comedy and drama.

Comedy is characterized by a humorous or satirical depiction of reality. The conflict is specific and usually resolvable. There is a comedy of characters and a sitcom. They differ in the source of comedy: in the first case, the situations in which the characters find themselves are funny, and in the second, the characters themselves. Often these 2 types of comedy overlap with each other.

Modern dramaturgy gravitates towards genre modifications. A farce is a deliberately comical work in which attention is focused on comic elements. Vaudeville is a light comedy with a simple plot and a clear writing style.

It is not worth the way to drama as a kind of literature and drama as literary genre. In the second case, the drama is characterized by an acute conflict, which is less global, irreconcilable and insoluble than a tragic conflict. In the center of the work - the relationship between man and society. The drama is realistic and close to life.

Historically, three types of literature have developed in literature: epic, dramatic and lyrical. These are groups of genres that have similar structural features. If the epic in the story fixes the external reality (events, facts, etc.), then the drama does the same in the format of a conversation, not on behalf of the author, and the lyrics describe the inner reality of a person. Of course, the division is conditional and to a certain extent artificial, but, nevertheless, our acquaintance with the book begins with the fact that we see the genre, genus or combination of them on the cover and draw the first conclusions. For example, a person only likes to watch plays in the theater, which means that he does not need a volume of Molière and he will pass by him without wasting time. Knowledge of the basic foundations of literary criticism also helps while reading, when you want to understand the author, penetrate into his creative laboratory, unravel why his plan was embodied this way and not otherwise.

Each genre was given an example and theoretical justification, the most concise and simple.

The novel is a large form of the epic genre, a work with extended issues and many themes. As a rule, the classic novel depicts people involved in various life processes that give rise to external and internal conflicts. Events in the novel are not always described sequentially, for example, Lermontov in the novel "A Hero of Our Time" deliberately violates the sequence.

Thematically, novels They are divided into autobiographical (eccentrics “falls a haze on the old steps”), philosophical (Dostoevsky “demons”), adventure (definos “Robinson Crusoe”), fantastic (Glukhovsky “Metro 2033”), satirical (Rotterdam's “Praise of Stupids”), historical (Pikul “Honor”), adventurous (Milk of the Golden Rail ) etc.

Structurally, novels are divided into a novel in verse (Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin"), a pamphlet novel (Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"), a parable novel (Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea"), a feuilleton novel ("The Countess of Salisbury" by Dumas), an epistolary novel (Rousseau's "Julia or the New Eloise") and others.

The epic novel is a novel with a panoramic depiction of the life of the people at turning points in history (Tolstoy's "War and Peace").

The story is average (between short story and novel) in size epic work, which tells the story of a particular event in a natural sequence (Kuprin "The Pit"). How is a story different from a novel? At least by the fact that the material of the story is chronicled, and not for the sake of the action-packed composition of the novel. In addition, the story does not set tasks of a global historical nature. In the story, the author is more constrained, all his fabrications are subordinated to the main action, and in the novel the writer is fond of memories, digressions and analysis of the characters.

The story is small epic prose form. The work has a limited number of characters, one problem and one event (Turgenev "Mumu"). How is a novella different from a short story? The boundaries between these two genres are very arbitrary, but in the short story the finale most often develops unpredictably (O'Henry's "The Gift of the Magi").

The essay is small epic prose form (many refer to it as a kind of story). The essay usually deals with social problems and tends to be descriptive.

The parable is moral teaching in allegorical form. How is a parable different from a fable? The parable draws its material mainly from life, and the fable is based on fictional, sometimes fantastic stories (evangelical parables).

Lyric genres are...

The lyric poem is a small genre form of lyrics written on behalf of the author (Pushkin "I loved you") or on behalf of the lyrical hero (Tvardovsky "I was killed near Rzhev").

elegy is a small lyrical form, a poem that is imbued with a mood of sadness and melancholy. Sad thoughts, grief, sad reflections make up the repertoire of elegies (Pushkin's elegy "On the rocks, on the hills").

The message is poetic letter. According to the content of the message, it can be divided into friendly, satirical, lyrical, etc. They can be dedicated both to one person and to a group of people (Voltaire's "Message to Friedrich").

The epigram is a poem that makes fun of a specific person (from friendly mockery to sarcasm) (Gaft "Epigram on Oleg Dal"). Features: wit and brevity.

Oda is a poem distinguished by solemnity of tone and loftiness of content (Lomonosov "Ode on the day of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna 1747").

The sonnet is a poem of 14 verses ("Twenty sonnets to Sasha Zapoeva" by Timur Kibirov). The sonnet is one of the strict forms. A sonnet usually consists of 14 lines, forming 2 quatrains-quatrains (for 2 rhymes) and 2 three-line tercetes (for 2 or 3 rhymes).

The poem is the average lyric-epic form, in which there is a detailed plot, and several experiences are embodied, that is, attention to the inner world of the lyrical hero (Lermontov's "Mtsyri").

The ballad is middle lyric-epic form, story in verse. Often the ballad has a tense storyline (Zhukovsky "Lyudmila").

Dramatic genres are...

Comedy is a type of drama in which the content is presented in a comical way, and the characters and circumstances are comical. What are comedies? Lyrical ("The Cherry Orchard" by Chekhov), lofty ("Woe from Wit" by Griboyedov), satirical ("Inspector General" by Gogol).

Tragedy is a type of drama based on an acute life conflict, which entails the suffering and death of heroes (Shakespeare's "Hamlet").

Drama is play with acute conflict, which is common, not so elevated and resolvable (for example, Gorky "At the bottom"). How is it different from tragedy or comedy? Firstly, the material used is modern, not from antiquity, and secondly, a new hero appears in the drama, rebelling against circumstances.

Tragifars - dramatic work, where tragic and comic elements are combined (Ionesco, "The Bald Singer"). This is a postmodern genre that has appeared relatively recently.

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Literary genres- groups of literary works united by a set of formal and content properties (in contrast to literary forms, the selection of which is based only on formal features).

If at the folklore stage the genre was determined from an extra-literary (cult) situation, then in literature the genre receives a characteristic of its essence from its own literary norms, codified by rhetoric. The entire nomenclature of ancient genres that had developed before this turn was then vigorously rethought under its influence.

Since the time of Aristotle, who gave the first systematization in his Poetics literary genres, the idea was strengthened that literary genres are a regular, once and for all fixed system, and the author's task is only to achieve the most complete correspondence of his work to the essential properties of the chosen genre. Such an understanding of the genre - as a ready-made structure offered to the author - led to the emergence of a whole series of normative poetics, containing instructions for authors on how exactly an ode or tragedy should be written; the pinnacle of this type of writing is Boileau's treatise " poetic art» (1674). This does not mean, of course, that the system of genres as a whole and the features of individual genres really remained unchanged for two thousand years - however, the changes (and very significant ones) were either not noticed by theorists, or they were interpreted by them as damage, deviation from the necessary patterns. And only by the end of the 18th century, the decomposition of the traditional genre system, connected, in accordance with the general principles of literary evolution, both with internal literary processes and with the influence of completely new social and cultural circumstances, went so far that normative poetics could no longer describe and curb literary reality.

Under these conditions, one traditional genres began to rapidly die off or become marginalized, others, on the contrary, moved from the literary periphery to the very center of the literary process. And if, for example, the rise of the ballad at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, associated in Russia with the name of Zhukovsky, turned out to be rather short-lived (although in Russian poetry it then gave an unexpected new surge in the first half of the 20th century - for example, with Bagritsky and Nikolai Tikhonov), then the hegemony of the novel - a genre that normative poetics for centuries did not want to notice as something low and insignificant - dragged on in European literatures for at least a century . Works of a hybrid or indefinite genre nature began to develop especially actively: plays about which it is difficult to say whether this is a comedy or a tragedy, poems that cannot be given any genre definition, except that it is lyric poem. The fall of clear genre identifications was also manifested in deliberate authorial gestures aimed at destroying genre expectations: from Lawrence Stern’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, which breaks off in mid-sentence, to N. V. Gogol’s Dead Souls, where paradoxical for prose text the subtitle of the poem can hardly fully prepare the reader for the fact that he will be knocked out of the rather familiar rut of a picaresque novel every now and then with lyrical (and sometimes epic) digressions.

In the 20th century, literary genres were especially strongly influenced by the separation of mass literature from literature oriented towards artistic search. Mass literature again felt an urgent need for clear genre prescriptions that significantly increase the predictability of the text for the reader, making it easy to navigate it. Of course, the old genres were not suitable for mass literature, and it rather quickly formed new system, which was based on a very plastic genre of the novel that has accumulated a lot of diverse experience. At the end of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th, a detective story and a police novel, science fiction and a ladies' ("pink") novel are being drawn up. It is not surprising that contemporary literature, aimed at artistic search, strove to deviate as far as possible from mass literature and therefore moved as far as possible from genre specificity. But since the extremes converge, the desire to be further from genre predestination sometimes led to a new genre formation: for example, the French anti-novel did not want to be a novel so much that the main works of this literary movement, represented by such original authors as Michel Butor and Nathalie Sarraute, clearly show signs of a new genre. Thus, modern literary genres (and we already meet such an assumption in the reflections of M. M. Bakhtin) are not elements of any predetermined system: on the contrary, they arise as points of concentration of tension in one place or another literary space, in accordance with the artistic tasks set here and now by this circle of authors. A special study of such new genres remains a matter for tomorrow.

List of literary genres:

• By shape
  • visions
  • Novella
  • Tale
  • Story
  • joke
  • novel
  • epic
  • play
  • sketch
• content
  • comedy
    • farce
    • vaudeville
    • sideshow
    • sketch
    • parody
    • sitcom
    • comedy of characters
  • tragedy
  • Drama
• By birth
  • epic
    • Fable
    • Bylina
    • Ballad
    • Novella
    • Tale
    • Story
    • Novel
    • epic novel
    • Fairy tale
    • fantasy
    • epic
  • Lyric
    • Oh yeah
    • Message
    • stanzas
    • Elegy
    • Epigram
  • Lyro epic
    • Ballad
    • Poem
  • dramatic
    • Drama
    • Comedy
    • Tragedy

Poem- (Greek póiema), a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot. A poem is also called an ancient and medieval epic (see also Epos), nameless and authorial, which was composed either through the cyclization of lyrical-epic songs and legends (A. N. Veselovsky’s point of view), or by “swelling” (A. Heusler) of one or several folk legends, or with the help of complex modifications of ancient plots in the process of the historical existence of folklore (A. Lord, M. Parry). The poem developed from an epic depicting an event of national historical significance (the Iliad, the Mahabharata, the Song of Roland, the Elder Edda, etc.).

Many genre varieties of the poem are known: heroic, didactic, satirical, burlesque, including heroic-comic, a poem with a romantic plot, lyrical-dramatic. The leading branch of the genre has long been considered a poem on a national historical or world historical (religious) theme (Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's The Divine Comedy, L. di Camoens' Lusiades, T. Tasso's Jerusalem Liberated, J. Milton's Paradise Lost, Voltaire's Henriad, F. G. Klopstock's Messiad) , "Rossiyada" by M. M. Kheraskov, etc.). At the same time, a very influential branch in the history of the genre was a poem with romantic features of the plot (“The Knight in a Leopard’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli, “Shahnameh” by Ferdowsi, to a certain extent, “Furious Roland” by L. Ariosto), connected to one degree or another with the tradition of the medieval, mostly chivalric, novel. Gradually, personal, moral and philosophical problems come to the fore in the poems, lyrical and dramatic elements are strengthened, the folklore tradition is discovered and mastered - features that are already characteristic of pre-romantic poems (Faust by J. W. Goethe, poems by J. MacPherson, W. Scott). The heyday of the genre occurs in the era of romanticism, when the greatest poets of various countries turn to the creation of a poem. "Peak" in the evolution of the romantic poem genre, works acquire a socio-philosophical or symbolic-philosophical character ("Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" by J. Byron, "The Bronze Horseman" by A. S. Pushkin, "Dzyady" by A. Mickiewicz, "The Demon" by M. Yu. Lermontov, "Germany, a Winter Tale" by G. Heine).

In the 2nd half of the XIX century. the decline of the genre is obvious, which does not exclude the appearance of individual outstanding works (“The Song of Hiawatha” by G. Longfellow). In the poems of N. A. Nekrasov (“Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'”), genre tendencies are manifested that are characteristic of the development of the poem in realistic literature (a synthesis of moralistic and heroic principles).

In a 20th century poem the most intimate experiences are correlated with great historical upheavals, imbued with them as if from the inside (“Cloud in Pants” by V. V. Mayakovsky, “The Twelve (poem)” by A. A. Blok, “First Date” by A. Bely).

In Soviet poetry, there are various genre varieties of the poem: reviving the heroic principle (“Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” and “Good!” Mayakovsky, “Nine Hundred and Fifth Year” by B. L. Pasternak, “Vasily Terkin” by A. T. Tvardovsky); lyrical-psychological poems (“About This” by V.V. Mayakovsky, “Anna Snegina” by S.A. Yesenin), philosophical (N.A. Zabolotsky, E. Mezhelaitis), historical (“Tobolsk chronicler” L. Martynov) or combining moral and socio-historical issues (“Middle of the Century” by V. Lugovsky).

The poem as a synthetic, lyrical-epic and monumental genre that allows you to combine the epic of the heart and "music", the "element" of world upheavals, innermost feelings and historical concept, remains a productive genre of world poetry: "Repairing the Wall" and "Into the Storm" by R. Frost, "Landmarks" by Saint-John Perse, "Hollow People" by T. Eliot, "Universal Song" by P. Neruda, "Niobe I” by K. I. Galchinsky, “Continuous Poetry” by P. Eluard, “Zoya” by Nazim Hikmet.

epic(other Greek έπος - “word”, “narration”) - a set of works mainly epic kind, united by a common theme, era, national identity, etc. For example, the Homeric epic, medieval epic, animal epic.

The emergence of the epic is stadial in nature, but due to historical circumstances.

The origin of the epic is usually accompanied by the addition of panegyrics and laments, close to the heroic worldview. The great deeds immortalized in them often turn out to be the material that heroic poets use as the basis of their narrative. Panegyrics and laments are usually composed in the same style and size as the heroic epic: in Russian and Turkic literature, both types have almost the same manner of expression and lexical composition. Lamentations and panegyrics are preserved in the composition of epic poems as decoration.

The epic claims not only for objectivity, but also for the veracity of its story, while its claims, as a rule, are accepted by listeners. In his Prologue to The Circle of the Earth, Snorri Sturluson explained that among his sources are "ancient poems and songs that were sung to people for fun," and added: "Although we ourselves do not know whether these stories are true, we know for sure that the wise people of antiquity considered them to be true."

Novel- a literary genre, as a rule, prosaic, which involves a detailed narrative about the life and development of the personality of the protagonist (heroes) in a crisis / non-standard period of his life.

The name "Roman" arose in the middle of the 12th century along with the genre of chivalric romance (Old French. romanz from Late Latin romance"on (folk) Romance”), as opposed to historiography in Latin. Contrary to popular belief, this title from the very beginning did not refer to any work in the vernacular (heroic songs or lyrics of the troubadours were never called novels), but to one that could be opposed to the Latin model, even if very remote: historiography, fable ("Romance of Renard"), vision ("Romance of the Rose"). However, in the XII-XIII centuries, if not later, the words roman And estoire(the latter also means "image", "illustration") are interchangeable. In a reverse translation into Latin, the novel was called (liber) romanticus, from where the adjective “romantic” came from in European languages, which until the end of the 18th century meant “inherent in novels”, “such as in novels”, and only later the meaning, on the one hand, was simplified to “love”, but on the other hand gave rise to the name of romanticism as a literary trend.

The name "roman" was preserved when, in the 13th century, the performed verse novel was replaced by a prose novel for reading (with the complete preservation of the chivalrous topic and plot), and for all subsequent transformations of the chivalric novel, up to the works of Ariosto and Edmund Spenser, which we call poems, and contemporaries considered novels. It persists even later, in the 17th-18th centuries, when the "adventure" novel is replaced by the "realistic" and "psychological" novels (which in itself problematizes the supposed break in continuity).

However, in England the name of the genre is also changing: the name remains behind the “old” novels. romance, and for the "new" novels from the middle of the 17th century the name novel(from Italian novella - "short story"). Dichotomy novel/romance means a lot to English-language criticism, but rather introduces additional uncertainty into their actual historical relationship than clarifies. Generally romance is considered rather a kind of structural-plot variety of the genre novel.

In Spain, by contrast, all varieties of the novel are called novela, and descended from the same romance word romance from the very beginning belonged to the poetic genre, which was also destined Long story, - to the romance.

Bishop of Yue late XVII century, in search of the predecessors of the novel, he first applied this term to a number of phenomena of ancient narrative prose, which since then have also become known as novels.

visions

Fabliau dou dieu d'Amour"(The Tale of the God of Love)," Venus la deesse d'amors

visions- narrative and didactic genre.

The plot is presented on behalf of the person to whom he allegedly revealed himself in a dream, hallucination or lethargy. Core for the most part constitute real dreams or hallucinations, but already in ancient times fictitious stories appeared, clothed in the form of visions (Plato, Plutarch, Cicero). The genre gets a special development in the Middle Ages and reaches its climax in Dante's Divine Comedy, which in form represents the most detailed vision. An authoritative sanction and a strong impetus to the development of the genre were given by the Dialogues of Miracles by Pope Gregory the Great (VI century), after which visions began to appear en masse in the church literature of all European countries.

Until the 12th century, all visions (except Scandinavian ones) were written in Latin, from the 12th century translations appeared, and from the 13th century - original visions in vernacular languages. The most complete form of visions is presented in the Latin poetry of the clergy: this genre, in its origins, is closely connected with canonical and apocryphal religious literature and is close to church preaching.

Vision editors (they are always from the clergy and must be distinguished from the "clairvoyant" himself) took the opportunity on behalf of " higher power who sent a vision to propagate their Political Views or fall upon personal enemies. There are also purely fictitious visions - topical pamphlets (for example, the vision of Charlemagne, Charles III, etc.).

However, since the 10th century, the form and content of visions have caused protest, often coming from the declassed layers of the clergy themselves (poor clerics and goliard schoolchildren). This protest results in parodic visions. On the other hand, courtly chivalrous poetry in folk languages ​​takes over the form of visions: visions acquire new content here, becoming a frame for a love-didactic allegory, such as, for example, “ Fabliau dou dieu d'Amour"(The Tale of the God of Love)," Venus la deesse d'amors"(Venus - the goddess of love) and finally - the encyclopedia of courtly love - the famous "Roman de la Rose" (Roman of the Rose) by Guillaume de Lorris.

The new content puts the “third estate” into the form of visions. Thus, the successor to the unfinished novel by Guillaume de Lorris, Jean de Meun, turns the exquisite allegory of his predecessor into a ponderous combination of didactics and satire, the edge of which is directed against the lack of "equality", against the unjust privileges of the aristocracy and against the "robber" royal power). Such are the "Hopes of the common people" by Jean Molinet. No less pronounced are the moods of the “third estate” in Langland’s famous “Vision of Peter the Ploughman,” which played an agitational role in the English peasant revolution of the 14th century. But unlike Jean de Meun, a representative of the urban part of the "third estate", Langland - the ideologist of the peasantry - turns his gaze to the idealized past, dreaming of the destruction of capitalist usurers.

As a complete independent genre of visions, they are characteristic of medieval literature. But as a motif, the form of visions continues to exist in the literatures of modern times, being especially favorable for the introduction of satire and didactics, on the one hand, and fantasy, on the other (for example, Byron's "Darkness").

Novella

The sources of the novel are primarily Latin exempla, as well as fablios, stories interspersed in the "Dialogue about Pope Gregory", apologists from the "Biographies of the Church Fathers", fables, folk tales. In 13th-century Occitan, the term nova.Hence - Italian novella(in the most popular collection of the end of the 13th century, Novellino, also known as the Hundred Ancient Novels), which has been distributed throughout Europe since the 15th century.

The genre was established after the appearance of the book by Giovanni Boccaccio "The Decameron" (c. 1353), the plot of which was that several people, fleeing the plague outside the city, tell each other short stories. Boccaccio in his book created the classic type of Italian short story, which was developed by his many followers in Italy itself and in other countries. In France, under the influence of the translation of the Decameron, around 1462, the collection One Hundred New Novels appeared (however, the material was more indebted to the facets of Poggio Bracciolini), and Margarita Navarskaya, modeled on the Decameron, wrote the book Heptameron (1559).

In the era of romanticism, under the influence of Hoffmann, Novalis, Edgar Allan Poe, a short story with elements of mysticism, fantasy, fabulousness spread. Later, in the works of Prosper Mérimée and Guy de Maupassant, this term began to be used to refer to realistic stories.

For American literature, beginning with Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, the novella, or short story(English) short story), is of particular importance - as one of the most characteristic genres.

In the second half of the 19th-20th centuries, the traditions of the short story were continued by such different writers as Ambrose Bierce, O. Henry, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Gilbert Chesterton, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Karel Capek, Jorge Luis Borges.

The novel is characterized by several important features: extreme brevity, sharp, even paradoxical plot, neutral style of presentation, lack of psychologism and descriptiveness, unexpected denouement. The novel takes place in modern author the world. The plot structure of the novel is similar to the dramatic one, but usually simpler.

Goethe spoke about the action-packed nature of the short story, giving it the following definition: "an unheard-of event that has taken place."

The story emphasizes the significance of the denouement, which contains an unexpected turn (pointe, “falcon turn”). According to the French researcher, "ultimately, one can even say that the whole novella is conceived as a denouement." Viktor Shklovsky wrote that the description of a happy mutual love does not create a novel, love with obstacles is necessary for a novel: “A loves B, B does not love A; when B loves A, then A no longer loves B. He singled out a special type of denouement, which he called "false ending": it is usually made from a description of nature or weather.

Among the predecessors of Boccaccio, the short story had a moralizing attitude. Boccaccio retained this motif, but his morality followed from the short story not logically, but psychologically, and often was only a pretext and a device. The later short story convinces the reader of the relativity of moral criteria.

Tale

Story

Joke(fr. anecdote- tale, fiction; from the Greek τὸ ἀνέκδοτоν - unpublished, lit. "not issued") - a genre of folklore - a short funny story. Most often, an anecdote is characterized by an unexpected semantic resolution at the very end, which gives rise to laughter. It could be a play on words different meanings words, modern associations that require additional knowledge: social, literary, historical, geographical, etc. Anecdotes cover almost all spheres of human activity. There are jokes about family life, politics, sex, and so on. In most cases, the authors of the jokes are unknown.

In Russia XVIII-XIX centuries. (and in most languages ​​of the world so far) the word "anecdote" had a slightly different meaning - it could just be an entertaining story about some famous person, not necessarily with the task of ridiculing him (cf. Pushkin: "Jokes of the past days"). Such “jokes” about Potemkin became classics of that time.

Oh yeah

epic

Play(French pièce) - a dramatic work, usually of a classical style, created to stage some kind of action in the theater. This is a general specific name for works of drama intended to be performed from the stage.

The structure of the play includes the text of the characters (dialogues and monologues) and functional author's remarks (notes indicating the place of action, interior features, appearance of the characters, their behavior, etc.). As a rule, the play is preceded by a list of actors, sometimes with an indication of their age, profession, titles, family ties, etc.

A separate complete semantic part of the play is called an act or action, which may include smaller components - phenomena, episodes, pictures.

The very concept of a play is purely formal, it does not include any emotional or stylistic meaning. Therefore, in most cases, the play is accompanied by a subtitle that defines its genre - classical, main (comedy, tragedy, drama), or author's (for example: My poor Marat, dialogues in three parts - A. Arbuzov; Let's wait and see, a pleasant play in four acts - B. Show; a kind person from Cesuan, parabola play - B. Brecht, etc.). The genre designation of the play not only performs the function of a "hint" to the director and actors in the stage interpretation of the play, but helps to enter the author's style, the figurative structure of the dramaturgy.

Essay(from fr. essai"attempt, trial, essay", from lat. exagium"weighing") - a literary genre of prose writing of a small volume and free composition. The essay expresses the author's individual impressions and thoughts on a particular occasion or subject and does not pretend to be an exhaustive or defining interpretation of the topic (in the parodic Russian tradition, "a look and something"). In terms of volume and function, it borders, on the one hand, on a scientific article and a literary essay (with which essays are often confused), on the other hand, on a philosophical treatise. The essayistic style is characterized by figurativeness, mobility of associations, aphoristic, often antithetical thinking, an attitude towards intimate frankness and colloquial intonation. Some theorists consider it as the fourth, along with the epic, lyrics and drama, kind of fiction.

Based on the experience of his predecessors, Michel Montaigne introduced it as a special genre form in his "Experiments" (1580). His works, published in book form in 1597, 1612 and 1625, Francis Bacon for the first time in English literature gave the name English. essays. The English poet and playwright Ben Jonson first used the word essayist (Eng. essayist) in 1609.

In the 18th-19th centuries, the essay was one of the leading genres in English and French journalism. The development of essays was promoted in England by J. Addison, Richard Steele, Henry Fielding, in France by Diderot and Voltaire, and in Germany by Lessing and Herder. The essay was the main form of philosophical and aesthetic controversy among romantics and romantic philosophers (G. Heine, R. W. Emerson, G. D. Thoreau).

The essay genre is deeply rooted in English literature: T. Carlyle, W. Hazlitt, M. Arnold (19th century); M. Beerbom, G. K. Chesterton (XX century). In the 20th century, essay writing is flourishing: major philosophers, prose writers, and poets turned to the essay genre (R. Rolland, B. Shaw, G. Wells, J. Orwell, T. Mann, A. Maurois, J. P. Sartre).

In Lithuanian criticism, the term essay (lit. esė) was first used by Balis Sruoga in 1923. characteristic features The essays marked the books “Smiles of God” (lit. “Dievo šypsenos”, 1929) by Juozapas Albinas Gerbachiauskas and “Gods and Troublemakers” (lit. “Dievai ir smūtkeliai”, 1935) by Jonas Kossu-Aleksandravičius. Examples of essays include “poetic anti-commentaries” “Lyrical Etudes” (lit. “Lyriniai etiudai”, 1964) and “Antakalnis Baroque” (lit. “Antakalnio barokas”, 1971) by Eduardas Meželaitis, “Diary without dates” (lit. “Dienoraštis be datų”, 1981) by Justinas Marcins kevičius, "Poetry and the Word" (lit. "Poezija ir žodis", 1977) and Papyri from the Graves of the Dead (lit. "Papirusai iš mirusiųjų kapų", 1991) by Marcelijus Martinaitis. An anti-conformist moral position, conceptuality, accuracy and polemic characterize the essay of Thomas Venclova

For Russian literature, the essay genre was not typical. Samples of the essayistic style are found in A. S. Pushkin (“Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg”), A. I. Herzen (“From the Other Shore”), F. M. Dostoevsky (“A Writer's Diary”). At the beginning of the 20th century, V. I. Ivanov, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Andrey Bely, Lev Shestov, V. V. Rozanov turned to the essay genre, later - Ilya Erenburg, Yuri Olesha, Viktor Shklovsky, Konstantin Paustovsky. Literary and critical assessments of modern critics, as a rule, are embodied in a variety of the essay genre.

IN musical art the term piece is usually used as a specific name for works of instrumental music.

Sketch(English) sketch, literally - a sketch, sketch, sketch), in the XIX - early XX centuries. a short play with two, rarely three characters. The sketch has received the greatest distribution on the stage.

In the UK, sketch comedy television shows are very popular. Similar programs began to appear in Lately and on Russian television(“Our Russia”, “Six Frames”, “Give Youth!”, “Dear Program”, “Gentleman Show”, “Town”, etc.) A striking example of a sketch show is the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.

A.P. Chekhov was a famous creator of sketches.

Comedy(Greek κωliμωδία, from Greek κῶμος, kỗmos, "feast in honor of Dionysus" and Greek. ἀοιδή / Greek ᾠδή, aoidḗ / ōidḗ, "song") - a genre of fiction, characterized by a humorous or satirical approach, as well as a type of drama in which the moment of effective conflict or struggle of antagonistic characters is specifically resolved.

Aristotle defined comedy as "imitation of the worst people, but not in all their viciousness, but in a ridiculous way" ("Poetics", ch. V).

The types of comedy include such genres as farce, vaudeville, sideshow, sketch, operetta, parody. Today, many comedy films are a model of such a primitive, built solely on external comedy, the comedy of situations into which the characters find themselves in the course of the development of the action.

Distinguish situation comedy And comedy of characters.

Sitcom (situation comedy, situation comedy) is a comedy in which events and circumstances are the source of the funny.

Comedy of characters (comedy of manners) is a comedy in which the source of the funny is the inner essence of characters (mores), funny and ugly one-sidedness, an exaggerated trait or passion (vice, flaw). Very often a comedy of manners is a satirical comedy that makes fun of all these human qualities.

Tragedy(Greek τραγωδία, tragōdía, literally - a goat song, from tragos - a goat and öde - a song), a dramatic genre based on the development of events, which, as a rule, is inevitable and necessarily leads to a catastrophic outcome for the characters, often full of pathos; a form of drama that is the opposite of comedy.

The tragedy is marked by severe seriousness, depicts reality most sharply, as a clot of internal contradictions, reveals the deepest conflicts of reality in an extremely intense and rich form, which acquires the meaning of an artistic symbol; It is no coincidence that most tragedies are written in verse.

Drama(Greek Δρα´μα) - one of the genres of literature (along with lyrics, epic, and lyre-epic). It differs from other types of literature in the way the plot is conveyed - not through narration or monologue, but through the dialogues of the characters. Any literary work built in a dialogical form, including comedy, tragedy, drama (as a genre), farce, vaudeville, etc., refers to drama in one way or another.

Since ancient times, it has existed in folklore or literary form at various peoples; independently of each other, the ancient Greeks, the ancient Indians, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Indians of America created their own dramatic traditions.

In Greek, the word "drama" reflects a sad, unpleasant event or situation of one particular person.

Fable- a poetic or prose literary work of a moralizing, satirical nature. At the end of the fable there is a brief moralizing conclusion - the so-called morality. The actors are usually animals, plants, things. In the fable, the vices of people are ridiculed.

The fable is one of the oldest literary genres. IN Ancient Greece Aesop (VI-V centuries BC) was famous for writing fables in prose. In Rome - Phaedrus (I century AD). In India, the Panchatantra collection of fables dates back to the 3rd century. The most prominent fabulist of modern times was the French poet J. Lafontaine (XVII century).

In Russia, the development of the fable genre dates back to the middle of the 18th - early 19th centuries and is associated with the names of A.P. Sumarokov, I.I. Khemnitser, A.E. Izmailov, I.I. XVIII century by A. D. Kantemir, V. K. Trediakovsky. In Russian poetry, a fable free verse is developed, conveying the intonations of a laid-back and crafty tale.

The fables of I. A. Krylov, with their realistic liveliness, sensible humor and excellent language, marked the heyday of this genre in Russia. IN Soviet time the fables of Demyan Bedny, S. Mikhalkov and others gained popularity.

There are two theories about the origin of the fable. The first is represented by the German school of Otto Crusius, A. Hausrath, and others, the second by the American scientist B. E. Perry. According to the first concept, the story is primary in the fable, and morality is secondary; the fable comes from the animal tale, and the animal tale comes from the myth. According to the second concept, morality is primary in a fable; the fable is close to comparisons, proverbs and sayings; like them, the fable emerges as an aid to argumentation. The first point of view goes back to the romantic theory of Jacob Grimm, the second one revives Lessing's rationalistic concept.

Philologists of the 19th century were long occupied with the controversy about the priority of the Greek or Indian fable. Now it can be considered almost certain that the common source of the material of the Greek and Indian fables was the Sumero-Babylonian fable.

epics- Russian folk epic songs about the exploits of heroes. The basis of the epic plot is some heroic event, or a remarkable episode of Russian history (hence vernacular name epic - " antiquity”, “old lady”, implying that the action in question took place in the past).

Epics are usually written in tonic verse with two to four stresses.

The term "epics" was first introduced by Ivan Sakharov in the collection "Songs of the Russian People" in 1839, he proposed it based on the expression "according to epics" in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", which meant "according to the facts".

Ballad

Myth(ancient Greek μῦθος) in literature - a legend that conveys people's ideas about the world, man's place in it, about the origin of all things, about gods and heroes; certain idea of ​​the world.

The specificity of myths appears most clearly in primitive culture, where myths are the equivalent of science, an integral system in terms of which the whole world is perceived and described. Later, when such forms of social consciousness as art, literature, science, religion are singled out from mythology, political ideology etc., they retain a number of mythological models, which are uniquely rethought when included in new structures; myth is experiencing its second life. Of particular interest is their transformation in literary work.

Since mythology masters reality in the forms of figurative narration, it is close in its essence to fiction; historically, it anticipated many possibilities of literature and had a comprehensive influence on its early development. Naturally, literature does not part with mythological foundations even later, which applies not only to works with mythological foundations of the plot, but also to realistic and naturalistic life writing of the 19th and 20th centuries (suffice it to name “Oliver Twist” by C. Dickens, “Nana” by E. Zola, “ magic mountain» T. Mann).

Novella(Italian novella - news) - a narrative prose genre, which is characterized by brevity, a sharp plot, a neutral style of presentation, a lack of psychologism, and an unexpected denouement. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for a story, sometimes it is called a kind of story.

Tale- a prose genre of unstable volume (mainly an average between a novel and a short story), gravitating towards a chronicle plot that reproduces the natural course of life. The plot, devoid of intrigue, is centered around the protagonist, whose personality and fate are revealed within a few events.

The story is an epic prose genre. The plot of the story tends to be more epic and chronicle plot and composition. Possible verse form. The story depicts a series of events. It is amorphous, events often simply join each other, and extra-fabule elements play a large independent role. It does not have a complex, tense and complete plot knot.

Story- a small form of epic prose, correlated with the story as a more detailed form of narration. Goes back to folklore genres(fairy tale, parable); how the genre became isolated in written literature; often indistinguishable from the novel, and from the 18th century. - and an essay. Sometimes the short story and the essay are considered as polar varieties of the story.

A story is a work of small volume, containing a small number of characters, and also, most often, having one storyline.

Fairy tale: 1) a kind of narrative, mostly prose folklore ( fabulous prose), which includes works of different genres, in the content of which, from the point of view of folklore carriers, there is no strict reliability. Fairy-tale folklore is opposed to "rigorous" folklore narrative ( fairy tale prose) (see myth, epic, historical song, spiritual poems, legend, demonological stories, tale, blasphemer, tradition, bylichka).

2) genre of literary narration. A literary fairy tale either imitates a folklore one ( a literary tale written in folk poetic style), or creates a didactic work (see didactic literature) based on non-folklore stories. The folk tale historically precedes the literary one.

Word " fairy tale” is attested in written sources no earlier than the 16th century. From the word " say". It mattered: a list, a list, an exact description. It acquires modern significance from the 17th-19th centuries. Previously, the word fable was used, until the 11th century - blasphemer.

The word "fairy tale" suggests that they learn about it, "what it is" and find out "what" it, a fairy tale, is needed for. A fairy tale with a purpose is needed for the subconscious or conscious teaching of a child in the family the rules and purpose of life, the need to protect their "area" and a worthy attitude towards other communities. It is noteworthy that both the saga and the fairy tale carry a colossal informational component, passed down from generation to generation, faith in which is based on respect for one's ancestors.

There are different types fairy tales.

fantasy(from English. fantasy- "fantasy") - a type of fantastic literature based on the use of mythological and fairy tale motifs. IN modern form formed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Fantasy works most often resemble a historical adventure novel, which takes place in fictional world, close to the real Middle Ages, whose heroes are faced with supernatural phenomena and creatures. Often fantasy is built on the basis of archetypal plots.

Unlike science fiction, fantasy does not seek to explain the world in which the work takes place in terms of science. This world itself exists in the form of a certain assumption (most often its location relative to our reality is not specified at all: whether it is a parallel world, or another planet), and its physical laws may differ from the realities of our world. In such a world, the existence of gods, witchcraft, mythical creatures (dragons, gnomes, trolls), ghosts and any other fantastic creatures can be real. At the same time, the fundamental difference between the "miracles" of fantasy and their fairy-tale counterparts is that they are the norm of the described world and operate systematically, like the laws of nature.

Nowadays, fantasy is also a genre in cinema, painting, computer and board games. Such genre versatility is especially characteristic of Chinese fantasy with elements of martial arts.

epic(from epic and Greek poieo - I create)

1. An extensive narrative in verse or prose about outstanding national historical events ("Iliad", "Mahabharata"). The roots of the epic in mythology and folklore. In the 19th century an epic novel appears (“War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy)
2. A complex, long history of something, including a number of major events.

Oh yeah- poetic, as well as musical and poetic work, distinguished by solemnity and sublimity.

Originally in ancient Greece, any form of poetic lyrics intended to accompany music was called an ode, including choral singing. Since the time of Pindar, an ode has been a choral epinic song in honor of the winner in the sports competitions of the sacred games with a three-part composition and underlined solemnity and grandiloquence.

In Roman literature, the most famous are the odes of Horace, who used the dimensions of the Aeolian lyric poetry, primarily the Alcaean stanza, adapting them to the Latin language, the collection of these works in Latin is called Carmina - songs, they began to be called odes later.

Since the Renaissance and in the Baroque era (XVI-XVII centuries), odes began to be called lyric works in a pathetically high style, focusing on antique samples, in classicism the ode became the canonical genre of high lyrics.

Elegy(Greek ελεγεια) - a genre of lyric poetry; in early ancient poetry, a poem written in elegiac distich, regardless of content; later (Callimach, Ovid) - a poem of sad content. In the new European poetry, the elegy retains stable features: intimacy, motives of disappointment, unhappy love, loneliness, the frailty of earthly existence, determines the rhetoric in the depiction of emotions; classical genre sentimentalism and romanticism ("Recognition" by E. Baratynsky).

A poem with the character of thoughtful sadness. In this sense, it can be said that most of Russian poetry is tuned to an elegiac mood, at least up to the poetry of modern times. This, of course, does not deny that in Russian poetry there are excellent poems of a different, non-elegiac mood. Initially, in ancient Greek poetry, e. meant a poem written in a stanza of a certain size, namely, a couplet - a hexameter-pentameter. Having a general character lyrical reflection , E. among the ancient Greeks was very diverse in content, for example, sad and accusatory in Archilochus and Simonides, philosophical in Solon or Theognis, militant in Callinus and Tyrtheus, political in Mimnerm. One of the best Greek authors E. - Callimachus. Among the Romans, E. became more definite in character, but also freer in form. The significance of amorous E. has greatly increased. The famous Roman authors of E. - Propertius, Tibull, Ovid, Catullus (they were translated by Fet, Batyushkov, and others). Subsequently, there was, perhaps, only one period in the development of European literature, when the word E. began to mean poems with a more or less stable form. And it began under the influence of the famous elegy of the English poet Thomas Gray, written in 1750 and caused numerous imitations and translations in almost all European languages. The revolution produced by this E. is defined as the onset in literature of the period of sentimentalism, which replaced false classicism. In essence, this was the inclination of poetry from rational mastery in once established forms to the true sources of inner artistic experiences. In Russian poetry, Zhukovsky's translation of Gray's elegy ("Rural Cemetery"; 1802) definitely marked the beginning of a new era that finally went beyond rhetoric and turned to sincerity, intimacy and depth. This inner change was also reflected in the new methods of versification introduced by Zhukovsky, who is thus the founder of the new Russian sentimental poetry and one of its great representatives. In the general spirit and form of Gray's elegy, i.e. in the form of large poems filled with mournful reflection, such poems by Zhukovsky were written, which he himself called elegies, such as “Evening”, “Slavyanka”, “On the death of Kor. Wirtembergskaya". His “Theon and Aeschylus” are also considered elegies (more precisely, this is an elegy-ballad). Zhukovsky called his poem "The Sea" an elegy. In the first half of the XIX century. it was common to give their poems the names of elegies, especially Batyushkov, Boratynsky, Yazykov, and others called their works elegies; subsequently, however, it fell out of fashion. Nevertheless, many poems of Russian poets are imbued with an elegiac tone. And in world poetry there is hardly an author who does not have elegiac poems. Goethe's Roman Elegies are famous in German poetry. Elegies are Schiller's poems: "Ideals" (translated by Zhukovsky's "Dreams"), "Resignation", "Walk". Much belongs to elegies in Mathisson (Batyushkov translated it "On the ruins of castles in Sweden"), Heine, Lenau, Herweg, Platen, Freiligrath, Schlegel and many others. others. The French wrote elegies: Milvois, Debord-Valmor, Kaz. Delavigne, A. Chenier (M. Chenier, the brother of the previous one, translated Gray's elegy), Lamartine, A. Musset, Hugo, and others. In English poetry, apart from Gray, there are Spencer, Jung, Sydney, later Shelley and Byron. In Italy, the main representatives of elegiac poetry are Alamanni, Castaldi, Filican, Guarini, Pindemonte. In Spain: Boscan Almogaver, Gars de les Vega. In Portugal - Camões, Ferreira, Rodrigue Lobo, de Miranda.

Before Zhukovsky, attempts to write elegies in Russia were made by such authors as Pavel Fonvizin, the author of Darling Bogdanovich, Ablesimov, Naryshkin, Nartov and others.

Epigram(Greek επίγραμμα "inscription") - a small satirical poem ridiculing a person or social phenomenon.

Ballad- a lyrical epic work, that is, a story presented in a poetic form, historical, mythical or heroic character. The plot of the ballad is usually borrowed from folklore. Ballads are often set to music.

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Genres of literature

Literary genres- historically emerging groups of literary works, united by a set of formal and content properties (in contrast to literary forms, the selection of which is based only on formal features). The term is often incorrectly identified with the term "type of literature".

The genera, types and genres of literature do not exist as something immutable, given from the ages and eternally existing. They are born, theoretically realized, historically developed, modified, dominated, faded away or retreated to the periphery, depending on the evolution of artistic thinking as such. The most stable, fundamental is, of course, the extremely general concept of “genus”, the most dynamic and changeable is the much more specific concept of “genre”.

The first attempts at a theoretical substantiation of the genus make themselves felt in the ancient doctrine of mimesis (imitation). Plato in The Republic, and then Aristotle in Poetics, came to the conclusion that poetry is of three kinds, depending on what, how and by what means it imitates. In other words, the generic division of fiction is based on the subject, means and methods of imitation.

Separate remarks about the ways of organizing artistic time and space (chronotope), scattered in Poetics, form the prerequisites for further division into types and genres of literature.

Aristotle's idea of ​​generic characteristics is traditionally called formal. His successors are representatives of German aesthetics of the 18th-19th centuries. Goethe, Schiller, Aug. Schlegel, Schelling. Approximately at the same time, the principles of the opposite - a meaningful approach to the generic division of fiction were laid. It was initiated by Hegel, who proceeded from the epistemological principle: the object of artistic knowledge in the epic is the object, in the lyrics - the subject, in the drama - their synthesis. Accordingly, the content of the epic work is being in its entirety, dominating the will of people, therefore the event plan prevails in it; the content of the lyrical work is the state of mind, the mood of the lyrical hero, therefore the eventfulness in it recedes into the background; the content of a dramatic work is striving for a goal, a person's volitional activity, manifested in action.

Derived from the category of the genus, or rather, clarifying, concretizing its concepts are the concepts of "species" and "genre". By tradition, we call species stable structural formations within a literary genus, grouping even smaller genre modifications. For example, the epic consists of small, medium and large species such as short story, essay, short story, story, novel, poem, epic. However, they are often called genres that, in a strict terminological sense, specify species either in a historical, or in a thematic, or in a structural aspect: an ancient novel, a Renaissance short story, a psychological or production essay or novel, a lyrical story, an epic story (“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov). Some structural forms combine specific and genre features, i.e. types of genre varieties do not have (such, for example, are the types and at the same time the genres of the medieval theater soti and moralite). However, along with the synonymous word usage, the hierarchical differentiation of both terms is relevant. Accordingly, the types are divided into genres according to a number of different characteristics: thematic, stylistic, structural, volume, in relation to the aesthetic ideal, reality or fiction, the main aesthetic categories, etc.

Genres of literature

Comedy- type of dramatic work. Displays everything ugly and ridiculous, funny and awkward, ridicules the vices of society.

Lyric poem (in prose)- a type of fiction, emotionally and poetically expressing the feelings of the author.

Melodrama- a type of drama, the characters of which are sharply divided into positive and negative.

fantasy subgenre of fantasy literature. The works of this subgenre are written in an epic fairy-tale manner, using the motifs of ancient myths and legends. The plot is usually based on magic, heroic adventures and travel; the plot usually contains magical creatures; The action takes place in a fairy tale world reminiscent of the Middle Ages.

Feature article- the most reliable type of narrative, epic literature, displaying facts from real life.

Song or song- the most ancient type of lyric poetry; a poem consisting of several verses and a chorus. Songs are divided into folk, heroic, historical, lyrical, etc.

Tale- medium form; a work that highlights a series of events in the life of the protagonist.

Poem- type of lyrical epic work; poetic storytelling.

Story- a small form, a work about one event in the life of a character.

Novel- large form; a work, in the events of which many characters usually take part, whose fates are intertwined. Novels are philosophical, adventure, historical, family and social.

Tragedy- a type of dramatic work that tells about the unfortunate fate of the protagonist, often doomed to death.

Utopia- genre of fiction, close to science fiction describing the model of an ideal, from the point of view of the author, society. In contrast to dystopia, it is characterized by the author's belief in the impeccability of the model.

epic- a work or a cycle of works depicting a significant historical epoch or a great historical event.

Drama- (in the narrow sense) one of the leading genres of dramaturgy; a literary work written in the form of a dialogue of characters. Designed to be performed on stage. Focused on spectacular expression. The relationship of people, the conflicts that arise between them are revealed through the actions of the characters and are embodied in a monologue-dialogical form. Unlike tragedy, drama does not end in catharsis.