Types (genres) of literature. Main epic genres What is epic literature

Epos as a kind of literature.

The term "epos" inherited from antiquity, going back to the ancient Greek word "epos" (literally, word, narration, story), means literary gender, recreating an objective picture of the world that exists quite independently of the narrator.

The eventfulness inherent in epic works makes them prone to plot. The epic has certain advantages over lyrics and drama, having complete freedom in organizing artistic time and space and having a universal arsenal of means not only for the objective depiction of reality, but also for the subjective expression of the consciousness of the author and characters. In other words, the epic has a unique ability to absorb elements of both lyrics and drama, adapting them into the overall narrative structure.

The specificity of epic imitation, according to Aristotle, is that the poet talks about the event in a detached way, as about something external, separate from himself.

An epic work, not limited by either volume or regulated speech structure, includes digressions, and dramatic forms of monologue, dialogue and polylogue. The narrative in the epic usually comes either from the author-narrator, or from the hero-narrator, or without personalization, as if from the face of truth itself, the author of the all-seeing and all-knowing, or, finally, from a generalized representative of a certain society, behind whose speech mask the writer hides his the true face, as a result of which the method of narration serves not only as a means, but also as the subject of the image.

The complete freedom of the epic work in the organization of the chronotope, the expression of the author's consciousness, thoughts and feelings of the characters, the flexible variety of ways of narration, the universal range of visual and expressive means, the absence of strict regulation in their use, together provide him with inexhaustible possibilities in the implementation of the cognitive function.

Like any kind of literature or oral folk poetry, the epic is divided into types, which, in turn, are divided into genres. The leading type of oral folk art is a fairy tale. It is based on storytelling with a fantasy setting. This type of folklore epic is represented by fairy tales about animals, magical, adventurous, everyday, boring, fairy tales, etc.

If in a fairy tale a fantastic element is perceived as a conditional fiction, then in traditions and legends (from the Latin legenda - what should be read) it is the very essence of their creation and functioning and is completely sincerely experienced as a reality, supernatural, amazing, but all- still a reality. Tradition is a legendary tale based on the recollection of genuine historical events, transformed by folk fantasy. Traditions for the most part served as material for the poems of the heroic epic.

The concept of "heroic epic" appears both in folklore and in literary criticism. On the one hand, it is a work or a collection of works oral art people, reflecting a holistic picture of its historical existence, mainly in the early stages of development.

The genre forms of the epic poem are extremely diverse. Its most monumental form is the epic (from the Greek epos + poieo - narration, story + I create) - it depicts nationally significant events of a mythological, historical and (or) legendary nature, deeply embedded in folk memory and transformed by folk fantasy. Later, the folk epic was replaced by the author's literary epic: "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, " Quiet Don» Sholokhov. In the last two cases, however, it is more logical to speak of an epic novel.

Among the literary forms of the epic, a novel stands out - this is a large epic form, usually with a branched plot, a story about the fate of one or more heroes. The term "novel" originated in the Middle Ages and originally meant any work written in one or another national language. Romance(and not in learned Latin).

Of course, while evolving, the term "novel" has significantly narrowed its original scope, retaining only in part for the concept it denotes its original properties.

A certain competition to the novel in the epic kind of literature can be made only by a story, a short story and a short story, connected together into an integral systemic unity.

The concept of "story" appears in at least two of its main meanings. IN ancient Russian literature a story was a work that objectively, without obvious rhetorical tricks, describes something that actually happened (for example, The Tale of Bygone Years). At present, the story is an average epic form, where the action passes through several similar plot situations, presented by some directly or indirectly personified narrator. The story is inferior to the novel in a holistic depiction of reality; the organizing center in it usually becomes the narration itself or the perception of the author's intermediary.

But the story also coexists with epic types of small form - a story and a short story, in which the action is limited to one conflict situation. Small volume, of course, affects structural features of both types: the mean concentration of the landscape, exterior and interior, portrait characteristics, the minimized number of characters, the ascetic unfolding of the event plan, the increased severity of the conflict, the emphasized dynamism in the development of the plot, the emphasis on the climax and the forced role of the artistic detail.

How is a short story different from a novel? In view of the exceptional diversity of their real national and historical forms answering this question is not easy. The etymology of the terms themselves sheds some light on the problem. Italian in origin, the word "novella" (novella - letters, news) appeared in the Renaissance to refer to popular prose works, characterized by extreme brevity, rapid paradoxical development of plot twists and turns and an unexpected ending. Initially, it was an imitation of an oral live story, reminiscent of an anecdote in its structure.

Another thing is the story. This is a small epic form that arose at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the main structure-forming element of which was the storytelling situation. As a rule, this is a story told by someone in a suitable situation, and subsequently just a free narrative, reminiscent of the first reference samples. For a long time, the story had no restrictions in volume and, in fact, did not differ in any way from the story or even the novel (the main thing is that there should be a storytelling situation).

The essay occupies its definite place - a kind of small epic form, based on real life material and gravitating towards journalism. There are documentary, journalistic, and artistic essays.

To small epic form didactic literature includes a fable - short story allegorical nature, genetically ascending to fairy tales about animals, also related to anecdotes, proverbs, sayings. The characteristic features of the fable construction are two-part structure: the narrative usually ends or opens with a “morality” (moral conclusion, teaching) and structural ambivalence (both prose and poetic fables have existed since ancient times).

epic

An epic (from epic and Greek poieo - I create) is an extensive work of art in verse or prose that tells about significant historical events. Usually describes a series of major events within a particular historical era. Initially, it was aimed at describing heroic events.

Widely known epics: "Iliad", "Mahabharata".

Novel

A novel is a large narrative work of art, in the events of which many characters usually take part (their fates are intertwined).

A novel can be philosophical, historical, adventure, family, social, adventurous, fantastic, etc. There is also an epic novel that describes the fate of people in critical historical eras (“War and Peace”, “Quiet Flows the Don”, “Gone with the Wind”).

A novel can be both in prose and in verse, contain several storylines, include works of small genres (story, fable, poem, etc.).

The novel is characterized by the formulation of socially significant problems, psychologism, disclosure through conflicts inner world person.

Periodically, the genre of the novel is predicted to decline, but its wide possibilities in reflecting reality and human nature allow it to have its attentive reader in the next new times.

Many books and scientific works are devoted to the principles of construction and creation of the novel.

Tale

The story is a work of art that occupies a middle position between a novel and a story in terms of the volume and complexity of the plot, built in the form of a narrative about the events of the protagonist in their natural sequence. As a rule, the story does not pretend to pose global problems.

Widely known stories: "The Overcoat" by N. Gogol, "The Steppe" by A. Chekhov, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by A. Solzhenitsyn.

Story

A story is a short work of art with a limited number of characters and events. There can be only one episode from the life of one character in a story.

The short story and the novella are the genres with which they usually begin their literary creativity young writers.

Novella

A short story, like a story, is a small work of art, which is characterized by brevity, lack of descriptiveness, and an unexpected denouement.

The novels by J. Boccaccio, Pr. Merimee, S. Maugham.

Vision

A vision is a narrative of events revealed in a (supposedly) dream, hallucination, or lethargic dream. This genre is characteristic of medieval literature, but is still used today, usually in satirical and fantastic works.

Fable

A fable (from "bait" - to tell) is a small work of art in a poetic form of a moralizing or satirical nature. At the end of the fable, there is usually a brief moralizing conclusion (the so-called morality).

In the fable, the vices of people are ridiculed. In this case, the actors, as a rule, are animals, plants or various things.

Parable

A parable, like a fable, contains moral teaching in allegorical form. However, the parable chooses people as heroes. It is also presented in prose form.

Perhaps the most famous parable is the Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke.

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a work of fiction about fictional events and heroes, in which magical, fantastic forces appear. Fairy tale is a form of education for children correct behavior compliance with societal norms. It also transmits important information for humanity from generation to generation.

The modern kind of fairy tale - fantasy - is a kind of historical adventure novel, the action of which takes place in a fictional world close to the real one.

Joke

An anecdote (fr. anecdote - a tale, a fable) is a small prose form, characterized by conciseness, unexpected, absurd and funny denouement. A joke is a play on words.

Although many anecdotes have specific a second ones, as a rule, their names are forgotten or initially remain “behind the curtain”.

A collection of literary anecdotes about the writers N. Dobrokhotova and Vl. Pyatnitsky, erroneously attributed to D. Kharms.

More detailed information on this topic can be found in the books of A. Nazaikin

Genres constitute a certain system due to the fact that they are generated by a common set of causes, and also because they interact, support each other's existence and at the same time compete with each other.

Main epic genres:

Epic (epic poem) - an extensive narrative in verse or prose about outstanding national historical events. epic poem, epic, song it is customary to name the predominant variety of the folk epic that arose in the early pre-literary stages of literature (see, for example, The Song of Roland, The Song of Side). The epic depicted the most significant (according to Hegel - "substantial") events and collisions of life: either the clashes of the forces of nature, mythologically realized by folk fantasy, or the military clashes of tribes and peoples. Ancient and medieval epics in form were large poetic works that arose either by combining relatively short mythological and epic tales, or by unfolding (growth) of the central event (compare, for example, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey).

Fairy tale- one of the main genres of oral folk poetry, an epic, mostly prose work of magical, adventurous or everyday nature with a fantasy setting. From other types of oral prose or works in which fiction plays a significant role, a fairy tale. differs in that the storyteller presents it, and the listeners perceive it primarily as a poetic fiction, a play of fantasy. literary tale- this is no longer a product of folk art, but a work of a specific author who uses figurative and motive archetypes in his narrative folk tale(“The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by A.S. Pushkin) or creating new model, based on certain fabulous tricks-functions (according to V.Ya. Propp). Compare, for example, the technique of "miraculous transformation" in M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "The Wild Landowner".

Novel – epic work large form, in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual in its external and internal collisions with the environment, on the formation of its self-awareness and character. The novel is the epic of modern times. Unlike the folk epic, where the individual and the folk soul are inseparable, the novel historically arises and develops when conditions begin to develop for the moral freedom of an individual, for the development of his self-consciousness and self-affirmation, for his ideological and moral denial of old universally significant norms. The life of the individual and the life of society appear in the novel as relatively independent, but, as a rule, opposing principles. A typical novel situation is a clash in the hero of the moral and human (personal) with natural and social necessity. Since the novel develops in modern times, where the nature of the relationship between man and society is constantly changing, insofar as its form is essentially “open”: the main situation is each time filled with concrete historical content and is embodied in various genrevarieties(picaresque, socially-domestic, historical, adventure novel, etc.).

The heyday of the novel, namely his socio-psychological variety occurs in the era of realism. Showing the formation of the characters' characters in complex conflict interactions, many realist writers traced both the formation and change of these characters in certain national-historical conditions and therefore covered very wide areas of public life of the depicted eras and countries - their civil, spiritual, domestic relations and customs. ("Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, "Father Goriot" by Balzac, "Hard Times" by Dickens). Such novels were often branched, multi-linear in plot and monumental in volume (“Lost Illusions” by Balzac, “ cold house" Dickens, "Anna Karenina" L.N. Tolstoy, The Brothers Karamazov by F.M. Dostoevsky), and sometimes even combined into cycles (“ human comedy» Balzac).

epic novel– narrative genre connecting genre settings epics with her interest in the formation of society - in events and goodies national historical significance, and genre settings novel aimed at embodying the formation of the character of an individual in its own life and in its internal contradictions and external clashes with the world (cf.: “War and Peace” by L.N. Toltoy, “Quiet Flows the Don” by M.A. Sholokhov).

Tale- a medium-sized narrative genre that occupies a middle position between the novel and the short story. It differs from the novel in less completeness and breadth of pictures of everyday life, customs, etc., and differs from the story in greater complexity. In the historical and literary tradition, the term story, mainly applied to works of Russian literature. Initially, in the history of ancient Russian literature, this term was used to refer to prose works that did not have a pronounced expressiveness of artistic speech (“The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu”). But in the 18th century, when the term novel, story began to be called an epic work of a smaller volume. V.G. Belinsky gives this distinction a general definition: he calls story"a fragmented ... novel," a chapter torn from a novel. Gradually, a stable theoretical idea was formed: story- a small form of epic prose, story- its average form, novel- big. It still prevails to this day.

Story- a small epic (usually prose) work depicting some episode or a series of episodes from the life of one hero (or several heroes). The story as a literary genre arose at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, in contrast to the short story, it is not the plot that is brought to the fore, but the verbal texture of the narration itself, which implies the presence of detailed characteristics, often refracted through the perception of the narrator-narrator, an increase in the proportion of details in the artistic space of the work, the presence of leitmotifs, etc.

Novella- a small narrative genre, comparable in volume to the story (which sometimes gives rise to their identification), but differing from it in genesis, history and structure. The novel is based on an unusual event, an unexpected event or an "unheard of incident" (Goethe). "Cultivating" the case, the short story reveals to the utmost the core of the plot - the central vicissitudes, reduces life material into the focus of one event. Unlike the story, the short story is the art of the plot in its purest form, developed in ancient times and addressed primarily to the active side of human existence (S. Sierotvensky). The novelistic plot, built on situational antitheses and abrupt transitions between them, usually ends with an unexpected denouement.

Feature article- a small narrative genre, close in volume and formal content structure to the story. However, a specific genre feature of the essay is documentary. The focus of the essay writer is on the issues of the civil and moral state of the "environment" (usually embodied in specific individuals and situations), that is, the problems of "moral descriptive" (G.N. Pospelov). The heyday of essay writing in history national literature arises when in society, in connection with the crisis public relations or with the emergence of a new way of life, "moral-descriptive" interests sharply increase. Essay literature usually combines features fiction and journalism.

Main lyric genres:

Oh yeah - genre of lyric poetry target installation of glorification, praise of socially significant personalities and events. It is written, as a rule, on a certain solemn occasion (victory in a war, accession to the throne of a ruler, etc.), hence the rhetorical and pathetic nature of its stylistic embodiment. Oda, unlike madrigal(complimentary poem addressed to a private person), its task is not just to glorify the mighty of the world this, but the assertion of certain public values, the embodiment of which is the glorified object. The author interprets it as a kind of social ideal, which is the guarantor of a fair world order, reasonable social laws, forward movement of history. Hence the element of edification in the picture of lyrical experience. Therefore, the ode is not so much complimentary as didactic. It is no coincidence that the ode flourished in the era of classicism (the most striking examples of the genre are “Ode on the day of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna” by M.V. Lomonosov; “Felitsa” by G.R. Derzhavin). In the case when the odic object is metaphysical principles (or abstract concepts), the ode acquires an extra-social, philosophical character(ode "God", "On the death of Prince Meshchersky" by G.R. Derzhavin).

Target installation for praise is close to the ode and hymn, however hymn is addressed not to a specific person, but to a certain personified transpersonal force (god, providence, state). The hymn differs from the ode also in its functional setting, namely, in the setting for singing. There are the following types of anthem - state, revolutionary, military, religious.

Message- This poetic work, designed for a well-defined real addressee (single or collective), indicated in the text of the poem itself, having as an installation an “interview” with the addressee on one or another topic relevant to the author (the subject of the conversation can be the relationship of correspondents, their life and creative views, philosophical, aesthetic, socio-political problems).

The addressee of the message can be given directly (explicitly) - in the title, in a nominal address, as well as indirectly (implicitly). In the second case, an indication of it is contained in the very artistic structure of the work and is revealed through appeals, questions, appeals, requests, etc., as well as through the intended acquaintance of the addressee with the unique and peculiar; the situation depicted in the poem.

Correspondence of correspondents creates that dialogicity that introduces a certain objectifying principle into the sphere of lyrical experience - an indication of another person and possible factors of everyday life, literary practice, social position, attitude associated with it. With any degree of poetic conventionality (primarily the conventionality of the roles attributed in the artistic system of the work to the author and addressee), this genre opens a direct exit into the sphere of topical life (and sometimes momentary) interests, being elevated to the level of art epistolary contact of one real person with another on issues that are essential for both.

The message as a genre is determined precisely by the setting for a dialogue with the addressee. This is its typology and difference from other related genres, which also allow specific addressing, but have their own prevalent purpose, which characterizes them as a genre. The heyday of the epistle genre is observed in the era of romanticism (cf.: “To the partisan-poet” by P. Vyazemsky; “From a letter to Gnedich”, “Yazikov”, “To Chaadaev” by A. Pushkin).

elegy ( from the Greek elegeia - mournful song ) - a genre of lyric poetry, a poem of sad content. In modern European and Russian poetry, it is based on introspective attitudes that define a complex of such stable features as intimacy, motives of disappointment, unhappy love, loneliness, death, and the frailty of earthly existence. The classical genre of sentimentalism and romanticism (cf.: "Elegy" by A.S. Pushkin).

Idyll(from Greek eidýllion) - in ancient literature genre of pastoral (shepherd's) poetry, which was characterized by an interest in Everyday life ordinary people, to intimate feelings, nature; the depiction is deliberately artless and emphatically non-social. In the literature of sentimentalism and romanticism, a small poem depicting a peaceful life in unity with nature, while the main attention is paid to internal state author or character.

Epigram- a satirical or philosophical-meditative poem “in case”, the distinctive features of which are determined by its genesis (the original meaning of the epigram is an inscription on something), which determines the laconic presentation, aphorism and contextual conditionality of the picture of experience by an epigrammatic object (cf. the epigram of A.S. Pushkin on Count Vorontsov: "Half-my lord, half-merchant ..." or Akhmatova's epigram "Could Bice create like Dante ...").

Genetically close to the epigram genre inscription(cf.: “The inscription on the book” by A. Akhmatova; “To the portrait of A.A. Blok”, “To the portrait of Dostoevsky” by In. Annensky) and epitaph(epitaph). Compare: "Poems in memory of A. Bely".

Song- originally folk genre, which in its broadest sense includes everything that is sung, subject to the simultaneous combination of the word and the tune; in a narrow sense - a small poetic lyrical genre that exists among all peoples and is characterized by the simplicity of musical and verbal construction, due to the author's setting for performance to music.

Sonnet- a small (14-line) lyrical poem, consisting of two quatrains (quatrains) for two rhymes and two three-verses (tercetes) for three rhymes. A sonnet with the indicated strophic organization is usually called an “Italian” sonnet (there are 2 types of rhyme arrangement most common in it: quatrains according to the abab abab or abba abba scheme, tercetes according to the cdc dcd or cdc cde scheme). The “Shakespearean” sonnet, consisting of three quatrains and a final couplet (abab cdcd efef gg), also became widespread. The clear internal division of the sonnet makes it possible to emphasize the dialectical development of the theme: already early theorists provided for “rules” not only for the form, but also for the content of the sonnet (pauses, dots on the boundaries of stanzas; not a single meaningful word does not repeat; the last word is the semantic key of the whole poem, etc.); in modern times, the deployment of the theme in 4 stanzas of the sonnet was more than once interpreted as the sequence “thesis - development of the thesis - antithesis - synthesis”, “outset - development - climax - denouement”, etc.

Ballad- a lyrical epic work, the plot of which is borrowed from folk or historical legends. In medieval England, a ballad is a folk story song of dramatic content with a chorus, usually to historical, legendary or fantasy theme(for example, a cycle of ballads about Robin Hood). The ballad, close to the English and Scottish folk ballad, became a favorite genre of sentimentalism and especially romantic poetry (R. Burns, S. Coleridge, W. Blake - in England, G. Burger, F. Schiller, G. Heine - in Germany). Introduced into Russian literature by V. Zhukovsky ("Lyudmila", altered from "Lenora" by Burger, "Svetlana"). Ballads were written by A.S. Pushkin (“The Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, “The Bridegroom”), M.Yu. Lermontov ("Airship"), A.K. Tolstoy (mainly on the topics of Russian history). Soviet poets N.S. Tikhonov, E.G. Bagritsky are the authors of ballads with heroic themes.

The same term in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was also used to designate a purely lyrical genre, the formal feature of which was the specific design of the finale in the form of a so-called “premise” addressed to a conditional or real addressee and the presence of a refrain (repeating the last line of each stanza and “premise” ). (cf. "The Ballad of the Ladies of the Past" by F. Villon).

Poem is a work in verse Bronze Horseman» A.S. Pushkin, "Mtsyri" M.Yu. Lermontov, "Vasily Terkin" by A.T. Tvardovsky), which occupies an intermediate position between epic And lyrics. In the lyrical-epic poem, the eventful plot, often unfolding in wanderings, appears as the result of the author's experience, while in Dead Souls, prosaic life situations and satirical portraits of skysweepers are in the foreground.

Main dramatic genres:

Tragedy- a genre of drama imbued with pathos tragic(see the definition of tragic pathos in the next section). The tragedy is based on acute socio-historical conflicts, collisions of a person with fate, fate, history, etc., expressed in a tense form of struggle between strong characters and passions. A tragic conflict usually touches upon the fundamental problems of human existence and is resolved by the death of the protagonist (cf.: "Hippolytus" by Euripides, "Hamlet", "Macbeth" by V. Shakespeare; "Boris Godunov" by A. Pushkin).

Comedy – genre of drama comic pathos (see the definition of comic pathos in the next section). For a long time, K. meant a work, a polar tragedy, with an obligatory happy ending. In many poetics, up to classicism (N. Boileau), comedy was defined as a "lower" genre. The subject of the comedy is “improper”, contrary to the social ideal or norm. The denunciation of social and human vices is the goal of comedy. First of all, the comedian wraps the "improper" in ridiculous forms: the heroes of the comedy are internally untenable, inconsistent, do not correspond to their position, purpose (author's ideal), due to which they are depicted in a reduced, ridiculously caricatured form, recreated with the help of satirical tricks ( types of comic), such as irony, sarcasm, parody, hyperbole, grotesque, farce etc. Spiritual failure, "viciousness" put the comic hero below the surrounding reality, plunging him into a "ghostly life" (Hegel); her, as an "anti-ideal", as opposed to true social and human values, and exposes laughter, thereby fulfilling its "ideal", health-improving mission.

According to the principle of organizing a comic action, they distinguish comedyprovisions based on a cunning, intricate intrigue (“Much Ado About Nothing” by W. Shakespeare); comedycharacters or mores, based on the ridicule of individual hypertrophied human qualities or social vices (“Tartuffe” by J.-B. Moliere; “Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboedov); comedy of ideas ridiculing outdated or banal ideas (“Pygmalion” by B. Shaw). Comedy genre modification based on character differences comic, depending on which satirical, humorous comedy and tragicomedies.

Drama- one of the leading genres of dramaturgy, since the Enlightenment. It reproduces the private life of a person (in social, psychological, family and household, and other aspects) in acutely conflicting, but unlike tragedies, not hopeless relations with society or with oneself (cf .: “Thunderstorm” by N.A. Ostorvsky; “ At the bottom" by M. Gorky).

One of the common types of drama is melodrama, which can be defined as a play with sharp intrigue, sharp opposition good and evil, exaggerated emotionality (cf .: “Guilty without guilt” by N.A. Ostrovsky).

Symbiotic genre is lyrical drama, which occupies an intermediate position between the two genera - lyrics And drama(cf .: "The Stranger" by A. Blok; "Phaedra" by M. Tsvetaeva).

Control questions and tasks

What is a genre? What is the relationship between genre and gender?

What epic genres do you know? State their main features.

What are the characteristic genre features of tragedy, comedy, drama?

What are the characteristic genre features of an ode, an elegy, a message?

Topic 5. Literary work in the content aspect

Content of a work of art- this is a set of meanings, expressed in a holistic system of meanings of the work. It should be noted that the concepts meaning And content sometimes used in different meanings. Meaning also stands in the same synonymic row as content, but the concept of “meaning” is wider, because content is considered to be that complex of significances that author invests in the text, and the meaning is a category that characterizes the complex of significances that is formed when perception works. Therefore, the meaning of the work can change - in the process of historical and cultural evolution, as a result of a change in the philosophical picture of the world, etc.

Idea a work (or the main idea of ​​a work) is a conceptual expression of the substantive essence of the work.

Subject works are the most essential components artistic sense, this is all that has become the subject of the author's interest, comprehension and evaluation, the sphere of artistic comprehension of the world, presented in the work by the author in accordance with his system of values. An extremely generalized formulation of a topic is called a concept. Thus, the theme is the sphere of artistic comprehension presented in the work. This is not just a world or a fragment of external or internal being, but a fragment of being, axiologically singled out, accentuated by the author - in accordance with his system of values. Artistic themes are a combination of certain principles:

ontological and anthropological universals;

Philosophical and ethical universals;

Local cultural and historical phenomena;

phenomena individual life in their self-worth;

Reflective-creative phenomena.

Problems of the work- this complex is relevant significant topics for the author, the solution of which is somehow assumed in the work.

Category ideas characterizes the content of the work in terms of its relationship to the author's worldview, it is an alloy of author's generalizations and feelings. The concept of idea can be used in two senses. Firstly, the idea is called the intelligible essence of objects, which is beyond the limits of material existence (this is the “platonic” understanding of the idea). Secondly, the idea is often associated with the sphere of subjective experience, with "personal" knowledge of being. In literature, the word idea is used in both senses. The artistic idea present in the work includes both the directed interpretation and assessment by the author of certain life phenomena and the embodiment of the philosophical view of the world in its integrity, coupled with the spiritual self-disclosure of the author. Artistic ideas differ from scientific ideas not only in that they are always emotionally colored, but also in that the generalizations of artists and writers often precede the later scientific worldview. At the same time, quite often in works of art there are ideas and truths that have long been established in social experience.

The meaningful unity of a work is unthinkable without a category pathos, which expresses the author's "axiology". Pathos- this is the author's modality, the author's emotional and evaluative perception of the subject that he describes, expressed in a certain emotional tone. This author's attitude, (openly emotionally or latently manifested in a work) is called in modern literature - author's emotionality(V.E. Khalizev), artistry mode(N. Fry, V.I. Tyupa) (from Latin modus - measure, method, image). However, in traditional literary criticism, the term pathos is used (from the Greek pathos - suffering (pathology, pathos), passion).

The types of pathos coincide, on the one hand, with the emotional mood of the author, on the other hand, with his axiological position, that is, with the author's ideas about the proper (ideal) and improper (negative). At the same time, when determining pathos, one must take into account the relationship between the hero and the world, or life situation in which the hero operates.

At the core idyllic pathos lies a harmonious and joyful perception of life. The world is arranged correctly and the hero is in harmony With the world.

Elegiac pathos suggests a sad and dull tonality of the work, caused by the internal isolation of private being. Hence the motives for the intrinsic value of the state of inner life. The state of loneliness in the world, solitude, comprehension of the secrets of being, contrition about the fleeting time, the finiteness of life, the passing of youth and the approach of death. The questioning of being about its secret. Meditative reasoning, reflection.

Tragic pathos associated with global insoluble existential-ontological contradictions. The world is arranged wrong, and the hero is a person who rebelled against the world or fate.

At the core dramatic pathos lies the idea of ​​a harmoniously arranged world in which individuals are in conflict with certain aspects of the world and with other people. Personality in this case does not oppose the world order, but another "I".

Heroic pathos- this is a type of author's emotionality associated with heroism and the glorification of human will and strength. The world is arranged correctly, but it is in danger, the whole world order is collapsing, and the hero, saving him, does not distinguish himself from the “whole world” and acts in his interests.

The following three types of pathos are based on comic or funny start. Identification of their essence and specificity involves the definition comic as an aesthetic category.

comic goes back to carnival-amateur laughter (M. Bakhtin). In the course of the development of culture, several types of comic are isolated: irony, humor, satire underlying the corresponding types of pathos. At the heart of the comic there is always a contradiction, which can manifest itself in exaggerating the size of objects (caricature), fantastic combinations (grotesque) and the convergence of distant concepts (sharpness).

Satirical pathos- this is pathos, suggesting annihilating ridicule of phenomena that seem vicious to the author. At the same time, the power of satire depends on the social significance of the position taken by the satirist and on the effectiveness of satirical methods (sarcasm, grotesque, hyperbole, farce, parody, etc.).

Humorous pathos suggests both mockery and sympathy, outwardly comic interpretation and inner involvement in what seems ridiculous. In works based on humorous pathos under the mask of the funny lurks serious attitude to the subject of laughter, which provides a more holistic display of the essence of the phenomenon.

Ironic pathos suggests laughter, which has an alienating-mocking character. At the same time, it presupposes ridicule and denial, pretended to be clothed in the form of consent and approval. This kind of pathos is based on allegory, when the true meaning of the statement is the opposite of the verbalized meaning. ironic pathos

The story is an epic genre small volume. Let's define its features and, using the example of A.P. Chekhov's story "Chameleon", consider them.

Story Features

• small volume
• Limited number of actors
• One story line, often - this is the fate of the protagonist.
• The story tells about several, but more often one, important episode from a person's life.

• Secondary and episodic characters in one way or another reveal the character of the main character, the problem associated with this main character.
• By the number of pages, the story can be voluminous, but the main thing is that all the action is subject to one problem, is connected with one hero, one storyline.
• Details play a big role in the story. Sometimes one detail is enough to understand the character of the hero.
• The story is told from one person. It can be the narrator, the hero, or the author himself.
• The stories have an apt, memorable title that already contains part of the answer to the question raised. .
• The stories were written by the authors in a certain era, so, of course, they reflect the peculiarities of the literature of a particular era. It is known that until the 19th century stories were close to short stories, in the 19th century subtext appeared in the stories, which could not have been in an earlier era.

Example.

Illustrations by Gerasimov S.V. to the story of Chekhov A.P.
"Chameleon". 1945

The story of A.P. Chekhov "Chameleon"

• Small in volume. Chekhov is generally a master of the short story.

• Main actor- police supervisor Ochumelov. All other characters help to understand the character of the main character, including the artisan Khryukin.
• The plot is built around one episode - the dog biting the finger of the goldsmith Khryukin.
• The main problem is the ridicule of servility, sycophancy, servility, the assessment of a person according to the place in society that he occupies, the lawlessness of people in power. Everything in the story is subject to the disclosure of this problem - all the changes in Ochumelov's behavior in relation to this dog - from the desire to restore order so that there are no stray dogs, to the tenderness of the dog, which, as it turned out, belonged to the general's brother.
• Detail plays an important role in the story. IN this case this is Ochumelov's overcoat, which he then takes off, then throws it over his shoulders again (at this time his attitude to the current situation changes).
• The story is told from the perspective of the author. In a small work, Chekhov managed to express his indignation, satirical, even sarcastic attitude towards the order in Russia, in which a person is valued not by his character, deeds and deeds, but by the rank he occupies.
• The name of the story - "Chameleon" - very accurately reflects the behavior of the protagonist, who changes his "color", that is, his attitude to what is happening, in connection with who owns the dog. Chameleonism as a social phenomenon is ridiculed by the author in the story.
• The story was written in 1884, during the heyday of critical realism in Russian literature of the 19th century. Therefore, the work has all the features of this method: ridiculing the vices of society, a critical reflection of reality.

Thus, using the example of A. P. Chekhov's story "Chameleon", we examined the features of this genre of literature.

A specific feature of the epic is in the organizing role of the narrative: the speaker reports about the events and their details as about something that has passed, something that is remembered, while resorting to descriptions of the actions of the heroes and their appearance, sometimes resorting to reasoning.

The epic is a work of national problems, monumental in form: "" by L. Tolstoy, "Quiet Flows the Don" by M. Shcholokhov.

An epic poem is a poetic, sometimes prose literary work, has a plot. As a rule, he sings of the glorious past of the people, his spirit, traditions, etc.: "" A. Pushkin, "" N..

A novel is a literary work in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual in the process of its formation and development. According to the novel, it is an “epos of private life”: “Oblomov” by A. Goncharov, “” I. .

The story is the "middle" genre of the epic kind of literature. It is smaller than a novel in length, but more than a short story or short story. In the novel, the basis consists in a holistic action, in the actual or psychological movement of the plot, and in the story, special attention is paid to static components - mental states, descriptions of landscapes, life, and so on: A. Pushkin "Snowstorm", A. "Steppe". It is very often difficult to distinguish between a novel and a story, in the Western literary genre The story doesn't stand out at all.

A short story is a small prose genre that can be compared with a short story in terms of volume.

But it differs from it in that the short story has a sharp centripetal plot, often paradoxical, lacks descriptiveness and compositional rigor. Poetizing the event, the short story brings the core of the plot to the forefront, reduces life material into the framework of one event: the early stories of A. Chekhov, N. Gogol.

Story - a small epic genre form literary work. Small in volume of the depicted phenomena. Has a small amount of text. It is a prose work.

lyrical genres. Ode is a genre that sings of some important historical event, person or phenomenon. This genre was especially developed in classicism: “Ode on the day of accession to the throne” by M. Lomonosov.

A song is a genre that can belong to both the epic and lyrical genres. The epic song has a plot: "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg" by A. Pushkin. The lyrical song is based on the emotional experiences of the protagonist or the author himself: Mary's song from A Feast in the Time of Plague by A. Pushkin. Elegy - genre romantic poetry, the poet’s sad reflection on life, fate, his place in this world: “The daylight» A. Pushkin Message - a genre that is not associated with a particular tradition characteristic feature is an appeal to some person: “To Chaadaev” by A. Pushkin. Sonnet - a genre that is presented in the form of a lyrical poem, characterized by strict requirements for form. The sonnet should have 14 lines. There are 2 types of sonnet:

English sonnet. Consists of three quatrains and one couplet at the end: Shakespeare's sonnets;

French sonnet. Consists of two quatrains and two tertiary lines at the end. This genre gained particular popularity in Russia in the era of symbolism: Balmont,.

An epigram is a short poem, no more than a quatrain, that ridicules or introduces in a humorous way a particular person:

"On Vorontsov" by A. Pushkin.

Satire is a more detailed poem, both in terms of volume and scale of what is depicted.

Usually ridicules social failings. Satire is characterized by civic pathos: the satires of Kantemir, “My ruddy fat-bellied mocker” by A. Pushkin.

Such a division into genres is very conditional, because, as a rule, they are rarely presented in their pure form. A poem can combine several genres at the same time: "To the Sea" by A. Pushkin combines both elegy and message.

Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy originated in ancient times. Even then, two major dramatic genres arose - tragedy and comedy. The main conflict in the tragedy was the spiritual conflict in the soul of the protagonist between conscience and duty. Tragedy is the highest kind of drama

Terrible, gloomy event, fatal denouement Antique drama had its own characteristics. The most important was the idea of ​​fate, the predetermination of fate. An important role in ancient drama belonged to the choir. He formulated the attitude of the audience to what was happening on the stage, pushed them to empathy. Through the choir, the audience was drawn into the performance and themselves were participants in the action.

Comedy was based on everyday stories and was considered a low genre. The plot was based on funny stories, misunderstandings, mistakes, comic cases. In the Middle Ages Christian church contributed to the emergence of new genres of drama - liturgical drama, mystery, miracle, morality, school drama. In the 18th century, drama was formed as a genre, melodramas, farces, and vaudevilles spread. In the era of classicism, the rules of dramaturgy were formed. The main rule is "the unity of place and time" In modern literature, the tragicomic genre is increasingly prevalent. The drama of the last century includes a lyrical beginning.

Comedy is a genre where characters, actions and situations are presented in funny forms or imbued with the comic. For a long time, comedy was considered a "low genre". Until classicism, comedy was understood as a work opposite to tragedy. In comedy, a happy ending was always assumed. Heroes, as a rule, were from the lower class. And only in the Age of Enlightenment was comedy recognized as a “middle genre” or, as they called it in another way, “petty-bourgeois drama”. In the 19th and especially in the 20th century, comedy became free and diverse genre. Comedy is primarily aimed at ridiculing the ugly. The heroes of the comedy are not internally wealthy, inconsistent, do not correspond to their position, therefore they are ridiculed, which brings them to clean water. And laughter fulfills its “ideal” mission. In such a genre as comedy, the depiction of human feelings and suffering is permissible only to a certain extent, otherwise compassion will supplant laughter and drama will appear before us.

Classicism

The name of this direction is derived from the Latin word classicus, which in Russian means exemplary. Existed in European literature and art from the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century. Features of classicism:

Aesthetics is based on the principles of rationalism (ratio - reason). Piece of art is considered from this point of view as an artificial building - created consciously, reasonably organized, logically built.

A strict hierarchy of genres has been established, which are divided into high, medium and low.

Such a classification in Russian classicism was given by M. Lomonosov.

He attributed tragedy, ode, epic to the high genre. They describe social life historical events, mythology. Heroes described in high genre must necessarily have been gods, kings, commanders. Novels, annals, lives belonged to the middle genre.

Heroes in this style could be both high-ranking people and ordinary people. The low genre included comedies, fables, satires. The heroes in them were simple people. Each genre has clear boundaries and clear formal features; no mixing of the sublime and the base, the tragic and the comic, the heroic everyday was not allowed. The main genre, of course, was tragedy. classic literature approved the principle of "unity of place, time and time".

This meant that the action must take place in one place and at one time. The duration of the action should be limited to the duration of the performance (the time the play tells about should be limited to one day). The unity of time meant that the play should reflect one intrigue, and there should not be any side effects.