Genre type of work. Literary genres of works and their definitions

A literary genre is a group of literary works that has common historical development trends and is united by a set of properties in terms of its content and form. Sometimes this term is confused with the concepts of "view" "form". To date, there is no single clear classification of genres. Literary works are subdivided according to a certain number of characteristic features.

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The history of the formation of genres

The first systematization of literary genres was presented by Aristotle in his Poetics. Thanks to this work, the impression began to emerge that the literary genre is a natural stable system that requires the author to fully comply with the principles and canons a certain genre. Over time, this led to the formation of a number of poetics, strictly prescribing to the authors exactly how they should write a tragedy, ode or comedy. Long years these requirements remained unshakable.

Decisive changes in the system of literary genres began only to late XVIII century.

At the same time, literary works aimed at artistic search, in their attempts to move as far as possible from genre divisions, gradually came to the emergence of new phenomena unique to literature.

What literary genres exist

To understand how to determine the genre of a work, you need to familiarize yourself with the existing classifications and the characteristic features of each of them.

Below is a sample table to determine the type of existing literary genres

Separation of genres by content

Classification literary trends based on content includes comedy, tragedy and drama.

Comedy is a kind of literature which provides for a humorous approach. Varieties of the comic direction are:

There is also a comedy of characters and a comedy of situations. In the first case, the source of humorous content is the internal features actors, their vices or shortcomings. In the second case, comedy is manifested in the circumstances and situations.

Tragedy - dramatic genre with the obligatory catastrophic denouement, the opposite of the comedy genre. Tragedy usually reflects the deepest conflicts and contradictions. The plot is extremely intense. In some cases, tragedies are written in verse form.

Drama is a special kind fiction , where the events that take place are transmitted not through their direct description, but through the monologues or dialogues of the characters. Drama as a literary phenomenon existed among many peoples even at the level of folklore. Initially in Greek this term meant a sad event affecting one specific person. Subsequently, the drama began to represent a wider range of works.

The most famous prose genres

Prose genres include literary works various volumes, made in prose.

Novel

The novel is a prose literary genre that implies a detailed narrative about the fate of the heroes and certain critical periods of their lives. The name of this genre originates in the XII century, when were born chivalric stories"in the vernacular Romance language" as opposed to Latin historiography. A short story was considered a plot version of the novel. IN late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, such concepts as a detective novel appeared in literature, female romance, fantasy novel.

Novella

Novella is a kind of prose genre. Her birth was served by the famous The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. Subsequently, several collections based on the Decameron model were released.

The era of romanticism introduced elements of mysticism and phantasmagorism into the genre of the short story - examples are the works of Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe. On the other hand, the works of Prosper Mérimée bore the features of realistic stories.

novella like short story with a twist became a defining genre in American literature.

The salient features of the novel are:

1. Maximum brevity.
2. Sharpness and even paradoxicality of the plot.
3. Neutrality of style.
4. Lack of descriptiveness and psychologism in the presentation.
5. An unexpected denouement, always containing an extraordinary turn of events.

Tale

The story is called prose of a relatively small volume. The plot of the story, as a rule, is in the nature of reproducing the natural events of life. Usually the story reveals the fate and personality of the hero against the backdrop of ongoing events. Classic example- “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by A.S. Pushkin.

Story

The story is called small form prose work, which originates from folklore genres - parables and fairy tales. Some Literary Specialists as a Kind of Genre consider essay, essay and short story. Usually the story is characterized by a small volume, one storyline and a small number of characters. The stories are characteristic of literary works of the 20th century.

Play

The play is called dramatic work, which is created for the purpose of subsequent theatrical production.

The structure of the play usually includes the phrases of the characters and the author's remarks describing the environment or the actions of the characters. There is always a list of characters at the beginning of a play. With brief description their appearance, age, character, etc.

The whole play is divided into large parts - acts or actions. Each action, in turn, is divided into smaller elements - scenes, episodes, pictures.

The plays of J.B. Molière ("Tartuffe", "Imaginary Sick") B. Shaw ("Wait and see"), B. Brecht. ("The Good Man from Cesuan", "The Threepenny Opera").

Description and examples of individual genres

Consider the most common and significant examples of literary genres for world culture.

Poem

A poem is a large poetic work that has a lyrical plot or describes a sequence of events. Historically, the poem was "born" from the epic

In turn, a poem can have many genre varieties:

1. Didactic.
2. Heroic.
3. Burlesque,
4. satirical.
5. Ironic.
6. Romantic.
7. Lyric-dramatic.

Initially, the leading themes for creating poems were world-historical or important religious events and themes. Virgil's Aeneid is an example of such a poem., "The Divine Comedy" by Dante, "The Liberated Jerusalem" by T. Tasso, " Lost heaven» J. Milton, Voltaire's Henriad, etc.

At the same time, it developed romantic poem- "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli, " Furious Roland» L. Ariosto. This kind of poem to a certain extent echoes the tradition of medieval chivalric romances.

Over time, moral, philosophical and social topics began to come to the fore (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov).

IN XIX-XX centuries the poem begins more and more become realistic(“Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N.A. Nekrasov, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky).

epic

An epic is usually understood as a set of works that are united common epoch, national identity, subject.

The emergence of each epic is due to certain historical circumstances. As a rule, the epic claims to be objective and reliable presentation of events.

visions

This kind of narrative genre, when the story is told from the perspective of, allegedly experiencing a dream, lethargy or hallucination.

1. Already in the era of antiquity, under the guise of real visions, fictional events began to be described in the form of visions. The authors of the first visions were Cicero, Plutarch, Plato.
2. In the Middle Ages, the genre began to gain momentum in popularity, reaching its heights with Dante in his Divine Comedy, which in its form represents an expanded vision.
3. For some time, visions were an integral part of the church literature of most European countries. The editors of such visions have always been representatives of the clergy, thus obtaining the opportunity to express their personal views, allegedly on behalf of higher powers.
4. Over time, a new sharply social satirical content was invested in the form of visions (“Visions of Peter the Ploughman” by Langland).

In more contemporary literature the genre of visions began to be used to introduce elements of fantasy.

Genre is a type of literary work. There are epic, lyrical, dramatic genres. Lyroepic genres are also distinguished. Genres are also divided by volume into large (including rum and epic novel), medium (literary works of “medium size” - novels and poems), small (story, short story, essay). They have genres and thematic divisions: adventure novel, psychological novel, sentimental, philosophical, etc. The main division is connected with the genres of literature. We present to your attention the genres of literature in the table.

Thematic division of genres is rather conditional. There is no strict classification of genres by topic. For example, if they talk about the genre-thematic diversity of lyrics, they usually single out love, philosophical, landscape lyrics. But, as you understand, the variety of lyrics is not exhausted by this set.

If you set out to study the theory of literature, it is worth mastering the groups of genres:

• epic, that is, genres of prose (epic novel, novel, story, short story, short story, parable, fairy tale);
• lyrical, that is, poetic genres (lyric poem, elegy, message, ode, epigram, epitaph),
• dramatic - types of plays (comedy, tragedy, drama, tragicomedy),
• lyrical epic (ballad, poem).

Literary genres in tables

epic genres

• epic novel

  epic novel- a novel with a picture folk life in turning points historical eras. "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, " Quiet Don» Sholokhov.

• Novel

  Novel- a multi-problem work depicting a person in the process of his formation and development. The action in the novel is full of external or internal conflicts. By subject, there are: historical, satirical, fantastic, philosophical, etc. By structure: a novel in verse, an epistolary novel, etc.

• Tale

  Tale- an epic work of medium or big shape, built in the form of a narrative about events in their natural sequence. Unlike the novel, in P. the material is chronicled, there is no sharp plot, there is no blue analysis of the feelings of the characters. P. does not pose tasks of a global historical nature.

• Story

  Story- small epic form, a small work with a limited number of characters. R. most often poses one problem or describes one event. The short story differs from R. in an unexpected ending.

• Parable

  Parable- moral teaching in allegorical form. A parable differs from a fable in that it art material draws from human life. Example: Gospel parables, a parable about righteous land, told by Luca in the play "At the Bottom".

Lyric genres

• lyric poem

  lyric poem- a small form of lyrics written either on behalf of the author, or on behalf of a fictional lyrical hero. Description of the inner world of the lyric hero, his feelings, emotions.

• Elegy

  Elegy- a poem imbued with moods of sadness and sadness. As a rule, the content of elegies is philosophical reflections, sad thoughts, grief.

• Message

  Message- a letter of poetry addressed to a person. According to the content of the message, there are friendly, lyrical, satirical, etc. The message can be. addressed to one person or group of people.

• Epigram

  Epigram- a poem that makes fun of a specific person. Characteristic features are wit and brevity.

• Oh yeah

  Oh yeah- a poem, distinguished by the solemnity of style and sublimity of content. Praise in verse.

• Sonnet

  Sonnet- a solid poetic form, usually consisting of 14 verses (lines): 2 quatrains-quatrains (for 2 rhymes) and 2 three-line tercetes

Dramatic genres

• Comedy

  Comedy- a type of drama in which characters, situations and actions are presented in funny forms or imbued with the comic. There are satirical comedies (“Undergrowth”, “Inspector General”), high (“Woe from Wit”) and lyrical (“The Cherry Orchard”).

• Tragedy

  Tragedy- a work based on an irreconcilable life conflict leading to the suffering and death of heroes. William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

• Drama

  Drama- a play with a sharp conflict, which, unlike the tragic, is not so elevated, more mundane, ordinary and somehow resolved. The drama is built on modern rather than ancient material and establishes a new hero who rebelled against circumstances.

Lyric epic genres

(intermediate between epic and lyric)

• Poem

  Poem- the average lyrical-epic form, a work with a plot-narrative organization, in which not one, but a whole series of experiences is embodied. Features: the presence of a detailed plot and at the same time close attention to the inner world of the lyrical hero - or an abundance of lyrical digressions. poem " Dead Souls» N.V. Gogol

• Ballad

  Ballad- an average lyrical-epic form, a work with an unusual, tense plot. This is a story in verse. A story told in poetic form, historical, mythical, or heroic. The plot of the ballad is usually borrowed from folklore. Ballads "Svetlana", "Lyudmila" V.A. Zhukovsky

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 figure out what it is - 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. characteristic feature epic is the scope of being in such various aspects, How:

• 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 scope of reality, which means the image and privacy individual characters, and 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 such a kind of literature that contains 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 the literature. The narrative form inherent in it makes it possible to deeply penetrate into inner world individual person.

two large forms

leading genre epic literature until the 18th century, it was the source of its plot is a folk tradition, the images of which are generalized and idealized. Speech reflects a relatively unified popular consciousness, and the form is usually 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 characters reflects multilingualism 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 most complete reflection of life realities, therefore 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 had half lyrical, half narrative character. 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. There are two sides to such works. 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.

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 ultimate general concept"genus", the most dynamic and changeable - a 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 traditionally referred to as 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 types, such as a story, an essay, a short story, a story, a novel, a poem, an 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 (“Fate 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- most ancient view lyric poetry; a poem consisting of several verses and a chorus. Songs are divided into folk, heroic, historical, lyrical, etc.

Tale - middle 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.

Each literary genre is divided into genres, which are characterized by features common to a group of works. There are epic, lyrical, lyrical epic genres, genres of dramaturgy.

epic genres