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

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The history of the formation of genres

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

Decisive changes in the system of literary genres began only towards the end of the 18th century.

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

What literary genres exist

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

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

by birth	epic	fable, epic, ballad, myth, short story, story, story, novel, fairy tale, fantasy, epic
	lyrical	ode, message, stanzas, elegy, epigram
	lyrical-epic	ballad, poem
	dramatic	drama, comedy, tragedy
content	comedy	farce, vaudeville, sideshow, sketch, parody, sitcom, mystery comedy
	tragedy
	drama
in form	vision short story story epic story anecdote novel ode epic play essay sketch

Separation of genres by content

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

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

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

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

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

The most famous prose genres

The category of prose genres includes literary works of various sizes, made in prose.

Novel

The novel is a prose literary genre that implies a detailed narrative about the fate of the heroes and certain critical periods of their lives. The name of this genre originates in the XII century, when chivalric stories were born "in the folk Romance language" as opposed to Latin historiography. A short story was considered a plot version of the novel. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, such concepts as a detective novel, a women's novel, and a fantasy novel appeared in literature.

Novella

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

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

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

The salient features of the novel are:

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

Tale

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

Story

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 review essay, essay and novel. Usually the story is characterized by a small volume, one storyline and a small number of characters. The stories are characteristic of literary works of the 20th century.

Play

A play is a dramatic work that is created for the purpose of subsequent theatrical production.

The structure of the play usually includes the phrases of the characters and the author's remarks describing the environment or the actions of the characters. There is always a list of characters at the beginning of a play. With 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:

Didactic.
Heroic.
Burlesque,
satirical.
Ironic.
Romantic.
Lyric-dramatic.

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

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

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

In the 19th-20th centuries, the poem began to become realistic(“Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N.A. Nekrasov, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky).

epic

Under the epic it is customary to understand the totality of works that are united by a common era, national identity, theme.

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

visions

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

Already in the era of antiquity, under the guise of real visions, fictional events began to be described in the form of visions. The authors of the first visions were Cicero, Plutarch, Plato.
In the Middle Ages, the genre began to gain momentum in popularity, reaching its heights with Dante in his Divine Comedy, which in its form represents an expanded vision.
For a while the visions were integral part 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 ostensibly on behalf of higher powers.
Over time, a new sharply social satirical content was invested in the form of visions (“Visions of Peter the Ploughman” by Langland).

In more modern literature, the genre of visions has come to be used to introduce elements of fantasy.

In living literature, we notice a constant grouping of techniques, and these techniques are combined into some systems that live simultaneously, but are used in different works. There is some more or less clear differentiation of works depending on the techniques used in them.

This differentiation of devices comes partly from a certain internal affinity of individual devices that are easily combined with each other (natural differentiation), from the goals set for individual works, from the environment for the emergence, purpose and conditions for the perception of works (literary and everyday differentiation), from imitation of old works and the resulting literary tradition (historical differentiation).

Construction techniques are grouped around some tangible techniques. Thus, special classes or genres of works are formed, characterized by the fact that in the techniques of each genre we observe a grouping of techniques specific to the given genre around these tangible techniques, or features of the genre.

These features of a genre are varied and can refer to any aspect of a work of art. It is enough for some short story to appear that is successful (for example, a detective, "detective"), as imitations of it appear, a whole literature of imitations is created, a novelistic genre is created in which the main feature is the unraveling of a crime by a detective, i.e. specific topic. These thematic genres abound in fiction literature.

On the other hand, genres arise in lyrics in which the introduced topic is motivated by a written (epistolary) appeal to someone - the genre of messages, the sign of which is not the topic, but the motivation for introducing topics. Finally, the use of prose speech and verse speech creates poetic and prose genres, the purpose of a work - for reading or for stage performance - gives dramatic and narrative genres, etc.

Genre features, i.e. the techniques that organize the composition of the work are the dominant techniques, i.e. subordinating all other techniques necessary in creating an artistic whole. Such a dominant, dominant technique is sometimes called a dominant. The combination of dominants is the defining moment in the formation of the genre.

The features are diverse, they intersect and do not allow a logical classification of genres on any one basis.

Genres live and develop. Some initial reason forced a number of works to separate into a special genre. In works that appear later, we observe an attitude towards similarities or differences with works of this genre. The genre is enriched with new works adjoining already available works of the given genre. The reason that put forward a given genre may disappear, the main features of the genre may slowly change, but the genre continues to live genetically, i.e. due to the natural orientation, the habitual adjoining of newly emerging works to already existing genres.

The genre is undergoing evolution, and sometimes a sharp revolution. And yet, due to the habitual attribution of a work to already known genres, its name is retained, despite the radical change taking place in the construction of the works belonging to it. The chivalric romance of the Middle Ages and the modern novel by Andrei Bely and Pilnyak may not have any common features, and yet the modern novel emerged as a result of the slow, centuries-old evolution of the ancient novel. The ballad of Zhukovsky and the ballad of Tikhonov are completely different things, but there is a genetic connection between them, and they can be connected by intermediate links, indicating a gradual transition from one form to another.

The genre sometimes falls apart. So, in the dramatic literature of the XVIII century. comedy broke up into pure comedy and into "tearful comedy", from which modern drama has grown. On the other hand, we are constantly present at the birth of new genres from the decay of old ones. So, from the collapse of the descriptive and epic poem of the XVIII century. a new genre of lyrical, or romantic, poem (“Byronic”) was born at the beginning of the 19th century. Techniques that wander and do not gather into a system can acquire, as it were, a "focus" - a new device that unites them, concentrates them into a system, and this unifying device can become a tangible sign that unites a new genre around itself.

In the history of the change of genres, one curious phenomenon should be noted: we usually classify genres according to their "elevation", according to their literary and cultural significance. In the XVIII century. a solemn ode, glorifying major political events, belonged to a high genre, and a funny, unpretentious and not always decent fairy tale belonged to a low genre.

What is curious about the change of genres is the constant displacement of high genres by low ones. And here we can draw a parallel with social evolution, in the course of which the "high" ruling classes are gradually being replaced by democratic, "low" strata - the feudal magnate - by petty service nobility, the entire aristocracy - by the bourgeoisie, etc.

This displacement of high genres by low ones occurs in two forms: 1) the complete withering away of the high genre. So they died in the 19th century. ode and epic of the 18th century; 2) penetration into the high genre of the techniques of the low genre. So in the epic poem of the XVIII century. elements of parodic and satirical poems penetrated to create such forms as Pushkin's Ruslan and Lyudmila. So in France in the 20s of the XIX century. comedic techniques penetrated into classical high tragedy to create a romantic tragedy - so in modern futurism the techniques of low lyrics (humorous) penetrated into high lyrics, which made it possible to resurrect the already dead high forms of ode and epic (by Mayakovsky). The same thing can be observed in prose by Chekhov, who came out of humorous leaflets.

A typical feature of the lower genres is the comic comprehension of techniques. The penetration of the techniques of the lower genres into the high genres is marked by the fact that the techniques used until now to create comic effects acquire a new aesthetic function, in no way connected with the comic. This is the essence of the reception renewal.

So, dactylic rhymes, according to Vostokov in 1817, were revered by his contemporaries in "only comic compositions for laughter, sometimes permissible", and a little over twenty years after the experiments of Zhukovsky's school, Lermontov's poem "In a Difficult Moment of Life" appears, in which no one I no longer saw anything jocular or composed for laughter. The punning rhyme, which had the same comic function in Minaev, loses its comedy in Mayakovsky.

The same is true with other methods. If in Stern the exposure of the plot structure is also a comic device or one in which one senses its origin from a comic use, then this is no longer the case with the Sternians, and there the exposure of the device is completely legal reception plot construction.

The process of "canonization of lower genres," although not a universal law, is so typical that the historian of literature, in search of the sources of this or that major literary phenomenon, is usually forced to turn not to the great preceding phenomena of literature, but to the small ones. These petty, “lower” phenomena, which exist in relatively unobtrusive literary layers and genres, are canonized by major writers in high genres and serve as a source of new, unexpected, and deeply original aesthetic effects.

The period of the creative flourishing of literature is preceded by a slow process of accumulation of means for updating literature in the lower, unrecognized literary strata. The arrival of a “genius” is always a kind of literary revolution, when the canon that has prevailed to this day is overthrown and power passes to hitherto subordinate methods. On the other hand, followers of high literary trends, conscientiously repeating the method of their great teachers, usually present a far from attractive picture of epigonism.

The epigones, repeating an outdated combination of techniques, turn it from the original and revolutionary into a stereotyped and traditional one, and sometimes, for a long time, kill in contemporaries the ability to feel the aesthetic power of those models that they imitate - the epigones discredit their teachers. So, those attacks that we meet at the beginning of the XIX century. on the dramaturgy of Racine, are explained entirely by the fact that Racine's methods became boring and tired of everyone as a result of their slavish reproduction in the very poorly gifted epigone literature of the late classics.

Returning to the concept of a genre as a genetically defining isolation of literary works, united by a certain commonality of a system of techniques with dominant unifying techniques-features, we see that no logical and firm classification of genres can be made. Their distinction is always historical, i.e. valid only for a certain historical moment; in addition, their differentiation occurs immediately according to many signs, and the signs of one genre can be of a completely different nature than the signs of another genre, and logically do not exclude each other, and only due to the natural connectedness of the methods of composition can be cultivated in different genres.

In the doctrine of genres, the question has to be approached descriptively and the logical classification should be replaced by an auxiliary one, taking into account only the convenience of distributing the material within certain limits.

It should also be noted that the classification of genres is complex. Works fall into broad classes, which, in turn, are differentiated into types and varieties. In this respect, running down the ladder of genres, we run from abstract genre classes into specific historical genres (“Byronic poem”, “Chekhovian short story”, “Balzac novel”, “spiritual ode”, “proletarian poetry”) and even into individual works.

Here we will make a brief survey of genres in three main classes - genres of drama, genres of lyric and genres of narrative. These naturally isolated classes of works, although they do not exclude the possibility of overlapping (perhaps in drama a lyrical narrative, for example, in Byron's verse drama), nevertheless, in general, determine the division of literature into three classes in different historical epochs.

Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of Literature. Poetics - M., 1999

Over the millennia of cultural development, mankind has created countless literary works, among which there are some basic types that are similar in the way and form of reflection of human ideas about the world around. These are three types (or types) of literature: epic, drama, poetry.

How is each type of literature different?

Epos as a kind of literature

epic(epos - Greek, narration, story) is an image of events, phenomena, processes that are external to the author. Epic works reflect the objective course of life, human existence as a whole. Using various artistic means, the authors of epic works express their understanding of the historical, socio-political, moral, psychological and many other problems that human society as a whole and each of its representatives in particular live with. Epic works have significant pictorial possibilities, thereby helping the reader to learn about the world around him, to comprehend the deep problems of human existence.

Drama as a kind of literature

Drama(drama - Greek, action, action) is a kind of literature, the main feature of which is the stage nature of works. Plays, i.e. dramatic works are created specifically for the theater, for staging on stage, which, of course, does not exclude their existence in the form of independent literary texts intended for reading. Like the epic, the drama reproduces the relationship between people, their actions, the conflicts that arise between them. But unlike the epic, which has a narrative nature, the drama has a dialogic form.

Related to this features of dramatic works :

2) the text of the play consists of the characters' conversations: their monologues (the speech of one character), dialogues (the conversation of two characters), polylogues (simultaneous exchange of remarks by several participants in the action). That is why the speech characteristic turns out to be one of the most important means of creating a memorable character of the hero;

3) the action of the play, as a rule, develops quite dynamically, intensively, as a rule, it is given 2-3 hours of stage time.

Lyrics as a kind of literature

Lyrics(lyra - Greek, a musical instrument, to the accompaniment of which poetic works, songs were performed) is distinguished by a special type of construction of an artistic image - this is an image-experience in which the individual emotional and spiritual experience of the author is embodied. Lyrics can be called the most mysterious kind of literature, because it is addressed to the inner world of a person, his subjective feelings, ideas, ideas. In other words, a lyrical work primarily serves the individual self-expression of the author. The question arises: why are the readers, i.e. other people refer to such works? The thing is that the lyricist, speaking on his own behalf and about himself, surprisingly embodies universal human emotions, ideas, hopes, and the more significant the personality of the author, the more important his individual experience is for the reader.

Each type of literature also has its own system of genres.

Genre(genre - French genus, species) - a historically established type of literary work that has similar typological features. The names of the genres help the reader navigate the boundless sea of literature: someone loves detective stories, another prefers fantasy, and the third is a fan of memoirs.

How to determine What genre does the particular piece belong to? Most often, the authors themselves help us in this, calling their creation a novel, story, poem, etc. However, some author's definitions seem unexpected to us: remember that A.P. Chekhov emphasized that The Cherry Orchard is a comedy, and not a drama at all, but A.I. Solzhenitsyn considered "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" a story, not a story. Some literary scholars call Russian literature a collection of genre paradoxes: the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", the poem in prose "Dead Souls", the satirical chronicle "The History of a City". There was a lot of controversy regarding "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy. The writer himself said only about what his book is not: “What is War and Peace? This is not a novel, still less a poem, still less a historical chronicle. "War and Peace" is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed. And only in the 20th century did literary critics agree to call the brilliant creation of L.N. Tolstoy's epic novel.

Each literary genre has a number of stable features, the knowledge of which allows us to attribute a particular work to one or another group. Genres develop, change, die off and are born, for example, literally before our eyes, a new genre of blog (web loq English network magazine) - a personal Internet diary - has arisen.

However, for several centuries now, there have been stable (they are also called canonical) genres.

Literature of literary works - see table 1).

Table 1.

Genres of literary works

Epic genres of literature

Epic genres primarily differ in volume, on this basis they are divided into small ones ( essay, short story, short story, fairy tale, parable ), average ( story ), large ( novel, epic novel ).

Feature article- a small sketch from nature, the genre is both descriptive and narrative. Many essays are created on a documentary, life basis, they are often combined into cycles: a classic example is “Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy” (1768) by the English writer Laurence Sterne, in Russian literature it is “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1790) A . Radishcheva, "Frigate Pallada" (1858) I. Goncharov "Italy" (1922) B. Zaitsev and others.

Story- a small narrative genre, which usually depicts one episode, an incident, a human character, or an important incident from the life of a hero that influenced his future fate (“After the Ball” by L. Tolstoy). The stories are created both on a documentary, often autobiographical basis (“Matryonin Dvor” by A. Solzhenitsyn), and thanks to pure fiction (“The Gentleman from San Francisco” by I. Bunin).

The intonation and content of the stories are very different - from comic, curious (the early stories of A.P. Chekhov) to deeply tragic (Kolyma Tales by V. Shalamov). Stories, like essays, are often combined into cycles (“Notes of a Hunter” by I. Turgenev).

Novella(novella ital. news) is in many ways akin to a story and is considered its variety, but it is distinguished by a special dynamism of the narrative, sharp and often unexpected turns in the development of events. Quite often the narration in the short story begins with the finale, is built according to the law of inversion, i.e. in the reverse order, when the denouement precedes the main events ("Terrible Revenge" by N. Gogol). This feature of the construction of the short story will later be borrowed by the detective genre.

The word "novella" has another meaning that future lawyers need to know. IN Ancient Rome the phrase "novellae leges" (new laws), called laws introduced after the official codification of law (after the release of the Code of Theodosius II in 438). The short stories of Justinian and his successors, published after the second edition of the Code of Justinian, later formed part of the code of Roman laws (Corpus iuris civillis). In the modern era, a novel is called a law submitted for consideration by parliament (in other words, a draft law).

Fairy tale- the most ancient of the small epic genres, one of the main ones in the oral art of any people. This is a small work of a magical, adventurous or everyday nature, where fiction is clearly emphasized. Other important feature folklore fairy tale - its edifying character: "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows." Folk tales are usually divided into magical ("The Tale of the Frog Princess"), household ("Porridge from an ax") and fairy tales about animals ("Zayushkina's hut").

With the development of written literature, literary fairy tales arise that use traditional motifs and symbolic possibilities. folk tale. The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is rightfully considered a classic of the literary fairy tale genre, his wonderful "The Little Mermaid", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Snow Queen", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "Shadow", "Thumbelina" are loved by many generations of readers, both very young and quite mature. And this is far from accidental, because Andersen's fairy tales are not only extraordinary, and sometimes strange adventures of heroes, they contain a deep philosophical and moral meaning, contained in beautiful symbolic images.

From European literary tales The 20th century classic was The Little Prince (1942) by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery. And the famous "Chronicles of Narnia" (1950 - 1956) by the English writer Kl. Lewis and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), also by the Englishman J. R. Tolkien, are written in the fantasy genre, which can be called a modern transformation of an ancient folk tale.

In Russian literature, unsurpassed, of course, are the tales of A.S. Pushkin: “About the dead princess and seven heroes”, “About the fisherman and the fish”, “About Tsar Saltan ...”, “About the golden cockerel”, “About the priest and his worker Balda”. A substitute storyteller was P. Ershov, the author of The Little Humpbacked Horse. E. Schwartz in the 20th century creates the form of a fairy tale play, one of them “The Bear” (another name is “Ordinary Miracle”) is well known to many thanks to the wonderful film directed by M. Zakharov.

Parable- also a very ancient folklore genre, but, unlike a fairy tale, parables contained written monuments: the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, a monument of Syrian literature "Teaching Akahara". A parable is a work of an instructive, symbolic nature, distinguished by sublimity and seriousness of content. Ancient parables, as a rule, are small in volume; they do not contain a detailed account of the events or the psychological characteristics of the hero's character.

The purpose of the parable is edification or, as they once said, the teaching of wisdom. In European culture, the most famous are the parables from the Gospels: about the prodigal son, about the rich man and Lazarus, about the unrighteous judge, about the crazy rich man, and others. Christ often spoke with the disciples allegorically, and if they did not understand the meaning of the parable, he explained it.

Many writers turned to the parable genre, not always, of course, putting a high religious meaning into it, rather trying to express some kind of moralistic edification in an allegorical form, as, for example, L. Tolstoy in his late work. Carry it. V. Rasputin - Farewell to Matera "can also be called a detailed parable in which the writer speaks with anxiety and sorrow about the destruction of the "ecology of conscience" of a person. The story "The Old Man and the Sea" by E. Hemingway is also considered by many critics to be in the tradition of a literary parable. The well-known modern Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho also uses the parable form in his novels and short stories (the novel The Alchemist).

Tale- an average literary genre, widely represented in world literature. The story depicts several important episodes from the life of the hero, as a rule, one storyline and a small number of characters. The stories are characterized by great psychological saturation, the author focuses on the experiences and mood changes of the characters. Often main theme the love of the protagonist becomes the story, for example, "White Nights" by F. Dostoevsky, "Asya" by I. Turgenev, "Mitina's Love" by I. Bunin. The stories can also be combined into cycles, especially those written on autobiographical material: "Childhood", "Adolescence", "Youth" by L. Tolstoy, "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities" by A. Gorky. The intonations and themes of the stories are very diverse: tragic, addressed to acute social and moral issues (“Everything flows” by V. Grossman, “House on the Embankment” by Y. Trifonov), romantic, heroic (“Taras Bulba” by N. Gogol), philosophical , parable ("Pit" by A. Platonov), mischievous, comic ("Three in a boat, not counting the dog" by the English writer Jerome K. Jerome).

Novel(Gotap French originally, in the late Middle Ages, any work written in the Romance language, as opposed to those written in Latin) - a major epic work in which the narrative is focused on fate individual person. The novel is the most complex epic genre, which is distinguished by an incredible number of themes and plots: love, historical, detective, psychological, fantastic, historical, autobiographical, social, philosophical, satirical, etc. All these forms and types of the novel are united by its central idea - the idea of personality, the individuality of a person.

The novel is called an epic privacy, because it depicts the diverse connections of the world and man, society and personality. Surrounding a person reality is presented in the novel in different contexts: historical, political, social, cultural, national, etc. The author of the novel is interested in how the environment affects the character of a person, how he is formed, how his life develops, whether he managed to find his destiny and realize himself.

Many attribute the emergence of the genre to antiquity, these are Long's Daphnis and Chloe, Apuleius' Golden Ass, the chivalrous novel Tristan and Isolde.

In the work of the classics of world literature, the novel is represented by numerous masterpieces:

Table 2. Examples of the classic novel by foreign and Russian writers (XIX, XX centuries)

Famous novels of Russian writers of the XIX century .:

In the 20th century, Russian writers develop and multiply the traditions of their great predecessors and create no less remarkable novels:

Of course, none of these enumerations can claim completeness and exhaustive objectivity, especially in modern prose. In this case, the most famous works that glorified both the literature of the country and the name of the writer are named.

epic novel. In ancient times, there were forms of the heroic epic: folklore sagas, runes, epics, songs. These are the Indian "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata", the Anglo-Saxon "Beowulf", the French "Song of Roland", the German "Song of the Nibelungs", etc. In these works, the exploits of the hero were exalted in an idealized, often exaggerated form. The later epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by Homer, "Shah-name" by Ferdowsi, while maintaining the mythological nature of the early epic, nevertheless, had a pronounced connection with real story, and the theme of the interweaving of human fate and the life of the people becomes one of the main ones in them. The experience of the ancients will be in demand in the 19th-20th centuries, when writers will try to comprehend the dramatic relationship between the era and the individual personality, tell about the tests that morality, and sometimes the human psyche, are subjected to at the time of the greatest historical upheavals. Let us recall the lines of F. Tyutchev: "Blessed is he who visited this world in its fatal moments." The romantic formula of the poet in reality meant the destruction of all habitual forms of life, tragic losses and unfulfilled dreams.

The complex form of the epic novel allows writers to artistically explore these problems in all their completeness and inconsistency.

When we talk about the genre of the epic novel, of course, we immediately recall Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Other examples can be mentioned: Quiet Flows the Don by M. Sholokhov, Life and Fate by V. Grossman, The Saga of the Forsytes by the English writer Galsworthy; the book of the American writer Margaret Mitchell "Gone with the Wind" can also be reckoned with good reason in this genre.

The very name of the genre indicates a synthesis, a combination of two main principles in it: the novel and the epic, i.e. related to the theme of the life of an individual and the theme of the history of the people. In other words, the epic novel tells about the fates of the heroes (as a rule, the heroes themselves and their fates are fictitious, invented by the author) against the background and in close connection with epoch-making historical events. So, in "War and Peace" - these are the fates of individual families (Rostovs, Bolkonskys), favorite heroes (Prince Andrei, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha and Princess Mary) in the turning point for Russia and all of Europe, the historical period of the beginning of the 19th century, the Patriotic War of 1812 . In Sholokhov's book, the events of the First World War, two revolutions and a bloody civil war tragically intrude into the life of the Cossack farm, the Melekhov family, the fate of the main characters: Grigory, Aksinya, Natalya. V. Grossman talks about the Great Patriotic War and its main event - the Battle of Stalingrad, about the tragedy of the Holocaust. "Life and Fate" also intertwines historical and family theme: the author traces the history of the Shaposhnikovs, trying to understand why the fate of the members of this family developed so differently. Galsworthy describes the life of the Forsyte family during the legendary Victorian era in England. Margaret Mitchell is a pivotal event in US history, civil war between North and South, which dramatically changed the lives of many families and the fate of the most famous heroine of American literature - Scarlett O'Hara.

Dramatic genres of literature

Tragedy(tragodia Greek goat song) - a dramatic genre that originated in Ancient Greece. The emergence of the ancient theater and tragedy is associated with the worship of the god of fertility and wine, Dionysus. A number of holidays were dedicated to him, during which ritual magical games were played with mummers, satyrs, whom the ancient Greeks represented as bipedal goat-like creatures. It is assumed that it was this appearance of the satyrs, who sang hymns to the glory of Dionysus, that gave such a strange name in translation to this serious genre. Theatrical action in Ancient Greece was given a magical religious significance, and theaters, built in the form of large open-air arenas, were always located in the very center of cities and were one of the main public places. Spectators sometimes spent the whole day here: they ate, drank, loudly expressed their approval or condemnation of the spectacle presented. The heyday of ancient Greek tragedy is associated with the names of three great tragedians: Aeschylus (525-456 BC) - the author of the tragedies Chained Prometheus, Oresteia, etc.; Sophocles (496-406 BC) - author of "Oedipus Rex", "Antigone" and others; and Euripides (480-406 BC) - the creator of Medea, Troy Nok, etc. Their creations will remain examples of the genre for centuries, they will be tried to imitate, but they will remain unsurpassed. Some of them ("Antigone", "Medea") are staged even today.

What are the main features of the tragedy? The main one is the presence of an insoluble global conflict: in ancient tragedy, this is the confrontation between fate, fate, on the one hand, and man, his will, free choice, on the other. In the tragedies of later eras, this conflict took on a moral and philosophical character, as a confrontation between good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, love and hatred. It has an absolute character, the heroes, embodying the opposing forces, are not ready for reconciliation, compromise, and therefore there are often many deaths at the end of the tragedy. This is how the tragedies of the great English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were built, let us recall the most famous of them: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, etc.

In the tragedies of the French playwrights of the 17th century Corneille ("Horace", "Polyeuctus") and Racine ("Andromache", "Britanic") this conflict received a different interpretation - as a conflict of duty and feeling, rational and emotional in the souls of the main characters, i.e. . received a psychological interpretation.

The most famous in Russian literature is the romantic tragedy "Boris Godunov" by A.S. Pushkin, created on historical material. In one of his best works, the poet sharply posed the problem of the “real misfortune” of the Moscow state - a chain reaction of impostors and “terrible atrocities” that people are ready for for the sake of power. Another problem is the attitude of the people to everything that happens in the country. The image of the “silent” people in the finale of “Boris Godunov” is symbolic; to this day, discussions continue about what Pushkin wanted to say by this. Based on the tragedy, an opera of the same name by M. P. Mussorgsky was written, which became a masterpiece of Russian opera classics.

Comedy(Greek komos - a cheerful crowd, oda - a song) - a genre that originated in ancient Greece a little later than tragedy (5th century BC). The most famous comedian of that time is Aristophanes ("Clouds", "Frogs", etc.).

In comedy, with the help of satire and humor, i.e. comic, moral vices are ridiculed: hypocrisy, stupidity, greed, envy, cowardice, complacency. Comedies tend to be topical; addressed to social issues, exposing the shortcomings of power. Distinguish between sitcoms and character comedies. In the first, the cunning intrigue, the chain of events (Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors) are important, in the second - the characters of the characters, their absurdity, one-sidedness, as in the comedies "The Undergrowth" by D. Fonvizin, "The Tradesman in the Nobility", "Tartuffe", written by the classic genre, French comedian of the 17th century Jean-Baptiste Molière. In Russian dramaturgy, satirical comedy with its sharp social criticism, such as N. Gogol's The Inspector General, M. Bulgakov's Crimson Island, turned out to be especially in demand. Many wonderful comedies were created by A. Ostrovsky (“Wolves and Sheep”, “Forest”, “Mad Money”, etc.).

The comedy genre invariably enjoys success with the public, perhaps because it affirms the triumph of justice: in the finale, vice must certainly be punished, and virtue must triumph.

Drama- a relatively "young" genre that appeared in Germany in the 18th century as a lesedrama (in German) - a play for reading. The drama is addressed to the everyday life of a person and society, everyday life, family relationships. Drama is primarily interested in the inner world of a person, it is the most psychological of all dramatic genres. At the same time, it is also the most literary of the stage genres, for example, the plays of A. Chekhov are largely perceived more as texts for reading, and not as theatrical performances.

Lyrical genres of literature

The division into genres in the lyrics is not absolute, because. the differences between genres in this case are conditional and not as obvious as in epic and drama. More often we distinguish lyrical works by their thematic features: landscape, love, philosophical, friendly, intimate lyrics, etc. However, we can name some genres that have pronounced individual characteristics: elegy, sonnet, epigram, message, epitaph.

Elegy(elegos Greek mournful song) - a poem of medium length, as a rule, moral-philosophical, love, confessional content.

The genre arose in antiquity, and elegiac distich was considered its main feature, i.e. dividing the poem into couplets, for example:

The longed-for moment has come: my long-term work is over, Why is an incomprehensible sadness secretly disturbing me?

A. Pushkin

In the poetry of the 19th-20th centuries, the division into couplets is no longer such a strict requirement, now the semantic features that are associated with the origin of the genre are more significant. In terms of content, the elegy goes back to the form of ancient funeral “weeps”, in which, while mourning the deceased, they simultaneously recalled his extraordinary virtues. This origin predetermined the main feature of the elegy - the combination of sorrow with faith, regret with hope, the acceptance of being through sadness. The lyrical hero of the elegy is aware of the imperfection of the world and people, his own sinfulness and weakness, but does not reject life, but accepts it in all its tragic beauty. A striking example is "Elegy" by A.S. Pushkin:

Crazy years faded fun

It's hard for me, like a vague hangover.

But, like wine - the sadness of bygone days

In my soul, the older, the stronger.

My path is sad. Promises me labor and sorrow

The coming turbulent sea.

But I don't want, oh friends, to die;

I want to live in order to think and suffer;

And I know I will enjoy

Between sorrows, worries and anxiety:

Sometimes I'll get drunk again with harmony,

I will shed tears over fiction,

And maybe - at my sad sunset

Love will shine with a farewell smile.

Sonnet(sonetto, ital. song) - the so-called "solid" poetic form, which has strict construction rules. The sonnet has 14 lines, divided into two quatrains (quatrains) and two three-line verses (tercet). In quatrains only two rhymes are repeated, in terzets two or three. The methods of rhyming also had their own requirements, which, however, varied.

The birthplace of the sonnet is Italy, this genre is also represented in English and French poetry. Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian poet, is considered the luminary of the genre. He dedicated all his sonnets to his beloved Donna Laura.

In Russian literature, the sonnets of A.S. Pushkin remain unsurpassed, beautiful sonnets were also created by the poets of the Silver Age.

Epigram(Greek epigramma, inscription) is a short, mocking poem, usually addressed to a specific person. Many poets write epigrams, sometimes increasing the number of their ill-wishers and even enemies. The epigram on Count Vorontsov turned around for A.S. Pushkin by the hatred of this nobleman and, ultimately, expulsion from Odessa to Mikhailovskoye:

Popu-my lord, half-merchant,

Half wise, half ignorant,

Semi-scoundrel, but there is hope

What will be complete at last.

Mocking verses can be dedicated not only to a specific person, but also to a generalized addressee, as, for example, in the epigram of A. Akhmatova:

Could Bice create like Dante,

Were Laura to glorify the heat of love?

I taught women to speak...

But, God, how to silence them!

There are even cases of a kind of duel of epigrams. When the famous Russian lawyer A.F. Horses were appointed to the Senate, ill-wishers extended an evil epigram to him:

Caligula brought the horse to the Senate,

He stands dressed in both velvet and gold.

But I will say, we have the same arbitrariness:

I read in the papers that Kony is in the Senate.

What A.F. Koni, who was distinguished by his extraordinary literary talent, replied:

(Greek epitafia, tombstone) - a farewell poem for a dead person, intended for a tombstone. Initially, this word was used in a literal sense, but later it acquired a more figurative meaning. For example, I. Bunin has a lyrical miniature in prose "Epitaph", dedicated to farewell to the writer's dear, but forever receding Russian estate. Gradually, the epitaph is transformed into a poem-dedication, a farewell poem ("Wreath to the Dead" by A. Akhmatova). Perhaps the most famous poem of this kind in Russian poetry is “The Death of a Poet” by M. Lermontov. Another example is the "Epitaph" by M. Lermontov, dedicated to the memory of Dmitry Venevitinov, a poet and philosopher who died at the age of twenty-two.

Lyric-epic genres of literature

There are works that combine some features of lyrics and epic, as evidenced by the very name of this group of genres. Their main feature is the combination of narration, i.e. a story about events, with the transfer of feelings and experiences of the author. It is customary to refer to the lyric-epic genres poem, ode, ballad, fable .

Poem(poeo Greek I create I create) is a very famous literary genre. The word "poem" has many meanings, both direct and figurative. In ancient times, large epic works, which today are considered epics (the poems of Homer already mentioned above), were called poems.

In the literature of the 19th-20th centuries, a poem is a large poetic work with a detailed plot, for which it is sometimes called a poetic story. The poem has characters, a plot, but their purpose is somewhat different than in a prose story: in the poem they help the author's lyrical self-expression. Perhaps that is why romantic poets loved this genre so much (“Ruslan and Lyudmila” by early Pushkin, “Mtsyri” and “Demon” by M. Lermontov, “Cloud in Pants” by V. Mayakovsky).

Oh yeah(oda Greek song) - a genre represented mainly in the literature of the 18th century, although it also has an ancient origin. The ode goes back to the ancient genre of the dithyramb - a hymn glorifying a folk hero or the winner of the Olympic Games, i.e. an outstanding person.

Poets of the 18th-19th centuries created odes on various occasions. It could be an appeal to the monarch: M. Lomonosov dedicated his odes to Empress Elizabeth, G. Derzhavin to Catherine P. While glorifying their deeds, the poets at the same time taught the empresses, inspired them with important political and civil ideas.

Significant historical events could also become the subject of glorification and admiration in the ode. G. Derzhavin after the capture by the Russian army under the command of A.V. Suvorov of the Turkish fortress, Izmail wrote the ode “Thunder of victory, resound!”, Which for some time was the unofficial anthem of the Russian Empire. There was a kind of spiritual ode: "Morning reflection on God's greatness" by M. Lomonosov, "God" by G. Derzhavin. Civic, political ideas could also become the basis of an ode (“Liberty” by A. Pushkin).

This genre has a pronounced didactic nature, it can be called a poetic sermon. Therefore, it is distinguished by the solemnity of style and speech, the leisurely narration. An example is the famous excerpt from M. Lomonosov’s “Ode on the Day of Accession to the All-Russian Throne of Her Majesty Empress Elisaveta Petrovna in 1747”, written in the year when Elizabeth approved the new charter of the Academy of Sciences, significantly increasing funds for its maintenance. The main thing for the great Russian encyclopedist is the enlightenment of the younger generation, the development of science and education, which, according to the poet, will become the key to the prosperity of Russia.

Ballad(balare provence - to dance) was especially popular at the beginning of the 19th century, in sentimental and romantic poetry. This genre originated in the French Provence as a folk dance of love content with obligatory refrains-repetitions. Then the ballad migrated to England and Scotland, where it acquired new features: now it is a heroic song with a legendary plot and heroes, for example, the famous ballads about Robin Hood. The only constant feature is the presence of refrains (repetitions), which will be important for ballads written later.

Poets of the 18th and early 19th centuries fell in love with the ballad for its special expressiveness. If we use an analogy with epic genres, a ballad can be called a poetic novel: it must have an unusual love, legendary, heroic plot that captures the imagination. Quite often, fantastic, even mystical images and motifs are used in ballads: let us recall the famous "Lyudmila" and "Svetlana" by V. Zhukovsky. No less famous are "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg" by A. Pushkin, "Borodino" by M. Lermontov.

In Russian lyrics of the 20th century, a ballad is a love romantic poem, often accompanied by musical accompaniment. Ballads are especially popular in "bardic" poetry, the anthem of which can be called the ballad of Yuri Vizbor, beloved by many.

Fable(basnia lat. story) - a short story in verse or prose of a didactic, satirical nature. Elements of this genre from ancient times were present in the folklore of all peoples as fairy tales about animals, and then transformed into anecdotes. The literary fable took shape in ancient Greece, its founder is Aesop (V century BC), after his name allegorical speech began to be called "Aesopian language". In a fable, as a rule, there are two parts: plot and moralizing. The first contains a story about some funny or absurd incident, the second - morality, teaching. The heroes of fables are often animals, under the masks of which quite recognizable moral and social vices are hidden, which are ridiculed. The great fabulists were Lafontaine (France, 17th century), Lessing (Germany, 18th century). In Russia, I.A. Krylov (1769-1844). The main advantage of his fables is a lively, folk language, a combination of cunning and wisdom in the author's intonation. The plots and images of many of I. Krylov's fables look quite recognizable even today.

For the convenience of readers (as well as publishers and booksellers), there are all sorts of classifications of books that allow you to sort them and put them on suitable shelves in bookstores.

All books are divided into editions for adults and for children, works of art and non-fiction (thin and non-fiction, respectively). And those, in turn, are divided into genres and categories.

Why does an author need to understand genres?

Then to:

a) learn the skill in your genre;
b) know exactly which publisher to offer the manuscript to;
c) study your target audience and to offer the book not to “everyone in general”, but to those people who may be interested in it.

What is fiction?

Fiction refers to all works that have a fictional plot and fictional characters: novels, stories, novels and plays.

Memoirs are classified as non-fiction because we are talking about about non-fictional events, but they are written according to the canons of fiction - with a plot, characters, etc.

But poetry, including lyrics, is fiction, even if the author recalls the past love that actually happened.

Types of Adult Fiction

Fiction works are divided into genre literature, mainstream and intellectual prose.

genre literature

In genre literature, the plot plays the first violin, while it fits into certain, previously known frameworks.

This does not mean that all genre novels should be predictable. The writer's skill lies precisely in creating a unique world, unforgettable characters and an interesting way to get from point "A" (start) to point "B" (denouement) under given conditions.

As a rule, a genre work ends on a positive note, the author does not delve into psychology and other high matters and simply tries to entertain readers.

Basic plot schemes in genre literature

Detective: crime - investigation - exposure of the criminal.

Love story: heroes meet - fall in love - fight for love - unite hearts.

Thriller: the hero lived his ordinary life - a threat arises - the hero tries to escape - the hero gets rid of the danger.

Adventures: the hero sets a goal and, having overcome many obstacles, achieves what he wants.

When we talk about science fiction, fantasy, historical or modern novel, we are talking not so much about the plot as about the scenery, so when defining the genre, two or three terms are used that allow us to answer the questions: “What happens in the novel?” and "Where is it happening?". If we are talking about children's literature, then an appropriate note is made.

Examples: “modern romance novel”, “fantastic action movie” (action movie is adventure), “historical detective story”, “children's adventure story”, “fairy tale for primary school age”.

Genre prose, as a rule, is published in series - either author's or general.

Mainstream

In the mainstream (from English. mainstream- the main thread) readers expect unexpected solutions from the author. For this type of book, the most important thing is the moral development of the characters, philosophy and ideology. The requirements for a mainstream author are much higher than for writers working with genre prose: he must not only be an excellent storyteller, but also a good psychologist and serious thinker.

Another important feature of the mainstream is that such books are written at the intersection of genres. For example, it is impossible to say unequivocally that "Gone with the Wind" is only romance or only historical drama.

By the way, the drama itself, that is, the story of the tragic experience of the characters, is also a sign of the mainstream.

As a rule, novels of this type are released outside the series. This is due to the fact that serious works are written for a long time and it is rather problematic to form a series of them. Moreover, mainstream authors are so different from each other that it is difficult to group their books on any basis other than “good book”.

When specifying a genre in mainstream novels, the emphasis is usually placed not so much on the plot, but on certain distinguishing features of the book: historical drama, a novel in letters, a fantastic saga, etc.

The emergence of the term

The term "mainstream" itself arose from American writer and criticism to William Dean Howells (1837–1920). As editor of one of the most popular and influential literary magazines of his time, The Atlantic Monthly, he gave a clear preference to works written in a realistic vein and focusing on moral and philosophical problems.

Thanks to Howells, realistic literature came into vogue, and for some time it was called the mainstream. The term has stuck in English language and from there moved to Russia.

intellectual prose

In the vast majority of cases, intellectual prose has a gloomy tone and is released outside of the series.

Main genres of fiction

Approximate classification

When submitting an application to a publisher, we must indicate the genre - so that our manuscript is sent to the appropriate editor.

Below is indicative list genres, as they are understood in publishing houses and bookstores.

vanguard literature. It is characterized by violation of the canons and language and plot experiments. As a rule, the avant-garde comes out in very small editions. Closely intertwined with intellectual prose.
Action. Aimed primarily at a male audience. The basis of the plot is fights, chases, saving beauties, etc.
Detective. The main storyline is solving the crime.
Historical novel. The time of action is the past. The plot, as a rule, is tied to significant historical events.
Love story. Heroes find love.
Mystic. The basis of the plot is supernatural events.
Adventures. Heroes get involved in an adventure and/or go on a perilous journey.
Thriller/horror. The heroes are in mortal danger, from which they are trying to get rid of.
Fantastic. The plot twists in a hypothetical future or in a parallel world. One of the varieties of fantasy is alternative history.
Fantasy / fairy tales. The main features of the genre are fairy-tale worlds, magic, unprecedented creatures, talking animals, etc. It is often based on folklore.

What is non-fiction?

Non-fiction books are classified by topic (eg gardening, history, etc.) and type (scientific monograph, collection of articles, photo album, etc.).

The following is a classification of non-fiction books, as done in bookstores. When submitting an application to the publisher, indicate the topic and type of book - for example, a textbook on writing.

Classification of non-fiction

autobiographies, biographies and memoirs;
architecture and art;
astrology and esotericism;
business and finance;
armed forces;
upbringing and education;
house, garden, kitchen garden;
health;
story;
career;
computers;
local history;
love and family relationships;
fashion and beauty;
music, cinema, radio;
science and technology;
food and cooking;
gift editions;
politics, economics, law;
guides and travelogues;
religion;
self-development and psychology;
Agriculture;
dictionaries and encyclopedias;
sport;
philosophy;
hobby;
school textbooks;
linguistics and literature.

The above types of classification do not exclude each other, but demonstrate a different approach to the definition of genres. Therefore, the same book can refer to several of them at once.

Classification of genres of literature by gender

When classifying literary genres by gender, they start from the author's attitude to what is being stated. The basis of this classification was laid by Aristotle. According to this principle, four major genres are distinguished: epic, lyrical, dramatic and lyrical-epic. Each of them has its own "sub-genres".

In the epic genres, events that have already occurred are described, and the author writes them down according to his recollections, while he is maximally removed from the assessments of what was said. These include epic novels, short stories, fairy tales, myths, ballads, fables and epics.

The lyrical genre involves the transfer of feelings experienced by the author in the form of a literary work in poetic form. These include odes, elegies, epigrams, epistles and stanzas.

A classic example of stanzas is Byron's Childe Harold.

The lyrical-epic genre in literature combines the characteristics of epic and lyrical genres. These include ballads and poems, in which there is both a plot and the author's attitude to what is happening.

The dramatic genre exists at the intersection of literature and theater. Nominally, it includes dramas, comedies and tragedies with a list of participating characters at the beginning and author's comments in the main text. However, in fact, it can be any work written in the form of a dialogue.

Classification of genres of literature by content

If we define works by content, then they are combined into three large groups: comedies, tragedies and dramas. Tragedy and drama, which tell, respectively, about the tragic fate of the heroes and about the emergence and overcoming of the conflict, are quite homogeneous. Comedies are divided into several types, according to the action taking place: parody, farce, vaudeville, comedy of situations and characters, sketch and interlude.

Classification of genres of literature by form

When classifying genres according to form, only such formal signs, as the structure and volume of the work, regardless of their content.

Lyrical works are classified most clearly in this way; in prose, the boundaries are more blurred.

According to this principle, thirteen genres are distinguished: epic, epic, novel, story, short story, short story, sketch, play, essay, essay, opus, ode and vision.