For millennia cultural development humanity has created countless literary works, among which some basic types can be distinguished, similar in the way and form of reflection of a person's ideas about the world around him. These are three kinds (or types) of literature: epic, drama, lyrics.

What is the difference between each type of literature?

Epic as a kind of literature

Epos(epos - Greek, narration, story) is an image of events, phenomena, processes external to the author. Epic works reflect the objective course of life, human being in general. Using various artistic means, the authors of epic works express their understanding of the historical, socio-political, moral, psychological and many other problems with which they live. human society in general and each of its representatives in particular. Epic works have significant pictorial capabilities, 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, main feature which is the scenicness of the 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 dialogical form.

Associated with this features of dramatic works :

2) the text of the play consists of the conversations of the characters: their monologues (speech of one character), dialogues (conversation of two characters), polylogs (simultaneous exchange of remarks by several participants in the action). That is why 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, 2-3 hours of stage time are allotted to it.

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 - it 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 sensations, ideas, ideas. In other words, a lyric work primarily serves the individual self-expression of the author. The question arises: why 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 author's personality, 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) is a historically developed type of literary works that has similar typological features. Names of 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 a particular work belong to? Most often, the authors themselves help us with this, calling their creation a novel, story, poem, etc. However, some of the author's definitions seem unexpected to us: remember that A.P. Chekhov emphasized that “ The Cherry Orchard"Is a comedy, not a drama, but A.I. Solzhenitsyn regarded One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as a story, not a story. Some literary critics call Russian literature a collection of genre paradoxes: a novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", a poem in prose " Dead Souls", Satirical chronicle" The history of one 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, even 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 XX century, literary critics agreed to call ingenious creation L.N. Tolstoy's epic novel.

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

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

Literature literary works - see table 1).

Table 1.

Genres of literary works

Epic genres of literature

Epic genres primarily differ in volume, according to this criterion they are divided into small ( sketch, 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-based basis, often they are combined into cycles: classic pattern- "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy" (1768) by the English writer Laurence Stern, in Russian literature it is "A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" (1790) by A. Radishchev, "Frigate Pallas" (1858) by I. Goncharov "" Italy " (1922) B. Zaitseva and others.

Story- small narrative genre, which usually depicts one episode, incident, human character or an important incident in the life of the hero that influenced his further destiny("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 Lord from San Francisco" by I. Bunin).

The intonation and content of stories are very different - from comic, curious ( early stories 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 the story and is considered its kind, but it is distinguished by a special dynamism of the narrative, sharp and often unexpected turns in the development of events. Often, the narrative in a novel begins with the ending, is built according to the law of inversion, i.e. the reverse order, when the denouement precedes the main events ("Terrible revenge" by N. Gogol). This feature of the construction of the novel will later be borrowed by the detective genre.

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

Story- The oldest of the small epic genres, one of the main in the oral work of any people. This is a small work of a magical, adventurous or everyday character, where fiction is clearly emphasized. Another important feature folk tale- its edifying nature: "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows." It is customary to divide folk tales into magic ("The Tale of the Frog Princess"), everyday ("Porridge from the Ax") and tales about animals ("Zayushkina's hut").

With the development of written literature, literary tales appear in which traditional motives and symbolic possibilities of a folk tale are used. Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), his wonderful "The Little Mermaid", "The Princess and the Pea", " The Snow Queen"," Persistent tin soldier"," Shadow "," Thumbelina "are loved by many generations of readers, both very young and quite mature. And this is far from coincidental, because Andersen's tales are not only extraordinary, and sometimes even strange adventures of heroes, they contain a deep philosophical and moral meaning, enclosed in beautiful symbolic images.

From European literary tales XX century became a classic Little Prince"(1942) French writer En-thuan de Saint-Exupery. And the famous "Chronicles of Narnia" (1950 - 1956) by the English writer Cl. Lewis and "The Lord of the Rings" (1954-1955), also by the Englishman JR 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 the seven heroes", "About the fisherman and the fish", "About Tsar Saltan ...", "About the golden cockerel", "About the priest and his worker Balda." The replacement storyteller was P. Ershov, the author of The Little Humpbacked Horse. E. Schwartz in the XX century creates the form of a fairy tale play, one of them "The Bear" (another name is "An 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 the fairy tale, the parables contained written monuments: the Talmud, the Bible, the Koran, a monument of Syrian literature "Teaching to Akhara". A parable is an instructive, symbolic work, distinguished by its sublimity and seriousness of content. Ancient parables, as a rule, are small in volume; they do not contain a detailed story about the events or psychological characteristics of the character of the hero.

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

Many writers turned to the genre of the parable, not always, of course, investing in it a high religious meaning, rather trying to express some moralistic edification in an allegorical form, as, for example, L. Tolstoy in his late creativity... Carry it. V. Rasputin - Farewell to Mother ”can also be called a detailed parable, in which the writer speaks with alarm 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 a literary parable tradition. The famous modern Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho also uses the parable form in his novels and stories (the novel "The Alchemist").

The story- 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 amount of actors. The stories are characterized by great psychological saturation, the author focuses on the experiences and changes in the moods of the characters. Very often the main theme of the story becomes the love of the protagonist, for example, "White Nights" by F. Dostoevsky, "Asya" by I. Turgenev, "Mitya's Love" by I. Bunin. Novels 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 a dog "by the English writer Jerome K. Jerome).

novel(French gotap originally, in late middle ages, any work written in romance, as opposed to those that were written in Latin) - a major epic work in which the narrative focuses on the fate of an individual. The novel is the most difficult 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 ​​a person's personality, individuality.

The novel is called the epic of private life, because it depicts the diverse connections between the world and man, society and personality. The reality surrounding a person 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 a person's character, how he is formed, how his life develops, whether he managed to find his purpose and realize himself.

The emergence of the genre is attributed by many to antiquity, this is "Daphnis and Chloe" by Long, "The Golden Donkey" by Apuleius, romance"Tristan and Isolde".

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

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

Famous novels of Russian writers of the 19th 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 to be complete and complete objectivity, especially this applies to modern prose... In this case, the most famous works, who glorified both the country's literature and the name of the writer.

Epic novel... In ancient times, there were forms 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 in an idealized, often exaggerated form, the hero's deeds were exalted. The later epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" by Homer, "Shah-name" by Ferdowsi, retaining the mythological character of the early epic, nevertheless, had a pronounced connection with real history, and the theme of interweaving human destiny and the life of the people becomes one of the main in them. The experience of the ancients will be in demand in XIX-XX centuries when writers try to comprehend the dramatic interconnection of the era and the individual personality, talk about what tests morality, and sometimes the human psyche, is 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 fateful moments." The poet's romantic formula in reality meant the destruction of all habitual forms of life, tragic losses and unrealized dreams.

The complex form of the epic novel allows writers to artistically explore these problems in their entirety and contradictions.

When we talk about the genre of an epic novel, of course, we immediately recall "War and Peace" by L. Tolstoy. Other examples can be named: "Quiet Don" by M. Sholokhov, "Life and Fate" by V. Grossman, "The Forsyte Saga" by the English writer Galsworthy; the book "Gone with the Wind" by the American writer Margaret Mitchell can also be classified with this genre with great reason.

The name of the genre itself indicates a synthesis, a combination of two basic principles in it: the novel and the epic, i.e. associated with 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 fictional, invented by the author) against the background and in close connection with epoch-making historical events. Thus, in War and Peace, these are the fates of individual families (Rostovs, Bolkonskys), beloved heroes (Prince Andrei, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha and Princess Marya) 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 a Cossack farm, the Melekhov family, the fate of the main characters: Grigory, Aksinya, Natalia. V. Grossman talks about the Great Patriotic War and its main event - the Battle of Stalingrad, about the tragedy of the Holocaust. Historical and family themes are also intertwined in Life and Fate: the author traces the history of the Shaposhnikovs, trying to understand why the fates of the members of this family have developed so differently. Galsworthy describes the life of the Forsyte family during the legendary Victorian era in England. Margaret Mitchell is a central event in the history of the United States, Civil war between North and South, which drastically changed the lives of many families and the fate of the most famous heroine American literature- Scarlett O'Hara.

Dramatic genres of literature

Tragedy(tragodia Greek goat song) is a dramatic genre that originated in Ancient Greece... The emergence of the ancient theater and tragedy is associated with the worship of the cult of the god of fertility and wine, Dionysus. A number of holidays were dedicated to him, during which ritual magic games were played with mummers, satyrs, whom the ancient Greeks represented in the form of two-legged goat-like creatures. It is assumed that it was precisely this appearance of the satyrs who performed hymns to the glory of Dionysus that gave such a strange name to this serious genre in translation. Theatrical performance 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: eating, drinking, loudly expressing their approval or censure of the presented show. The heyday of the ancient Greek tragedy is associated with the names of three great tragedians: this is Aeschylus (525-456 BC) - the author of the tragedies "Chained Prometheus", "Oresteia", etc .; Sophocles (496-406 BC) - the author of "King Oedipus", "Antigone" and others; and Euripides (480-406 BC) - the creator of Medea, Troyanok, etc. Their creations will remain examples of the genre for centuries, they will try to imitate them, but they will remain unsurpassed. Some of them ("Antigone", "Medea") are staged on the stage today.

What are the main features of the tragedy? The main one is the presence of an insoluble global conflict: in ancient tragedy it is a confrontation between fate, fate, on the one hand, and man, his will, free choice, on the other. In tragedies, more 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 who embody 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), recall the most famous of them: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, etc.

In tragedies French playwrights XVII century Corneille ("Horace", "Polyeuct") and Racine ("Andromache", "Britannica"), this conflict received a different interpretation - as a conflict of duty and feelings, rational and emotional in the souls of the main characters, ie acquired a psychological interpretation.

The most famous in Russian literature is romantic tragedy"Boris Godunov" A.S. Pushkin, based on historical material. In one of his best creations, the poet sharply raised the problem of the "real trouble" 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, and discussions continue to this day about what Pushkin wanted to say. The opera of the same name by M.P. Mussorgsky was written based on the tragedy, which has become 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 tragedy(V 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 are usually topical, i.e. are also addressed to social issues, exposing the shortcomings of the authorities. Distinguish between sitcoms and comedies of characters. In the first, the cunning intrigue, the chain of events ("The Comedy of Errors" by Shakespeare) are important, in the second - the characters of the heroes, their absurdity, one-sidedness, as in the comedies "The Minor" by D. Fonvizin, "Bourgeois in the Nobility", "Tartuffe", belonging to the classics genre, 17th century French comedy writer Jean Baptiste Moliere. In Russian drama, the satirical comedy with its sharp social criticism, for example, "The Inspector General" by N. Gogol, "Crimson Island" by M. Bulgakov. Many wonderful comedies were created by A. Ostrovsky ("Wolves and Sheep", "Forest", "Mad Money", etc.).

The genre of comedy is invariably popular 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 lesedrama (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 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.

Lyric genres of literature

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

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

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

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

A. Pushkin

In the poetry of the 19th-20th centuries, division into couplets is no longer such a strict requirement, now semantic features that are associated with the origin of the genre are more significant. Essentially, the elegy goes back to the form of the Ancient funeral "lamentation", in which, mourning the deceased, at the same time recalled his extraordinary merits. This origin predetermined the main feature of the elegy - the combination of sorrow with faith, regret with hope, acceptance of being through sorrow. Lyrical hero elegy recognizes 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- "Elegy" by A.S. Pushkin:

Crazy years faded fun

It's hard for me like a vague hangover.

But like wine is the sadness of days gone by

In my soul, the older the stronger.

My path is dull. Promises me labor and sorrow

The coming agitated sea.

But I don’t want to die, oh friends;

I want to live in order to think and suffer;

And I know I will enjoy

Between sorrows, worries and worries:

Sometimes I'll revel in harmony again,

I will shed tears over fiction,

And maybe - to my sad sunset

Love will shine with a farewell smile.

Sonnet(sonetto ital. song) - the so-called "solid" poetic form, which has strict rules of construction. The sonnet has 14 lines, divided into two quatrains (quatrains) and two three verses (tercets). In quatrains, only two rhymes are repeated, in tercets, 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. The coryphaeus of the genre is considered the Italian poet of the XIV century Petrarch. 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. Epigrams are written by many poets, sometimes increasing the number of their ill-wishers and even enemies. The epigram on Count Vorontsov turned around for A.S. Pushkin's hatred of this nobleman and, ultimately, the expulsion from Odessa to Mikhailovskoe:

Popu-my lord, half-merchant,

Half-sage, half-ignorant,

Half a scoundrel, but there is hope

That 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 Biche like Dante create,

Went Laura to glorify the heat of love?

I taught women to speak ...

But, God, how to silence them!

There are even known 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 a horse to the Senate,

He stands, tucked away in velvet and gold.

But I will say, we have the same arbitrariness:

I read in the newspapers that Koni is in the Senate.

To which A.F. Horses, distinguished by an outstanding literary talent, replied:

(Greek epitafia, tombstone) - a poem-farewell to a deceased person, intended for gravestone... Initially, this word was used literally, but later acquired a more figurative meaning. For example, I. Bunin has a lyrical miniature in prose "Epitaph", dedicated to parting with the road for the writer, but forever receding into the past Russian estate. Gradually, the epitaph is transformed into a dedication poem, a farewell poem ("Wreath for 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 M. Lermontov's Epitaph, dedicated to the memory of Dmitry Venevitinov, a poet and philosopher who died at the age of twenty-two.