Genres of literature table with examples of works. Literary genres and genres: signs and classification

Genres of literature table with examples of works.  Literary genres and genres: signs and classification
Genres of literature table with examples of works. Literary genres and genres: signs and classification
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    • Sysoeva O. A. Genre approach to the study of literature in the framework of additional education (on the example of Sasha Sokolov's novel "School for Fools")
    • Theoretical poetics: concepts and definitions. Reader for students of philological faculties. Compiled by N. D. Tamarchenko

    Literature

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    See what "Literary genre" is in other dictionaries:

      ROMAN (French Roman, German Roman; English novel / romance; Spanish novela, Italian romanzo), the central genre (see GENRE) European literature New time (see. NEW TIME (in history)), fictional, in contrast to the adjacent genre of the story (see ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

      Elegy (έλεγεία) is a lyrical poem of a sad, pensive mood: this is the content that is now usually put into a word that had a different meaning in previous poetics. Its etymology is controversial: it is derived from the alleged chorus έ λέγε ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

      Currently, the most popular and richest form of content literary works reflecting in itself modern life with all the variety of issues of concern to her. To achieve such universal significance, the novel needed ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

      Crying is one of the ancient literary genres, characterized by lyrico-dramatic improvisation on themes of misfortune, death, etc. It can take shape both in poetry and in prose. The crying style is used, in particular, in some texts of the Bible ... Wikipedia

      - (poetic) a certain type of literary work. The main genres can be considered epic, lyric and dramatic, but it is more accurate to apply this term to their individual varieties, such as an adventure novel, a buffoonery comedy ... Literary encyclopedia

      genre- GENRE (poetic) a certain type of literary work. The main genres can be considered epic, lyrical and dramatic, but it is more accurate to apply this term to their individual varieties, such as an adventure novel, ... ... Dictionary literary terms

      - (historical and special. is used in cinematography) a finished cinematic work. It should contain a complete, consistent and specific description of the plot, consisting of developed scenes and episodes, dialogues and reveal images ... ... Wikipedia

      GENRE- literary (from French genre - genus, species), historically forming type of literary work (novel, poem, ballad, etc.); v theoretical concept about J. generalizes the features characteristic of a more or less extensive group of works ... ... Literary encyclopedic Dictionary

      A; m. [French. genre] 1. Historically formed kind of art or literature, characterized by certain plot, compositional, stylistic and other signs; separate varieties of this genus. Musical, literary genres. ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

    A genre in literature is a selection of texts that have a similar structure and are similar in content. There are quite a few of them, but there is a division by genus, form and content.

    Classification of genres in literature.

    Gender division

    With such a classification, one should consider the attitude of the author himself to the text of interest to the reader. He was the first to try to divide literary works into four genres, each with its own internal divisions:

    • epic (novels, stories, epics, short stories, short stories, fairy tales, epics),
    • lyric (odes, elegies, messages, epigrams),
    • dramatic (dramas, comedies, tragedies),
    • lyric-epic (ballads, poems).

    Division by content

    According to this principle of division, three groups emerged:

    • Comedy,
    • Tragedies,
    • Dramas.

    Two last groups talk about tragic fate, about the conflict in the work. And comedies should be divided into smaller subgroups: parody, farce, vaudeville, sitcom, interlude.

    Separation by shape

    The group is diverse and numerous. There are thirteen genres in this group:

    • epic,
    • epic,
    • novel,
    • story,
    • short story,
    • story,
    • sketch,
    • a play
    • feature article,
    • essay,
    • opus,
    • visions.

    There is no such clear division in prose.

    It is not easy to immediately determine which genre this or that work. How does the read work affect the reader? What feelings does it evoke? Is the author present, introduces his personal experiences, is there a simple narrative without adding an analysis of the described events. All these questions require specific answers to make the final verdict on the belonging of the text to a certain type of literary genre.

    Genres tell about themselves

    To start understanding genre diversity literature, you should know the characteristics of each of them.

    1. The groups are perhaps the most interesting in form. A play is a piece written specifically for the stage. The story is a prosaic narrative, small in volume. The novel is distinguished by its scale. The story is an intermediate genre, standing between the story and the novel, in which the fate of one hero is told.
    2. Content groups are few in number, so it is very easy to remember them. The comedy has a humorous and satirical character. Tragedy always ends up unpleasantly as expected. The drama is based on the conflict between human life and society.
    3. The genre typology contains only three structures:
      1. The epic tells about the past, without expressing his personal opinion about what is happening.
      2. Lyrics always contain feelings and experiences lyric hero, that is, the author himself.
      3. The drama reveals its plot through the communication of the characters with each other.

    Hello dear readers of the blog site. The question of the genre as a variety of a particular sphere of art is rather complicated. This term is found in music, painting, architecture, theater, cinema, literature.

    Determining the genre of the work is a task that not every student can cope with. Why is genre division necessary at all? Where are the boundaries that separate the novel from the poem, and the story from the story? Let's try to figure it out together.

    Genre in literature - what is it

    The word "genre" comes from the Latin genus ( species, genus). Literary reference books report that:

    genre is a historically developed variety of literary works, united by a certain set of formal and substantive features.

    The definition shows that in the process of genre evolution, it is important to highlight three points:

    1. each genre of literature has been formed over a long time (each of them has its own history);
    2. the main reason for its appearance is the need to express new ideas in an original way (meaningful criterion);
    3. distinguish external signs help one type of work from another: volume, plot, structure, composition (formal criterion).

    All genres of literature can be represented as follows:

    These are three types of typology that help classify a work to a particular genre.

    The history of the emergence of genres of literature in Russia

    The literature of European countries was formed according to the principle of movement from the general to the particular, from the anonymous to the author's. Artistic creation both abroad and in Russia, it was fed by two sources:

    1. spiritual culture, the center of which was monasteries;
    2. folk speech,.

    If you look closely at the history of literature in Ancient Rus, you can see how the chronicles, patericons, lives of saints and patristic writings are gradually being replaced by new forms of narration.

    At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries such genres Old Russian literature , as a word, walking (ancestor of the travel novel), (everyday "splinter" moral parable), heroic poem, spiritual verse. Based on oral legends, which stood out separately during the disintegration ancient myth on a fairy-tale epic and a realistic war story.

    Interacting with foreign written traditions, Russian literature is enriched new genre forms : novel, socialite philosophical story, an author's tale, and in the era of romanticism - a poem, lyric poem, a ballad.

    Realistic canon brings to life problem novel, story, story. On the at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, genres with blurred boundaries are again becoming popular: essay (), essay, small poem, symbolist. Old forms are filled with original meaning, transform into each other, and destroy the set standards.

    A powerful influence on the formation of the genre system is exerted by dramatic art. Setting for theatricality changes the appearance of such genres familiar to the average reader as a poem, a story, a short story and even a small lyric poem (in the era of poets of the "sixties").

    V contemporary literature the genre canon remains open. The prospect of interaction is outlined not only within certain genres, but also within different types art. Every year appears new genre in literature.

    Literature on genera and species

    The most popular classification breaks down works "by gender" (all of its components are shown in the third column in the figure at the beginning of this publication).

    To understand this genre classification, it is necessary to remember that literature, like music, is worth on the "three whales"... These whales, called genera, are in turn divided into species. For clarity, we present this structure in the form of a diagram:

    1. The most ancient "whale" is considered epic... His progenitor, who fell apart into legend and legend.
    2. appeared when humanity crossed the stage of collective thinking and turned to the individual experiences of each member of the community. The nature of the lyrics personal experience the author.
    3. older than the epic and lyrics. Its appearance is associated with the era of antiquity and the emergence of religious cults - the mysteries. Drama has become an art of the street, a means of releasing collective energy and influencing the masses.

    Epic genres and examples of such works

    The largest epic forms, known to modern times - this is an epic and an epic novel. The ancestors of the epic can be considered a saga, widespread in the past among the peoples of Scandinavia, and a legend (for example, the Indian "Legend of Gilgamesh").

    Epic Is a multivolume story about the fate of several generations of heroes in historically established and fixed cultural tradition circumstances.

    A rich socio-historical background is required, against which events unfold. privacy heroes. For an epic, such characteristics as the multicomponent plot, the connection between generations, the presence of heroes and antiheroes are important.

    Since it depicts large-scale events over the centuries, it rarely contains a thorough psychological portrayal, but the epics created in the last few centuries combine these attitudes with achievements contemporary art... The Forsyte Saga by J. Galsworthy not only describes the history of several generations of the Forsyte family, but also gives subtle bright images individual characters.

    Unlike the epic, epic novel covers a shorter period of time (no more than a hundred years) and tells about 2-3 generations of heroes.

    In Russia, this genre is represented by the novels "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy, " Quiet Don"M. A. Sholokhov, "Walking through the agony" by A.N. Tolstoy.

    To medium forms epics include a novel and a story.

    The term " novel"Comes from the word" Roman "(Roman) and recalls the ancient prose narrative that gave birth to this genre.

    The example of an antique novel is Petronius' Satyricon. V medieval Europe a roguish novel is spreading. The era of sentimentalism gives the world a romance journey. Realists develop the genre and fill it with classical content.

    On the turn of XIX-XX centuries the following types of novels:

    1. philosophical;
    2. psychological;
    3. social;
    4. intellectual;
    5. historical;
    6. love;
    7. detective;
    8. adventure novel.

    V school curriculum many novels. Citing examples, name the books of I.A. Goncharova " An ordinary story"," Oblomov "," Break ", works by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons", " Noble Nest"," On the eve "," Smoke "," New ". The genre "Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot", "The Brothers Karamazov" by FM Dostoevsky is also a novel.

    The story does not affect the fate of generations, but has several storylines developing against the background of one historical event.

    « Captain's daughter» A.S. Pushkin and "The Overcoat" N.V. Gogol. V.G. Belinsky spoke about the championship narrative literature v culture XIX century.

    Small epic forms(story, essay, short story, essay) have one storyline, a limited number of characters and are characterized by a compressed volume.

    For example, the stories by A. Gaidar or Yu. Kazakov, the short stories by E. Po, essays by V.G. Korolenko or an essay by V. Wolf. Let's make a reservation, sometimes it "works" as a genre scientific style or journalism, but has artistic imagery.

    Lyric genres

    Large lyrical forms represented by a poem and a wreath of sonnets. The first is more story-driven, which makes it akin to an epic. The second is static. In a wreath of sonnets, consisting of 15 14 lines, a topic and the author's impressions of it are described.

    In Russia, poems are of a socio-historical nature. " Bronze Horseman"And" Poltava "A.S. Pushkin, "Mtsyri" M.Yu. Lermontov, "Who Lives Well in Russia" by N.A. Nekrasov, "Requiem" by A.A. Akhmatova - all these poems lyrically describe Russian life and national characters.

    Small forms of lyrics are numerous. This is a poem, ode, canzona, sonnet, epitaph, fable, madrigal, rondo, triolet. Some forms originated in medieval Europe (the lyric poetry in Russia especially fell in love with the sonnet genre), some (for example, the ballad) became the legacy of the German romantics.

    Traditionally small poetic works are usually divided into 3 types:

    1. philosophical lyrics;
    2. love lyrics;
    3. landscape lyrics.

    V Lately urban lyrics also stood out as a separate subspecies.

    Dramatic genres

    Drama gives us three classic genres:

    1. comedy;
    2. tragedy;
    3. the drama itself.

    All three varieties performing arts originated in Ancient Greece.

    Comedy was originally associated with religious cults of purification, mysteries, during which a carnival performance unfolded on the streets. The sacrificial goat "comos" walking along the streets with the artists, later called the "scapegoat", symbolized all human vices. They should, according to the canon, be ridiculed by comedy.

    Comedy is the genre "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov and "The Minor" by D.I. Fonvizin.

    In the era of classicism, there were 2 types of comedy: comedy provisions and comedy characters... The first played with circumstances, passed off one hero for another, had an unexpected outcome. The second pushed the characters against an idea or task, creating a theatrical conflict on which the intrigue was held.

    If during a comedy the playwright was expecting the healing laughter of the crowd, then tragedy made it her task to cause tears. She was obliged to end with the death of the hero. Empathizing with the heroes, spectator or cleansing.

    "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare were written in the genre of tragedy.

    Actually drama- This is a later invention of drama, removing therapeutic tasks and making the installation for subtle psychologism, objectivity, play.

    Definition of the genre of a literary work

    How was the poem "Eugene Onegin" called a novel? Why did Gogol define the novel Dead Souls as a poem? And why Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard"- a comedy? Genre notations are clues that remind you that there are good directions in the art world, but, fortunately, there are no beaten paths forever.

    Above is a video that helps to determine the genre of a particular literary work.

    VG Belinsky was one of the founders of Russian literary criticism. And although even in antiquity, serious steps were taken in the development of the concept literary kind(Aristotle), it is Belinsky who owns the scientifically grounded theory of three literary genera, with which you can get acquainted in detail by reading Belinsky's article "The division of poetry into genera and types."

    There are three kinds fiction: epic(from the Greek. Epos, narration), lyrical(lyre was called musical instrument, accompanied by verses in chant) and dramatic(from the Greek. Drama, action).

    Introducing a particular subject to the reader (meaning the subject of conversation), the author chooses different approaches to it:

    First approach: can be detailed tell about the subject, about the events associated with it, about the circumstances of the existence of this subject, etc .; in this case, the position of the author will be more or less detached, the author will act as a kind of chronicler, storyteller, or choose a storyteller from one of the characters; the main thing in such a work will be precisely the story, the narration about the subject, the leading type of speech will be precisely narration; this kind of literature is called epic;

    The second approach: you can tell not so much about events as about impression which they produced on the author, about those feelings which they caused; image inner world, experiences, impressions and will relate to the lyrical nature of literature; exactly experience becomes the main event of the lyrics;

    Third approach: you can portray thing in action, show him on stage; introduce its reader and viewer surrounded by other phenomena; this kind of literature is dramatic; in a drama, the author's voice will be the least likely to sound - in the stage directions, that is, the author's explanations to the actions and remarks of the heroes.

    Review the table and try to remember its contents:

    Childbirth of fiction

    EPOS DRAMA LYRICS
    (Greek - narration)

    story about events, the fate of the heroes, their actions and adventures, the image of the external side of what is happening (even feelings are shown from the side of their external manifestation). The author can directly express his attitude to what is happening.

    (Greek - action)

    image events and relationships between characters on the stage (special way writing text). The direct expression of the author's point of view in the text is contained in the remarks.

    (from the name of the musical instrument)

    experience events; image of feelings, inner world, emotional state; feeling becomes the main event.

    Each type of literature, in turn, includes a number of genres.

    GENRE is a historically developed group of works united by common features of content and form. Such groups include novels, stories, poems, elegies, short stories, feuilletons, comedies, etc. In literary studies, the concept is often introduced literary type, it is a broader concept than a genre. In this case, the novel will be considered a type of fiction, and genres - various varieties of the novel, for example, adventure, detective, psychological, parable novel, dystopian novel, etc.

    Examples of genus relations in literature:

    • Genus: dramatic; view: comedy; genre: sitcom.
    • Genus: epic; view: story; genre: fantastic story etc.

    Genres as categories historical, appear, develop and eventually "leave" from the "active stock" of artists, depending on historical era: the ancient lyricists did not know the sonnet; in our time, an archaic genre that was born in antiquity and popular in XVII-XVIII centuries Oh yeah; romanticism XIX century brought to life detective literature etc.

    Consider the following table, which shows the types and genres related to the different kinds of word art:

    Genera, types and genres of fiction

    EPOS DRAMA LYRICS
    People's Author's People's Author's People's Author's
    Myth
    Poem (epic):

    Heroic
    Strogovoi
    Fabulous
    legendary
    Historical ...
    Story
    Epic
    Thought
    Legend
    Tradition
    Ballad
    Parable
    Small genres:

    proverbs
    sayings
    puzzles
    nursery rhymes ...
    Epic Novel:
    Historical
    Fantastic.
    Adventurous
    Psychological.
    R.-parable
    Utopian
    Social...
    Small genres:
    The story
    Story
    Novella
    Fable
    Parable
    Ballad
    Lit. story...
    The game
    Rite
    Folk drama
    Raek
    Nativity scene
    ...
    Tragedy
    Comedy:

    provisions,
    characters,
    masks ...
    Drama:
    philosophical
    social
    historical
    social philosophy
    Vaudeville
    Farce
    Tragifars
    ...
    Song Oh yeah
    Hymn
    Elegy
    Sonnet
    Message
    Madrigal
    Romance
    Rondo
    Epigram
    ...

    Modern literary criticism also distinguishes fourth, a related genus of literature, combining the features of the epic and lyrical genders: lyro-epic to which the poem... Indeed, by telling the reader a story, the poem manifests itself as an epic; revealing to the reader the depth of feelings, inner world the person telling this story, the poem manifests itself as a lyric.

    In the table you came across the expression "small genres". Epic and lyric works divided into large and small genres to a greater extent in terms of volume. The large ones include an epic, a novel, a poem, and small ones - a story, a story, a fable, a song, a sonnet, etc.

    Read the statement of V. Belinsky about the genre of the story:

    If the story, according to Belinsky, is a "leaf from the book of life", then, using his metaphor, one can figuratively define the novel from the genre point of view as "a chapter from the book of life", and the story - as "a line from the book of life".

    Small epic genres to which the story belongs is "intense" by the content of prose: the writer, due to the small volume, does not have the opportunity to "spread his thoughts along the tree", to get carried away detailed descriptions, enumerations, reproduce a large number of events in detail, and the reader often needs a lot to say.

    The story is characterized by the following features:

    • small volume;
    • the plot is most often based on one event, the rest are only plotted out by the author;
    • a small number of characters: usually one or two central characters;
    • the author is interested in a specific topic;
    • one is decided main question, the rest of the questions are "derived" from the main one.

    So,
    STORY is a small prose with one or two main characters, dedicated to the image of a single event. Somewhat more voluminous story, but the difference between a story and a story is not always easy to grasp: the work of A. Chekhov "Duel" is called by some a small story, and some - a big story. The following is important: as the critic E. Anichkov wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, " the personality of the person is at the center of the stories, but not whole group people".

    The flourishing of Russian small prose begins in the 20s of the XIX century, which gave excellent examples of small epic prose, among which are the unconditional masterpieces of Pushkin ("Belkin's Tales", " The Queen of Spades") and Gogol (" Evenings on a farm near Dikanka ", Petersburg stories), romantic novellas by A. Pogorelsky, A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, V. Odoevsky and others. epic works F. Dostoevsky ("Dream funny person"," Notes from the Underground "), N. Leskov (" Lefty "," Dumb Artist "," Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district"), I. Turgenev (" Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district "," King Lear of the Steppe "," Ghosts "," Notes of a Hunter "), L. Tolstoy (" Prisoner of the Caucasus"," Hadji Murat "," Cossacks ", Sevastopol stories), A. Chekhov as the greatest master short story, works by V. Garshin, D. Grigorovich, G. Uspensky and many others.

    The twentieth century also did not remain in debt - and there are stories by I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, M. Zoshchenko, Teffi, A. Averchenko, M. Bulgakov ... Even such recognized lyricists as A. Blok, N. Gumilyov, M. Tsvetaeva "have humbled themselves to despicable prose," in the words of Pushkin. It can be argued that at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the small genre of epics took leading position in Russian literature.

    And for this reason alone, one should not think that the story raises any minor problems and touches on shallow topics. Form story laconic, and the plot is sometimes uncomplicated and concerns, at first glance, simple, as L. Tolstoy said, "natural" relations: the complex chain of events in the story simply has nowhere to unfold. But that is precisely the task of the writer, in order to enclose a serious and often inexhaustible subject of conversation in a small space of the text.

    If the plot of the miniature I. Bunin "Muravsky Shlyakh", consisting of only 64 words, captures only a few moments of the conversation between the traveler and the driver in the middle of the endless steppe, then the plot of the story A. Chekhova "Ionych" would be enough for a whole novel: artistic time the story covers almost a decade and a half. But the author does not care what happened to the hero at each stage of this time: it is enough for him to "snatch" from the hero's life chain several "links" - episodes, similar to each other, like drops of water, and the whole life of Doctor Startsev becomes extremely clear to the author, and the reader. "As you live one day of your life, so you will live your whole life," Chekhov seems to say. At the same time, the writer, reproducing the atmosphere in the house of the most "cultured" family provincial town S., can focus on the clatter of knives from the kitchen and the smell of fried onions ( artistic details! ), but to say about several years of a person's life as if they did not exist at all, or it was a "passing", uninteresting time: "Four years have passed", "Several more years have passed", as if it is not worth wasting time and paper on the image of such a trifle ...

    The image of a person's everyday life, devoid of external storms and upheavals, but in a routine that makes a person wait forever for never coming happiness, became a cross-cutting theme of A. Chekhov's stories, which determined further development Russian small prose.

    Historical upheavals undoubtedly dictate other themes and plots to the artist. M. Sholokhov in the cycle of Don stories speaks about the terrible and beautiful human destinies in a time of revolutionary upheaval. But the point here is not so much in the revolution itself as in eternal problem man's struggle with himself, in the eternal tragedy of the collapse of the old familiar world, which humanity has experienced many times. And therefore Sholokhov turns to plots that have long been rooted in world literature, depicting private human life as if in the context of the world legendary history... So, in the story "Mole" Sholokhov uses an ancient, like world, plot about a duel between a father and a son, not recognized by each other, which we meet in Russian epics, in the epics of ancient Persia and medieval Germany ... But if ancient epic the tragedy of the father, who killed his son in the battle, explains the laws of fate, not subject to man, then Sholokhov talks about the problem of man's choice of his life path, a choice that determines all further events and in the end makes one a beast in human form, and the other equal greatest heroes of the past.


    When studying topic 5, you should read those works of art that can be considered under this topic, namely:
    • A. Pushkin. Stories "Dubrovsky", "Snowstorm"
    • N. Gogol. The stories "The Night Before Christmas", "Taras Bulba", "The Overcoat", "Nevsky Prospect".
    • I.S. Turgenev. The story "Noble's Nest"; "Notes of a Hunter" (2-3 stories by choice); story "Asya"
    • N.S. Leskov. Stories "Lefty", "Dumb artist"
    • Leo Tolstoy. Short stories "After the Ball", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"
    • M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tales " Wise minnow"," Bogatyr "," Bear in the Voivodeship "
    • A.P. Chekhov. Stories "Jumping", "Ionych", "Gooseberry", "About Love", "Lady with a Dog", "Ward number six", "In the ravine"; other stories of your choice
    • I.A. Bunin. Stories and stories "The gentleman from San Francisco", "Dry land", " Light breath", "Antonov apples", "Dark alleys"AIKuprin. The story" Olesya ", the story" Garnet bracelet "
    • M. Gorky. Stories "The Old Woman Izergil", "Makar Chudra", "Chelkash"; collection "Untimely Thoughts"
    • A.N. Tolstoy. The story "Viper"
    • M. Sholokhov. Stories "Birthmark", "Another's Blood", "The Fate of a Man";
    • M. Zoshchenko. Stories "Aristocrat", "Monkey tongue", "Love" and others of your choice
    • A.I.Solzhenitsyn. The story "Matrenin's yard"
    • V. Shukshin. The stories "I Believe!", "Boots", "Space, nervous system and shmat lard "," Mil pardon, madam! "," Stalled "

    Before doing task 6, refer to the dictionary and install exact value concept with which you have to work.


    Recommended literature for work 4:
    • Grechnev V.Ya. Russian story of the end XIX-beginning XX century. - L., 1979.
    • Zhuk A.A. Russian prose second half of the XIX century. - M .: Education, 1981.
    • Literary encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 1987.
    • Literary criticism: Reference materials... - M., 1988.
    • Russian story of the XIX century: History and problems of the genre. - L., 1973.

    Literature genres

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

    The genera, types and genres of literature do not exist as something unchanging, given from time to time and eternally existing. They are born, theoretically realized, develop historically, change, dominate, freeze or retreat to the periphery, depending on the evolution of artistic thinking as such. The most stable, fundamental is, of course, extremely general concept"Genus", the most dynamic and changeable - a much more specific concept of "genre".

    The first attempts at theoretical substantiation of the genus make themselves felt in the ancient doctrine of mimesis (imitation). Plato in The State, 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, constitute the prerequisites for further division into types and genres of literature.

    Aristotle's concept of generic characteristics is traditionally called formal. Its successors are representatives of German aesthetics of the 18th-19th centuries. Goethe, Schiller, Aug. Schlegel, Schelling. At about the same time, the principles of the opposite - a meaningful approach to the generic division of fiction were laid down. It was initiated by Hegel, who proceeded from the epistemological principle: the object of artistic cognition in the epic is the object, in the lyrics - the subject, in the drama - their synthesis. Accordingly, the content of an epic work is being in its entirety, dominating the will of people, therefore the event plan prevails in it; the content of the lyric work is the state of mind, the mood of the lyric 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 a species stable structural formations within a literary genus, grouping even smaller genre modifications. For example, an epic consists of small, medium and large species, such as a story, an essay, a short story, a story, a novel, a poem, an epic. However, they are often called genres, which, in a strict terminological sense, concretize the types either in the historical, or thematic, or in the structural aspect: an antique novel, a Renaissance short story, a psychological or industrial essay or a novel, a lyrical story, a story - an epic (“Fate man "M. Sholokhov). Some structural forms combine specific and genre characteristics, i.e. types of genre varieties do not have (such are, for example, types and at the same time genres of medieval theater soti and moralite). However, along with synonymous word usage, hierarchical differentiation of both terms is relevant. Accordingly, the types are subdivided 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.

    Literature genres

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

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

    Melodrama- kind of drama, characters which are sharply divided into positive and negative.

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

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

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

    The story- medium form; a work that highlights a number of events in the life of the protagonist.

    Poem- type of lyrical epic work; poetic plot narration.

    Story - 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 can be philosophical, adventure, historical, family and everyday, social.

    Tragedy- a kind of dramatic work telling about the unfortunate fate of the protagonist, often doomed to death.

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

    Epic- a work or cycle of works depicting a significant historical epoch or a major historical event.

    Drama- (in a narrow sense) one of the leading genres of drama; a literary work written in the form of a dialogue between the characters. Intended for performance on stage. Focused on spectacular expressiveness. The mutual relations of people, the conflicts that arise between them are revealed through the actions of the heroes and are embodied in a monologo-dialogical form. Unlike tragedy, drama does not end with catharsis.