Types of literary genres by form. Literary genre How to define a literary genre
Literary work- the form of existence of literature as the art of words. What makes it artistic?
Reading room of the Russian State Library.
We always feel the special vital concreteness of a literary work. It is always connected with reality and at the same time is not identical to it, it is its image, transformation, artistic reflection. But a reflection “in the form of life,” a reflection that does not just talk about life, but itself appears as a special life.
“Art is a reproduction of reality, a repeated, as if newly created world,” wrote V. G. Belinsky. The dynamics of the content of a work of art are perfectly captured here. In order to “repeat” a world that is unique in its development and constant self-renewal, it must be “created again, as it were,” to reproduce an individual phenomenon that, without being identical reality, at the same time, will fully express its deep essence and value of life.
Life is not only material reality, but also the life of the human spirit, it is not only what is, what was realized in reality, but also what was and will be, and what is “possible due to probability or necessity” (Aristotle ). “To master the whole world and find expression for it” - this is the artist’s ultimate task, according to the excellent definition of J. V. Goethe. Therefore, reflections on the nature of a work of art are inextricably linked with the deepest philosophical question about what “the whole world” is, whether it represents unity and integrity, and whether it is possible to “find expression for it,” to recreate it in a specific individual phenomenon.
In order for a work to really exist, it must be created by the author and perceived by the reader. And again, these are not just different, externally justified, isolated, internally interconnected processes. In a truly artistic work, “the perceiver merges with the artist to such an extent that it seems to him that the object he perceives was made not by someone else, but by himself” (L.N. Tolstoy). The author acts here, as M. M. Prishvin wrote, in the role of “a persuader, forcing one to look at both the sea and the moon with his own personal eye, which is why everyone, being a unique person, appearing in the world only once, would bring humankind into the world’s repository consciousness, something from oneself into culture.” The life of a work is realized only on the basis of the harmony of the author and the reader - such a harmony that directly convinces that “every person can feel equal to everyone else and everyone else” (M. Gorky).
The work represents an internal, interpenetrating unity of content and form. “Living poems speak themselves. And they are not talking about something, but something,” wrote S. Ya. Marshak. Indeed, it is very important to be aware of this difference and not to reduce the content of a literary work to what it talks about. Content is the organic unity of display, comprehension and assessment of reality, and thoughts and assessments in works of art do not exist separately, but permeate the depicted events, experiences, actions and live only in the artistic word - the only possible form of embodiment of this life content.
The subject of reality, its comprehension and evaluation are transformed into the content of a literary work, only being internally united and embodied in artistic form. Also, any word, any means of speech turns out to be artistically significant only when it ceases to be just information, when life phenomena external to it become its internal content, when a word about life is transformed into life, captured in a literary work as a literary work. in general.
From what has been said, it is clear that the artistic form of a literary work is not just a “technique”. “What does it mean to finish a lyric poem... to bring the form to the elegance possible for it? - wrote Ya. I. Polonsky. “This, believe me, is nothing more than to refine and bring to the elegance possible in human nature one’s own, this or that feeling... Working on a poem for a poet is the same as working on one’s soul.” Work on understanding the environment and one’s own own life, over “your soul,” and work on constructing a literary work - for a real writer these are not three different types of activity, but a single creative process.
L. N. Tolstoy praised the poems of A. A. Fet for the fact that they were “born”. And V.V. Mayakovsky called his article “How to make poetry?” We understand both the opposite and the partial validity of these characteristics. Even if works of art are “born,” it is still not exactly the same as a person is born. And from the article by V.V. Mayakovsky, even with all its polemical exaggerations, it is still quite clear that poetry is “made” in a completely different way from how things are made on a conveyor belt, continuous production. In a literary work there is always this contradiction between organization (“made”) and organicity (“born”), and the highest artistic achievements are characterized by a particularly harmonious resolution of it. Let us recall, for example, the poem by A. S. Pushkin “I loved you: love is still, perhaps...”, the clear construction of which becomes a completely natural expression of a high human feeling - selfless love.
An artificially created verbal and artistic statement is transformed into an organically vital whole, each element of which is necessary, irreplaceable and vitally significant. And understand what's in front of us piece of art, - this first of all means to understand and feel that it can only be as it is: both as a whole and in each of its particles.
The life contained within the work, like a small universe, reflects and manifests in itself the universe, the fullness of human life, the entire integrity of being. And the meeting of the author and the reader in art world literary work therefore becomes an irreplaceable form of familiarization with this big world, education of true humanity, formation of a holistic, comprehensively developed personality.
Literary genre- this is a model according to which the text of a literary work is built. A genre is a set of certain characteristics that allow a literary work to be classified as an epic, lyric or drama.
Main types of literary genres
Literary genres are divided into: epic, lyrical and dramatic. Epic genres: fairy tale, epic, epic, novel-epic, story, novel, essay, story, anecdote. Lyrical genres: ode, ballad, elegy, epigram, message, madrigal. Dramatic genres: tragedy, drama, comedy, melodrama, farce and vaudeville.
Genres in literature have a number of specific characteristics, divided into: genre-forming and additional. Genre-forming features serve to determine the specifics of a particular genre. For example, a genre-forming feature of a fairy tale is an orientation towards fiction. The events occurring in the fairy tale are perceived by the listener as magical, fictitious, and not directly related to reality. The genre-forming feature of a novel is its connection with objective reality, coverage of events that happened in reality or those that could happen, a large number acting characters, paying special attention inner world heroes.
Development of literary genres
Literary genres do not tend to stand still. They develop all the time and never stop changing. When forming or changing literary genres, attention is paid to real historical reality, in the aura of which the creation of literary works takes place.
What is it needed for literary genre?
We have figured out what a genre in literature is, but it would not be amiss to consider why a literary genre is needed - what function does it perform?
The genre is able to give the reader a fairly holistic idea of the work. That is, if the title of a work contains the word “novel,” then the reader immediately begins to tune in to a significant amount of text, in contrast, for example, to a small “story,” which evokes a corresponding association with the approximate number of pages in the book.
Genre can also give the reader an idea of the content of the work. For example, if it is defined as “drama,” then we can imagine in advance that the person in the work will be shown in a dramatic relationship with society and, most likely, we will observe tragic events at the end of the book.
Together with the article “What is a genre in literature?” read:
Genre is a type of meaningful form that determines the integrity of a literary work, which is determined by the unity of theme, composition and style; a historically established group of literary works, united by a set of characteristics of content and form.
Genre in literature
IN artistic structure genre category is a modification literary type; a species, in turn, is a variety literary kind. There is another approach to the generic connection: – genre – genre variety, modification or form; in some cases it is proposed to distinguish only gender and genre.
The belonging of genres to traditional literary genres (epic, lyric, drama, lyric-epic) determines their content and thematic focus.
Genre in ancient literature
In ancient literature, the genre was an ideal artistic norm. Ancient ideas about genre norms were focused primarily on poetic forms; prose was not taken into account, as it was considered trivial reading. Poets often followed the artistic models of their predecessors, trying to surpass the pioneers of the genre. Ancient Roman literature relied on the poetic experience of ancient Greek authors. Virgil (1st century BC) continued the epic tradition of Homer (8th century BC), since the Aeneid is focused on the Odyssey and the Iliad. Horace (1st century BC) owns odes written in the manner of the ancient Greek poets Arion (VII–VI centuries BC) and Pindar (VI–V centuries BC). Seneca (1st century BC) developed dramatic art, reviving the work of Aeschylus (6th–5th centuries BC) and Euripides (5th century BC).
The origins of the systematization of genres go back to the treatises of Aristotle “Poetics” and Horace “The Science of Poetry”, in which a genre denoted a set of artistic norms, their natural and fixed system, and the author’s goal was considered to correspond to the properties of the chosen genre. The understanding of genre as a constructed model of a work led to the subsequent emergence of a number of normative poetics, including dogmas and laws of poetry.
Renewal of the European genre system in the 11th–17th centuries
The European genre system began its renewal in the Middle Ages. In the 11th century New lyrical genres of troubadour poets arose (serenades, albums), and later the genre of the medieval novel arose ( chivalric novels about King Arthur, Lancelot, Tristan and Isolde). In the XIV century. Italian poets had a significant influence on the development of new genres: Dante Alighieri wrote the poem “The Divine Comedy” (1307–1321), combining narrative and the genre of vision, Francesco Petrarch approved the genre of the sonnet (“Book of Songs,” 1327–1374), Giovanni Boccaccio canonized the short story genre (Decameron, 1350–1353). At the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. genre varieties of drama were expanded by the English poet and playwright W. Shakespeare, whose famous plays - “Hamlet” (1600–1601), “King Lear” (1608), “Macbeth” (1603–1606) - contain themselves have the characteristics of tragedy and comedy and are classified as tragicomedies.
Code and hierarchy of genres in classicism
The most complete, systematic and significant set of genre norms was formed in the 17th century. with the appearance of the poem-treatise of the French poet Nicolas Boileau-Depreo “The Poetic Art” (1674). The essay defines the genre system of classicism, regulated by reason, a generally understandable style, with the division of literary genres into epic, dramatic, and lyrical genres. The structure of the canonical genres of classicism goes back to ancient forms and images.
The literature of classicism was characterized by a strict hierarchy of genres, dividing them into high (ode, epic, tragedy) and low (fable, satire, comedy). Mixing genre characteristics was not allowed.
Genres of literary aesthetics of romanticism
Literature of the Romantic era in the 18th century. did not obey the canons of classicism, as a result of which the traditional genre system lost its advantage. In the context of a change in literary trends, deviations from the rules of normative poetics, a rethinking of classical genres occurs, as a result of which some of them ceased to exist, while others, on the contrary, became entrenched.
At the turn of the 18th–19th centuries. at the center of the literary aesthetics of romanticism were lyrical genres - ode (“Ode to the Capture of Khotin” by M. Lomonosov, 1742; “Felitsa” by G. R. Derzhavin, 1782, “Ode to Joy” by F. Schiller, 1785 .), romantic poem(“Gypsies” by A. S. Pushkin, 1824), ballad (“Lyudmila” (1808), “Svetlana” (1813) by V. A. Zhukovsky), elegy (“Rural Cemetery” by V. A. . Zhukovsky, 1808); Comedy prevailed in the drama (“Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, 1825).
Prose genres flourished: the epic novel, the story, the short story. The most common type of epic literature of the 19th century V. was considered a novel, which was called the “eternal genre.” The novels of Russian writers L. N. Tolstoy (“War and Peace,” 1865–1869; “Anna Karenina,” 1875–1877; “Resurrection,” 1899) and F. M. had a significant influence on the European epic. . Dostoevsky (“Crime and Punishment”, 1866; “The Idiot”, 1868; “Demons”, 1871–1872; “The Brothers Karamazov”, 1879–1880).
Formation of genres in literature of the twentieth century
The formation of mass literature in the twentieth century, its need for stable thematic, compositional and stylistic prescriptions led to the formation of a new system of genres, based primarily on the “absolute center of the genre system of literature” according to the Russian scientist M. M. Bakhtin - the novel.
New genres have emerged within popular literature: love story, sentimental novel, crime novel (action, thriller), dystopian novel, anti-romance, science fiction, fantasy, etc.
Modern literary genres are not part of a predetermined structure; they arise as a result of the embodiment of author's ideas in verbal and artistic works.
The origins of the appearance of genre varieties
The emergence of genre varieties can be associated with both literary direction, movement, school - a romantic poem, a classicist ode, a symbolist drama, etc., and with the names of individual authors who introduced genre-stylistic forms of the artistic whole into literary circulation (Pindaric ode, Byron's poem, Balzac's novel, etc. .), forming traditions, and this means the possibility different types their assimilation (imitation, stylization, etc.).
The word genre comes from French genre, which means genus, species.
Literary genres are groups of works collected according to formal and content characteristics. Works of literature are divided into separate categories according to the form of the narrative, the content and the type of belonging to a particular style. Literary genres make it possible to systematize everything that has been written since the time of Aristotle and his Poetics, first on “birch bark letters”, tanned skins, stone walls, then on parchment paper and scrolls.
Literary genres and their definitions
Definition of genres by form:
A novel is an extensive narrative in prose, reflecting the events of a certain period of time, with a detailed description of the lives of the main characters and all other characters involved to one degree or another in these events.
A story is a form of storytelling that does not have a specific volume. The work usually describes episodes from real life, and the characters are presented to the reader as an integral part of the events taking place.
A short story (short story) is a widespread genre of short prose and is called “short story”. Because the short story format is limited in scope, the writer can usually develop the narrative within the framework of a single event involving two or three characters. An exception to this rule was the great Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who could describe the events of an entire era with many characters in a few pages.
An essay is a literary quintessence that combines art style narratives and elements of journalism. Always presented in a concise form with a high content of specificity. The topic of the essay, as a rule, is related to socio-social problems and is of an abstract nature, i.e. does not affect specific individuals.
A play is a special literary genre designed for a wide audience. Plays are written for the theater stage, television and radio performances. In their structural design, the plays are more like a story, since the duration theater performances fits perfectly with a medium-sized story. The genre of the play differs from other literary genres in that the narration is told from the perspective of each character. The text indicates dialogues and monologues.
Ode is a lyrical literary genre, in all cases of positive or laudatory content. Dedicated to something or someone, often a verbal monument to heroic events or exploits of patriotic citizens.
An epic is a narrative of an extensive nature, including several stages of state development that have historical significance. The main features of this literary genre are global events of an epic nature. An epic can be written both in prose and in verse, an example of this is Homer's poems "Odyssey" and "Iliad".
An essay is a short piece of prose in which the author expresses his own thoughts and views in an absolutely free form. An essay is a somewhat abstract work that does not claim to be completely authentic. In some cases, essays are written with a degree of philosophy; sometimes the work has a scientific connotation. But in any case, this literary genre deserves attention.
Detectives and science fiction
Detective stories are a literary genre based on the age-old confrontation between police officers and criminals. Novels and short stories in this genre are action-packed; in almost every detective work, murders occur, after which experienced detectives begin an investigation.
Fantasy is a special literary genre with fictional characters, events and an unpredictable ending. In most cases, the action takes place either in space or in the underwater depths. But at the same time, the heroes of the work are equipped with ultra-modern machines and devices of fantastic power and efficiency.
Is it possible to combine genres in literature?
All of the listed types of literary genres have unique distinctive features. However, there is often a mixture of several genres in one work. If this is done professionally, a rather interesting and unusual creation is born. So the genres literary creativity contain significant potential for updating the literature. But these opportunities should be used carefully and thoughtfully, since literature does not tolerate profanation.
Genres of literary works by content
Each literary work is classified according to its type: drama, tragedy, comedy.
What kinds of comedies are there?
Comedies come in different types and styles:
- Farce is a light comedy built on elementary comic techniques. It is found both in literature and on the theater stage. Farce as a special comedic style is used in circus clowning.
- Vaudeville is a comedy play with many dance numbers and songs. In the USA, vaudeville became the prototype of the musical; in Russia, small comic operas were called vaudeville.
- An interlude is a small comic scene that was performed between the actions of the main play, performance or opera.
- Parody is a comedic technique based on the repetition of recognizable features of famous literary characters, texts or music in a deliberately modified form.
Modern genres in literature
Types of literary genres:
- Epic - fable, myth, ballad, epic, fairy tale.
- Lyrical - stanzas, elegy, epigram, message, poem.
Modern literary genres are periodically updated; over the past decades, several new directions in literature have appeared, such as political detective fiction, the psychology of war, as well as paperback literature, which includes all literary genres.
Genre is a type of literary work. There are epic, lyrical, dramatic genres. There are also lyric epic genres. Genres are also divided by volume into large (including Romani and epic novels), medium (literary works of “medium size” - stories and poems), small (short story, novella, essay). They have genres and thematic divisions: adventure novel, psychological novel, sentimental, philosophical, etc. The main division is related to the types of literature. We present to your attention the genres of literature in the table.
The thematic division of genres is rather arbitrary. There is no strict classification of genres by topic. For example, if they talk about the genre and thematic diversity of lyrics, they usually single out love, philosophical, and landscape lyrics. But, as you understand, the variety of lyrics is not exhausted by this set.
If you set out to study the theory of literature, it is worth mastering the groups of genres:
- epic, that is, prose genres (epic novel, novel, story, short story, short story, parable, fairy tale);
- lyrical, that is, poetic genres (lyric poem, elegy, message, ode, epigram, epitaph),
- dramatic – types of plays (comedy, tragedy, drama, tragicomedy),
- lyric epic (ballad, poem).
Literary genres in tables
Epic genres
Epic novel
Epic novel– a novel with an image folk life at turning points in history. "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, " Quiet Don» Sholokhov.
Novel
Novel– a multi-issue work depicting a person in the process of his formation and development. The action in the novel is full of external or internal conflicts. By topic there are: historical, satirical, fantastic, philosophical, etc. By structure: novel in verse, epistolary novel, etc.
Tale
Tale – epic work medium or large form, constructed in the form of a narrative about events in their natural sequence. Unlike the novel, in P. the material is presented chronically, there is no sharp plot, there is no cunning analysis of the feelings of the characters. P. does not pose tasks of a global historical nature.
Story
Story– small epic form, a small work with a limited number of characters. In R. most often one problem is posed or one event is described. The novella differs from R. in its unexpected ending.
Parable
Parable- moral teaching in allegorical form. A parable differs from a fable in that its art material draws from human life. Example: Gospel parables, the parable of the righteous land, told by Luke in the play “At the Bottom.”
Lyrical genres
Lyric poem
Lyric poem- a small form of lyrics written either on behalf of the author or on behalf of a fictional person lyrical hero. Description of the inner world of the lyrical hero, his feelings, emotions.
Elegy
Elegy- a poem imbued with moods of sadness and sadness. As a rule, the content of elegies is philosophical reflections, sad thoughts, grief.
Message
Message- a poetic letter addressed to a person. According to the content of the message, there are friendly, lyrical, satirical, etc. The message may be addressed to one person or group of people.
Epigram
Epigram- a poem that makes fun of a specific person. Character traits- wit and brevity.
Oh yeah
Oh yeah- a poem distinguished by solemnity of style and sublimity of content. Praise in verse.
Sonnet
Sonnet– a solid poetic form, usually consisting of 14 verses (lines): 2 quatrains (2 rhymes) and 2 tercet tercets
Dramatic genres
Comedy
Comedy- a type of drama in which characters, situations and actions are presented in funny forms or imbued with the comic. There are satirical comedies ("The Minor", "The Inspector General"), high comedies ("Woe from Wit") and lyrical ones ("The Cherry Orchard").
Tragedy
Tragedy- a work based on an irreconcilable conflict in life, leading to the suffering and death of the heroes. William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet".
Drama
Drama- a play with an acute conflict, which, unlike the tragic one, is not so sublime, more mundane, ordinary and can be resolved one way or another. The drama is based on modern rather than ancient material and establishes a new hero who rebelled against circumstances.
Lyric epic genres
(intermediate between epic and lyric)
Poem
Poem- an average lyric-epic form, a work with a plot-narrative organization, in which not one, but a whole series of experiences are embodied. Features: the presence of a detailed plot and at the same time close attention to the inner world of the lyrical hero - or an abundance of lyrical digressions. Poem " Dead Souls» N.V. Gogol
Ballad
Ballad- a medium lyric-epic form, a work with an unusual, intense plot. This is a story in verse. A story, told in poetic form, of a historical, mythical or heroic nature. The plot of a ballad is usually borrowed from folklore. Ballads “Svetlana”, “Lyudmila” V.A. Zhukovsky
