Genre is the type of content form that determines the integrity of a literary work, which is determined by the unity of the theme, composition and style; a historically established group of literary works, united by a set of features of content and form.

Genre in literature

AT artistic structure the genre category is a modification of the literary type; the view, in turn, is a variety of the literary genre. There is another approach to the generic relationship: - genre - genre variety, modification or form; in some cases, it is proposed to distinguish only between genus and genre.
The belonging of genres to traditional literary genres (epos, lyrics, drama, lyrical epic) determines their content and thematic orientation.

Genre in ancient literature

In ancient literature, the genre was an ideal artistic norm. The ancient ideas about the genre norm were addressed mainly to poetic forms, prose was not taken into account, as it was considered trivial reading matter. Poets often followed the artistic patterns 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 oriented towards the Odyssey and the Iliad. Horace (I 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 (І century BC) developed the dramatic art, reviving the work of Aeschylus (VI-V century BC) and Euripides (V 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 the genre denoted a set of artistic norms, their regular and fixed system, and the author believed the purpose of the composition to be in accordance with the properties of the chosen genre. Understanding the 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 XI century. new lyrical genres troubadour poets (serenades, albs), later the genre of the medieval novel was born ( chivalric romances about King Arthur, Lancelot, Tristan and Iseult). In the XIV century. Italian poets had a significant impact on the development of new genres: Dante Alighieri wrote the poem " The Divine Comedy”(1307-1321), connecting the narrative and the genre of vision, Francesco Petrarch approved the genre of the sonnet (“Book of Songs”, 1327-1374), Giovanni Boccaccio canonized the genre of the short story (“Decameron”, 1350-1353). At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. genre varieties of drama expanded English poet and playwright W. Shakespeare, famous plays which - "Hamlet" (1600-1601), "King Lear" (1608), "Macbeth" (1603-1606) - contain signs of tragedy and comedy and belong to 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 advent of the treatise poem by the French poet Nicolas Boileau-Despreo "Poetic Art" (1674). The essay defines the genre system of classicism, regulated by reason, a generally understood style with the division of literary genres into epic, dramatic, lyrical genera. 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, delimiting them into high (ode, epic, tragedy) and low (fable, satire, comedy). Mixing of genre features 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, classical genres are being rethought, as a result of which some of them ceased to exist, while others, on the contrary, were entrenched.

At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. in the center literary aesthetics romanticism were lyrical genres - an ode ("Ode on 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» V. A. Zhukovsky, 1808); comedy prevailed in the drama (“Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, 1825).

Reached the heyday prose genres Keywords: epic novel, story, short story. The most common type of epic literature XIX in. 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 Dostoevsky ("Crime and Punishment", 1866; "The Idiot", 1868; "Demons", 1871-1872; "The Brothers Karamazov", 1879-1880).

The Formation of Genres in the Literature of the 20th Century

The formation of popular literature in the twentieth century, its need for stable thematic, compositional and stylistic prescriptions led to the formation new system genres, based primarily on the "absolute center of the genre system of literature" according to the Russian scientist M. M. Bakhtin - the novel.
Within the framework of popular literature, new genres have developed: love story, sentimental novel, crime novel (action movie, thriller), dystopian novel, anti-novel, Science fiction, fantasy, etc.

Modern literary genres are not part of a predetermined structure, they arise as a result of the embodiment of the author's ideas in verbal and artistic works.

The origins of genre varieties

The appearance of genre varieties can be associated both with the literary direction, trend, school - a romantic poem, classic ode, 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.), which form traditions, and this means the possibility different types their assimilation (imitation, stylization, etc.).

The word genre comes from French genre, which means genus, species.

As you know, all literary works, depending on the nature of the depicted, belong to one of the three genera: epic, lyric or drama .

1 ) Joke2) Apocrypha3) Ballad a4) Fable5) Bylina

6) Drama7) Life 8) Riddle9) Historical songs

10) Comedy11) Legend12) Lyric13) Novella

14) Ode 15) Essay16) Pamphlet17) Tale

18) Proverbs and sayings 19) Poems 20) Story21) Romance

22) Fairy tale23) Word 24) Tragedy25) Chastushka26) Elegy

27) Epigram 28) Epic29) Epic

Video lesson "Literary types and genres"

EPOS(from the Greek "narrative") is a generalized name for works depicting events external to the author.

LYRICS(from the Greek. "performed to the lyre") - this is a generalized name for works in which there is no plot, but the feelings, thoughts, experiences of the author or his lyrical hero are depicted.

DRAMA(from the Greek. "action") - a generalized name of works intended for staging on stage; the drama is dominated by the dialogue of the characters, the author's beginning is minimized.

Varieties of epic, lyrical and dramatic works are called types of literary works.

Type and genre - concepts in literary criticism very close.

Genres are variations in the type of literary work. For example, genre variety stories can be fantastic or historical tale, and the genre variety of comedy is vaudeville, etc. Strictly speaking, a literary genre is a historically established type of work of art containing certain structural features and aesthetic quality characteristic of this group of works.

TYPES (GENRES) OF EPIC WORKS:

epic, novel, story, short story, fairy tale, fable, legend.

EPIC - a major work of art that tells about significant historical events. In antiquity - a narrative poem heroic content. In the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, the epic novel genre appears - this is a work in which the formation of the characters of the main characters occurs in the course of their participation in historical events.

ROMAN is a large narrative work of fiction with complex plot, in the center of which is the fate of the individual.

A STORY is a work of art that occupies a middle position between a novel and a short story in terms of the volume and complexity of the plot. In ancient times, everything was called a story. narrative work.

STORY - a work of art of a small size, which is based on an episode, an incident from the life of a hero.

TALE - a work about fictional events and heroes, usually involving magical, fantastic forces.

FABLE (from “bayat” - to tell) is a narrative work in poetic form, small in size, moralizing or satirical in nature.

TYPES (GENRES) OF LYRICAL WORKS:

ode, hymn, song, elegy, sonnet, epigram, message.

ODA (from the Greek “song”) is a choral, solemn song.

HYMN (from Greek “praise”) is a solemn song based on programmatic verses.

EPIGRAM (from Greek “inscription”) is a short satirical poem of a mocking nature that arose in the 3rd century BC. e.

ELEGY - a genre of lyrics dedicated to sad thoughts or a lyrical poem imbued with sadness. Belinsky called an elegy "a song of sad content." The word "elegy" is translated as "reed flute" or "mournful song". The elegy originated in Ancient Greece in the 7th century BC e.

MESSAGE - a poetic letter, an appeal to a specific person, a request, a wish, a confession.

SONNET (from the Provencal sonette - "song") - a poem of 14 lines, which has a certain rhyming system and strict stylistic laws. The sonnet originated in Italy in the 13th century (the creator is the poet Jacopo da Lentini), appeared in England in the first half of the 16th century (G. Sarri), and in Russia in the 18th century. The main types of the sonnet are Italian (from 2 quatrains and 2 tercetes) and English (from 3 quatrains and the final couplet).

LYROEPIC TYPES (GENRES):

Literary genera and literary genres - the most powerful tool to ensure unity and continuity literary process. They concern characteristic features conducting the narrative, the plot, the author's position and the relationship of the narrator with the reader.

V. G. Belinsky is considered the founder of Russian literary criticism, but even in antiquity, Aristotle made a serious contribution to the concept of literary gender, which Belinsky later scientifically substantiated.

So, the types of literature are called numerous collections works of art(texts), which differ in the type of relation of the speaker to the artistic whole. There are 3 genera:

• epic;
• Lyrics;
• Drama.

The epic as a kind of literature aims to tell in as much detail as possible about an object, phenomenon or event, about the circumstances associated with them, the conditions of existence. The author, as it were, is removed from what is happening and acts as a narrator-narrator. The main thing in the text is the story itself.

The lyrics aim to tell not so much about the events, but about the impressions and feelings that the author has experienced and is experiencing. The main image will be the image of the inner world and the human soul. Impression and experience are the main events of the lyrics. This kind of literature is dominated by poetry..

The drama tries to depict the subject in action and show it on theater stage, present the described in the environment of other phenomena. The author's text is visible here only in remarks - brief explanations of the actions and remarks of the characters. Sometimes the author's position is reflected by a special reasoning hero.

Each type of literature includes several genres.

Literary genres

Genre is a group of works united by historically characteristic common features form and content. Genres include novel, poem, short story, epigram and many others.

However, between the concept of "genre" and "genus" there is an intermediate - type. This is a less broad concept than a genus, but wider than a genre. Although sometimes the term "kind" is identified with the term "genre". If we distinguish between these concepts, then the novel will be considered a kind fiction, and its varieties (novel-dystopia, adventure novel, fantasy novel) - genres.

Example: genus - epic, type - story, genre - Christmas story.

Types of literature and their genres, table.

Modern literary critics single out 4 kinds of literature - lyroepic (lyroepos). A poem is attributed to him. On the one hand, the poem tells about the feelings and experiences of the protagonist, and on the other hand, it describes the history, events, circumstances in which the hero lives.

The poem has a plot-narrative organization, it describes many experiences of the protagonist. The main feature is the presence, along with a clearly structured storyline, of multiple lyrical digressions, or paying attention to inner world character.

The lyric-epic genres include the ballad. It has an unusual, dynamic and extremely tense plot. It is characterized by a poetic form, it is a story in verse. May be historical, heroic, or mythical. The plot is often borrowed from folklore.

The text of an epic work is strictly plot-driven, focused on events, characters and circumstances. It is based on storytelling, not on experience. The events described by the author are separated from him, as a rule, by a long period of time, which allows him to be impartial and objective. Author's position can manifest itself in lyrical digressions. However, they are absent in purely epic works.

Events are described in the past tense. The story is unhurried, unhurried, measured. The world appears complete and fully known. Many detailed details, great thoroughness.

Major epic genres

An epic novel can be called a work covering a long period in history, describing many heroes, with intertwining storylines. Has a large volume. Roman is the most popular genre these days. Most of the books on the shelves bookstores belong to the genre of the novel.

The story is either classified as a small or medium genre, it concentrates on one storyline, on the fate of a particular hero.

Small genres of epic

The story embodies small literary genres. This is the so-called intensive prose, in which, due to its small volume, there are no detailed descriptions, enumeration and abundance of details. The author is trying to convey a specific idea to the reader, and the entire text is aimed at revealing this idea.

The stories are characterized by the following features:

• Small volume.
• In the center of the plot is a specific event.
• A small number of heroes - 1, a maximum of 2-3 central characters.
• It has a specific theme, which is devoted to the entire text.
• It aims to answer a specific question, the rest are secondary and, as a rule, are not disclosed.

Nowadays, it is practically impossible to determine where the story is and where the short story is, although these genres have completely different origin. At the dawn of its appearance, the short story was a short dynamic work with an entertaining plot, accompanied by anecdotal situations. It lacked psychology.

Essay is a genre of non-fiction based on real facts. However, very often an essay can be called a story and vice versa. There won't be a big mistake here.

AT literary tale a fairy-tale narrative is stylized, it often reflects the mood of the whole society, some political ideas sound.

Lyrics are subjective. Addressed to the inner world of the hero or the author himself. This kind of literature is characterized by emotional interest, psychologism. The plot fades into the background. It is not the events and phenomena that are happening themselves that are important, but the attitude of the hero towards them, how they affect him. Events often reflect the state of the character's inner world. The lyrics have a completely different attitude to time, it seems as if it does not exist, and all events take place exclusively in the present.

Lyric genres

The main genres of poems, the list of which can be continued:

• Ode is a solemn poem intended to praise and exalt
• hero (historical figure).
• Elegy is a poetic work with sadness as the dominant mood, which is a reflection on the meaning of life against the backdrop of a landscape.
• Satire is a caustic and accusatory work; epigrams are classified as poetic satirical genres.
• An epitaph is a piece of poetry written on the occasion of the death of someone. Often becomes an inscription on a tombstone.
• Madrigal - a small message to a friend, usually containing a hymn.
• Epithalama is a wedding hymn.
• The message is a verse written in the form of a letter, implying openness.
• A sonnet is a strict poetic genre that requires strict observance of the form. Consists of 14 lines: 2 quatrains, and 2 tertiary.

To understand the drama, it is important to understand the source and nature of its conflict. Drama always aims for a direct portrayal dramatic works written for stage performance. The only means of revealing the character of the hero in the drama is his speech. The hero, as it were, lives in the spoken word, which reflects his entire inner world.

The action in a drama (play) develops from the present to the future. Although events take place in the present, they are not completed, they are directed to the future. Since dramatic works are aimed at staging them on the stage, each of them implies spectacle.

Dramatic works

Tragedy, comedy and farce are genres of drama.

At the center of the classical tragedy is an irreconcilable eternal conflict, which is inevitable. Often the tragedy ends with the death of the characters who failed to resolve this conflict, but death is not a genre-defining factor, since it can be present in both comedy and drama.

Comedy is characterized by humorous or satirical image reality. The conflict is specific and usually resolvable. There is a comedy of characters and a sitcom. They differ in the source of comedy: in the first case, the situations in which the characters find themselves are funny, and in the second, the characters themselves. Often these 2 types of comedy overlap with each other.

Modern dramaturgy gravitates toward genre modifications. A farce is a deliberately comical work in which attention is focused on comic elements. Vaudeville - light comedy with a simple plot and a clearly traced author's style.

It is not worth the path of drama as a kind of literature and drama as a literary genre. In the second case, the drama is characterized acute conflict, which is less global, irreconcilable and insoluble than tragic conflict. In the center of the work - the relationship between man and society. The drama is realistic and close to life.

Which are combined on the basis of formal and meaningful features. They develop historically, experiencing the emergence, flourishing, and some decline. They include novels, short stories, elegies, feuilletons, stories, comedies, etc. The concept of literary genres is narrower than literary genera. Each contains several genres. For example, a story, a short story, a novel are included in the author's epic race literature.

The first attempt to systematize literary genres was made in his book by He presented them as something regular, established once and for all. The author had only to fit into the norms of the genre to which he turned. This understanding led to the emergence of a kind of textbooks on normative poetics. The most famous among them was the treatise "Poetic Art" by N. Boileau. Of course, since the time of Aristotle, literary genres and genres have not remained absolutely unchanged, but theorists preferred either to ignore innovations or to reject them. This lasted until it became impossible not to notice the processes taking place in the literature. Some genres of literary works suddenly took off and just as quickly died out, only occasionally flashing in the creative sky (as was the case with the ballad). Others, on the contrary, came out of an undeserved "conclusion" (for example, a novel).

In Russian literary criticism, the theory that substantiates literary genres and genera belongs to V. G. Belinsky. He singled out three types, depending on the author's approach to the way the subject of conversation is presented: epic, drama and lyrics.

The attribution of a work to a specific genre depends on what criterion is taken as a basis. If taken into account literary gender(drama, lyrics, epic), then all genres are divided, respectively, into dramatic, lyrical and epic.

The works representing the dramatic genre of literature are comedy, drama and tragedy.

Comedy is designed to reflect something incongruous in life, to ridicule everyday or social phenomenon, human character traits, sometimes absurd behavior.

Drama is a work that depicts a complex conflict that has arisen between several characters, a serious opposition between them.

Tragedy is a work in which the character actor reveals himself in a struggle leading to his death, or in conditions from which he sees absolutely no way out.

Literary works representing the epic genre of literature are divided into three groups:

Large (novel, and epic);

Medium (story);

Small (short story, essay, story).

This genre also includes a fairy tale, an epic, a ballad, a fable, a historical song and a myth.

Works representing the lyrical genre of literature are stanzas, an ode, an elegy and a message.

An elegy is a small poem, completely imbued with a slight sadness. The most famous are the elegies of the classics of the 19th century.

A message is a work written in the form of a poetic appeal to one person or to several persons.

An ode is a poem in honor of a past or upcoming celebration, in honor of some person, characterized by enthusiasm.

In addition, on present stage Literary scholars distinguish another, lyrical-epic kind of literature. It combines the features of the lyric and the epic and is represented by a poem. This work is indeed ambiguous. On the one hand, it tells in detail about some event, character (like the epic), and on the other hand, it conveys the feelings, moods, experiences of the hero or the narrator himself, the inner world, thereby approaching the lyrics.

AT recent times new genres in literature did not appear.

Literature is an amoebic concept (in equal terms, as well as types of literature): throughout the centuries-old development of human civilization, it inevitably changed both in form and in content. We can confidently speak about the evolution of this art form in global scale or be strictly limited to certain periods of time or a specific region ( ancient literature, Middle Ages, Russian literature of the 19th century. and others), however, it must be understood as true art words and an integral part of the global cultural process.

word art

Traditionally, when talking about literature, the individual means fiction. This concept(often a synonym is used - “the art of the word”) arose on the fertile soil of oral folk art. However, unlike him, literature in given time exists not in oral, but in writing(from Latin lit(t)eratura - literally "written", from lit(t)era - literally "letter"). Fiction uses words and constructions of written (natural human) language as a single material. Literature and other art forms are similar to each other. But its specificity is determined in comparison with the types of art that use other material instead of linguistic-verbal ( art, music) or together with it (songs, theater, cinema), on the other hand - with other types of verbal text: scientific, philosophical, journalistic, etc. In addition, fiction combines any author's (including anonymous) works, in unlike works of folklore that clearly do not have a specific author.

Three main genera

Types and types of literature are significant associations according to the category of the relationship of the "speech carrier" (speaking) to the artistic whole. There are three main genera:

Types and genres of literature

In the most common classification, all types of fiction are divided into frames. They can be epic, which includes a story, a novel, and a short story; lyrical poems include; ballads and poems are lyrical; dramaturgy can be divided into drama, tragedy and comedy. Literary types can be distinguished from each other by the number of characters and storylines, volume, functions and content. At various periods in the history of literature, one species can be represented in different genres. For example, philosophical and psychological novels, detective novels, social and picaresque. Theoretically, Aristotle began to divide works into types of literature in his treatise called Poetics. His work was continued in modern times by the French poet-critic Boileau and Lessing.

Literature typification

Editorial and publishing preparation, i.e., the selection of written essays for subsequent editions, is usually carried out by the publishing editor. But it is quite difficult for an ordinary user to accurately navigate in the boundless sea. It is more expedient to use a systematic approach, namely, you need to clearly distinguish between the types of literature and their purpose.

• The novel is an imposing form of work that has great amount heroes with a fairly developed and closely related system of relationships between them. A novel can be historical, family, philosophical, adventure and social.
• Epic - a series of works, less often single, invariably illuminating a significant historical era or major event.

• Novela - the primary genre of narrative prose, much shorter than a novel or short story. The collection of stories is usually called short stories, and the writer is called a short story writer.

Not the last of the significant

• Comedy is a creation that ridicules individual or social shortcomings, focusing on especially awkward and ridiculous situations.

• Song - ancient species poetry, without which the category "types of fiction" would not be complete. The work is a poetic form with many verses and refrains. There are: folk, lyrical, heroic and historical.

• A fable is a prose, but more often a poetic, work of a moralistic, moralistic and satirical nature.

• Story - literary work a certain, often small, size, which tells about a separate event in the life of a character.

• Myth - narration is also included in the section "types of literature" and carries to future generations the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe ancestors about the universe, heroes and gods.

• A lyric poem is an expression of the author's emotional experiences in a poetic form convenient for him.

• Essay - a narrative, a subspecies of the epic, which reliably tells about real events, facts.

• A story is a work similar in structure to a story, but differing in volume. The story can tell about several events from the life of the main characters at once.

• Melodrama - deservedly continues the list of the category "types of literature", this is a narrative dramatic work, characterized by a categorical division of heroes into positive and negative.

Literature and modernity

Life itself every day more and more insistently convinces everyone that the level of consistency and unity of book publications, newspaper and magazine materials is one of the main criteria for the effectiveness of society education. Naturally, First stage acquaintance with literature (not counting children's) starts at school. Therefore, any literature for teachers contains a variety of literature, which help to convey the necessary knowledge in an accessible form for the perception of the child.

individual choice

It is difficult to overestimate the role of literature in life modern man After all, books have brought up more than one generation. It was they who helped people to comprehend and the world, and himself, encouraged the pursuit of truth, moral principles and knowledge, taught to respect the past. Unfortunately, literature and other arts in modern society are often underestimated. There is a certain category of individuals who declare that literature has already outlived its usefulness, it has been fully replaced by television and cinema. But whether to take advantage of the opportunity that books provide or not is an individual choice for everyone.