Famous genres of literature. Types of literature and their purpose

One of the founders of Russian literary criticism was V.G. Belinsky. And although serious steps were taken in developing the concept of literary gender back in antiquity (Aristotle), it was Belinsky who owned the scientifically based theory of three literary genera, which you can get acquainted with in detail by reading Belinsky’s article “The Division of Poetry into Genera and Types.”

There are three types of fiction: epic(from Greek Epos, narrative), lyrical(a lyre was a musical instrument, accompanied by chanting poems) and dramatic(from Greek Drama, action).

When presenting this or that subject to the reader (meaning the subject of conversation), the author chooses different approaches to it:

First approach: in detail tell about the object, about the events associated with it, about the circumstances of the existence of this object, etc.; in this case, the author’s position will be more or less detached, the author will act as a kind of chronicler, narrator, or choose one of the characters as the narrator; the main thing in such a work will be 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 the events, but about the impressed, which they produced on the author, about those feelings which they called; image inner world, experiences, impressions and will relate to the lyrical genre of literature; exactly experience becomes the main event of the lyrics;

Third approach: you can depict item in action, show him on stage; introduce to the reader and viewer of it surrounded by other phenomena; this kind of literature is dramatic; In a drama, the author's voice will be heard least often - in stage directions, that is, the author's explanations of the actions and remarks of the characters.

Look at the table and try to remember its contents:

Types of fiction

EPOS	DRAMA	LYRICS
(Greek - narrative) story about events, the fate of the heroes, their actions and adventures, a depiction of the external side of what is happening (even feelings are shown from 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(a special way of writing text). The direct expression of the author's point of view in the text is contained in the stage directions.	(from the name of the musical instrument) experience events; depiction of feelings, inner world, emotional state; the feeling becomes the main event.

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

GENRE is a historically established 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 of literary type is often introduced; this is a broader concept than genre. In this case, the novel will be considered a type of fiction, and genres will be various types of novels, for example, adventure, detective, psychological, parable novel, dystopian novel, etc.

Examples of genus-species relationships in the literature:

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

Genres being categories historical, appear, develop and over time “leave” from the “active stock” of artists depending on the historical era: ancient lyricists did not know the sonnet; in our time, the ode, born in antiquity and popular in the 17th-18th centuries, has become an archaic genre; Romanticism of the 19th century gave rise to detective literature, etc.

Consider the following table, which presents the types and genres related to the various types of word art:

Genera, types and genres of artistic literature

EPOS		DRAMA		LYRICS
People's	Author's	Folk	Author's	Folk	Author's
Myth Poem (epic): Heroic Strogovoinskaya Fabulous- legendary Historical... Fairy tale Bylina Thought Legend Tradition Ballad Parable Small genres: proverbs sayings puzzles nursery rhymes...	EpicNovel: Historical Fantastic. Adventurous Psychological R.-parable Utopian Social... Small genres: Tale Story Novella Fable Parable Ballad Lit. fairy tale...	A game Ritual Folk drama Raek Nativity scene...	Tragedy Comedy: provisions, characters, masks... Drama: philosophical social historical social-philosophical Vaudeville Farce Tragifarce...	Song	Oh yeah Hymn Elegy Sonnet Message Madrigal Romance Rondo Epigram...

Modern literary criticism also highlights fourth, a related genre of literature that combines the features of the epic and lyrical genres: lyric-epic, which refers to poem. And indeed, by telling the reader a story, the poem manifests itself as an epic; Revealing to the reader the depth of feelings, the inner world of the person telling this story, the poem manifests itself as lyricism.

In the table you came across the expression “small genres”. Epic and lyrical works are divided into large and small genres, largely in volume. Large ones include an epic, a novel, a poem, and small ones include a story, story, fable, song, sonnet, etc.

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

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

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

The story is characterized by the following features:

small volume;
The plot is most often based on one event, the rest are only plotted by the author;
a small number of characters: usually one or two central characters;
the author is interested in a specific topic;
one main issue is being resolved, the remaining issues are “derived” from the main one.

So,
STORY is a small prose work with one or two main characters, dedicated to depicting a single event. Somewhat more voluminous story, but the difference between a story and a story is not always clear: some people call A. Chekhov’s work “The Duel” a short story, and some call it a big story. The following is important: as the critic E. Anichkov wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century, " it is the person’s personality that is at the center of the stories, not a whole group of people."

The heyday of Russian short prose begins in the 20s of the 19th century, which gave excellent examples of short epic prose, including the absolute masterpieces of Pushkin ("Belkin's Tales", "The Queen of Spades") and Gogol ("Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", St. Petersburg stories ), romantic short stories by A. Pogorelsky, A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, V. Odoevsky and others. In the second half of the 19th century, short epic works were created by F. Dostoevsky ("The Dream of a Funny Man", "Notes from the Underground"), N. Leskov ("Lefty", "The Stupid Artist", "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk"), I. Turgenev ("Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District", "King Lear of the Steppes", "Ghosts", "Notes of a Hunter"), L. Tolstoy ("Prisoner of the Caucasus", "Hadji Murat", "Cossacks", Sevastopol Stories), A. Chekhov as the largest masters of the short story, works by V. Garshin, D. Grigorovich, G. Uspensky and many others.

The twentieth century also did not remain in debt - and stories by I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, M. Zoshchenko, Teffi, A. Averchenko, M. Bulgakov appear... Even such recognized lyricists as A. Blok, N. Gumilyov, M. Tsvetaeva “they stooped to despicable prose,” in the words of Pushkin. It can be argued that at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the small epic genre took over leading position in Russian literature.

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

If the plot of the miniature I. Bunin "Muravsky Way", consisting of only 64 words, captures only a few moments of the conversation between the traveler and the coachman in the middle of the endless steppe, then the plot of the story A. Chekhov "Ionych" would be enough for a whole novel: the artistic time of the story covers almost a decade and a half. But it doesn’t matter to the author 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 to the reader. “As you live one day of your life, you will live your whole life,” Chekhov seems to be saying. At the same time, the writer, reproducing the situation in the house of the most “cultured” family in the provincial town of S., can focus all his attention on the knocking of knives from the kitchen and the smell of fried onions ( artistic details!), but to talk about several years of a person’s life as if they never happened at all, or as if 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 for the image of such a trifle...

The depiction of a person’s daily life, devoid of external storms and shocks, but in a routine that forces a person to forever wait for happiness that never comes, became the cross-cutting theme of A. Chekhov’s stories, which determined the further development of Russian short prose.

Historical upheavals, of course, dictate other themes and subjects to the artist. M. Sholokhov in the cycle of Don stories he talks about terrible and wonderful human destinies during the time of revolutionary upheaval. But the point here is not so much in the revolution itself, but in the eternal problem of 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 legendary world history. Yes, in the story "Mole" Sholokhov uses a plot as ancient as the world about a duel between father and son, not recognized by each other, which we encounter in Russian epics, in the epics of ancient Persia and medieval Germany... But if the ancient epic explains the tragedy of a father who killed his son in battle by the laws of fate , beyond the control of man, then Sholokhov talks about the problem of a person’s choice of his life path, a choice that determines all further events and ultimately makes one a beast in human form, and the other equal to the greatest heroes of the past.

When studying topic 5, you should read those works of fiction that can be considered within the framework of this topic, namely:

A. Pushkin. The stories "Dubrovsky", "Blizzard"
N. Gogol. The stories "The Night Before Christmas", "Taras Bulba", "The Overcoat", "Nevsky Prospekt".
I.S. Turgenev. The story "The Noble Nest"; "Notes of a Hunter" (2-3 stories of your choice); story "Asya"
N.S. Leskov. Stories "Lefty", "Stupid Artist"
L.N. Tolstoy. Stories "After the Ball", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tales "The Wise Minnow", "The Hero", "The 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 “Mr. from San Francisco”, “Sukhodol”, “Easy Breath”, “Antonov Apples”, “Dark Alleys” by A.I. Kuprin. The story "Olesya", the story "Garnet Bracelet"
M. Gorky. Stories “Old Woman Izergil”, “Makar Chudra”, “Chelkash”; collection "Untimely Thoughts"
A.N. Tolstoy. The story "Viper"
M. Sholokhov. Stories "Mole", "Alien Blood", "The Fate of Man";
M. Zoshchenko. Stories "Aristocrat", "Monkey Language", "Love" and others of your choice
A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The story "Matrenin's yard"
V. Shukshin. Stories “I Believe!”, “Boots”, “Space, the Nervous System and Shmata of Fat”, “Pardon Me, Madam!”, “Stalled”

Before completing task 6, consult a dictionary and establish the exact meaning of the concept you will be working with.

Recommended literature for work 4:

Grechnev V.Ya. Russian story of the late XIX - early XX centuries. - L., 1979.
Zhuk A.A. Russian prose of the second half of the 19th century. - M.: Education, 1981.
Literary encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 1987.
Literary criticism: Reference materials. - M., 1988.
Russian story of the 19th century: History and problems of the genre. - L., 1973.

Nowadays you won’t find any kind of books on store shelves! The basis of the current genre wealth of literature is both the historically shaped legacy of writers of past years and the trends of the present. So today, many trends, trends and genres are presented to the attention of readers.

But literary diversity is especially interesting for writers: after all, it is up to them to decide in which genre to work. And if you are a novice author, then it is especially important for you to be able to understand the features and subtleties of genre literature in order to be sure to understand your future work. And your accuracy and insight in choosing a genre will largely determine the chances of your manuscript being accepted.

To begin with: what is a genre?

First of all, we note that there are two concepts of genre:

- literary criticism (according to the form of the work - story, novel, novel, etc.);

- applied (according to the type of work - detective story, romance novel, action film, etc.).

We will consider in detail exactly applied genres of modern literature.

So, a genre is a type of literary work that has strict boundaries (plot, main conflict and method of its resolution, characteristics of the hero, etc.). Genre is a dynamic phenomenon, and features of one genre often penetrate another, giving rise to subgenres.

What specific characteristics unite works of art into a particular genre? Let's figure it out.

The most common modern genres

A dynamic and, as a rule, bloody genre, the characteristic features of which include:

maximum action: the heroes do not stand still, even when they find themselves at a fork in the main road, and are constantly moving - along the streets of the city, from city to city, from country to country;
a minimum of meaning - even at a fork in the road, the hero does not think, but acts according to circumstances that are rarely justified by at least the fact that “the west is where the sun sets”, a minimum of logic, no descriptions other than battles;
the presence of a positive - the savior of the world, humanity, city, government. The hero is extraordinary, trained to fight, doomed to act in a situation of constant stress and danger, often finds himself in the thick of things completely by accident and at the same time always survives;
the presence of an antagonist - a negative hero who is opposed by a positive hero. The antagonist, as a rule, is very influential, rich, intelligent, slightly crazy, wants to destroy the world, country, city, government and lives to the end to either die or go to prison;
descriptions of fights, battles, traps for the hero, various weapons and military technologies make up two-thirds of the book;
mountains of corpses and a sea of blood with descriptions of injuries, bruises, torture are required; and half of the corpses are from the villain, half from the positive hero.

2. Detective.

A genre based on solving a mystery, murder, kidnapping or theft, with a detailed description of the investigation.

Genre features:

consistency of construction - accidents are excluded, causes and consequences are interconnected and justified, each assumption has a factual basis and justification;
completeness of facts - the investigation is based only on the information that is conveyed to the reader, and it must be as complete and reliable as possible. “How I came up with this, you will find out in the finale” is out of the question. It is important for the reader not only to observe the progress of actions, but also to conduct an independent investigation;
the presence of clear static elements: investigator (detective), assistant detective (partner, trainee), criminal (murderer, kidnapper, thief), victim (killed person, family of the killed person), informant (for example, a neighbor’s grandmother who knows everything about everyone), witness (witnesses), suspect (circle of suspects);
the ordinariness of the situation;
as a rule, the coverage of the investigation area is small;
in the finale, all riddles must be solved, and all questions must be answered.

3. Romance novel.

A lyrical story based on the feelings and emotions of lovers, the genre features of which are:

the presence of an extraordinary main character with a distinctive feature that sets her apart from the crowd: either she is a gray mouse and a blue stocking, or a stunning beauty with a secret defect, or an old maid, or an impulsive adventurer;
the presence of a main character - a handsome and courageous aristocrat, charming and charming, often with everything else - a scoundrel and a scoundrel, even more often - having a side romantic profession (thief, pirate, robber or Robin Hood);
the presence of a third wheel (rival) - a loving admirer of the heroine (often from childhood), a beautiful and bright rival (the hero’s former lover, his abandoned fiancee or wife);
romantic and emotional circumstances that bring future lovers together (marriage of convenience, meeting at a ball);
love (or carnal desire) - at first sight (or touch);
many obstacles that the heroes must overcome in the name of love for each other (difference in social status, poverty and pride of one of the heroes, family feud, etc.);
emotional descriptions of experiences, stormy explanations and showdowns against a beautiful backdrop (nature, ballrooms, balconies, greenhouses) occupy two-thirds of the book;
vivid and sensual descriptions of first kisses and touches are required, sex scenes - depending on the circumstances;
In the finale, the heroes must overcome all difficulties and obstacles, stay together (get married, get engaged, sleep together) and look confidently into a bright future.

4. Fantasy (science fiction,).

A genre based on the existence and interaction of unusual or unreal elements or phenomena.

Genre features:

fictional or altered reality - another planet, an alternative past or future of the Earth, space and the Universe, a parallel world, a game reality, a fairy-tale world, etc.;
a system of scientific or pseudoscientific knowledge, fictitious (system of magic) or significantly ahead of the development of modern science, as well as the results of scientific achievements (technomagic, magical artifacts, spaceships, etc.);
non-existent phenomena and biological species of plants, animals, humanoid races, etc.;
heroes endowed with unusual abilities, and the abilities themselves, which are commonplace in a fictional world;
wide, often immense (a planet or a system of worlds, the Universe), fantastic laws of the universe (the ability to move into the past, overcome the usual laws of gravity), an unusual structure of the world order, society, order, different from ours.

Each of the four named genres has, as we have already said, many subgenres: for example, fantasy detective, combat science fiction (space opera), romance fantasy and others. Surely you have met similar ones yourself. 🙂

And we will consider such modern genres as mystery, historical novel and adventure (adventure novel).

Stay tuned! 😉

Literature refers to works of human thought that are enshrined in the written word and have social significance. Any literary work, depending on HOW the writer depicts reality in it, is classified as one of three literary families: epic, lyric or drama.

Epic (from the Greek “narration”) is a generalized name for works that depict events external to the author.

Lyrics (from the Greek “performed to the lyre”) - a generalized name for works - usually poetic, in which there is no plot, but reflects the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the author (lyrical hero).

Drama (from Greek “action”) - a generalized name for works in which life is shown through conflicts and clashes of heroes. Dramatic works are intended not so much for reading as for dramatization. In drama, it is not the external action that is important, but the experience of a conflict situation. In drama, epic (narration) and lyrics are fused together.

Within each type of literature there are genres- historically established types of works, characterized by certain structural and content features (see table of genres).

EPOS	LYRICS	DRAMA
epic	Oh yeah	tragedy
novel	elegy	comedy
story	hymn	drama
story	sonnet	tragicomedy
fairy tale	message	vaudeville
fable	epigram	melodrama

Tragedy (from Greek “goat song”) is a dramatic work with an insurmountable conflict, which depicts an intense struggle of strong characters and passions, ending with the death of the hero.

Comedy (from Greek “funny song”) - a dramatic work with a cheerful, funny plot, usually ridiculing social or everyday vices.

Drama is a literary work in the form of a dialogue with a serious plot, depicting an individual in his dramatic relationship with society.

Vaudeville - a light comedy with singing couplets and dancing.

Farce - a theatrical play of a light, playful nature with external comic effects, designed for coarse tastes.

Oh yeah (from Greek “song”) - a choral, solemn song, a work glorifying, praising some significant event or heroic personality.

Hymn (from Greek “praise”) is a solemn song based on programmatic verses. Initially, hymns were dedicated to the gods. Currently, the anthem is one of the national symbols of the state.

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 lyric poem imbued with sadness. Belinsky called elegy “a song of sad content.” The word "elegy" is translated as "reed flute" or "plaintive song." 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.

Sonnet (from Provence “song”) is a poem of 14 lines, which has a certain rhyme system and strict stylistic laws. The sonnet originated in Italy in the 13th century (the creator was the poet Jacopo da Lentini), in England it appeared in the first half of the 16th century (G. Sarri), and in Russia in the 18th century. The main types of sonnet are Italian (of 2 quatrains and 2 tercets) and English (of 3 quatrains and a final couplet).

Poem (from the Greek “I do, I create”) is a lyric-epic genre, a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot, usually on a historical or legendary theme.

Ballad - lyric-epic genre, plot song with dramatic content.

Epic - a major work of fiction telling about significant historical events. In ancient times - a narrative poem of heroic content. In the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, the genre of the epic novel appeared - this is a work in which the formation of the characters of the main characters occurs during their participation in historical events.

Novel - a large narrative work of art with a complex plot, in the center of which is the fate of the individual.

Tale - a work of fiction that occupies a middle position between a novel and a short story in terms of volume and complexity of the plot. In ancient times, any narrative work was called a story.

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

Fairy tale - a work about fictional events and characters, usually involving magical, fantastic forces.

Fable is a narrative work in poetic form, small in size, of a moralizing or satirical nature.

There are three types of fiction: epic(from Greek Epos, narrative), lyrical(a lyre was a musical instrument, accompanied by chanting poems) and dramatic(from Greek Drama, action).

When presenting this or that subject to the reader (meaning the subject of conversation), the author chooses different approaches to it:

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

Third approach: you can depict item in action, show him on stage; present it to the reader and viewer surrounded by other phenomena; this kind of literature is dramatic; In a drama, the author's voice will be heard least often - in stage directions, that is, the author's explanations of the actions and remarks of the characters.

Look at the following table and try to remember its contents:

Types of fiction

EPOS	DRAMA	LYRICS
(Greek - narrative) story about events, the fate of the heroes, their actions and adventures, a depiction of the external side of what is happening (even feelings are shown from 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(a special way of writing text). The direct expression of the author's point of view in the text is contained in the stage directions.	(from the name of the musical instrument) experience events; depiction of feelings, inner world, emotional state; the feeling becomes the main event.

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

Examples of genus-species relationships in the literature:

Gender: dramatic; type: comedy; Genre: sitcom.
Genus: epic; type: story; genre: fantasy story, etc.

Genres, being historical categories, appear, develop and eventually “leave” from the “active stock” of artists depending on the historical era: ancient lyricists did not know the sonnet; in our time, the ode, born in antiquity and popular in the 17th-18th centuries, has become an archaic genre; Romanticism of the 19th century gave rise to detective literature, etc.

Consider the following table, which presents the types and genres related to the various types of word art:

Genera, types and genres of artistic literature

EPOS		DRAMA		LYRICS
People's	Author's	Folk	Author's	Folk	Author's
Myth Poem (epic): Heroic Strogovoinskaya Fabulous- legendary Historical... Fairy tale Bylina Thought Legend Tradition Ballad Parable Small genres: proverbs sayings puzzles nursery rhymes...	EpicNovel: Historical Fantastic. Adventurous Psychological R.-parable Utopian Social... Small genres: Tale Story Novella Fable Parable Ballad Lit. fairy tale...	A game Ritual Folk drama Raek Nativity scene...	Tragedy Comedy: provisions, characters, masks... Drama: philosophical social historical social-philosophical Vaudeville Farce Tragifarce...	Song	Oh yeah Hymn Elegy Sonnet Message Madrigal Romance Rondo Epigram...

LYRICAL is a type of literature in which the author’s attention is paid to depicting the inner world, feelings, and experiences. An event in lyric poetry is important only insofar as it evokes an emotional response in the artist’s soul. It is the experience that becomes the main event in the lyrics. Lyrics as a type of literature arose in ancient times. The word "lyric" is of Greek origin, but has no direct translation. In Ancient Greece, poetic works depicting the inner world of feelings and experiences were performed to the accompaniment of the lyre, and this is how the word “lyrics” appeared.

The most important character in the lyrics is lyrical hero: it is his inner world that is shown in the lyrical work, on his behalf the lyricist speaks to the reader, and the external world is depicted in terms of the impressions it makes on the lyrical hero. Note! Do not confuse the lyrical hero with the epic one. Pushkin reproduced the inner world of Eugene Onegin in great detail, but this is an epic hero, a participant in the main events of the novel. The lyrical hero of Pushkin's novel is the Narrator, the one who is familiar with Onegin and tells his story, deeply experiencing it. Onegin becomes a lyrical hero only once in the novel - when he writes a letter to Tatyana, just as she becomes a lyrical heroine when she writes a letter to Onegin.

By creating the image of a lyrical hero, a poet can make him personally very close to himself (poems by Lermontov, Fet, Nekrasov, Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, etc.). But sometimes the poet seems to be “hiding” behind the mask of a lyrical hero, completely far from the personality of the poet himself; for example, A. Blok makes the lyrical heroine Ophelia (2 poems entitled “Ophelia’s Song”) or the street actor Harlequin (“I was covered in colorful rags…”), M. Tsvetaev - Hamlet (“At the bottom is she, where is the mud?” ..."), V. Bryusov - Cleopatra ("Cleopatra"), S. Yesenin - a peasant boy from a folk song or fairy tale ("Mother walked through the forest in a bathing suit ..."). So, when discussing a lyrical work, it is more competent to talk about the expression in it of the feelings not of the author, but of the lyrical hero.

Like other types of literature, lyrics include a number of genres. Some of them arose in ancient times, others - in the Middle Ages, some - quite recently, one and a half to two centuries ago, or even in the last century.

Read about some LYRIC GENRES:
Oh yeah(Greek "Song") - a monumental solemn poem glorifying a great event or a great person; There are spiritual odes (arrangements of psalms), moralizing, philosophical, satirical, epistle odes, etc. An ode is tripartite: it must have a theme stated at the beginning of the work; development of the theme and arguments, as a rule, allegorical (second part); the final, didactic (instructive) part. Examples of ancient ancient odes are associated with the names of Horace and Pindar; The ode came to Russia in the 18th century, the odes of M. Lomonosov (“On the day of the accession to the Russian throne of Empress Elisaveta Petrovna”), V. Trediakovsky, A. Sumarokov, G. Derzhavin (“Felitsa”, “God”), A. .Radishcheva (“Liberty”). He paid tribute to the ode of A. Pushkin (“Liberty”). By the middle of the 19th century, ode lost its relevance and gradually became an archaic genre.

Hymn- a poem of laudatory content; also came from ancient poetry, but if in ancient times hymns were composed in honor of gods and heroes, then in later times hymns were written in honor of solemn events, celebrations, often not only of a state, but also of a personal nature (A. Pushkin. “Feasting Students” ).

Elegy(Phrygian "reed flute") - a genre of lyrics dedicated to reflection. Originated in ancient poetry; originally this was the name for crying over the dead. The elegy was based on the life ideal of the ancient Greeks, which was based on the harmony of the world, proportionality and balance of being, incomplete without sadness and contemplation; these categories passed into modern elegy. An elegy can embody both life-affirming ideas and disappointment. Poetry of the 19th century continued to develop elegy in its “pure” form; in the lyrics of the 20th century, elegy is found, rather, as a genre tradition, as a special mood. In modern poetry, an elegy is a plotless poem of a contemplative, philosophical and landscape nature.
A. Pushkin. "To sea"
N. Nekrasov. "Elegy"
A. Akhmatova. "March Elegy"

Read A. Blok's poem "From Autumn Elegy":

Epigram(Greek “inscription”) - a small poem of satirical content. Initially, in ancient times, epigrams were inscriptions on household objects, tombstones and statues. Subsequently, the content of the epigrams changed.
Examples of epigrams:

Yuri Olesha:

Sasha Cherny:

Epistle, or message - a poem, the content of which can be defined as a “letter in verse.” The genre also came from ancient lyrics.
A. Pushkin. Pushchin ("My first friend, my priceless friend...")
V. Mayakovsky. "To Sergei Yesenin"; "Lilichka! (Instead of a letter)"
S. Yesenin. "Letter to Mother"
M. Tsvetaeva. Poems to Blok

Sonnet- this is a poetic genre of the so-called rigid form: a poem consisting of 14 lines, specially organized into stanzas, having strict rhyming principles and stylistic laws. There are several types of sonnet based on their form:

Italian: consists of two quatrains (quatrains), in which the lines rhyme according to the scheme ABAB or ABBA, and two tercets (tercets) with the rhyme CDС DСD or CDE CDE;
English: consists of three quatrains and one couplet; the general rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG;
sometimes French is distinguished: the stanza is similar to Italian, but the terzets have a different rhyme scheme: CCD EED or CCD EDE; he had a significant influence on the development of the next type of sonnet -
Russian: created by Anton Delvig: the stanza is also similar to the Italian, but the rhyme scheme in tercets is CDD CCD.

This lyrical genre was born in Italy in the 13th century. Its creator was the lawyer Jacopo da Lentini; a hundred years later Petrarch's sonnet masterpieces appeared. The sonnet came to Russia in the 18th century; a little later, it receives serious development in the works of Anton Delvig, Ivan Kozlov, Alexander Pushkin. Poets of the “Silver Age” showed particular interest in the sonnet: K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, I. Annensky, V. Ivanov, I. Bunin, N. Gumilev, A. Blok, O. Mandelstam...
In the art of versification, the sonnet is considered one of the most difficult genres.
In the last 2 centuries, poets rarely adhered to any strict rhyme scheme, often offering a mixture of different schemes.

features of sonnet language

vocabulary and intonation should be sublime;
rhymes - accurate and, if possible, unusual, rare;
significant words should not be repeated with the same meaning, etc.

A particular difficulty - and therefore the pinnacle of poetic technique - is represented by wreath of sonnets: a cycle of 15 poems, the opening line of each being the last line of the previous one, and the last line of the 14th poem being the first line of the first. The fifteenth sonnet consists of the first lines of all 14 sonnets in the cycle. In Russian lyric poetry, the most famous are the wreaths of sonnets by V. Ivanov, M. Voloshin, K. Balmont.

Read “Sonnet” by A. Pushkin and see how the sonnet form is understood:

Text	Stanza	Rhyme	Contents(topic)
1 The stern Dante did not despise the sonnet; 2 In him Petrarch poured out the heat of love; 3 The creator of Macbeth 1 loved his game; 4 Camoes 2 clothed them with sorrowful thoughts.	quatrain 1	A B A B	History of the sonnet genre in the past, themes and tasks of the classic sonnet
5 And today it captivates the poet: 6 Wordsworth 3 chose him as his instrument, 7 When away from the vain world 8 He paints an ideal of nature.	quatrain 2	A B A IN	The meaning of the sonnet in European poetry contemporary to Pushkin, expanding the range of topics
9 Under the shadow of the distant mountains of Tauris 10 Lithuanian singer 4 in the size of his cramped 11 He instantly concluded his dreams.	terzetto 1	C C B	Development of the theme of quatrain 2
12 Our virgins did not know him yet, 13 How Delvig forgot for him 14 Hexameters 5 sacred chants.	terzetto 2	D B D	The meaning of the sonnet in Russian poetry contemporary to Pushkin

In school literary criticism, this genre of lyricism is called lyric poem. In classical literary criticism such a genre does not exist. It was introduced into the school curriculum to somewhat simplify the complex system of lyrical genres: if the clear genre features of a work cannot be identified and the poem is not, in the strict sense, an ode, a hymn, an elegy, a sonnet, etc., it will be defined as a lyric poem . In this case, you should pay attention to the individual characteristics of the poem: the specifics of the form, theme, image of the lyrical hero, mood, etc. Thus, lyric poems (in the school understanding) should include poems by Mayakovsky, Tsvetaeva, Blok, etc. Almost all lyric poetry of the 20th century falls under this definition, unless the authors specifically specified the genre of the works.

Satire(Latin “mixture, all sorts of things”) - as a poetic genre: a work whose content is the denunciation of social phenomena, human vices or individual people - through ridicule. Satire in antiquity in Roman literature (satires of Juvenal, Martial, etc.). The genre received new development in the literature of classicism. The content of satire is characterized by ironic intonation, allegory, Aesopian language, and the technique of “speaking names” is often used. In Russian literature, A. Kantemir, K. Batyushkov (XVIII-XIX centuries) worked in the genre of satire; in the 20th century, Sasha Cherny and others became famous as the author of satires. Many poems from “Poems about America” by V. Mayakovsky can also be called satires ( "Six Nuns", "Black and White", "Skyscraper in Section", etc.).

Ballad- lyric-epic plot poem of the fantastic, satirical, historical, fairy-tale, legendary, humorous, etc. character. The ballad arose in ancient times (presumably in the early Middle Ages) as a folk ritual dance and song genre, and this determines its genre features: strict rhythm, plot (in ancient ballads they told about heroes and gods), the presence of repetitions (entire lines or individual words were repeated as an independent stanza), called refrain. In the 18th century, the ballad became one of the most beloved poetic genres in Romantic literature. Ballads were created by F. Schiller ("Cup", "Glove"), I. Goethe ("The Forest Tsar"), V. Zhukovsky ("Lyudmila", "Svetlana"), A. Pushkin ("Anchar", "Groom") , M. Lermontov ("Borodino", "Three Palms"); At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the ballad was revived again and became very popular, especially in the revolutionary era, during the period of revolutionary romance. Among the poets of the 20th century, ballads were written by A. Blok ("Love" ("The Queen Lived on a High Mountain..."), N. Gumilev ("Captains", "Barbarians"), A. Akhmatova ("The Gray-Eyed King"), M. Svetlov (“Grenada”), etc.

Note! A work can combine the characteristics of some genres: a message with elements of elegy (A. Pushkin, “To *** (“I remember a wonderful moment ...”)), a lyrical poem of elegiac content (A. Blok. “Motherland”), an epigram-message, etc. .d.

The creator of Macbeth is William Shakespeare (tragedy "Macbeth").

Portuguese poet Luis de Camões (1524-1580).

Wordsworth - English romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

The singer of Lithuania is the Polish romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855).

See the material on topic No. 12.

You should read those works of fiction that can be considered within the framework of this topic, namely:

V.A. Zhukovsky. Poems: "Svetlana"; "Sea"; "Evening"; "Unspeakable"
A.S. Pushkin. Poems: "Village", "Demons", "Winter Evening", "Pushchina" ("My first friend, my priceless friend...", "Winter Road", "To Chaadaev", "In the depths of the Siberian ores...", "Anchar ", "The flying ridge of clouds is thinning...", "The Prisoner", "Conversation between a bookseller and a poet", "The Poet and the Crowd", "Autumn", "...I visited again...", "Am I wandering along the noisy streets...", " A vain gift, an accidental gift...", "October 19" (1825), "On the hills of Georgia", "I loved you...", "To ***" ("I remember a wonderful moment..."), "Madonna" , “Echo”, “Prophet”, “To the Poet”, “To the Sea”, “From Pindemonti” (“I value loud rights inexpensively...”), “I have erected a monument to myself...”
M.Yu. Lermontov. Poems: “The Death of a Poet”, “Poet”, “How often, surrounded by a motley crowd...”, “Thought”, “Both boring and sad...”, “Prayer” (“I, Mother of God, now with prayer...”) , “We parted, but your portrait...”, “I will not humiliate myself before you...”, “Motherland”, “Farewell, unwashed Russia...”, “When the yellowing field is agitated...”, “No, I’m not Byron, I’m different ...", "Leaf", "Three Palms", "From Under a Mysterious, Cold Half Mask...", "Captive Knight", "Neighbor", "Testament", "Clouds", "Cliff", "Borodino", "Clouds heavenly, eternal pages...", "Prisoner", "Prophet", "I go out alone on the road..."
N.A. Nekrasov. Poems: “I don’t like your irony...”, “Knight for an hour”, “I will soon die...”, “Prophet”, “Poet and Citizen”, “Troika”, “Elegy”, “Zine” (“You are still on you have the right to life..."); other poems of your choice
F.I. Tyutchev. Poems: “Autumn Evening”, “Silentium”, “Not what you think, nature...”, “The earth still looks sad...”, “How good you are, O night sea...”, “I met you...”, “ Whatever life teaches us...", "Fountain", "These poor villages...", "Human tears, oh human tears...", "You can't understand Russia with your mind...", "I remember the golden time...", "What are you talking about howling, the night wind?”, “The gray shadows have shifted...”, “How sweetly the dark green garden slumbers...”; other poems of your choice
A.A.Fet. Poems: “I came to you with greetings...”, “It’s still a May night...”, “Whisper, timid breathing...”, “This morning, this joy...”, “Sevastopol rural cemetery”, “A wavy cloud...”, “Learn they have - at the oak, at the birch...", "To the poets", "Autumn", "What a night, how clean the air...", "Village", "Swallows", "On the railway", "Fantasy", "The night was shining The garden was full of the moon..."; other poems of your choice
I.A.Bunin. Poems: "The Last Bumblebee", "Evening", "Childhood", "It's Still Cold and Cheese...", "And Flowers, and Bumblebees, and Grass...", "The Word", "The Knight at the Crossroads", "The Bird Has a Nest" …", "Twilight"
A.A.Blok. Poems: “I enter dark temples...”, “Stranger”, “Solveig”, “You are like the echo of a forgotten hymn...”, “The earthly heart grows cold again...”, “Oh, spring without end and without end...”, “ About valor, about exploits, about glory...", "On the Railway", the cycles "On the Kulikovo Field" and "Carmen", "Rus", "Motherland", "Russia", "Morning in the Kremlin", "Oh, I I want to live crazy..."; other poems of your choice
A.A.Akhmatova. Poems: “Song of the last meeting”, “You know, I’m languishing in captivity...”, “Before spring there are days like this...”, “Tear-stained autumn, like a widow...”, “I learned to live simply, wisely...”, “Native land "; “I have no use for Odic armies...”, “I am not with those who abandoned the earth...”, “Courage”; other poems of your choice
S.A. Yesenin. Poems: “Go you, my dear Rus'...”, “Don’t wander, don’t crush in the crimson bushes...”, “I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry...”, “Now we are leaving little by little...”, “Letter to mother,” “ The golden grove dissuaded me...", "I left my home...", "To Kachalov's dog", "Soviet Rus'", "The hewn horns began to sing...", "Uncomfortable liquid moonlight...", "The feather grass is sleeping. The dear plain...", "Goodbye , my friend, goodbye..."; other poems of your choice
V.V. Mayakovsky. Poems: “Could you?”, “Listen!”, “Here!”, “To you!”, “Violin and a little nervously”, “Mom and the evening killed by the Germans”, “Cheap sale”, “Good attitude towards horses ", "Left March", "About rubbish", "To Sergei Yesenin", "Anniversary", "Letter to Tatyana Yakovleva"; other poems of your choice
10-15 poems each (of your choice): M. Tsvetaeva, B. Pasternak, N. Gumilyov.
A. Tvardovsky. Poems: “I was killed near Rzhev...”, “I know, it’s not my fault...”, “The whole point is in one single covenant...”, “In memory of the mother,” “To the bitter grievances of one’s own person...”; other poems of your choice
I. Brodsky. Poems: “I entered instead of a wild beast ...”, “Letters to a Roman friend”, “To Urania”, “Stanzas”, “You will ride in the darkness ...”, “To the death of Zhukov”, “From nowhere with love ...”, “Notes of a fern "

Try to read all the literary works that are named in the work in a book, and not in electronic form!
When completing tasks for work 7, pay special attention to theoretical materials, since completing the tasks of this work by intuition means dooming yourself to mistakes.
Do not forget to draw up a metrical diagram for each poetic passage you analyze, checking it many times.
The key to success when performing this complex work is attention and accuracy.

Recommended reading for work 7:

Kvyatkovsky I.A. Poetic dictionary. - M., 1966.
Literary encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 1987.
Literary criticism: Reference materials. - M., 1988.
Lotman Yu.M. Analysis of poetic text. - L.: Education, 1972.
Gasparov M. Modern Russian verse. Metrics and rhythm. - M.: Nauka, 1974.
Zhirmunsky V.M. Theory of verse. - L.: Science, 1975.
Poetic structure of Russian lyrics. Sat. - L.: Science, 1973.
Skripov G.S. About Russian versification. A manual for students. - M.: Education, 1979.
Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1974.
Encyclopedic dictionary of a young literary critic. - M., 1987.

Types of literature- this is a community of verbal and artistic works according to the type of attitude of the author to the artistic whole.

In literature, three types are defined: drama, epic, lyric.

Epic- (translated from ancient Greek - word, narrative) - an objective image of reality, a story about events, the fate of heroes, their actions and adventures, an image of the external side of what is happening. The text has a mainly descriptive-narrative structure. The author directly expresses his attitude to the events depicted.

Drama- (from ancient Greek - action) - depiction of events and relationships between characters on stage in actions, clashes, conflicts; The features are: expression of the author's position through stage directions (explanations), characters are created through the heroes' remarks, monologue and dialogic speech.

Lyrics(from the ancient Greek “performed to the sounds of the lyre, sensitive”) experiencing events; depiction of feelings, inner world, emotional state; the feeling becomes the main event; external life is presented subjectively, through the perception of the lyrical hero. Lyrics have a special linguistic organization (rhythm, rhyme, meter).

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

Genre- characteristic of a certain genus. This is a historically established group of works united by common features of content and form. Literary genres are divided into epic, dramatic and lyrical.

Epic genres:

epic novel - a comprehensive depiction of people's life in a turning point in history;
a novel is a depiction of life in all its fullness and diversity;
story - a depiction of events in their natural sequence;
essay - a documentary depiction of events in the life of one person;
short story - an action-packed story with an unexpected ending;
a story is a short work with a limited number of characters;
a parable is a moral lesson in allegorical form.

Drama genres:

tragedy - literal translation - goat's song, an insoluble conflict that causes suffering and death of the heroes in the finale;
drama - combines the tragic and the comic. At its core is an acute but solvable conflict.

Lyrical genres:

ode - (classicism genre) a poem, a song of praise, glorifying the achievements and virtues of an outstanding person, hero;
elegy - a sad, mournful poem containing philosophical reflections on the meaning of life;
sonnet - a lyric poem of strict form (14 lines);
song - a poem consisting of several verses and a chorus;
message - a poetic letter addressed to one person;
epigram, epithalam, madrigal, epitaph, etc. - small forms of apt short poems dedicated to the specific goals of the writer.

Lyric-epic genres: works that combine elements of poetry and epic:

ballad - a plot poem on a legendary, historical theme;
poem - a voluminous poem with a detailed plot, with a large number of characters, with lyrical digressions;
novel in verse - a novel in poetic form.