A kind of narrative literature. What genres are there in literature? What is genre in literature

Types of genres in literature: a detailed description with examples of works.

Genre in literature is a free generalization of works by form, content and genre. In this article, we will analyze genres in detail, and give examples to help determine a particular genre. It is worth noting that the works are very diverse and sometimes they can belong to several genres at once.

What is genre in literature?

In ancient times, there were very few books and they were mostly religious in nature, or they were works describing historical events. Over time, the books became widespread, and accordingly covered all spheres of life and many interests.

Even Aristotle began to introduce the first formulations regarding the genre in literature, but since then many genres have appeared, which are regularly updated and added. Today, there are many literary works in the world, and in order for my reader to find the work of interest to him, there is a clear definition of genres according to three criteria, but at the same time the same work can be attributed to both comedy and fantasy, etc. etc.

It should be noted that both poetry and prose fall into the cut of literary genres. A work can be classified according to one of the genres, regardless of whether it spans a page or several volumes. But at the same time, the works will belong to different forms of literary genres. It is also worth remembering that one work can include several genres.

For example, a vivid example of stories is the collection of the same name by Anton Chekhov, while the collection is also classified as a work in the humorous genre. But over the genre of the work "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, there are disputes today. This is definitely a novel, but family and everyday life, love threads, philosophy, history and socio-psychological themes are woven together in it. It is impossible to dwell on one, but critics periodically try to justify that one of the directions is still the leading one.

Young writers often have a question - is it worth sticking to one genre line at the beginning of a work? Indeed, only professionals can cover several burning genres at once and twist them into the plot in such a way that the reader will wait for events every next line. But as famous writers report, they wrote their best works, focusing on the plot, the desire to point out an important problem and striving to inspire the reader. And only in the last place were they guided by the genre, since it can be determined for sure when the work will be sent to print.

Genre in literature: forms

The genre of literature consists of three directions, and they, like three whales, complement each other, but do not replace each other, therefore, it is advisable to single out each criterion in a separate section. Let's start dividing the genre in literature by form.

Forms of genres in literature:

Visions - a genre that was actively used in the Middle Ages, but is now practically not used. In this genre, both the oracle (clairvoyant) himself and his visions, which were often interpreted as predictions, are described. It is believed that the most common variations of the vision were in Christianity, but they were also used in Islam and in pagan cultures, and this genre was also used by public non-religious figures such as Nostradamus;
Novels - a genre in literature that is stylistically similar to the story and in many cultures, the story and the short story are called one word. But in the novel there is a thin thread of narration, which necessarily leads to a certain life wisdom. Therefore, in Russian sources, short stories are often characterized as instructive works performed in prose. The best example is probably the novels by Guy de Maupassant, which have a unique ending and plot denouement in a very unexpected way;

Guy de Maupassant's short stories are popular not only in book format, but also on large screens

Oh yeah - Another literary genre forgotten by contemporaries, but especially beloved during the Middle Ages and earlier. It is a laudatory, praising song or poem set to music. Laudatory lyrics were actively used in antiquity, when writing was the privilege of the aristocracy, and ordinary people could remember and honor heroes, passing the works from mouth to mouth. Therefore, the court poets composed delightful lyrics about events and heroes, put on music and received magnificent odes, which are read today. One of the striking examples is the ode to Lomonosov, written by him in honor of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna;
Opus - genre in literature, which characterizes musical works. Opuses include all kinds of musical operas and performances, all kinds of plays and even folk songs. Today, opuses are written less frequently. But this is most likely due to the fact that the demand for opus has decreased significantly, and publishers' editors choose exclusively diamonds of modern opus, discarding all other options. One example is Brahms' opus;
Feature article - genre in literature, which has a distinctive feature in that its prose is half documentary, and only slightly "powdered" with fictional speech. In the essays, the problem is at the head, and in the process of dynamically developing events this problem is being solved or reaches its peak of insolubility. Since essays are short works, they are most often published in cycles, but there is a peculiarity from short stories ... Cycle of essays - this is a collection of essays with a single problem, while the plots, main characters and even the times of the described events are completely different;
Story - genre in literature, which is designated abroad as a "short story". This is prose, which runs in chronology and most often describes a certain segment of life or a certain event. The story has a certain meaning - the narration of something. But for a long time, this genre was seen as a link between novel and short story. At this time, almost every prose was called a story with a number of pages that did not reach the novel. Today, the story is a small prose, in which there is a protagonist, and a segment of his life, it is he who becomes a turning point or key in the life of the hero. At the same time, the story, as in ancient times, tells the story of the hero's life from the third person, without going into deep details, thoughts and nature. One of the clearest examples of the story is Gogol's Notes of a Madman;
- a genre of literature that was separated from opus in the last century and is characterized as a work with the presence of heroes and their dialogues with monologues. Short remarks with decorations, description of emotions, etc. are allowed. Unlike an opus, a play can be either poetry or prose. An example of a Russian play is Ostrovsky's The Thunderstorm;

The play "Thunderstorm" in a modern production

Story - a generalizing genre of literature, which was singled out as the designation of a short work, with a variety of directions. A story can be a kind of reasoning on a certain topic, a description of certain events and thoughts in this regard, as well as a story, both from the first and from the third person. Chekhov wrote amazing stories, and today they are collected in a single collection, which is worth reading for everyone;
Sketch - this genre of literature appeared in the 16th century and is an artistic comedy short film with a limited number of characters. Sketches were often transformed into mini performances in market squares. Today one of the most popular sketches "What is Love" was filmed with the famous comedian Jim Carey;
Epic - a literary genre that received tremendous recognition in antiquity and is currently no less popular. An epic can be both in poetry and in prose, while the main distinguishing feature of the epic is the length of the narrative. This is a series of works that go in chronological order and describe the life of an entire generation. Today everyone knows the epic set on the film - "Game of Thrones" by George Raymond Richard Martin;
Epos - a literary genre that tells about historical events, and in particular about the heroes of the past. It is from the epics that we can learn in the smallest detail how we lived in a certain section of time, as well as details about the events that took place thousands of years ago. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest work that reveals the curtain of the past for us;
Essay - a genre of literature that is widely used in school education. Namely, prose, in which the author describes in the first person the impressions of a certain event. It can be a time of the year, a book read, a socially significant event, etc. The famous example of an interesting essay by FM Dostoevsky and his "Diary of a Writer".

This completes the basic forms and move on to the next category.

Genre in literature: content

Currently, in bookstores and libraries, it is according to this criterion that literature is divided, since readers most often choose not the volume of literature, but the content itself in a comedy, dramatic or other genre.

Comedy Is a genre in literature that has remained at the forefront for many years. The work can be both open satire and humor, and veiled under certain life events. Also comedy is subdivided into farce (ease of content, comic scenes and laid-back characters), vaudeville (a favorite genre of the aristocracy, in which light content was accompanied by songs with dances and funny couplets). Interlude Is a short comedy genre in which comic dialogue takes place among several characters. Often the genre was presented in theaters during intermissions. Parody - the comic genre of literature, which became widespread in Russia thanks to Zhvanetsky, Zadornov and other media persons. There is also a subdivision for state comedy and character comedy. A remarkable example of the comedy literary genre is Radio Murakami by the golden pen of Haruki Murakami;
Tragedy - a genre in literature, in the plot of which tragic events unfold. Or a plot in which events lead to a tragic end. The tragedy is characterized by harsh realism and many eccentric scenes. A very popular genre for plays. One of the most magnificent novels in this genre, Leo Tolstoy's inimitable Anna Karenina;
- a genre in literature, which received the greatest distribution in the middle of the last century and today has practically supplanted its brother - tragedy. The content of the drama contains many conflicts, descriptions of life, everyday life and a certain vitality. These works raise the theme of the monotony of life, the achievement of some goals and the omission of others. In general, all the imperfection of our world is collected in the pages of dramas. An example of a drama is Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, but one should not forget that this novel contains many concepts, and the dramatic plot is only one component of a work that is unique in its plot;

The drama "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov is one of the most controversial works of Russian literature

Horror - a genre in literature capable of raising the hair on the head on end, and even taking away sleep for a long time. It is this genre that is currently the most sold. The main content of the works is a plot enveloping horrific events, in which both unreal events and heroes and descriptions of real life situations may be present. Stephen King's novels are a splendid example of this genre;
Science fiction and fantasy - modern genres of literature that have had a huge audience response. In these works, there are both good wizards and elves, as well as clans of witches, packs of werewolves and the family struggle of vampires. Many works are very realistic and it seems that real events are described, but among them fantastic heroes and events are intertwined. JK Rowling's "Harry Potter" series of books was the most famous;
Love story - a genre of literature that appeared in the eighteenth century and received tremendous distribution and recognition almost immediately. In the content of the work, passions are always simmering on the basis of love, but the plot does not have to end happily, sometimes it is told in love stories and about unhappy love. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is romantic, but it's worth noting that it contains both drama and historical detail;
Detectives - a genre of literature, whose roots go back to antiquity, but it received its recognition thanks to Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes. The plot is always based on an investigation, but not always on the presence of a crime. That is why the works of this genre were assigned to one or another genre, without highlighting a separate subspecies. In the plot of the detective story, the author leads the reader along the path of investigation, describing in parallel the images and lives of the heroes. Most often, such works are dynamic and read avidly.

On this, the main criteria of the genre of literature have been exhausted in terms of content, and we can proceed to the last criterion - the kinds of genres.

Genre in literature: by birth

In the genres of literature, there are three main genres and one hybrid, which has absorbed two genres at the same time. For convenience, we will consider them in the table.

The classification of genres of literature based on this is exhausted, but do not forget that this is only the tip of the iceberg and there are many additional directions in the literary world that seek to complement the main classification.

Video: Genres of literature. Genres of books. Literary genres

Video tutorial 2: Literary genres and genres

Lecture: Literary birth. Literature genres

Literary birth

Epos - a story of past events. Large epic works contain descriptions, reasoning, lyrical digressions, dialogues. The epic involves the participation of a large number of actors, many events, not limited by time or space. In works of an epic character, a significant role is assigned to the narrator or narrator, who does not interfere with the course of events, evaluates what is happening detachedly, objectively (the novels of I. Goncharov, the stories of A. Chekhov). Often times, the narrator tells a story as heard from the narrator.

Lyrics unites a lot of poetic genres: sonnet, elegy, song, romance. The lyrical work is easy to distinguish from the other two main types of literature - epic and drama - by the absence of eventfulness and the presence of an image of a person's inner world, a description of the change in his moods and impressions. In the lyrics, the description of nature, event or object is presented from the standpoint of personal experience.

Between these main types of literature, there is an intermediate one, lyric-epic genre. The lyro-epic combines an epic narration and lyrical emotionality into one whole (A. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin").

Drama - the main literary family, which is in two forms - a kind of stage action and a genre of literature. In a dramatic work, there is no detailed narrative description, the text consists entirely of dialogues, remarks, monologues of the characters. In order for a stage action to show signs of drama, a conflict is necessary (the main and only one, or several conflict situations). Some playwrights masterly know how to show inner action when the characters only think and worry, thereby "moving" the plot to the denouement.

So, remember what is the difference between the main literary genders:

Epic - the event is told

Lyrics - the event is experienced

Drama - the event is portrayed

Literature genres

Novel- belongs to the epic genus of literature, is distinguished by a significant time period in the development of the plot, filled with many characters. Some novels trace the fate of several generations of the same family ("family sagas"). In the novel, as a rule, several storylines develop simultaneously, complex and deep life processes are shown. A work written in the genre of a novel is saturated with conflicts (internal, external), events do not always preserve the chronology of succession.

Subject	Structural varieties
autobiographical	parable
historical	feuilleton
adventurous	pamphlet
satirical	novel in verse
philosophical	epistolary, etc.
adventure, etc.

The novel is an epic describes wide layers of folk life at the climax, at the turning point of historical eras. Other features of the epic are similar to those of the novel as an epic work. The genre includes "Quiet Don" by M. Sholokhov, "War and Peace" by L. Tolstoy.

Story- a prose work of an average volume (less than a novel in terms of the amount of text and the number of characters, but more of a story).

Compositional features: chronicle development of events is inherent in the story, the author does not pose large-scale historical tasks for the reader. Compared to the novel, the story is a more "chamber" literary genre, where the main action is focused on the character and fate of the protagonist.

Storyis a work of small prosaic form. Typical signs:

short duration of events,

a small number of characters (there can be only one or two characters),

one problem,

one event.

Feature article - a literary prose work of a small form, a kind of story. For the most part, the essay touches on pressing social problems. The plot is based on facts, documents, observations of the author.

Parable - a small prosaic story of an instructive nature, the content is conveyed with the help of allegories, in an allegorical manner. A parable is very close to a fable, however, unlike it, it does not end the narrative with a ready-made morality, but invites the reader to think for himself and draw a conclusion.

Poetry

Poem - a voluminous poetic story work. The poem combines the features of lyrics and epic: on the one hand, this is an expanded, voluminous content, on the other hand, the inner world of the hero is revealed in all details, his experiences, movements of the soul are carefully studied by the author.

Ballad. Works written in the genre of ballads are not as common in modern literature as poems or songs, but in earlier times ballad art was very widespread and popular. In ancient times (presumably in the Middle Ages), the ballad was a folklore work of a ritual nature, combining song and dance. The ballad is easily recognized by the plot of the narration, subordination to a strict rhythm, repetitions (refrains) of individual words or entire lines. They especially loved the ballad in the era of romanticism: the thematic diversity of the genre allowed romantic poets to create fantastic, fabulous, historical, humorous works. Quite often, plots from translated literature were taken as a basis. The ballad experienced its rebirth at the beginning of the 20th century; the genre developed during the years of the development of the ideas of revolutionary romanticism.

Lyric poem. The most beloved representative of the poetic genre by readers and listeners is a lyric poem. Small in volume, often written in the first person, the poem conveys the feelings, moods, experiences of the lyric hero, or directly the author of the poem.

Song.Small poetic works containing stanzas (verse) and refrain (chorus). As a literary genre, the song is in the culture of every nation, these are the oldest examples of amateur oral creativity - folk songs. Songs are composed in a variety of genres: historical, heroic, folk, humorous, etc. A song can have an official author - a professional poet, a song can have a collective author (folk art), songs are composed by professional amateurs (the so-called "author's", amateur song).

Elegy.One can guess what the elegy is from the translation of the meaning of the word from the Greek language - “a plaintive song”. Indeed, elegies always bear the imprint of a sad mood, sadness, sometimes even sorrow. Certain philosophical experiences of the lyrical hero are turned into an elegiac form. The elegiac verse was very popular among romantic and sentimental poets.

Message. A letter in verse, addressed to a specific person or group of persons, received the name “message” in poetry. The content of such a work could be friendly, lyrical, mocking, etc.

Epigram. This small poem could be quite capacious in content: often in just a few lines there was a capacious, destroying characterization of a person or several persons. The epigram was recognizable by two circumstances: wit and extreme brevity. A. Pushkin, P. Vyazemsky, I. Dmitriev, N. Nekrasov, F. Tyutchev were famous for their magnificent, sometimes impartial epigrams. In modern poetry A. Ivanov, L. Filatov, V. Gaft are considered to be outstanding masters of the “striking line”.

Oh yeahcomposed in honor of an event or a specific person. A poetic work of a small form was filled with solemn content, was distinguished by pompous presentation ("high calm"), bombast. If Oda was dedicated to a reigning person, the small form could significantly "enlarge" so that the poet could mark in verse all the excellent qualities of the addressee.

Sonnet - a poem of 14 lines (4 + 4 + 3 + 3), has certain construction rules:

Three-line. Interchange

Three-line. The denouement is outlined

Quatrain. Exposition development

Quatrain. Exposition

The final line of the denouement expresses the essence of the poem.

Comedy, tragedy, drama

It's very difficult to define funny. What exactly gives rise to laughter? Why is it funny?

Comedy (Greek "funny song") from the moment of its appearance to the present day is the most beloved type of stage work and literary creation. In works of comedic content, the authors depict human types and various life situations in a comic manifestation: ugliness is presented as beauty, dullness is presented as a manifestation of a brilliant mind, etc.

Comedies are of several types:

"High" ("Woe from Wit") - a serious life situation is presented against the background of the actions of comic characters.

Satirical ("The Inspector General") - exposes characters and actions in a funny, ridiculous light.

Lyric ("The Cherry Orchard") - there is no division of heroes into "good" and "bad", there is no action, there is no visible conflict. Sounds, details, symbolism are becoming important.

Tragedy - a special dramatic genre: there is no, and cannot be, a happy ending in the work. The plot of the tragic work consists in the irreconcilable clash of the hero with society, with Fate, with the world around him. The outcome of a tragedy is always sad - in the finale, the hero must die. Especially tragic were the ancient Greek tragedies created according to strictly prescribed rules. Later (in the 18th century), the tragedy began to gradually lose its genre severity, drawing closer to the drama. New genres are being formed - heroic historical, tragic drama. At the end of the XIX century. the unification of tragedy and comedy took place, a new genre appeared - tragicomedy.

Drama differs as a genre of literature and as a kind of stage performance.

To understand the features of the drama, one can compare the features, characteristic features of the tragedy and the dramatic work.

The main genres of literature are groups of works that are identical formally and in style of presentation. Even in the days of Aristotle, literature was divided into genres, evidence of this is the "Poetics" of the Greek philosopher, a treatise on literary evolution, written three hundred years before the birth of Christ.

in literature?

Literature dates back to biblical times, people have always written and read. containing at least some text is already literature, for what is written is a person's thoughts, a reflection of his desires and aspirations. Lectures, petitions, church texts were written in great numbers, and thus the first literary genre appeared - birch bark. With the development of writing, the chronicle genre arose. Most often, what was written already bore some literary signs, graceful turns of speech, figurative allegories.

The next genre of literature was bylinas, epic legends about heroes and other heroes of historical plots. Religious literature, descriptions of biblical events, and the lives of the higher clergy can be considered separate.

The advent of book printing in the 16th century marked the beginning of the rapid development of literature. Styles and genres took shape throughout the 17th century.

18th century literature

The question of what genres are in can be answered unequivocally, that the literature of that time is conventionally divided into three main directions: drama, narration and poetic verses. Dramatic works often took the form of tragedy, when the heroes of the plot died, and the struggle between good and evil became more and more deadly. Alas, the conjuncture of the literary market dictated its conditions even then. The genre of calm storytelling also found its readers. Novels, novellas and short stories were considered the "middle link", while tragedies, poems and odes belonged to the "high" genre of literature, and satirical works, fables and comedies - to the "low" one.

Verse is a primitive form of poetry, which was used at balls, social events and other events of the highest nobility of the capital. Poems in the verse genre had signs of syllogistics; the verse was divided into rhythmic segments. The mechanical syllable, deadly for real poetry, dictated fashion for a long time.

Literature 19-20 centuries

The literature of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th is distinguished by several genres that were most in demand in the golden age of Pushkin and Gogol, and then in the silver age of Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin. Drama, epic and lyric poetry - this is what genres are in the literature of the past and the century before last.

The lyrics had to have an emotional connotation, be meaningful and purposeful. Its categories were ode and elegy, and an ode - with enthusiastic surprise, chanting and elevation to the rank of heroes.

The lyrical elegy was built on the principle of the sad tonality of the verse, sadness as a result of the hero's experiences, regardless of what was the reason - or the disharmony of the universe.

What are genres in contemporary literature?

There are a lot of genres in modern literature, among them the most popular ones demanded by a wide readership can be distinguished:

Tragedy is a kind of literary genre of drama, characterized by extreme emotional stress, with the obligatory death of the heroes.
Comedy is another kind of drama genre that is the opposite of tragedy, with a fun plot and a happy ending.
The fairy tale genre is a literary direction for children, their creative development. There are many literary masterpieces in the genre.
The epic is a literary genre of historical sense, describes individual events of past times in the style of heroism, is distinguished by a large number of characters.
The novel genre is an extensive narrative, with several storylines, describing in detail the life of each character separately and all together, and is distinguished by a penchant for analyzing events.
The story is a genre of medium form, written according to the same scheme as the novel, but in a more concise context. In the story, one character is usually singled out as the main character, the rest are described in "binding" to him.
Story is a genre of short storytelling, a summary of one event. Its plot cannot have a continuation, it represents the quintessence of the author's thought, it always has a complete form.
The novella is a genre similar to the story, the only difference is the sharpness of the plot. The story has an unexpected, unpredictable ending. This genre suits thrillers well.
The genre of the essay is the same story, but in a non-artistic manner of presentation. In the essay, there are no flowery turns of speech, grandiloquent phrases and pathos.
Satire as a literary genre is rare, its accusatory orientation does not contribute to its popularity, although satirical plays in theatrical production are well received.
The detective genre is the most popular literary trend in recent times. Millions of paperback books by popular authors such as Alexandra Marinina, Daria Dontsova, Polina Dashkova and dozens of others have become tabletop for many Russian readers.

Conclusion

They are diverse, each contains the potential for further creative development, which will certainly be used by modern writers and poets.

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

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

Genre in literature - what is it

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

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

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

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

All genres of literature can be represented as follows:

These are three types of typology that help classify a work in one genre or another.

The history of the emergence of genres of literature in Russia

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

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

If you look closely at the history of literature in Ancient Rus, you can see how new ones gradually come to the patericons, the lives of saints and patristic writings.

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

Interacting with foreign written traditions, Russian literature is enriched new genre forms: a novel, a secular philosophical story, an author's tale, a -, a lyric poem, a ballad.

The realistic canon brings to life a problem novel, novella, story. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, genres with blurred boundaries become popular again: essay (), essay, small poem, symbolist. Old forms are filled with original meaning, merge into each other, and destroy the set standards.

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

In modern literature, it remains open. The prospect of interaction is outlined not only within certain genres, but also within various types of art. Every year a new genre appears in literature.

Literature on genera and species

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

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

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

Epic genres and examples of such works

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

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

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

Since she depicts large-scale events over the centuries, careful psychological portrayal is rarely found in it, but the epics created in the last few centuries combine these attitudes with the achievements of modern art. The Forsyte Saga by J. Galsworthy not only describes the history of several generations of the Forsyte family, but also provides subtle vivid images of individual characters.

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

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

To medium forms epics include a novel and a story.

The term " novel"Comes from the word" Roman "(Roman) and reminds of the antique, which gave birth to this genre.

The example of an antique novel is Petronius's Satyricon. In medieval Europe, a rogue novel is spreading. gives the world a romance journey. Realists develop the genre and fill it with classical content.

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the following appear types of novels:

philosophical;
psychological;
social;
intellectual;
historical;
love;
detective;
adventure novel.

There are many novels in the school curriculum. Citing examples, name the books of I.A. Goncharov's "An Ordinary History", "Oblomov", "Break", works by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons", "The Noble Nest", "On the Eve", "Smoke", "Nov". The genre "Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot", "The Brothers Karamazov" by FM Dostoevsky is also a novel.

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

"The Captain's Daughter" A. S. Pushkin and "The Overcoat" N. In. Gogol. V.G. Belinsky spoke about the primacy of narrative literature in the culture of the 19th century.

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

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

Lyric genres

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

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

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

Traditionally small poetic works are usually divided into 3 types:

philosophical lyrics;
love lyrics;
landscape lyrics.

Recently, urban lyrics have also emerged as a separate subspecies.

Dramatic genres

Drama gives us three classic genres:

comedy;
tragedy;
the drama itself.

All three types of performing arts originated in ancient Greece.

Comedy was originally associated with religious cults of purification, mysteries, during which a carnival event unfolded on the streets. The sacrificial goat "comos" walking along the streets with the artists, later called the "scapegoat", symbolized all human vices. According to the canon, comedy should ridicule them.

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

There are 2 types of comedy: comedy provisions and comedy characters... The first played with circumstances, passed off one hero for another, had an unexpected outcome. The second pushed the characters against an idea or task, creating a theatrical conflict that kept the intrigue.

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

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

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

Definition of the genre of a literary work

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

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

Good luck to you! See you soon on the blog site pages