Literary work. Dramatic genres of literature

Literary work- the form of existence of literature as the art of words. What makes it artistic?

Reading room of the Russian State Library.

We always feel the special vital concreteness of a literary work. It is always connected with reality and at the same time is not identical to it, it is its image, transformation, artistic reflection. But a reflection “in the form of life,” a reflection that does not just talk about life, but itself appears as a special life.

“Art is a reproduction of reality, a repeated, as if newly created world,” wrote V. G. Belinsky. The dynamics of the content of a work of art are perfectly captured here. In order to “repeat” a world that is unique in its development and constant self-renewal, it must be “created again, as it were,” an individual phenomenon must be reproduced that, while not being identical to real reality, at the same time will fully express it deep essence and the value of life.

Life is not only material reality, but also the life of the human spirit, it is not only what is, what was realized in reality, but also what was and will be, and what is “possible due to probability or necessity” (Aristotle ). “To master the whole world and find expression for it” - this is the artist’s ultimate task, according to the excellent definition of J. V. Goethe. Therefore, reflections on the nature of a work of art are inextricably linked with the deepest philosophical question about what “the whole world” is, whether it represents unity and integrity, and whether it is possible to “find expression for it,” to recreate it in a specific individual phenomenon.

In order for a work to really exist, it must be created by the author and perceived by the reader. And again, these are not just different, externally justified, isolated, internally interconnected processes. In a truly artistic work, “the perceiver merges with the artist to such an extent that it seems to him that the object he perceives was made not by someone else, but by himself” (L.N. Tolstoy). The author appears here, as M. M. Prishvin wrote, in the role of “a persuader who makes both the sea and the moon look with their own with my personal eye, which is why everyone, being a unique personality, appearing in the world only once, would bring something from himself into the world repository of human consciousness, into culture.” The life of a work is realized only on the basis of the harmony of the author and the reader - such a harmony that directly convinces that “every person can feel equal to everyone else and everyone else” (M. Gorky).

The work represents an internal, interpenetrating unity of content and form. “Living poems speak themselves. And they are not talking about something, but something,” wrote S. Ya. Marshak. Indeed, it is very important to be aware of this difference and not to reduce the content of a literary work to what it talks about. Content is the organic unity of display, comprehension and assessment of reality, and thoughts and assessments in works of art do not exist separately, but permeate the depicted events, experiences, actions and live only in artistic expression- the only possible form of embodiment of this life content.

The subject of reality, its comprehension and evaluation are transformed into the content of a literary work, only being internally united and embodied in artistic form. Likewise, any word, any means of speech turns out to be artistically significant only when it ceases to be simply information, when life phenomena external to it become its internal content, when the word about life is transformed into life, captured in a literary work as a verbal and artistic whole.

From what has been said it is clear that art form a literary work is not just a “technique”. “What does it mean to finish a lyric poem... to bring the form to the elegance possible for it? - wrote Ya. I. Polonsky. - Believe me, this is nothing more than finishing and bringing it to the point of possible human nature one’s own grace, this or that feeling... Working on a poem for a poet is the same as working on one’s soul.” Work on understanding the environment and one’s own own life, over “your soul,” and work on constructing a literary work - for a real writer these are not three different types of activity, but a single creative process.

L. N. Tolstoy praised the poems of A. A. Fet for the fact that they were “born.” And V.V. Mayakovsky called his article “How to make poetry?” We understand both the opposite and the partial validity of these characteristics. Even if works of art are “born,” it is still not exactly the same as a person is born. And from the article by V.V. Mayakovsky, even with all its polemical exaggerations, it is still quite clear that poetry is “made” in a completely different way from how things are made on a conveyor belt, continuous production. In a literary work there is always this contradiction between organization (“made”) and organic (“born”), and the highest artistic achievements characterized by its particularly harmonic resolution. Let us recall, for example, the poem by A. S. Pushkin “I loved you: love is still, perhaps...”, the clear construction of which becomes a completely natural expression of the high human feeling- selfless love.

An artificially created verbal and artistic statement is transformed into an organically vital whole, each element of which is necessary, irreplaceable and vitally significant. And to understand that we have before us a work of art means, first of all, to understand and feel that it can only be as it is: both as a whole and in each of its particles.

The life contained within the work, like a small universe, reflects and manifests the universe, the fullness human life, the whole integrity of being. And the meeting of the author and the reader in art world literary work therefore becomes an irreplaceable form of familiarization with this big world, education of true humanity, formation of a holistic, comprehensively developed personality.

Literary genres are groups of works collected according to formal and substantive feature. Works of literature are divided into separate categories according to the form of the narrative, the content and the type of belonging to a particular style. Literary genres make it possible to systematize everything that has been written since the time of Aristotle and his Poetics, first on “birch bark letters”, tanned skins, stone walls, then on parchment paper and scrolls.

Literary genres and their definitions

Definition of genres by form:

A novel is an extensive narrative in prose, reflecting the events of any period of time, with detailed description the lives of the main characters and all other characters who, to one degree or another, participate in these events.

A story is a form of storytelling that does not have a specific volume. The work usually describes episodes from real life, and the characters are presented to the reader as an integral part of the events taking place.

Short story (short story) - a widespread genre short prose, is defined as “novel fiction”. Because the short story format is limited in scope, the writer can usually develop the narrative within the framework of a single event involving two or three characters. An exception to this rule was the great Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who could describe the events of an entire era with many characters in a few pages.

An essay is a literary quintessence that combines art style narratives and elements of journalism. Always presented in a concise form with a high content of specificity. The subject of the essay, as a rule, is related to socio-social problems and is of an abstract nature, i.e. does not affect specific individuals.

The play is special literary genre, designed for a wide audience. Plays are written for the theater stage, television and radio performances. In their structural design, the plays are more like a story, since the duration theater performances fits perfectly with a medium-sized story. The genre of the play is different from others literary genres the fact that the narration is told from the perspective of each character. The text indicates dialogues and monologues.

Ode is a lyrical literary genre, in all cases of positive or laudatory content. Dedicated to something or someone, often a verbal monument to heroic events or exploits of patriotic citizens.

An epic is a narrative of an extensive nature, including several stages. state development having historical meaning. The main features of this literary genre are global events of an epic nature. An epic can be written both in prose and in verse, an example of this is Homer's poems "Odyssey" and "Iliad".

Essay - short essay in prose, in which the author expresses his own thoughts and views in an absolutely free form. An essay is a somewhat abstract work that does not claim to be completely authentic. IN in some cases essays are written with a degree of philosophy, sometimes the work has a scientific connotation. But in any case, this literary genre deserves attention.

Detectives and science fiction

Detectives are a literary genre based on the eternal confrontation between police officers and criminals; novels and stories of this genre are action-packed in nature, in almost every detective story Murders occur, after which experienced detectives begin an investigation.

Fantasy is a special literary genre with fictional characters, events and an unpredictable ending. In most cases, the action takes place either in space or in the underwater depths. But at the same time, the heroes of the work are equipped with ultra-modern machines and devices of fantastic power and efficiency.

Is it possible to combine genres in literature?

All of the listed types of literary genres have unique distinctive features. However, there is often a mixture of several genres in one work. If this is done professionally, a rather interesting and unusual creation is born. So the genres literary creativity contain significant potential for updating the literature. But these opportunities should be used carefully and thoughtfully, since literature does not tolerate profanation.

Genres of literary works by content

Each literary work is classified according to its type: drama, tragedy, comedy.

What kinds of comedies are there?

There are comedies different types and styles:

1. Farce is a light comedy based on elementary comic techniques. Found both in literature and on theater stage. Farce as a special comedic style is used in circus clowning.
2. Vaudeville is a comedy play with many dance numbers and songs. In the USA, vaudeville became the prototype of the musical; in Russia, small comic operas were called vaudeville.
3. An interlude is a small comic scene that was performed between the actions of the main play, performance or opera.
4. Parody is a comedic technique based on the repetition of recognizable features of famous literary characters, texts or music in a deliberately modified form.

Modern genres in literature

Types of literary genres:

1. Epic - fable, myth, ballad, epic, fairy tale.
2. Lyrical - stanzas, elegy, epigram, message, poem.

Modern literary genres are periodically updated; over the past decades, several new directions in literature have appeared, such as political detective fiction, the psychology of war, as well as paperback literature, which includes all literary genres.

Literature is of great importance in the history of the development of society. Man has always strived to convey knowledge and share his feelings with other people. The appearance of writing can be considered the first step on the path to literature.

Let's find out what literature is. Let's start defining the meaning of this word from the root. "Littera" in Latin means "letter", and "litteratura" means "written". Thus, literature can be defined as an array of written texts of arbitrary content.

However, when speaking about literature, most people mean fiction. Let's look at what fiction is. Fiction is understood as a type of art that uses only natural language as its media.

Three Kinds of Fiction

Literary studies originated in Ancient Greece, where Aristotle thought about the genera of literature, but later a theory about genera appeared fiction, which was supported by V.G. Belinsky. If we refer to it, we can distinguish three types of fiction:

1. An epic, that is, a narrative about events outside the hero’s experiences;
2. Lyrics, which are a story about the hero’s feelings;
3. A drama that depicts the events and feelings of the characters, as well as their relationships.

Types and genres of literature

Smaller units of division of literature are type and genre. Literary works that have a similar form of presentation are combined into one type, and works of the same type that have similar content are combined into one genre.

Thus, examples of types of literature include:

1. Novel - large shape a literary work with a significant number of characters and a developed system of relationships between them. Within the novel, genres such as adventure, social, philosophical, family, and historical are distinguished.
2. An epic is a single work or a series of works covering an entire era of history or a significant event in it.
3. Comedy is a work that ridicules the shortcomings of society, focusing on the absurdity and absurdity of situations.
4. The song is the oldest species poetry and is a poem of verses and chorus. Song genres include lyrical, folk, historical, heroic and others.
5. A short story is a short form of literary work that tells about one event in the life of a hero.
6. A lyric poem expresses the author's emotions and experiences in poetic form.
7. An essay is a type of epic that reliably tells about the facts of reality.
8. A story is a form similar to a short story, differing only in volume. The story tells about several events from the hero's life.
9. Melodrama – dramatic work with a clear division of heroes into negative and positive.
10. Tragedy is a type of drama that tells of a difficult fate, often the death of a character.

Russian literature

Expanding the question of what literature is, one cannot help but touch upon the topic of Russian literature. Russian writers and poets left an indelible mark on world literature, introducing into it the richness and breadth of the Russian soul.

Let's look at what Russian literature is and how it differs from the rest.

1. Since the most ancient works in Russian literature, attention has been paid to the ethical side, to the questions “What is good and what is bad?”
2. Most authors paid much more attention to the content of the work rather than its form.
3. In the entire history of Russian literature, there have been relatively few works of an entertaining nature.
4. The heroes of works of Russian literature are often depicted in connection with other people; the individual experiences of the heroes also have a social connotation.
5. Works of Russian literature are mostly tragic; it is rare to find a happy ending.
6. Due to the peculiarities of the Russian language, literature written in it is read more slowly than in other languages. Another reason more slow reading is the wealth of Russian literature in descriptions and images.

The role of literature in the modern world

The word work has many interpretations, this and musical composition, and literary, artistic and other works of art. A product is a mathematical action, as well as the process of creating something, associating it with the word “production”. In this article we will look at what a work is in the broadest sense of the word.

Works of literature

Let's start with the concept that is most often used in combination with the word "work". These are literary works. Even the smallest ones literary forms have the status of works. Novels, stories, series of stories, plays are works of literature, as are humorous couplets consisting of five to seven words. All of the listed forms are called works of literary genre that have an author. This is their main difference. It should be noted here that folk works It is very difficult to call them literary, because they do not have a specific author. Songs, legends, epics, proverbs and sayings relate to folklore works, which were written over many centuries by the people.

Works of painting

Anything that is drawn by human hand on a variety of surfaces and has artistic value, and there are works of art. The most popular surface, of course, is canvas and paper equivalent to it. Artists have painted and continue to paint on canvas different eras, countries, areas of creativity. The canvas is stretched onto a frame, then the plot is applied with a talented or not so talented hand. Then the finished painting is framed. Artists also paint wood, dishes, and any household items, including the walls of houses. Unfortunately, as in any creative work, there are artists who create paintings that cannot be called a work of art. Lack of talent, taste, gives rise to kitsch, so they have nothing to do with the works artistic culture and painting.

Works of music

The musical work is characterized by beautiful harmony created on the basis of only seven notes. A musician is akin to God, he creates from practically nothing, but the result is beautiful music that lives for many years and even centuries. It is impossible to imagine that future generations will be able to forget Mozart. And who would remember who Salieri was if not for Pushkin with his immortal literary work. But the average listener will not remember Salieri’s music. So what are the differences between one creation and another? If a work is something that is produced, made, created, then Salieri also has works. Only Mozart created immortal musical creations, his works are brilliant. And how many people who consider themselves musicians also tried to create and thought that works of music were coming from their pens! Theoretically, this is true. In fact, this statement is highly questionable.

Genres of works

U creative works There are a wide variety of genres. After the most popular, which we have already talked about, after literature, painting and music, there are circus, cinema, animation, singing, theater, even sculpture and architecture. All genres of work have common features. They are called upon to artistically transform reality and convey to the viewer their most important idea. Only the ways of conveying these thoughts differ among works of art - painting, dance, poetry, plastic arts and much more. Does this mean that there is no truth in works of art? Of course have. But a truthful depiction of life is not a work. Only superimposed on fiction and the plot, the work becomes a creative object.

Mathematical product

Another interpretation of the word “product” is mathematical. If in an equality there are two or more factors on one side, then on the other side of the equal sign there is a product. A product of numbers is the sum of one factor repeated as many times as there are units in the second factor. It is one of the four simplest mathematical operations. The product of numbers is indicated by a dot, cross or asterisk, but this sign is often skipped and written, for example, like this: 2a, 5b, av. All this means is the product of factors, numbers or letter variables.

A literary genre is a group of literary works that have common historical development trends and are united by a set of properties in their content and form. Sometimes this term is confused with the concepts of “type” and “form”. Today there is no single clear classification of genres. Literary works are divided according to a certain number characteristic features.

History of genre formation

The first systematization of literary genres was presented by Aristotle in his Poetics. Thanks to this work, the impression began to emerge that the literary genre is a natural, stable system that requires the author to fully comply with the principles and canons a certain genre. Over time, this led to the formation of a number of poetics that strictly prescribed to authors exactly how they should write a tragedy, ode or comedy. Long years these requirements remained unshakable.

Decisive changes in the system of literary genres began only end of the XVIII century.

At the same time literary works aimed at artistic exploration, in their attempts to distance themselves as much as possible from genre divisions, gradually came to the emergence of new phenomena unique to literature.

What literary genres exist

To understand how to determine the genre of a work, you need to familiarize yourself with existing classifications and the characteristic features of each of them.

Below is an approximate table for determining the type of existing literary genres

Division of genres by content

Classification literary trends based on content includes comedy, tragedy and drama.

Comedy is a type of literature, which provides a humorous approach. Varieties of comic direction are:

There are also comedy of characters and sitcoms. In the first case, the source of humorous content is internal features characters, their vices or shortcomings. In the second case, comedy manifests itself in current circumstances and situations.

Tragedy - dramatic genre with an obligatory catastrophic outcome, the opposite of the comedy genre. Typically, tragedy reflects the deepest conflicts and contradictions. The plot is of the most intense nature. In some cases, tragedies are written in poetic form.

Drama – special kind fiction, where the events taking place are conveyed not through their direct description, but through monologues or dialogues of the characters. Drama as a literary phenomenon existed among many peoples, even at the level of works of folklore. Initially in Greek this term meant a sad event that affects one specific person. Subsequently, drama began to represent a wider range of works.

The most famous prose genres

The category of prose genres includes literary works of various lengths, written in prose.

Novel

A novel is a prose literary genre that involves a detailed narrative about the fate of the heroes and certain critical periods of their lives. The name of this genre dates back to the 12th century, when were born knight stories"in the vernacular Romance language" as the opposite of Latin historiography. The short story began to be considered a plot variety of the novel. IN late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century such concepts as detective novel appeared in literature, women's novel, fantasy novel.

Novella

A short story is a type of prose genre. Her birth was caused by the famous collection "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio. Subsequently, several collections based on the model of the Decameron were published.

The era of romanticism introduced elements of mysticism and phantasmagorism into the short story genre - examples include the works of Hoffmann and Edgar Allan Poe. On the other hand, the works of Prosper Merimee bore the features of realistic stories.

Novella as short story with a sharp plot became characteristic genre For American literature.

Characteristics the novellas are:

1. Maximum brevity of presentation.
2. The poignancy and even paradoxical nature of the plot.
3. Neutrality of style.
4. Lack of descriptiveness and psychologism in the presentation.
5. An unexpected ending, always containing an extraordinary turn of events.

Tale

A story is prose of a relatively small volume. The plot of the story, as a rule, is in the nature of reproducing natural life events. Usually the story reveals the fate and personality of the hero against the backdrop of current events. A classic example is “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by A.S. Pushkin.

Story

It's called a story small form prose work, which originates from folklore genres - parables and fairy tales. Some literary experts as a type of genre review essays, essays and short stories. Usually the story is characterized by a small volume, one storyline and a small number of characters. Stories are characteristic of literary works of the 20th century.

Play

It's called a play dramatic work, which is created for the purpose of subsequent theatrical production.

The structure of the play usually includes phrases from the characters and the author's remarks describing the environment or the actions of the characters. At the beginning of the play there is always a list of characters With brief description their appearance, age, character, etc.

The whole play is divided into large parts - acts or actions. Each action, in turn, is divided into smaller elements - scenes, episodes, pictures.

The plays of J.B. have won great fame in world art. Moliere (“Tartuffe”, “The Imaginary Invalid”) B. Shaw (“Wait and see”), B. Brecht (“The Good Man from Szechwan”, “The Threepenny Opera”).

Description and examples of individual genres

Let's look at the most common and significant examples of literary genres for world culture.

Poem

A poem is a large work of poetry that has a lyrical plot or describes a sequence of events. Historically, the poem was “born” from the epic

In turn, a poem can have many genre varieties:

1. Didactic.
2. Heroic.
3. Burlesque,
4. Satirical.
5. Ironic.
6. Romantic.
7. Lyrical-dramatic.

Initially, the leading themes for the creation of poems were world-historical or important religious events and themes. An example of such a poem would be Virgil's Aeneid., “The Divine Comedy” by Dante, “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso, “ Lost heaven"J. Milton, Voltaire's Henriad, etc.

At the same time, it developed romantic poem- “The Knight in Leopard’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli, “Furious Roland” by L. Ariosto. This type of poem to a certain extent echoes the tradition of medieval chivalric novels.

Over time, moral, philosophical and social themes began to take center stage (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by J. Byron, “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov).

IN XIX-XX centuries the poem begins more and more become realistic(“Frost, Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N.A. Nekrasov, “Vasily Terkin” by A.T. Tvardovsky).

Epic

An epic is usually understood as a set of works that are combined common era, nationality, theme.

The emergence of each epic is conditioned by certain historical circumstances. As a rule, an epic claims to be an objective and authentic account of events.

Visions

This unique narrative genre, when the story is told from a person's point of view ostensibly experiencing a dream, lethargy, or hallucination.

1. Already in the era of antiquity, under the guise of real visions, fictitious events began to be described in the form of visions. The authors of the first visions were Cicero, Plutarch, Plato.
2. In the Middle Ages, the genre began to gain momentum in popularity, reaching its peak with Dante in his " Divine Comedy", which in its form represents a detailed vision.
3. For some time, visions were an integral part of church literature in most European countries. The editors of such visions were always representatives of the clergy, thus gaining the opportunity to express their personal views supposedly on behalf of higher powers.
4. Over time, new acute social satirical content was put into the form of visions (“Visions of Peter the Plowman” by Langland).

In more modern literature the genre of visions began to be used to introduce elements of fantasy.