Main kinds of literature and genres

All literary works, depending on the features of the narrative and the position of the author in relation to the depicted, are divided into genera. And each of them, in turn, is divided into genres.

In literary criticism, the following main kinds of literature are distinguished: epic, lyric, drama, in some cases, lyric-epic genres are added to them . We'll talk about each of them in detail later in the article.

Epos - a way to see events from the side

At one time, Aristotle argued that the narrative can be either about something detached from oneself (epic) or directly from oneself (lyric poetry), or to put narration in the mouth of the heroes (drama). And although, of course, this definition is very limited, it to some extent helps to understand the basic principles of the species division of works of art.

The main three kinds of literature, as a rule, begin to list from the epic, which is an objectively depicted course of events occurring independently of the author. He works in such works, as a rule, as an outside observer and a storyteller. Even in the case of the first person narration, the author takes a position in relation to which the transmitted events turn out to be in the past - thus the so-called "epic distance" is maintained.

The pace of the epic narrative is always unhurried and measured, since the epos tend to be thorough. This, by the way, often hinders the production of famous novels on the stage, since the complete following of the text makes the play unnecessarily prolonged.

To the main epic genres it is customary to include stories, novellas, novels and essays. To the epic can also be attributed folklore - fairy tales, legends, epics or historical songs.

More about the big epic genres

The main kinds of fiction, as already mentioned, are divided into genres, and the largest epic works is a novel-epic. As a rule, it covers a certain historical period and includes a large number of plot lines intersecting each other (Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace or MA Sholokhov's The Quiet Don).

The volume follows the novel. This genre also involves a large number of characters and storylines. Although, for example, modern detective novels often have only one such line.

In the literature there is a huge number of modifications of the genre - family, social, feminine, fantasy, fantasy, detective novel, etc.

On the small genres of the epic

The main kinds of literature suggest the presence of small epic genres. They can be attributed to the story (it is rather a medium-sized genre), which usually focuses on one fate or one event.

The story, which, incidentally, is considered a young epic genre (it began to take shape only in the early 19th century), is a narrative of an episode from the life of the hero. Very close in form to the story is a modern novel.

In modern literature it is customary to talk about the essay separately. The narrative in it, unlike a story or novel, is built on documentary facts. True, there are many intermediate forms between all these genres.

Do not lose their popularity and fairy tales - the narrative of fictional heroes with the obligatory participation of magical powers. The modern fairy tale is no longer similar to folklore, since it is more closely connected with general literary trends and trends.

The epic genre is also attributed to popular in our time genres of satires, anecdotes, parables, as well as essays.

Lyrical genres

One of the three main kinds of literature - the lyrics - differs from the rest by its subjectivity and emphasized interest in the author's world. It is also characterized by heightened emotionality, the desire to reflect not events, but a personal attitude towards them. By the nature of these emotions, several lyrical genres can be singled out : an ode (solemn, praising a poem), elegy (lyrical meditation on the transience of being) and satire (an accusatory, angry work).

But modern poets, as they say, write poetry - that is, works that are difficult or simply impossible to strictly relate to a certain genre.

On the drama inside and out

G. Hegel, trying to deepen the division proposed by Aristotle into the main kinds of literature, explained that the basis of the drama is the synthesis of lyrics and epic. After all, the drama, from his point of view, is a conflict based on individual aspirations, which is then served as an objectively occurring event.

And the main distinctive feature of the drama is its focus not on the story, but on the display (direct image) of this or that situation. Author's beginning in it is practically absent, and if in the epic the conduct of dialogue is only one of the means of revealing the character of the hero, then in the drama the dialogue is often the only way to characterize it.

Such a change of emphasis leads to radical changes in the structure of the work. Thus, the speech of the heroes becomes more dense, sharpened, accented, than in the epic, because it creates the necessary dramatic tension. The close connection of the genre with the theater also plays a huge role - the drama is always spectacular, which, by the way, strictly regulates its size.

But treating the drama only as a text for the production is extremely wrong. This genre retains its impact on the reader and without incarnation on the stage and, along with theatrical, has also a literary life.

Genres of drama

The main kinds of literature, as you can see, have their own genres. Did not become in this sense an exception and drama. The most striking and historically significant among dramatic genres have always been tragedy and comedy.

The tragedy is an image of an irreconcilable conflict, which is usually an inevitable fateful character and most often ends with the death of the hero.

Comedy is characterized by a humorous, comic approach to depicting reality and a specific conflict. In this genre, it does not become irreconcilable and, as a rule, is safely resolved. There are a comedy of characters and a sitcom that is based on the source of the comic. In the first case, these are the absurd characters of the characters, and in the second case, the situations in which they turn out to be. Often these types of comedies are synthesized.

To the genre modifications of modern comedy can be attributed a farce - a pointed, deliberate comic performance - and a vaudeville, having an unpretentious funny plot.

Drama is also a dramatic genre

The main kinds of literature include drama not only as a genus, but also as a genre. Its distribution was received in the 18th and 19th centuries, gradually displacing the tragedy. The drama is characterized by a sharp conflict, but it is not so global and not as inevitable as in the tragedy.

In the center of this work lie the problems of the relationship of a specific person and society. The plot of the drama, as a rule, is very realistic - due to this, it became the leading genre in the repertoire of theaters, competing with a very popular comedy in our time.

Drama has many varieties: psychological, philosophical, social, historical, love, etc.

What are lyric-epic genres

In the literature, the concept of the genre is treated as belonging to a group of literary works, which are united by common features. Genres, as already mentioned, are formed within the genus, becoming, as it were, a real embodiment of the generic features.

But it is possible and the existence of synthetic, intermediate genres in which two or even three main kinds of literature and its kinds can be combined. By the way, most of these "interweaving" arises between the lyrics and the epic, which allows some researchers to add to the already existing one more genus (fourth) - lyric-epic. To him, individual researchers include poems (poetic works that have a lyrical or narrative story, developing on a historical background), as well as ballads (original stories in verse).

The result

Of course, any literary critic, just like a reader who is just reading, will say that dividing into the main kinds of literature and types of literature is a very complicated and doomed task. Many works of art combine the main features of different genres, and even genera. And the reader's task is not to clearly classify them, but rather to be able to determine the correlation in which each kind began.

After all, the genre is, in fact, not the work itself, but only the principle of its creation. That is, with the intention of the author to write a novel there is only a genre, in which, in the creative process of appearance, its basic features can be strongly deformed and the boundaries of species belonging to it expand, as in its time, for example, happened to Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin." True creativity does not tolerate boundaries.