What is the epic. The main genres of the epic

Before analyzing the genres of the epic, it is necessary to find out what is hidden behind this term. In literary criticism, this word can often be called somewhat different phenomena.

There is such a category as the literary genus. There are three in total, and each includes a number of works that are similar in type to their speech organization. Another important detail - each gender is different in its focus on the subject, object or act of artistic expression.

The main element

The key unit that determines the division of literature is the word. It is this that first of all either depicts the object, or reproduces the communication of the characters, or expresses the state of each speaker.

Either way, traditionally there are three literary families. This is a drama, a lyric, an epic.

The genus of literature

If the drama depicts the human personality in conflict with surrounding people, and the lyrics are aimed at expressing the author's feelings and thoughts, then the epic genres imply an objective image of the individual interacting with the world around him.

Much attention is paid to events, characters, circumstances, social and natural environment. It is for this reason that the epic genre in literature is more diverse than drama or lyric poetry. The possibility of using all the depths of the language allows the author to pay special attention to the description and narrative. This can be facilitated by epithets, complex in the construction of sentences, all kinds of metaphors, phraseological units, etc. This and much more are fine details.

Major epic genres

From the voluminous to the epic are the following genres: epic, novel and works falling under both these definitions. This generic designation is opposed to such small genres as story, story, etc.

The epic can be identified with the help of two definitions:

1. Extensive narrative, in the center of attention of which are outstanding historical events.

2. A long and complex history, including a lot of events and characters.

Examples of the epic genre are the works of Russian literature "Quiet Flows the Don" by M.A. Sholokhov and "War and Peace" L.N. Tolstoy. Both books feature a story spanning several dramatic years in the country's history. In the first case, this is the First World War and Civil War, which destroyed the Cossacks, to which the main characters belonged. The epic of Tolstoy tells about the life of noblemen against the backdrop of confrontation with Napoleon, bloody battles and the burning of Moscow. Both writers pay attention to a lot of characters and fates, and do not make one character the protagonist of the whole work.

The novel, as a rule, is somewhat smaller than the epic in volume and puts at the forefront not so many people. In general, this term can be deciphered as "a prosaic detailed narrative about the life of the main character and the development of his personality." Due to its availability and universality, this genre is certainly the most popular in the literature.

Quite a vague concept of the novel allows you to classify him as a variety of works, sometimes radically different from each other. There is a point of view about the emergence of this phenomenon even in Antiquity ("Satyricon" Petronius, "Golden Eagle" Apuleius). More popular is the theory of the appearance of the novel in the heyday of chivalry. It could be a reworked folk epic or smaller fables ("The novel of Renard").

The development of the genre continued in modern times. It reached its apogee in the XIX century. It was at this time created such classics as A. Dumas, V. Hugo, F. Dostoevsky. The works of the latter can also be described as a psychological novel, since Fyodor Mikhailovich reached incredible heights in describing the state of mind, experiences and reflections of his characters. To the "psychological" series, one can also add Stendhal.

Other subgenres: philosophical, historical, educational, fantasy, love, adventure, utopia, etc.

In addition, there is a classification of novels by country. All this is also an epic genre. Mentality, lifestyle and language features made Russian, French and American novels completely different phenomena.

Smaller elements

According to the classification of the kinds of literature, the epics include the following genres - the story and the poem. These two phenomena reflect the opposite approach to creativity among authors.

The story takes an intermediate position between the novel and small forms. Such a work can cover a short period of time, it has one main character. It is interesting that as early as the 19th century tales were also called in our country, as the Russian language did not yet know such a term. In other words, any work that was inferior to the novel in volume was designated in this way. In foreign literary criticism, for example, in English, the concept of "novel" is synonymous with the expression "short novel". In other words - a short story. The classification of this literary phenomenon is analogous to that used among novels.

If the story refers to prose, then in poetry there is a poem parallel to it, which is also considered a product of average volume. The poetic form includes a narrative characteristic of the rest of the epic, but it also has its own easily recognizable features. This is the nature, pomposity, deep feelings of the characters.

A similar epic, examples of which can be found in a variety of cultures, arose long ago. A certain point of reference can be called songs of a lyrical and epic nature, preserved, for example, in the form of ancient Greek hymns and nom. Later such literary works became characteristic for the Germanic and Scandinavian early medieval cultures. To them also it is possible to carry and byliny, i.e. Russian epic. Over time, the epic nature of the narrative became the backbone of the entire genre. The poem and its derivatives are the main genres of the epic.

In modern literature, the poem gave way to the dominant position of the novel.

Small forms

Consider the small genres of the epic. If the author describes real events and uses factual material, such a work is considered an essay. Depending on the nature of the material, it can be artistic or journalistic.

Genres of the epic include a portrait essay. With the help of this experience, the author first of all explores the thoughts and personality of the hero. The surrounding world plays a secondary role, and its description is subordinated to the main task. Sometimes a portrait is also called a biographical description, based on the main stages of the life of the object.

If a portrait is an artistic experience, then a problematic essay is considered part of the journalism. This is a kind of dialogue, a conversation with the reader on a specific topic. The author's task is to identify the problem and state his own views on the situation. Similar notes are full of newspapers and in general any periodicals, since their depth and size fully correspond to the journalism.

Separately worth noting travel essays, which arose earlier than the rest and even reflected in Russian classical literature. For example, these are sketches of Pushkin, as well as "Journey from Petersburg to Moscow" A.N. Radishcheva, who brought him immortal fame. With the help of travel notes, the author tries to record his own impressions of what he saw on the road. This is what Radishchev did, not afraid to express directly the horrific life of serfs and workers who met on his way.

Genres of the epic in literature are represented by the story. This is the simplest and most accessible form for both the author and the reader. Works of Russian literature in the genre of the story made the world famous AP. Chekhov. Despite its seeming simplicity, with only a few pages, he created vivid images that were deposited in our culture (Man in a Case, Thick and Thin, etc.).

The story is synonymous with the term "novella", which came from the Italian language. Both are on the last step of prose by volume (sequentially after the novel and the story). Writers specializing in this genre are characterized by so-called cyclization, or the publication of works in periodicals in a regular mode, as well as collections.

The story is characterized by a simple structure: an outset, a culmination, a denouement. This linear development of the plot is often diluted by unexpected turns or events (the so-called piano in the bushes). Such a reception has become massive in the literature of the XIX century. The roots of the story are a folk epic or fairy tales. Collections of mythical tales became the precursors of this phenomenon. For example, "The Thousand and One Nights" gained fame not only in the Arab world, but also reflected in other cultures.

Already closer to the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, the collection "Decameron" by the pen Giovanni Boccaccio gained popularity. It was these novels that set the tone for the classic type of story, which became widespread after the Baroque era.

In Russia, the genre of the story became popular in the period of sentimentalism at the end of the XVIII century, including through the creativity of NM. Karamzin and V.A. Zhukovsky.

Epos as an independent genre

In contrast to the literary genre and the triad of "drama, lyric poetry, epic" there is a narrower term, which speaks of the epic as a narrative whose story is taken from the distant past. At the same time, it includes many images, each of which creates its own picture of the world, which differs from each culture. The most important role in such works is played by the heroes of the folk epic.

Comparing two points of view about this phenomenon, one can not help turning to the words of the famous Russian culturologist and philosopher M.M. Bakhtina. Separating the epic from the distant past from the novel, he derived three theses:

1. The subject of the epic is a national, so-called absolute past, of which there is no exact evidence. The epithet "absolute" was taken from the works of Schiller and Goethe.

2. The source of the epic is only a national tradition, not personal experience, on the basis of which writers create their books. Thus, the genres of folklore epos in abundance contain references to the mythical and divine, which there is no documentary evidence.

3. The epic world has nothing in common with modernity and is as far from it as possible.

All these theses facilitate the answer to the question of what works or genres are included in the epic.

The roots of the genre should be sought in the Middle East. The oldest civilizations that arose between the Euphrates and the Tigris differed in a higher cultural level than their neighbors. The cultivation of land, the emergence of resources, the birth of trade - all this developed not only the language without which literature is impossible, but also created the reasons for the outbreak of military conflicts, the plot of which is the basis of heroic works.

In the middle of the XIX century, English archaeologists managed to discover the ancient city of Nineveh, belonging to the Assyrian culture. Clay tablets were also found there, containing several scattered tales. Later they were combined into one work - "The Epic of Gilgamesh." It was crocheted and is today considered the oldest example of its genre. Dating allows you to refer it to the XVIII - XVII centuries BC.

At the center of the story narration is the demigod Gilgamesh and the history of his campaigns, as well as relationships with other supernatural beings of Akkadian mythology.

Another important example from Antiquity, which allows one to answer the question of which genres are related to the epic, is Homer's work. Two of his epic poems - "Iliad" and "Odyssey" - are the oldest monuments of ancient Greek culture and literature. The characters of these works are not only the gods of Olympus, but also mortal heroes, tales of which from generation to generation preserved the folk epic. "Iliad" and "Odyssey" - prototypes of the future heroic poems of the Middle Ages. In many respects the plot constructions, the craving for mystical stories were inherited from each other. It is in the future that the phenomenon reaches its maximum development and spread.

Medieval epic

This term refers primarily to the epic, examples of which can be found in Europe among Christian or pagan civilizations.

There is also a corresponding chronological classification. The first half - the work of the early Middle Ages. Of course, these are the sagas left to us by the Scandinavian peoples. Until the eleventh century, the Vikings plowed the European seas, traded with robbery, worked as mercenaries for kings and created their own states throughout the continent. This promising foundation, together with the pagan faith and the pantheon of deities, allowed the appearance of such literary monuments as the "Saga of the Velsungs", "The Saga of the Ragner Leather Pants", etc. Each king left after himself a heroic narrative. Most of them have survived to our times.

Scandinavian culture has affected and neighbors. For example, the Anglo-Saxons. The poem "Beowulf" was created between the 8th and 10th centuries. 3182 lines tell about the glorious viking, which first becomes king, and then the monster Grendel, his mother, and also the dragon defeated.

The second half refers to the era of developed feudalism. It is the French "Song of Roland", the German "Song of the Nibelungs", etc. Surprisingly, each work gives an idea of the unique picture of the world of a particular people.

What genres are included in the epic of this period? For the most part, these are poems, but there are poetic works in which parts written in prose are found. For example, this is typical of the Irish legends ("The Saga of the Battle of Mag Turide," "The Book of the Occupations of Ireland," "Annals of the Four Masters," etc.).

The key difference between the two groups of medieval poems is the scale of the events displayed. If the monuments before the XII century. Told about an entire era, then in the years of developed feudalism the object of the narrative becomes a concrete event (for example, a battle).

There are several theories of the origin of "heroic" creativity in medieval Europe. According to one of them, such a basis became songs in the genre of cantilena, common in the VII century. A supporter of this theory was Gaston Paris, a famous French researcher from the Middle Ages. Cantilena called small stories about a particular historical event, laid on a simple musical structure (most often vocal).

Over the years, these "crumbs" merged into something larger and more generalized. For example, in the tale of King Arthur, common among the Celtic population of Great Britain. Thus, the genres of the folk epic eventually merged into one. In the case of Arthur, novels of the "Breton cycle" arose. Subjects penetrated into all kinds of chronicles that were created during the monasteries. So half-mythical stories turned into a documented truth. Knights of the round table still cause a lot of controversy about the reality and reliability.

The key cause of the heyday of the genre in Christian Europe of that era is the fall of the Roman Empire, the disintegration of the slave system and the emergence of feudalism, which was based on military service to its suzerain.

Russian epic

The Russian epic received in our language its own term - "epics". Most of them were transmitted orally from generation to generation, and those lists that are currently represented in museums and transferred to textbooks and textbooks belong to the XVII - XVIII centuries.

Nevertheless, the genres of the folk epic in Rus were in their heyday in the 9th-13th centuries. Before the invasion of the Mongols. And it is this era that is reflected in most literary monuments of this kind.

Features of the epic genre consist in the fact that they represent a synthesis of Christian and pagan traditions. Often, this interlacing prevents historians from determining for certain the nature of a character or phenomenon.

Key characters of such works - heroes - heroes of the national epic. This is especially vividly reflected in the epics of the Kiev cycle. Another collective image is Prince Vladimir. Most often it is suggested that under this name the Baptist of Rus hides. This, in turn, gives rise to a dispute about where the Russian epic originated. Most researchers agree that the epics were created in the south of Kievan Rus, while in Moscow Rus several centuries later they were generalized.

Certainly, a special place in the domestic literary pantheon is "The Lay of Igor's Host". This monument of ancient Slavic culture acquaints the reader not only with the main plot - the unsuccessful campaign of the princes in the lands of the Polovtsians, but also embodies the picture of the world that surrounded the inhabitants of Russia in those years. First of all, it's mythology and songs. The work generalizes the features of the epic genre. It is extremely important "word" and in terms of linguistics.

Lost works

A separate conversation deserves the legacy of the past, which has not survived to this day. The reason is often the banal absence of a documented copy of the book. Since often legends were transmitted orally, over time, many inaccuracies appeared in them, and especially unsuccessful ones were completely forgotten. Many poems were lost due to frequent fires, wars and other cataclysms.

Mention of the lost relics of the past can also be found in ancient sources. So, the Roman orator Cicero was back in the I century BC. In his works complained that the information about the legendary heroes of the city on seven hills - Romule, Regulus, Coriolane - was irretrievably lost.

Especially often poems are lost in dead languages, since there are no native speakers who could transfer their culture and keep the memory of the past of the people. Here are just a few list of these ethnoses: Turdula, Gauls, Huns, Goths, Lombards.

In ancient Greek sources there are references to books whose originals have never been found or preserved in fragments. It is "Titanomachia", which described the battle of the gods and titans before the existence of mankind. About it, in turn, mentioned in his writings Plutarch, who lived at the beginning of our era.

Many sources of the Minoan civilization, which lived on Crete and disappeared after a mysterious cataclysm, are lost. In particular, this is a story about the reign of King Minos.

Conclusion

What genres are related to the epic? Firstly, they are monuments of medieval and ancient literature, based on a heroic plot and religious references.

Also the epic as a whole is one of three literary forms. It includes epics, novels, novels, poems, stories, essays.