Literary works in the form of a diary. Why are writers' diaries interesting? The most famous writers' diaries

“A diary is another life lived. Not external, but internal... Nowhere do literature and life come into contact so shamelessly, nowhere does the human soul appear so naked..."

Text: Pavel Basinsky (writer)
Photo: Diary of Leo Tolstoy/realnoevremya.ru

His Majesty's Diary

For me personally, a pleasant event happened recently. In a number of media outlets, the seemingly rather strange “anniversary” was unexpectedly widely celebrated:

170 years ago, on March 30 (March 17, old style), 1847, Leo Tolstoy began keeping his diary.

I don’t remember a case when the start of a diary by any writer was ever celebrated as an anniversary date.

It is clear that the point here is not in the diary, but in Tolstoy. The level of interest in it all over the world is growing at an incredible pace. It’s not even entirely clear what this is? But it's like a prophecy is coming true Igor Volgin, poet and explorer . At the beginning of the 2000s, he expressed the idea that the 20th century was the century of Dostoevsky, and the 21st century, perhaps, will be the century of Tolstoy.

Women's diaries are a special kind of literature.

They are always different from diaries written by men. The diary is masculine. We can talk for a long time about why it is more difficult for a woman to write them, but we cannot talk about it at all. In general, you can make general demands - objectivity, reliability, etc. But believe me, these demands are completely meaningless in relation to all diaries, of any kind - no matter whether women's or men's. This is not what the diary is about.

Of course, a diary can also serve as evidence of its era and the people who lived in it. We study the past tense more from diaries than from literary works. And yet, only a naive reader can consider the diary a real document of the era. I will say more, the more reliable and convincing such a “document” seems to you, the more fear and suspicion you should treat it with. And vice versa:

The most truthful diaries are those that, upon first reading, evoke resistance: no, that doesn’t happen! it couldn't be! not true!

This is precisely the impression left by, say, the front-line diaries of unknown participants in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. When you read them, you are amazed at how their simple truth diverges from even the most truthful novels about this war. As if it was some other war, not the one we know.

In any case, the diary is another life lived. Not external, but internal. This is the great power and magic of diaries, which is why they are so interesting to us.

And they will become even more interesting over time. Because

nowhere do literature and life come into contact so shamelessly, nowhere does the human soul appear so naked.

Original article:
His Majesty’s Diary - “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, 04/09/2016

If you read regularly, a reading journal may be a great idea. Just like a regular journal, a literary journal will chronicle your bookish adventures. Create a separate note for each book you read, write down your thoughts and reasoning. This approach will help you become a thoughtful reader and also improve your writing skills. In addition, if you start to get confused about the plot, writing down your thoughts will help you remember the details. The most important thing is that after some time you can open your diary and reflect on the books you have read.

Steps

Part 1

How to create a reading diary

Check out the benefits of a diary. The usefulness of a reading diary depends on how much and often you read. If you read almost every day, then over the course of a year you probably accumulate so many books that it’s impossible to remember in all the details. Can't remember important points from books you read just a few months ago? Keep a literary diary, as the process of writing down your thoughts helps you remember information better.

If you only read a few books a year, a literary journal will be less useful to you. Such a diary is only suitable for very active readers.

Choose a method. There are two main options: writing in a regular paper notebook or blogging on the Internet. Some people like the feel of a real notebook in their hands, others prefer the convenience and accessibility of online publications.
- Consider both options and make an informed decision, even if you already have some preferences.
- In some cases, it is convenient to combine paper and electronic records. The computer is not always at hand, but the final conclusions can be saved electronically when you finish reading the book.
Buy a quality notebook. If you choose to write by hand, don't use a cheap spring-loaded notebook. It is quite convenient for notes, but wears out quickly. It is better to choose a high-quality and durable notebook with a reliable binding (leather).
- In addition to reliability, you should like the notebook, because it will serve as your diary for more than one month. Writers often have an emotional attachment to a journal, so buy a quality notebook that suits your tastes.
Create a blog. A blog is a free online diary. In this case, you don’t have to think about running out of free space in your diary. A blog makes it easier to organize and find content. In addition, the blog may gain a readership.

Register for LiveLib. If you want to keep track of the books you read on the Internet, then LiveLib will be a better choice than a simple blog. LiveLib is a site that allows people to track their reading habits and post thoughts about the books they read. A pleasant addition will be an extensive database of materials and an active community of book lovers.

Part 2
How to keep a diary
1. Provide important information about the book. Each individual article should include basic information: the author's name and the title of the book. Highlight such data with bold font or other visual features so that it stands out on the page or screen. This will make it easier for you to see key information in large amounts of text.
  
  Write down facts that are easy to forget. Our memory is unreliable. Even if you are delighted with the book, it is not a fact that in a year you will be able to remember the details of the plot. The more you read, the more often this problem arises. Of course, you don't have to write down every little detail, but at least include the ideas that interested or surprised you.
  - Such nuggets of information will become a hint that will help you remember other details.
2. Write down your favorite quotes in your journal. Good books always have lines that will tug at your heartstrings. You don't have to write everything, but choose a few quotes from the book that are worth transcribing verbatim. An excellent choice would be quotes that encapsulate the essence of the book.
  
  Comment on the author's style and techniques. Some diaries write only about the content of books, but it is no less interesting to evaluate the form of the work and the author’s techniques. Analyze the author's perspective (from the first or third person), the volume of the book, the images and artistic means used in the work.
  - Complete the entry with your assessment of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the author's techniques. Your journal entry may constitute an informal review. Carefully explore various technical aspects to learn how to distinguish good writing from bad.
3. Indicate the time and place of creation of each entry. A literary diary is not just a list of books read. Like any diary, it will contain indirect judgments about the events of your life. Life experiences influence the books you read, and books, in turn, can represent life stages and periods of time. Keep this in mind and indicate the place and time when you read this book and created a note.
  - Write down facts that connect the book to life events to help you remember both aspects better. Strengthen and expand associations between the book and life circumstances.
4. Relate the book to your life. Over time, it will be easier for you to understand the emotions when reading a book if you indicate your thoughts and events that you had to deal with at that moment. General information (where you lived, who you were in a relationship with) will help you remember many details of a given time period.
  - Thanks to background information, it will be easier to remember the mood and way of thinking with which you read the book. This will help explain the focus on specific quotes or certain thoughts.
  - Naturally, deeply personal details should be indicated only in a personal literary diary, which cannot be read by outsiders.
5. Think about how the book affected you. Books are an option for leisure and entertainment, but they also help us develop. Many of the books you read will not leave lasting impressions, but some will definitely influence your life. If a book has forever changed your worldview, indicate this fact at the end of the note.
  - These moments can also be highlighted in bold so that years later, when you glance at your notes, it will be easier to find the thoughts that were especially meaningful to you.
Part 3
How to form healthy habits
1. Set reading goals for yourself. Reading books is fun, but active reading requires a little more motivation than watching TV or playing video games. Some people set goals to motivate themselves. For example, if you want to read more, but write: “I will read three books this month.”

“To learn to write, you have to write. Therefore, write letters to friends, keep a diary, write memories, they can and should be written as early as possible - it’s not bad in your youth - about your childhood, for example.”(D.S. Likhachev)

Anna Mikhailovna KOLYADINA (1981) - literature teacher; dissertation candidate at Samara State Pedagogical University. Lives in Smolensk.

Below are excerpts from an article by Anna Kolyadina.

A diary is the oldest form of literary creativity, a “dialogue with oneself.”

M.O. Chudakova (Brief Literary Encyclopedia): “A diary is a form of narration conducted in the first person in the form of daily entries. Typically, such records are not retrospective - they are contemporary with the events described. Diaries most definitely act as a genre variety of artistic prose and as autobiographical records of real persons.”

Daily entries may contain generalizations, reflections, notes about books read, newspaper news or the weather. Often their keeping is dictated by the desire of the author of diary entries to trace his own spiritual development; The diary also serves as a means of self-education and self-organization.

In addition, as Yuri Olesha notes in his famous notes “Not a Day Without a Line,” “...both Delacroix and Tolstoy bring<…>the same reason that forced them, according to them, to continue writing the diaries they had started - this reason was the pleasure that both received when reading the previously written pages. To continue, so to speak, in the name of ever receiving such pleasure again” (1929, July 29).

The history of the diary form is the history of its changes in the author's and reader's consciousness - from the idea of a diary as daily autobiographical records of real persons to the understanding of the diary form as an artistic form of expression.

There are works of art that either have formal signs of a diary or memoir narrative (Spirikhin S. “Horse meat (Notes of a Cattleman)”; Sidur V. “Monument to the modern state. Myth”), or those in the structure of which there are documentary fragments (excerpts from letters , inscriptions on postcards, personal data, phone numbers, quotes from newspapers - “End of Quote” by M. Bezrodny; “Memoir vignettes and other non-fictions” by A. Zholkovsky).

It should be noted that the development of diary storytelling was influenced by new technologies. Thus, the Internet “LiveJournal” (“LJ”) relies heavily on genre structures existing in literature.

Blogs consist of “posts” (a post is a message in a diary), each of which contains the date and time of publication, as well as links to pages with photographs, comments and the name of the author. But unlike a household diary, which is a system of entries associated with a specific date, blog entries from different users appear in the news feed and are replaced by others over time; the time intervals that actually exist between them cannot be reflected online.

The main difference between a LJ diary and an everyday diary is the blog author’s focus on finding like-minded people, people who share his position in life, in order to communicate with them. The author creates a communicatively competent text to which the potential recipient would want to react in one way or another.

Regardless of the form in which the diary will be kept, you need to learn how to thoughtfully make entries in it.

Here are the basic rules:

1. “Not a day without a line” (Yu. Olesha).
2. Date each entry.
3. Be sincere and honest in your notes.
4. Don't read someone else's diary without permission!

There are three types of use of the diary as a genre in literature.
1. The diary itself(diaries of Anne Frank, Yura Ryabinkin, Tanya Savicheva). The strength of the impression made by a diary depends to a large extent on its context, historical and literary.
2. A writer's diary. Diaries of writers, scientists, artists, not intended for publication, but nevertheless their artistic value often competes with the deliberately created diaries of literary heroes (L.N. Tolstoy, M.M. Prishvin).
So, M.M. Prishvin kept a diary all his life. He was convinced that if he collected all the records in one volume, he would get the book for which he was born. According to estimates from Prishvin’s publishers, the manuscripts of his diaries are three times the volume of the author’s actual artistic works. As Prishvin himself wrote, “the form of small diary entries has become more my form than any other” (1940). And shortly before his death, in 1951, looking back at his life, he admitted: “It was probably due to my literary naivety (I am not a writer) that I spent the main forces of my writing on writing my diaries.”
3. Literary works in the form of a diary(“Demicoton Book” in “Soboryans” by N.S. Leskov, “Pechorin’s Journal” in “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov, “Chapaev” by D.A. Furmanov, “Diary of an Extra Man” by I.S. Turgenev , “The Diary of Kostya Ryabtsev” by N. Ognev, “The Village Diary” by E. Y. Dorosh).

The emergence of the diary as a literary form was due to several factors, the main one of which was the desire of writers to present the inner world of an individual through a documented text, organized on the principle of a collection of reliable evidence and facts of an individual’s life. The consequence of this was the use by writers of the form of an everyday diary and a number of other ego-documentary texts. Thus, “Notes of a Young Doctor” by M.A. Bulgakov is presented to the reader in the form of a diary kept by the main character.

Writer's diaries are daily entries kept over a period of time. They observe the external signs of a diary narrative - dating, periodicity; the author provides documentary evidence, conversations between people, excerpts from letters, and his own observations; there are few descriptions of internal experiences, that is, recording of external events predominates. Unlike an everyday diary, the author of a literary diary writes little about himself, but notes everything that may later, in his opinion, be of historical interest, or selects individual facts and details, which together create artistic unity.

The basis of the writer’s diary (“Cursed Days” by I.A. Bunin, “Spirited Rus'” by A.M. Remizov, “Untimely Thoughts” by M. Gorky, “Diary of My Contemporary” by V.G. Korolenko) consists of fragments of notebooks, real everyday life diary, which are consciously organized by the author into a narrative, which, as a rule, has such features of a diary form as dating and periodicity.

As a rule, a writer’s diary is journalistic and often polemical in relation to the reality being described, that is, it is subordinated to a certain author’s idea. This purpose is served by the author's documentary evidence, fragments of people's conversations, excerpts from letters, and his own observations. And in this regard, it should be noted the convergence of the writer’s diary with such genres of journalism as essays, pamphlets, feuilletons. Unlike everyday life, a writer’s diary necessarily contains an evaluative element; time in it is largely a conditional category, since the events here are subordinated to the author’s intention.

Sometimes diary materials are used by writers when creating works of art.

A few examples.

The diaries of Leo Tolstoy, as shown by L.Ya. Ginzburg, “had different purposes. In the early diaries, along with self-education and moral exercises, there were writing exercises, a test of future methods. There are also notes briefly marking the course of everyday life.”

D. Furmanov noted in his diary: “I am accumulating materials: everything I see, everything I hear interesting, everything I read, I write down right now...”

Works by M.M. Prishvin's "The Worldly Cup" (1922), "The Crane's Homeland" (1929) and "Kashcheev's Chain" (1923-1933) were partially compiled from diary materials. Diary elements are also present in “The Springs of Berendey” (1925) (later included in the “Calendar of Nature” - 1935-1939), the story “Zhen-Shen” (1931-1933). The philosophical and lyrical miniatures, originally existing in the form of the writer’s diary entries, consist of “Calendar of Nature”, “Phacelia” and “Forest Drops”. In the last years of his life, Prishvin prepared the book “Eyes of the Earth” - also from diary entries from various years.

How can one explain such a frequent appeal of various writers, as well as people who are not professionally associated with literature, to the literary diary genre?

The versatility of this genre, the variety of its forms.

The opportunity to directly, freely express your thoughts and feelings.

The habit of keeping a diary can help a person out in difficult moments of life, when he is left alone in the face of grief or unresolved conflict, loss or choice.

For example, “The Siege Record” - the blockade diary of the St. Petersburg orientalist, famous Iranian philologist, professor Alexander Nikolaevich Boldyrev contains not only detailed descriptions of the suffering and struggle of Leningraders, but also the most subtle psychological observations of the experiences of a person dying of hunger, and then tormented by malnutrition, burdened with endless worries about the family.

“Her phrases were thrown onto paper like the wheezes of a dying person - abruptly, with long intervals between them, inarticulately. But now I already know that this Recording is a big deal, there is a genuine, truthful witness of unique times, and someday her testimony will be heard. True, its language will become understandable only after my enormous restorative processing, for so much of the Record is only a hieroglyph and a symbol” (1942, December 15).

The diary is one of the most democratic literary genres. Keeping a diary is accessible to every literate person, and the benefits it brings are enormous: daily entries, even small ones, in a few lines, teach attention to oneself and others, develop self-analysis skills, cultivate sincerity, observation, develop a taste for the word, accurate judgment, strict a polished phrase.

In determining the theoretical content of the diary genre, we proceed from already existing concepts presented in our literary criticism.

In domestic literary criticism, the issue of the substantive side of the diary genre is sufficiently covered. Literary sources give different definitions of the genre, in some respects complementing each other.

Let's look at the definition in the pre-war edition Literary Encyclopedia(1), in which the concept of the diary genre is considered from the point of view of its belonging to memoirs and how the most primitive form of memoir literature. This interpretation refers to the primacy of the diary as a genre of memoir literature in relation to memories, notes, autobiography, confession, biographical memoirs and even obituary. This definition draws attention to the possibility of depicting a social principle in the diary. It should be noted that attention to the social is a tribute to the times, but we cannot escape this in our research. Diaryrepresents the primary form of memoir literature - there is no general perspective of events here...Diary – daily or periodic entries by the author, outlining the events of his personal life against the background of the events of contemporary reality (the latter, however, is not always necessary).

IN Literary encyclopedic dictionary(2) the diary is seen as " a form of first-person narration that is written in everyday...dated notes. The diary, as a non-literary genre, is distinguished by extreme sincerity and frankness of expression. The diary is written for oneself... which gives him a special

1.- Literary encyclopedia. ed. P. I. Lebedev-Polyansky vol. 7., - M., OGIZ RSFSR, 1934.

2.- Literary encyclopedic dictionary.

authenticity, reliability. Focused primarily on events in personal life».

Another definition that also complements the content of the term: “ Diary - a form of narration conducted in the first person in the form of everyday notes... such entries... are contemporary with the events described. The Diary most definitely acts as a genre variety of artistic prose and as autobiographical records of real persons" (1) . Unlike those given above, this definition affects the temporal aspect of the genre, the manifestation of its specificity, which consists in the absence of retrospection, which is important for understanding the genre and distinguishes the diary from other genres of memoir literature.

In our further review on the issue of the theory of the diary genre, we will turn to critical articles and studies that examine the issue of the theory of the diary genre and the features of its content, artistic originality, and originality of style. Each of the researchers of the diary genre was individual and introduced something new into the definition of the genre, which expanded the concept and served to further develop the issue of the theory and history of the genre.

« Diary – probably the strangest genre: a self-portrait in a locked room. It seems that it is not customary to allow spectators into it, because it is a sin to allow outsiders to enter a place where you yourself, over time, begin to visit with caution..." This is the definition of the diary genre E. Shcheglovoy(2), which reveals the specificity and tonality of the genre, emphasizing its intimate nature.

The diary genre is originally characterized by B. Khazanov(3): " A literary genre that represents a protest against literature with its genres and techniques; a protest against the very essence of artistic creativity -... This is what a diary is, which keeps

1 – Brief literary encyclopedia, Publishing house “Sov. Enz.”, M., 1964, vol. 2, p. 707

2 – Shcheglova E. Chukovsky K. Diaries 1901-1929. // Neva.- 1992.-№9.-p.260

3 – Khazanov B. Diary of a writer //October.-1999.-No.1

writer" He calls this type of activity " confession..., escape into one's own world, a document of introspection, self-exposure, self-torment, self-intoxication" and further states: " Writer's Diary –

this is his workshop... this is another “I”, a double... and a secret interlocutor to whom you can trust all the secrets...".

It seems to us that this is the most complete definition of the genre of a writer’s diary (namely, this type of diary will be discussed in our study) is the most organic and close to the very essence of the diary genre, where intimacy and self-focus are in the first place.

Other definitions given by A. Kazakova (1), P. Kryuchkov (2) consider the properties of the diary genre, to some extent they refer to those features of the diary that have already been discussed, but, at the same time, in some way - then complement the concept, enriching the theory of the genre. " Diary – this is, first of all, an emotional reflection on paper of the “moods of the soul”» ( A. Kazakova) (1).

« ...Diary entries, which hardly any writer can do without, have nothing to do with literature» ( P. Kryuchkov). One can agree with the critic in that it is unlikely that a writer, making entries in a diary, zealously analyzes and weighs every written word; in this case, the spontaneity of the presentation and the novelty of the thoughts born would be lost.

As we can see, there are no serious discrepancies in the above definitions of the diary genre. Having examined the existing definitions and taking into account what has already been done in the issue of the theory of the diary genre, we will try to clarify the question of which genres should be classified primarily as memoir literature. There are different opinions on this matter in modern criticism.

Researchers of memoir literature (V.S. Golubtsov, A. Tartakovsky, I.I. Podolskaya), who devoted their work to the issue of the theory and history of the genre and considered problems based on the material of memoirs of the 18th–1st half of the 19th century

and the Soviet period, come to the conclusion that diaries and memoirs are a typological act of memoir creation (1). On this basis, they classify them as a single memoir genre - these are “two groups (or types) of related works, united by the concept of “memoirs” - diaries as the historically primary and simplest form of a person’s recording of the experience of his participation in historical life And memories(memoirs in the narrow sense of the word) as a more complex and developed form of memoir culture.” Such a definition of a diary, in our opinion, significantly narrows the understanding of the content of the genre and limits its capabilities to only depicting the historical, and not the personal.

V. Oskotsky does not agree with this position (2). He believes that “diaries... do not belong to memoirs, although they are fully correlated with them... But perhaps stronger than this... the similarities are significant differences.” According to V. Oskotsky, letters and notebooks, unlike diaries, belong to the memoir genre, since they “are also witnesses to memory, fixed in words, its support and bonds.” The researcher classifies letters and notebooks as memoir literature, while diaries are not included in this group of genres, although he points out their relationship with memoir literature. On this basis, V. Oskotsky concludes: “it is more expedient to talk not about memoirs, but about memorial literature, not about the memoir genre, but about memorial genres." The researcher proposes a definition of the “memorial genre” “in order to avoid the common denominator of memories, under which something that is not a memory is also included.” Thus, according to V. Oskotsky, memorial literature should include notes, notebooks, letters, memoirs, and diaries. Undoubtedly, the critic's opinion on the issue of belonging

1.- A. G. Tartakovsky, Russian memoirs of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. M., 1991, p. 8;

V. S. Golubtsov, Memoirs as a source on the history of Soviet society. Publishing house Moscow. Univ., 1970, ch. Introduction, p. 3-7; I. I. Podolskaya, Russian memoirs 1800-1825. M., “Pravda”, 1989, p.8

2.-V. Oskotsky, Diary as truth // Questions of literature. - 1993, - No. 5, - p. 5.

letters and notebooks to the literature of memoirs are interesting and justified, however, we believe that it may be more expedient to adhere to the usual definition of the genre and in the future we will use the terminology - memoir genres. Therefore, further we will keep in mind these types of memoir literature: notes, notebooks, autobiographies, diaries.

Thus, the question of whether diaries belong to memoir literature suggests that we focus in more detail on the following problem: what are the similarities and differences between memoirs and diaries.

Along with notes, notebooks, memoirs, autobiographies and, finally, memoirs themselves, diaries are one of the typical genres of memoir literature. Hence, There is an initial commonality between memoirs and diaries, which consists in the fact that in the diary and memoirs the author talks about events in which he was a participant or an eyewitness. But we can point to the presence of the author in both lyrical poetry and prose - in all the many-sided genre manifestations.

Difference between memoirs and diary, firstly, in that unequal distance in time separates their authors from the reported facts, greater or lesser extent in the first case and extreme brevity in the second. The diary author is in a hurry to record the impressions that have just arisen, not allowing them to cool down and go into the realm of memories, or even non-existence.

Secondly, the difference between diaries and memoirs and in terms of species is that it is associated with difference in the system of reflecting reality– synchronous in diaries, retrospective in memories.

Thirdly, there are significant differences in the type and structure of the narrative (a coherent, plot-organized story in memoirs, discrete entries in diaries) and in the nature of communication.

The diary is autocommunicative in nature (“the subject conveys a message to himself”). At the time of its implementation, it is designed mainly for the internally intimate needs of the author; it is not always intended for publication during his lifetime, and, as a rule, is “secret” for others. This quality remains quite stable over long historical periods. In memories, autocommunication is very blurred and its scope is limited.

Let's try to consider what the functional similarities and differences between memoirs and diaries are. Memoirs and diaries turn out to be close to each other not only genetically. Their functional proximity, without any doubt, is the case when it comes to diaries that record impressions of political, literary and social events, from meetings with interesting and outstanding people, interesting for the future memories of the author and future generations. But even in daily records, which are kept for the purposes of self-analysis, self-education, moral self-improvement, or for the sake of the current everyday interests of the present moment, in the diary there is invisibly present a particle of understanding of the value of the author’s personal experience, the desire to include the “passing day” in existence. Therefore, diary entries embody some features of a person’s historical self-awareness (although, perhaps, less purposefully and consistently than in the memoirs themselves). The differences between diaries and the genre of memoirs in this regard boil down to the fact that the historical horizons of the diary (and, consequently, the author) are limited to the present, while the historicism of memories in memoirs is measured by their correlation with the past, which has become or is becoming history.

It was these signs of a personal diary that determined its use in fiction. A diary as a form of reporting events initially presupposes complete frankness, sincerity of thoughts and diversity of feelings of the writer. Such properties of the diary give it a tone of intimacy, lyricism, and passionate intonation, which is difficult for other literary genres to equal.

The literary significance of the diary extends far beyond the works written in its form. The diary, as a rule, preserves the freshness and sincerity of the author’s view of the world around him and himself.

Based on all that has been said, let’s try to define the diary genre: Diary is a genre of memoir literature. In literature, the diary is characterized by a first-person narrative form. It is conducted in the form of everyday, usually dated, synchronous in terms of

systems for reflecting reality, records. The narrative structure is dominated by discrete entries. As a non-literary genre, the diary is distinguished by extreme sincerity and trust. All diary entries are usually written for oneself. And the writer’s diary retains all these signs of the genre, but, as it were, complements the existing definition in that it is not only a way of self-expression, but also often a creative workshop in which the writer’s creative ideas can be highlighted in one way or another.

This definition in no way claims to be final, but is only an attempt to generalize what is in our literary criticism about the theory of the diary genre and, as it seems to us, helps to bring it closer to the subject of our research.

The next question that we think needs to be considered is the question of the variety of the diary genre; let us clarify the terminology associated with the question of the variety of the genre.

IN "Concise Literary Encyclopedia"(1) it is proposed to divide the diary genre into the following varieties: Diary as a form of artistic storytelling– a purely literary, entirely fictional diary, representing either the work itself or a significant part of it; Real diaries, that is, real diaries of writers (scientists, cultural figures, scientists), or pre-designated for publication; Diaries of Ordinary People- simply dated notes about various feelings and events that worried the author.

Let's look at each of these varieties.

Diary can act as a form of artistic storytelling. This type of diary genre dates back to the 18th century, to the period of the emergence of sentimentalism in foreign and Russian

1.- Brief literary encyclopedia, Publishing house "Sov. Enz.", M., 1964, vol. 2, p. 7

literatures. Sentimentalism, which turned interest to the inner world of a person, cultivates the diary genre as a special form of “introspection.” This is the famous work that has gone down in the history of literature, “Sentimental Journey” by L. Stern.

Anna Mikhailovna KOLYADINA (1981) - literature teacher; dissertation candidate at Samara State Pedagogical University. Lives in Smolensk.

Diary as a literary genre

To learn to write, you need to write. Therefore, write letters to friends, keep a diary, write memories, they can and should be written as early as possible - not bad even in your youth - about your childhood, for example. (D.S. Likhachev)

A diary is an important and, in a certain sense, famous attribute of school life. But besides an ordinary diary (as, if I may say so, a form of recording student progress), there is a diary as a literary genre, as the oldest form of verbal creativity. Teachers are well aware that many of their students keep their personal diaries in one form or another. Without interfering with the teenager’s dialogue with himself, it is useful to offer them information about the history of the diary tradition, about the construction of the diary, about its intellectual and artistic capabilities, and thereby help them master the basics of this most popular form of writing. The concept of a diary as a literary genre is presented in the article by the young writer A.M. Kolyadina.

To acquaint students with the history of the emergence of the diary as a literary genre, to consider its signs, I believe, is possible already in the 6th and 7th grades. If a lesson or other event dedicated to the diary is held in high school, it is advisable to give schoolchildren an idea of writers' diaries and their place in culture, primarily of the 19th and 20th centuries. Finish the lesson with a logical explanation of the basic rules of keeping a diary; Give examples of diary entries.

There are many definitions of a diary. One of them, owned by M.O. Chudakova, precise and clear, seems especially acceptable for school practice: “Diary- a form of narration conducted in the first person in the form of daily entries. Typically, such records are not retrospective - they are contemporary with the events described. Diaries most definitely act as a genre variety of artistic prose and as autobiographical records of real persons.”(Short Literary Encyclopedia).

As a rule, diaries begin to be kept in adolescence. Daily entries may contain generalizations, reflections, notes about books read, newspaper news or the weather. Often their keeping is dictated by the desire of the author of diary entries to trace his own spiritual development; The diary also serves as a means of self-education and self-organization.

History of the diary form there is a history of its changes in the author's and reader's consciousness - from the idea of a diary as daily autobiographical records of real persons to the understanding of the diary form as an artistic form of expression.

The history of the existence of diary entries in Russia can be divided into the following periods.

1. Pre-Christian Rus'. In the literature of this period there are only records of foreign travelers, mainly eastern ones.

2. X–XVI centuries. Diary literary works of various genres have been widespread in Rus' since the 10th century. These are texts of various types of diary genre: “walking”, travel, travel sketches, autobiographical notes, which are still difficult to separate from journalism and chronicle narration, for example, the essay by Andrei Kurbsky “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow...”.

3. 17th century Further development of the genre. However, these records contain mostly information based either on personal impressions or on the testimony of contemporaries.

4. XVIII - early XIX centuries. The concept of a diary was formed; in Russia, the publication of notebooks and diaries, travel notes began ( Gildenstedt I.“Diary of a trip to the Sloboda-Ukrainian province of Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Gildenstedt in August and September 1774”; “Notes of Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin about his stay in England, departure to Russia to join the army, travel with Tsar Peter Alekseevich to Carlsbad and his appointment to the congress in Utrecht. 1710–1711–1712"; Vyazemsky P."From an old notebook").

5. XIX - early XX centuries. The differentiation of all elements of the genre structure of the diary has been completed.

6. XX–XXI centuries. Thanks to the use of fragmentary forms of writing by writers, the diary form of narration is becoming widespread in the modern literary process.

There are works of art that either have the formal characteristics of a diary or memoir narrative ( Spirikhin S.“Horse meat (Notes of a cattle breeder)”; Sidur V.“A monument to the modern state. Myth"), or those in the structure of which there are documentary fragments (excerpts from letters, inscriptions on postcards, personal data, telephone numbers, quotes from newspapers - “End of Quote” by M. Bezrodny; “Memoir vignettes and other non-fictions” A .Zholkovsky).

Regardless of the form in which the diary will be kept, you need to learn how to thoughtfully make entries in it.

Here are the ground rules (if a lesson is being taught, students can write them down).

1. “Not a day without a line” (Yu. Olesha).

2. Date each entry.

3. Be sincere and honest in your notes.

4. Don't read someone else's diary without permission!

In addition to household chores, you can conduct reader's diary, indicating in it:

author and title of the book;
imprint: place of publication, publisher, year;
the time of creation of the work, as well as the time discussed in the book;
It is advisable to indicate the theme of the work;
outline the content;
formulate an idea for a book;
write down your overall impression of the book.

There are three types of use of the diary as a genre in literature (students can make notes in notebooks following the teacher’s explanation).

The actual diary(diaries of Anne Frank, Yura Ryabinkin, Tanya Savicheva). The strength of the impression made by a diary depends to a large extent on its context, historical and literary.

Writer's Diary. Diaries of writers, scientists, artists, not intended for publication, but nevertheless their artistic value often competes with the deliberately created diaries of literary heroes (L.N. Tolstoy, M.M. Prishvin).

So, M.M. Prishvin kept a diary all his life. He was convinced that if he collected all the records in one volume, he would get the book for which he was born. According to estimates from Prishvin’s publishers, the manuscripts of his diaries are three times the volume of the author’s actual artistic works. As Prishvin himself wrote, “the form of small diary entries has become more my form than any other” (1940). And shortly before his death, in 1951, looking back at his life, he admitted: “It was probably due to my literary naivety (I am not a writer) that I spent the main forces of my writing on writing my diaries.”

Literary works in diary form(“Demicoton Book” in “Soboryans” by N.S. Leskov, “Pechorin’s Journal” in “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov, “Chapaev” by D.A. Furmanov, “Diary of an Extra Man” by I.S. Turgenev , “The Diary of Kostya Ryabtsev” by N. Ognev, “The Village Diary” by E. Y. Dorosh).

Sometimes diary materials are used by writers when creating works of art.

A few examples.

The diaries of Leo Tolstoy, as shown by L.Ya. Ginzburg, “had different purposes. In the early diaries - along with self-education, moral exercises - writing exercises, testing future methods. There are also notes briefly marking the course of everyday life.”

D. Furmanov noted in his diary: “I am accumulating materials: everything that I see, that I hear interesting, that I read, I write down right now...”

Works by M.M. Prishvin's "The Worldly Cup" (1922), "The Crane's Homeland" (1929) and "Kashcheev's Chain" (1923–1933) were partially compiled from diary materials. Diary elements are also present in “The Springs of Berendey” (1925) (later included in the “Calendar of Nature” - 1935–1939), the story “Zhen-Shen” (1931–1933). The philosophical and lyrical miniatures, originally existing in the form of the writer’s diary entries, consist of “Calendar of Nature”, “Phacelia” and “Forest Drops”. In the last years of his life, Prishvin prepared the book “Eyes of the Earth” - also from diary entries from various years.

How can one explain such a frequent appeal of various writers, as well as people who are not professionally associated with literature, to the literary diary genre?

The versatility of this genre, the variety of its forms.

The opportunity to directly, freely express your thoughts and feelings.

The habit of keeping a diary can help a person out in difficult moments of life, when he is left alone in the face of grief or unresolved conflict, loss or choice.

Literature

History of pre-revolutionary Russia in diaries and memoirs. Volume 1. M.: Book, 1976.

Literary encyclopedic dictionary. M., 1987.

New school encyclopedia: Literature. M.: ROSMEN; Book World LLC, 2004.

Encyclopedic dictionary of a young literary critic. M., 1997.