What an epic. What is an epic? Its features and varieties

Epic- a type of literature (along with lyrics and drama), a narrative about events supposed in the past (as if they had happened and are remembered by the narrator). The epic embraces existence in its plastic volume, spatio-temporal extension and event intensity (plot content). According to Aristotle's Poetics, epic, unlike lyric poetry and drama, is impartial and objective at the time of narration.

The emergence of the epic is gradual in nature, but is conditioned by historical circumstances. Some scientists express the view that heroic epic did not arise in cultures such as Chinese and Hebrew. However, other scientists believe that the Chinese still have an epic.

The birth of the epic is usually accompanied by the composition of panegyrics and laments, close to the heroic worldview. The great deeds immortalized in them often turn out to be the material that heroic poets base their narratives on. Panegyrics and laments, as a rule, are composed in the same style and size as the heroic epic: in Russian and Turkic literature, both types have almost the same manner of expression and lexical composition. Lamentations and panegyrics are preserved as part of epic poems as decoration.

Epic genres

• Large - epic, novel, epic poem (poem-epic)
• Middle - a story,
• Small - story, short story, essay.

Epic also includes folklore genres: fairy tale, epic, historical song.

Epic- generic designation for large epic and similar works:

1. An extensive narrative in verse or prose about outstanding national historical events.
2. A complex, long history of something, including a number of major events.

The emergence of the epic was preceded by the circulation of epic songs of a semi-lyrical, semi-narrative nature, caused by the military exploits of the clan, tribe and dedicated to the heroes around whom they were grouped. These songs formed into large poetic units - epics - captured by the integrity of personal design and construction, but only nominally associated with one or another author. This is how the Homeric poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, as well as the French “chansons de geste” arose.

Novel - literary genre, as a rule, prosaic, which involves a detailed narrative about the life and development of the personality of the main character (heroes) in a crisis, non-standard period of his life.

The name “Roman” arose in the middle of the 12th century along with the genre of chivalric romance (Old French. romanz from late lat. romanice "in the (popular) Romance language"), as opposed to historiography in Latin. Contrary to popular belief, from the very beginning this name did not refer to any work in the vernacular (heroic songs or troubadour lyrics were never called novels), but to one that could be contrasted with a Latin model, even if very distant: historiography, fable ( "The Romance of Renard"), vision ("The Romance of the Rose").

From a historical and literary point of view, it is impossible to talk about the emergence of the novel as a genre, since essentially “ novel" is an inclusive term, loaded with philosophical and ideological connotations and indicating a whole complex of relatively autonomous phenomena that are not always genetically related to each other. The “emergence of the novel” in this sense occupies entire eras, starting from antiquity and ending with the 17th or even 18th century. The processes of convergence, that is, the assimilation and absorption of narrative classes and types from neighboring literary series, were of great importance.

Epic poem- one of the oldest types of epic works, which since antiquity has focused its attention on the depiction of heroic events, taken mainly from the distant past. These events were usually significant, epoch-making, influencing the course of national and general history. Examples of the genre: “The Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Homer, “The Song of Roland” in France, “The Song of the Nibelungs” in Germany, “The Furious Roland” by Ariosto, “Jerusalem Liberated” by Tasso, etc. The genre of the heroic poem aroused particular interest from writers and theorists of classicism. For his sublimity, citizenship, and heroism, he was recognized as the crown of poetry. In the theoretical development of the epic genre, writers of classicism relied on the traditions of antiquity. Following Aristotle, the choice of the hero of the epic was determined not only by him moral qualities; first of all he had to be historical figure. The events in which the hero is involved must have national, universal significance. Moralism also manifested itself: a hero should be an example, a model of human behavior.

Tale - prose genre, which does not have a stable volume and occupies an intermediate place between a novel, on the one hand, and a short story or short story, on the other, gravitating towards a chronicle plot that reproduces the natural course of life. In foreign literary criticism, the specifically Russian concept of “story” is correlated with “short novel” (English. short novel or novella).

In Russia in the first third of the 19th century, the term “story” corresponded to what is now called “story”. The concept of a story or novella was not known at that time, and the term “story” meant everything that did not reach the volume of a novel. A story was also called a short story about an incident, sometimes anecdotal (“The Stroller” by Gogol, “The Shot” by Pushkin).

IN Ancient Rus'"story" meant any narrative, especially prose, as opposed to poetic. Ancient meaning The term - “news about some event” - indicates that this genre has absorbed oral stories, events that the narrator personally saw or heard about.

An important source of Old Russian “stories” are chronicles (“The Tale of Bygone Years”, etc.). IN ancient Russian literature“story” was any narrative about any actual events (“The Tale of Batu’s invasion of Ryazan”, “The Tale of the Battle of Kalka”, “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, etc.), whose authenticity and actual significance were not in doubt from contemporaries.

Story or novella- the main genre of short narrative prose. The author of stories is usually called a short story writer, and the totality of stories is called short stories.

Short story or short story - more short form literary prose than a story or novel. Goes back to folklore genres oral retelling in the form of legends or instructive allegories and parables. Compared to more developed narrative forms, stories do not have many faces and one plot line (rarely several) with the characteristic presence of a single problem.

The stories of one author are characterized by cyclization. In the traditional writer-reader relationship model, a story is typically published in periodical; works accumulated over a certain period are then published as a separate book as storybook.

The short story is born from the collapse of the short story tale and the anecdotal tale.

A short story tale is a down-to-earth version of a fairy tale. In new There are no miracles in the fairy tale, but in plot they are very similar. The new fairy tale solves the problem of testing in a different way (for example, the princess asks riddles). The antihero in everyday and short story tales acquires the features real person. A witch is an old woman, etc. Nov.sk. The origin is motivated by everyday circumstances; she does not remember the initiation rite. In this tale the hero is much more active. He must solve everything with his own mind, and most importantly, with cunning (unlike epic). Sometimes wisdom comes close to trickery (trickster hero - deceiver, trickster).

The principle of paradox, an unexpected turn, remains an obligatory feature of the forms that appear in new ones. fairy tales. In the fairy tale, plots are already appearing that are essentially novelistic. Magic powers are replaced by the category of mind and fate.

The joke has been around for a very long time. The anecdote is characterized by paradox, brevity, and a certain twist in the ending. Anecdotal tales are close to jokes both in theme and in poetics. These are tales of fools. Heroes violate the laws of logic. Sometimes this can be motivated by something (deafness, blindness, etc.). Fools do not understand the purpose of things, identify people by clothing, take everything literally, and violate the temporal order. The result is terrible damage, but the emphasis is on the nature of the hero. The hero turns out to be to blame for everything. In these tales there is a category of success and failure - a hint of the category of fate. Stories from mythology and trickery are introduced. In an anecdotal tale, a number of thematic groups can be distinguished: jokes about fools, cunning people (cheaters), evil and unfaithful or obstinate wives, and priests.

Novelistic and anecdotal tale => short story.

IN different eras- even the most distant ones - there was a tendency to combine short stories into novelistic cycles. Typically, these cycles were not a simple, unmotivated collection of stories, but were presented on the principle of some unity: connecting motifs were introduced into the narrative.

For all collections oriental tales characteristic framing principle(circumstances under which fairy tales are told). 1000 and one night is a literary monument, a collection of stories united by the story of King Shahriyar and his wife named Shahrazada (Scheherazade, Scheherazade). (Remember also “The Decameron”).

Faced with his first wife's infidelity, Shahryar takes a new wife every day and executes her at dawn the next day. However, this terrible order is disrupted when he marries Shahrazad, the wise daughter of his vizier. Every night she tells a fascinating story and interrupts the story “in reality.” interesting place- and the king is unable to refuse to hear the end of the story.

The stories are quite heterogeneous in content and style and go back to Arab, Iranian, and Indian folklore. The most archaic among them are Indo-Iranian. Arabian tales introduced a love theme into the development of the novella.

In Europe, there have been no short stories as such for a very long time. In antiquity we find only one short story from the Satyricon, which describes the love affairs of a group of youths from among the “golden youth” of Rome, telling about their dissipation, moral deformity, depravity and adventurism. The novella there is “About the Chaste Matron of Ephesus” (an inconsolable widow, grieving in the grave crypt over her husband’s body, enters into a relationship with a warrior who is nearby guarding the corpses of those executed; when one of these corpses turns out to be stolen, the widow gives her husband’s body to compensate for the loss) .

The Middle Ages knew only one form, close to the novella - exempla (from the Latin “example”) - part of a church sermon, some illustration to it. Accompanied by a moral maxim at the end. The plots were taken from lives. Copies were published in collections. In Russia there is something close to them - a patericon (a book containing the lives of the so-called “holy fathers” (monks of a monastery). Kiev-Pechersk settlement). Sometimes you can find purely novelistic motifs.

Fablio is a kind of alternative to church lives. These are short poetic stories presented by jugglers - traveling comedians. Often this is a satire on priests (rude humor). An unexpected twist in the finale. They were common in France and Germany (schwant).

In Boccaccio you can find all kinds of short stories:

1. short stories about witty answers (3 short stories of the first day)
2. test short stories (10 short story 10 days - Griselda)
3. short stories about the vicissitudes of fate (5th short story of the 5th day)
4. satirical short stories

In Boccaccio's short stories, human individuality is revealed for the first time. A man appears in a Renaissance novella. The actions of the heroes are motivated, which is especially evident in love-psychological short stories.

The novella is characterized by several important features: extreme brevity, a sharp, even paradoxical plot, a neutral style of presentation, lack of psychologism and descriptiveness, and an unexpected denouement. The plot structure of the short story is similar to the dramatic one, but usually simpler. “The short story is an unheard-of journey accomplished” (Goethe) - about the action-packed nature of the short story. The short story emphasizes the significance of the denouement, which contains an unexpected twist (pointe). We can say that the entire novel is conceived as a denouement.

In addition to fable short stories, Tomashevsky writes about fable-free short stories, in which there is no causal-temporal relationship between motives. Such a short story can be easily divided into parts and these parts rearranged without disturbing the correctness of the overall flow of the short story. He gives the example of Chekhov’s “Complaint Book,” where we have a number of entries in the railway complaint book, and all these entries have nothing to do with the complaint book.

The romantic novella (late 19th century) returns to the fairy tale. The novels of the romantics are filled with fantasy.

The novella turns into a story. The story does not depict an event; its central attention is shifted to psychology, to everyday conditions, but not to the unusualness of the event. The story loses its overcoming of trials. Becomes plotless. Chekhov's stories.

The story is an intermediate link between a novel and a short story. The story depicts one event, one episode. A novel is a collection of episodes. Story - 2-3 episodes from the life of the hero. A story rarely has more than 2-3 characters. A novel is a multi-character narrative. The story has something in between, 2-3 clearly defined heroes, but there is a large number of secondary characters.

Feature article- one of the varieties small form epic literature - a story, different from its other form, the short story, in the absence of a single, acute and quickly resolved conflict and in the greater development of descriptive images. Both differences depend on the specific issues of the essay. An essay is a semi-fictional, semi-documentary genre that describes real events and real people.

Essay literature does not address the problems of developing the character of an individual in his conflicts with the established social environment, as is inherent in the short story (and novel), but the problems of the civil and moral state of the “environment” (usually embodied in individual individuals) - “moral descriptive” problems; it has great cognitive diversity. Essay literature usually combines features of fiction and journalism.

In fiction, an essay is one of the types of stories that is more descriptive and deals primarily with social problems. A journalistic, including documentary, essay presents and analyzes real facts and phenomena public life, usually accompanied by a direct interpretation by their author.

The main feature of an essay is writing from life.

Fairy tale- one of the genres of folklore or literature. An epic, mostly prosaic work of a magical nature, usually with happy ending. As a rule, fairy tales are intended for children.

A fairy tale is an epic, predominantly prosaic work of art of a magical, adventurous or everyday nature with a fictional focus. S. is called different kinds oral prose, hence the discrepancy in its definition genre features. S. differs from other types of artistic epic in that the storyteller presents it, and listeners perceive it primarily as a poetic invention, a play of fantasy. This, however, does not deprive S. of its connection with reality, which determines the ideological content, language, and the nature of plots, motives, and images. Many S. reflected primitive social relations and ideas, totemism, animism, etc.

ORIGIN OF THE TALE

In the early stages of culture, fairy tales, sagas and myths are found undivided and initially probably have a production function: the hunter lured the frightened animal with gestures and words. Later, pantomime with words and singing is introduced. Traces of these elements were preserved by the fairy tale of later stages of development in the form of dramatic performance, melodious elements of the text and wide layers of dialogue, of which the more primitive the fairy tale, the more primitive it is, the more abundant it is.

In the later stage of the pastoral economy, prenatal and early social organization and animistic worldview, S. often receives the function of a magical ritual to influence not the beast, but the souls and spirits. S. are obliged to either attract and entertain, especially among hunters, forest and all other spirits (Turks, Buryats, Soyats, Uriankhians, Orochons, Altaians, Shors, Sagais, residents of Fiji, Samoa, Australians), or they are used as spells (in New Guinea, among the Altaians, Chukchi), or S. is directly included in religious rites (among the Malays, Gilyaks, Iranian Tajiks). Eg. the famous motif of magical flight is played out by the Chukchi in their funeral rites. Even the Russian S. was part of wedding ceremony. Thereby cult significance S. Many peoples have regulations for telling fairy tales: they cannot be told during the day or in the summer, but only at night after sunset and in winter (Baluchis, Bechuanas, Hotentots, Witotos, Eskimos).

TYPES OF TALES

Despite the constructive uniformity, modern S. distinguishes several types:

1. WITH. about animals — oldest species; it goes back partly to primitive Natursagen, partly to the later influence of literary poems of the Middle Ages (like the novel about Renard) or to stories northern peoples about the bear, wolf, raven and especially about sly fox or its equivalents - jackal, hyena.
2. WITH. magical, genetically going back to various sources: to decayed myth, to magical stories, to rituals, book sources, etc.
3. WITH. novelistic with everyday, but unusual subjects:. Among them there are varieties of S. anecdotal(about poshekhontsy, cunning wives, priests, etc.) and erotic. Genetically, novelistic S. often has its roots in a feudal society with clear class divisions.
4. WITH. legendary,

• Folklore tale — epic genre written and oral folk art: prose oral history about fictitious events in the folklore of different peoples. A type of narrative, mostly prosaic folklore ( fairy tale prose), which includes works of different genres, the texts of which are based on fiction. Fairytale folklore opposes the “authentic” folklore narrative ( not fairy tale prose).
• Literary fairy tale- epic genre: a fiction-oriented work, closely related to a folk tale, but, unlike it, belongs to a specific author, did not exist in oral form before publication and had no variants. A literary fairy tale either imitates a folklore one ( literary fairy tale written in folk poetic style), or creates a didactic work based on non-folklore stories. Folklore tale historically precedes literary.

Word " fairy tale» attested in written sources no earlier than the 17th century. From the word " say" What mattered was: a list, a list, an exact description. Modern meaning acquired from the 17th-19th centuries. Previously the word " fables».

Bylina- a heroic-patriotic song-legend telling about the exploits of heroes and reflecting the life of Ancient Rus' of the 9th-13th centuries; a type of oral folk art, which is characterized by a song-epic way of reflecting reality. The main plot of the epic is some heroic event, or a remarkable episode of Russian history (hence the popular name of the epic - “starina”, “old woman”, implying that the action in question took place in the past).

Bylinas, as a rule, are written in tonic verse with two to four stresses.

The term “epics” was first introduced by Ivan Sakharov in the collection “Songs of the Russian People” in 1839. He proposed it based on the expression “ according to epics" in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", which meant " according to facts».

There are several theories to explain the origin and composition of epics:

1. Mythological theory sees in epics stories about natural phenomena, and in heroes - the personification of these phenomena and their identification with the gods of the ancient Slavs (Orest Miller, Afanasiev).
2. Historical theory explains epics as a trace of historical events, sometimes confused in people's memory(Leonid Maikov, Kvashnin-Samarin).
3. The theory of borrowings points to the literary origin of epics (Theodor Benfey, Vladimir Stasov, Veselovsky, Ignatius Yagich), and some tend to see borrowings through the influence of the East (Stasov, Vsevolod Miller), others - from the West (Veselovsky, Sozonovich).

As a result, one-sided theories gave way to mixed ones, allowing for the presence of elements in epics folk life, history, literature, borrowings from Eastern and Western.

Historical songs- a group of epic songs conventionally identified by scientists from the circle of epics . In terms of volume, historical songs are usually fewer epics; Using in general epic poetics, the historical song, however, is poorer in traditional artistic formulas and techniques: commonplaces, retardation, repetitions, comparisons.

Historical songs are works of art, therefore the facts of history are present in them in a poetically transformed form, although historical songs strive to reproduce specific events, to preserve accurate memory in them. As epic works, many historical songs have features similar to epics, but they are a qualitatively new stage in the development of folk poetry. Events are conveyed in them with greater historical accuracy than in epics.

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An epic work has no limitations in its scope. According to V.E. Khalisev, “Epic as a type of literature includes both short stories (...) and works designed for long-term listening or reading: epics, novels (...).”

A significant role for the epic genres is played by the image of the narrator (storyteller), who talks about the events themselves, about the characters, but at the same time demarcates himself from what is happening. The epic, in turn, reproduces and captures not only what is being told, but also the narrator (his manner of speaking, his mentality).

An epic work can use almost any artistic medium known in literature. The narrative form of an epic work “promotes the deepest penetration into the inner world of man.”

Until the 18th century, the leading genre of epic literature was the epic poem. The source of its plot is folk legend, the images are idealized and generalized, the speech reflects a relatively monolithic popular consciousness, and the form is poetic (Homer’s Iliad). In the XVIII-XIX centuries. The leading genre is the novel. The plots are borrowed mainly from modern times, the images are individualized, the speech reflects a sharply differentiated multilingual social consciousness, the form is prosaic (L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky).

Other genres of epic are tale, short story, short story. Striving for a complete reflection of life, epic works tend to be combined into cycles. Based on the same trend, an epic novel is emerging (“The Forsyte Saga” by J. Galsworthy).

Before analyzing the genres of epic, you should find out what is hidden behind this term. In literary criticism, this word can often refer to slightly different phenomena.

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

Main element

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

One way or another, traditionally there are three literary genres. This is drama, lyricism, epic.

Type of literature

If drama depicts the human personality in conflict with the people around him, and lyrics are aimed at expressing the feelings and thoughts of the author, then the genres of epic imply an objective depiction of an 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 genres in literature are more diverse than dramas or lyrics. The ability to use all the depths of the language allows the author to devote Special attention description and narration. This can be facilitated by epithets, complex sentences, all kinds of metaphors, phraseological units, etc. This and much more are fine details.

Major epic genres

Of the voluminous genres, epic includes the following genres: epic, novel, and works that fall under both of these definitions. This generic designation is opposed to such small genres as short story, tale, etc.

Epic can be defined using two definitions:

1. An extensive narrative that focuses on significant historical events.

2. A long and complex story involving many events and characters.

Examples of the epic genre are works of Russian literature " Quiet Don» M.A. Sholokhov and “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy. Both books have a plot that spans several dramatic years in the history of the country. In the first case, this is the First World War and civil war, who destroyed the Cossacks, to which the main characters belonged. Tolstoy's epic tells about the life of the nobles against the backdrop of the confrontation with Napoleon, bloody battles and the burning of Moscow. Both writers pay attention to multiple characters and destinies, rather than making one character the protagonist of the entire work.

A novel, as a rule, is somewhat smaller in volume than an epic and does not focus on such a large number of people. In general, this term can be deciphered as “a prose, detailed narrative about the life of the main character and the development of his personality.” Due to its accessibility and versatility, this genre is undoubtedly the most popular in literature.

The rather vague concept of a novel allows us to include a variety of works, sometimes radically different from each other. There is a point of view about the emergence of this phenomenon back in Antiquity (“Satyricon” by Petronius, “Golden Eagle” by Apuleius). A more popular theory is that the novel appeared during the heyday of chivalry. It could be a reworked folk epic or smaller fables (The Romance of Renard).

The development of the genre continued in modern times. It reached its apogee in the 19th century. It was at this time that such classics as A. Dumas, V. Hugo, F. Dostoevsky worked. The latter's works can also be described as psychological novel, since Fyodor Mikhailovich reached incredible heights in describing state of mind, experiences and reflections of their heroes. One can also add Stendhal to the “psychological” series.

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

In addition, there is a classification of novels by country. All these are also genres of epic. Mentality, lifestyle and language characteristics have made Russian, French and American novels completely different phenomena.

Smaller elements

According to the classification, the following genres belong to the epic - story and poem. These two phenomena reflect opposing approaches to creativity among authors.

The story occupies an intermediate position between the novel and small forms. Such a work may cover a short period of time and have one main character. It is interesting that back in the 19th century in our country stories were also called tales, since the Russian language did not yet know such a term. In other words, this was the designation for any work that was inferior in volume to a novel. In foreign literary studies, for example, in English, the concept of “story” is synonymous with the expression “short novel”. In other words, it's a novella. The classification of this literary phenomenon is similar to that used among novels.

If the story belongs to prose, then in poetry there is a poem parallel to it, which is also considered a work of medium volume. The poetic form includes a narrative characteristic of the rest of the epic, but also has its own easily recognizable features. This is moral descriptiveness, pomp, and deep emotions of the characters.

Such an epic, examples of which can be found in a variety of cultures, arose a long time ago. Songs of a lyrical-epic nature, preserved, for example, in the form of ancient Greek hymns and numbers, can be called a certain starting point. Subsequently, such literary works became characteristic of Germanic and Scandinavian early medieval cultures. These can also include epics, 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 to the novel.

Small forms

The genres of epic include and With the help of such experiences, the author first explores the thoughts and personality of the hero. The world around us is playing minor 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 subject’s life.

If a portrait is artistic experience, then the problematic essay is considered part of journalism. This is a kind of dialogue, a conversation with the reader on a certain topic. The author’s task is to identify the problem and present his own views on the situation. Newspapers and any periodicals in general are full of such notes, since their depth and size are completely suitable for journalism.

Separately, it is worth noting that they arose earlier than the others and were even reflected in Russian classical literature. For example, these are sketches by Pushkin, as well as “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishchev, which 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 exactly what Radishchev did, not being afraid to directly declare the horrific life of the serfs and workers who met on his way.

The genres of epic in literature are also represented by short stories. This is the simplest and most accessible form for both the author and the reader. Works of Russian literature in the short story genre made A.P. world famous. Chekhov. Despite its apparent simplicity, with just a few pages he created vivid images that have become embedded in our culture (“Man in a Case,” “Thick and Thin,” etc.).

The story is synonymous with the term “short story,” which comes from the Italian language. Both are at the last level of prose in terms of volume (sequentially after the novel and story). Writers specializing in this genre, characterized by the so-called cyclization, or publication of works in periodicals on a regular basis, as well as collections.

The story is characterized simple structure: beginning, climax, denouement. This linear development of the plot is often diluted with the help of unexpected turns or events (the so-called piano in the bushes). This kind of reception became widespread back in XIX literature century. The roots of the story are folk epics or fairy tales. Collections of mythical tales became the forerunners of this phenomenon. For example, “A Thousand and One Nights,” which became famous not only in the Arab world, but was also reflected in other cultures.

Already closer to the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, the collection “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio gained popularity. It was these short stories that set the tone for the classical type of story, which became widespread after the Baroque era.

In Russia, the short story genre became popular during the period of sentimentalism at the end of the 18th century, including thanks to the work of N.M. Karamzin and V.A. Zhukovsky.

Epic as an independent genre

In contrast to the literary genre and the triad “drama, lyricism, epic,” there is also a narrower term that speaks of epic as a narrative, the plot of which is taken from the distant past. At the same time, it includes many images, each of which creates its own picture of the world, different for each culture. The most important role in such works the heroes of the folk epic play.

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

1. The subject of the epic is the national, so-called absolute past, about 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 national legend, and not personal experience, on the basis of which writers create their books. Thus, the epics contain abundant references to the mythical and divine, for which there is no documentary evidence.

3. Epic world has nothing to do with modernity and is as far removed from it as possible.

All these theses make it easier to answer the question of what kind of works or what genres are included in the epic.

The roots of the genre should be sought in the Middle East. Ancient civilizations, which arose between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, were distinguished by a higher cultural level compared to their neighbors. The cultivation of the land, the emergence of resources, the emergence 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 forms the basis of heroic works.

IN mid-19th centuries, English archaeologists managed to discover ancient city Nineveh, who belonged to the Assyrian culture. Clay tablets containing several scattered tales were also found there. Later they were combined into one work - The Epic of Gilgamesh. It was inscribed in cuneiform and is today considered the oldest example of its genre. Dating allows us to attribute it to the 18th - 17th centuries BC.

At the center of the narrative of the tales is the demigod Gilgamesh and the story of his campaigns, as well as relationships with others supernatural beings Akkadian mythology.

Another important example from Antiquity, which allows us to answer the question of what genres belong to the epic, is the work of Homer. Two of him epic poems- “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are the most ancient monuments ancient greek culture and literature. The characters in these works are not only the gods of Olympus, but also mortal heroes, the tales of which have been preserved by folk epics from generation to generation. "Iliad" and "Odyssey" - prototypes of future heroic poems Middle Ages. In many ways, plot structures were inherited from each other, a craving for mystical stories. It is in the future that the phenomenon reaches its maximum development and spread.

Medieval epic

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

There is also a corresponding chronological classification. The first half is creativity early Middle Ages. Of course, these are the sagas left to us by the Scandinavian peoples. Until the 11th century, Vikings sailed the European seas, plundered, 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 Welsungs”, “The Saga of Ragner Leather Pants”, etc. Each king left behind a heroic story. Most of them have survived to this day.

Scandinavian culture also influenced its neighbors. For example, the Anglo-Saxons. The poem "Beowulf" was created between the 8th and 10th centuries. 3182 lines tell the story of a glorious Viking who first becomes king and then defeats the monster Grendel, his mother, and the dragon.

The second half dates back to the era of developed feudalism. This is the French “Song of Roland”, the German “Song of the Nibelungs”, etc. The surprising thing is that each work gives an idea of ​​a 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 within which there are parts written in prose. For example, this is typical for Irish legends (“The Saga of the Battle of Mag Turied”, “The Book of the Conquests of Ireland”, “Annals of the Four Masters”, etc.).

The key difference between the two groups of medieval poems is the scale of the events depicted. If monuments before the 12th century. talked about an entire era, then in the years of developed feudalism a specific event (for example, a battle) becomes the object of the story.

There are several theories of the origin of “heroic” creativity in medieval Europe. According to one of them, songs in the cantilena genre, common in the 7th century, became such a basis. A proponent of this theory was Gaston Paris, a famous French explorer of the Middle Ages. Cantilenas were small stories about a particular historical event, set to a simple musical structure (most often vocal).

Over the years, these “crumbs” were combined into something larger and generalized. For example, in the tales of King Arthur, common among the Celtic population of Great Britain. Thus, the genres of folk epic merged into one whole over time. In the case of Arthur, novels of the “Breton cycle” arose. The plots penetrated into all kinds of chronicles created at the monasteries. This is how semi-mythical stories turned into documented truth. Knights round table still cause a lot of controversy regarding reality and reliability.

The key reason for the flourishing of the genre in Christian Europe of that era is considered to be the decomposition of the slave system and the emergence of feudalism, which was based on military service to one’s overlord.

Russian epic

The Russian epic received its own term in our language - “epics”. Most of them were passed down orally from generation to generation, and those lists that are currently presented in museums and transferred to textbooks and anthologies date back to the 17th - 18th centuries.

Nevertheless, the genres of folk epic in Rus' were in their heyday in the 9th - 13th centuries, i.e. before the Mongol invasion. And it is precisely this era that is reflected in most literary monuments of this kind.

The peculiarities of the epic genre are that they represent a synthesis of Christian and pagan traditions. Often, such interweaving prevents historians from determining for sure the nature of this or that character or phenomenon.

The key characters of such works are heroes - heroes of the folk epic. This is especially clearly reflected in the epics of the Kyiv cycle. Another collective image is Prince Vladimir. Most often it is suggested that the baptist of Rus' is hidden under this name. This, in turn, gives rise to a dispute about where the Russian epic originated. Most researchers agree that epics were created in the south of Kievan Rus, while in Muscovite Rus they were generalized several centuries later.

Undoubtedly, special place“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” ranks in the Russian literary pantheon. This monument of ancient Slavic culture introduces the reader not only to the main plot - the unsuccessful campaign of the princes in the lands of the Polovtsians, but also personifies the picture of the world that surrounded the inhabitants of Rus' in those years. First of all, it is mythology and songs. The work summarizes the features of the epic genre. The “Word” is also extremely important from a linguistic point of view.

Lost works

The legacy of the past, which has not survived to this day, deserves a separate discussion. The reason is often the banal lack of a documented copy of the book. Since legends were often 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 disasters.

Mentions of lost relics of the past can also be found in ancient sources. Thus, the Roman orator Cicero back in the 1st century BC. in his works complained that information about legendary heroes cities on seven hills - Romulus, Regulus, Coriolanus.

Poems are especially often lost because there are no carriers who could transmit their culture and preserve the memory of the people’s past. Here is just a small list of these ethnic groups: Turduls, Gauls, Huns, Goths, Lombards.

In ancient Greek sources there are references to books, the originals of which were never found or were preserved in fragments. This is the Titanomachy, which tells the story of the battle between gods and titans before the existence of mankind. Plutarch, who lived at the beginning of our era, mentioned it in his works.

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

Conclusion

What genres belong to epic? Firstly, these are medieval monuments and are based on a heroic plot and religious references.

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

Epic (type of literature)

A significant role for the epic genres is played by the image of the narrator (storyteller), who talks about the events themselves, about the characters, but at the same time delimits himself from what is happening. The epic, in turn, reproduces and captures not only what is being told, but also the narrator (his manner of speaking, his mentality).

An epic work can use almost any artistic means known to literature. The narrative form of an epic work “promotes the deepest penetration into the inner world of man.”

Literature

• Khalizev V. E. Theory of literature. - M., 2009. - P. 302-303.
• Belokurova S. P. Dictionary of literary terms.

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See what “Epic (genus of literature)” is in other dictionaries:

- (Greek from ero to say) works of epic poetry. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. EPOS [gr. epos word, story, song] lit. narrative literature, one of the three main types... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

EPOS, epic, many. no, husband (Greek word epos) (lit.). 1. Narrative type of literature (as opposed to drama and lyrics). 2. The totality of works of this kind, combined common theme, general nationality, chronology, etc.... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

A; m. [from Greek. epos word, narrative] 1. Special. Narrative type of literature (as opposed to poetry and drama). Great masters of epic. 2. A set of folk heroic songs, tales, poems, united by a common theme, national... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

epic- a, m. 1) only units. One of the three (along with lyric and drama) main types of literature, which are works of a narrative nature. Epic and drama. Epic and lyrics. 2) A set of works of folk art (usually... ... Popular dictionary of the Russian language

I m. Narrative, in contrast to drama and lyric poetry, is a type of literature. II m. Set of works of folk art: folk songs, tales, poems, etc., united by a single theme or common nationality. III m. Row... ... Modern Dictionary Russian language Efremova

epic- A; m. (from the Greek épos word, narrative) see also. epic 1) special Narrative genre of literature (as opposed to poetry and drama) Great masters of epic. 2) A set of folk heroic songs, tales, poems, united by a common theme... ... Dictionary of many expressions

GENUS LITERARY- GENUS LITERARY, a series of literary works similar in the type of their speech organization and cognitive focus on an object or subject, or the act of artistic expression itself: a word either depicts objective world, or expresses... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

Edward (edouard Rod, 1857 1910) Swiss novelist who wrote in French. language He studied in Bern, then in Berlin. From 1887 to 1893 he was a professor of general literature in Geneva, then moved to Paris. His first novels were written in the spirit of naturalism... ... Literary encyclopedia

Epic, lyric, drama. It is determined according to various criteria: from the point of view of methods of imitation of reality (Aristotle), types of content (F. Schiller, F. Schelling), categories of epistemology (objective subjective in G. W. F. Hegel), formal... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

GENUS LITERARY, one of the three groups of works of fiction: epic, lyric, drama. The tradition of generic division of literature was founded by Aristotle. Despite the fragility of the boundaries between genera and the abundance of intermediate forms (lyric epic ... ... Modern encyclopedia

Books

• Content of artistic forms. Epic. Lyrics. Theater, Gachev G.D. What meaning does the very form of a work of art radiate? Its type and genre, this or that structure, plot, rhythm? Why does a playwright perceive the world differently than a lyricist or writer...

The word "epic" came to us from antiquity. From ancient Greek this term is translated as “narration”. What is an epic? The word has several meanings. We will focus on only two. Literary works created over centuries different peoples, can be classified as one of the three existing lyric poetry, drama and epic. The latter tells a story about some action or event in the past, describes various phenomena and characters, and contains a holistic picture of the social life of the people.

• novel;
• epic;
• poem;
• story;
• story;
• poem;
• feature article;
• epic;
• fairy tale;

Epic as a literary genre

The second meaning of the word in question is special - “heroic”. Today scientists are well aware of the epic. But disputes about exactly how and where it arose still do not subside. Many literary scholars believe that epic is a genre that could have originated in cultures such as Chinese and Hebrew. Others are convinced that this is simply impossible.

It is only known that this the oldest genre(or genres) created by our distant ancestors. In the Middle Ages, these tales, songs, poems, and epics were performed by wandering musicians and wandering storytellers. Since their inception, epic works have always been sung to the music of a violin or harp. They tell everything in such a way that listeners have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the events described. This is the same story, only slightly embellished with fantastic or mystical facts.

Epics of the countries of the world

Every epic work is considered unique heritage the country in which it was written. Of all that is known in this genre, the best preserved are French literary monuments. The most famous French epic is the above-mentioned “Song of Roland”, which, according to various sources, was written around the 12th century. IN German literature You can also find examples of the genre in question. The most famous epic of Germany is “The Song of the Nibelungs”. It reflects the mystical events that took place against the backdrop of the great migration of peoples. In England, Beowulf is considered the greatest epic. In him we're talking about about a fearless knight who challenged a monster that threatened the entire kingdom. The longest epic - "Manas" - belongs to the Kyrgyz people. It is twice the size of the Mahabharata and the Tibetan epic of Geser.

What is the epic of the Russian people?

In Russian folk art, an epic telling about the exploits of heroes is called an epic. In epics, heroes most often act, endowed with enormous physical strength and impressive mental abilities. The most famous epic works tell about the exploits of three famous heroes: Ilya Muromets, Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich.

Conclusion

What is an epic if not the root of literature, the importance of which only increases every year? This is an important legacy left to us by our ancestors. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that every self-respecting nation should have its own epic, its own hero who would be ready to lay down his life in the fight for the Motherland.

Epic

An epic (from epic and Greek poieo - I create) is an extensive work of art in verse or prose, telling about significant historical events. Typically describes a number of major events within a specific historical era. Initially it was aimed at describing heroic events.

Well-known epics: “Iliad”, “Mahabharata”.

Novel

A novel is a large narrative work of art, in the events of which many characters usually take part (their destinies are intertwined).

A novel can be philosophical, historical, adventure, family, social, adventure, fantasy, etc. There is also an epic novel that describes the fate of people at turning points historical eras(“War and Peace”, “Quiet Don”, “Gone with the Wind”).

A novel can be in prose or verse and contain several storylines, include works of small genres (story, fable, poem, etc.).

The novel is characterized by the formulation of socially significant problems, psychologism, and disclosure through conflicts. inner world person.

Periodically, the decline of the novel genre is predicted, but its wide possibilities in depicting reality and human nature allow it to have its attentive reader in the next new times.

Many books and scientific works are devoted to the principles of constructing and creating a novel.

Tale

A story is a work of art that occupies a middle position between a novel and a short story in terms of volume and complexity of plot, constructed in the form of a narrative about the events of the main character in their natural sequence. As a rule, the story does not pretend to pose global problems.

Widely known stories: “The Overcoat” by N. Gogol, “The Steppe” by A. Chekhov, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A. Solzhenitsyn.

Story

A story is a short work of fiction with a limited number of characters and events. A story may contain only one episode from the life of one character.

Short story and novella are the genres with which they usually begin their literary creativity young prose writers.

Novella

A short story, like a short story, is a small work of art characterized by brevity, lack of descriptiveness, and an unexpected ending.

The short stories by G. Boccaccio, Pr. Merimee, S. Maughema.

Vision

A vision is a narration of events that were revealed in a (supposedly) dream, hallucination, or lethargic sleep. This genre is characteristic of medieval literature, but is still used today, usually in satirical and fantastic works.

Fable

A fable (from “bayat” - to tell) is a small work of art in poetic form of a moralizing or satirical nature. At the end of the fable there is usually a short moralizing conclusion (the so-called moral).

The fable ridicules the vices of people. Wherein actors As a rule, animals, plants or various things appear.

Parable

A parable, like a fable, contains a moral message in an allegorical form. However, the parable chooses people as heroes. It is also presented in prose form.

Perhaps the most famous parable is “The Parable of prodigal son"from the Gospel of Luke.

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a work of fiction about fictional events and characters, in which magical, fantastic forces appear. A fairy tale is a form of teaching children correct behavior and compliance with social norms. It also transmits important information for humanity from generation to generation.

The modern type of fairy tale - fantasy - is a kind of historical adventure novel, the action of which takes place in a fictional world close to the real one.

Joke

An anecdote (French anecdote - tale, fable) is a small prose form, characterized by brevity, an unexpected, absurd and funny ending. An anecdote is characterized by a play on words.

Although many jokes have specific authors, as a rule, their names are forgotten or initially remain “behind the curtain.”

A widely known collection of literary anecdotes about the writers N. Dobrokhotova and Vl. Pyatnitsky, erroneously attributed to D. Kharms.

More detailed information on this topic can be found in the books of A. Nazaikin