In general, drama refers to works that are intended for staging on stage. They differ from narratives in that the presence of the author is practically not felt and they are built on dialogue.
Content Genres
Any work of art is a historically developed and developed type. It is called a genre (from the French genre - genus, species). In relation to various types of literature , four main ones can be called: lyrical and lyroepic, as well as epic and dramatic.
- The first, as a rule, includes poetic works of so-called small forms: poems, elegy, sonnets, songs, etc.
- The lyroepic genre includes ballads and poems, i.e. large forms.
- Narrative examples (from the essay to the novel) are examples of epic works.
- The dramatic genre is represented by tragedy, drama and comedy.
Comedy in Russian literature, and not only in Russian, was quite actively developed already in the XVIII century. True, it was considered to be of lower origin in comparison with the epic and tragedy.
Comedy as a literary genre
The work of this plan is a kind of drama where some characters or situations are presented in a funny or grotesque form. As a rule, in it, with the help of laughter, humor, often satire, something is exposed, whether it be human vices or some unsightly side of life.
Comedy in literature is the opposite of tragedy, in the center of which an insoluble conflict is certainly built. And her noble and exalted hero must make a fatal choice, sometimes at the cost of life. In the comedy, the opposite is true: her character is ridiculous and ridiculous, and the situations in which he falls are also no less ridiculous. This distinction arose in antiquity.
Later, in the era of classicism, it survived. Heroes were depicted morally by kings and bourgeois. Nevertheless, such a goal - to educate, ridiculing shortcomings - set a comedy in literature. Definition her The main signs were given by Aristotle. He proceeded from the fact that people are either bad or good, differ from each other either in vice or in virtue, therefore the worst should be portrayed in comedy. And the tragedy is designed to show those that are better than existing in real life.
Types of comedies in literature
The cheerful dramatic genre, in turn, has several types. Comedy in literature is also a vaudeville and a farce. And by the nature of the image, it can also be divided into several types: a comedy of positions and a comedy of morals.
Vaudeville, being a genre version of this dramatic kind, is an easy stage action with an entertaining intrigue. In it, a great place is given to singing verses and dances.
The farce is also light, playful. His move is accompanied by external comic effects, often for the sake of rude taste.
The comedy of the provisions is distinguished by its construction on external comic, on effects, where the source of laughter is confusing or ambiguous circumstances and situations. The most striking examples of such works are the “Comedy of Errors” by W. Shakespeare and “The Marriage of Figaro” by P. Beaumarchais.
A dramatic work in which the source of humor is funny morals or some kind of hypertrophied character traits of characters, flaws, vices, can be attributed to a comedy of morals. Classical examples of such a play - "Tartuffe" J.-B. Moliere, The Taming of the Shrew by W. Shakespeare.
Examples of comedy in literature
This genre is inherent in all areas of elegant literature from Antiquity to modernity. The Russian comedy was especially developed. In the literature, this classical works created by D.I. Fonvizin ("Undergrowth", "Foreman"), A.S. Griboedov (“Woe from Wit”), N.V. Gogol ("Players", "Examiner", "Marriage"). It is worth noting that his plays, regardless of the amount of humor and even the dramatic plot, A.N. Ostrovsky and A.P. Chekhov was called comedies.
The past century has been marked by classic comedy plays created by V.V. Mayakovsky - “Bedbug” and “Bathhouse”. They can be called examples of social satire.
V. Shkvarkin was a very popular comedian in the 1920-1930s. His plays “Harmful Element”, “Alien Child” were eagerly staged in various theaters.
Many comedies of Soviet authors were filmed. So, based on V. Rozov’s work “In Search of Joy,” a film was made under the title “Noisy Day”.
Conclusion
The classification of comedies based on the typology of the plot is quite widespread. We can say that comedy in literature is multivariate variety of drama.
So, according to this type, the following plot characters can be distinguished:
- household comedy. As an example - Moliere's "Georges Danden", "Marriage" N.V. Gogol;
- romantic (P. Calderon "himself in custody", A. Arbuzov "old-fashioned comedy");
- heroic (E. Rostan "Cyrano de Bergerac", G. Gorin "Til");
- fabulously symbolic, such as the "Twelfth Night" by W. Shakespeare or the "Shadow" by E. Schwartz.
At all times, comedy's attention turned to ordinary life, its some negative manifestations. Laughter was called upon to fight them, depending on the situation, merry or merciless.