All literary works, depending on the features of the narrative and the position of the author in relation to the depicted, are divided into genera. And each of them, in turn, is divided into genres.
In literary criticism, the following main types of literature are distinguished : epic, lyrics, drama; in some cases, lyro-epic genres are also added to them . We will talk about each of them in more detail later in the article.
Epos - a way to see events from the side
At one time, Aristotle argued that the narrative can be conducted either about something detached from himself (epic), or directly from himself (lyrics), or to put the narrative into the mouth of the characters (drama). And although, of course, this definition is very limited, it helps to some extent to clarify the basic principles of the species separation of works of art.
The main three kinds of literature, as a rule, begin to list with the epos, which is an objectively depicted course of events occurring independently of the author. In such works, he usually acts as an outside observer and reteller. Even in the case of a first-person narrative, the author takes a position in relation to which the transmitted events are in the past - in this way the so-called “epic distance” is maintained.
The pace of the epic narrative is always leisurely and measured, as the epic tends to be thorough. This, by the way, often interferes with the production of famous novels on stage, since full adherence to the text makes the performance unreasonably prolonged.
The main epic genres include stories, novels, novels, short stories and essays. To the epic can also be attributed folklore works - tales, legends, epics or historical songs.
More on major epic genres
The main kinds of fiction, as already mentioned, are divided into genres, and the largest of the epic works is the epic novel. As a rule, it covers a certain historical period and includes a large number of plot lines intersecting each other (L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” or M. A. Sholokhov “Silent Don”).
It is followed by a novel in volume. This genre also involves a large number of heroes and storylines. Although, for example, modern detective novels often have only one such line.
In the literature there are a huge number of modifications of the named genre - family, social, female, fantastic, fantasy, detective novel, etc.
About the small genres of the epic
The main kinds of literature suggest the presence of small epic genres. These include a story (this is rather a medium-sized genre), which focuses, as a rule, on one fate or one event.
The story, which, incidentally, is considered a young epic genre (it began to take shape only at the beginning of the 19th century), is a narrative of some episode from the hero's life. Very close in form to the story is a modern short story.
In modern literature, it is customary to speak separately about the essay. The narrative in it, in contrast to the story or short story, is based on documentary facts. True, between all the named genres, there are many intermediate forms.
Fairy tales do not lose their popularity - stories about fictional characters with the obligatory participation of magical powers. The modern fairy tale is already a little like folklore, as it is more closely associated with general literary movements and trends.
The genres of feuilleton, anecdotes, parables, and essays that are popular in our time also belong to the epic family.
Lyric genres
One of the three main types of literature - the lyrics - differs from the rest in its subjectivity and emphasized interest in the author's world. She is also characterized by increased emotionality, the desire to display not events, but a personal attitude towards them. By the nature of these emotions, several lyrical genres can be distinguished : ode (solemn, praising something poem), elegy (lyrical reflection on the transience of being) and satire (revealing, angry work).
But modern poets, as they themselves say, write poetry - that is, works that are difficult or simply impossible to strictly attribute to any genre.
About the drama inside and out
G. Hegel, trying to deepen the division proposed by Aristotle into the main kinds of literature, explained that the drama is based on the synthesis of lyrics and epics. Indeed, drama, from his point of view, is a conflict based on individual aspirations, which at the same time is presented as an objectively occurring event.
And the main distinguishing feature of the drama is its focus not on the story, but on the display (direct image) of a particular situation. The author’s beginning is practically absent in it, and if dialogue in the epos is just one of the means of revealing the character of the hero, then in drama dialogue is often the only way to characterize it.
Such a change of emphasis leads to radical changes in the structure of the work. So, the speech of the heroes becomes more dense, refined, accented than in the epic, because it is she who creates the necessary dramatic tension. The close connection of the named genre with the theater also plays a huge role - the drama is always spectacular, which, by the way, strictly regulates its size.
But to interpret the drama only as a text for the production is extremely incorrect. This genre retains its influence on the reader even without incarnation on the stage and, along with the theater, also has a literary life.
Drama Genres
The main kinds of literature, as you can see, have their own genres. In this sense, drama was no exception. The most striking and historically significant among the dramatic genres have always been tragedy and comedy.
Tragedy is an image of an implacable conflict, which is usually inevitable fatal in nature and most often ends with the death of the hero.
Comedy is characterized by a humorous, comic approach to the depiction of reality and a specific conflict. In this genre, it is not implacable and, as a rule, is safely resolved. There are comedy characters and a comedy of positions, which is based on the source of the comic. In the first case, these are the absurd characters of the heroes, and in the second, the situations in which they find themselves. Often these types of comedies are synthesized.
The genre modifications of modern comedy include farce - a pointed, deliberate comic performance - and a vaudeville, which has an unpretentious funny plot.
Drama is also a dramatic genre.
The main kinds of literature include drama, not only as a genus, but also as a genre. It gained its distribution in the 18th-19th centuries, gradually crowding out the tragedy. The drama is characterized by acute conflict, but it is not as global and not as inevitable as in tragedy.
At the center of this work are the problems of relations between a specific person and society. The plot of the drama, as a rule, is very realistic - thanks to this, it has become a leading genre in the repertoire of theaters, competing with comedy, very popular in our time.
The drama has many varieties: psychological, philosophical, social, historical, love, etc.
What are lyric epic genres
In the educational literature, the concept of the genre is interpreted as belonging to a particular group of literary works that are united by common features. Genres, as already mentioned, are formed within the genus, becoming, as it were, the real embodiment of generic features.
But it is possible the existence of synthetic, intermediate genres, in which two, or even three main types of literature and its types can be combined. By the way, most of these "interweaving" occurs between the lyrics and the epic, which allows some researchers to add to their existing one more genus (fourth) - the lyric-epic. To him, individual researchers include poems (poetic works that have a lyrical or narrative plot that develops against a historical background), as well as ballads (peculiar stories in poems).
Total
Of course, any literary critic, like a person who is just keen on reading, will say that dividing into the main kinds and types of literature is a very complicated and doomed business. Many works of art combine the basic features of different genres, and even genera. And the reader’s task is not to clearly classify them, but to be able to determine the relationship in it of the beginnings of every kind.
After all, the genre is, in fact, not the work itself, but only the principle of its creation. That is, with the author’s intention to write a novel, there is only a genre in which, in the creative process of being born, its main characters can be severely deformed and the boundaries of the species belonging can be expanded, as, for example, what happened to Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. True creativity has no limits.