It is no secret to anyone that literary works belong to certain genres and types of literature. And if the literary birth is limited to three categories: epic, lyrics, drama, then there are much more genres.
"Eugene Onegin": a genre
The famous work of art "Eugene Onegin", written by the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, has long been under the scrutiny of philologists and literary scholars. Not only is this work filled with deep semantic content, its genre characteristics are also very ambiguous. So, why is the definition of the Eugene Onegin genre so unusual?
Childbirth and genres of literature
To begin with, it should be noted that the work is written in poetic form, which means that the kind of literature to which it belongs is lyrical. However, despite the fact that the story is described in verse, it is absolutely impossible to call it a simple poem. The detailed plot, the dynamics of the development of events, psychologism and works within the work with full right allow us to attribute "Eugene Onegin" to the genre of the novel. According to the definition from the explanatory dictionary of Sergei Ivanovich Ozhegov, the novel is a prosaic epic literary work with several characters and a complex plot structure. Based on it, we can say that in terms of meaning and content, "Eugene Onegin" refers, rather, to the genus of the epic and the novel genre of literature.
Short storyline
In the story, the spoiled and selfish metropolitan youth Yevgeny Onegin, tired of the endless balls and social receptions, decides to retire to live in the village in order to at least somehow make a difference in his identical everyday life. However, life in the village is more boring than in St. Petersburg; Eugene is again attacked by the spleen. He meets young villagers: eighteen-year-old talented poet Vladimir Lensky, sisters Larins - beautiful and cheerful Olga, thoughtful and dreamy Tatyana.
They also become the main characters in the plot. Lensky is engaged to Olga, while Tatyana fell in love with Eugene. However, he does not reciprocate the girl’s feelings, but when he received a letter with a passionate and gentle declaration of love, he completely tries to set her on the right path, advising not to expose his feelings to unfamiliar people in the future. Tatyana is embarrassed and offended. And Lensky, meanwhile, challenges Onegin to a duel because he repeatedly invited his bride Olga to dance. Before the duel, Tatyana has a dream in which Eugene kills Vladimir, but the girl does not know about the young people's intention to shoot, otherwise she would have prevented the fight. Onegin kills Lensky for fear of canceling the duel and becoming a coward in secular society. Olga, however, does not long mourn her lover and soon marries another. After some time, Tatyana is also married, for some time she still continues to love Eugene, but then the veil falls from her eyes.
Once, at a social ball, the two met: the still bored and gloomy Onegin and the inaccessible noble wife of General Tatyana. And the heroes exchanged roles in this meeting, Eugene realized that he had fallen in love with the beautiful princess, Tatyana answered him with a phrase that later became famous: “But I have been given to another and will be faithful to him a century”.
Analysis of the genre specifics of the text
So, how, in fact, to define the genre in the work "Eugene Onegin"? About the plot, we can say that he is really rich in events, and the dialogues and monologues of the heroes are full of sensuality and psychologism. These features make it possible to rank the work as a novel genre. However, the poetic form of Pushkin’s famous work leaves the question open. Experts tend to argue that the Eugene Onegin genre is a verse novel. However, according to some literary critics, including Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, this is not so. They argue that the Eugene Onegin genre is a poem, since the work fully and almost with historical authenticity reproduces the life of the Russian public in the capital and beyond. V. G. Belinsky, not stingy, called "Eugene Onegin" "an encyclopedia of Russian life." But for the poem, the work still has too much volume, the amount of text is closer to the romance. This is the first contradiction.
The second contradiction is related to the content of the novel. Again, critics call Eugene Onegin not only a novel about a novel, but also a novel in a novel. And if the first definition is directly affected by the genre of “Eugene Onegin” by A. Pushkin, as well as the love line is the central theme of the plot, then the second characteristic is directly related to the literary texts within the work.
"A novel about a novel"
So, as it was already clarified earlier, in its genre the work is more likely to be related to the novel, despite the exposition in verse. And this is the first component of the definition of a novel about a novel. The second, undoubtedly, reflects the presence of love events in the plot. In the course of the development of the action, the reader can observe how the relationships of two couples develop: Olga Larina and Vladimir Lensky and her sister Tatyana and Eugene Onegin. However, the relations of the latter still come to the fore. It is around this couple that the plot revolves. Thus, the expression “novel about a novel” not only reports the presence of a love line in the text, but also emphasizes once again that in the work “Eugene Onegin” the genre is characterized as a novel.
“A novel in a novel”
This characteristic also has a reference to the genre of Pushkin's creation. However, now that the question “Eugene Onegin” - what genre? ”Does not arise, decoding of the second part of the phrase is not required. This, of course, refers to the attitude to the genre. But the first part of the definition recalls the presence of another novel in the text - a letter from Tatyana Larina , almost a work of fiction. Confessing Onegin's love, Tatyana wrote in writing about her feelings. And Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin fully reflected her impulse. It was about this novel as a genre characterization inside another novel - it was produced ia - we are talking. Tatyana Larina, pouring out her love for Eugene, brought to light her own novel in verse, displaying it in a letter.
So, even after analyzing the work "Eugene Onegin", its genre is still difficult to establish. In form it is a poem, in content it is a novel. Perhaps only such a talented and great poet as Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin is allowed to invent his own genre - a verse novel - and demonstrate it with the best example.