Before disassembling the genres of the epic, you should find out what is hidden behind this term. In literary criticism, this word can often be referred to as slightly different phenomena.
There is such a category as the literary genus. There are three of them, and each includes a number of works similar in type to their speech organization. Another important detail - each genus differs in its orientation to the subject, object or act of artistic expression.
Main element
The key unit determining the division of literature is the word. It is in the first place that it either depicts an object, or reproduces the communication of the characters, or expresses the state of each speaker.
One way or another, traditionally distinguish three literary genera. This is drama, lyrics, epic.
Kind of literature
If the drama depicts a human person in conflict with surrounding people, and the lyrics are aimed at expressing the feelings and thoughts of the author, then the genres of the epic imply an objective image 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 genres of epic in literature are more diverse than dramas or lyrics. The ability to use all the depths of the language allows the author to pay special attention to description and narration. This can be facilitated by epithets, sentences complex in construction, all kinds of metaphors, phraseological units, etc. This and much more are pictorial details.
Major Epic Genres
Of the voluminous, the following genres belong to the epic: epic, novel, and works that fall under both of these definitions. This generic designation is opposed to such small genres as a story, a story, etc.
An epic can be identified using two definitions:
1. An extensive narrative that focuses on outstanding historical events.
2. A long and complex story, including many events and characters.
Examples of the epic genre are the works of Russian literature "Quiet Flows the Don" M.A. Sholokhov and “War and Peace” L.N. Tolstoy. Both books are characterized by a plot spanning several dramatic years in the country's history. In the first case, this is the First World War and the Civil War, which destroyed the Cossacks, to which the main characters belonged. The Tolstoy saga tells about the life of the nobles against the backdrop of confrontation with Napoleon, bloody battles and the burning of Moscow. Both writers pay attention to many characters and fates, and do not make one character the protagonist of the entire work.
The novel, as a rule, is somewhat smaller than the epic in volume and puts at the forefront not so many people. In general, this term can be deciphered as "a prosaic detailed narrative about the life of the protagonist and the development of his personality." Due to its accessibility and versatility, this genre is certainly the most popular in the literature.
The rather vague concept of the novel allows us to rank among it a variety of works, sometimes radically different from each other. There is a point of view about the occurrence of this phenomenon back in Antiquity (the Satyricon Petronius, the Golden Eagle of Apuleius). More popular is the theory of the appearance of the novel in the heyday of chivalry. It could be a reworked folk epic or smaller fables ("A novel about Renard").
The development of the genre continued in modern times. It reached its climax in the 19th century. It was at this time that such classics as A. Dumas, V. Hugo, F. Dostoevsky were creating. The works of the latter can also be described as a psychological novel, since Fedor Mikhailovich reached incredible heights in describing the state of mind, feelings and thoughts of his heroes. Stendhal can also be added to the “psychological” series.
Other subgenres: philosophical, historical, educational, fantastic, love, adventure novel, utopia, etc.
In addition, there is a classification of novels by country. All these are also epic genres. The mentality, lifestyle and language features made Russian, French and American novels completely different phenomena.
Smaller elements
According to the classification of the kinds of literature, the following genres belong to the epic - a novel and a poem. These two phenomena reflect the opposite approach to creativity among authors.
The story is intermediate between the novel and small forms. Such a work can cover a short period of time, in it one main character. It is interesting that back in the 19th century, stories were also called stories in our country, since the Russian language did not know a similar term. In other words, any work that was inferior to the novel in volume was so designated. In foreign literary criticism, for example, in English, the concept of "story" is synonymous with the expression "short novel" (short novel). In other words, a short story. The classification of this literary phenomenon is similar to that used among novels.
If the story relates to prose, then in poetry there is a poem in parallel with it, which is also considered a work of medium volume. The poetic form includes a narrative characteristic of the rest of the epic, but has its own easily recognizable features. This is morality, pomposity, deep feelings of the characters.
A similar epic, examples of which can be found in a variety of cultures, has arisen for a long time. Songs of a lyric-epic nature, preserved, for example, in the form of ancient Greek hymns and nom. In the future, such literary works became characteristic of Germanic and Scandinavian early medieval cultures. Epics can also be attributed to them, 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 has ceded a dominant position to the novel.
Small forms
Consider small genres of epic. If the author describes real events and uses factual material, such a work is considered an essay. Depending on the nature of the material, it may be artistic or journalistic.
Epic genres include a portrait essay. With the help of such experience, the author first of all explores the thoughts and personality of the hero. The world around us plays a secondary 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 life of the object.
If a portrait is an artistic experience, then a problematic essay is considered part of journalism. This is a kind of dialogue, a conversation with the reader on a specific topic. The author's task is to identify the problem and state his own views on the situation. Newspapers and any periodicals are full of such notes, since their depth and size are completely suitable for journalism.
Separately, it is worth noting the travel essays that arose earlier than the rest and were even reflected in Russian classical literature. For example, these are sketches of Pushkin, as well as A.N. "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow" Radishchev, who brought him immortal glory. Using travel notes, the author tries to capture his own impressions of what he saw on the road. This is exactly what Radishchev did, not afraid to directly declare the terrifying life of serfs and workers who met on his way.
Epic genres in the literature are presented by the story. This is the simplest and most accessible form for both the author and the reader. The works of Russian literature in the genre of story made A.P. Chekhov. Despite the seeming simplicity, with just a few pages, he created vivid images that were deposited in our culture (“The Man in the Case”, “Thick and Thin”, etc.).
The story is synonymous with the term "short story", which came from the Italian language. Both that, and another is on the last step of prose in volume (sequentially after the novel and the novel). Writers specializing in this genre are characterized by the so-called cyclization, or publication of works in periodicals in a regular mode, as well as collections.
The story is characterized by a simple structure: plot, climax, denouement. This linear plot development is often diluted with unexpected twists or events (the so-called grand piano in the bushes). A similar technique became widespread in the literature of the XIX century. The roots of the story are a folk epos or fairy tales. Collections of mythical legends became the forerunners of this phenomenon. For example, “A Thousand and One Nights” gained fame not only in the Arab world, but also reflected in other cultures.
Already closer to the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, the collection The Decameron by Giovanni Bocaccio gained popularity. It was these short stories that set the tone for the classic type of story, which became widespread after the Baroque era.
In Russia, the 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 family and the triad of “drama, lyrics, epic,” there is a narrower term that speaks of the epic as a narrative whose plot 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 in each culture. The most important role in such works is played by the heroes of the folk epic.
Comparing the two points of view about this phenomenon, one cannot but turn to the words of the famous Russian cultural scientist 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 a 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 a national tradition, and not the personal experience on the basis of which writers create their books. So, the genres of folklore epic galore contain references to the mythical and divine, to which there is no documentary evidence.
3. The epic world has nothing to do with modernity and is as distant from it as possible.
All these theses make it easy to answer the question of what kind of works or genres are included in the epic.
The roots of the genre should be sought in the Middle East. The oldest civilizations that arose between the Euphrates and the Tigris were distinguished by a higher cultural level in comparison with their neighbors. The cultivation of land, the emergence of resources, the emergence of trade - all this developed not only the language without which literature is impossible, but also created reasons for the outbreak of military conflicts, the plot of which underlies the heroic works.
In the middle of the XIX century, English archaeologists managed to discover the ancient city of Nineveh, belonging to the Assyrian culture. Clay tablets containing several scattered legends were found there. Later they were able to combine into one work - "The Epic of Gilgamesh." It was inscribed in cuneiform and today is considered the oldest example of its genre. Dating allows it to be attributed to the XVIII - XVII centuries BC
At the center of the storytelling is the demigod Gilgamesh and the history of his campaigns, as well as relationships with other supernatural beings of Akkadian mythology.
Another important example from Antiquity, which allows us to answer the question of which genres belong to the epic, is the work of Homer. Two of his epic poems - "Iliad" and "Odyssey" - are the most ancient monuments of ancient Greek culture and literature. The characters of these works are not only the gods of Olympus, but also mortal heroes, legends about which the folk epic has preserved from generation to generation. The Iliad and Odyssey are prototypes of future heroic poems of the Middle Ages. In many ways, plot constructions and a craving for mystical stories were inherited from each other. It is in the future that the phenomenon reaches its maximum development and spread.
Medieval epic
This term primarily refers to the 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 the work of the early Middle Ages. Of course, these are sagas left to us by the Scandinavian peoples. Until the XI century, the Vikings plowed the European seas, hunted by robbery, 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 monuments of literature as the Saga of the Welsungs, Saga of the Ragner Leather Pants, etc. Each king left behind a heroic narrative. Most of them have survived to our times.
Scandinavian culture influenced the neighbors. For example, the Anglo-Saxons. The Beowulf poem was created between the 8th and 10th centuries. 3182 lines tell about the glorious Viking, who first becomes a king, and then the monster Grendel, his mother, and also the dragon defeats.
The second half belongs to the era of developed feudalism. This is the French Song of Roland, the German Song of the Nibelungs, etc. It is surprising that each work gives an idea of ​​a unique picture of the world of one or another people.
What genres are included in the epic of the specified period? For the most part, these are poems, but there are poetic works within which there are parts written in the language of prose. For example, this is typical of Irish legends (The Saga of the Battle of the Magician Thuried, The Book of the Captures of Ireland, The Annals of the Four Masters, etc.).
The key difference between the two groups of medieval poems is the scale of the events displayed. If the monuments to the XII century. talked about a whole 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 emergence of "heroic" creativity in medieval Europe. According to one of them, cantilena songs, common in the 7th century, became such a basis. A supporter of such a theory was Gaston Paris - a famous French researcher of the Middle Ages. Cantilens called small stories about a particular historical event, laid on a simple musical structure (most often vocal).
Over the years, these "crumbs" were combined into something larger and more generalized. For example, in the tales of King Arthur, common among the Celtic population of Great Britain. Thus, the genres of the folk epic over time merged into one. In the case of Arthur, the Breton cycle novels arose. Plots penetrated all kinds of chronicles created at monasteries. So half-mythical stories turned into documented truth. Knights of the round table still cause a lot of controversy on the subject of reality and reliability.
The key reason for the flourishing of the genre in Christian Europe of that era is the fall of the Roman Empire, the decay of the slave system and the emergence of feudalism, which was based on military service to its overlord.
Russian epic
The Russian epic has got its own term in our language - “epics”. Most of them were transmitted orally from generation to generation, and the lists that are currently presented in museums and transferred to textbooks and anthologies date back to the 17th and 18th centuries.
Nevertheless, the genres of the folk epic in Russia were at their peak in the 9th-13th centuries, i.e. before the invasion of the Mongols. And it is precisely this era that is displayed in most literary monuments of this kind.
Features of the epic genre are that they are a synthesis of Christian and pagan traditions. Often, such an interweaving prevents historians from identifying for sure the nature of a particular character or phenomenon.
The key characters of such works are the heroes - the heroes of the folk epic. This is especially clearly reflected in the epics of the Kiev cycle. Another collective image is Prince Vladimir. Most often, it is suggested that under this name the baptist of Russia is hiding. This, in turn, gives rise to a debate about where the Russian epic originated. Most researchers agree that epics were created in the south of Kievan Rus, whereas in Muscovite several centuries later they were generalized.
Of course, a special place in the domestic literary pantheon is occupied by the "Word of Igor's Campaign". This monument of ancient Slavic culture acquaints the reader not only with the main plot - the unsuccessful campaign of the princes in the lands of the Polovtsy, but also personifies the picture of the world that surrounded the inhabitants of Russia in those years. First of all, it is mythology and songs. The work summarizes the features of the epic genre. The Word is extremely important from the point of view of linguistics.
Lost work
The legacy of the past that has not survived to this day deserves a separate discussion. The reason is often the banal absence 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 died due to frequent fires, wars and other disasters.
Mention of lost relics of the past can be found in ancient sources. So, the Roman orator Cicero as early as the 1st century BC in his works he complained that information about the legendary heroes of the city on seven hills — Romulus, Regulus, Coriolanus — was irretrievably lost.
Especially often poems in dead languages are lost , as there are no speakers who could transmit their culture and keep the memory of the past of the people. Here is just a small list of these ethnic groups: the Turdules, Gauls, Huns, Goths, Lombards.
In ancient Greek sources there are references to books whose originals were never found or preserved in fragments. This is “Titanomachia”, which narrated about the battle of the gods and titans before the existence of mankind. About it, in turn, was mentioned in his writings by Plutarch, who lived at the beginning of our era.
Lost many sources of the Minoan civilization that lived in Crete and disappeared after a mysterious cataclysm. In particular, this is the story of the reign of King Minos.
Conclusion
What genres belong to the epic? Firstly, these are monuments of medieval and ancient literature, which 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, novels, poems, stories, essays.