Do you know what fiction is? Fiction: definition and features. Fiction genres Fiction library

All books are divided into two categories - fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is understood as all works that have a fictional plot and fictional characters. Fiction- these are novels, stories, stories, plays and poetry (for both children and adults) ...

Usually non-fiction literature is called non-fiction (from the English non-fiction - non-fiction, non-fictional literature) - these are textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, monographs, biographies, memoirs, journalism, etc.

Fiction is categorized into genre literature, mainstream, and intellectual prose.

In genre literature, the main thing is the development of the plot, which fits into certain predefined frameworks. For example, any detective develops according to the "crime - investigation - exposure of the offender" scheme; any ladies' novel - “heroes meet - fall in love - fight for love - unite hearts”. This does not mean that all genre novels must have a predictable plot. The skill of the writer lies precisely in creating his own unique world within the given framework.

Genre literature is action and a quick change of scenery. All that worries the reader: "What's next?"

Fiction genres:

Avant-garde literature is characterized by violation of the canons and by language and plot experiments. As a rule, the avant-garde comes out in very small editions. It is closely intertwined with intellectual prose.

Action - focused primarily on the male audience. The plot is based on fights, chases, saving beauties, etc.

Detective - the main storyline - solving the crime.

Historical novel - time of action - past. The plot, as a rule, is tied to significant historical events.

Love story - heroes find love.

Mysticism is the basis of the plot - supernatural events.

Adventure - heroes get involved in an adventure or go on a risky journey.

Thriller / Horror - the heroes are in mortal danger, from which they are trying to get rid of.

Fantasy - the plot is twisted in a hypothetical future or in parallel world... One of the varieties of fiction is alternative history.

Fantasy / Fairy Tales - the main features of the genre are fairy worlds, magic, unseen creatures, talking animals, etc. Often based on folklore.

What is mainstream? There is no place for canons and templates in books of this genre. Readers expect unexpected solutions from them. The most important thing in the mainstream is moral development heroes, philosophy and ideology. Therefore, the professional requirements for a mainstream author are much higher: he must be not only an excellent storyteller, but also a good psychologist and a serious thinker. If a writer swings into the mainstream but doesn't hold the bar or slips into stereotypes, the reader will be disappointed.

The term "mainstream" originated from American writer and critic William Dean Howells (1866-1920). As the editor of one of the most popular and influential literary magazines of his time, The Atlantic Monthly, he had a clear preference for works written in a realistic manner and emphasizing moral and philosophical issues. Thanks Howells realistic literature came into vogue, and for some time it was she who was called "mainstream".

What is fiction? We learn about it with early childhood when mom reads a bedtime story. If we ask this question seriously and talk about literature in general, about its types and genres, then, of course, we will also remember scientific literature, and about documentary prose. Anyone, even without a philological education, will be able to distinguish fiction from other genres. How?

Fiction: definition

First, let's define what fiction is. As textbooks and reference books say, this is an art form that, with the help of the written word, expresses the consciousness of society, its essence, views, mood. It is thanks to books that we find out what people thought about at one time or another, how they lived, what they felt, how they talked, what they were afraid of, what values they had. You can read a history textbook and know the dates, but it is fiction that will describe in detail the everyday life and life of people.

Fiction: features

To answer the question of what fiction is, you need to know that all books are divided into fiction and non-fiction. What is the difference? Here are examples of sentences from fiction.

"The second I decided for myself that I didn't want to be here to death, the lock rattled on the door behind me and Fred, tired after the night shift, appeared. He stared at the strangers who filled his house with terrible stench and unwound paper napkins everywhere. ". This is an excerpt from Danny King's first book, The Diary of a Robber. He shows us the main features of fiction - description and action. There is always a hero in fiction - even if it is a story written in the first person, where the author himself seems to fall in love, rob or travel. Well, without descriptions, too, nowhere, otherwise how can we understand in which environment the heroes operate, what surrounds them, where they go. The description gives us the opportunity to imagine what the hero looks like, his clothes, his voice. And we form our own idea of the hero: we see him the way our imagination helps us to see him in conjunction with the desire of the author. We paint a portrait, the author helps us. That's what fiction is.

Fiction or truth?

What conclusion do we come to? Fiction is fiction, these are characters invented by the author, invented events, and sometimes non-existent places. The writer is given complete freedom of action - he can do whatever he wants with his heroes: send them to the past or the future, to the ends of the earth, kill, resurrect, take offense, steal a million from the bank. If you dig deeper, then, of course, everyone understands that heroes have prototypes. But often they are so far from the book people that it is almost impossible to draw a parallel. The author can only borrow the manner of speaking, walking, and describe the habit. It happens that a real man pushes the writer to create a hero and a book. Thus, Alice Lindell encouraged Lewis Carroll to write the favorite book of many children "Alice in Wonderland", and one of the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Davis, friends of Barry James, became the prototype of Peter Pan. Even in historical novels the boundaries of fiction and truth are always blurred, what can we say about fantasy then? If we take an excerpt from a news feed, from a newspaper, we will know that these are facts. But if we read the same passage on the first page of the novel, it would not even occur to us to believe in the reality of what is happening.

What are the goals of fiction?

Literature teaches us. Ever since childhood, the poems about Moidodyr teach us to observe hygiene, and the story about Tom Sawyer - that punishment follows a misconduct. What does literature teach adults? For example, courage. Read Vasil Bykov's secret story about two partisans - Sotnikov and Rybak. Sotnikov, sick, emaciated by the hard road, crippled during interrogations, staunchly holds on to the last and does not even betray his comrades out of fear of death. And there is a lot to learn from Rybak's example. Having betrayed his comrade and himself, he goes over to the side of the enemy, which he regrets later, but the way back is cut off, the way back is only through death. And, perhaps, he is more punished than the hanged comrade. Everything is like from childhood: there is no offense without punishment.

So, the goals of fiction are clearly defined: to show by the example of heroes how to act and how not to; tell about the time and place where events take place, and pass on the accumulated experience to the next generation.

De gustibus non est disputandum, or there is no dispute about tastes

Remember at the end of each class before the summer break, the teacher gave us a list of fiction, books from which to read by September? And many suffered all summer, barely moving up this list. Indeed, reading what you don't like is simply not interesting. Everyone chooses for himself - "one loves a watermelon, the other a pork cartilage", as Saltykov-Shchedrin said. If a person says that he does not like to read, he simply has not found his book. Someone loves to travel in time with science fiction writers, someone to solve crimes in detective novels, someone is thrilled by love scenes in novels. There is no single recipe, just as there is no author who would be liked by everyone and perceived in the same way, because we perceive fiction subjectively, starting from our age, social status, emotional and moral component.

How many people - so many opinions?

The question of what is fiction can be answered like this: it is literature outside of time and place. It does not have clearly limited functions, like a dictionary or instructions for a washing machine, but it has a more important function: it educates, criticizes, gives us a rest from reality. Fiction books are ambiguous, they cannot be interpreted in the same way - this is not a recipe for carrot cake, when a dozen people follow the instructions step by step and end up with the same baked goods. Everything here is purely individual. The book "Schindler's Ark" by Kenilly Thomas Michael cannot be assessed in the same way: someone will condemn the German who saved people, someone will keep this image in their hearts as an example of dignity and humanity.

Fiction (prose) is one of the types of art that differs from the rest only in the material from which the works are created - these are only words and artistic language... The result of creativity in fiction is works that reflect epochs, have high artistic value and bring aesthetic pleasure.

Old Russian literature has 2 sources - church books (the Bible, Lives of the Saints) and folklore. It existed from the moment of the introduction of writing in Cyrillic (XI century) until the appearance of individual works of authorship (XVII century). Original works: "The Tale of Bygone Years" (a sample of chronicles), "A Word about Law and Grace", "Teachings to Children" (codes of laws), "A Word about Igor's Campaign" (by genre it resembles a story, with a logical development of events and artistic style).
To the section ...

Peter's transformations were reflected not only in scientific and technical achievements Russia XVIII century, but also made a huge contribution to the development of national culture and art. Rather, they gave the latter a significant acceleration and radically changed the vector of development of Russian art. Until the 18th century, the development of Russian culture took place in isolation, even in isolation, which led to the development of authentic trends and genres closely related to the national and church trends. In the countries of Europe at the same time, literature finally separated from the church and became secular. It was this secularity - the creative freedom and breadth of genres inherent in the European era of the Enlightenment - that was lacking in Russia.

Russian literature during the 18th century developed under the influence of European literature, lagging behind it by about 100 years and going through the following stages:

early XVIII century- panegyric, hagiographic literature,
ser. XVIII century- classicism, sentimentalism (Lomonosov, Karamzin, Radishchev),
end of XVIII century- the dominance of sentimentalism, preparation for romatism.

« Golden age» domestic literature... Into the history of Russian Literature XIX century inscribed many names that have received worldwide recognition: A. Pushkin, N. Gogol, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov. During this period, the formation of the Russian literary language, such literary trends as sentimentalism, romanticism, critical realism, writers and poets are mastering new literary forms and techniques. Drama and the art of satire reach unprecedented heights.

The development of romanticism (until the 1840s) and realism (from the 1850s to the end of the century), since the 1890s, the directions of the Silver Age have been developing. The most important functions of literature are considered critical, morally formative, socio-political, the most important genre is the novel. Romantics: Lermontov, Pushkin, realists: Gogol, Turgenev, Lev Tolstoy, Chekhov.

Russian literature of the XX century is represented by three brightest periods: the epoch " silver age"with its contradictions and innovations, the war era, with its deep patriotism, and the huge period of the second half of the century, when socialist realism flourished.

In the beginning. XX century romanticism is reviving - for the poeticization of revolutionary events.
30-40s of XX century- active interference of the party in culture leads to stratification of writers. Some in emigration develop a realistic genre, others create in socialist realism (a direction that depicts a working person on the path to communism).
40-50s of the middle of XX century- "trench", lieutenant or military prose. A realistic depiction of the 1941-45 war, where the author is an eyewitness to the events.
60-80s of XX century- the period of the "thaw", the development of "village" prose.
90th years of the end of XX century- avant-garde, post-Soviet realism, gravitation towards "chernukha" - deliberately exaggerated cruelty, uncensoredness.

Foreign literature

Foreign literature originated in Greece during antiquity and became the basis for all existing types of literature. Formulated principles artistic creation Aristotle.

With the advent of Christianity, church texts spread, all medieval literature in Europe (IV-XIII centuries) - the processing of church texts, and the Renaissance (from the XIV century, Dante, Shakespeare, Rabelais) - their rethinking and repulsion from the church, the creation of secular literature.

The Literature of the Enlightenment is a celebration of the human mind. Sentimentalism, romanticism (Rousseau, Diderot, Defoe, Swift).

XX century - modernism and postmodernism. Glorification of the mental, sexual in man (Proust, Hemingway, Marquez).

Literary criticism

Criticism is an organic and inseparable part of all literary art as a whole, and a critic must definitely have a bright talent for both a writer and a publicist. Truly talentedly written critical articles can force the reader to look at a previously read work from a completely new angle, draw completely new conclusions and discoveries, and can even radically change their assessments and judgments on a particular topic.

Literary criticism has close ties with modern life society, with its experiences, philosophical and aesthetic ideals of a certain era, contributes to the development of the literary creative process, and has a powerful influence on the formation of social consciousness ..

Literary directions

Unity creative features writers who create within a certain historical period are usually called a literary direction, a variety of which can be separate trends and movements. The use of identical artistic techniques, the similarity of the worldview and life priorities close aesthetic views allow attributing a number of masters to specific branches of literary art of the XIX-XX centuries.

ἔπος - "word", "narration") - a narration about events assumed in the past (as if accomplished and remembered by the narrator). Epic works describe an objective reality external to the author. The description of the characters is focused on their behavior and actions, and not on the inner world, as in the lyrics. Biography novels, very popular in the 19th century, are epic works. Examples include War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Red and Black by Stendhal, The Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy, and many others. This kind of literature received its name from folk song-poems composed in antiquity, also called epics.

Lyrics

Lyrics is a kind of literature that is based on an appeal to the inner sphere - to states human consciousness, emotions, impressions, experiences. Even if there is a narrative element in the works, the lyric work is always subjective and centered on the hero. The characteristics of a lyric work are "conciseness", "monologue", "unity lyric plot"And" instantaneousness "(" pinpoint "," modernity "). Most of the lyric works are related to poetry.

Drama

Drama is a kind of literature that reproduces, first of all, the world external to the author - actions, relationships between people, conflicts, but unlike the epic, it has not a narrative, but a dialogical form. In dramatic works, the text on behalf of the author is episodic, mostly limited to remarks and explanations of the plot. Most of the dramatic works are written for subsequent production in the theater.

Structural text types

Prose

A literary text is considered prosaic in which a separate rhythm independent of speech does not intrude into the linguistic fabric and does not affect the content. However, a number of borderline phenomena are known: many prose writers deliberately give their works some signs of poetry (one can mention the highly rhythmic prose of Andrei Bely or the rhymed fragments in Vladimir Nabokov's novel The Gift). The dispute between literary critics continues on the exact boundaries between prose and poetry different countries over the past century.

Prose is widely used in fiction - when creating novels, short stories, etc. Some examples of such works have been known for many centuries, but they have developed into an independent form of literary works relatively recently.

For the Russian ear, the familiar look of the poem is associated with the syllabo-tonic rhythm and the presence of rhyme in the poem, but neither one nor the other is in reality a necessary feature of poetry that distinguishes it from prose. In general, the role of rhythm in a poem consists not only in imparting a kind of musicality to the text, but also in the effect that this rhythm has on meaning: thanks to the rhythm, some words and expressions (for example, found at the end of a poetic line, rhymed) are highlighted in poetic speech accented.

Poetic speech, earlier than prosaic speech, was recognized as a special phenomenon characteristic of a literary text and distinguishing it from ordinary everyday speech. The first known literary works- for the most part, ancient epics (for example, the Sumerian "Legend of Gilgamesh", dating from about 2200-3000 years BC) are poetic texts. At the same time, the poetic form is not necessarily associated with artistry: the formal features of poetry help it fulfill a mnemonic function, and therefore different time in different cultures, scientific, legal, genealogical, pedagogical compositions in verse were widespread.

Fiction by period

Ancient literature

The first period of the emergence of fiction as a form of art is considered antiquity - the Mediterranean civilization of the 1st millennium BC. NS. Ancient literature is the literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans, consisting of two national literatures: Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman. Historically, Greek literature predates Roman literature.

Simultaneously with ancient culture, other cultural areas developed in the Mediterranean basin, among which ancient Judea occupied an outstanding place. Ancient and Jewish culture became the basis of all Western civilization and art.

In parallel with the ancient, other ancient cultures and, accordingly, literatures developed: ancient Chinese, ancient Indian, ancient Iranian, Hebrew. Ancient Egyptian literature was flourishing at that time.

In ancient literature, the main genres of European literature were formed in their archaic forms and the foundations of the science of literature. The aesthetic science of antiquity identified three main literary genders: epic, lyric and drama (Aristotle), this classification retains its basic meaning to this day.

Literature of the Middle Ages

Medieval art reached its culmination in the XII-XIII centuries. Currently, medieval literature is usually divided into Latin literature and literature in folk languages (Romance and Germanic). The genre division of Latin literature as a whole reproduced the antique. The animal epic was popular.

Renaissance literature

If medieval literature was predominantly Christian, then in the Renaissance, against the background of a general interest in antiquity, interest in ancient literature also revives, fiction is more and more oriented towards secular plots, and humanistic tendencies are manifested. The initial stage of Renaissance literature is traditionally considered the work of Dante, his "Divine Comedy" combines elements of both medieval literature (form - an afterlife, allegorical content), and medieval literature elements of mysticism, pantheism, the image of a simple girl Beatrice. During the Renaissance, dramatic art flourished (Shakespeare, the Lope de Vega school), humanistic utopias (Thomas More, Tomaso Campanella), and sharp satire, for example, "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by Rabelais, appeared. Gutenberg's invention of printing in 1455 made fiction much more accessible during this period.

Literature of Enlightenment

19th century literature

The literature of the 19th century developed in two main directions, this is the literature of romanticism and the literature of realism. Romanticism as literary direction developed from sentimentalism and is characterized by an interest in mysticism (Meyrink, M. Shelley, Hoffmann), folklore (brothers Grimm), common man(Hugo), other cultures (Byron, F. Cooper). Within the framework of romanticism, science fiction, detective stories, and adventure literature were formed.

Realism is well characterized by Balzac, who is considered a classic of realism. He said: "I describe men, women and things." Works of realism do not teach, do not idealize, do not give moral assessments. They describe life and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. An important element of realism is a comprehensive impartial description of the inner world of the heroes. The most characteristic writers of realism are Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others.

Literature of modernism

Chronologically, modernism fits into the framework of the first half of the twentieth century, thematically associated with industrialization, urbanization, the horrors of the First World War. Modernists turn to the description of the subtleties of the human psyche (W. Wolfe), the theme of sexuality (D.H. Lawrence), they are characterized by apoliticality and pacifism (E. Hemingway).

A classic example of modernist literature is the novel by J. Joyce "Ulysses", the works of TS Eliot, M. Proust.

Postmodern literature

Postmodernism gradually replaced modernism in the middle of the 20th century. It is difficult to unambiguously characterize it, since there are many different approaches within the framework of postmodernism. This is hypertext, when the order of reading is not dictated by the author, but is chosen by the reader, intertextuality, characterized by allusions to other works, and sometimes deliberate borrowing, lack of plot decoupling or the presence of several alternative outcomes, mixing of styles, irony, play and black humor.

Postmodernism also includes magical realism, a genre that originated in South America and is characterized by the incorporation of magical elements into realistic narrative. The novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by G. G. Marquez is a vivid example of magical realism. In Russia, Chingiz Aitmatov is referred to this direction.

The Beat generation is also referred to postmodernism.

Artistic methods and directions

Baroque is a direction characterized by a combination of realistic descriptions with their allegorical depictions. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical receptions, saturation with rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons. Baroque literature is characterized by a striving for diversity, for the summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, a striving for the study of being in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity).
Classicism is a direction, the main subject of creativity of which was the conflict between public duty and personal passions. "Low" genres - fable (

Literature, like music and painting, is an art form that combines the only material - words. This is where the theory is expressed. literature- section of the science of literature. It is a system in which literature is an art form that has been developing throughout its history, and, most importantly, it is a collection of works by writers, poets, and literary men.
Fiction divided by: epic- works of antiquity (what was in the past), lyric works and dramatic works , exists mixed type- lyroepic works.
Types of text by structure: poetry and prose. Poetry- this type includes poems, poems, short stories) is a type of literature in which a literary text is presented in poetic form, i.e. rhyme followed, carries with it definite meaning... The theme is conveyed by rhyme, which is set by the rhythm that gives the text musicality. Prose- a literary text that does not depend on the setting of the rhyme, but nevertheless carries with it the semantic coloring of the narrated through the predominance of certain linguistic devices - metaphor, epithet, comparison, and other types of coloring. Prose is divided into: novel, novel - epic, story, story, memoirs, etc. There are certain deviations from the rules, for example, a novel in verse, which is already a poetic work. This long piece, which encompasses a long period of time in the lives of the characters, is described in detail. Literature is divided into periods: antiquity, the main writers were the Romans and Greeks, parallel to the ancient literature, the directions of the literature of ancient China appeared, ancient india. Ancient literature consists of the genera introduced by Aristotle - epic, lyric, and drama. Then follows the era of literature of the Middle Ages, during this period Latin literature appears, written prose appears. Latin literature is a copy of ancient literature.
Renaissance literature. This is literature from the 14th to the 16th century. It takes into account the ideas of humanism, first appeared in Italy. Having spread throughout all European countries, it received special qualities in each of them. Age of Enlightenment. The period of literature against the background of developing thoughts of culture, science and philosophy. It was formed at the end of the 17th century.