Definition of comedy as a kind of literature. Mandatory List of Dramatic Works

Which allows in a short plot to show the conflicts of society, the feelings and relationships of the characters, to reveal moral issues. Tragedy, comedy and even modern sketches are all varieties of this art that originated in ancient Greece.

Drama: a book with a complex character

Translated from Greek word"drama" means "act". Drama (definition in literature) is a work that exposes the conflict between characters. The character of the characters is revealed through actions, and the soul - through dialogues. The works of this genre have a dynamic plot, composed through dialogues. actors, less often - monologues or polylogues.

In the 1960s, chronicles appeared as a drama. Examples of Ostrovsky's works "Minin-Sukhoruk", "Voevoda", "Vasilisa Melentievna" are brightest examples this rare genre. The trilogy of Count A. K. Tolstoy: "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Feodor Ioannovich" and "Tsar Boris", as well as Chaev's chronicles ("Tsar Vasily Shuisky") are distinguished by the same merits. Crackling drama is inherent in the works of Averkin: " Mamaevo massacre"," A comedy about the Russian nobleman Frol Skobeev "," Kashirskaya antiquity ".

Modern dramaturgy

Today, dramaturgy continues to develop, but at the same time it is built according to all the classical laws of the genre.

In today's Russia, drama in literature is such names as Nikolai Erdman, Mikhail Chusov. As boundaries and conventions are erased, lyrical and conflict themes come to the fore, which affect Wystan Auden, Thomas Bernhard and Martin McDonagh.

Vaudeville ( from the French vaudeville by Vau de Vire - ref. in Normandy, where this genre originated), one of the genres of a dramatic work, a light play with entertaining intrigue, with couplet songs and dances. Initially, couplet songs in fairground comedies of the first half of the 18th century were called vaudeville. As an independent theatrical genre, it took shape during the years of the French Revolution, later, having lost its political topicality, vaudeville became an entertainment genre and gained pan-European distribution. French classics. vaudeville - O.E. Scribe, E. Labiche - retained many features of the genre "as a folk work of the French": perky fun, topical hints. In the second half of the 19th century, it was replaced by operetta. In Russia, vaudeville became widespread at the beginning of the 19th century, inheriting from the comic opera of the 18th century an interest in national subjects. Famous vaudeville N.I. Khmelnitsky, A.S. Griboedova, A.A. Shakhovsky, D.T. Lensky. One-act plays by A.P. Chekhov continued the tradition of vaudeville (without verses).

Drama(from Greek drama - lit. action) 1) one of the types of literature. Belongs to both literature and theater, being the fundamental principle of the performance, it is also perceived in reading. Intended for collective perception, drama has always gravitated towards the most acute social problems and, in the most striking examples, has become popular: its basis is socio-historical contradictions or eternal human antinomies (see Artistic Conflict); 2) One of the main genres of drama as a literary genre, along with tragedy and comedy. Like a comedy, plays mostly privacy people, but its main goal is not to ridicule morals, but to depict the individual in her dramatic relationship with society. Like tragedy, drama tends to recreate sharp contradictions; at the same time, her conflicts are not so inescapable and tense and, in principle, allow for the possibility of a successful resolution, and her characters are not so exceptional. As an independent genre, drama developed in the second half of the 18th century among the enlighteners (petty-bourgeois drama in France and Germany), its interest in the social order and way of life, the moral ideals of a democratic environment, and the psychology of the average person contributed to the strengthening realistic beginnings in European art. In the process of drama development, its inner drama thickens, a happy denouement is less common, the hero usually remains at odds with society and himself (The Storm, The Dowry by A.N. Ostrovsky, plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky).

Sideshow(from lat. intermedius - located in the middle), small comic play or a scene enacted between acts of the main play. It arose in the 15th century as a household farce scene, which was part of the mystery, then the school drama (later tragedy and comedy). In England it was called interlude (from Latin inter - between and ludus - game). Received distribution in Zap. Europe XVI- XVII centuries (in Spain as an independent genre folk theater), in the Russian theater of the XVII - XVIII centuries. The sideshow survives as an inserted comic or musical scene in the play.

Comedy ( lat. comedia, Greek komodia, from komos - a merry procession and ode - a song), a type of drama in which characters, situations and actions are presented in funny forms or imbued with the comic. Until classicism, comedy meant a work opposite to tragedy, with an obligatory happy ending; its heroes were, as a rule, from the lower class. In many poetics (including N. Boileau), comedy was defined as the lowest genre. In the literature of the Enlightenment, this ratio was violated by the recognition of the middle genre - the so-called philistine drama.

Comedy is aimed primarily at ridiculing the ugly (inappropriate, contrary to the social ideal or norm), the heroes of the comedy are internally untenable, inconsistent, do not correspond to their position, purpose, and this is given as a victim of laughter, which debunk them, thereby fulfilling their "ideal" mission. . The range of comedy is unusually wide - from political satire to light vaudeville humor. The "honest face" of any comedy is laughter. There is a comedy of characters, comedy of positions, everyday comedy, comedy of intrigue, lyrical comedy, satirical comedy.

The most important means of comic effect is speech comedy (alogism, inconsistency with the situation, parody, irony, in the latest comedy - wit and playing with paradoxes). The father of comedy is considered to be Aristophanes, the creator of the socio-political satirical comedy.

In Russia, comedy is represented in the works of Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol, Ostrovsky.

Melodrama(from the Greek melos - song, drama - action), 1) the genre of dramaturgy, a play with sharp intrigue, exaggerated emotionality, a sharp opposition between good and evil, a moral and instructive trend. Melodrama originated in France in the 1890s (plays by J.M. Monvel). In Russia, melodrama appeared in the late 20s of the 19th century (plays by N.V. Kukolnik, N.A. Polevoy).

Tragedy(from the Greek tragodia, lit. goat song), a dramatic genre based on the tragic collision of heroic characters, its tragic outcome, full of pathos. The tragedy is marked by severe seriousness, depicts reality most pointedly, as a clot of internal contradictions, reveals the deepest conflicts of reality in an extremely intense and rich form, which acquires the meaning of an artistic symbol; It is no coincidence that most tragedies are written in verse. Historically, tragedy existed in various manifestations, but the very essence of tragedy, as well as the aesthetic category of the tragic, was given to European literatures by ancient Greek tragedy and poetics.

Greek tragedy arose from religious rituals, was a reproduction, stage performance of a myth; she introduced the audience to a single reality for the whole people and its historical destinies. Perfect examples of complete, organic works of tragic art were given by Aeschylus, Sophocles; With the unconditional reality of what is happening, it shocks the viewer, causing him the strongest internal conflicts and resolving them in higher harmony (through catharsis).

A new heyday of tragedy comes in the crisis era of the Late Renaissance and Baroque. Shakespeare's tragedy depicts an infinite reality, a deep crisis human world. The tragedy of Shakespeare does not fit into the framework of a separate (conflict or character of the hero), but embraces everything, like reality itself; the personality of the hero is internally open, not fully defined, capable of changes, even abrupt shifts.

Samples of the tragedy of classicism are represented by the works of P. Corneille, J. Racine. These are tragedies high style with the observance of the three unities; aesthetic perfection appears as a result of the poet's conscious self-restraint, as a virtuoso pure formula life conflict.

At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, F. Schiller creates tragedy, updating the "classical" style. In the era of romanticism, the tragedy is "reverse" to the ancient one - not the world, but the individual with his soul becomes the key to the substantial content.

Tragedy denotes the ability of a person to enter into a struggle with an unsatisfactory starting position.

Tragedy(from Gr. Tragos - a goat and ode - a song) - one of the types of drama, which is based on an irreconcilable conflict unusual personality with insurmountable external circumstances. Usually the hero dies (Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's Hamlet). The tragedy originated in ancient Greece, the name comes from a folk performance in honor of the god of winemaking Dionysus. Dances, songs and tales about his sufferings were performed, at the end of which a goat was sacrificed.

Comedy(from gr. comoidia. Comos - a cheerful crowd and ode - a song) - a type of dramatic imagination, which depicts the comic in social life, behavior and character of people. Distinguish between comedy of situations (intrigue) and comedy of characters.

Drama - a type of dramaturgy, intermediate between tragedy and comedy (Thunderstorm by A. Ostrovsky, Stolen Happiness by I. Franko). Dramas depict mainly the private life of a person and his acute conflict with society. At the same time, the emphasis is often placed on universal human contradictions embodied in the behavior and actions of specific characters.

Mystery(from Gr. mysterion - sacrament, religious service, rite) - a genre of mass religious theater of the era late Middle Ages(XIV-XV centuries), common in the countries of Western Nvrotta.

Sideshow(from lat. intermedius - what is in the middle) - a small comic play or scene that was performed between the actions of the main drama. In modern pop art, it exists as an independent genre.

Vaudeville(from French vaudeville) a light comic play in which dramatic action is combined with music and dance.

Melodrama - a play with sharp intrigue, exaggerated emotionality and a moral and didactic tendency. Typical for melodrama is the "happy ending", the triumph of goodies. The genre of melodrama was popular in the XVIII- XIX centuries later acquired a negative reputation.

Farce(from lat. farcio I start, I fill) is a Western European folk comedy of the 14th-16th centuries, which originated from funny ritual games and interludes. The farce is characterized by the main features of popular representations of mass character, satirical orientation, rude humor. In modern times, this genre has entered the repertoire of small theaters.

As noted, the methods of literary representation are often mixed within certain types and genres. This confusion is of two kinds: in some cases there is a kind of interspersing, when the main generic characteristics are preserved; in others, the generic principles are balanced, and the work cannot be attributed either to the epic, or to the clergy, or to the drama, as a result of which they are called adjacent or mixed formations. Most often, epic and lyric are mixed.

Ballad(from Provence. ballar - to dance) - a small poetic work with a sharp dramatic plot of love, legendary-historical, heroic-patriotic or fabulous content. The image of events is combined in it with a pronounced authorial feeling, the epic is combined with lyrics. The genre became widespread in the era of romanticism (V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, T. Shevchenko and others).

Lyric epic poem- a poetic work in which, according to V. Mayakovsky, the poet talks about time and about himself (poems by V. Mayakovsky, A. Tvardovsky, S. Yesenin, etc.).

dramatic poem- a work written in a dialogical form, but not intended for staging on stage. Examples of this genre: "Faust" by Goethe, "Cain" by Byron, "In the Catacombs" by L. Ukrainka and others.

Drama is one of the three types of literature (along with the epic and the lyric). Drama belongs simultaneously to theater and literature: being the fundamental principle of the performance, it is also perceived in reading. It was formed on the basis of evolution theatrical performances: the prominence of actors who combine pantomime with the spoken word marked its emergence as a kind of literature. Intended for collective perception, the drama has always gravitated towards the most acute social problems and, in the most striking examples, has become popular; its basis is socio-historical contradictions or eternal, universal antinomies. It is dominated by drama - a property human spirit, awakened by situations when the cherished and essential for a person remains unfulfilled or is under threat. Most dramas are built on a single external action with its vicissitudes (which corresponds to the principle of the unity of action, which goes back to Aristotle). Dramatic action is associated, as a rule, with a direct confrontation between the characters. It is either traced from the plot to the denouement, capturing large periods of time (medieval and oriental drama, for example, Shakuntala by Kalidasa), or is taken only at its climax, close to the denouement ( ancient tragedies or many dramas of the new time, for example, "Dowry", 1879, A.N. Ostrovsky).

Drama principles

Classical aesthetics of the 19th century absolutized these principles of drama construction. Considering the drama - following Hegel - as a reproduction of volitional impulses ("actions" and "reactions") colliding with each other, V. G. Belinsky believed that "there should not be a single person in the drama that would not be necessary in the mechanism of its course and development" and that "the decision in choosing the path depends on the hero of the drama, and not on the event." However, in the chronicles of W. Shakespeare and in the tragedy "Boris Godunov" by A. S. Pushkin, the unity of external action is weakened, and in A. P. Chekhov it is completely absent: several equal storylines. Often the drama is dominated by internal action, in which the characters do not so much do something as they experience stable conflict situations and think intensely. Internal action, elements of which are already present in the tragedies "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles and "Hamlet" (1601) by Shakespeare, dominates in the drama of the late 19th - mid-20th centuries (G. Ibsen, M. Maeterlinck, Chekhov, M. Gorky, B. Shaw , B. Brecht, modern "intellectual" drama, for example: J. Anouil). The principle of internal action is polemically proclaimed in Shaw's The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891).

The basis of the composition

The universal basis of the composition of the drama is the articulation of its text. on stage episodes, within which one moment closely adjoins another, neighboring one: depicted, the so-called real time uniquely corresponds to the time of perception, artistic (see).

The division of the drama into episodes is carried out in different ways. In folk medieval and oriental drama, as well as in Shakespeare, in Pushkin's Boris Godunov, in Brecht's plays, the place and time of the action often change, which gives the image, as it were, epic freedom. The European drama of the 17th-19th centuries is based, as a rule, on a few and lengthy stage episodes that coincide with the acts of the performances, which gives the depicted coloring of life authenticity. The aesthetics of classicism insisted on the most compact mastery of space and time; the “three unities” proclaimed by N. Boileau survived until the 19th century (“Woe from Wit”, A.S. Griboedova).

Drama and character expression

In a drama, the characters' statements play a decisive role., which signify their volitional actions and active self-disclosure, while the narrative (the stories of the characters about what happened earlier, the messages of the messengers, the introduction of the author's voice into the play) is subordinate, if not completely absent; the words spoken by the characters form a solid, continuous line in the text. Theatrical and dramatic speech has a twofold kind of addressing: the character-actor enters into a dialogue with stage partners and appeals monologically to the audience (see). The monologic beginning of speech occurs in the drama, firstly, implicitly, in the form of replicas included in the dialogue to the side, which do not receive a response (such are the statements of Chekhov's characters, which signify a surge of emotions of disunited and lonely people); secondly, in the form of monologues proper, which reveal the hidden experiences of the characters and thereby enhance the drama of the action, expand the scope of what is depicted, and directly reveal its meaning. Combining dialogic colloquialism and monologue rhetoric, speech in drama concentrates the appellative-effective possibilities of language and acquires a special artistic energy.

On historically early stages(from antiquity to F. Schiller and V. Hugo) D., mostly poetic, widely relied on monologues (outpourings of the souls of heroes in “scenes of pathos”, statements by messengers, remarks aside, direct appeals to the public), which brought it closer to oratorical art and lyric poetry. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the propensity of the heroes of the traditional poetic drama to “flourish until they are completely exhausted” (Yu.A. Strindberg) is often perceived aloofly and ironically, as a tribute to routine and falsehood. In the drama of the 19th century, marked by a keen interest in private, family life, the conversational-dialogical principle dominates (Ostrovsky, Chekhov), monologue rhetoric is reduced to a minimum ( late plays Ibsen). In the 20th century, the monologue is again activated in the drama, which turned to the deepest socio-political conflicts of our time (Gorky, V.V. Mayakovsky, Brecht) and the universal antinomies of being (Anui, J.P. Sartre).

Speech in drama

Speech in a drama designed to be spoken in a wide space theater space, designed for a mass effect, potentially sonorous, full-voiced, that is, full of theatricality (“without eloquence there is no dramatic writer,” D. Diderot noted). Theater and drama need situations where the hero speaks out to the public (the climaxes of The Inspector General, 1836, N.V. Gogol and Thunderstorms, 1859, A.N. Ostrovsky, key episodes of Mayakovsky’s comedies), as well as in theatrical hyperbole: a dramatic character needs more loud and clearly pronounced words than the depicted positions require (a publicistically vivid monologue of Andrey rolling a baby carriage alone in the 4th act of The Three Sisters, 1901, Chekhov). Pushkin spoke about the inclination of drama to the conventionality of images (“Of all kinds of works, the most implausible are dramatic works.” A.S. Pushkin. On Tragedy, 1825), E. Zola and L.N. Tolstoy. The readiness to recklessly indulge in passions, the tendency to sudden decisions, to sharp intellectual reactions, to the catchy expression of thoughts and feelings are inherent in the heroes of the drama much more than the characters of narrative works. The scene “connects in a cramped space, in an interval of some two hours, all the movements that even a passionate being can often only experience in a long period of life” (Talma F. About theatrics.). The main subject of the playwright's search is significant and vivid, completely filling the consciousness of spiritual movements, which are mainly reactions to what is happening in this moment: to the word just spoken, to someone's movement. Thoughts, feelings and intentions, vague and vague, are reproduced in dramatic speech with less concreteness and completeness than in narrative form. Such limitations of the drama are overcome by its stage reproduction: the intonations, gestures and facial expressions of the actors (sometimes recorded by writers in remarks) capture the shades of the characters' experiences.

Drama Appointment

The purpose of the drama, according to Pushkin, is “to act on the multitude, to occupy its curiosity” and for this to capture the “truth of passions”: “Laughter, pity and horror are the three strings of our imagination, shaken by dramatic art” (A.S. Pushkin. O folk drama and drama "Marfa Posadnitsa", 1830). Drama is especially closely connected with the sphere of laughter, for the theater was consolidated and developed within the framework of mass festivities, in an atmosphere of play and fun: "comedian instinct" is "the fundamental principle of all dramatic skill" (Mann T.). In previous eras - from antiquity to the 19th century - the main properties of the drama corresponded to general literary and general artistic trends. The transforming (idealizing or grotesque) beginning in art dominated the reproducing one, and the depicted noticeably deviated from the forms of real life, so that the drama not only successfully competed with the epic genre, but was also perceived as the “crown of poetry” (Belinsky). In the 19th and 20th centuries, the desire of art for lifelikeness and naturalness, responding with the predominance of the novel and the decline in the role of drama (especially in the West in the first half of the 19th century), at the same time radically altered its structure: under the influence of the experience of novelists, the traditional conventionality and hyperbolism of dramatic representation began to reduce to a minimum (Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Gorky with their desire for everyday and psychological authenticity of images). However, the new drama also retains elements of "implausibility". Even in Chekhov's worldly authentic plays, some of the characters' statements are conventionally poetic.

Although in figurative system drama always dominates speech characteristic, its text is focused on spectacular expressiveness and takes into account the possibilities of stage technique. Hence the most important requirement for a drama is its stage presence (conditioned, in the final analysis, by a sharp conflict). However, there are dramas meant only for reading. Such are many plays of the countries of the East, where the heydays of drama and theater sometimes did not coincide, the Spanish drama-novel "Celestina" (late 15th century), in the literature of the 19th century - the tragedy of J. Byron, "Faust" (1808-31) I.V. .Goethe. Problematic is Pushkin's attitude to the stage in Boris Godunov, and especially in small tragedies. The theater of the 20th century, successfully mastering almost any genre and generic forms of literature, erases the former boundary between drama proper and drama for reading.

On the stage

When staged, a drama (like other literary works) is not only performed, but translated by the actors and the director into the language of the theatre: on the basis of literary text intonation-gesture drawings of roles are developed, scenery, sound effects and mise en scenes are created. The stage "completion" of the drama, in which its meaning is enriched and significantly modified, has an important artistic and cultural function. Thanks to him, the semantic re-accentuations of literature are carried out, which inevitably accompany its life in the minds of the public. The range of stage interpretations of the drama, as persuasive modern experience, very wide. When creating an updated stage text proper, both illustrativeness, literalism in reading the drama and reducing the performance to the role of its “interlinear” are undesirable, as well as an arbitrary, modernizing reshaping of a previously created work - its transformation into an occasion for the director to express his own dramatic aspirations. The respectful and careful attitude of the actors and the director to the content concept, the features of the genre and style of the dramatic work, as well as to its text, becomes an imperative when referring to the classics.

as a kind of literature

Drama as a genre of literature includes many genres.. Tragedy and comedy exist throughout the history of drama; the Middle Ages are characterized by liturgical drama, mysteries, miracles, morality, school drama. In the 18th century, drama was formed as a genre that later prevailed in world dramaturgy (see). Melodramas, farces, vaudevilles are also widespread. IN contemporary drama found important role tragicomedies and tragic farces prevailing in the theater of the absurd.

At the origins of European drama are the works of the ancient Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and the comedian Aristophanes. Focusing on the forms of mass festivities that had ritual and cult origins, following the traditions of choral lyrics and oratory, they created an original drama in which the characters communicated not only with each other, but also with the choir, expressing the mindset of the author and the audience. Ancient Roman drama is represented by Plautus, Terence, Seneca. Antique drama was entrusted with the role of a public educator; it is inherent in philosophy, the grandeur of tragic images, the brightness of the carnival-satirical play in comedy. The theory of drama (especially the tragic genre) since the time of Aristotle appeared in European culture at the same time as a theory of verbal art in general, which testified to the special significance dramatic kind literature.

In the East

The heyday of drama in the East refers to a later time: in India - from the middle of the 1st millennium AD (Kalidasa, Bhasa, Shudraka); ancient Indian drama relied extensively on epic plots, Vedic motifs and song-lyrical forms. The largest playwrights in Japan are Zeami (beginning of the 15th century), in whose work the drama was first completed literary form(yokyoku genre), and Monzaemon Chikamatsu (late 17th - early 18th century). In the 13th and 14th centuries secular drama took shape in China.

European drama of modern times

The European drama of modern times, based on the principles of ancient art (mainly in tragedies), at the same time inherited the traditions of medieval folk theater, mainly comedy-farce. Her "golden age" - English and Spanish Renaissance and Baroque drama Titanism and duality of the Renaissance personality, its freedom from the gods and at the same time dependence on passions and the power of money, the integrity and inconsistency of the historical flow were embodied by Shakespeare in a truly folk dramatic form, synthesizing the tragic and the comic , real and fantastic, possessing compositional freedom, plot diversity, combining subtle intellect and poetry with rough farce. Calderon de la Barca embodied the Baroque ideas: the duality of the world (the antinomy of the earthly and the spiritual), the inevitability of suffering on earth and the stoic self-liberation of man. The drama of French classicism has also become a classic; the tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine psychologically deeply unfolded the conflict of personal feelings and duty to the nation and the state. Molière's "High Comedy" combined the traditions of folk spectacle with the principles of classicism, and satire on social vices with folk cheerfulness.

The ideas and conflicts of the Enlightenment were reflected in the dramas of G. Lessing, Diderot, P. Beaumarchais, K. Goldoni; in the genre of petty-bourgeois drama, the universality of the norms of classicism was questioned, and the democratization of drama and its language took place. At the beginning of the 19th century, the romantics (G. Kleist, Byron, P. Shelley, V. Hugo) created the most meaningful dramaturgy. The pathos of individual freedom and protest against the bourgeoisie were transmitted through bright events, legendary or historical, were clothed in monologues full of lyricism.

A new rise in Western European drama dates back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: Ibsen, G. Hauptman, Strindberg, Shaw focus on acute social and moral conflicts. In the 20th century, the traditions of the drama of this era were inherited by R. Rolland, J. Priestley, S. O'Casey, Y. O'Neill, L. Pirandello, K. Chapek, A. Miller, E. de Filippo, F. Durrenmatt, E. .Albee, T.Williams. A prominent place in foreign art is occupied by the so-called intellectual drama associated with existentialism (Sartre, Anouille); in the second half of the 20th century, the drama of the absurd developed (E. Ionesco, S. Beckett, G. Pinter, etc.). Acute socio-political conflicts of the 1920-40s were reflected in Brecht's work; his theater is emphatically rationalistic, intellectually intense, frankly conditional, oratorical and meeting.

Russian drama

Status high classics Russian drama acquired since the 1820s and 30s(Griboyedov, Pushkin, Gogol). Ostrovsky's multi-genre dramaturgy with its cross-cutting conflict human dignity and the power of money, with the forefront of a way of life marked by despotism, with its sympathy and respect for the "little man" and the predominance of "life-like" forms, became decisive in the formation national repertoire 19th century. Psychological dramas filled with sober realism were created by L.N. Tolstoy. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, drama underwent a radical shift in Chekhov's work, which, having comprehended emotional drama intellectuals of his time, clothed deep drama in the form of mournfully ironic lyricism. The replicas and episodes of his plays are connected associatively, according to the principle of "counterpoint", the mental states of the characters are revealed against the background of the usual course of life with the help of subtext, developed by Chekhov in parallel with the symbolist Maeterlinck, who was interested in the "secrets of the spirit" and the hidden "tragedy of everyday life".

At the origins of the domestic drama of the Soviet period is the work of Gorky, continued by historical and revolutionary plays (N.F. Pogodin, B.A. Lavrenev, V.V. Vishnevsky, K.A. Trenev). bright samples satirical drama created by Mayakovsky, M.A. Bulgakov, N.R. Erdman. The genre of the fairy tale play, combining light lyricism, heroism and satire, was developed by E.L. Schwartz. The socio-psychological drama is represented by the works of A.N. Afinogenov, L.M. Leonov, A.E. Korneichuk, A.N. Arbuzov, and later - V.S. Rozov, A.M. Volodin. L.G.Zorina, R.Ibragimbekova, I.P.Druta, L.S.Petrushevskaya, V.I.Slavkina, A.M.Galina. The production theme formed the basis of the social sharp plays I.M. Dvoretsky and A.I. Gelman. A kind of "drama of morals", combining socio-psychological analysis with a grotesque vaudeville stream, was created by A.V. Vampilov. For last decade the plays of N.V. Kolyada are a success. The drama of the 20th century sometimes includes a lyrical beginning (“lyrical dramas” by Maeterlinck and A.A. Blok) or narrative (Brecht called his plays “epic”). The use of narrative fragments and active montage of stage episodes often gives the work of playwrights a flavor of documentary. And at the same time, it is precisely in these dramas that the illusion of the authenticity of what is depicted is frankly destroyed and tribute is paid to demonstrating convention (direct appeals of characters to the public; reproduction of the hero’s memories or dreams on stage; song-lyrical fragments invading the action). In the middle of the 20th century, a docudrama is circulating, reproducing real events, historical documents, memoir literature(“Dear Liar”, 1963, J. Kilty, “Sixth of July”, 1962, and “Revolutionary Study”, 1978, M.F. Shatrova).

The word drama comes from Greek drama, which means action.

One of the founders of Russian literary criticism was V. G. Belinsky. And although serious steps were taken in antiquity in the development of the concept of literary gender (Aristotle), it is Belinsky who owns the scientifically based theory of three literary genera, which you can get acquainted with in detail by reading Belinsky's article "Division of poetry into genera and types."

There are three types of fiction: epic(from the Greek. Epos, narration), lyrical(called the lyre musical instrument, accompanied by sung verses) and dramatic(from Greek Drama, action).

Presenting a particular subject to the reader (meaning the subject of conversation), the author chooses different approaches to it:

First approach: can be detailed tell about the subject, about the events associated with it, about the circumstances of the existence of this subject, etc.; at the same time, the position of the author will be more or less detached, the author will act as a kind of chronicler, narrator, or choose one of the characters as the narrator; the main thing in such a work will be precisely the story, narration about the subject, the leading type of speech will be exactly the narrative; this kind of literature is called epic;

The second approach: you can tell not so much about events, but about impression, which they produced on the author, about those feelings that they called; image inner world, experiences, impressions and will refer to the lyrical genre of literature; exactly experience becomes the main event of the lyrics;

Third approach: you can portray item in action, show him on stage; introduce to the reader and viewer of it, surrounded by other phenomena; this kind of literature is dramatic; in the drama itself, the voice of the author will be the least likely to sound - in remarks, that is, the author's explanations for the action and replicas of the characters.

Consider the following table and try to memorize its contents:

Genres of fiction

EPOS	DRAMA	LYRICS
(Greek - narration) story about the events, the fate of the heroes, their actions and adventures, the image of the external side of what is happening (even feelings are shown from the side of their external manifestation). The author can directly express his attitude to what is happening.	(Greek - action) image events and relationships between characters on the stage(a special way of writing text). The direct expression of the author's point of view in the text is contained in the remarks.	(from the name of the musical instrument) experience events; depiction of feelings, inner world, emotional state; feeling becomes the main event.

Each type of literature in turn includes a number of genres.

GENRE- This is a historically established group of works, united by common features of content and form. These groups include novels, stories, poems, elegies, short stories, feuilletons, comedies, etc. In literary criticism, the concept of a literary type is often introduced, it is more broad concept than the genre. In this case, the novel will be considered a type of fiction, and genres - various varieties of the novel, for example, adventure, detective, psychological, parable novel, dystopian novel, etc.

Examples of genus-species relations in the literature:

Genus: dramatic; view: comedy; genre: sitcom.
Genus: epic; view: story; genre: fantasy story etc.

Genres being categories historical, appear, develop and eventually "leave" from the "active reserve" of artists, depending on the historical era: the ancient lyric poets did not know the sonnet; Nowadays archaic genre became an ode born in antiquity and popular in the 17th-18th centuries; romanticism XIX century brought to life detective literature etc.

Consider the following table, which lists the types and genres related to the different kinds of word art:

Genera, types and genres of fiction

EPOS		DRAMA		LYRICS
Folk	Author's	Folk	Author's	Folk	Author's
Myth Poem (epos): Heroic Strogovoinskaya fabulous- legendary Historical... Fairy tale Bylina Thought Legend Tradition Ballad Parable Small genres: proverbs sayings puzzles nursery rhymes...	epic novel: Historical. Fantastic Adventurous Psychological R.-parable Utopian Social... Small genres: Tale Story Novella Fable Parable Ballad Lit. fairy tale...	A game rite folk drama Raek nativity scene...	Tragedy Comedy: provisions, characters, masks... Drama: philosophical social historical social-philosophical. Vaudeville Farce Tragifarce...	Song	Oh yeah Hymn Elegy Sonnet Message Madrigal Romance Rondo Epigram...

Modern literary criticism also highlights fourth, an adjacent genre of literature, combining the features of the epic and lyrical genera: lyrical-epic to which it refers poem. Indeed, by telling the reader a story, the poem manifests itself as an epic; revealing to the reader the depth of feelings, inner world the person who tells this story, the poem manifests itself as a lyric.

DRAMA - special kind literary creativity. The drama, in addition to its verbal, textual form, also has a second "life" following the text - staging on stage in the form of a performance, a spectacle. In addition to the author, directors, actors, costume designers, artists, composers, decorators, make-up artists, illuminators, stage workers, etc. take part in organizing the spectacle. Their common task falls into two stages:

2) give a director's interpretation, a new interpretation author's intention in a stage performance.

Since a dramatic work is designed for the obligatory (albeit in most cases "posthumous in absentia") cooperation of the author with the theater, the text of a dramatic work is organized in a special way.

Let's read fragments of the first pages of the text of A. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm":

STORM
Drama in five acts
Persons:

S avel P ro k o f i ch D i k o i, merchant, significant person in the city.
B o r i s G r i g o r e v i h, his nephew, a young man decently educated.
M a rf a Ignatievn a K a b a n o v a (K a b a n i h a), wealthy merchant, widow.
Tikhon Ivanych Kabanov, her son.
K a terina, his wife.
V a r v a r a, Tikhon's sister.
K u l i g i n , a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, looking for a perpetual motion machine.
(…)

The action takes place in the city of Kalinov, on the banks of the Volga, in the summer. Between the 3rd and 4th actions 10 days pass.
All persons, except for Boris, are dressed in Russian.

STEP ONE
Public garden on the high bank of the Volga; beyond the Volga, a rural view. There are two benches and several bushes on the stage.

The first phenomenon

Kuligin sits on a bench and looks across the river. Kudryash and Shapkin are walking.
K u l i g i n (sings). "In the midst of a flat valley, at a smooth height..." (Stops singing.) Miracles, truly it must be said, miracles! Curly! Here, my brother, for fifty years I have been looking at the Volga every day and I can’t see enough.
K u d r i sh. And what?
K u l i g and n. The view is extraordinary! Beauty! The soul rejoices!
(…)
B o r and s. Holiday; what to do at home!
D i k o y. Find a job if you want. Once I told you, twice I said to you: "Do not dare to meet me"; you get it all! Is there enough space for you? Wherever you go, here you are! Pah you damned! Why are you standing like a pillar! They tell you, al no?
B o r and s. I'm listening, what else can I do!
D i k o y (looking at Boris). You failed! I don't even want to talk to you, to the Jesuit. (Leaving.) Here it is imposed! (Spits and leaves.)

You noticed that, unlike the author of an epic (narrative work), the author does not tell the lengthy history of the heroes, but indicates them in a “list”, giving brief necessary information about each, depending on his own plan: who is called, how old is who , who is who in that place and in that society where the action takes place, who belongs to whom, etc. This "list" of actors is called poster.

Ostrovsky further pointed out, Where action takes place how much time passes between certain moments of action, how they are dressed characters; in the notes to the first act it says, who is on the stage, what are you doing characters, what is he doing Each of them. In the following fragments of the text, the author briefly states, in parentheses, to whom heroes apply with a speech, what are they gestures and postures from which intonation they say. These explanations are made primarily for the artists and the director and are called remarks.

What is happening is divided into compositional parts - actions(or acts), which in turn are also subdivided into phenomena(or scenes, or paintings). This is explained by the fact that the stage action is strictly limited in time: the performance usually lasts 2-3 hours, and during this time the author and actors need to express everything for which the work was written and staged.

All phenomena, as you can see, are also divided into small (or sometimes large!) Fragments, which are words - monologues and dialogues - characters. At the same time, the author always indicates which of the heroes they belong to, calling the hero by name, as if giving him a "microphone". These words of the characters in the drama are called replicas. As you have already noticed, the words of the heroes are often accompanied by remarks.

So,
The organization of the text of a dramatic work and the necessary terms:

POSTER- this is a list of actors with author's explanations;

REPLICA- these are the words of the characters of a dramatic work; replicas organize stage dialogues of characters;

PHENOMENON(or a picture, or a scene) is a plot-complete fragment of the text of a dramatic work; each phenomenon (or scene, or picture) is a separate completed moment of stage action, in other words, an episode.

Since drama is a stage action, a theatrical spectacle, it is designed not so much for the communication of one reader with the author's text (like novels, stories, poems, poems, where the reader and the work "communicate" tete-a-tete, alone with each other ), how much for the mass contact of the work with the audience. Hundreds and thousands of people come to theaters. And keeping their attention is very, very difficult. Therefore, the foundation of any performance is the author's literary work- should be based on the audience's interest and tenaciously "keep" it. The dramatist helps the playwright in this intrigue.

INTRIGUE(from lat. Intricare, "to confuse") - 1) intrigues, hidden actions, usually unseemly, to achieve something; 2) the ratio of characters and circumstances, ensuring the development of action in work of art. (Dictionary of foreign words, 1988.)

In other words, intrigue is a kind of mystery, a riddle, often organized by one of the characters for their own purposes, the solution of which is the basis of the dramatic action. Not a single play can do without intrigue, because otherwise it will not be interesting to readers and viewers.

Now let's turn to content of dramatic works. It is first of all associated with the type and genre of drama. There are three types dramatic works: tragedy, comedy and drama (do not get confused, the name of the species is the same as the name of the genre of literature, but these are different terms).

	Tragedy	Comedy	Drama
Era and culture of appearance:	Ancient Greece. Arose from ritual priestly festivities dedicated to the gods and heroes of myths	Ancient Greece. It arose from folk calendar festive processions.	Western Europe, XVIII century. It became a kind of "intermediate" genre between tragedy and comedy.
Plot basis:	Originally: mythological and historical plots. Later - turning, culminating, moments in the history and fate of man	household stories, Related everyday life person and relationships in the family, with neighbors, colleagues, etc.	Can use storylines, character and tragedies and comedies
Main characters:	Initially: gods, heroes of myths, historical figures; Later - strong, non-trivial personalities, powerful characters, carrying some idea, in the name of which they agree to sacrifice everything.	Ordinary people, townspeople, villagers with their daily worries, sorrows and joys, tricks, successes and failures.	Any heroes.
Conflict:	Tragic, or irresolvable. It is based on the great "eternal" questions of being.	Comic, or resolvable in the course of the correct (from the point of view of the author) actions of the characters.	Dramatic: The depth of contradictions is close to tragic, but the characters are not the bearers of the idea.
Creative Goals:	Show the struggle of man and circumstances, man and fate, man and society in the sharpness of contradictions, the power of the human spirit in rightness or error.	Make fun of vice, show its impotence and loss in front of the true life values simple person.	Show the complexity and inconsistency of human life, the imperfection of society, the imperfection of human nature
Examples:	Sophocles. Oedipus rex W. Shakespeare. Hamlet V. Vishnevsky. An optimistic tragedy	Aristophanes. Clouds Molière. Tartuffe N. Gogol. Auditor A. Ostrovsky. Our people - let's count! M. Bulgakov. Ivan Vasilievich	H. Ibsen. Dollhouse A. Ostrovsky. Storm M. Gorky. At the bottom

An important aspect of a dramatic work is composition. There are several types of composition of drama as a kind of literature. Let's consider some of them:

Story composition- This the totality of all character relationships, a system of their speech-gestures and deeds-actions, connected by a single authorial goal, that is, the main theme of a dramatic work. This set is aimed at revealing the characters' characters, the reasons for their dependence on everyday and psychological characteristics.

Dynamic composition- organized by the author linking all sharp points of dramatic action(exposure --> increase in action --> conflict --> resolution --> increase --> climax --> decline, etc.). Dynamic composition is characteristic both for the whole work and for its individual components: actions, acts, phenomena, scenes, paintings, etc.

Dialogic composition- This techniques for creating dramatic dialogue, which can be many:

Each character leads his own theme and has his own emotional mood (a variety of topics);
Topics change periodically: from cue to cue, from episode to episode, from action to action (topic change);
The theme is developed in the dialogue by one character and picked up by another (theme pickup);
The theme of one hero in the dialogue is interrupted by another, but does not leave the dialogue (interruption of the topic);
Characters move away from the topic, and then return to it;
A theme abandoned in one dialogue is revisited by the characters in another;
The topic can be interrupted without completion (topic break).

Since a dramatic work is designed to be staged in a theater where hundreds of spectators come, the range of life phenomena considered by the author ( subject matter) must be relevant to the viewer - otherwise the viewer will leave the theater. Therefore, the playwright chooses for the play themes determined either by the era or by eternal human needs, primarily spiritual, Certainly. The same can be said about issues, that is, about those issues that bother the author and which he brings to the reader's and viewers' court.

A.N. Ostrovsky he turned to topics from the life of the Russian merchants, small and large officials, townspeople, creative, first of all, theatrical public - that is, those sections of Russian society that were well known to him and studied both from positive and negative sides. And the problems raised by the playwright also concerned public spheres:

How can a young smart, talented person break through in life, but who, due to poverty and origin, does not have the strong support of a rich and influential relative or acquaintance? ("There is enough simplicity for every wise man")
Where did the conscience of the Russian merchants go? How did it happen that in the pursuit of profit, both the daughter and the son-in-law are ready to rob the father-in-law and leave him in a debtor's prison, so as not to pay his debts? ("Own people - let's settle!")
Why does a mother sell her daughter's beauty? ("Dowry")
What should a beautiful, but poor and unprotected girl do, so that her love and honor are not ruined? ("Dowry")
How can a person who feels, loves and longs for freedom live among the "dark kingdom" of ignoramuses and tyrants? ("Thunderstorm"), etc.

A. Chekhov dedicated his plays to people of other circles: the Russian intelligentsia, the last "shards" noble families and people of art. But Chekhov's intellectuals get too deeply entangled in "eternal" questions that deprive them of the ability to make decisions; his landlords, idolizing the cherry orchard as an all-Russian treasure, do nothing to save it and are preparing to leave just when the orchard is being cut down; and Chekhov's actors, artists and writers on the stage are completely different from the "stars", "idols" who are applauded by the public: they are petty, stingy, swear over the ruble, quarrel with loved ones, cowardly endure the already extinct and now not at all loving, but a boring and burdensome connection... And the problems of Chekhov's plays are also largely due to time:

Is it possible to save the passing life and how to do it? ("Uncle Ivan", " The Cherry Orchard")
But will it be so reverently expected by Chekhov's heroes "tomorrow", "later", "someday"? ("Three sisters")
Why does time pass, but the person does not change? ("The Seagull", "Three Sisters", "Uncle Vanya")
Will there ever be a happy end to that path, those wanderings that fall to the lot of a born person? ("The Cherry Orchard")
What is happiness, glory, greatness? ("Gull")
Why does a person have to suffer in order to free himself from delusions and reveal his own talent? ("Gull")
Why does art require such terrible sacrifices from a person? ("Gull")
Is a person able to get out of that routine rut into which he has driven himself? ("Three Sisters", "The Cherry Orchard", "The Seagull")
How to preserve the beautiful "cherry garden" - our Russia - the way we love and remember it? ("The Cherry Orchard"), etc.

Chekhov's plays brought to Russian dramaturgy new specifics stage action: no special events, "adventures" take place on the stage. Even out-of-the-ordinary events (for example, the suicide attempt and Treplev's suicide in The Seagull) occur only "behind the scenes". On stage, the characters only talk: they quarrel over trifles, sort out relationships that are already clear to everyone, talk about nothing meaningful things get bored and discuss what happened "behind the scenes". But their dialogues are filled with a powerful energy of internal action: behind insignificant remarks lies heavy human loneliness, awareness of one's own restlessness, something not done, but very important, without which life will never get better. This property of Chekhov's plays made it possible to consider them as plays of internal dynamics and became a new step in the development of Russian dramaturgy.

Many people often ask: why when posing such problems and developing the plots of the play "The Cherry Orchard" and "The Seagull" are comedies? Do not forget that they were not defined by critics, but by the author himself. Return to the table. What is the creative goal of comedy?

That's right, ridicule vice. Chekhov, on the other hand, makes fun of, or rather, chuckles - subtly, ironically, beautifully and sadly - not so much over the vices, but over the incongruities, "irregularities" of the life of a contemporary person, be it a landowner, a writer, a doctor or someone else: a great actress - greedy; famous writer- henpecked; "to Moscow, to Moscow" - and we will spend our whole lives in the provincial wilderness; a landowner from a noble and wealthy family - and is going to go to the bank as an ordinary employee, knowing nothing about banking; there is no money - and we give gold to a beggar rogue; we are going to transform the world - and we fall down the stairs ... This is exactly discrepancy, which overwhelms Chekhov's plays (in fact, the fundamental basis of the comic), and makes them comedies in the highest, ancient sense words: these are real "comedies of life".

The milestone era (the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries) demanded from playwrights attention to new topics and, first of all, attention to the very phenomenon of "man". M. Gorky in the play "At the bottom" he draws a terrible model of the "bottom" of human society, creating on the stage a kind of rooming house-cave, as if containing in it the whole world of his contemporary human relations. But the "bottom" for Gorky is not only poverty and restlessness. The soul also has a "bottom", and the opening of the deaf dark secrets this soul was embodied in the images of Baron, Kleshch, Actor, Kostylev, Ash... real, actual life. No one will make your life different, except for yourself - this is the result of the author's observations of the heroes of the drama. And therefore, Gorky's drama "At the Bottom" is defined by genre as socio-philosophical. The key problems for Gorky were:

What is the real truth of life?
To what extent is a person capable of taking control of his own destiny? What have you done to make your life different, the way you would like it to be?
Who's to blame that trying to "jump off the tram" and start new life failed?
How should one see a person today, contemporary author, moment?
Pity or condemn? What really helps a person?
How responsible is society and the environment for human life? And etc.

When analyzing a dramatic work, you will need the skills that you received when performing tasks on the analysis of an episode of a work.

Be careful, strictly adhere to the analysis plan.

Topics 15 and 16 are closely related, so the successful completion of the work is possible only with a detailed study theoretical materials on these topics.

A.S.Griboyedov. Comedy "Woe from Wit"
N. Gogol. Comedy "Inspector"
A.N. Ostrovsky. Comedy "Own people - let's settle!"; dramas "Thunderstorm", "Dowry"
A.P. Chekhov. The play "The Cherry Orchard"
M. Gorky. The play "At the Bottom"