“The Word” or “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik. The emergence of the genre of prayer. Critics about the fantasy genre: philosophical and literary interpretation. The type of hero changes. The semantic core on which the magical plot rests for centuries is the change in the status of the main character

27.03.2019

novel literary narrative genre

The term “novel”, which arose in the 12th century, managed to undergo over nine centuries of its existence a whole series semantic changes and covers extremely diverse literary phenomena. Moreover, the forms called novels today appeared much earlier than the concept itself. The first forms of the novel genre go back to antiquity, but neither the Greeks nor the Romans left a special name for this genre. Using later terminology, it is usually called a novel. Bishop Yue at the end of the 17th century, in search of the predecessors of the novel, first applied this term to a number of phenomena of ancient narrative prose. This name is based on the fact that the ancient genre that interests us, having as its content the struggle of isolated individuals for their personal, private goals, represents a very significant thematic and compositional similarity with certain types of later European novels, in the formation of which the ancient novel played a significant role. The name “novel” arose later, in the Middle Ages, and initially referred only to the language in which the work was written.

The most common language of medieval Western European writing was, as is known, the literary language of the ancient Romans - Latin. In the XII-XIII centuries. AD, along with plays, tales, stories written in Latin and existing mainly among the privileged classes of society, the nobility and clergy, stories and stories began to appear written in Romance languages and distributed among democratic strata of society who did not know the Latin language, among trading bourgeoisie, artisans, villans (the so-called third estate). These works, unlike the Latin ones, began to be called: conte roman - a Romanesque story, a story. Then the adjective acquired an independent meaning. This is how a special name arose for narrative works, which later became established in the language and over time lost its original meaning. A novel began to be called a work in any language, but not just any one, but only one that is large in size, distinguished by certain features of theme, compositional structure, plot development, etc.

We can conclude that if this term, closest to its modern meaning, appeared in the era of the bourgeoisie - the 17th and 18th centuries, then the origin of the theory of the novel can logically be attributed to the same time. And although already in the 16th - 17th centuries. certain “theories” of the novel appear (Antonio Minturno “Poetic Art”, 1563; Pierre Nicole “Letter on the Heresy of Writing”, 1665), only together with classical German philosophy did the first attempts appear to create a general aesthetic theory of the novel, to include it in the system of artistic forms. “At the same time, the statements of great novelists about their own writing practice acquire greater breadth and depth of generalization (Walter Scott, Goethe, Balzac). The principles of the bourgeois theory of the novel in its classical form were formulated precisely during this period. But more extensive literature on the theory of the novel appeared only in the second half of the 19th century. Now the novel has finally established its dominance as a typical form of expression of bourgeois consciousness in literature.”

From a historical and literary point of view, it is impossible to talk about the emergence of the novel as a genre, since essentially “novel” is “an inclusive term, overloaded with philosophical and ideological connotations and indicating a whole complex of relatively autonomous phenomena that are not always genetically related to each other.” The “emergence of the novel” in this sense occupies entire eras, starting from antiquity and ending with the 17th or even 18th century.

The emergence and justification of this term was undoubtedly influenced by the history of the development of the genre as a whole. An equally important role in the theory of the novel is played by its formation in various countries.

LITERARY-HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOVEL

The historical development of the novel in different European countries reveals quite large differences caused by the unevenness of socio-economic development and the individual uniqueness of the history of each country. But along with this, the history of the European novel also contains some common, recurring features that should be emphasized. In all major European literatures, although each time in its own way, the novel goes through certain logical stages. In the history of the European novel of the Middle Ages and Modern times, priority belongs to the French novel. The representative of the French Renaissance in the field of the novel was Rabelais (the first half of the 16th century), who revealed in his “Gargantua and Pantagruel” the entire breadth of bourgeois freethinking and denial of the old society. “The novel originates in the fiction of the bourgeoisie in the era of the gradual disintegration of the feudal system and the rise of the commercial bourgeoisie. According to its artistic principle, this is a naturalistic novel, according to thematic-compositional one, it is an adventurous one, in the center of which “a hero who experiences all sorts of adventures, amuses readers with his clever tricks, a hero-adventurer, a rogue”; he experiences random and external adventures (a love affair, a meeting with robbers, a successful career, a clever money scam, etc.), without being interested in either deep social and everyday characteristics or complex psychological motivations. These adventures are interspersed with everyday scenes, expressing a penchant for crude jokes, a sense of humor, hostility towards the ruling classes, and an ironic attitude towards their morals and manifestations. At the same time, the authors failed to capture life in its deep social perspective, limiting themselves to external characteristics, showing a tendency to detail, to savoring everyday details. Its typical examples are “Lazarillo from Tormes” (XVI century) and “Gilles Blas” French writer Lesage (first half of the 18th century). From among the petty and middle bourgeoisie by the middle of the 18th century. an advanced petty-bourgeois intelligentsia is growing up, beginning an ideological struggle against the old order and using artistic creativity for this. On this basis, a psychological petty-bourgeois novel arises, in which the central place is no longer occupied by the adventure, but by the deep contradictions and contrasts in the minds of the heroes fighting for their happiness, for their moral ideals. The clearest example This may be called "The New Heloise" by Rousseau (1761). In the same era as Rousseau, Voltaire appeared with his philosophical and journalistic novel “Candide”. In Germany at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. There is a whole group of romantic writers who have created very vivid examples of psychological novels in different literary styles. Such are Novalis (“Heinrich von Ofterdingen”), Friedrich Schlegel (“Lucinda”), Tieck (“William Lovel”) and finally the famous Hoffmann. “Along with this, we find a psychological novel in the style of the patriarchal noble aristocracy, perishing along with the entire old regime and realizing its death in the plane of the deepest moral and ideological conflicts.” Such is Chateaubriand with his “Rene” and “Atala”. Other layers of the feudal nobility were characterized by a cult of graceful sensuality and boundless, sometimes unbridled epicureanism. From here they come out and noble novels Rococo with its cult of sensuality. For example, Couvray’s novel “The Love Affairs of the Chevalier de Fauble.”

English novel in the first half of the 18th century. puts forward such major representatives as J. Swift with his famous satirical novel “Gulliver’s Travels” and D. Defoe, author of the no less famous “Robinson Crusoe”, as well as a number of other novelists expressing the social worldview of the bourgeoisie.

In the era of the emergence and development of industrial capitalism, the adventurous, naturalistic novel is gradually losing its significance.” It is being replaced by the social novel, which arises and develops in the literature of those strata of capitalist society that turn out to be the most advanced, and in the conditions of a given country. In a number of countries (France, Germany, Russia), during the period of replacement of the adventurous novel with the social and everyday one, i.e., during the period of replacement of the feudal system with the capitalist one, the psychological novel with a romantic or sentimental orientation temporarily acquires great importance, reflecting the social imbalance of the transition period (Jean- Paul, Chateaubriand, etc.). The heyday of the social-everyday novel coincides with the period of growth and prosperity of industrial-capitalist society (Balzac, Dickens, Flaubert, Zola, etc.). A novel is created according to an artistic principle - realistic. In the middle of the 19th century. The English realistic novel is making significant progress. The pinnacle of the realistic novel are the novels of Dickens - “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist” and “Nicholas Nickleby”, as well as Thackeray with his “Vanity Fair”, which provides a more embittered and powerful criticism of the noble-bourgeois society. “The realistic novel of the 19th century is distinguished by its extremely acute formulation of moral problems, which now occupy a central place in artistic culture. This is due to the experience of a break with traditional ideas and the task of finding new moral guidelines for the individual in a situation of isolation, to develop moral regulators that do not ignore, but morally streamline the interests of the real practical activity of an isolated individual.”

A special line is represented by the novel of “mysteries and horrors” (the so-called “Gothic novel”), the plots of which, as a rule, are chosen in the sphere of the supernatural and the heroes of which are endowed with features of gloomy demonism. The largest representatives of the Gothic novel are A. Radcliffe and C. Maturin.

The gradual transition of capitalist society into the era of imperialism with its growing social conflicts leads to the degradation of bourgeois ideology. The cognitive level of bourgeois novelists is declining. In this regard, in the history of the novel there is a return to naturalism, to psychologism (Joyce, Proust). In the process of its development, the novel, however, not only repeats a certain logical line, but also retains some genre characteristics. The novel is historically repeated in different literary styles, and in different styles it expresses different artistic principles. And with all this, the novel still remains a novel: a huge number of the most diverse works of this genre have something in common, some repeating features of content and form, which turn out to be signs of the genre, which receives its classical expression in the bourgeois novel. “No matter how different the characteristics of historical class consciousness, those social sentiments, those specific artistic ideas that are reflected in the novel, the novel expresses a certain type of self-awareness, certain ideological demands and interests. The bourgeois novel lives and develops as long as the individualistic self-consciousness of the capitalist era is alive, as long as interest in individual destiny, in personal life, in the struggle of individuality for their personal needs, for the right to life continues to exist.” These features of the novel’s content also lead to the formal characteristics of this genre. Thematically, a bourgeois novel depicts private, personal, everyday life and, against the background of it, the clash and struggle of personal interests. The composition of the novel is characterized by a more or less complex, straight or broken line of a single personal intrigue, a single causal-temporal chain of events, a single course of the narrative, to which all and every descriptive moments are subordinated. In all other respects, the novel is "historically infinitely varied."

Any genre, on the one hand, is always individual, on the other, it is always based on literary tradition. The genre category is a historical category: each era is characterized not only by genre system in general, but also genre modifications or variations in particular in relation to a particular genre. Today, literary scholars distinguish varieties of the genre on the basis of a set of stable properties (for example, the general nature of the theme, properties of imagery, type of composition, etc.).

Based on the above, the typology of the modern novel can be roughly represented as follows:

Themes vary between autobiographical, documentary, political, social; philosophical, intellectual; erotic, female, family and everyday life; historical; adventurous, fantastic; satirical; sentimental, etc.

According to structural characteristics: a novel in verse, a travel novel, a pamphlet novel, a parable novel, a feuilleton novel, etc.

Often the definition correlates a novel with an era in which one or another type of novel dominated: ancient, chivalric, enlightenment, Victorian, Gothic, modernist, etc.

In addition, the epic novel stands out - a work in which the center of artistic attention is the fate of the people, and not the individual (L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”, M.A. Sholokhov “Quiet Don”).

A special type is the polyphonic novel (according to M. M. Bakhtin), which involves such a construction when the main idea of the work is formed by the simultaneous sound of “many voices”, since none of the characters or the author has a monopoly on the truth and is not its carrier.

To summarize all of the above, we note once again that despite the long history of this term and the even older genre form, in modern literary criticism there is no unambiguous view of the problems associated with the concept of “novel”. It is known that it appeared in the Middle Ages, the first examples of novels were more than five centuries ago; in the history of the development of Western European literature, the novel had many forms and modifications.

Finishing the conversation about the novel as a whole, we cannot help but draw attention to the fact that, like any genre, it must have some features. Here we will remain in solidarity with the adherent of “dialogism” in literature – M.M. Bakhtin, who identifies three main features of the genre model of the novel, which fundamentally distinguish it from other genres:

“1) the stylistic three-dimensionality of the novel, associated with the multilingual consciousness realized in it; 2) a radical change in the time coordinates of the literary image in the novel; 3) a new zone for constructing a literary image in a novel, namely the zone of maximum contact with the present (modernity) in its incompleteness.”

DEFINITIONUTOPIA

Utopia is an idea of an ideal society, uncritical confidence in the possibility of direct implementation of traditional, mythological, possibly modernized, ideological expectations and ideals. For example, U. are the desire to realize the ideals of building a large society by analogy with a rural community, the concept of socialism, the implementation of which cannot take place in the corresponding period of time, either due to the complete impossibility of accepting the corresponding ideas by broad layers of the population as real values of their own activities, or as a result of the fact that the adoption of these values leads to a dysfunctional system, violate the prohibitions of sociocultural law. W. Mora, Campanella, etc. give pictures of highly regulated societies, industries, personal life in cities and houses. They represent modernized traditional ideals that correspond neither to the past due to elements of modernization, nor to the future due to the burden of traditionalism. U. is an element of a certain stage in the development of any solution, since everything begins with the reproduction of some previously established need, which may turn out to be U. in a changed situation. The effectiveness of a decision depends on a person’s ability to critically rethink all its premises and elements on the basis of changed conditions, the emergence of new means, the maturation of new goals, i.e. it is necessary to overcome the element U in the decision. Any ideas, projects, their implementation must pass the test for the presumption of utopia . An attempt to realize control, that is, first of all, to translate it into social relations, to obtain a result from it can be considered as the result of a miracle of inversion; if realized, it is replaced by a reverse inversion. For example, socialism as a society that immediately saves people from death, from labor, embodies universal equality, ultimately ends in the growth of a discomforting state, a reverse inversion. The death of the boy means that there is no communism in “Chevengur” (Platonov A., Chevengur).

Continuing the series of articles on music theory, we would like to tell you about how genres in music were formed and developed. After this article, you will never confuse a musical genre with a musical style again.

So, first, let's look at how the concepts of “genre” and “style” differ. Genre- This is a type of work that has developed historically. It implies the form, content and purpose of music. Musical genres began their formation at an early stage in the development of music, in the structure of primitive communities. Then music accompanied every step of human activity: everyday life, work, speech, and so on. Thus, the main genre principles were formed, which we will examine further.

Style also implies the sum of materials (harmony, melody, rhythm, polyphony), the way in which they were used in piece of music. Typically, a style is based on a particular era or is classified by composer. In other words, style is a set of means musical expressiveness, which defines the image and idea of music. It may depend on the individuality of the composer, his worldview and tastes, and approach to music. Style also determines trends in music, such as jazz, pop, rock, folk styles, and so on.

Now let's get back to music genres. There are five main genre principles, which, as we said, originated in primitive communities:

Motority
Declamation
Chanting
Signaling
Sound-imagery

They became the basis of all subsequent genres that appeared with the development of music.

Quite soon after the formation of the main genre principles, genre and style began to intertwine into unified system. Such genre-style systems were formed depending on the occasion for which the music was created. This is how genre-style systems appeared, which were used in certain ancient cults, for ancient rituals and in everyday life. The genre had a more applied nature, which shaped a certain image, style and compositional features of ancient music.

On the walls of Egyptian pyramids and in surviving ancient papyri, lines of ritual and religious hymns were found, which most often told about the ancient Egyptian gods.

It is believed that ancient music reached its highest point of development precisely in Ancient Greece. It was in ancient Greek music that certain patterns were discovered on which its structure was based.

As society developed, so did music. IN medieval culture New vocal and vocal-instrumental genres have already formed. During this era, genres such as:

Organum is the earliest form of polyphonic music in Europe. This genre was used in churches, and flourished at the Notre Dame school in Paris.
Opera is a musical and dramatic work.
Chorale is liturgical Catholic or Protestant singing.
The motet is a vocal genre that was used both in church and at secular events. His style depended on the text.
Conduct is a medieval song, the text of which was most often spiritual and moralizing. They still cannot accurately decipher the medieval notes of the conductors, since they did not have a specific rhythm.
Mass is a liturgical service in Catholic churches. Requiem also belongs to this genre.
Madrigal is a short work on lyrical and love themes. This genre originated in Italy
Chanson - this genre appeared in France, and initially choral peasant songs belonged to it.
Pavana - a smooth dance that opened holidays in Italy
Galliarda is a cheerful and rhythmic dance also originating from Italy.
Allemande is a procession dance that originated in Germany.

IN XVII-XVIII centuries in North America Rural music – country – developed quite actively. The genre is heavily influenced by Irish and Scottish folk music. The lyrics of such songs often talked about love, rural life and cowboy life.

IN late XIX century and at the beginning of the twentieth century in Latin America and Africa, folklore developed quite actively. In the African American community, the blues originated, which was originally a “work song” that accompanied work in the fields. The blues is also based on ballads and religious chants. Blues formed the basis of a new genre - jazz, which is the result of a mixture of African and European cultures. Jazz has become quite widespread and universally recognized.

Based on jazz and blues, rhythm and blues (R'n'B), a song and dance genre, appeared in the late 40s. He was quite popular among young people. Subsequently, funk and soul appeared within this genre.

It is curious that along with these African-American genres, the genre of pop music appeared in the 20s of the twentieth century. The roots of this genre are in folk music, street romances and ballads. Pop music has always mixed with other genres to form quite interesting musical styles. In the 70s, within the framework of pop music, the “disco” style appeared, which became the most popular dance music at that time, pushing rock and roll into the background.

In the 50s, rock burst into the ranks of already existing genres, the origins of which were in blues, folk and country. It quickly gained wild popularity and grew into many various styles, mixing with other genres.

Ten years later, the reggae genre was formed in Jamaica, which became widespread in the 70s. The basis of reggae is the mento genre folk music Jamaica.

In the 1970s, rap appeared, which was “exported” by Jamaican DJs to the Bronx. DJ Kool Herc is considered the founder of rap. Initially, rap was read for fun, to throw out one’s emotions. The basis of this genre is the beat, which sets the rhythm of the recitative.

In the second half of the 20th century, electronic music established itself as a genre. It is strange that it did not gain recognition at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the first electronic instruments appeared. This genre involves creating music using electronic musical instruments, technologies and computer programs.

Genres that emerged in the 20th century have many styles. For example:

Jazz:

New Orleans jazz
Dixieland
Swing
Western swing
Bop
Hard bop
Boogie-woogie
Cool or cool jazz
Modal or modal jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Soul jazz
Free jazz
Bossa Nova or Latin American Jazz
Symphonic jazz
Progressive
Fusion or jazz rock
Electric Jazz
Acid jazz
Crossover
Smooth jazz

Cabaret
Minstrel show
Music hall
Musical
Ragtime
Lounge
Classic crossover
Psychedelic pop
Italo disco
Eurodisco
High energy
Nu-disco
Space disco
Ye-ye
K-pop
Europop
Arabic pop music
Russian pop music
Rigsar
Laika
Latin pop music
J-pop

Rock and roll
Big Bit
Rockabilly
psychobilly
Neorocabilly
Skiffle
Doo-wop
Twist
Alternative rock (Indie rock/College rock)
Math rock
Madchester
Grunge
Shoegazing
Britpop
Noise rock
Noise pop
Post-grunge
lo-fi
Indie pop
Twi-pop
Art rock (Progressive rock)
Jazz rock
Krautrock
Garage rock
Freakbeat
Glam rock
Country rock
Merseybeat
Metal (Hard Rock)
Avant-garde metal
Alternative metal
Black metal
Melodic black metal
Symphonic black metal
True black metal
Viking metal
Gothic metal
Doom metal
Death metal
Melodic death metal
Metalcore
New metal
Power metal
Progressive metal
Speed metal
Stoner rock
Thrash metal
Folk metal
Heavy metal
New wave
Russian rock
Pub rock
Punk rock
Ska-punk
Pop punk
Crust punk
Hardcore
Crossover
Riot folk
Pop rock
Postpunk
Gothic rock
No Wave
Post-line
Psychedelic rock
Soft rock
Folk rock
Techno rock

As you can see, there are many styles. For transfer full list It will take a lot of time, so we won’t do this. The main thing is that you now know how modern popular genres appeared and you will definitely no longer confuse genre and style.

Submitting your good work to the knowledge base is easy. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

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Introduction

1. The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles of poetics

1.1 From science fiction to fantasy

1.2 Features of the fantastic in fantasy (general principles of poetics)

2. Critics about the fantasy genre: philosophical and literary interpretation

2.1 Marking the boundary “rational - irrational”: the problem of identifying one’s world

2.2 Main characters of fantasy

2.3 The influence of fantasy theory on the development of the literary process

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

IN modern literary criticism on at the moment There is no generally accepted definition of the fantasy genre. Almost everyone who writes about fantasy tries to give their own definition of this concept. As a result, a significant number of definitions appeared, sometimes contradicting one another.

Definitions of genre can be grouped around several trends. Most often, fantasy is defined as a special direction of science fiction. “In the modern literary lexicon, the definition of fantasy (from “fantasy”) is increasingly encountered, which is an entire literature where the boundaries of the real, fantastic and surreal, mystical are blurred.”

The word "fantasy" is firmly entrenched in the mind modern man. It is often used as a designation for the mass literature and film industry of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In domestic literary criticism, this phenomenon modern culture is at the stage of comprehension. fantasy genre poetics

The fantasy genre currently causes a lot of controversy, which relates to the history of the genre, genre-species and functional nature, genre modifications (classification), poetics, etc. This situation is explained by the comparative youth of the genre: fantasy literature has existed for just over 100 years, the term appeared in the 70s -ies of the twentieth century. abroad, in the 80s - in Russia.

The subject of research in the course work is the fantasy genre. The object of the study is the works of Russian, Western European and American writers and critics working in the fantasy genre.

The purpose of the study is to identify the genre uniqueness of fantasy literature, to consider its theory as it develops in modern literary criticism. To achieve this goal, the study needs to solve a number of problems:

Job objectives:

1. Consider the main trends in the development of the genre and its connections with other genres.

2. Consider the ways of formation of the fantasy genre.

3. Analyze the images of the main characters of the fantasy genre.

4. Consider the influence of the fantasy genre on the modern literary process.

Theoretical and methodological basis course work are fundamental works largest representatives domestic and foreign literary studies, among which we can highlight works on the theory of myth and folklore by V.Ya. Proppa, E.M. Meletinsky, Ya.E. Golosovkera, A.K. Bayburina, V.V. Ivanova, V.N. Toporova, Yu.M. Lotman, G.V. Maltseva, E.M. Neelova, L.G. Nevskoy, S.Yu. Neklyudova, E.S. Novik, Ts. Todorova, T. Chernyshova and others.

Research methods - descriptive-analytical with elements of system analysis, elements of cultural-historical and comparative-historical methods.

The work consists of an introduction, main part, conclusion and a list of sources used. The introduction formulates the goals and objectives of the research, substantiates the relevance of the scientific problem posed and the practical significance of the research.

1. The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles of poetics

1.1 From science fiction to fantasy

"Fantasy is a type of fantastic literature, or literature about the extraordinary, based on a plot assumption of an irrational nature. This assumption has no logical motivation in the text, suggesting the existence of facts and phenomena that, unlike science fiction, cannot be rationally explained ".

“In the most general case, fantasy is a work where the fantastic element is incompatible with the scientific picture of the world.”

"Fantasy is a description of worlds like ours, worlds with magic working in them, worlds with a clear boundary between Darkness and Light. These worlds can be some kind of variation of the Earth in the distant past, the distant future, an alternative present, as well as parallel worlds that exist out of touch with the Earth."

A number of researchers are inclined to define fantasy as a type of literary fairy tale. "According to external parameters, fantasy is a type of fantastic fairy tale." Fantasy writer E. Gevorkyan calls fantasy “a fairy-tale phantasmagoria of imaginary worlds.”

“Fairy tale. This genre differs from science fiction in the absence of moral teaching and attempts at messianism. From the traditional fairy tale - in the absence of division into good and bad,” says Nik Perumov’s article.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in his essay “On Fairy Tales,” discusses the role of fantasy in the creation of wonderful secondary worlds. Tolkien extols fantasy, like the romantics early XIX V. But, unlike them, the writer considers fantasy not an irrational, but a rational activity. In his opinion, the author of a work of fiction must consciously strive to establish an orientation towards reality. It is necessary to give the fictional internal “logic of the real,” starting with the fact that the author himself must believe in the existence of Fairy (in tune with fantasy), “a secondary world based on the mythological imagination.” Another trend is defining fantasy through myth. This is quite natural, since fantasy literature always has a mythological basis.

“This genre arose on the basis of the authors’ rethinking of the traditional mythological and folklore heritage. And in the best examples of this genre one can find a number of parallels between the author’s fiction and the mythological and ritual ideas that formed its basis.”

“The world of fantasy is ancient myths, legends, tales passed through modern consciousness and revived by the will of the author.” The most clear definition of fantasy is offered by the reference book “Russian Fantasy of the 20th Century in Names and Persons”: “Fantasy is a kind of fusion of fairy tales, science fiction and adventure novels into a single (“parallel”, “secondary”) artistic reality with a tendency to recreate, rethink the mythical archetype and form a new world within its borders.

Fiction presupposes the content of an element of the extraordinary, i.e. a narrative about what does not happen, did not exist and cannot exist. The main meaning of the terms fantasy and fantastic is a special way of displaying reality in forms that are unusual for it. Features of fiction: 1) the premise of the extraordinary, i.e. a plot-shaping assumption about the reality of extraordinary events; 2) motivation for the extraordinary; 3) a form of expression of the extraordinary.

Fantasy is secondary to imagination, it is a product of imagination, it changes the appearance of reality, reflected in consciousness. In this case, we are also talking about a subjective beginning, a kind of substitution. The modern understanding of fantasy is also based on the teachings of K.G. Jung, and then fantasy is the self-image of the unconscious; fantasy is most active when the intensity of the conscious decreases, as a result the barrier of the unconscious is broken.

Fantasy is a concept used to designate a category of works of art that depict phenomena that are distinctly different from the phenomena of reality. The imagery of fantastic literature is characterized by a high degree of convention, which can manifest itself in violation of logic, accepted patterns, natural proportions and forms of what is depicted. The basis of any work of fiction is the opposition “real - fantastic”. The main feature of the poetics of the fantastic is the so-called “doubling” of reality, achieved either through the creation of another reality, completely different from the actual reality, or through the formation of “two worlds”, which consists in the parallel coexistence of the real and unreal worlds. There are such types of fiction as explicit and implicit.

The origins of the fantastic lie in the mythopoetic consciousness of humanity. The era of the heyday of the fantastic is traditionally considered to be romanticism and neo-romanticism. Fantasy gives rise to a special character in works of art that are directly opposed to realism. Fiction does not recreate reality in its laws and foundations, but freely violates them; it forms its unity and integrity not by analogy with how it happens in the real world. By its nature, the pattern of the fantastic world is completely different from the pattern of reality. Science fiction creatively reproduces not reality, but dreams and daydreams in all the uniqueness of their qualities. This is the essential basis of fantasy or its pure form.

There are three types of fantasy works. Works of fiction of the first type - completely detached from reality - are pure dreams, in which no direct consideration of the real reasons or reasons for them is given. Fantastic works of the second type, in which a secret basis for everyday phenomena is given, are dreams when we directly perceive real reasons for wonderful images and events or, in general, their connection with reality, i.e. when in the dream itself we contemplate not only fantastic pictures, but also the real causative agents of them or, in general, elements of the real world directly related to them - and the real turns out to be subordinate to the fantastic. Finally, fantastic works of the third type, in which we directly contemplate not the real causative agents or companions of mysterious phenomena, but precisely their real consequences. These are those sleepy states when, in the first moments of awakening, while still in the power of sleepy visions, we see them introduced one way or another into the real world - descended into waking life. All three types of fiction are equally often found in works of art, but they are not equivalent.

The fantasy genre is a type of fantastic literature. In terms of volume of publications and popularity among the average reader, fantasy has left all other areas of science fiction far behind. Among all literary movements, it is fantasy that is developing most rapidly, exploring new territories and attracting more and more readers.

Fantasy as a technique has been known to art since time immemorial. Actually, to one degree or another it is inherent in any type of art. In literature it passed very well long haul: from primitive myth to fairy tale, from fairy tale and legend to the literature of the Middle Ages, and then romanticism. Finally, in modern literature the turn of science fiction and fantasy has come. These genres developed in parallel, sometimes touching in some way.

The issue of the relationship between science fiction and fantasy has not yet been resolved. On the one hand, both are united in the same concept of “science fiction” and are perceived as its modifications. On the other hand, fantasy is clearly opposed to the literature that is conventionally designated by the term “science fiction.”

1.2 Features of the fantastic in fantasy (general principles of poetics)

The concepts of imagination, fantasy and the fantastic are discussed in detail in modern science, mainly in psychology. In fantasy literature, these concepts are associated with the article by J.R.R. Tolkien's "On Magic Stories", in which they have an interpretation that differs in many ways from the generally accepted one. The heyday of fantasy (neo-myth) occurs in the postmodern era, the era of experimentation and the search for new forms."

In the descriptive concepts of fantasy, in total, a number of features of the genre are defined, among which the following come to the fore: a fantastic picture of the world, a fairy-tale-mythological basis and genre synthesis. Researchers find in fantasy elements of the heroic epic, legend, chivalric romance, literary fairy tale, romantic story, Gothic novel, occult-mystical literature of the Symbolists, postmodern novel, etc. (probably different for each specific work). It can be noted that all of the listed genres and trends are in one way or another connected with myth.

So, “fantasy is always based on either a revised canonical system of myths, or an original author’s mythopoetic concept, the most important feature of which is the creation of a secondary world (a holistic picture of the world and man), where man is a microcosm in the macrocosm system.”

In Russian fiction there are a number of excellent fantastic works by N.V. Gogol, V.F. Odoevsky, I.S. Turgeneva, V.M. Garshina, F.K. Sologuba and many others. etc. In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky's fiction plays a very important role.

One of the features of the fantasy genre is that it is based on ancient mythological ideas, in particular, German-Scandinavian tales that retain traces of pre-Christian pagan ideas. The attachment to the mythical, heroic and magical, characteristic of English culture for a long time, increases at the end of the 19th century and reaches its apogee in the 20th century. Christian ideas began to be revealed in magical stories; the images of the main characters reflect both the heroic traits of the characters in the epic and the virtues inherent only in the Christian ideal. And the imaginary worlds themselves are justified in cosmogony and have their own history, which is in many ways similar to the real situation.

The holistic genre language of foreign fantasy was so recognizable that the Polish science fiction writer A. Sapkowski at the end of the 1980s wrote a model of the plot of a typical fantasy novel, based on the plot of Cinderella. Based on the changes made to the known plot, we have assumed that the relevant components of a recognizable genre language are the following:

1. The type of hero changes. The semantic core on which the magical plot has been based for centuries is the change in the status of the main character. Cinderella in A. Sapkowski’s model is a heroine with the right to the throne, “a hero doomed to heroism.”

2. The role of the antagonist’s image is strengthening (this is no longer the image of the stepmother, but the image of the pest prince “who is assigned a separate space). This entailed a number of consistent changes in the new plot: fairy tale plot about Cinderella is replaced by the stylization of another type of plot, the content of which is the search (quest) and the fight against the antagonist-pest; the need for search and fight has actualized the importance of the typology of spaces in fantasy. The image of the secondary world in modern criticism fantasy stands out as fundamental).

2. The “other” world, which has become very important, is divided axiologically (the prince is a demonic creature, and his mentor is an evil sorcerer) and its negative part is opposed to the positive world (Cinderella and the fairy godmother). A struggle between the higher forces of the secondary world arises, which “shapes the appearance of being”).

3. The importance of the type of hero-protagonist increases, which is enhanced by the introduction of a prediction function (prophecy).

The playful nature of fantasy manifests itself not only at the level of image creation, i.e. games with a standard image, but also at the level of plot formation. Considering the problem of plot formation in Russian fantasy, we have identified two basic principles for organizing literary text in works of Russian and foreign fantasy:

1) the artistic material for combining and reconstructing the secondary world can be an idea of historical reality. 2) any foreign text can serve as artistic material for combining and reconstructing the secondary world. The first principle organizes the text in such a way that a recognizable reality is played out, and the combination of elements is built into a new plot, which, nevertheless, is familiar to readers. The second principle is the playful use of someone else’s text, which, in turn, can be: 1) a well-known mythological plot (or a separate mythology); 2) someone else's original story.

The mythological image-plot basis as a secondary world is the most easily perceived fantasy picture: almost everything is already known. The writer is faced with two sets of tasks: 1) a set of logical explanations for those irrational events and plot twists that constitute the dominant feature of fiction; 2) a body of original ideas introduced by the author into the mythological picture of the fantasy world.

Mysticism has always been present in Russian literature, especially in the 19th century, when Russian fiction was strongly influenced by German romanticism. This Hoffmannian tradition Russian literature continued at the beginning of the twentieth century - just remember the prose of the Serapion Brothers, A. Green, V. Bryusov, V. Kaverin and M. Bulgakov.

If we consider only a narrow subgenre of fantasy - “swords and magic”, then we must admit that in Russian literary tradition more "magic" than "swords". But, on the other hand, if “Taras Bulba” N.V. Gogol add mystics from his own " Enchanted place", "Viya" and "Terrible Vengeance", we will get a work of heroic fantasy. This synthesis did not happen due to the weakness of the adventurous, adventure genre in Russian literature as a whole. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, this genre had already begun to take shape and become stronger. Closest to A. Green and V. Bryusov came to the creation of heroic fantasy. In Green's stories, in Bryusov's story "Mountain of Stars", in the poetry of N. Gumilyov, a typical hero of "swords and magic" is already encountered - a wandering loner, a strong and self-confident person who can not only to reflect, but also to act, able to stand up for oneself and look into the eyes of death.

In later times, elements of heroic fantasy can be found in “Aelita” by A. Tolstoy, “The Last Man from Atlantis” by A. Belyaev and in such works by I. Efremov as “On the Edge of the Oikumene”, “The Journey of Baurjet”, “Thais of Athens” . Full-fledged works, which can without hesitation be attributed to the genre of “swords and magic,” began to appear in Russia only in last decade XX century.

In the 1980s, the first fantasy publishing houses began to appear. However, it was almost impossible for Soviet fantasy writers to publish their books. The only publishing houses that tried to somehow help them were “Text” in Moscow and “Terra Fantastika” in St. Petersburg. Publishing houses were afraid that readers would not be attracted to Soviet authors, so they were asked to create a “foreign pseudonym” for themselves and publish under it. So, for example, Svyatoslav Loginov was offered to write some work under the pseudonym “Harry Harrison”. At the same time, Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky began to sign their works with the pseudonym “Henry Lion Oldie”. By 1993, the only Russian fantasy author published under his own name was Nik Perumov, due to his independent sequel to The Lord of the Rings. In the same year, it became obvious that the circulation of books was much greater than the number of potential readers. Then the circulation of books fell twenty to thirty times. Large publishing houses have found a solution to this by increasing the number of book titles they publish.

In St. Petersburg, the publication "Azbuka", among other books, published "Slavic fantasy" - the novel "Wolfhound" by Maria Semyonova, thereby consolidating the presence of Russian authors in the book market. The preference for foreign science fiction writers over Russian authors finally ceased in 1997. The leading Moscow publications Eksmo and AST have launched several series of Russian science fiction and fantasy. That's when it started rapid growth and the rise of fantasy and science fiction written in former countries USSR.

Russian fantasy is strongly influenced by its English-speaking "ancestor". But it was American stereotypes that incredibly narrowed the range of problems, images and plots developed by fantasy. Medieval surroundings, a traditional quest, a standard set of heroes, all this came to us along with Tolkien and Zelazny. The traditions of Gogol and Bulgakov are forgotten; many do not even consider these works to be fantasy. Few worthy works of Russian fantasy so far decisively destroy stereotypes. In Russian literature there are examples of Chinese, Indian, ancient Greek fantasy, fantasy of the Stone Age; modern fantasy, alternative fantasy, and even science fiction future fantasy exist and have been used by followers. We consider the most striking examples of Russian fantasy role-playing, such as "The Black Book of Arda" by N.E. Vasilyeva, N.V. Nekrasova, “The Last Ring Bearer” by K. Eskov, “Spear of Darkness” by N. Perumov. Analysis of their updated artistic system is based on the result of an analysis of the dynamics of the positive Tolkien image in subcultural-role folklore.

In Russia, his most significant representative of the epic fantasy genre is Nik Perumov. From the very beginning and until now they are considered the “king” of Russian epic fantasy. The “Ring of Darkness” trilogy, which marked the beginning of the writer’s popularity, is, by and large, an imitation of Tolkien. However, this imitation is very detailed, carefully worked out and poses an ideological challenge to the author of the original text - Tolkien. Perumov consolidated his success with the cycle “The Chronicles of Hjervard”. The writer has written both TV series and individual novels. Among them, in addition to epic, there are also heroics and techno-fantasy.

The fantasy world initially arose as a parallel to the everyday life of humanity. This is how Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Clive Lewis’s Narnia, Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea and other worlds appeared. The inhabitants of these worlds or the person entering them find themselves in extreme difficult situations, requiring not only the performance of courageous actions and heroic deeds, but, above all, tough moral choice. In these books, everything was possible - wizards, dragons, magic rings, werewolves and witches, corridors in time and space, i.e. the entire arsenal of fairy tales and ancient legends. However, with all the flight of imagination in this transformed myth, one thing remained unchanged - a person must remain himself. Moreover, the moral situation always required the hero to use his best spiritual qualities. She was a kind of exam for the title of a person. As in traditional fairy tales, good prevailed, but it prevailed precisely as good, without the slightest concessions or compromises. Even the most noble goal here did not justify immoral means. The main task of “fantasy” was to establish harmony within a person, to conquer oneself. Judging by the popularity of the fantasy genre among readers different levels preparation, the set goal was largely achieved.

Modern genre fantasy has its origins in the European chivalric romance, Scandinavian sagas, myths and legends such as the Arthurian cycle, the so-called Gothic novel, and the works of mystics and romantics of the 19th century. In Europe, among the progenitors of fantasy one can name the names of Hoffmann and Walpoll, i.e. representatives of German romanticism and the English Gothic novel. There is probably not a single writer in Great Britain who has not written at least one ghost story. Even such a realist and writer of everyday life as Charles Dickens wrote the story “A Christmas Carol”, where one bad character is guided on the true path by a ghost. S. Maugham wrote an entire novel called “The Magician,” and its content fully corresponds to the title.

America also could not escape this trend. In the 19th century, first of all, two names should be mentioned - Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce. In American science fiction at the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a clear division into three streams. Science fiction of the Jules Verne style, which described the technical wonders of the future. The leader of this trend was Hugo Gernsbeck. Then there was a stream that continued the traditions of the adventure, colonial novel. The leader of this trend was Edgar Burroughs. There was also a group of authors who published in the magazine "WEIRD TALES" - "Fatal Stories". What was published in this magazine, according to the modern classification, belongs to fantasy.

In general, plot formation in fantasy occurs as a result of a multi-step game: both with the interpretation and aftereffect (role-playing game) of someone else's author's text, and with the interpretation of a well-known mythological plot, placed within the framework of a game overcoming a ban.

Category of plausibility in fantasy

Following psychological verisimilitude in fantasy is the same immutable law as in literature in general: “The more difficult it is to create the illusion of truth, the more you have to worry about authenticity.” In the methods of creating authenticity, the fantasy genre follows the general literary tradition begun by the romantics - attention to plausible details in the description of implausible creatures and phenomena. The tradition of fantastic folklore prose is also used - a reference to a witness. Some extra-textual and extra-plot reality acts as a “witness”. In the first case, this is the plausible timing of fictional events to historical events or events accepted as reality. An example is the novel by A. Lazarchuk and M. Uspensky “Look into the eyes of monsters,” where the events of the novel take place in the context of the history of the world (and Russia) of the twentieth century. The creation of an extra-plot reality consists of a detailed description of a fantasy world with pseudo-documentary fragments of secondary historical chronicles, excerpts of secondary literary works, secondary linguistic, ethnographic, geographical and cartographic and other reference materials.

The requirement of psychological verisimilitude in fantasy actualizes the literal understanding of the fantastic image, completely rejecting allegorical, allegorical ambiguity. It is precisely this requirement that literary play in fantasy poetics is kept from complete transition into philosophical allegory. So, in the existence of Russian fantasy of the 90s and its poetics, the prerequisites for the use of such artistic technique, as the creation of fantastic conditions (world) as a result of a holistic game (role-playing) action. Also, to create a pure verisimilitude of an implausible world, the general literary technique of “text within a text” is used. Russian fantasy, which emerged in the wake of 1994-1996, not only adopted the invariant genre language given by the foreign version, but also supplemented it.

The ancestors of fantasy were classic fairy-tale quest stories: from the tales of “The Thousand and One Nights” to Russian fairy tales-travels like “Go there, I don’t know where” or “Tales of rejuvenating apples and living water." In turn, stories of this type structurally go back to the actions of the heroes of antiquity. The basis of a fantasy novel is always the story of a magical journey. The hero travels beyond the horizon of familiar reality. On the way, the hero has a chance to undergo initiation and gain new knowledge. And if the hero manages to return to his reality and bring knowledge to his world, then this world changes, sometimes catastrophically. At the same time, reality is recreated by the hero anew. Actually, “recreating reality again” is the main work performed by a fantasy novel.

Fantasy is in a genetic relationship with both folk tales and myth. From myth, fantasy inherited the epic nature of the narrative and the original tragedy. These trends are especially clearly visible in the novels by Nika Perumov “Death of the Gods”, G.L. Oldie "The Many-Armed God of Dalaina". The hero is obliged to do what is intended, even if it threatens him with death. The problem of struggling in a hopeless situation paints the whole heroic epic peoples of Europe. Modern fantasy adds to this situation the idea of moral choice. The fantasy hero is not as determined as the character in mythological tales, and therefore the fantasy genre opens up space for creating contradictory, living human images. The fairy tale brings a lyricism to fantasy that science fiction often lacks.

Ideally, a work written in the fantasy genre should combine both trends - the epicness of myth and the lyricism of a fairy tale. The fairy tale is the oldest and immortal genre of literature. Fairy tales gave the world of fantasy veiled edification. However, fantasy has taken a step forward, abandoning the division of heroes into good and bad.

Fantasy can be described as modern fairy tale literature, written in modern times for the modern reader. These are novels and stories about wizards and heroes, gnomes, goblins, dragons, elves, demons, magic rings and buried treasures, drowned continents and forgotten civilizations using real or fictional mythology. Andrzej Sapkowski in the article "Pirug, or "There is no gold in gray mountains" writes: “Fairy tale and fantasy are identical, because they are implausible.” Let's consider what the main difference between these genres is.

Chernysheva, calling fantasy “game fiction,” connects its birth with the tradition of fairy tales and carnival restructuring of the world: “The new tradition of literary fairy tales is combined with the tradition of carnival game reconstruction of the world, going back to ancient times. Together they form what we call gaming fiction.”

Romantics also took part in the formation of the genre. Of course, back then it wasn’t fantasy as we know it. For example, Hoffmann already has all the features of fantasy, except for the world of fantasy itself in the modern sense. Eat fairy world, there are magical creatures, something unreal, unknowable and obviously impossible in everyday life. But in romantic literature the fabulousness is still emphasized. Magic world Hoffman remains a fairy tale, it is not equal to the real world, it is not presented as a self-sufficient, completely possible world, while the fantasy world should be equivalent to the real one, there is absolutely no subordination between them.

T. Stepnovska, discussing the origin of fantasy, states: “The main source of the emergence of fantasy as a special type fiction, where the free play of imagination is capable of breaking any law of the real world, introducing any miracle and magic as a component of content and form, are myth and fairy tale." The basic law of myth is fate, higher power. In a fairy tale, the principle is different. It's good by definition stronger than evil, And main character Evil always wins simply because it has to be so. His victory is inevitable. Evil in a fairy tale exists only so that good can defeat it. “Fantasy models a world that loses its fairy-tale conditionality at the existential level.” A fairy tale creates its own, completely closed world, in which the laws of nature can be ignored. Fantasy introduces into the empirical world laws that contradict knowledge. Magic and non-magic in fantasy resist each other. This is well stated in E. Ratkevich’s novel “The Sword Without a Handle”: “the world resists magical intervention. Even a mountain range, even coastal sand, even dust on an old cobweb - they do not submit without resistance.”

A literary fairy tale is closer to fantasy precisely in that everyday life already penetrates into it, but it is not yet fantasy, since it retains the conventions of fairy tales. The world of a fairy tale always remains the world of a fairy tale, and its laws do not apply externally.

Thus, by comparing realistic prose, science fiction and fantasy, we can conclude that

1) realistic prose describes events that did not happen, but which could well have happened;

2) science fiction describes events that are impossible from the point of view of today, but assumes that under certain assumptions such events are possible as consequences of some scientific discoveries or technological developments;

3) fantasy does not appeal to rationalism, but, on the contrary, puts the mystical, occult, irrational at the forefront, which remains fundamentally inexplicable.

Consequently, in the text there is a flying carpet, it comes from nowhere, and after use it disappears to somewhere unknown, and all this does not cause the slightest surprise in the heroes, then this is a fairy tale. If the characters view the magic carpet as something unusual, but still use it to achieve their goals in a very realistic way, then it is fantasy. If you install a large-caliber machine gun on a flying carpet and a squadron of such carpets flies to storm Satan’s castle, then this is “science fantasy”. And if a carpet flies because it has anti-gravity chips woven into its fabric, then this is science fiction.

Conclusions from the first chapter:

1. Fantasy is a literary genre that was formed in the twentieth century as a dream of a person’s personal freedom from economics, laws and other aspects of everyday life, incorporating the edification and humanity of a fairy tale, the epic and tragic nature of a myth, and the nobility of a knightly romance. Authors working in this genre create worlds located parallel to reality or not connected with it at all.

2. Of the literary genres, science fiction and mysticism are closest to fantasy. It is difficult to separate science fiction from fantasy. Science fiction pays great attention to progress and everything that it describes seems possible to humanity in the future.

3. Fantasy initially states that it describes an unreal world, and that this is impossible in our real world. In fantasy, manifestations of the supernatural and what we are accustomed to calling the real world exist on equal terms.

2. Critics about the fantasy genre: philosophical and literary interpretation

2.1 Marking the boundary “rational - irrational”: the problem of identifying one’s world

Despite various points of view regarding the origin of fantasy, the undeniable fact is that it was the British professor of linguistics J.R.R. Tolkien at one time created a sample or canon of a fantasy novel, which became a classic and a starting point for the development literary genre fantasy. The Celtic-British complex of legends and myths that forms the basis of J. Tolkien's trilogy has thus become a traditional basis for the creation of subsequent fantasy novels.

The worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings pushed publishers to pay serious attention to fairy-tale and magical fiction.

The genre is developing like an avalanche, more and more milestones are appearing in it, and the Hall of Fame is quickly filling with portraits. In 1961, the Elric and Hawkmoon sagas by Michael Moorcock appeared. In 1963, the first “World of Witches” by Endre Norton (in Russian translation - “Witch World”) was born. "Fafrd and the Gray Cat" by Fritz Leiber appears in the pocket edition. And finally, with enormous fanfare - “Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin and at the same time, “The Last Unicorn” by P. Biggle, two books of an absolutely cult nature. In the 1970s, Stephen King's books appeared and broke all sales records. True, these are more likely horror stories than fantasy. Coming soon are "Doubting Thomas" by Stephen Donaldson, "Amber" by Zelazny, "Xanth" by Piers Anthony, "Derini" by Katherine Kurtz, "Born of the Grave" by Tanith Lee, "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley, "Belgariad" by David Eddings and many others.

Faith in science and technological progress, fearlessness in the face of any futurological forecasts, conviction in the boundless prospects for human development - all these conceptual pillars of science fiction determine the popularity of this deeply rational (and rationalistic) genre of literature in eras of increased social optimism. Such a time of technocratic euphoria and social progressivism, for example, was the 50-60s of the last century, when science fiction “turned into the sphere of almost everyday thinking of the average American,” and a brilliant galaxy of science fiction writers came to literature: A. Azimov, R.E. Heinlein, K.D. Simak, R.D. Bradbury; in Great Britain Arthur Clarke created the best works, in Poland - Stanislaw Lem; in the USSR - Ivan Efremov, and later the Strugatsky brothers, Kir Bulychev.

Thus, in 1969, Katharina R. Simpson wrote: "Tolkien is unoriginal, boring and sentimental. His glorification of the past is a comic for adults, he systematizes the despair of the modernists. The Waste Land with comments, without tears."

In the 70s, fantasy experienced its highest rise, it was a period of experimentation and, as one little-known character said, “the age of great innovation.” It is logical that it was then that the need for a thematic award became apparent. This became the “World Fantasy Award” or WFA (World Fantasy Award) in 1975; it is awarded at the “World Fantasy Convention”, which is held mainly in the USA, but has been held several times in Canada and the UK. The WFA is by far the most prestigious award in the field of fantasy.

The essentially irrationalistic genre of fantasy, on the contrary, flourishes in eras of social breakdown, reduced passionarity as - according to apt word Tsvetana Todorova is the “uneasy conscience of the positivist age”, pushing the imagination into the compensatory spaces of neo-mythology. The special role of fantasy in the culture of the twentieth century, moving away from the canon of modern European classics and establishing its own mode of interaction between the rational and irrational, individual and mass, turns it into a generally accepted “way of destroying taboo topics,” because “if in the age of positivism a breakthrough into the reality of the unconscious could happen, then only in the form of fiction." It is not without reason that since the time of Gernsback, in the system of genre forms of fantasy, along with classical fantasy (narratives about heroes and wizards, as a rule, of some kind of conventional Middle Ages), the genres “mystery” and “horror” are sometimes included, widely opening the door to the subconscious.

Fantasy is the future as the past; a world with a rigid hierarchy, inequality, cultural and moral decline, and the archaization of consciousness. Science fiction in its classic form demonstrated “the bright future of victorious communism in the Strugatskys / the triumph of democracy and individual freedom in Star Trek.” Even in such a classic work by Heinlein as Starship Troopers, humanity built its own utopia, which was already attacked by Bugs ).

In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of fantasy gave rise to role playing games. In them, a party of one/multiple players travels through a fantasy world in search of various adventures. Moreover, each player has various characteristics that change with increasing experience. Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most successful gaming systems.

The world of fantasy, in contrast to the positivist rationality of science fiction, is recognized by the reader as a space that obeys other, illogical, magical laws; in fantasy terminology this is designated by the word “magic” or “witchcraft.” Fantasy uses traditional artistic images witchcraft. This power, initially present in the hero, manifesting itself as a specific talent, is bestowed upon him by some irrational being who is immanently present in the fantasy world. This strength can also be determined by the nature of the hero.

2.2 Main characters of fantasy

Gusarova proposes to consider the principle of the hero and the principle of the world as the substantive principles of fantasy. One cannot but agree with this, but with a small clarification. Determining the content of the secondary world must be given first place, since the creation of any work of fiction, according to modern science fiction researchers, begins with the “creation” of the world: “... first of all, it is necessary to create a certain world, arranging it as best as possible and thinking through it in detail” .

The main process that occurs with the main character is his heroic identification. The hero has five comparative analytical qualities: “Obtaining a magical quality or means”, “Hero identification - the second stage”, “Magical assistant, zoomorphic transfiguration, types of transfiguration”, “Hero identification - the last stage”, “Motive of the miraculous birth of a fantasy hero ".

Analyzing the process of identifying the main character as a hero, we distinguish two stages of this identification. The first stage is the identification of the hero of Russian fantasy of the late twentieth century. associated with the initial manifestation in him of special forces of a witchcraft nature. The presence of an initial witchcraft nature in the hero determines his first stage of initiation as change social status from low, “invisible” to high – in demand, “visible”. A symbol of social change can be the acquisition of a symbolic weapon with which the hero is connected in a magical, supernatural way. The acquisition of high status is confirmed both by a social change (title, high position) and by the attitude of others. The change in status also indicates that the “alien” world for the hero becomes his own.

The second stage of the process of identifying a character as a protagonist occurs on several levels. The first level is when, following a traditional change in social status, the hero becomes visible to the personified irrational force of the “alien” world. The identification of the hero by the irrational forces of the “alien” world can occur through a system of imposing and violating prohibitions (the legacy of folk fairy tales), which in the context of fantasy represent the game rules of the plot (violation of the prohibition is the goal, and the method of violation is an unreal plan, a fantastic conjecture). The second level of the second stage of identification is strongly associated with the communication of the prophecy to the hero, where he is identified as the expected messiah. The main function of prophecy in fantasy poetics, as in a fairy tale, is to convey to the hero a message about the main sabotage and ways to eliminate it. The importance of the hero's mission and the prophecy about him is directly related to the degree of danger of the antagonist.

The presence of a special gift in the nature of the hero also depends on the degree of danger coming from the antagonist. The image of an antagonist in fantasy contains sacred signs that are expressed obviously or detected during analysis. Antagonist in figurative system Russian fantasy of the late 1990s often has pronounced signs of a sacred cosmic essence; its most important and fundamental function is to disrupt the balance and order of the secondary fantasy world. This has its consequence in the image of the hero, who, in the process of his heroic identification, must manifest himself as a person who also has signs of sacredness.

In Russian fantasy, the last stage of hero identification partially occurs in the figurative system of two fairy-tale functions of “transfiguration” (sign T) - “the hero is given a new look” and one of the constituent components of the function “a magical means is at the hero’s disposal” (designation Zoomorphic transfiguration Z). The hero of Russian fantasy can experience two types of transfiguration: of the zoomorphic type - turning into a messiah monster, or acquiring the characteristics of an anthropomorphic divine being - anthropomorphic transfiguration.

A typological dependence of the form of the hero's transfiguration on the appearance of the enemy is built: the more monstrous the enemy, the more fantastic the metamorphosis the hero undergoes. Obviously, fantasy poetics, persistent in its desire for integration, is not limited to one traditional way of depicting the hero’s identification. She uses the entire possible range of fantastic transformation of the main character

It is quite obvious that the actions of the fantasy hero take his image beyond the framework of the system of symbols that came from the spheres of both funeral and initiation rituals. It seems that here we are dealing with figurative structures whose roots go back to mystical initiation. In the context of mystical initiation, three constants stand out, consistently and rhythmically repeated in the image of the main character of Russian fantasy: the salvation of the world/person, unity with the highest deity, the vertical nature of the path.

So, we can conclude that in the structure of the image of the hero of the late twentieth century. systems of ideas are traced that go back, in addition to heroic initiation, to the archaic practice of initiatory shamanic ritual.

As reasons determining the specificity of the poetics of Russian fantasy of the late twentieth century, we name:

Firstly, the emergence of a mystical image in modern Russian fantasy may be connected with the phenomenon that emerged in the science fiction of the twentieth century. a trend in alien depictions where the cosmos can easily be populated with “beings of increasingly greater perfection until we achieve something virtually indistinguishable from omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience.” Secondly, the psychological justification for the emergence of a sacred image in fantasy poetics can come, according to Yu.M. Lotman, from the tendency towards reversibility of plots.

If there is a plot about a hero moving from internal space to external space, acquiring something there and returning, “then there must also be a reverse plot: the hero comes from external space, suffers damage and returns.”

These are stories about the incarnation of God, his death here and his return. The third reason for the special tendency to create a consistent mystical image of a fantasy hero lies, it seems to us, in the special interaction of elements of folklore plots and folklore picture of the world, which is reflected with a certain degree of completeness in fantastic works. This interaction is such that any “element that falls into this system must “adjust” to it, it evolves until it takes on the form that the system requires, and one of the main requirements of folklore plots is the requirement of meaningfulness.”

HELL. Gusarova highlights the formulaic principle of a fantasy hero, which is “tied” to an irrational gift and its obligatory implementation in a conventionally fantastic world. “In addition,” she writes, “in connection with the existence of the irrational Gift and its necessary implementation in the “crucible of trials,” the principle of the world is defined as magical and divided dichotomously. In this regard, the magical world is the focus of an eternal battle. The hero, drawn by his gift , returns to this world...” Gusarova proposes to consider the principle of the hero and the principle of the world as the substantive principles of fantasy. One cannot but agree with this, but with a small clarification. Determining the content of the secondary world must be put in first place, since the creation of any work of fiction, according to modern science fiction researchers, begins with the “creation” of the world: “... first of all, it is necessary to create a certain world, arranging it as best as possible and thinking through it in detail.”

In addition to various races, fantasy also contains fantastic animals. They represent an image of the response of the surrounding world to the actions and worldview of the main characters in books. Let's try to understand the diversity of fantasy fauna:

The unicorn is the personification of purity, chastity and innocence, which are revealed only to those who themselves are also sinless and innocent. Represented in the form of a snow-white horse with a sparkling horn on its head;

Ent - a living tree that protects the elf race in case of attack. They are an example of loyalty and willpower;

chimera is a terrible and dangerous creature assembled from parts of animal bodies. Most often he appears before the reader with a huge snake head on a lion body. Represents an image of cunning and resourcefulness;

gargoyle is a giant marble bat that is obliged to protect its creator and serves as a messenger and scout for him. Represents devotion and sense of duty;

Modeus is a fire demon summoned by sorcerers for their own protection in dangerous situations. They are dutiful and obedient, but through deceit and duplicity they want to kill the one who disturbed them with his call and enslave his soul;

dragons are giant flying lizards, differing in the elements that gave birth to them, but united in their greed and love of money;

Wyverns are dead dragons brought back to life by dark magic and serve as guardians of undead necropolises. Doomed to the suffering of the afterlife, they are the focus of anger and thirst for revenge;

Hypogryphs are akin to chimeras, as they have a winged lion's body with a bird's head. They serve as an example of loyalty and pride, deny betrayal and are devoted to their owners until death;

Gnols are cunning and cunning creatures born of experiments with magic. They look like humans, but with the head of a hyena. They often engage in robbery, but not knowing the value of money, they only store it without using it;

Taamag is a huge demoness, guardian of the other world. Thus, creatures from the fantasy world help the reader imagine the most likely reaction of others to any of his actions or opinions. This undoubtedly allows a person to determine his own course in life.

Let's look at the most popular fantasy races:

Elves - (alfe, elaf) Pointy-eared “children of the forest”, magnificent archers. They are divided into forest (Bosmer), higher (Altmer), dark (danmer) and ghostly (Scaimer). Their “true” names, invented by science fiction writers, are given in parentheses.

Orcs are a race of green-skinned monsters who are still very stupid, but already very warlike.

Undead - (undead) are also known as "not dead". They represent the dead revived by the will of dark magicians-necromancers. They are perhaps the most beloved creatures of both authors and readers.

Vampires - everyone knows the legends about night hunters with white faces and black souls. Vampires can be classified as undead, but due to their popularity and antiquity, they have long become a separate species in fantasy.

Dwarves are a short people who live underground. They love gold more than anything in the world and are the best blacksmiths in the world.

Demons - (daimonium) a formidable race generated by the hatred of fallen angels and hellfire. They are cunning and two-faced, but at the same time they have their own code of honor, and they strictly follow it.

Elementals are a race created through experiments with the elements of fire, earth and water. Subsequently, the elements of these three principles created the air elemental. They serve as an example of friendship and mutual understanding, which is evident in their group work.

These and many other inhabitants of fantasy worlds can have a significant impact on a person’s worldview. They personify certain qualities of people and show them to the reader.

2.3 The influence of fantasy theory on the development of the literary process

The period of romantic fantasy remained in the second half of the past century. Fantasy is becoming more and more pragmatic. Authors who have chosen the following primitive scheme are incredibly popular: a) A non-stop “spinning” main character. b) Unlimited appearance of more and more formidable opponents, capable of resisting the overly “cool” protagonist for several pages or even volumes. Accordingly, the entire narrative boils down to non-stop “fights”. c) Minimizing the number of “beautiful” global and side quests, simplizing them, in order to enable the hero to move straightforwardly towards his main task - the next salvation of the dying World.

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1. The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles of poetics

1.1 From science fiction to fantasy

“In the most general case, fantasy is a work where the fantastic element is incompatible with the scientific picture of the world.”

A number of researchers are inclined to define fantasy as a type of literary fairy tale. "According to external parameters, fantasy is a type of fantastic fairy tale." Fantasy writer E. Gevorkyan calls fantasy “a fairy-tale phantasmagoria of imaginary worlds.”

“Fairy tale. This genre differs from science fiction in the absence of moral teaching and attempts at messianism. From the traditional fairy tale - in the absence of division into good and bad,” says Nik Perumov’s article.

“This genre arose on the basis of the authors’ rethinking of the traditional mythological and folklore heritage. And in the best examples of this genre one can find a number of parallels between the author’s fiction and the mythological and ritual ideas that formed its basis.”

1.2 Features of the fantastic in fantasy (general principles of poetics)

So, “fantasy is always based on either a revised canonical system of myths, or an original author’s mythopoetic concept, the most important feature of which is the creation of a secondary world (a holistic picture of the world and man), where man is a microcosm in the macrocosm system.”

In Russian fiction there are a number of excellent fantastic works by N.V. Gogol, V.F. Odoevsky, I.S. Turgeneva, V.M. Garshina, F.K. Sologuba and many others. etc. In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky's fiction plays a very important role.

1. The type of hero changes. The semantic core on which the magical plot has been based for centuries is the change in the status of the main character. Cinderella in A. Sapkowski’s model is a heroine with the right to the throne, “a hero doomed to heroism.”

3. The importance of the type of hero-protagonist increases, which is enhanced by the introduction of a prediction function (prophecy).

Category of plausibility in fantasy

A literary fairy tale is closer to fantasy precisely in that everyday life already penetrates into it, but it is not yet fantasy, since it retains the conventions of fairy tales. The world of a fairy tale always remains the world of a fairy tale, and its laws do not apply externally.

Thus, by comparing realistic prose, science fiction and fantasy, we can conclude that

1) realistic prose describes events that did not happen, but which could well have happened;

2) science fiction describes events that are impossible from the point of view of today, but assumes that under certain assumptions such events are possible as consequences of some scientific discoveries or technological developments;

3) fantasy does not appeal to rationalism, but, on the contrary, puts the mystical, occult, irrational at the forefront, which remains fundamentally inexplicable.

Conclusions from the first chapter:

2. Of the literary genres, science fiction and mysticism are closest to fantasy. It is difficult to separate science fiction from fantasy. Science fiction pays great attention to progress and everything that it describes seems possible to humanity in the future.

3. Fantasy initially states that it describes an unreal world, and that this is impossible in our real world. In fantasy, manifestations of the supernatural and what we are accustomed to calling the real world exist on equal terms.

2. Critics about the fantasy genre: philosophical and literary interpretation

2.1 Marking the boundary “rational - irrational”: the problem of identifying one’s world

The worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings pushed publishers to pay serious attention to fairy-tale and magical fiction.

Thus, in 1969, Katharina R. Simpson wrote: "Tolkien is unoriginal, boring and sentimental. His glorification of the past is a comic for adults, he systematizes the despair of the modernists. The Waste Land with comments, without tears."

2.2 Main characters of fantasy

So, we can conclude that in the structure of the image of the hero of the late twentieth century. systems of ideas are traced that go back, in addition to heroic initiation, to the archaic practice of initiatory shamanic ritual.

As reasons determining the specificity of the poetics of Russian fantasy of the late twentieth century, we name:

If there is a plot about a hero moving from internal space to external space, acquiring something there and returning, “then there must also be a reverse plot: the hero comes from external space, suffers damage and returns.”

In addition to various races, fantasy also contains fantastic animals. They represent an image of the response of the surrounding world to the actions and worldview of the main characters in books. Let's try to understand the diversity of fantasy fauna:

The unicorn is the personification of purity, chastity and innocence, which are revealed only to those who themselves are also sinless and innocent. Represented in the form of a snow-white horse with a sparkling horn on its head;

Ent - a living tree that protects the elf race in case of attack. They are an example of loyalty and willpower;

chimera is a terrible and dangerous creature assembled from parts of animal bodies. Most often he appears before the reader with a huge snake head on a lion body. Represents an image of cunning and resourcefulness;

gargoyle is a giant marble bat that is obliged to protect its creator and serves as a messenger and scout for him. Represents devotion and sense of duty;

Modeus is a fire demon summoned by sorcerers for their own protection in dangerous situations. They are dutiful and obedient, but through deceit and duplicity they want to kill the one who disturbed them with his call and enslave his soul;

dragons are giant flying lizards, differing in the elements that gave birth to them, but united in their greed and love of money;

Wyverns are dead dragons brought back to life by dark magic and serve as guardians of undead necropolises. Doomed to the suffering of the afterlife, they are the focus of anger and thirst for revenge;

Hypogryphs are akin to chimeras, as they have a winged lion's body with a bird's head. They serve as an example of loyalty and pride, deny betrayal and are devoted to their owners until death;

Gnols are cunning and cunning creatures born of experiments with magic. They look like humans, but with the head of a hyena. They often engage in robbery, but not knowing the value of money, they only store it without using it;

Taamag is a huge demoness, guardian of the other world. Thus, creatures from the fantasy world help the reader imagine the most likely reaction of others to any of his actions or opinions. This undoubtedly allows a person to determine his own course in life.

Let's look at the most popular fantasy races:

Elves - (alfe, elaf) Pointy-eared “children of the forest”, magnificent archers. They are divided into forest (Bosmer), higher (Altmer), dark (danmer) and ghostly (Scaimer). Their “true” names, invented by science fiction writers, are given in parentheses.

Orcs are a race of green-skinned monsters who are still very stupid, but already very warlike.

Undead - (undead) are also known as "not dead". They represent the dead revived by the will of dark magicians-necromancers. They are perhaps the most beloved creatures of both authors and readers.

Vampires - everyone knows the legends about night hunters with white faces and black souls. Vampires can be classified as undead, but due to their popularity and antiquity, they have long become a separate species in fantasy.

Dwarves are a short people who live underground. They love gold more than anything in the world and are the best blacksmiths in the world.

Demons - (daimonium) a formidable race generated by the hatred of fallen angels and hellfire. They are cunning and two-faced, but at the same time they have their own code of honor, and they strictly follow it.

Elementals are a race created through experiments with the elements of fire, earth and water. Subsequently, the elements of these three principles created the air elemental. They serve as an example of friendship and mutual understanding, which is evident in their group work.

These and many other inhabitants of fantasy worlds can have a significant impact on a person’s worldview. They personify certain qualities of people and show them to the reader.

2.3 The influence of fantasy theory on the development of the literary process

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