The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles of poetics. The genre is historical. Historical genre in literature

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 it implies the sum of materials (harmony, melody, rhythm, polyphony), the way they were used in a musical work. Typically, a style is based on a particular era or is classified by composer. In other words, style is a set of means of musical expression that determines 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 beginnings, 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 basic genre principles, genre and style began to be intertwined into a single 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 Egyptian pyramids and in the surviving ancient papyri, lines of ritual and religious hymns were found, which most often told about the ancient Egyptian gods.

It is believed that its highest point Ancient music developed 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 styles had already formed. instrumental genres. 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 Over the centuries, rural music – country – has developed quite actively in North America. 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, folklore developed quite actively in Latin America and Africa. 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 different 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 Electonic 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'n'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. It would take a lot of time to list the full list, so we won’t do that. The main thing is that you now know how modern popular genres appeared and you will definitely no longer confuse genre and style.

Aesthetics of the pop genre

Rubber.

Performed:

4th year student 423 groups

Boboshko Margarita

Checked by: Professor

Andrachnikov S.G.

Moscow 2012.

Introduction

Rubber was initially considered a circus genre, but has long since found its niche on the stage. Let's figure out what makes this genre so attractive that it can exist outside the arena. According to scientific information, this genre is called contortion. English word contortion denotes flexibility in all its forms. It was from him that the name contortion came, which characterizes an amazing and truly stunning performing art. This original genre of stage performance is based on the unique ability of a person to transform his body: fold in half, twist into rings, bend in a bizarre way.

"Rubber" - (English caoutchouc) as a circus term is found in specialized literature only at the very end of the last century. One must think that its emergence is associated with the flourishing of the automotive and aviation industries, which required tires huge amount rubber. The thick, viscous sap of rubber plants became the most profitable of the colonial goods. The word "rubber" has become fashionable. Apparently because of the properties of this material, people who have perfect flexibility in their body began to be called this.

The history of the genre.

The earliest information about him dates back to very, very distant times.

IN ancient Egypt During the feasts of the Theban nobles and priests, acrobats performed, along with harpists and dancers with famous gladiators and hunters. Based on the drawings in the tombs, one can recreate a picture of the performance of acrobats of the past. It began with a string of swords mounted on a long board with their tips pointing upward. To show how sharp swords are, the acrobat threw an apple onto the tip of the sword. The halves of the cut apple were then presented to the public as a highly valued treat. The ancient monuments that have survived to this day - reliefs and wall paintings - contain various images of “bridges” - the main pose of the “rubber”.

Demonstration of body flexibility, like dance and pantomime, can be considered one of the sources of stage art, the forefather of all circus genres.

How did this type of acrobatics originate? There is no exact information on this matter. It seems that its beginnings go back to those distant times when ritual dances were performed in pagan temples. It is possible that during such a dance around the flame of the sacrificial fire, one of the priestesses leaned back deeply in ecstasy, beautifully arching her back in a pose that could attract with its unusualness and provoke imitation.

The flexible, trained human body, seemingly devoid of a bone base (which is why artists performing in this genre were advertised as “people without bones”), has always attracted attention. This, in fact, is the reason why the genre turned out to be so tenacious and has passed through centuries without fading to this day. IN ancient Rome on the amphoras we can see colorful images of flexible acrobats, here is a skilled artist, standing on her hands and abruptly arching her back, began to carefully move along the board, and not just move, not at a step, but with “front bridges,” or, as they say in professional circles, “stand with the bogen”, while trying not to touch the dangerous obstacle - the swords.

If it was traditional for Roman acrobats to demonstrate flexibility over the edges of swords, for the ancient Greeks - on a shield held in the hands of an athlete, then Chinese artists thousands of years ago they introduced an original style of plastic acrobatics that spread throughout the earth. Standing on a bench painted with national ornaments, the acrobat smoothly tilted his body back, sinking lower and lower, and now his head and shoulders passed behind his feet. But this is only the beginning, the main thing was that the acrobat had to bend in such a way as to lift the scarlet poppy flower from the carpet without the help of his hands and mouth. This climb, a slow, tense climb, in which the extraordinary elasticity of the body is expressively intertwined with the easily discernible strength of the legs, still looks with exciting interest.

The rooms were built somewhat differently, but also in their own nationally distinctive manner. Uzbek artists, flexible teenagers-muallaqchi. With a copper basin filled with water, the muallakchi walked around the spectators, who, as had been the custom since ancient times, threw coins into the basin. And although everyone knew well what would happen next, this nevertheless did not in the least affect the close attention with which hundreds of eyes watched all the preparations, how, placing the basin on the ground, the muallakchi (most often they performed together with their the teacher, two or three at a time) began to make “bridges”, “wheels”, “rolls from elbows to feet”. But this is just a “warm-up”. Then the main thing began - the most prepared of the muallakchi, standing with his back to the basin, trying it on again and again, lowered himself onto the “bridge”, plunged his face into the water and managed to remove the coin from the bottom with his eyes for centuries.

The term “miniature” first appeared in Russia in 1925. Thanks to their small form, grace and careful execution, many works began to be called miniatures.

Encyclopedic YouTube

Types of miniatures

Short stories, laconic in volume, but extremely capacious in content, are called literary miniatures. Often in miniatures there is practically no action, but there is only a sketch, a picture. But, using the capacity of images, comparisons, epithets, the author creates an entire human destiny in a few phrases. The miniature genre began to develop a long time ago, but its clear boundaries have not yet been identified. A miniature is understood as a short story, essay, story or story that is highly “compressed”. The term is essentially still arbitrary. Miniatures in prose are often called “pictures” or “scenes”. The miniature can be lyrical (poetic). In dramaturgy, a miniature was a monodrama and a one-act or multi-act play, the performance of which occupied only part of the theatrical evening.

Specific signs

Having no clear boundaries, the miniature gives freedom to the authors, and this is one of its main differences from other small prose genres, and also allows you to address various aspects of life and put everyday, social, and philosophical issues at the center. The small volume of the work (5-10 pages) helps to avoid repetition, while the idea is clearly visible: the miniature is characterized by a clear transmission of any author’s intention. The moment recorded by the author in miniature most corresponds to the truthfulness of the depiction of existence, the artistic material is presented subjectively, and the author is most often the narrator.

How specific features of a miniature stand out: small text size; mandatory presence of a plot beginning; clear author's meaning; subjectivism; clear and vibrant dynamics; a clearly defined task; fundamentally equally accepted and global problem and a private question; the organization of the text necessarily includes completeness and proportionality; Symbolism and allegory are allowed; the miniature is one in its nature and indivisible; its form is graceful, rhythmic and melodic (desirable); lyricism and epic interact in miniature.

Yu.B. Orlitsky characterizes miniature as a genre with a pronounced rhythmic organization.

In the works of the miniature genre, a clearly expressed subjective principle runs through everything. In most miniatures it is the subject, i.e. a specific personality represents the center around which all actions take place and the composition develops; subjective perception, a certain experience, is realized in them.

However, there are miniatures with a clearly defined plot, in which the mood that permeates the work carries significant meaning. They often use a “hidden plot”, when external intrigue recedes into the background and the dominant role is played by a change in the psychological state of the hero, his moral self-knowledge.

The miniature is distinguished by its brevity, clarity and refinement of the plot, and a special semantic load that is embedded in some words and details.

An internal monologue can freely exist in miniatures simultaneously with a figurative and logical series. At the same time, the author may be interested in philosophical and ethical problems, which, despite their small volume, can be revealed in the genre of miniatures, while the works contain a high degree of artistry.

Subjectivism distinguishes a miniature from a simple essay, although some miniatures are written in an essayistic form, however, the essay genre presupposes somewhat greater rigor and logic in reasoning and argumentation, and a fairly developed chain of conclusions.

Such a broad and somewhat contradictory definition of the genre is explained by the fact that miniatures allow authors to experiment and express themselves. The absence of rigid frameworks and established canons is the main difference between miniatures and other small prose genres.

The genre began to actively develop in the 90s of the twentieth century. Yu. Orlitsky notes the following features of modern prose miniatures: a miniature can be narrative, lyrical, dramatic, essayistic, philosophical, and humorous, and not just lyrical, as it was before, and these qualities can form a certain synthesis. In modern Russian literature, this is most often “the poet’s prose”; this is evidenced by the refusal of titles (as in lyrics) and the publication of miniatures as part of poetry books and magazine collections of poems. The stanza of the miniature gradually changed - the tendency towards one equal sentence.

Thus, in the process of its development, the miniature genre actively interacted with other small genres (short story, short story, essay), as a result of which the above-mentioned genre varieties, so sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between what is actually a miniature and what is short story, novella or essay.

The miniature genre is still being formed, and therefore is not recognized as canonical by many researchers.

The emergence of the genre in Russia

It is believed that this genre was first introduced in Russia by Turgenev (“Poems in Prose”). But similar analogies can be found in Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Teplyakov, Somov, Glinka, who, with his works in 1826, showed 25 prose miniatures for the first time in Russia (“Experiments in allegories, or allegorical descriptions, in verse and prose”).

At the turn of the century and during the Silver Age in literature, the genre was especially popular, but during Soviet times it fell into the shadows. Interest in it began to return only in the 70s of the twentieth century.

Authors

At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, Bunin, Sluchevsky and Turgenev created their works in the genre of miniatures.

In general, at the beginning of the twentieth century, not a single magazine could do without prose miniatures; they were written by many authors, for example, Solovyova,

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Introduction

1. The emergence of the fantasy genre in Russia and abroad: general principles 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 There is currently 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 consciousness of 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 Russian literary criticism, this phenomenon of 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 the fundamental works of the largest representatives of 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 of the early 19th century. 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 fantastic 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 fantasy of the first type - completely detached from reality - are pure dreams, in which no direct insight into 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 It's the turn of science fiction and fantasy. 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 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 fantasy criticism 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 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 the narrow subgenre of fantasy - “swords and magic”, then we must admit that in the Russian literary tradition there is 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 generally. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, this genre already began to take shape and grow stronger. A. Green and V. Bryusov came closest to creating 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 knows how 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 the last decade of the twentieth 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. It was then that the rapid growth and flourishing of fantasy and science fiction written in the former countries of the USSR began.

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's credits include both TV series and stand-alone 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 who finds themselves in them find themselves in extremely difficult situations that require not only courageous actions and heroic deeds, but, above all, a 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 flights 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 of different levels of training, then 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 direction 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 its 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 literary game in poetics, fantasy is kept from completely transforming 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. Along 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 struggle in a hopeless situation colors the entire heroic epic of the peoples of Europe in tragic colors. Modern fantasy adds to this situation the idea of ​​moral choice. The fantasy hero is not as determined as the character of 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 is often missing science fiction.

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 characterized as modern fairy-tale literature written in the New Age for a 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 “No Gold in the 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. There is a fairy-tale world, there are magical creatures, something unreal, unknowable and obviously impossible in everyday life. But in romantic literature the fabulousness is still emphasized. Hoffmann's magical world 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, a higher power. In a fairy tale, the principle is different. In it, goodness is 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 the starting point for the development of the literary genre of 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 boundlessness of the 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 - in the apt words of Tsvetan Todorov - “the restless conscience of the positivist age”, pushing the imagination into the compensatory spaces of neo-mythology. Special role science fiction in the culture of the twentieth century, departing from the canon of modern European classics and establishing its own mode of interaction between the rational and the irrational, the individual and the 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 the system of genre forms of fantasy, since the time of Gernsback, along with classical fantasy (narratives about heroes and wizards, as a rule, of some kind of conventional Middle Ages), sometimes includes the genres “mystery” and “horror”, which open the door wide 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 this classic work 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.

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...”

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 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” .

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 heritage of folk fairy tale), 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 a surreal 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, there are three constants that are 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 “adapt” 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, since 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), high (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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The history of the development of the fantasy genre, the reasons for its popularity and the main features. Character traits heroic, epic, game, historical fantasy genres. Analysis of the novel by R. Asprin to identify the compositional and stylistic features of the genre.

course work, added 02/07/2012


The fantasy genre and the work of R. Asprin in literary criticism. The concept of myth and archetype, the problem of defining the fantasy genre. Features of the traditional model of the world in fantasy novels. R. Asprin as a representative of the fantasy genre, a model of the world in his work.

thesis, added 12/03/2013


The specifics of Slavic fantasy in Russian literature using the example of “Watches” by S. Lukyanenko, and in Belarusian literature using the example of the works of Vl. Korotkevich. Use of mythological and fairy tale motifs. The most famous representatives of the fantasy genre.

course work, added 09/07/2010


The fantasy genre is currently Genetic connection of fantasy with myth and folk tale. King's appeal to the fairy tale. Borrowing elements from a fairy tale. Plot moves of eastern folklore. Reasons for the popularity of the fantasy genre among modern readers.

abstract, added 05/15/2015


Features of the artistic world of fantasy. Genre specificity of Slavic fantasy. The formation of fantasy in Russian literature. The plot and composition of the novel "Valkyrie" by M. Semenova. The system of characters and conflicts, folklore and mythological images in the novel.

thesis, added 08/02/2015


The concept of the artistic world of a work. The formation of fantasy in Russian literature. Analysis of M. Semenova's novel "Valkyrie": plot and composition, system of characters and conflicts, folklore and mythological images and motifs. The novel as an author's myth.

thesis, added 07/10/2015


The phenomenon of fantasy in the cultural space as a genre of mass literature. Genre clichés in the plot organization of J. Martin's novel "Game of Thrones". Synthesis of genre stereotypes and individual author's solutions in the organization of the motive-figurative system.

Definitions of the genre of the story. Short story and novella, their relationship.

B.V. Tomashevsky: “A short story (short story) is a work with a simple plot,<…>with a short chain of changing situations or, rather, with one central change of situations (Tomashevsky B.V. Poetics).

G.N. Pospelov: “The story is a small epic genre form of fiction - small in terms of the volume of life phenomena depicted, and hence in terms of the volume of text, prose work. <...>There is another type of short prose genre - the short story. Apparently, it would be more correct to understand the story as a small prose form in general and to distinguish among stories works of the essay (descriptive-narrative) type and the short story (conflict-narrative) type" (Pospelov G.N. Story // Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary).

Yu. Nagibin: “The story is one-line, it has one dramatic knot, one conflict” (Nagibin Yu. Not someone else’s craft).

V.P. Skobelev: “A story (short story) is an intensive type of organization of artistic time and space, presupposing a centripetal concentration of action, during which a test is carried out, testing the hero or any significant phenomenon in general with the help of one or several homogeneous situations. So the reader's attention is reduced to the decisive moments in the life of the character or the phenomenon as a whole. Hence the concentration of plot-compositional unity, the one-dimensionality of the speech style and the small (against the background of the novel and story) volume as a result of this concentration” (Skobelev V.P. Poetics of the Story).

The history of the genre. The appearance of the first works with the subtitle “story” in the mid-1820s and the consolidation of this definition for narrative works of small form from the mid-1840s (see in detail about the history of the emergence of the genre and the term in the works of E. Shubin, A.V. Luzhanovsky and etc.). Active development of small prose genres in the mid-1840s. The connection between the emergence of the genre and its development with the history of realism in Russian literature. “Belkin’s Tales” by A.S. Pushkin and “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” by N.V. Gogol as an important moment in the history of Russian short stories. The great role of I.S. Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” in the formation of the genre (see the article by V.G. Belinsky “A Look at Russian Literature of 1847,” where the author wrote that the story, which had long existed in literature as the “younger brother” of the story, received the right to an independent genre).

The story in the works of L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, I.A. Bunin and others. The genre was widespread in the literature of the Silver Age. The fate of the story and the metamorphoses of this genre in the literature of the 20th – early 21st centuries.

Topic 2. E. Zamyatin – short story writer.

E. Zamyatin as one of the brightest representatives of small epic genre in literature of the 20th century, a talented experimental writer. Autobiography of a writer. Polytechnic education and its role in the life and work of E. Zamyatin. Passion for the ideas of socialism and direct participation in revolutionary events in Russia.

E. Zamyatin’s appeal to the short story genre at the beginning of the twentieth century. The motif of district Rus' is the main one in his work. The satirical nature of creativity, traditions of N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, N.S. Leskov. The northern theme in the writer’s works (stories “Africa”, “North”, “Yola”).

A business trip to England in 1916 and its role in the life and work of E. Zamyatin. Criticism of English bourgeois society and Western rationalism in the spirit of O. Spengler (story “The Fisher of Men”). Passion for modernism.

E. Zamyatin and the revolution of 1917. Educational practice, participation in many cultural projects Soviet Russia. Theoretical works by E. Zamyatin on neorealism and expressionism (“About synthetism”, “I’m afraid”, “New Russian prose”, “On literature, revolution, entropy and other things”). The main thing in the style: emphasized rationalism, geometry of form, distortion of the image, the use of the grotesque, tragic irony: “synthetic image in symbolism, synthesized everyday life, synthesis of fiction and everyday life, experience of artistic and philosophical synthesis” (“New Russian Prose”).

The embodiment of the basic principles of new poetics in his short stories (“Cave”, “Rus”, “Dragon”, “Mamai”, “The Story of the Most Important Thing”, “Yola”, etc.). Interest in science fiction. The influence of H. Wells and A. France on the work of E. Zamyatin. The latest literature about Zamyatin.