It's no secret that literaryworks belong to certain genres and kinds of literature. And if literary births are limited to three categories: epic, lyric, drama, then there are many more genres.
The famous artwork "EugeneOnegin ", which belongs to the pen of the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, has long been under the scrutiny of philologists and literary critics. Not only is this work full of deep semantic content, its genre characteristics are also quite ambiguous. So, what is so unusual about the definition of the genre of "Eugene Onegin"?
To begin with, it should be noted that the productwritten in a poetic form, it means that the kind of literature to which it belongs is lyrical. However, despite the fact that the story is described in the poems, it is absolutely impossible to call it a simple poem. The unfolded plot, the dynamics of the development of events, psychologism and works within the work rightfully allow to attribute "Eugene Onegin" to the genre of the novel. According to the definition of the explanatory dictionary of Sergei Ivanovich Ozhegov, the novel is a prosaic epic literary work with several characters and a complex plot structure. Relying on him, we can say that in terms of meaning and content, "Eugene Onegin" refers, more likely, to the genus of the epic and the novel genre of literature.
According to the plot, a spoiled and selfish metropolitanthe young man Eugene Onegin, tired of endless balls and social receptions, decides to retire to live in the village, in order to somehow bring diversity to their everyday lives. However, life in the village is more boring than in St. Petersburg, Evgenia is again attacked by spleen. He gets acquainted with the young villagers: an eighteen-year-old talented poet Vladimir Lensky, the Larin sisters - a beautiful and cheerful Olga, a thoughtful and dreamy Tatyana.
One day, at a secular ball, the two met:still bored and moping Onegin and inaccessible noble wife of General Tatyana. And in this meeting, the characters changed roles, Eugene realized that he fell in love with a beautiful princess, Tatyana also answered him with a phrase that later became famous: "But I'm given to another and I will be faithful to him."
So, how, in fact, to define in the work"Eugene Onegin" genre? About the plot we can say that it is really rich in events, and the dialogues and monologues of the heroes are full of sensuality and psychologism. These features make it possible to classify the work in the genre of the novel. However, the poetic form of the famous creation of Pushkin leaves the question open. Specialists tend to argue that the genre of "Eugene Onegin" is a novel in verse. However, according to some literary critics, including Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, this is not so. They argue that the genre of "Eugene Onegin" is a poem, because the work reproduces the life of the Russian public in the capital and abroad, with almost historical accuracy. VG Belinsky, without stinting, called "Eugene Onegin" "an encyclopedia of Russian life." But for a poem the work still has too much volume, the amount of text closer to the novel. This is the first contradiction.
The second contradiction is connected with the content of the novel.Again, critics call "Eugene Onegin" not only "novel about the novel", but also "novel in the novel." And if the first definition is directly influenced by the genre of "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin AS, as well as the love line - the central theme of the plot, the second characteristic has a direct relation to the artistic texts within the work.
So, as it was already explained earlier, in itsgenre, the work relates to the novel rather than to the verse. And this is the first component of the definition of "novel about the novel." The second, undoubtedly, reflects the presence of love events in the plot. In the course of development, the reader can observe how the relationship develops between the two pairs: Olga Larina and Vladimir Lensky and her sister Tatyana and Eugene Onegin. However, the relations of the latter go to the forefront. It is around this pair and the plot revolves. Thus, the expression "novel about the novel" informs not only about the presence of a love line in the text, but also emphasizes once again that in the work "Eugene Onegin" the genre is characterized as a novel.
In this characteristic, there is also a reference togenre of Pushkin's creation. However, now, when the question "Eugene Onegin" does not arise - which genre? ", It is not necessary to decipher the second part of the phrase, of course, it's about the attitude to the genre, but the first part of the definition reminds of the presence in the text of another novel - Tatyana Larina's letter , recognizing Onegin in love, Tatiana wrote about her feelings in writing, and Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin fully reflected her impulse.It is about this novel as a genre characteristic within another novel - the most produced Tatyana Larina, pouring out her love for Eugene, produced her own novel in verse, displaying it in a letter.
So, even after analyzing the work "EugeneOnegin ", his genre is still difficult to establish. In form it is a poem, in content - a novel. Perhaps only such a talented and great poet as Alexander Pushkin is allowed to invent his own genre - a novel in verse - and demonstrate it on a better example.
