Any literary work can be attributed to any genre - epic, lyrical, dramatic. "War and Peace" - a great and complex work. What genre should it belong to?

Some see in the work primarily a historical novel, which tells about the invasion of Napoleon's troops in Russia, as well as about the people who lived at that time. But is it? “War and Peace” is not just a story about historical events. This is noticeable even if you look closely at the composition of the novel. Description of the life of ordinary families, such as the Rostovs, Bolkonskys and others, alternates with descriptions of battles, military operations, stories about the personalities of Napoleon, Kutuzov. At the same time, we see pictures of a completely different kind. People get to know each other, part, declare their love, marry for love and convenience - that is, they live ordinary life. Before the eyes of readers passes a whole string of meetings for many years. And history does not stand still. Emperors decide questions of war and peace, the war of 1812 begins. The peoples of Europe, forgetting about their home, family, are sent to Russia to conquer it. Napoleon is at the head of these troops. He is confident and holds himself high. And L. N. Tolstoy, as if imperceptibly comparing him with peaceful people, shows that Napoleon is not at all a genius, that he is just an adventurer, like many others who do not bear a high-profile title and are not crowned with the crown of the emperor.

One of the features of "War and Peace" is a large number of philosophical digressions. More than once in them the author argues that Napoleon was not the cause of the war at all. Tolstoy writes: “In the same way as this or that figure is drawn in a stencil, not because in which direction and how to smear it with paints, but because the figure cut in the stencil was smeared with paint in all directions.” One person does not make history. But when peoples gather, although they have different goals, but act in the same way, then events occur that remain in history. Napoleon did not understand this, considering himself the cause of the movement, the clash of peoples.

Something similar to Napoleon and Count Rostopchin, confident that he did everything to save Moscow, although, in fact, he did nothing.

There are people in War and Peace who really care about the life and death of Russia. One of them is M.I. Kutuzov. He understands the situation and neglects the opinions of others about himself. He perfectly understands both Prince Andrei, and the careerist Benigsen, and, in fact, all of Russia. He understands people, their aspirations, desires, and hence the fatherland. He sees what is good for Russia and for the Russian people.

M. I. Kutuzov understands this, but Napoleon does not. Throughout the novel, the reader sees this difference and sympathizes with Kutuzov.

What does it mean to understand people? Prince Andrei also understands the souls of other people. But he believes that in order to change the world, everyone must improve themselves first of all. He did not accept war, because war is violence. It is through the image of his beloved hero that Lev Nikolayevich conveys his own thoughts. Prince Andrei is a military man, but he does not accept war. Why?

“There are two aspects of life in every person: personal life, which is all the more free, the more abstract its interests, and spontaneous, swarm life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed to him,” the author writes.

But why should a person live a second life, where he is lost as a person and serves as an unconscious tool of history? Why is all this necessary?

And L. N. Tolstoy calls in his novel to end unnecessary, senseless wars and live in peace. “War and Peace” is not just a historical novel, it is a project to build a new spiritual world. As a result of wars, people leave their families, become a faceless mass, which is destroyed by exactly the same other mass. L. N. Tolstoy dreamed of ending wars on earth, that people would live in harmony, surrendering to their sorrows and joys, meetings and partings, and be spiritually free. In order to convey his thoughts to readers, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a book where he not only consistently sets out his thoughts, his views, but also illustrates them using the example of people's lives during the Patriotic War. Those who read this book do not just perceive other people's judgments, but experience it together with the characters, imbued with their feelings and communicate with Leo Tolstoy through them. "War and Peace" is a kind of holy book, like the Bible. Its main idea, as Tolstoy wrote, is "the foundation of a new religion ... giving bliss on earth." But how to create this world, full of grace? Prince Andrei, who carried the image of this new world, dies. Pierre decided to join a secret society, which, again, will try to change people's lives by violent measures. This will no longer be an ideal world. So is it even possible?

Apparently, L. N. Tolstoy leaves this question to readers for reflection. After all, to change the world you need to change your own soul. How Prince Andrei tried to do it. And each of us has the power to change ourselves.

The epic of Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace" is a complex and multifaceted work. Fates and events, an era and whole lives are intertwined in it. In terms of artistry this work there are many questions and food for thought. One of them - genre originality novel "War and Peace".

Genre features of the work

L. N. Tolstoy himself said that the work is difficult to classify as any of the genres, that he planned to embody the idea the way he sees it, regardless of the genre. As a result, the work "War and Peace" turned out to be very complex and diverse in genre style. It was not for nothing that Tolstoy's stylistic mastery aroused the admiration of many masters of the word. War and Peace is one of the most complex and masterful works in all of world literature.

Features of the work are that it contains several genres. Tolstoy paid great attention to historical nuances, tried to reproduce them as accurately as possible, but at the same time did not pursue purely historical, memoir purposes. It was important for him to create artistic image, to show the story as it was, but from a certain angle that would correspond to the idea of ​​the work.

On the basis of real historical phenomena, Tolstoy creates fiction, an artistic image, due to which he has the opportunity to truly portray a person in difficult life situations, to do this procedurally and volumetrically. Also, the author makes the plot not monosyllabic, but multilinear. It covers the fate of many people, linking them into a single thread of the story. In the foreground of the work is a person. And the genres merge into one big epic, forming a completely unique and original work.

Historical novel

It is impossible to unequivocally recognize "war and peace" historical novel. Lev Nikolaevich tried to portray historical events and persons as authentically as possible, he collected all possible certificates and documents, talked with participants in the events, used his own experience and knowledge. Nevertheless, historical accuracy has become only a background for the artistic image.

social romance

There are signs in War and Peace social novel. Tolstoy is very concerned about issues related to the structure of society. He explores the relationship of people within the same social class and between different strata of society. It is important for him to show not only the soul of one person, the main character, but to understand the soul of an entire nation.

Philosophical novel

Along with the storyline, Tolstoy introduces many digressions and philosophical reflections. The novel deals with both universal philosophical problems and the role of the individual in the course of large-scale world events. Philosophical reflections the author finds a place on the pages of his artwork. Tolstoy rejects the role of Napoleon as a great commander. He claims that such events are decided by a combination of circumstances and entire nations, and compares Bonaparte himself with a child who pulls the fringe in a wagon, but thinks and even sincerely believes that he is driving the wagon.

The genre originality of "War and Peace" only confirms the greatness of the novel. It brings together many aspects. Thanks to the painstaking work of the master of the word, the epic can really be considered one of greatest works Russian and world literature.

This article will help to competently write an essay on the topic “Genre originality of “War and Peace”, to argue that the novel belongs to several genres.

Artwork test

Epic is an ancient genre, where life is depicted on a national-historical scale. The novel is a new European genre associated with an interest in the fate of an individual.

Features of the epic in "War and Peace": in the center - the historical fate of the Russian people in the Patriotic

War of 1812, the meaning of his heroic role and the image of a “holistic” being.

Features of the novel: “War and Peace” tells about privacy people, concrete personalities are shown in their spiritual development.

The genre of the epic novel is the creation of Tolstoy. The ideological and artistic meaning of each scene and each character becomes clear only in their links with the comprehensive content of the epic. The epic novel combines detailed pictures of Russian life, battle scenes, the author's artistic narrative and philosophical digressions. The basis of the content of the epic novel is the events of a large

Historical scale, “life is common, not private”, reflected in the fate of individual people. Tolstoy achieved an unusually wide coverage of all layers of Russian life - hence the huge number actors.

The ideological and artistic core of the work is the history of the people and the path of the best representatives of the nobility to the people. The work was not written to recreate history, it is not a chronicle. The author created a book about the life of the nation, created an artistic, and not historically reliable truth (much of the actual history of that time was not included in the book; in addition, real historical facts distorted in order to confirm the main idea of ​​the novel - the exaggeration of Kutuzov's old age and passivity, the portrait and a number of actions of Napoleon).

Historical and philosophical digressions, the author's reflections on the past, present and future are an essential part of the genre structure of War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy made an attempt to lighten the structure of the work, to clear the book of reasoning, which, according to most researchers, caused serious damage to his creation.

It is believed that the bulkiness, heaviness of periods (sentences), multifaceted composition, many storylines, an abundance of author's digressions are integral and necessary features of "War and Peace". The artistic task itself is epic coverage of huge layers historical life- it required complexity, and not lightness and simplicity of form. The complicated syntactic structure of Tolstoy's prose is an instrument of social and psychological analysis, an essential component of the style of the epic novel.

The composition of “War and Peace” is also subject to the requirements of the genre. The plot is based on historical events. Secondly, the significance of the fate of families and individuals is revealed (analyze all oppositions, see above).

Psychologism (showing characters in development) allows not only to objectively depict a picture of the mental life of the characters, but also to express the author's moral assessment of the depicted.

Psychological analysis on behalf of the author-narrator. Disclosure of involuntary insincerity, a subconscious desire to see oneself better and intuitively seek self-justification (for example, Pierre's thoughts about whether or not to go to Anatole Kuragin, after he gives Bolkonsky the word not to do this). An internal monologue that creates the impression of “overheard thoughts” (eg, the stream of consciousness of Nikolai Rostov during the hunt and pursuit of the Frenchman; Prince Andrei under the sky of Austerlitz). Dreams, disclosure of subconscious processes (eg Pierre's dreams). Impressions of the characters from the outside world. Attention is focused not on the object and phenomenon itself, but on how the character perceives them (for example, Natasha's first ball). External details (eg oak on the road to Otradnoe, the sky of Austerlitz). The discrepancy between the time at which the action actually took place and the time of the story about it (ex. internal monologue Marya Bolkonskaya about why she fell in love with Nikolai Rostov).

According to N. G. Chernyshevsky, Tolstoy was interested in “most of all - the mental process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul, in order to directly depict the mental process with an expressive, definitive term”. Chernyshevsky pointed out that artistic discovery Tolstoy was the image of an internal monologue in the form of a stream of consciousness. Chernyshevsky singles out the general principles of “dialectic of the soul”: a) The image of the inner world of a person in constant motion, contradiction and development (Tolstoy: “man is a fluid substance”); b) Tolstoy's interest in turning points, crisis moments in a person's life; c) Eventfulness (the influence of the events of the outside world on inner world hero).

Essays on topics:

  1. "War and Peace" as an epic novel. The genre of "War and Peace" is unusual. Tolstoy himself abandoned the genre definition of his majestic work, preferring...

The epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy is practically the only work of Russian literature of this magnitude. It reveals a whole layer of history - Patriotic War 1812, military campaigns 1805-1807. Depicted are real historical figures, such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor Alexander I, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov. On the example of the Bolkonskys, Rostovs, Bezukhovs, Kuragins, Tolstoy shows the development of human relations, the creation of families. People's war becomes in a central way wars of 1812. The composition of the novel "War and Peace" by Tolstoy is polysyllabic, the novel is huge in terms of its volume of information, it amazes with the number of characters (more than five hundred). Tolstoy showed everything in action, in life.

Family thought in Tolstoy's novel

There are four storylines- four families that change their composition depending on the circumstances. Kuragins are an image of vulgarity, self-interest and indifference to each other. The Rostovs are an image of love, harmony and friendship. Bolkonsky - an image of prudence and activity. Bezukhov builds his family by the end of the novel, having found his ideal of life. Tolstoy describes families using the principle of comparison, and sometimes also the principle of contrast. But this does not always mean what is good and what is bad. What is present in one family may be an addition to another. So in the epilogue of the novel we see the connection of three families: the Rostovs, the Bezukhovs and the Bolkonskys. This gives a new round of relations. Tolstoy says that the main component of any family is love and respect for each other. And the family main point life. There are no great stories of people, they are worth nothing without a family, without close and loving families. You can survive in any difficult situations if you are strong, and you are strong as a family. The importance of the family in the novel is undeniable.

Folk thought in Tolstoy's novel

The war of 1812 was won thanks to the strength, steadfastness and faith of the Russian people. The people in its entirety. Tolstoy does not distinguish between peasants and nobles - everyone is equal in war. And everyone has the same goal - to liberate Russia from the enemy. "Cudgel people's war”, says Tolstoy about the Russian army. It is the people who are the main force that defeated the enemy. What can military leaders do without the people? A simple example is the French army, which Tolstoy shows in contrast to the Russian one. The French, who fought not for faith, not for strength, but because you need to fight. And the Russians, following the old Kutuzov, for the faith, for the Russian land, for the tsar-father. Tolstoy confirms the idea that the people make history.

Features of the novel

Many characteristics in Tolstoy's novel are presented through contrast or antithesis. The image of Napoleon is opposed to the image of Alexander I as an emperor, the image of Kutuzov as a commander. The description of the Kuragin family is also built on the principle of contrast.

Tolstoy is the master of the episode. Almost all portraits of heroes are given through action, their actions in certain situations. The stage episode is one of the features of Tolstoy's narration.

The landscape in the novel "War and Peace" also occupies a certain place. The description of the old oak is an integral element in the description of the state of mind of Andrei Bolkonsky. We see the calm Borodino field before the battle, not a single leaf stirs on the trees. The fog in front of Austerlitz warns us of an invisible danger. Detailed descriptions of the estate in Otradnoye, natural surveys presented to Pierre when he is in captivity - all these are necessary elements of the composition of "War and Peace". Nature helps to understand the state of the characters without forcing the author to resort to verbal descriptions.

Novel title

The title of the novel "War and Peace" contains an artistic device called an oxymoron. But the name can also be taken literally. The first and second volumes share scenes of either war or peace. The third volume is almost entirely devoted to war; in the fourth, peace prevails. This is also a trick of Tolstoy. Still, peace is more important and necessary than any war. At the same time, war without life in the "peace" is impossible. There are those who are there - in the war, and those who are left to wait. And their expectation, at times, is one salvation for the return.

Genre of the novel

L.N. Tolstoy himself did not give the exact name of the genre to the novel “War and Peace”. In fact, the novel reflects historical events, psychological processes, social and moral problems, philosophical questions are raised, the characters live in family and domestic relations. The novel contains all sides human life, reveals characters, shows destinies. The epic novel is precisely such a genre was given to Tolstoy's work. This is the first epic novel in Russian literature. Truly, L.N. Tolstoy created a great work that has stood the test of time. It will be read at all times.

Artwork test

The novel "War and Peace" is a work of great volume. It covers 16 years (from 1805 to 1821) of the life of Russia and more than five hundred different heroes. Among them are real characters of the historical events described, fictional heroes and many people whom Tolstoy does not even give names, for example, "the general who ordered", "the officer who did not arrive." Thus, the writer wanted to show that the movement of history occurs not under the influence of any specific individuals, but thanks to all the participants in the events. In order to combine such huge material into one work, the author created a genre that had not been used before by any of the writers, which he called the epic novel.

The novel describes real historical events: the battles of Austerlitz, Shengraben, Borodino, the conclusion of the Tilsit peace, the capture of Smolensk, the surrender of Moscow, the partisan war and others, in which real historical figures manifest themselves. The historical events in the novel perform and compositional role. Since the battle of Borodino largely determined the outcome of the war of 1812, 20 chapters are devoted to its description, it is the climax of the novel. The work contains pictures of the battle, which are replaced by the image of the world as the complete opposite of war, peace, as the existence of a community of many and many people, as well as nature, that is, everything that surrounds a person in space and time. Disputes, misunderstanding, hidden and open conflicts, fear, hostility, love... All this is real, alive, sincere, like the heroes of a literary work themselves.

Being close at certain moments of their lives, people who are completely different from each other unexpectedly help themselves to better understand all the shades of feelings and motives of behavior. So, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Anatole Kuragin will play an important role in the life of Natasha Rostova, but their attitude towards this naive and fragile girl is different. The situation that has arisen makes it possible to discern a deep abyss between the moral ideals of these two men from high society. But their conflict does not last long - seeing that Anatole is also wounded, Prince Andrei forgives his opponent right on the battlefield. As the action of the novel develops, the worldview of the characters changes or gradually deepens. Three hundred and thirty-three chapters of four volumes and twenty-eight chapters of the epilogue add up to a clear, definite picture.

The narration in the novel is not in the first person, but the presence of the author in each scene is palpable: he always tries to assess the situation, to show his attitude to the hero's actions through their description, through the hero's internal monologue, or through the author's digression-reasoning. Sometimes the writer gives the reader the right to understand what is happening by showing the same event from different points of view. An example of such an image is the description of the Battle of Borodino: first, the author gives a detailed historical background on the alignment of forces, on readiness for battle on both sides, talks about the point of view of historians on this event; then he shows the battle through the eyes of a non-professional in military affairs - Pierre Bezukhov (that is, shows a sensual, rather than logical perception of the event), reveals the thoughts of Prince Andrei and Kutuzov's behavior during the battle. In his novel, L. N. Tolstoy sought to express his point of view on historical events, to show his attitude to important life problems, answer main question: "What is the sense of life?" And Tolstoy's call on this issue sounds so that one cannot but agree with him: "We must live, we must love, we must believe."

Genre and plot originality novel "War and Peace"

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