"Eugene Onegin": a genre. A novel or a poem?

It's no secret that literary works belong to certain genres and kinds of literature. And if literary births are limited to three categories: epic, lyric, drama, then there are a lot more genres.

"Eugene Onegin": genre

The famous artwork "Eugene Onegin", which belongs to the pen of the great Russian poet Alexander 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"?

Births and genres of literature

To begin with, it should be noted that the work is written in poetic form, so the kind of literature to which it belongs is lyrical. However, despite the fact that the story is described in verse, 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.

Brief description of the plot

According to the plot, the spoiled and selfish capital youth Yevgeny 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 inhabitants of the village: an eighteen-year-old talented poet Vladimir Lensky, Larin's sisters - a beautiful and cheerful Olga, a thoughtful and dreamy Tatyana. They also become the main actors in the story. Lenski engaged to Olga, while Tatiana fell in love with Eugene. However, he does not reciprocate with the feelings of the girl, but receiving a letter with an ardent and tender confession of love, and at all tries to guide her on the true path, advising not to present her feelings to unfamiliar people in the future. Tatyana is embarrassed and offended. And Lensky, meanwhile, calls Onegin to a duel for the fact that he repeatedly invited his bride Olga to the dance. Before the duel Tatiana sees a dream in which Eugene kills Vladimir, but the girl does not know about the intention of young people to shoot, otherwise it would prevent a duel. Onegin kills Lensky, fearing to cancel the duel and become a coward in a secular society. Olga does not long mourn his beloved and soon marries another. After some time, Tatyana also marries, for some time she still continues to love Eugene, but then the veil falls from her eyes.

One day at a secular ball these 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, and Tatyana answered him with a phrase that later became famous: "But I'm given to another and I will be faithful to him."

Analysis of the genre specificity of the text

So, how, in fact, to define the genre in the work "Eugene Onegin"? 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 psychology. These features make it possible to classify a 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 the 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 directly influences the genre of "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin AS, as well as the love line - the central theme of the plot, then the second characteristic has a direct relation to the artistic texts within the work.

"The novel about the novel"

So, as it was explained earlier, in its genre 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 the development of the action, the reader can observe how the relationship develops between the two pairs: Olga Larina and Vladimir Lensky and her sister Tatiana 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 once again emphasizes that in the work "Eugene Onegin" the genre is characterized as a novel.

"The novel in the novel"

In this characteristic, there is also a reference to the genre of Pushkin's creation. But now, when the question "Eugene Onegin" does not arise - which genre? ", The second part of the phrase is not deciphered, of course, it's about the attitude to the genre, but the first part of the definition reminds about 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 "Eugene Onegin", his genre is still problematic 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.