The category of “genre type” in the epistemological system of historical poetics

Abstract

The analysis of “the evolution of poetic consciousness and its forms”, substantiated as the main subject of historical poetics by A. N. Veselovsky, provides for the renewal of the categorical system of this scientific trend, the introduction of “additional categories of description” of literary phenomena and events into the conceptual apparatus. The article substantiates the relevance of introducing the category of “genre type” into the epistemology of historical poetics. The author realizes the task of concretizing the problem of genre as the main one for this section of poetics; it is demonstrated that the category of “genre type” integrates the semantic intentions of genre “archaics” (specific characteristics) and the creative method that is dominant for the historical and literary era of the spread and functioning of this genre type. It is proved that the categorical semantics of the concept of “genre type” as a tool of philological research is determined by the synthesis of theory and history of literature, that is, it reflects the specificity of historical poetics as a theory of literature based on the principle of historicism and presented in its natural movement and embodiment in the artistic practice of writers. The integration of synchronic and diachronic approaches to the analysis of genre types of literature is emphasized: the synchronic one is motivated by the functionality of the “archaics” of the genre, the diachronic – by the evolution of artistic consciousness and the successive development, renewal of the aesthetics of genre types. It is concluded that the unity of the genetic and typological aspects of the analysis allows us to fix, by means of “genre type” category, a certain stage in the evolution of a particular genre as a historically established systemic unity of poetic elements that create its “understanding” integrity, which is a specific form of expression of the artistic consciousness of a given historical and cultural era.